The illusion felt real.
Smoke choked his lungs.
His mother lay bleeding in the dirt.
"You failed me," she said softly.
Kaito staggered backward.
"You're not real."
Morvane's voice echoed from everywhere.
"Fear is more real than flesh."
The shadow inside him began to tremble.
It fed on anger, on violence—
Not on sorrow.
Kaito fell to his knees as phantom villagers pointed at him.
"Monster."
For the first time since awakening—
His shadow shrank.
Morvane stepped closer.
"You are strongest in battle. Weakest in memory."
And raised a blade forged from pure terror.