Location: Hollow Passage – Near Core Access
Adam walked in silence.
Mike behind him, breathing hard, flashlight flickering. The air was dense—not with dust, but with time. It felt like centuries were pressing in on them with every step.
"You okay?" Mike whispered.
Adam didn't answer.
His eyes were half-glowing now. Not fully lit. Just… vibrating with something ancient.
Zaki had reappeared, walking beside Adam like a guardian spirit, quiet, loyal, and unnervingly focused.
They turned a corner and found themselves in front of a mirror.
Not stone.
Not metal.
Just... a smooth, circular panel of dark energy, rippling softly like oil on water.
Adam reached toward it.
Mike grabbed his arm. "Wait. What if it's—"
Too late.
The mirror pulled him in.
Inside the Mirror – Mindspace Trial
He stood in a vast desert under black stars.
Alone.
Then, slowly… they appeared.
People.
Thousands.
Figures from every time, every race, every age.
A child holding a scroll.
A soldier dying on a battlefield.
A woman building the Sphinx with her bare hands.
A priest sacrificing his own son to feed the Scarab.
They all looked at him.
Then came the voice.
"You carry their weight."
Adam clenched his fists.
"Why me?"
"Because you were never meant to be born."
"You are a crack in the cycle.
A variable.
A scar from when one of them… chose love instead of duty."
Suddenly he saw it:
His mother, in a memory not his—standing over the cradle. Holding him.
Behind her, the Hollow watching.
Waiting.
And turning away.
Letting him live.
Adam fell to his knees.
Everything made sense now.
Why the Hollow stirred when he cried as a child.
Why the Priests stopped when Zaki stood between them.
He was the anomaly.
The one who was meant to die.
And now… the cycle wanted him back.
The voice whispered again.
"Join us.
We will make you more than memory.
You will never die.
You will become the rhythm."
Adam looked up.
"No."
The air cracked.
"You refuse?"
"I'm not your heir," Adam said, standing now, voice shaking.
"I'm my mother's son."
The mirror exploded.
Adam fell back—into Mike's arms, back in the Hollow corridor.
Zaki barked once—then went silent, tail stiff.
Ahead of them, the Scarab Engine chamber doors began to open.
A light pulsed inside—red and gold, ancient and alive.
"We're out of time," Adam said, voice different now.
Not scared.
Not broken.
Just… ready.