FROST
Chapter 78: To See Yourself and Survive

Chapter 78: To See Yourself and Survive

The garden was gone.

The ground cracked beneath them, blooming with veins of pulsing blue energy that lit up the night-like atmosphere.

The twisted versions of themselves—born from fear and mana—stepped forward in eerie synchronization, mirroring their hosts with uncanny precision.

Cullen’s dark self was first to move.

He struck like lightning, his hands wreathed in unstable mana. He moved with precision Cullen lacked—unburdened by guilt, shame, or restraint.

Real Cullen barely deflected the first barrage. The air around him rippled with kinetic bursts, each strike more violent than the last. His smirk was gone, replaced with a clenched jaw and wide eyes.

"You play the fool so they won’t look too close," his shadow taunted, voice warped, almost oily. "You run because you’re afraid you’ll actually become me."

"I’m nothing like you," Cullen spat, dodging to the side.

"But you could be," it hissed, throwing a spear of condensed mana. "If you stop pretending to care."

Cullen growled, blasting the spear midair with an overcharged pulse. "Then I guess I’ll have to prove I still do."

The impact cracked the mirror image’s arm, but it didn’t flinch—it laughed.

Meanwhile, Levi’s doppelgänger hovered high above, cloak fluttering like wings. It cast its hands outward and the sky dimmed, tendrils of pure void raining down.

Levi tried to shield with a barrier, but it shattered on impact. He was flung back, coughing, arms bleeding from backlash.

"You were born for destruction," the figure called down. "You know it. They all know it. It’s why they keep you close—so they can end you the moment you turn."

"Shut up," Levi gritted, eyes glowing faintly, hands trembling. "I don’t even have any idea what’s going on now, let alone know I am born for destruction?!"

"But for how long?"

The doppelgänger descended like a shadow falling from the heavens, drawing a blade of darkness that crackled with his fears. Levi responded with his own burst of mana, clashing midair with a scream of light and shadow.

Levi, who had only trained for less than two weeks, could already surprisingly manage to control his mana. Just in time for him to tumble like comet across the sky with his impostor—wounded, angry, barely holding back from complete collapse.

Silvermist, meanwhile, faced her shadow-self alone in the center of the broken garden. She’s not even surprised anymore. Although this version of her do not look exactly the same like the other her with pale and black lips, for some reason, their mana felt the same.

And this corrupted version of her looked divine—perfect, it hurts her ego. White hair fanned in the air like it existed in a realm of its own, blue eyes glowing with chilling clarity. No emotion. No hesitation. No humanity. Truly just a figment of her imagination.

She didn’t move with rage nor mockery. She walked—slowly, calculated—as though she already knew how this would end.

Silvermist flinched at the first wave of pressure. It wasn’t a physical attack—it was the weight of magic which almost felt like the magic Levi emitted back in the accident with Gail. Her knees nearly buckled.

"Why do you fight?" her shadow asked. Its voice echoed in her mind more than in the air. "You’re meant for more than this. You can own the world if you want."

"Who would want the world?!" Silvermist growled.

"But you could be more. Imagine holding the lives of everyone you hold dear. Them only withering away if you want to and them living for eternity of you want to," it purred. "If you stop hesitating. You’d never have to watch anyone die again. You will never be alone."

Silvermist’s vision swam with memory—of Frost bloodied, East glaring, Cloud’s disappointed silence.

"Power," it whispered, "without fear."

"No," Silvermist snarled, blasting forward. "That’s not what I want."

The other her finally showed a slight emotion, and it’s nothing but mockery.

They collided with such force the ground beneath them cratered, a shockwave throwing broken stone and fog into the air. Mana burst from Silvermist’s body in wild, unfiltered arcs—her eyes shimmering crimson at the edges.

She was aware, she could feel it, and she doesn’t want it to continue. She had no control over her mana. Her body is only reacting by instinct and reflex thanks to her experience. However, she also know where this is heading.

If she exhausts herself, she’d hear that voice again. The other that do not just live in her imagination, but in her entire being.

Each attack from her shadow was cold, desperate.

Meanwhile, Mila and Adeline fought to reach her but were blocked by the boundary of the realm’s central illusion. They could only watch as their friend struggled against a version of herself that never flinched.

East, Cloud, and Theo were already gone from their spots earlier, letting the other apprentices watch the three as though they made them the example to what they will be facing later on.

Everyone looked entirely scared, even West himself. He never liked this idea, but East had made it clear for him to face whatever he’s been avoiding as early as possible before he lose control on a crucial time.

Inside the illusion space, Cullen shouted through bloodied lips, "Sil! Use your magic, goddamnit!" He’s always been glancing at her the entire time, knowing she had been into things even her didn’t understand.

Levi dropped from the air, barely upright, gasping for breath and instead of focusing in his own battle, she turned to Silvemist to help in case she’s in grave danger and was only able to breathe properly to see her in shape.

"The heck are we supposed to defeat these?" Levi muttered, eyeing his trembling bleeding arm. His nose scrunched. "Why can’t I use my gravity magic?" He groaned and flicked his eyes back on the other him who is still hovering mid air.

Silvermist looked up at her reflection—still flawless, unbothered. She surged forward, dodging the next attack, not with brute force but with instinct. She ducked under the glowing blade, drove her hand forward—not to destroy—but to connect.

As what East said, things could be real here or not, and the only way she could think of to verify is to touch this version of her with her own hand. Silvermist swiftly pressed her palm against her shadow’s chest.

Suddenly, light burst from her chest outward—her mana, yes, but filled with something more: choice.

The reflection fractured like glass, pieces flying outward like starlight—and then dissipated.

Cullen saw it.

Levi saw it.

And they followed.

Cullen snarled, grabbed his double by the collar and dragged them into a beam of light formed by Silvermist’s eruption. "Farewell, loser!"

Levi stood shakily. He had to move fast before his shadow makes his move again. Levi raised one arm in front and focused his mind on his shadows chest.

The moment he felt a tingle, he immediate clenched his hand and gasped when he heard something shatter--his shadow’s chest. Truly, it was like a mirror. His shadow screamed as it dissolved into violet particles.

And then the realm stilled. The garden rebuilt itself slowly. The twisted copies gone. Only silence remained.

Everything warped around them as they slowly stood up, cracking their bodies. Suddenly, a light struck them from behind and there, they saw Mila and Adeline waiting in the exit.

Behind them are the other apprentices who are all amazed by their fast ways of defeating the other them.

Mila waved from the outside. "Sil! That was--"

"Intense," Cullen breathed, eyes wide.

Levi just nodded, sweat dripping, too spent to speak as he moved closer to Cullen. Meanwhile, Silvermist only sighed. Clearly, she was confused. Not convinced, perhaps?

"That was so easy," he muttered, making Levi and Cullen turn to her.

"T-That was easy for you?" Levi gasped.

Silvermist only glanced at him, her expression unreadable. Her lips thinned, pressing into a line as her arms folded across her chest.

"I don’t mean to sound arrogant," she said slowly, her voice barely above a whisper, "but I was expecting more than that—knowing that they said we’d be facing our fears. That’s not it."

The air around her felt oddly still, as though the simulation itself was listening.

Cullen’s brow furrowed. He turned slightly to Levi, whose brows were raised in silent question. Their eyes met in wordless understanding—was she serious? The illusions had left both of them shaken to the bone. The realm had ripped into their heads, pulled out the ugliest pieces of themselves and made them bleed. And yet here was Silvermist, standing tall, barely a scratch on her psyche—or so it seemed.

Levi shifted, arms crossing tight across his chest. "What do you mean, ’that’s not it’?" he asked cautiously. "You didn’t see anything?"

Silvermist’s eyes flickered toward him, then away. "I saw something. But it didn’t feel like it was meant for me. Not entirely."

She turned in a slow circle, scanning the simulation’s fading horizon. The cracked black sky, the fading violet mist beneath their feet, the vanishing echoes of screaming wind—it was all crumbling into nothingness. Dissolving like a dream. But something about it felt unfinished.

Cullen stepped forward. "You mean... the real test hasn’t come yet?"

Silvermist didn’t answer. Her gaze remained distant. Focused. Almost like she was listening to something they couldn’t hear. Her shoulders remained square, like she was bracing for a blow that hadn’t fallen yet.

"Perhaps," is all she could answer before Mila’s voice broke the silence, faint and echoing from the glowing warping circle across the fractured terrain.

"Helloooo?! Are you three planning to live in there forever or what?! The exit’s closing! Other apprentices are also waitingggg!"

Silvermist’s eyes snapped back to reality. She inhaled deeply through her nose, exhaled in a slow, controlled breath, and then finally turned to Cullen and Levi.

"This place showed you what you were afraid to see," she said softly, but firmly. "I’ve seen parts of it, the future that would happen if I lose myself... but everything seems so wrong."

The unease that stirred between the three of them was obvious now. Cullen’s jaw clenched as he turned to look back at the warping circle. Levi hesitated, his fingers flexing at his side as if resisting the instinct to run.

"Silvermist," Levi said, quieter this time, "we need to go. If you think this is still not it, then we better ask the Guardians about it."

But Silvermist stood rooted for a second longer. "That’s if they’d tell us," she muttered. "Aren’t you, two, wondering why they’d put us in here together?"

Before any of the two could answer, Silvernist had already stepped outside.

"Let’s go," she said, brushing past them with a cold edge to her voice. "Think about what I’ve said."

The two blinked in confusion, their feet crunching softly over the brittle ground as they neared the glowing, flickering exit.

Behind them, the world continued to crumble.

The jagged sky cracked like glass, bleeding with dull hues of grey and violet, while the terrain beneath their feet evaporated in thin tendrils of mist—ash spiraling into nothing. The remnants of the simulation disintegrated, but something lingered, thick in the air. Something that refused to be erased.

Levi slowed down.

His boots dragged against the ground, the hum of the exit growing distant in his ears. His gaze lingered over his shoulder, fixated on the open void behind them. It looked empty now—but his instincts screamed otherwise.

There it was again.

Thump.

Like a slow, rhythmic pulse through the ground, too faint to be sound, but real enough to make his skin crawl.

A heartbeat.

But whose?

Cullen, sensing the tension behind him, stopped just before the exit. He turned, finding Levi locked in place with that haunted look in his eyes again.

He nudged Levi’s arm, just hard enough to snap him out of it. "You felt that?"

Levi’s eyes were still distant as he gave a sharp, single nod.

"Certainly," Cullen muttered under his breath, his usual confident tone sounding strained. "Definitely wasn’t just an imagination."

Silvermist, already a few paces ahead, didn’t turn back. Her posture was stiff—rigid, as if she, too, felt the same thing but didn’t want to admit it out loud.

Instead, she crossed the threshold of the simulation’s fading gate in silence, its swirling light bathing her silver hair in ethereal glow.

Levi and Cullen followed, but even as they stepped through the shimmering portal and were sucked back into the safety of the Academy’s white marbled halls, the echo of that pulse lingered.

In their ears.

In their bones.

In their hearts.

And somewhere, far beyond what the simulation allowed them to see, something pulsed in reply.