Chapter 65: The Face in the Window

"You took my life."

The voice came from the tower window above them.

Kai stared at the face looking down from the buried city. It was his face, but thinner. The skin was pale, the cheeks hollow, and a dark line ran from the left eye to the jaw.

The stranger smiled.

Kai raised the broken crimson sword. "Come down."

The face in the window tilted its head.

"Why?"

"So I can see what I stole."

A low murmur moved through the streets below. The empty city had not been empty after all. Figures stood beneath the towers, watching from doorways and balconies. Some wore old uniforms. Others looked like ordinary residents. Every face was pale, and every pair of eyes was fixed on Kai.

The nameless man stepped in front of him.

"Do not speak to it."

Kai pushed past him. "It knows me."

"It knows the body."

"That is enough."

The figure in the window laughed.

"You still let other people protect you."

Kai looked up. "Who are you?"

"You know the answer."

"I know nothing about you."

"That is because they took everything before they gave you the body."

Sarah gripped her staff. "What does that mean?"

The figure leaned closer to the window.

"It means the boy called Kai was not empty when he disappeared. He was afraid. He was angry. He was begging for help."

Kai felt the red needle in his stomach burn.

The city blurred around him.

A memory flashed across his mind.

A small room.

A boy sitting on the floor with both hands over his ears.

A woman shouting behind a metal door.

A voice saying, "You will be useful."

Then darkness.

Kai staggered.

Sarah caught his arm. "Kai?"

He pulled away from her.

"What did they do to him?"

The stranger in the window smiled wider.

"They put him somewhere you could never reach."

Kael raised his sword toward the tower. "Enough riddles. If you have something to say, come down here and say it."

The stranger’s eyes shifted to him.

"You are still alive."

Kael frowned. "Should I not be?"

"You died three times before reaching this city."

Kael’s face hardened. "I have never been here before."

The stranger looked at Kai.

"He has."

The buried city fell silent.

Kai’s breathing became uneven.

The nameless man turned toward him. "Do not believe him."

"Why?" Kai asked. "Because he is lying, or because he is telling me something you don’t want me to know?"

The nameless man’s hand moved toward his black blade.

Kai noticed.

"You know this place too."

"I know what it does."

"And you know what happened to the original Kai."

The man did not answer.

Kai took another step toward the tower.

"Tell me."

The stranger in the window spoke softly.

"He was supposed to die on the first floor."

Kai’s eyes narrowed.

"The body belonged to a boy who could not fight, could not awaken, and could not climb. The Company marked him as disposable. When he resisted, they removed his memories and prepared the body for someone else."

"Someone else?" Sarah repeated.

The stranger looked directly at Kai.

"You."

The word struck him harder than any weapon.

Kai’s fingers loosened around the sword.

The memory in his mind returned. The boy on the floor. The metal door. The voice promising that pain would end soon.

He had thought the memory belonged to him.

Maybe it belonged to Kai.

The original Kai.

A bell rang through the city.

The towers began to move.

Their upside-down streets shifted across the ceiling, and stone bridges unfolded between them. Doors opened in the walls. From each doorway stepped another version of Kai.

One wore a porter’s uniform.

One carried a broken spear.

One was covered in blood.

One had no face at all.

Sarah stepped backward. "How many are there?"

The nameless man raised his blade. "Too many."

The versions of Kai began descending toward them.

Kael moved first. He charged the nearest figure and struck it across the chest. The blade passed through the body, but the figure did not bleed. It dissolved into black dust and reappeared behind him.

Kael turned too late.

The figure kicked him down the stairs.

"Kael!"

Sarah released a burst of light. Three versions vanished, but five more stepped out of the doorways.

Jax disappeared into the crowd.

Kai watched the copies carefully.

They were not moving together. Each one followed a different pattern. The porter version walked with lowered shoulders. The blood-covered version moved like a soldier. The faceless one remained completely still.

The figure in the window was not creating copies.

It was showing them memories.

A red line appeared beneath the feet of every version, connecting them to the tower.

Kai pointed. "Cut the lines."

Jax appeared beside the nearest copy and slashed the red connection. The figure vanished immediately.

Kael understood and charged another. He severed the line with the edge of his sword.

Sarah raised her staff toward the largest group.

"Move!"

White light swept across the street. Red lines snapped one after another, and the copies disappeared into dust.

The faceless version remained.

It stood directly in front of Kai.

No red line connected it to the tower.

Kai slowly raised his sword.

The faceless figure raised one hand.

A mouth appeared where its face should have been.

"You remember me."

Kai’s heart stopped for half a beat.

The voice was his own.

The figure attacked.

Kai blocked the first strike, but the force drove him backward. The second strike cut through his shoulder. The third pierced his wounded side.

Pain exploded through his body.

Kai looked down at the blade emerging from his stomach.

The faceless figure leaned closer.

"I was the part of you they could not erase."

Kai coughed blood. "Then you should have spoken sooner."

He grabbed the blade with both hands.

The figure tried to pull away, but Kai held it in place. His palms split open. His legs began to shake.

Sarah ran toward him.

"Get away from him!"

The figure twisted the blade.

Kai screamed.

A black mark spread from the wound across his chest. The red needle inside him responded, burning through every nerve in his body.

He fell to one knee.

The figure whispered, "You were never meant to survive this far."

Kai looked past it toward the tower window.

The other face still watched him.

"Maybe that is why I’m still here."

Kai released the blade with one hand and grabbed the faceless figure’s throat.

The figure did not have a real body, but his fingers found something solid beneath the darkness.

A thin red thread.

Kai pulled it free.

The faceless figure screamed.

The sound became thousands of voices. His mother. Elara. Dorian. The Executioners. People Kai had never met. All of them shouted inside his skull.

The thread tightened around Kai’s wrist.

His heart stopped.

For one second, he could not see or hear anything.

Then the world returned violently.

The faceless figure had vanished.

Kai was still on one knee, but the wound in his side had closed. The red needle was gone from his stomach.

He touched the place where it had been.

Nothing.

The nameless man stood above him.

"Do not move."

Kai looked up. "Why?"

"Because you are already dead."

Sarah knelt beside him and pressed her hands against his chest. White light entered his body, but it passed through him without resistance.

Her face changed.

"I can’t feel his heartbeat."

Kael grabbed Kai’s shoulder. "Kai."

Kai heard him from far away.

His body felt cold. His hands no longer belonged to him. The city lights stretched into long lines, and the faces in the windows began to fade.

The stranger in the tower window spoke again.

"You always die when you learn the truth."

Kai forced his head upward.

"Then I’ll learn it again."

His vision went black.

The last thing he saw was the nameless man drawing his black blade and looking toward the tower.

Then Kai died.

He opened his eyes in darkness.

A wooden ceiling hovered above him.

His body was lying on a narrow bed. Rain struck a small window nearby. A candle burned on a table beside him.

Kai sat up violently.

His hands flew to his stomach.

No wound.

No red needle.

His breathing became fast.

The door opened.

A young girl entered carrying a bowl of water. She had dark hair, tired eyes, and a red mark around her wrist.

She stopped when she saw him sitting up.

"You’re awake."

Kai stared at her.

He knew that face.

He had seen it in one of the broken containers beneath the second plant.

The girl placed the bowl on the table.

"You died in the street," she said.

Kai slowly stood. His body felt whole, but weak.

"How long ago?"

The girl frowned. "You mean how long have you been unconscious?"

"No. How long since I died?"

She stared at him.

Kai looked through the window.

The buried city was gone. The towers, the pale faces, and the old streets had disappeared.

Outside was a small wooden village beneath a gray sky.

A bell rang in the distance.

The girl stepped closer.

"You keep asking strange questions."

Kai looked at his hands.

He remembered everything.

The window.

The copies.

The blade in his stomach.

The faceless figure.

The moment his heart stopped.

He remembered dying.

But no one else would.

The door opened again.

A man in a dark uniform entered, carrying a silver badge marked with the Company’s emblem.

He looked at Kai and smiled.

"Good. The replacement has awakened."

Kai’s blood ran cold.

The girl lowered her head.

The man continued, "Your first attempt was unsuccessful, but that is normal. The body is still adjusting."

Kai stared at him.

"Who am I?"

The man smiled wider.

"You are the new Kai."

Behind him, the girl whispered without moving her lips.

"Don’t let them know you remember."

Kai looked at her.

She raised her eyes.

For a moment, he saw fear there.

Then the man in the uniform stepped closer.

"Come with me. Your family is waiting."

Kai reached for the sword at his side.

There was no sword.

There was no mask.

There was no team.

Only a weak body, an unfamiliar room, and memories that nobody else possessed.

He lowered his hand.

"Of course," Kai said.

The man turned toward the door.

Kai watched his back carefully.

He had died once.

The world had returned him to a place he did not recognize.

This time, he would not rush to escape.

This time, he would learn who had pressed the button.