The void broke.
Lucian Pri stepped forward, and the battlefield bent around him. Gravity tilted, shards of broken stars twisting in orbit as if bowing. His aura tore through the void, violet-gold and endless, heavy enough to crush bone just by existing.
Lucian stood opposite, his chest heaving, cloak shredded, blood running down his arms in hot streams. His body scread at him to stop, but his eyes locked on the monster in front of him. His own face—his own shape—yet sothing greater, sharper, rciless.
Pri’s voice carried through the collapsing void, layered like echoes through ti itself.
"You’re weaker than I thought. Pathetic. Unfit."
Lucian spat blood, grinned faintly. "Guess I’ll disappoint you."
Pri’s eyes narrowed. Then he moved.
The void collapsed with his first step. He didn’t Fold Step—he erased distance. One mont he stood still, the next his palm crashed into Lucian’s chest like a star exploding.
Lucian’s ribs cracked. He flew backward, slamming through floating shards of moonstone, each one breaking apart under his body before he stopped against nothing, coughing blood.
Before he could draw breath, Pri was there again.
A hand snapped across his face. Space twisted with it. The impact tore his jaw sideways, his vision bursting white. He was flung downward into the black sea below. The surface bent under him, gravity reversing, then crushed him back up into the air like a ragdoll.
Lucian gasped, teeth grit, body a furnace of pain. He Fold Stepped away mid-air, reappearing above Pri and slamming both palms forward. Spaceti collapsed into a black sphere—the singularity screaming as it pulled Pri into it.
Pri didn’t resist. He let it take him—then rewound. The singularity unraveled itself, returning to the mont before Lucian cast it. Lucian froze a beat too long.
Pri’s fist drove into his gut. Bones cracked, blood sprayed. He folded, gasping, before Pri hurled him sideways with a flick of his wrist. Lucian’s body smashed through three drifting shards, left tumbling.
"Everything you do," Pri said coldly, voice booming across the broken sky, "I have already mastered."
Lucian struggled to his feet on one floating island, clutching his bleeding side. His vision blurred, but he forced his hand up. Rift Rend tore outward, a jagged wound in space that scread toward Pri.
Pri raised a finger.
The wound sealed.
Lucian’s eyes widened.
Pri raised his other hand. Ti froze. Lucian’s heart skipped a beat, his limbs dragging through molasses as Pri walked forward, every step bending the void tighter. He stopped inches away, leaned close, and whispered in his ear.
"You are nothing but a shadow of ."
Then Pri struck.
The blow wasn’t raw force—it was command. Space buckled, ti shattered. Lucian’s body twisted violently, every bone breaking, his form ripped apart and slamd into the void itself. The platform under him shattered into dust. He scread, voice torn raw.
But he didn’t stop.
Through the pain, through the fire in his veins, he pulled a Fold Step, snapping himself upright on another shard, one knee bent, blood dripping onto the glass ground. His hands shook. His jaw ached.
Still, his lips curled faintly. "If I’m your shadow... then you’re stuck with ."
Pri’s eyes glowed brighter, aura flaring until the void itself cracked. He raised both arms. The battlefield bent, gravity severing in a thousand directions, shards of stars colliding and exploding. The storm of ti and space scread, pulling Lucian into a hurricane of broken law.
Lucian’s body was shredded by the storm—skin torn, muscles ripped. His scream was drowned by the collapse. Pri walked through calmly, untouchable, his cloak dragging behind him like the night itself.
Lucian’s body dangled in the storm, broken, hanging by threads.
"Fall," Pri commanded.
Lucian almost did.
Almost.
But sothing inside him snapped back. His blood burned, his veins glowing faintly with golden light. His lips moved.
"Not yet."
He pulled both arms wide.
And space obeyed.
The storm bent. The collapsing shards froze mid-motion. Ti stuttered. The hurricane snapped inward around him, pulled into his palms until his body shook, bones straining. A black sun of spaceti burned between his hands, screaming with power.
Pri’s eyes flickered, just slightly. "Impossible."
Lucian roared. His voice cut through the void, raw and broken. "This—stays—with !"
He hurled the sun.
The black mass scread forward, pulling everything into its orbit. Pri raised his arms to resist, but the collapse dragged even him a step backward, his aura flickering as fragnts of stars shattered around him.
Lucian Fold Stepped through his own storm, appearing above Pri mid-collapse. Blood ran from his eyes, his nose, his mouth. His body was tearing itself apart.
But his hands ca down.
[Chrono Break—Absolute.]
Ti shattered. Pri’s body stuttered, slowed, bent against itself for a single heartbeat. That was all Lucian needed.
He slamd his palm into Pri’s chest.
Space ripped.
A Rift Rend scread point-blank, Collapse Form devouring through armor, skin, bone. Pri staggered, for the first ti truly hurt. Violet-gold blood sprayed into the void, searing hot.
Lucian’s arm cracked from the recoil. His chest split. His body barely held.
Pri roared, voice like a thousand echoes. His hand grabbed Lucian’s throat, squeezing, lifting him into the air. His aura exploded outward, breaking ti free of the lock.
"You think you’ve won?" Pri growled. His grip tightened. Lucian’s breath cut off, his body thrashing, black spots dancing in his vision.
Lucian coughed blood into his face. His lips pulled into a smile, faint and defiant. "Not... yet."
His free hand glowed faint gold.
Pri’s eyes widened.
[Chrono Reversal.]
Lucian twisted ti itself—not to heal, not to run. To switch places.
In a blink, he stood where Pri had, and Pri now hung in his grip, his throat clamped by Lucian’s hand. His own trick, reversed.
Pri’s aura flared, but Lucian didn’t hesitate. He pulled space tighter, collapsing gravity until Pri’s body strained and cracked, violet blood spraying.
"You’re stronger," Lucian rasped, his body burning alive. "But I’m the one who endures."
He bent both space and ti together.
[Spaceti Sever.]
A blade of distortion erupted from his palm, cutting straight through Pri’s core. The void scread, reality splitting as Pri’s body convulsed.
Pri’s violet-gold eyes dimd, then flared with rage. He roared, slamming both hands into Lucian’s chest, tearing the blade free, blasting him away.
Lucian’s body flew across the void, ribs shattering, lungs collapsing. He tumbled across shards, barely stopping himself on one knee. His vision dimd, blood dripping freely.
Pri staggered, one hand pressed to his chest where the wound leaked light. His breath ca heavy, uneven, his aura flickering. For the first ti, he looked... strained.
"You..." Pri growled. "You shouldn’t exist."
Lucian spat blood onto the ground. "Neither should you."
They moved one last ti.
Both bodies blurred into motion, Fold Stepping across collapsing stars. Their fists clashed, their palms ripped reality, their auras tore the void apart. Every blow shook the battlefield. Every strike bent ti.
Lucian’s body broke again and again, but he kept moving. His Pri counterpart rewound wound after wound, but the strain deepened, aura flickering more violently.
At last, they stood face to face, bloodied, broken, both trembling.
Lucian’s lips curled. "This ends now."
Pri sneered. "Yes. With you gone."
They struck together.
Lucian poured everything—every fold, every collapse, every shred of ti and space—into one final blow. Pri matched him, violet-gold aura burning brighter than suns.
Their palms t.
The void shattered.
Light erupted, swallowing everything.
The storm faded.
Lucian dropped to one knee, gasping, his hand trembling. Across from him, Pri staggered, violet-gold blood spilling from the hole in his chest. His aura flickered, then broke apart, dissolving into the void.
His eyes—still Lucian’s—locked on him one last ti. "...Shadow... no. Successor."
Then Pri’s form cracked, splintered into light, and collapsed into nothing.
Lucian stayed on his knees, blood dripping onto shattered ground, his breath ragged, body wrecked.
But he was alive.
The system’s voice finally returned.
[Trial Complete.]
[Rank Advanced: XXX.]
[New Title Earned: Defier of Fate.]
[Skill Awakened: Spaceti Dominion.]
Lucian exhaled, a faint, broken laugh slipping out. "Finally."
The void dissolved.
He was back.
His room on the Nova Sanctum surrounded him again—steel walls, dim lights pulsing faintly with the ship’s heartbeat. He was sprawled on the floor, cloak torn, chest heaving. Every muscle in his body scread. Blood slicked his side, his knuckles split open, skin bruised and raw.
For a long mont, he didn’t move. He just lay there, staring at the ceiling, breath ragged. The silence was heavy.
Then the system’s faint glow hovered into view.
[System Store.]
[Recomnded Purchase: High-Grade Restoration Draught.]
Lucian let out a dry laugh that scraped his throat. "...Yeah. Bring it up."
The panel flickered, rows of items flashing past until the vial appeared—slim glass, swirling liquid inside glowing faint silver-blue. He bought it with a thought. The hum of points deducted whispered in his ears.
A shimr in the air. The potion materialized in his palm. Cold glass against bloodied skin.
He popped the seal with his thumb and tilted it back.
The taste hit sharp—tal, bitter, then sweet enough to burn. The glow ran down his throat and spread instantly, a warm flood racing through veins, filling cracks in his bones, stitching torn muscles together. His chest eased, the ache in his ribs dulled, the fire in his nerves finally, rcifully, softened.
He leaned back against the wall, exhaling slow. His eyelids grew heavy, body sinking into the floor as the potion settled deeper, pulling him toward rest.
The system’s last whisper brushed his ears.
[Recovery Active.]
[Entering Rest State.]
Lucian closed his eyes. The last thing he felt was Kaelis’s faint shadow curling near him, the dragon’s watchful presence hovering.
And then, finally—he slept.
Deep.
Unbroken.
Like a man who had torn down gods and earned the right to breathe again.
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