All Chapters of CHAINS OF ETERNITY : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

🌑 Chains of EternityThe rune-wall groaned, stone shifting like ribs cracking open. Dust cascaded in thin streams as the carved surface split apart, a sliver of darkness yawning in the center. The labyrinth exhaled a breath colder than the void, carrying with it the whisper of voices that were not quite voices.The party braced, weapons raised, but nothing came. The silence pressed heavier than battle. Then, slowly, a figure emerged.Kael froze.At first, he thought it was a stranger, a man cloaked in shadow. But as the figure stepped forward, the lightless veil slipped, and the truth turned his blood to ice.It was him.Not a crude mimic. Not a blurred imitation. Him—down to the cut across his forearm, the smudge of ash on his cheek, the haunted look in his eyes.The double tilted its head, studying him with a grin Kael had never worn but recognized instantly. The grin of someone who had stopped pretending to be human.“Finally,” the reflection said, voice like Kael’s but deeper, mo

Chains of EternityThe rune-wall pulsed like a living wound. Its fissures deepened, splitting stone with the shriek of grinding teeth. Shadows bled outward, black mist rolling across the floor and licking at their boots like hungry tongues.Kael’s chain burned, searing against his arm as if warning him: don’t look.But none of them could look away.The third shape emerged, slower than the others, as if savoring the moment. Broad shoulders hunched forward, thick arms dragging against the stone as though the labyrinth itself bent beneath their weight. For a heartbeat, it was only a silhouette. Then the darkness peeled back.Brann swore under his breath.It was him.A mountain of muscle, scarred, grim-jawed—yet where the real Brann’s eyes carried the burden of loyalty, this double’s eyes blazed with the savage glee of a man unchained.The reflection hefted an axe identical to his, but caked with something dark that dripped onto the floor in slow, steaming drops. With every drip, the whis

🌑 Chains of EternityThe silence that followed was unbearable.Four pairs of eyes glowed in the chamber—reflections of Kael, Brann, Seris, and Liora. They fanned out slowly, deliberately, their movements in sync with their living counterparts as if mocking every breath, every twitch.Kael’s chest tightened with the weight of it. His chain trembled at his side, ready to strike, but every instinct screamed at him that to lash out first would be exactly what the labyrinth wanted. The Trial wasn’t about brute force—it was about unravelling them.The reflections circled, their steps soft, measured. Each one carried no weapon but their voices.“Do you trust her, Kael?” the shadow-Seris hissed, head tilting toward the trembling Liora. Her eyes were knives, cold and unrelenting. “She’ll crumble the moment the real test comes. You’ll bleed for her weakness.”Shadow-Liora smiled thinly, stepping closer to the real Brann. “And you—you call yourself their shield. But how many times has your stre

🌑 Chains of EternityThe chamber fractured into four battles.Kael’s chain lashed out in a blur of steel, striking sparks as it tangled with his double’s weapon. Every movement mirrored, every strike countered. He could hear his own breath coming from his reflection’s lips, feel the rhythm of his chain snapping back at him. It was like fighting a shadow that had lived inside him forever—one that knew not just how he moved, but why.“Every bond you forge will only become another chain to drag you down,” his double sneered, voice identical to his own but hollowed, stripped of hope. “You think you can save them, Kael? You couldn’t even save yourself.”The words struck harder than the steel. Kael clenched his jaw and pressed forward, chains whipping through the dark like lightning. But his reflection met every blow, absorbing his rage and hurling it back at him.Brann roared as his axe slammed against its twin, the shockwave rattling the rune-stones beneath their feet. His reflection gri

🌑 Chains of EternityThe chamber cracked.Stone split like glass, rune-light bleeding into the air as the labyrinth itself screamed. The runes pulsed in jagged bursts, veins of molten shadow spreading across the floor and walls. The sound was unbearable—like the earth itself groaning in torment.Kael staggered, chains whipping wild as the ground bucked beneath his feet. Brann’s roar drowned in the thunder of breaking stone, Seris’s blade slid off her reflection’s steel in a cascade of sparks, and Liora’s trembling gasp carried like a prayer swallowed by the dark.The labyrinth had been waiting for this. Feeding, stretching, savoring.Now it devoured.The rune-wall at the heart of the chamber fractured in a jagged spiral, shadows spilling out like blood from a wound. The lines of separation between the four duels collapsed in an instant—Kael’s reflection’s chain lashed across Brann’s battlefield, tangling with the clash of axes. Sparks erupted as the mirrored weapons collided, weaving