Lucien's senses snapped awake in silence. Not the silence of The White, but something deeper, heavier—like sound itself had been devoured.
The ground beneath him was glass, reflecting his every movement in distorted, endless fragments. The horizon bent unnaturally, light shifting into colors that did not exist in the world he knew. And in the center of it all, standing as if he had been waiting forever, was… Lucien Dreamveil.
Or rather, the reflection of him.
The mirror self was identical—same pale features, same aura—but twisted. Where Lucien's aura was sharp, cold, and controlled, this one burned like wildfire, chaotic and consuming. His eyes gleamed not with resolve, but hunger.
"You came," the reflection said, voice like Lucien's but layered with echoes, as though countless versions of him were speaking in unison. "The Sole Exception finally meets himself."
Lucien's grip tightened around the fragment of void energy, aura rippling violently. "You're not me."
The reflection chuckled, shaking his head. "I am every piece you rejected. Every choice you didn't make. Every death you avoided. I am what you would have become if The White had broken you… instead of forging you."
The air trembled. Rifts flickered open above, showing glimpses of possible futures—one where Lucien ruled empires, one where he was slain, one where the void consumed the entire continent. Each vision faded as quickly as it appeared, like dreams crumbling at dawn.
Lucien's pale eyes narrowed. "If you are every path I did not take, then you are nothing but shadows. I will erase you."
The reflection's smile widened, a perfect mockery of Lucien's own rare grin. "Erase me? You can't. Because I am the reason you exist. The White did not choose you to survive—it chose you to fight. One Lucien to preserve the world… and one to end it."
Suddenly, the glass ground cracked. From the fissures, creatures emerged—beasts Lucien recognized from The White, but each one bearing fragments of his own features, his aura, his style of combat. They moved like him, fought like him, as if the void had stolen his essence to weaponize against him.
The reflection raised his hand, and the monsters knelt at his command. "We are not enemies, brother. We are inevitabilities. Join me, and the world will kneel in days. Refuse… and I'll tear you apart until only the void wears your name."
Lucien's aura exploded, shadows and pale light twisting into a storm around him. His calm expression did not waver, though his heart pounded with something rare—excitement.
"Then let's test your inevitability," he said coldly, raising his hand as an obsidian blade of aura formed. "And when you fall, the world will know… there was never more than one."
The reflection smirked, snapping his fingers. The void-born copies lunged, and the battle between Lucien and his own shadow began.
But as their clash ignited the rift, a chilling truth pressed in from every corner of the fractured space:
This was not simply a battle for survival.
This was the war that would decide which Lucien Dreamveil the world would inherit.