For a second, Brian thought the arena had gone still. Then he realized time itself was glitching.
Chunks of crystal hung in the air, trembling like they were deciding whether to fall. The Hunter Supreme's eyes flickered—twelve burning suns trapped behind wet glass. Its body was rebuilding, bone by bone, algorithm by algorithm.
> [System Status: Online — Core Integrity 36%]
[Warning: Dimensional bleed detected]
Brian rose, joints screaming in protest. "Dimensional what now?"
The words rippled through the space, echoed by faint voices that weren't his.
Not whispers. Reflections.
One sounded amused.
— He learns slow, doesn't he?
Another: distant, sharp, female.
— He's not the only one waking up.
Brian shook his head, trying to focus. "Not the time for ghost commentary."
Aurora was already back in stance, fire building along her arms. Kira reset her blades. Lyra's eyes were hard glass; Selene's glow returned, soft and cold.
"Team Alpha Flex?" Aurora asked.
Brian grinned. "Still stupid. Still works."
The Hunter Supreme moved first. A storm of black spears rained from the sky. The group scattered, light and flame crossing in chaotic arcs.
Brian dashed forward, shadow trailing him like smoke with a heartbeat. The System interface glowed faintly around his fists.
> [Human Override Mode — Phase Two]
The first spear met his punch. The impact bent the arena's air like metal.
The shockwave peeled a crater through the crystal, exposing glowing circuits beneath.
Brian stumbled back, breathing hard. Every strike pulled power he didn't understand.
> [Warning: Reality compression rising]
"What's that supposed to—"
The world split.
For an instant, there were two Hunters, two arenas, two Brians. One in this fight, one in a burning wasteland. They overlapped for less than a breath before collapsing back together.
Brian blinked, shaking. "Did anyone else—?"
Lyra's answer came fast. "See it? Yes. Explain it? No."
The Hunter Supreme roared, half its voice coming from another universe.
---
Aurora threw herself into the fire again, literally—her whole body igniting as she slammed into the creature's midsection. The explosion threw molten shards skyward. Kira leapt through them, twin blades carving fractal patterns in the smoke.
Selene raised her hands, gravity folding inward, drawing the Hunter toward the ground.
Brian felt the bond between them tighten. They moved like instinct, each one carrying more than themselves. Somewhere, beneath the chaos, the System whispered.
> Four threads intertwined. One weaver missing.
He frowned. "Weaver?"
But there was no time to ask.
The Hunter broke free, half its body burning, half regenerating. Its spear lengthened into a blade of night. It charged.
Brian met it head-on.
The Hunter Supreme's blade scythed down, warping the air as it fell. Brian met it with both hands, shadows erupting from his palms like living chains. They clashed—darkness against darker—and the impact rippled through the arena, splitting the floor into concentric rings.
Aurora screamed his name and sent up a pillar of fire. It hit the creature's chest, forcing it back half a step. Kira vaulted off a floating shard, carving deep into its shoulder joint before rolling clear.
"Keep it off him!" Selene called, her voice strained. Gravity pulsed outward from her like a heartbeat, forcing the Hunter's movements into slow motion.
For a breath, they had space.
Brian straightened, steam rising from his skin. His own reflection shimmered in the crystal beneath his feet—except it wasn't just his. There were others layered beneath: faces almost like his but not. Some older, some scarred, one with eyes full of circuitry.
He blinked. The images didn't fade.
> [Fracture Alignment: 3% and rising]
The System's voice trembled. Not fear—pressure.
> They are hearing you too.
He looked up at the cracks running through the sky. Inside each fracture, he thought he saw silhouettes—watchers from other stories leaning close to the glass, drawn by the echo of his fight.
Then, one of the voices slipped through.
— Don't let it rewrite you.
A chill ran through him. "Who said that?"
No one answered. The cracks sealed for a moment, as if embarrassed to be caught.
The Hunter Supreme took advantage, its blade swinging low. Brian barely dodged, the edge grazing his ribs. Pain shot up his side, bright and clean.
He stumbled, laughter breaking out of him. "Still ugly, still mean."
Aurora snapped, "Less flirting, more fighting!"
He threw her a grin. "You love it."
Then he launched himself back in, all shadow and light.
---
The fight became rhythm.
Every hit from the Hunter pushed him closer to breaking—and closer to something else. He could feel the universes vibrating behind him, pulsing in time with his heartbeat. His team's voices blurred with the echoes of others: names he didn't know, languages he didn't speak.
He parried a downward strike and snarled, "You're not just fighting me. You're fighting all of us."
The Hunter recoiled as if the words themselves burned. Its armor fractured, data bleeding out in black threads.
> [Adaptive Core destabilizing…]
> [Energy source: shared resonance detected.]
Selene gasped. "It's feeding on the fractures!"
Lyra clenched her fists, telekinesis wrapping around the creature's weapon. "Then we overload it."
"Or die trying," Kira added, blades crossing in front of her.
Aurora's flames surged. "He won't die."
The certainty in her voice made Brian freeze for half a second. She wasn't guessing. She was sure.
Something deep inside him responded. The System lights pulsed once, then shifted hue—from cold blue to bright, burning white.
> [Override Level Two unlocked.]
Reality rippled.
The fragments of other worlds flared in the distance, and this time Brian didn't just see them—he felt them. Threads of energy snaked into him, each one tasting like a different memory. A sword humming in a sandstorm. A whisper from a girl beneath twin moons. A heartbeat trapped inside a crystal core.
He staggered under the flood, but didn't collapse.
> They remember you.
The voice again—quiet, ancient.
He looked up at the empty sky. "And who remembers you?"
For a moment, nothing. Then a low pulse rolled through the arena, deeper than sound.
> The One who dreamed you all.
The Hunter Supreme screamed, its form distorting into static. Black code poured from its wounds like blood, then reformed, sharper, hungrier.
Brian squared his stance. "So even you were just another piece."
The creature lunged. He moved to meet it. The clash sent light exploding across every mirrored shard of the multiverse.
In one reflection, another hero turned toward the same light.
In another, a woman raised a blade of crystal.
In another, a child reached out toward the crack in their own sky.
Each one whispered the same name.
Each one was part of the same song.
---
Aurora's voice broke through the brightness. "Brian! End it!"
He blinked, focused, pulled every ounce of energy inward. Shadows bent toward him, fire coiled around him, gravity itself folded into his clenched fist.
The Hunter Supreme struck again, but he was already moving.
"Flex King, my ass," he muttered. "Call me the bridge."
He hit the creature dead center. The impact cracked reality wide open.
The Hunter dissolved into black fire, screaming not in rage, but in recognition.
And through that burning light, Brian saw something vast stir behind the stars—watching, waiting, almost smiling.
> [System Log Updated — Cycle 02: The Fractured Loop]
Then the light faded, leaving only silence and the slow fall of ash.
Aurora caught him before he hit the ground.
His eyes were still glowing, but softer now.
"Did we win?" she asked quietly.
Brian managed a crooked smile. "Depends who's keeping score."
And above them, in the fractures of the sky, the faint outline of another world flickered—waiting to be born.
Their collision cracked reality again—lines of light slicing across the arena like fault lines. Through those cracks, he glimpsed flashes:
A boy of sand and storm raising a sword of glass.
A woman with white hair and a mechanical heart.
A crimson city under two moons, its streets full of shadows that whispered his name.
Then the images vanished.
He stumbled, chest heaving. The System's voice glitched:
> [Cross-world echo detected — Origin: Unknown Protagonists]
"Unknown what?" he hissed.
Aurora grabbed his arm. "Brian! Focus!"
He blinked, forcing the noise out. "Right. Sorry. Multiverse headache."
They fell back into formation. Selene's gravity shield shimmered around them. The Hunter Supreme loomed, wings spreading wide enough to eclipse the fractured stars overhead.
> [Adaptive Evolution — Final Phase Beginning]
The air turned thick, heavy with code and ash. Every breath burned.
Lyra muttered, "If that's its final phase, I'd hate to see what comes after."
Brian cracked his knuckles, forcing a grin. "That's why we kill it before it finishes loading."
But the System spoke again, quieter now, almost reverent.
> He watches, even here.
Brian froze. "Who?"
No answer. Just a hum—ancient, endless, curious.
For a heartbeat, he felt it. A gaze older than stars, pressing through the cracks in reality.
The One you seek.
His pulse skipped. The Hunter Supreme lunged again.