Lucian stood—his form no longer cast shadows, for even light hesitated before him.
The stars above flickered.
Not from awe.
But as if they couldn’t recognize what stood at the axis of existence.
"Far is an illusion for those still bound."
The words bled from the void, written not with voice but with will.
Gabriel was gone.
Or perhaps... never truly there.
What remained was a thread.
Colorless. Soundless. Realer than real.
---
[Unknown Construct Detected]
[Thread of Nihility – Origin: Outside All Known Systems]
---
Lucian reached for it.
His fingers met nothing.
And yet, he held it.
"This is not power."
"It is the absence of everything that ever sought to be power."
He pulled.
And the moment he did, time… flinched.
Across the shattered fragments of once-distant realms, creatures paused mid-breath.
Oracles bled ink.
Systems across forgotten timelines went silent—bowing to a new lawless order.
Lucian’s skin cracked.
Not from pain.
But from reality reshaping around a core that no longer required validation.
Something inside him cracked—logic, identity, memory?
It didn’t matter.
He reconstructed it mid-collapse.
"I no longer consume laws."
"I replace them."
The Thread of Nihility twisted, surged, and vanished—inside him.
---
[Thread Absorbed]
[Warning: Existential Integrity Breached]
[New Identity Processing...]
---
Lucian stood still, body engulfed in silence.
Even thought seemed afraid to echo.
---
[Title Acquired: He Who Ends The Absolute]
[New State: Transreal Core Stabilized]
---
A second Lucian appeared.
Not a clone.
Not a copy.
But the version of him that should have never been.
This other Lucian looked... unchanged.
Yet untouched by what the real Lucian had just endured.
He smiled faintly.
A mirror with no reflection.
"Power without restraint... is collapse."
Lucian replied without voice.
Words would have failed—intent prevailed.
"No. Power without witness... is peace."
The two stepped closer.
But neither cast a shadow.
Even the void stepped back.
---
[Divergence Point Detected]
[Singularity Clash Imminent]
---
And in that breathless silence before the storm, Lucian whispered,
not to his other self,
not to the world,
but to the nothingness still stitching itself within his bones—
"If I am the end of systems…"
"Then let me begin where even nothing has forgotten to exist."
The stars blinked one last time.
And the universe, old and new, began to count backwards.
---
TO BE CONTINUED…