by IMERPUS RELUR
---
The fog in Zone Null coiled like hungry spirits, each tendril laced with unreadable code. IMER moved through it slowly, his heartbeat syncing with the rhythm of unseen systems rebooting.
Behind him: Wrath, absorbed.
Ahead: something colder, quieter… watching.
> [Sin Signature Detected: ENVY]
[Level: Adaptive / Emotional Echo Class]
[Caution: This sin spreads via self-reflection.]
"Of course," IMER whispered. "The next one hides in mirrors."
He paused near a shattered glass wall — broken remnants of an old observation tower. Fragmented reflections stared back at him. Some of them… weren't him.
One reflection blinked.
But IMER hadn't.
---
The mirror-world shimmered, pulling at his thoughts.
There it was again — the doubt.
The sin he couldn't kill in others, only feed in himself.
A whisper, clear and sharp:
> "They never chose you. You weren't the original candidate."
IMER clenched his jaw. "I know."
Another voice, from another reflection:
> "Even the cheat code wasn't meant for you. You glitched into it."
The reflections laughed — a fractured chorus of his own face twisted by bitterness.
---
He stepped back, but the mirror world expanded.
The system pinged again:
> [ENVY Attempting System Injection]
[Sanity Protocol Engaged… Failed.]
Dark green mist surged from the shards. A shape formed — humanoid, cloaked, its face constantly shifting between versions of IMER: stronger, purer, more beloved.
"I'm you… if you had been chosen."
IMER didn't flinch. "So, you're my perfect self?"
"No," the reflection sneered. "I'm what the world wanted you to be."
---
The air grew thick with memory:
IMER as a child, denied a name.
The chosen ones passing him, never seeing.
His silent screams rewritten as system errors.
Watching others given powers he never received.
"Why do you exist?" IMER asked.
The entity responded, voice like static.
"To remind you that you're nothing but a byproduct of someone else's glitch."
Then it attacked.
---
The battlefield was mental.
Code surged. Skills flickered. IMER summoned Blazing Code Fist, but it was mirrored. Copied. Absorbed.
Envy knew all his moves — because it was him.
> [Warning: Skill Parity Detected. Envy copies all active techniques.]
He tried a feint, switching to his unarmed style — Rootless Flow — but even that was mirrored.
"Why fight me?" the doppelgänger taunted. "We both know you wish you were me."
"I don't."
"Liar."
They clashed again.
Blow for blow. Memory for memory. Every hit awakened another moment of envy. IMER's body shook. His eyes burned green.
> [Sin Resistance Lowering…]
[Integration: 62%]
[Collapse Risk: 41%]
He was losing.
---
Then something shifted.
A line of code flickered in his memory — a forgotten phrase from Niva, whispered as she vanished:
> "Rewrite doesn't mean deletion… it means acceptance."
IMER froze.
The next punch didn't come.
He looked into the reflection's eyes — and stopped resisting.
"I see you," he said.
The copy faltered.
"I hated you," IMER whispered, "because I hated me."
The mirror-self gritted its teeth.
"And that's why I'll rewrite you."
---
He opened his palms.
Let the envy flow in.
Not as fuel for power — but fuel for understanding.
The System responded:
> [Sin-Eater Protocol v0: Rewrite Enabled]
[New Skill: Echo Consumption – Absorb reflected emotions and nullify duplication.]
[ENVY Neutralized.]
The reflection cracked like glass. The green mist faded. The silence returned.
IMER stood alone once more.
But not unchanged.
A new tattoo appeared across his left arm — the symbol of Envy: a broken mirror with a single eye in the center.
He exhaled.
One more sin consumed.
Three down.
And each time, it got harder to remember who he was before this started.
---
As he walked back through the fog, the System pinged again:
> [New Location Unlocked: The Forgotten Sanctum]
[Next Sin: Pride – Currently Sealed by Divine Code]
IMER smirked.
"So the Architect is protecting that one?"
And behind him, deep in the glitch of the mirror, a faint voice echoed:
> "You still don't know what you're becoming, do you?"
IMER didn't respond.
He didn't need to.
He was already rewriting the answer.