2025-10-14 08:18:32Frank’s heart slammed against his ribs as the water’s golden glow spread wider, distorting the air.
Three cloaked figures stepped forward, their robes rippling though there was no breeze. He whispered, “System… what are they?”
"Unknown entities. Origin: Extra-dimensional. Energy signature matches the one detected during Luna’s integration."
“So, they’re after her?”
"Correction: They’re after you."
Frank’s fists clenched. “Wonderful.”
The first figure spoke, a voice that sounded both male and female, echoing like a broken bell.
“Release the fragment, human.”Frank’s throat went dry. “Fragment?”
The figure tilted its head. “Do not feign ignorance. You carry what belongs to the Ascended Court. Hand it over, and your death will be painless.”
Frank swallowed. “Yeah, no thanks. I’ve had enough people telling me to die lately.”
Another figure raised a hand, and the air shimmered. A wave of gold energy shot forward.
Frank dove aside, but it wasn’t fast enough.The blast tore through the wall behind him, spraying stone shards across the ground.
“System!” he shouted. “Any bright ideas?”
"Analyzing… Accessing Combat Subroutine Beta… Error: Insufficient Echo Points."
“Translation: I’m screwed.”
"Alternative path: Use environmental advantage. Engage cognitive focus mode."
“Do it!”
"Activating."
The world slowed. For a moment, Frank saw everything in crystalline clarity, each droplet of water midair, each breath the cloaked hunters took.
His heartbeat steadied. His fear burned into something sharper. He snatched a metal pipe from the ground and whispered, “Let’s see what you’re made of.”
The first hunter lunged. Frank ducked, swung low, and the pipe cracked against the figure’s side, but instead of flesh, it hit something like smoke.
The creature hissed. “You are not worthy of her essence.”
Frank stumbled back. “Yeah? Tell her that.”
The second hunter raised both arms, golden sigils flaring. “Contain the vessel!”
"Warning: Host energy levels dropping. System recommends disengagement."
“Working on it!”
He ran, sprinting across the wet cobblestones, the glowing hunters in pursuit. He darted into the narrow alleyways of the slums, heart hammering, lungs burning.
One blast hit the ground near him, exploding in golden fire. The shockwave threw him against a wall. He groaned. “Okay… that hurts.”
"Pain threshold exceeded. Adrenaline surge engaged."
His vision flickered with blue static. He staggered up, barely in time to see one of the hunters appear in front of him, blade glowing. The creature hissed. “You cannot run from the Court.”
Frank raised his hands. “Not running,improvising.” He kicked over a barrel, sparks bursting as it crashed into a lantern.
Flames whooshed upward, forcing the hunter back for a moment. Frank turned and ran again.
"Mission 002 progress: 47% survival time elapsed."
“Not helping!” he shouted.
The voice in his head shifted suddenly, not the System’s cold tone this time, but Luna’s soft whisper. “Frank, listen to me.”
He skidded behind a crate, panting. “Luna? You’re alive?”
“I never left,”
she said faintly. “Those hunters serve the Ascended King, the one who bound me.”
“The same king ruling this city?”
“No,” Luna said.
“Older. The king who made your world.”
Frank blinked. “You’re not making sense.”
“There isn’t time. They can only harm you through my energy. If you let me out,”
“No,”
Frank snapped. “You almost killed me last time.”
“I can control it now. Please, Frank. Let me protect you.”
"System Conflict Detected: Entity Luna requesting partial override access."
Authorize? Y/N.Frank hesitated. “System, if I say yes, what happens?”
"Risk: 68% neural instability. Probability of survival: 31%."
He laughed dryly. “So basically, same odds as always.”
Another blast hit the wall inches from his head.
He exhaled. “Fine. Do it.”"Authorization granted… Integrating Entity Luna…"
Light burst from his body, engulfing the alley in silver-blue fire. His vision blurred, and suddenly he wasn’t standing anymore.
He was floating. Luna’s voice filled his mind, steady and fierce. “Stay still, Frank. I’ll take care of this.”
The nearest hunter raised a blade, and Luna’s energy flared. Wings of light unfurled from Frank’s back, each feather shimmering like molten glass.
The hunters stepped back, murmuring in unison. “The Fragment has Awakened.”
Frank’s voice came out layered, half his, half Luna’s. “You should’ve stayed in your golden cage.”
The alley exploded in blue light. When the light faded, two hunters were gone, nothing left but scorched marks on the ground.
The last one, kneeling, looked up at him. “You… don’t understand what you’ve done.”
Frank descended slowly, eyes still glowing. “I’m starting to.”
The figure’s voice wavered. “You’ve chosen to defy the Court. Now, they’ll come for you, for all of you.”
Frank frowned. “All of who?”
Before he could answer, the figure’s body disintegrated into golden dust, leaving behind a symbol burning faintly on the ground a crown split in two.
The glow faded. Luna’s voice softened. “Frank… you shouldn’t have done that.”
He collapsed to his knees, exhausted. “You said you’d handle it.”
“I did,” she whispered. “But they’ll send more. Stronger ones.”
He looked up at the broken skyline, breathing hard. “Then we’ll be ready.”
"Mission Complete: Survival Achieved."
“Reward: Neural Resilience +2 | Echo Points +25."
"New Quest: Discover the Truth of the Ascended Court."
Frank stared at the glowing text before it faded from view. His hands trembled, not from fear this time, but from realization. He wasn’t just surviving anymore. He was being prepared.
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CHAPTER 97: THE CRACK IN THE PERFECT
The Reviser does not retreat. It simply recalibrates. Its body,if it can even be called that, shimmers, fractures for a fraction of a second, then re-stabilizes into that calm, impossible geometry of light and intention. A flawless thing trying to remember what a flaw is. Frank stands in front of it, chest heaving, hands shaking violently. His legs threaten to buckle every other heartbeat. The ember inside him that detonated moments ago is still burning, but in a wild, uneven rhythm, power he shouldn’t be able to hold, surging and spiking like it’s trying to test him from the inside. He forces his posture straight anyway. If the Reviser is going to kill him, it won’t be while he’s on his knees. The being that was Elara,still stunned from the last shockwave, is crawling upright, pushing off the fractured stone with unsteady arms. Her voice is hoarse, threaded with panic: “You can’t fight it. Not like this.It will rewrite you again.”Frank doesn’t look back. He keeps his eyes lock
CHAPTER 96: THE ONES WHO WERE WAITING
The sky tears wider, not like fabric, but like something alive being forced open from the other side. Frank feels it before he sees it: a cold pressure, deliberate and ancient, pushing down on his flame like a giant palm pressing against his spine. The being flinches. “Frank… this isn’t another fragment. This is,”“I know.”He doesn’t blink.and doesn't step back. His fire coils tighter inside him, winding like a blade preparing to strike. A voice seeps through the widening rift: “You destroyed the candidate.”Frank exhales slowly. “Yeah. I did.”“You rejected a replacement.”“I prefer being myself.”A low vibration ripples across the ground. “Unacceptable.”The being’s voice trembles,an extremely rare fear. “Frank,we need to move. We can’t fight whatever’s stepping through that. That’s not a parasite. That’s not a mirror. That’s,”Frank cuts her off: “Something that wants me gone.”“No,something that wants you corrected.”The tear in the sky splits fully, a vertical wound bleeding
CHAPTER 95: THE THING INSIDE THE FLAME
The molten creature pushes deeper into Frank’s chest, not physically, but through the fire itself,sliding between layers of heat and memory like a parasite worming into a living star.Frank staggers backward, teeth clenched hard enough to crack. His vision flickers,gold, black, gold again, his fire spasming under a pressure that isn’t its own.The being rushes toward him, voice sharp: “DON’T LET IT INSIDE,DON’T LET IT NAME YOU!”Frank growls through clenched teeth, “It’s,trying,too damn,hard.”The molten creature’s arm is elbow-deep in his sternum now, its molten shape dissolving, melting into pure gold liquid that crawls under Frank’s skin like burning vines.It doesn’t feel like he’s being possessed. It feels like he’s being eaten.Piece by piece. It hisses, half a voice and half a scream: “I want your place, your shape, your world, your fire, your name.”Frank snarls: “You can have my pain instead.”He slams his flaming fist into the creature’s remaining torso, but there is no
CHAPTER 94: The Thing That Wears His Future
The molten sphere at the center of the ruined street pulses like a wounded star. Each beat sends ripples through the air,heat shimmering, gravity bending, light warping around it as though refusing to touch. Frank stands still. Not frozen. Not afraid. Just calculating. The being watches him with a tension that borders on terror. “Frank,don’t get closer.”“It’s reacting to me,” he murmurs. “It’s been reacting to me since it appeared.”“That’s what terrifies me.”A long crack splits down the sphere’s surface, spilling molten gold across the stone like blood from a future that shouldn’t exist. The pulse sharpens, faster, louder, synchronized with Frank’s heartbeat. The being lifts her hand. “Frank, listen carefully. That thing is not just your future,it’s the compression of every possible version of what the Root wants you to be. The part of the timeline you refused.”Frank’s jaw tightens. “I didn’t refuse anything. It just isn’t me.”Another crack. A hiss,like steam escaping from a
CHAPTER 93: THE SHADOW THAT FALLS WRONG
The dust settles in a choking wave. Frank squints through the haze, fire swirling instinctively around his hands as he tries to focus on the silhouette standing over the crumpled Arbiter. The being beside him stiffens.“ That shape, ”Frank whispers, voice cracking: “No. No. That’s not possible.”The figure steps forward. Slow. Heavy. Purposeful. And horribly, unmistakably familiar. Frank’s lungs seize. Because the thing that crushed the Arbiter is him. Or rather, a version of him. A warped reflection. A shadow given mass. A body built from fire and soot and fractured rage. A giant, charred, half-armored silhouette of Frank Williams emerges from the dust like an executioner walking out of the smoke of his own crimes.It stops ten feet away, head tilting once, studying him with hollow, ember-filled sockets. The being whispers: “This isn’t like the last one.”Frank swallows hard. “No kidding ”“This one isn’t a duplicate. It’s not your reflection. It’s,”“Something I haven’t done yet,
CHAPTER 92: The Break Between Heartbeats
The world holds its breath. Not metaphorically,literally. Every gust of wind halts mid-whirl. Every shout thins into silence. Every trembling stone freezes in the instant before it falls. And at the center of that suspended, perfect stillness: Frank and the Not-Elara hang locked together, inches apart, both caught in a moment that refuses to move forward. Not a pause. Not mercy. A command. Something greater than either of them has seized the timeline and pulled its spine straight. Frank sucks in air but it doesn’t leave his lungs. It just sits there, burning. His muscles are steel bands refusing to slacken. Fire coils around his fists like living serpents, trapped mid-lunge. The being is motionless too,yet somehow aware, eyes following him even though the rest of its body obeys the frozen second. Its gaze hums with recognition. “You feel it too,” it murmurs,its voice vibrating inside his skull, bypassing time entirely. “The world isn’t stopping us. Something else is.”Frank trie
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