Villain's Last Chance
Chapter 53: Memories

Chapter 53: Memories

The descent was colder than I remembered.

Not physically—though the air did thin and sharpen as we went deeper—but emotionally. Spiritually. I could feel the weight of memory pressing in from all sides, coiling into the walls of the ancient structure like it had seeped into the very bones of this place.

Magic, old and resentful, pulsed faintly beneath our feet.

This was a sanctum once. A place of vision. Of prophecy.

Now it was just ruin.

We stepped through a shattered archway into a large chamber that still defied time. Its ceilings were high and domed, etched with constellations that didn’t belong to our current sky. Dust floated in the air, unmoved by breeze. And in the center, standing unchallenged by decay, was a mirror.

It wasn’t made of glass.

It shimmered like oil, its surface warped slightly like something alive.

The moment I saw it, my breath caught in my throat.

It was his memory. My memory.

But more than that—it was a tether. A wound that had never fully closed.

The man within it didn’t move, didn’t blink. He wasn’t meant to. The mirror wasn’t a reflection. It was a record. A seal. And the one held inside it... was me.

Or rather, the man I used to be.

And gods, he looked just like I remembered.

Arrogant. Composed. Hands behind his back. Not a tyrant in appearance, but a calculated, cold strategist. The kind of power that didn’t need to scream. It waited—and destroyed when it was ready.

I swallowed.

"I thought this chamber had been destroyed," I whispered.

"It should’ve been," Cairon said behind me, his voice tight. "I made sure of it."

I turned to him slowly.

"You destroyed it?" My voice was quieter now. Not out of fear—but reverence.

He nodded. "Years ago. After what he did here... after the last prophecy fell."

The weight of it hit me like a wave. I took a step closer to the mirror, not touching, but close enough that the hum of restrained magic kissed my skin.

"I didn’t die here," I murmured. "He didn’t fall in this place."

"No," Cairon agreed. "He walked away untouched. Just like always."

And now the chamber was whole again. Not just rebuilt. Reborn. Like it had been waiting to rise again—only for me.

"He didn’t wield the Codex," I said. "He never believed in it."

"He mocked it," Cairon bit out. "Destroyed its keepers. But he was obsessed with what it refused to give him."

That part I remembered.

The way the villain—my former self—had circled prophecy like a predator, wanting the power without the submission. Wanting knowledge but refusing the cost. I had been afraid of what it might reveal—what it might take.

I still was.

The mirror began to shimmer more violently the closer I stood, reacting to something in me.

And Cairon noticed.

He stepped forward, his expression unreadable. "This chamber isn’t just memory. It’s a key. It was locked after he left it. Buried with a command that no one but him—or something like him—could open it again."

And now I had.

"I’m not him," I said.

"You were," Cairon said. "And some part of you still is."

I turned sharply. "That’s not fair."

"No, it’s not," he said, stepping even closer, his eyes hard. "But fairness died with those who tried to stop him. You remember them, don’t you? The seers? The children who carried fragments of vision in their blood?"

My heart lurched. I did remember. The screams. The way power had cracked like glass in my hands. I’d buried it deep—but not deep enough.

"I didn’t kill them," I said, forcing the words out. "Not all of them."

"You gave the order," Cairon said.

And I had. Gods.

"I didn’t know who I was when I woke in this body," I murmured. "Not really. But now... I’m starting to."

"Good," he said. "Because you need to."

I looked back at the mirror. The villain inside stared at me still, frozen, eternal.

"I wasn’t wielding the Codex back then," I said slowly. "But he was still powerful."

"Too powerful," Cairon said. "And dangerous. But he wasn’t invincible."

"No," I whispered. "You proved that."

His jaw tensed. "I didn’t kill him in this chamber. I should’ve. I let him go."

"Why?"

Cairon was quiet for a long time. Then, "Because there was something... in his eyes. Something I didn’t understand. Regret, maybe. Or madness. I thought I’d have another chance."

"But you didn’t."

"No. He died later. In a field of ash, surrounded by flames of his own making. I struck him down... but even as he fell, he smiled."

I looked into the mirror again.

And I remembered that smile.

Because it had been a plan. Even in death, he hadn’t surrendered. He’d transferred. Planted pieces of himself somewhere deeper.

In me.

And now I was standing here, on the edge of memory and power, holding a truth that terrified me.

"I’m not him," I said again.

But the words felt thinner now.

"You don’t have to be," Cairon said quietly. "But you are his echo. The Codex wouldn’t have chosen you if there wasn’t still something left to redeem... or to fear."

The chamber began to hum louder.

The mirror vibrated.

And my reflection—his reflection—moved.

Just slightly.

A tilt of the head.

A twitch of the lips.

I gasped, stumbling back—but it was over. Frozen again.

But I saw it. And so did Cairon.

"He’s waking," I whispered. "The past... it’s waking inside me."

Cairon’s hand tightened on the hilt of his sword. Not in threat. In preparation.

"You’re not alone, Elara," he said.

I looked at him—and for the first time in a long while, I didn’t feel like the villain anymore.

But I also knew... he hadn’t left me.

He was just waiting.

I stepped back from the mirror, pulse racing, breath catching like I’d been struck. My legs trembled—not from fear, but from the sudden rush of memory clawing its way to the surface. The mirror didn’t lie. It never did.

He had moved.

Not just a trick of the eye. Not just my imagination. His mouth had curved—my mouth. The same cruel, cunning smirk I had worn in another life. I knew it because it used to come so easily, the weapon I wielded more often than my blade. And now, it was looking at me.

Mocking me.

"Did you see that?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the mirror.

Cairon didn’t answer. But I felt him move—step closer. I could hear the way his breath changed, the way his magic coiled tighter in his chest.

"I saw it."

The silence between us thickened.

I wasn’t sure what terrified me more—that the mirror had moved, or that something inside me had answered.

Because it had. Deep in my bones, that smirk didn’t just stir fear—it stirred familiarity. A twinge of pride. A buried instinct whispering: You remember what it felt like to hold this world by the throat.

I clenched my fists.

Not anymore.

"I’m not him," I said again, harsher this time.

Cairon’s gaze burned through me. "Then prove it."

"How?"

"Start by not running."

My eyes snapped to his.

"I’m not running."

"You want to," he said, voice soft but unflinching. "I can feel it. The way your power’s pulsing—shifting like it’s searching for an exit. You don’t want to be here."

"Of course I don’t want to be here!" I snapped. "I’m standing in the place where I—where he—set everything in motion. Where blood was spilled for visions he never understood. Where children died because they carried too much light. Do you think I want to remember that?"

Silence. Then:

"No," he said quietly. "But you have to."

The mirror pulsed again, dimmer this time. Less violent. More... expectant. Like it was waiting. For me to step closer. To claim it. To acknowledge that I wasn’t just Elara now—I was the aftermath of something greater and darker than any of us had dared to confront.

I could feel the Codex at my side, trembling.

And with it, the whisper of prophecy. Not spoken aloud—but stirring, like a page ready to turn.

"Do you think he planned this?" I asked. "That he knew he’d die and... bleed into me?"

Cairon didn’t answer right away.

"He wasn’t the kind of man who left things to chance," he finally said. "If there was a way to cheat fate, to bend it until it broke... he would’ve taken it."

"Then why me?" I whispered. "Why this body, this life? Why Elara?"

Cairon didn’t flinch.

"Because you’re strong enough to carry both lives," he said. "And foolish enough to try."

I huffed a humorless laugh. "Thanks."

But my hands were still shaking.

The mirror’s hum was lower now. Softer. And my past self—the villain I once was—remained still. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was watching from behind the glass. Waiting for the right moment. Not to escape, but to merge.

To remind me that no matter how far I ran... I was still made of him.

"Come on," Cairon said at last, breaking the tension. "We need to move. This place... it’s not done with you, but I’m not letting it consume you either."

He held out a hand.

I stared at it.

Part of me wanted to walk away. To face the chamber alone. To prove that I didn’t need him to hold me steady. But the other part—the part that remembered fire, ashes, and smiling in the face of death—knew how dangerous that pride had been.

I took his hand.

His fingers curled around mine firmly. No hesitation.

We turned from the mirror, and it didn’t try to stop us.

But as we walked away, I swore I felt his eyes on my back. Not just watching... but calculating.

And for the first time, I wondered:

If I truly remembered all that he had done—

Would I still be trying to fight him?

Or would I understand why he did it all?

The Codex trembled harder in my hand.

And deep within its pages, a new line of text burned into life:

The echo returns not to repent, but to reignite.

I stopped in my tracks.

Cairon looked back at me, brow furrowed. "What is it?"

I showed him the page. His eyes darkened.

"Looks like your past isn’t done with you yet."

And neither, it seemed... was prophecy.

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