The sky tore open like a wound.
From the burning crack in the heavens, something massive began to descend—slow, deliberate, impossibly heavy. The ground beneath Aarav trembled, glass rippling like disturbed water.
The Guardian stepped back.
**"This is the fear you buried deepest."**
Aarav's heart hammered painfully. "What… what is it?"
The Guardian didn't answer.
It didn't have to.
Because the thing was already landing.
A deafening **thud** hit the ground, sending shockwaves that knocked Aarav to his knees.
Dust spiraled.
Shadows twisted.
And then the creature pulled itself into view.
Aarav's breath stopped.
His blood ran cold.
Because the monster—
The monster had a face.
**His face.**
But twisted.
Skin stretched too tight over the skull.
Jaw hanging lower than it should.
Eyes sunken deep, glowing with a sick, broken red.
Limbs elongated unnaturally, joints bending the wrong way.
Its chest split open, revealing a mass of teeth and whispering darkness where a heart should have been.
It looked like someone had taken Aarav's reflection
and dragged it through every nightmare he ever had.
Aarav choked, "That… that's not me."
The Guardian whispered:
**"It is the version of you that you fear becoming."**
The creature tilted its head—like a curious animal.
Then it smiled.
A long, unnatural, tearing smile.
Aarav stumbled back. "Stay away from me!"
The monster moved.
Not fast—
**Instant.**
One moment it was ten meters away.
The next, its deformed face was inches from Aarav's.
Its breath was cold.
Rotting.
Alive.
Aarav froze.
The creature spoke in a low, jagged whisper that sounded like broken glass:
**"You're weak."**
Aarav's heart lurched.
**"You're scared."**
Aarav stumbled backward.
**"And you know… you could become me."**
Its claws shot forward.
Aarav barely rolled aside before the ground exploded where he had been standing.
He scrambled to his feet. "I'm nothing like you!"
The creature shrieked—a sound that shredded the air—and charged.
Aarav ran.
He sprinted across the trembling glass plain, each step sending cracks shooting outward.
The monster moved like a nightmare, limbs stretching, snapping, reforming as it chased him.
Behind him, its voice echoed:
**"You hide your anger."**
Its footfalls shook the world.
**"You drown in guilt."**
The glass shattered under its weight.
**"You think you're strong…"**
It lunged.
Aarav barely dodged, rolling across the ground.
The monster's claws carved trenches into the plain.
He got to his knees, panting—
The creature appeared directly behind him.
**"…but you break so easily."**
It slammed him into the ground.
Aarav cried out, pain exploding through his ribs.
The creature pinned him with a dozen grasping limbs—too strong, too cold, too real.
Aarav screamed, "Get off me!"
**"I *am* you."**
The monster opened the cavity in its chest—rows of teeth spiraling inward, whispering his worst thoughts back at him.
Aarav shut his eyes.
He heard:
"You're a burden."
"You make things worse."
"You will hurt them."
"You will fail them."
"You will become a monster—just like me."
A tear slid down Aarav's cheek.
He whispered, "No… I won't."
The creature hissed.
**"Why not?"**
Aarav opened his eyes.
And the blue light inside him roared awake.
It burst from his chest, flooding his body, pushing back the monster's weight. The glass beneath him glowed. The air shook.
Aarav clenched his jaw.
"Because I'm still fighting."
The blue light flared—bright, fierce, unbroken.
The creature shrieked as the light seared its limbs, burning away the whispers, the teeth, the twisted flesh.
Aarav forced himself to stand, light pouring from him like fire.
The monster writhed.
Cracked.
Split open.
And dissolved into dust.
Aarav collapsed to the ground, gasping, trembling, tears streaming down his face.
The Guardian appeared beside him.
**"You faced the monster fear made of you."**
Aarav wiped his eyes. "I almost lost."
The Guardian shook its head.
**"But you didn't."**
Aarav looked up.
"What… what is the third trial?"
The Guardian's expression darkened.
Its voice lowered to a whisper:
**"Trial Three: The truth."**
Aarav's heart stopped.
"The truth about what?"
The Guardian stepped back as the ground split open beneath them.
**"About why *you* were chosen."**
Aarav didn't have time to ask more.
He was already falling.
Aarav fell through darkness that felt heavier than gravity—
like he was being pulled not downward,
but **inward**,
dragged into the very center of himself.
The fall stopped abruptly.
Aarav landed on solid ground…
but when he looked around, there was no world.
Only a vast white void.
Empty.
Silent.
Still.
A place where nothing existed—
except him.
Aarav whispered, "Where am I?"
A voice answered:
**"Inside the truth."**
He spun around.
The Guardian stood behind him—but dimmer now, its glowing edges flickering like a dying flame.
Aarav frowned. "Why do you look weaker?"
The Guardian's voice was soft.
**"Because the closer you get to the Core… the more it rejects me."**
"Rejects you?"
**"It has been waiting for *you*. Not for me."**
Aarav's chest tightened. "Why? What makes me so important?"
The Guardian didn't answer immediately.
Instead, it raised a hand, and the empty void flickered.
A memory appeared.
Aarav as a newborn baby, crying weakly in his mother's arms.
Nurses rushing.
Machines beeping.
His mother terrified.
A doctor whispered something Aarav had never heard before:
*"His heart… it's glowing."*
A faint blue shimmer pulsed from the infant's chest.
Aarav staggered backward. "That can't be real."
The Guardian spoke:
**"You were born with the light."**
Aarav shook his head. "No. No, this power came when I fell into the fracture—"
**"Incorrect."**
The void shuddered.
Another memory unfolded—
Aarav at age six, hiding behind the school, crying after being bullied.
As his tears fell, the stones around him glowed faintly blue, dust lifting into the air.
He didn't notice.
No one noticed.
But the light had already begun to wake.
Aarav whispered, "I… did that?"
**"Yes."**
He felt dizzy.
Another memory.
Aarav at eleven.
Rahul had tripped and scraped his knee badly.
Aarav held him, panicked—
And Rahul's wound healed faster than it should have.
Aarav had assumed he imagined it.
He hadn't.
The Guardian stepped closer.
**"The fracture did not give you this power."**
**"It merely revealed what you already carried."**
Aarav swallowed hard. "But why me? Why would I have something like this?"
The Guardian hesitated—
for the first time.
**"Because you were born different."**
**"Born from a rare energy that appears in your world once in many lifetimes."**
Aarav felt cold.
"What kind of energy?"
The Guardian's eyes glowed brighter.
**"A soul that generates light instead of consuming it."**
**"A soul that heals reality instead of breaking it."**
The void rippled violently.
Something deep beneath its surface groaned—
as if the Core itself was listening.
Aarav's voice broke. "So… I'm not chosen because of my pain? Or because I'm broken?"
**"No."**
The Guardian's tone softened—almost gentle.
**"You were chosen because you were born with power strong enough to save two worlds."**
**"Not as a burden… but as a hero."**
The words hit Aarav harder than any monster ever had.
He wasn't chosen because he was weak.
He wasn't chosen because he was hurting.
He wasn't chosen by accident, or by fate punishing him.
He was chosen
because something inside him
was strong enough to matter.
Aarav whispered, voice shaking:
"I… I never thought I could be anything like that."
The Guardian knelt in front of him.
**"That is exactly why you can."**
The void suddenly cracked—
A massive fissure tearing through the ground beneath them.
A blinding blue light erupted upward.
The Guardian stood.
**"Your third trial is complete."**
Aarav blinked through the light. "What was the trial?"
The Guardian's form flickered—nearly fading.
**"To learn the truth."**
The ground split open wider.
The Core's voice thundered:
**"ARRIVE."**
Aarav shielded his eyes.
The Guardian whispered:
**"Go, Aarav."**
**"The Core waits for you alone."**
The world shattered around him—
and he fell
straight into the heart of everything.