The stars above Elandor shimmered with quiet grace. A soft wind drifted through the alabaster spires and cobbled streets of the city. All seemed at peace.
But far beneath that peace…
In the chamber no map dared acknowledge — where walls pulsed with living veins of Essence, and the air vibrated with ancient frequency — Arkzen stood, cloaked in silence.
His arms spread slowly, reverently, like a conductor at the edge of a grand symphony.
His voice broke the void, low and patient:
"Countless restarts."
The walls hummed in response.
"Countless civilizations… slaughtered by my hand."
Faint flickers — echoes of burned worlds, dying skies, and the screams of thousands — flashed behind his lids. Not as memories. But as truths lived again and again.
"Countless teachings of the same lies…" he breathed.
He stepped forward into the center of the chamber. The ground beneath him rippled like liquid glass, revealing glimpses of past lives: each one a mirrored repetition of his perfect illusion. Elandor, always rebuilt. Kael, always rising. Always just a little bit closer.
And now…
Now, the convergence had begun.
His lips curled — slow and deliberate — into a smile that bore no joy. Only inevitability.
"And finally…" he exhaled, as his arms raised slightly to the sides, "the goal is within grasp."
The chamber pulsed once.
And the world above moved, unaware.
Kael awoke mid-breath, drenched in cold sweat.
He gripped the edge of his bed, the wood creaking under his clenched fingers.
His vision swam.
Not just from the panic.
From the dissonance.
One eye showed the present — his small apartment, the light of dawn barely beginning to peer through the curtains.
The other…
A battlefield. Endless. Charred. Drenched in ash and stormlight.
Arkzen stood at the center, untouched.
Kael's own scream echoed in his ears — not from now. From before.
"No… I killed him— I saw him fall—"
But the moment he spoke, another memory bled in.
A thousand lives. Ten thousand duels.
Each one ending the same.
Arkzen's smile.
The Sovereign's gaze.
Reset.
Everything reset.
His body shivered.
Not from fear.
From remembrance.
He staggered to the mirror and stared at himself — but what stared back wasn't just him.
Another version. Then another. Then another. Battle-worn. Broken. Desperate. Triumphant. And all of them knew.
He was in a loop.
And every time he broke it, something even greater pulled the strings.
Every time he got too close — the gaze came.
Eyes that did not blink. That were never born. That simply watched.
"I can't lose again…" Kael whispered, hands trembling, voice like paper cracking.
His Essence flared uncontrollably for a split second — flame, lightning, storm, kinetic — all pulsing together in raw defiance. A warning. A memory. A promise.
Outside his door, Leiya stirred awake, her senses pricking faintly at the flicker of energy.
But Kael was silent.
By the time she rose, the room was empty.
The mirror still trembled.
And the first thread of the false world began to unravel.