The wind that whipped across the flesh-and-ice landscape of the Northern Wastes didn't just carry the scent of frost; it carried the sound of a thousand scratching pens.Standing before me was an impossibility. An army of me.There were versions of Lucius Thorne in royal silk, versions in blood-stained rags, and versions that were nothing more than skeletal frames wrapped in violet mist. But the one at the front—the "Original"—was the most unsettling. He had the face I had forgotten, the face of a boy who hadn't yet seen the abyss."Look at you," the Ghost-Lucius sneered, his voice a perfect echo of my own, but without the gravel of a hundred deaths. "A patchwork monster made of stolen ink and borrowed rage. You call yourself an Overlord, but you’re just a typo in the history of the Thorne family."**[System Warning: Identity Paradox.]****[Status: Reality Flux 88%.]****[Enemy Type: Narrative Echoes (The Plagiarists).]**Behind me, Valeriana’s hand tightened on her sword, but I could

The cracking sound wasn't coming from the stone or the air. It was the sound of reality itself splintering like a mirror under a hammer.I stood at the edge of the Unwritten, looking through the jagged hole in the fabric of my existence. On one side was the grey mist of the "Drafts"—the wreckage of a thousand failed stories. On the other side was a world that made no sense. It was a world of blinding artificial lights, towering boxes of steel and glass, and millions of voices humming in a web of invisible lightning."Step through, Lucius," the silver-haired Creator urged. Her voice was fading, her form turning into simple pencil sketches. "The Library is gone. The Editor is gone. There is only the Source now. If you want to know why you suffered, you must ask the one who imagined it."I looked at my left arm. The ink-ribbons were pulsing with a violent, violet light. I looked at the **Iron Quill** embedded in my skin. If I crossed over, what would happen to the "Zero" power? What happ