~LaurentI refused to let him go.“No! I won’t let you fade!” I shouted, my voice cracking in the quiet after Vyrath’s defeat. My father’s figure shimmered, flickering at the edges, his presence wavering like a candle in the wind. “I just got you back! I won’t lose you again—not like this!”He reached for me, his hand brushing mine, warm for a heartbeat before dissolving into nothing. My chest tightened as if the air itself had been pulled from my lungs.“Laurent…” His voice, low and steady, carried the weight of centuries. “You cannot stop this. I am only a fragment. I must fade for you to continue. It is the way.”I shook my head violently. “Fragments don’t matter! I don’t care about rules, timelines, or fragments! You’re here, and that’s what matters!”He smiled faintly, edges blurring. “You were never alone. Even if I vanish, my fragment, my bloodline, it lives in you. Always.”I swallowed hard, my throat tight. My fists clenched until my nails bit into my palms. I wanted to screa

~Laurent The world snapped into place so violently it nearly tore the breath from my lungs. Light fractured, bent, and then— Elarion. I staggered forward as the last remnants of the Time Vein fizzled out behind us, dissolving into the air like mist. The city materialized around me in broken pieces, a half-remembered nightmare draped in sunlight. I’d expected fire. Screams. Shadows clawing across rooftops. Instead… silence. Heavy. Wrong. Too clean in some places, too shattered in others. Buildings stood half-crumbled, stone split as if something massive had punched through walls. Windows were blown out, doors hanging off their hinges. Dust drifted lazily in the air, glimmering like frost under pale daylight. Calista gasped softly beside me. “This is…” Her voice broke. “…this is your world?” I swallowed hard, my throat tight. “It wasn’t like this before.” Her fingers hovered near mine but didn’t touch. She was scared. Trying not to show it. Trying to understa

~Laurent The shadow outside the crumbling doorway stretched like a blade across the floor. Then the figure stepped in. And every muscle in Kendrix’s beaten, trembling body seized. His breath hitched. “L-Laurent…” He pointed with a shaking, blood-stained hand. “That’s— that’s him. The king. He found us.” Calista’s gasp cut the air. A wave of cold swept the room like someone had opened a door to winter. I should have felt fear but I didn’t. Because I’d seen this exact thing before— down to the angle of the jaw, the sharpness of the eyes, the smug tilt of the head. Not similar. Identical. A perfect copy. And that was the problem. Kendrix clung to me like I was the last shelter in a storm. “Laurent—we have to run—we can’t fight him—not like this—” “It’s not him,” I said flatly. Kendrix blinked, confused. “W-What?” “It’s a clone,” I muttered, stepping forward and cracking my neck. “Relax. I’ve dealt with one already.” The clone tilted its head—exactly the same way Vyrath

~Calista I crouched on the roof, knees pressed to my chest. The wind was still, the city quiet, but my mind buzzed like a hive of restless bees. Everything about this world was madness. Laurent had just dropped me into chaos without warning. Everything here looked like it was out to kill me. Monsters, corrupt systems, clones, broken laws… I hadn’t asked for any of it. And yet, here I was. I was a warrior at Eldoria but the things I've seen in this few hours of being here made me realize that I was not as strong as I thought. I looked down and saw as Laurent slept below. His chest rose and fell in shallow, steady rhythm. He looked less worried in this state. It was refreshing to watch. I let a small, secret smile curve my lips. My "servant" had grown. Strong. Independent. No longer unable to lift a single bucket and now strong enough to lift mountains. It felt strange. Almost… like the balance had shifted. In Eldoria, with the chief and all. It felt like I was in charge bu

~LaurentThe clone stared at me with those hollow, imitation eyes. Nothing behind them. Nothing remotely close to the real Vyrath’s malice. Just a sketch of a nightmare wearing a stolen face.Still, it lunged.Pathetic. Predictable.It came at me with a sweeping strike, claws outstretched, moving fast enough that any ordinary fighter would have flinched.I didn’t.I simply tilted my head.The claws missed me by several inches, slicing empty air.The clone staggered, its momentum carrying it forward. It tried to recover, digging its hands into the ground like an animal trying to steady itself. Its breath was ragged—if it could even be called breathing. Its mana was flickering, unstable. Whoever summoned it barely knew what they were doing.It swiped again.And again.Every attack like a blurred line of motion… yet somehow painfully slow to me. I shifted my weight, letting the strikes sneak by my arm, my shoulder, my cheek. The air brushed past my skin but nothing else.A sputtering gro