Immortal Mythos: Bound by Void-Chapter 26: The Rifted Cage

One blink.

That's all it took.

Haru had been standing beside the others—listening to Aiko, watching the darkness pulse—and in a flash, the world twisted. There was no sound, no sensation. Only a sudden, hollow silence.

When he opened his eyes, he wasn't in the same place anymore.

The air was heavier here. Thick with pressure, like every breath had to be fought for. The ground was black glass, stretching infinitely in every direction, reflecting nothing but his own fractured image. Shadows moved beneath the surface, mimicking his steps but not quite in sync.

Haru's instincts screamed.

His hand hovered over his blade, but he didn't draw yet.

Then he heard it.

A whisper—his own voice—but distorted. Echoing with something... older.

> "Do you think you can protect him?"

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He spun, but there was no one.

> "You think training him will prepare him for what we became?"

The voice came again. This time, it was clearer. And it was him. But not. There was a coldness, a twisted version of his confidence.

A figure stepped from the edge of the black glass. His face mirrored Haru's—but pale, hollow-eyed, and cracked like porcelain. Its body flickered, shifting between solid and void, leaking tendrils of black mist that evaporated midair.

"You're not real," Haru muttered, readying his stance.

"I'm what you could become," the echo replied. "What you will become... if you keep holding back."

They clashed in an instant.

Steel met shadow, energy humming through the glass beneath them. Haru struck hard, fast, but every blow landed with a strange delay—like hitting water that snapped back. His echo was faster, stronger, driven by something primal.

"You trained Yuki to fight," the echo snarled. "But have you ever trained yourself to lose?"

Haru gritted his teeth and pushed harder, drawing on his raw mythic energy. Wind cracked the surface beneath their feet, shards of the glass-like ground floating upward. The prison responded, pulsing with their fight.

The echo smiled.

"You don't belong here," it said. "Not yet. But they brought you in early. The prison wants to know if you're ready."

With a shout, Haru unleashed a burst of wind that shattered the ground around him, sending the echo flying back.

The figure hit the void wall and dissolved, laughter echoing as it faded.

Everything went still.

A breath. Two.

Then the ground lit up beneath Haru's feet—symbols glowing like firebrands, a spiral forming around him.

He tensed, preparing for another battle—but this time, something rose from below.

A monolithic door. Ancient. Sealed with hundreds of markings. And one glowing lock in the center that pulsed with familiar energy.

Yuki's energy.

The door responded to him.

Haru stepped forward and placed a hand on the seal.

And in that moment, he understood.

This prison wasn't just built to contain darkness.

It was built to test the ones connected to the void... and only those who passed would be able to reach the true center.

And Yuki was already headed there.

---

Interlude: Echoes of the Seal

After the door pulsed with Yuki's energy, Haru wasn't immediately transported. Instead, a single strand of mythic wind spiraled from the seal—like a thread pulling him forward. It wasn't just guiding him. It was responding to him.

He followed it, sprinting across the ever-shifting black-glass floor as the environment bent and changed—corridors forming, twisting, breaking. The void prison wasn't static. It moved like a living thing, adapting to its prisoners.

Haru's instincts took over. He closed his eyes, trusting the energy trail left behind.

Then... voices. Not words—emotions.

Fear.

Frustration.

Determination.

He snapped his eyes open.

A long corridor opened before him, and at the end, a door cracked with golden light. That was when he heard Aiko's voice echo faintly, distorted through layers of reality.

"Yuki, if you can hear this..."

He ran, each step carving the corridor open, until he burst through.

There, scattered but alive, were Ren, Himari, and Aiko—surrounded by fragments of mythic energy. They were trapped in a stasis barrier that pulsed like a heartbeat.

Haru didn't stop.

Drawing from the wind and the memory of his fight, he struck the barrier with one clean blow.

It shattered like crystal under pressure, and the moment it broke, the air exploded with spiritual backlash. Ren stumbled forward, blinking. Himari gasped. Aiko collapsed to her knees, clutching her chest—but smiled the moment she saw him.

"...Took you long enough," she muttered.

"I got lost," Haru said simply, helping her up.

Ren looked around, breathing heavily. "This place is more than a prison. It's... measuring us."

"And separating us," Himari added. "But not anymore."

They were together now.

And that meant things were about to shift.

---

"If we hit 50 power stones, I'll drop a Yuki vs Haru training Chapter with extra banter and hidden lore about Ren's past. Let's gooo!"