The Echo of a False Hero

Elias walked up to the lake. A figure was seen hunching over the river, observing himself in the crystalline water.

Elias was on guard. His sigil light started to grow dim as another shield was conjured, but it still had energy. Elias breathed in and composed himself as the handsome, naked man stared at his own reflection.

"Aren't I perfect? God... I envy those around me... for looking at me. Who wouldn't want to see my face?" The man's eyes seeped from the water to Elias.

"Ugly."

Elias clicked his tongue before throwing a small dagger towards the being. The being merely watched as it stabbed him in the chest, before looking down to where the dagger was. Instead of the skin getting torn and blood starting to pour out, it was like a mirror.

"Ah... what am I? It... doesn't matter... I'm perfect anyway..." The man began to rapidly age into a withered form before falling into the lake.

Did he do it? Did he win?

Elias's joy was short-lived as the water began to bubble and spit out violently. The water began to go murky and green as something erupted from the water.

"Hey, aren't I pretty?" This time, it was a naked Kaela. She slowly put her hands through her ash-colored hair before running out towards Elias.

The boy got on guard as clothes and her bow started to morph onto Kaela. She jabbed towards Elias's face as the boy dodged backward. But Kaela immediately swept the ground with her legs as Elias fell back.

"Shit!" Elias swerved his body just in time for a dagger to miss where his head was.

This thing was mimicking her skills! But he doubted it had her voidshards!

Elias's sigil flared up as a shadow dagger was conjured. Stabbing it into Kaela's arm, the being let out a scream as it began to step backward.

The dagger's shadow began to pour down the wrist of the illusion of Kaela before spreading upward. The being immediately recognized this and used another dagger to slowly saw its arm off.

The arm clunked to the floor. No blood seeped out.

Did the shadow dagger serve as some form of poison towards it? On most beings, it seemed like it just amplified their emotions...

But it takes a lot to summon one. He needed to be careful.

Kaela began to walk backward before hunching over.

"It hurts... it hurts..." Elias took the offensive as he brandished his hammer and attempted to hit her in the chest while she was down. But Kaela's flexible body swerved the attack before she grabbed onto Elias's arm with her one arm and threw him over her, causing him to be thrown around a meter on his back.

Elias felt the air leave his lungs as his hammer and shield flew out of his hands.

Shit!

Elias watched in horror as Kaela regrew her other hand and reached for the bow on her back. She perfectly nocked the bow, aiming for Elias.

He was too late.

Elias let out a scream as he felt the arrow impale his calf, causing pain to flood his body. His sigil began to flare with all of its might as he slowly stood up.

He was limping.

Elias attempted to ignore the burning pain as he left the arrow in. If he pulled it out, it would cause bleeding he wouldn't be able to handle.

Then Kaela did something. She gave a smug smirk as she threw her bow and weapons down on the floor before cracking her knuckles.

It had copied her sense of pride, it seemed. It seemed like Kaela didn't want easy prey.

This probably means this being doesn't have a mind of its own and copies whoever's traits it takes on, most likely from the memories of Elias.

Elias hit a rusty fighting pose before spitting the blood that had come into his mouth out. His eyes were full of determination as his eyes tracked the girl.

She started with the same jab, this time aimed at the kidney. Elias managed to barely dodge to the side before attempting a bold uppercut on her jaw. But she managed to move her head backward and secure her jaw before she grabbed onto the outward arm of Elias and used the elbow of the other arm to perfectly target his joint, causing his arm to be bent in an unnatural manner as the boy let out a scream.

He did not falter as he delivered a headbutt towards the being, but it felt more like glass than human skin. Regardless, the being stumbled backward as Elias tackled her to the ground.

It was planning to kick him off again as Elias rolled off her to the right of her just in time for her kick to miss. The being was confused as Elias was not there as the boy summoned a shadow dagger with his broken arm and swung it downward. It felt like the bone was protruding out of his arm as he slammed the dagger into the heart of the being without looking.

Elias lay on the grass, sweat pouring out of every orifice of his body. His leg stung with the pain of being shot with an arrow as he looked down at his arm before grimacing.

He had nothing. He slowly looked to his side before he looked at the face of the monster.

Kaela looked at him through the eyes. Her amber eyes were faint as she sputtered metallic blood.

"You are not ugly... you're not that bad..."

Elias's pupils dilated as he jumped upward and began to limp away.

Something was wrong. Something was wrong.

Kaela began to form into a glass sculpture before she began to expand.

Elias looked towards his side before grabbing the shield that he had lost earlier. He placed it against the vital spots of his body before Kaela burst into glass shrapnel.

He had managed to block most of it. He felt his arms and legs get impaled by what felt like thousands of pieces of glass. But the explosion that came after blew him backward once more.

Elias felt a soot-like feeling around his face as he limped towards the source of the explosion. There, Elias looked towards the fragment on the floor.

It was a mesmerizing fragment. It was a crystalline shard that pulsed with an eerie, liquid glow, shifting between silver and deep violet. It served as a mirror, but it never revealed the world as it truly is through morphed images. Next to it, Kaela's bow remained unharmed. Elias put his hand against it and traced it as he heard a sound.

Elias picked the voidshard up as he looked behind him. Another rift had formed behind him, but this time led to the outside world.

He was... tired....

Elias gritted his teeth as he felt his body feel a burning pain that couldn't be described with every step. Step by step, walking out to the real world. The carriage on the hill in the distance.

Elias felt his body start to slow, but he continued to walk... to the point of crawling. The veiled woman came in sight as she slowly watched as the boy climbed the hill with his hands, his body leaving a trail of blood and his legs pressing the glass further into his body every time he made progress.

The stagecoach ran to the boy before looking back to the veiled woman.

"He's going to die? What are we to do?"

"Let him come up all the way."

"For Ashurn's sake, he's just a boy!" The stagecoach hissed. "I may be a villager, Your Reverence, but in the name of Ashurn, I will not watch some boy kill himself for a test of faith! He's already been accepted!"

The veiled woman did not respond for a minute before she clicked her fingers. Elias's shadow engulfed him as he morphed into it.

The veiled woman looked at the stagecoach before getting into the carriage.

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Kaela scribbled with her quill on the document before her ears perked up.

"How did he do?" She looked up to see the veiled woman, but her face turned into shock. Instead, the half-dead corpse-like Elias lay on the floor as she sighed.

"I don't want blood in my office. GUARDS!" She screamed as people rushed in without hesitation, picking Elias up.

Kaela's eyes shifted to the voidshard in Elias's hands before looking towards one of them.

"Call Velyian."