The moment the titan’s eye opened fully, Ethan’s world shattered. He wasn’t standing in the cavern anymore. He was standing in himself.Endless corridors stretched around him, walls made of mirrors. Each mirror reflected not just his face but moments of his life: victories, failures, betrayals.In some reflections, he was a child clutching Anna’s hand. In others, a man bathed in blood. Some smiled. Some screamed. And behind every reflection a shadow, vast and endless, dripping hunger.The titan’s voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere: “Welcome home, heir. This is where I live now. Inside you.”Ethan spun, fists clenched. “Get out of my head!”The mirrors trembled, reflections laughing in unison. “This is your head, child. And every thought, every fear, every lie you’ve buried I see it. I am it.”A reflection stepped forward, peeling itself out of the glass. It was Ethan but taller, stronger, his eyes blazing with the titan’s fire. It sneered. “Why pretend anymore? You’re me. You’v

The cradle groaned like a wounded beast. Pillars of glass splintered. Rivers of molten gold burst from the cracks, spilling across the floor. The cavern trembled, dust falling like ash.At the center, Ethan’s body writhed, suspended in the air. His veins glowed molten. His back arched violently as if something inside him clawed to escape.His scream wasn’t human it was layered, dozens of voices at once. Victor stumbled forward. “Ethan! Ethan, can you hear me?”Julian clapped, delighted, his laugh echoing above the chaos. “Oh, exquisite! Look at him! Our little heir no longer heir, but vessel!”Miriam’s eyes narrowed, her voice a blade of calm. “He’s not ours anymore. Something else is wearing his skin.”The hybrid tilted its head, half-smiling, half-grimacing. “No. Not wearing. Becoming. The cradle didn’t consume him. He invited it in.”Victor shook his head violently. “No! He’s stronger than this! He—he wouldn’t let himself be taken!”Julian twirled, arms spread wide, blood dripping

The world went white. Heat roared, fire swallowing stone, air, flesh. The blast surged outward like the wrath of a star. When it cleared Victor was still standing.Barely. His coat and skin were scorched, his arms trembling, his chest heaving with smoke. A shield of fractured glass shimmered around him, its edges bleeding molten light.The last remnant of the cradle’s heart had snapped into place, wrapping him in a cocoon that had almost shattered under the force.Miriam stared, astonished despite herself. “Impossible. That should have vaporized you.”Victor staggered, coughing blood, his eyes wild. “He… he held back.”Miriam’s lips curled. “Held back? That was him trying to kill you.”“No,” Victor wheezed. “That was Ethan. He’s still in there. He saved me.”Julian skipped closer, laughing, eyes gleaming with manic joy. “Saved you? Oh, precious boy, you are blind! He missed. That’s all. The god doesn’t fumble twice.”Ethan hovered above them, molten light dripping from his veins, his

The fall should have killed them. Stone shattered. Rivers of molten gold thundered downward. The roar of collapse drowned thought, air, time. Then silence.Victor’s eyes cracked open. He lay on cold stone, chest heaving. The fire was gone. No molten rivers, no pillars, no sky. Just darkness stretching endless.He coughed, rolling to his knees. His hands brushed something strange, smooth, carved grooves glowing faintly red beneath his palms. Symbols. Hale sigils.“Still alive,” Miriam’s voice rasped nearby. She emerged from the gloom, coat torn, face streaked with ash. Her pistol was gone, but her eyes were sharp as ever. Victor squinted. “Where… are we?”Julian’s laugh drifted from the shadows, ragged but delighted. “Deeper. Always deeper. We fall into the womb, children of the grave.”The hybrid crawled from the dark, limping, half its body melted but its eyes burning. “This place… it wasn’t built for us. Even the cradle sealed it away.”Victor looked around, heartbeat hammering. The

The abyss screamed. Light tore through the cracks of the ancient seal, flooding the chamber with molten fire. One skeletal figure had risen.Now dozens of hands clawed from below, dragging themselves into the world with hunger sharpened by centuries.Victor staggered back, clutching Ethan tight against him. Ethan’s body burned like a furnace, but his eyes were still his flickering blue fighting against the gold.“Too many,” Miriam hissed, scanning the fissures. “We’re trapped.” The hybrid’s voice cracked with awe. “Not trapped. Witnessing. This is history… this is rebirth.”Victor spun on him, fury in his eyes. “Shut up! Do you want them loose? Do you want the world burned?”The hybrid’s grin widened despite its trembling body. “The world was already ash. Let them finish what was started.”Julian clapped his hands, delighted, though his eyes gleamed with something sharper. “Oh, don’t scowl, Victor. You can’t stop a storm with a frown.”The first heir the skeletal one with the too-wide