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The ruins were too quiet.
Li Tianming stood on cracked asphalt, wind fluttering through the remains of rusted signage and broken cables. The Chaos Eye — now etched into his forehead like a dormant curse — flared open once again.
> [Activating Chaos Vision…]
[Scanning… 300m radius]
[Soul Signatures: 2]
– 1: "Li Tianming" – Status: Stable (Corruption 3.4%)
– 2: UNKNOWN – Status: Mutant. Death Echo Feeder. Tier: B-Class+
Warning: Host's Death Echo visible — 93% overlap within 6 minutes.
Tianming's jaw tightened. "So I'm the prey now."
He didn't run.
He walked toward the second soul signature — each step like a countdown. Rain began to fall, not water, but chemical ash, hissing where it touched metal.
Suddenly—
He stopped.
His vision warped.
The world around him flickered.
A clone of himself stood ahead — same face, same stance, same weapon — except this version's eyes were empty, and blood dripped down its chest.
Then it spoke.
> "This is how you die."
BOOM!
The clone exploded into black mist — and the real enemy appeared.
It crawled from the air itself, its body stitched from the souls of its victims — dozens of glowing skulls wrapped into a long, centipede-like form. Its face was a featureless mirror.
Tianming's Chaos Eye screamed.
> [Entity: Death-Echo Predator]
Feeds on soul probability. Takes form of future deaths. Immune to normal prediction systems.]
[Warning: Reality Layer Bleed Detected. If soul destabilizes past 20%, host will lose identity.]
> "That's a problem," Tianming muttered. "Let's fix that."
He leapt forward, blade glowing with soulfire.
🔥 Hellfire Surge — Black Variant!
The flames struck the creature — only for it to phase through them, then split into three ghostly copies of Tianming's possible deaths:
1. Beheaded by a Dominion soldier
2. Consumed by the Chaos System itself
3. Stabbed through the heart by a girl with silver eyes
Tianming froze.
> "That last one… hasn't even happened yet."
> [Instinct Core Reactivation: 40%]
[You may access chaos memory temporarily.]
The Chaos Seal burned.
Voices filled his skull — past hosts, dead worlds, old regrets. Something behind the system screamed to be let out.
But Tianming focused.
"Not today."
He charged the first echo, slicing through it. Black mist exploded. He spun mid-air, blocking the second with his Chaosbound Blade. Sparks flew. The impact shredded his left arm's armor.
The third echo?
It didn't attack.
It just spoke with her voice — whoever she was.
> "You'll kill me to survive. But you'll break first."
That hesitation was enough.
The Death-Echo Predator surged forward, jaws wide.
Tianming raised his bleeding hand — and activated his Chaos Eye to the limit.
> [New Variant Unlocked: Deathseal Flash — Forcefully collapse all active death echoes into a singularity. 1 Use. Warning: Mental Damage Imminent.]
> "DO IT."
The world cracked.
All three echoes screamed and were dragged into a singular point — a glowing black sphere the size of a fist. The Predator's body convulsed, its soul-core torn inward.
Tianming didn't wait.
He leapt high and drove his blade through its spine, screaming as his own soul nearly tore in half from the feedback.
> [Target Terminated. Soul Fragment Absorbed.]
[New Trait Acquired: Death-Eater Core (I)]
– Passive: +15% resistance to mental illusions & soul shock
– Active: Collapse one future echo into a weaponized shadow once per day
He collapsed to one knee, panting.
> [Soul Count: 5 / 999999]
[Mental Sync: 62%. Corruption: 4.1%.]
[Chaos Eye: Stable]
The chemical rain fell harder now.
Tianming stood up — barely — and whispered:
> "If this is how I'm going to die…
…I'll make sure I watch them all fall first."
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