Cain's mind fractured.
The moment the shadows swallowed him, reality unraveled. His body no longer felt like his own—his Titan Core surged out of control, golden fire pulsing wildly through his veins. The battlefield, the broken weapons, the shifting sky—all of it disappeared.
He was nowhere.
He was nothing.
Then—pain.
It wasn't the sharp, immediate pain of battle. It wasn't the ache of broken ribs or bruised flesh.
It was something deeper.
Something wrong.
Cain gasped, his breath stolen as he felt something gripping his very existence, prying it apart piece by piece. It wasn't his body being torn—it was his soul.
A voice whispered in the dark.
"You were never whole."
Cain shuddered, his fingers clawing at the empty air around him, his golden flames flickering erratically. The words weren't just spoken.
They were being carved into him.
"They broke you to keep you weak."
Cain clenched his teeth, fighting back against the overwhelming force threatening to pull him apart. His Titan Core roared inside him, the golden energy pushing back, resisting, refusing to yield—
But the shadows didn't stop.
"Let me show you what was taken."
The moment the words were spoken, Cain's vision split apart.
Memories—not his own, but somehow familiar—rushed through him like a tidal wave.
Flashes of battle. Of Titans standing side by side, their golden flames unstoppable, their power shaking the very heavens. He saw worlds collapsing, cities burning, skies splitting apart under forces too vast to comprehend.
And in the center of it all—
Himself.
But not as he was now.
Stronger.
Greater.
A warrior beyond anything he could ever imagine himself becoming.
Cain staggered, his breath hitching.
No.
No, this wasn't real.
This wasn't him.
"You were more than what you are now."
The golden fire inside him flared violently, trying to burn away the truth being forced into him. His instincts screamed at him to reject it, to push it away.
Because if this was true…
If he had truly been something greater, if he had already held the power to change the world—
Then why had he been forced to start over?
Why had he been left with nothing?
"They took your name."
Cain gasped as something tore through him, an invisible wound opening deep inside his Titan Core. He could feel it now—the missing piece, the part that had been ripped away.
Not lost.
Taken.
By someone who wanted him to never find it again.
Cain's golden flames writhed violently, reacting to the truth, demanding more. The pain should have been unbearable, but it was drowned beneath something else.
Fury.
Who had done this to him?
Who had taken what was his?
"Remember."
Cain roared.
The darkness around him exploded outward, his Titan Core erupting in a golden inferno that shattered the void itself. Reality snapped back, and Cain felt himself being pulled—ripped back into existence.
The battlefield returned.
The air crackled with energy, the golden sky flickering, unstable. The figure—the one who had worn his face—stood before him, their golden eyes burning with something more than just knowledge.
Expectation.
Cain breathed heavily, golden fire still coiling around him. He was still shaking, his body struggling to contain the power raging inside him.
The figure stepped forward.
"Now you see."
Cain's fists clenched. His Titan Core no longer felt incomplete.
It felt starved.
Like it was waiting to be made whole again.
He lifted his gaze, his golden eyes meeting the figure's without hesitation. "Tell me." His voice was sharp, steady.
"Who did this to me?"
The figure smiled.
"The ones who feared what you would become."
Cain's chest tightened. "Then tell me their names."
The figure's golden flames flickered.
"You already know them."
Cain exhaled sharply, his mind still burning from what had just been forced into him. He wasn't ready. Not yet. But he would be.
Because whoever had stolen from him—whoever had tried to keep him weak—
They were going to regret it.
The figure studied him for a long moment. Then, for the first time, they stepped aside.
Cain blinked.
Behind them, a path opened in the battlefield, leading toward something massive, something hidden beneath layers of energy too vast to comprehend.
"Go forward," the figure said. "And reclaim what was stolen."
Cain hesitated for only a second.
Then, without another word, he walked into the unknown.