Lucian Prime stepped forward, and the battlefield bent around him. Gravity tilted, shards of broken stars twisting in orbit as if bowing. His aura tore through the void, violet-gold and endless, heavy enough to crush bone just by existing.
Lucian stood opposite, his chest heaving, cloak shredded, blood running down his arms in hot streams. His body screamed at him to stop, but his eyes locked on the monster in front of him. His own face—his own shape—yet something greater, sharper, merciless.
Prime’s voice carried through the collapsing void, layered like echoes through time itself.
"You’re weaker than I thought. Pathetic. Unfit."
Lucian spat blood, grinned faintly. "Guess I’ll disappoint you."
Prime’s eyes narrowed. Then he moved.
The void collapsed with his first step. He didn’t Fold Step—he erased distance. One moment he stood still, the next his palm crashed into Lucian’s chest like a star exploding.
Lucian’s ribs cracked. He flew backward, slamming through floating shards of moonstone, each one breaking apart under his body before he stopped against nothing, coughing blood.
Before he could draw breath, Prime was there again.
A hand snapped across his face. Space twisted with it. The impact tore his jaw sideways, his vision bursting white. He was flung downward into the black sea below. The surface bent under him, gravity reversing, then crushed him back up into the air like a ragdoll.
Lucian gasped, teeth grit, body a furnace of pain. He Fold Stepped away mid-air, reappearing above Prime and slamming both palms forward. Spacetime collapsed into a black sphere—the singularity screaming as it pulled Prime into it.
Prime didn’t resist. He let it take him—then rewound. The singularity unraveled itself, returning to the moment before Lucian cast it. Lucian froze a beat too long.
Prime’s fist drove into his gut. Bones cracked, blood sprayed. He folded, gasping, before Prime hurled him sideways with a flick of his wrist. Lucian’s body smashed through three drifting shards, left tumbling.
"Everything you do," Prime said coldly, voice booming across the broken sky, "I have already mastered."
Lucian struggled to his feet on one floating island, clutching his bleeding side. His vision blurred, but he forced his hand up. Rift Rend tore outward, a jagged wound in space that screamed toward Prime.
Prime raised a finger.
Lucian’s eyes widened.
Prime raised his other hand. Time froze. Lucian’s heart skipped a beat, his limbs dragging through molasses as Prime walked forward, every step bending the void tighter. He stopped inches away, leaned close, and whispered in his ear.
"You are nothing but a shadow of me."
The blow wasn’t raw force—it was command. Space buckled, time shattered. Lucian’s body twisted violently, every bone breaking, his form ripped apart and slammed into the void itself. The platform under him shattered into dust. He screamed, voice torn raw.
Through the pain, through the fire in his veins, he pulled a Fold Step, snapping himself upright on another shard, one knee bent, blood dripping onto the glass ground. His hands shook. His jaw ached.
Still, his lips curled faintly. "If I’m your shadow... then you’re stuck with me."
Prime’s eyes glowed brighter, aura flaring until the void itself cracked. He raised both arms. The battlefield bent, gravity severing in a thousand directions, shards of stars colliding and exploding. The storm of time and space screamed, pulling Lucian into a hurricane of broken law.
Lucian’s body was shredded by the storm—skin torn, muscles ripped. His scream was drowned by the collapse. Prime walked through calmly, untouchable, his cloak dragging behind him like the night itself.
Lucian’s body dangled in the storm, broken, hanging by threads.
"Fall," Prime commanded.
But something inside him snapped back. His blood burned, his veins glowing faintly with golden light. His lips moved.
He pulled both arms wide.
The storm bent. The collapsing shards froze mid-motion. Time stuttered. The hurricane snapped inward around him, pulled into his palms until his body shook, bones straining. A black sun of spacetime burned between his hands, screaming with power.
Prime’s eyes flickered, just slightly. "Impossible."
Lucian roared. His voice cut through the void, raw and broken. "This—stays—with me!"
The black mass screamed forward, pulling everything into its orbit. Prime raised his arms to resist, but the collapse dragged even him a step backward, his aura flickering as fragments of stars shattered around him.
Lucian Fold Stepped through his own storm, appearing above Prime mid-collapse. Blood ran from his eyes, his nose, his mouth. His body was tearing itself apart.
But his hands came down.
[Chrono Break—Absolute.]
Time shattered. Prime’s body stuttered, slowed, bent against itself for a single heartbeat. That was all Lucian needed.
He slammed his palm into Prime’s chest.
A Rift Rend screamed point-blank, Collapse Form devouring through armor, skin, bone. Prime staggered, for the first time truly hurt. Violet-gold blood sprayed into the void, searing hot.
Lucian’s arm cracked from the recoil. His chest split. His body barely held.
Prime roared, voice like a thousand echoes. His hand grabbed Lucian’s throat, squeezing, lifting him into the air. His aura exploded outward, breaking time free of the lock.
"You think you’ve won?" Prime growled. His grip tightened. Lucian’s breath cut off, his body thrashing, black spots dancing in his vision.
Lucian coughed blood into his face. His lips pulled into a smile, faint and defiant. "Not... yet."
His free hand glowed faint gold.
Prime’s eyes widened.
Lucian twisted time itself—not to heal, not to run. To switch places.
In a blink, he stood where Prime had, and Prime now hung in his grip, his throat clamped by Lucian’s hand. His own trick, reversed.
Prime’s aura flared, but Lucian didn’t hesitate. He pulled space tighter, collapsing gravity until Prime’s body strained and cracked, violet blood spraying.
"You’re stronger," Lucian rasped, his body burning alive. "But I’m the one who endures."
He bent both space and time together.
A blade of distortion erupted from his palm, cutting straight through Prime’s core. The void screamed, reality splitting as Prime’s body convulsed.
Prime’s violet-gold eyes dimmed, then flared with rage. He roared, slamming both hands into Lucian’s chest, tearing the blade free, blasting him away.
Lucian’s body flew across the void, ribs shattering, lungs collapsing. He tumbled across shards, barely stopping himself on one knee. His vision dimmed, blood dripping freely.
Prime staggered, one hand pressed to his chest where the wound leaked light. His breath came heavy, uneven, his aura flickering. For the first time, he looked... strained.
"You..." Prime growled. "You shouldn’t exist."
Lucian spat blood onto the ground. "Neither should you."
They moved one last time.
Both bodies blurred into motion, Fold Stepping across collapsing stars. Their fists clashed, their palms ripped reality, their auras tore the void apart. Every blow shook the battlefield. Every strike bent time.
Lucian’s body broke again and again, but he kept moving. His Prime counterpart rewound wound after wound, but the strain deepened, aura flickering more violently.
At last, they stood face to face, bloodied, broken, both trembling.
Lucian’s lips curled. "This ends now."
Prime sneered. "Yes. With you gone."
They struck together.
Lucian poured everything—every fold, every collapse, every shred of time and space—into one final blow. Prime matched him, violet-gold aura burning brighter than suns.
Light erupted, swallowing everything.
Lucian dropped to one knee, gasping, his hand trembling. Across from him, Prime staggered, violet-gold blood spilling from the hole in his chest. His aura flickered, then broke apart, dissolving into the void.
His eyes—still Lucian’s—locked on him one last time. "...Shadow... no. Successor."
Then Prime’s form cracked, splintered into light, and collapsed into nothing.
Lucian stayed on his knees, blood dripping onto shattered ground, his breath ragged, body wrecked.
The system’s voice finally returned.
[Rank Advanced: XXX.]
[New Title Earned: Defier of Fate.]
[Skill Awakened: Spacetime Dominion.]
Lucian exhaled, a faint, broken laugh slipping out. "Finally."
His room on the Nova Sanctum surrounded him again—steel walls, dim lights pulsing faintly with the ship’s heartbeat. He was sprawled on the floor, cloak torn, chest heaving. Every muscle in his body screamed. Blood slicked his side, his knuckles split open, skin bruised and raw.
For a long moment, he didn’t move. He just lay there, staring at the ceiling, breath ragged. The silence was heavy.
Then the system’s faint glow hovered into view.
[Recommended Purchase: High-Grade Restoration Draught.]
Lucian let out a dry laugh that scraped his throat. "...Yeah. Bring it up."
The panel flickered, rows of items flashing past until the vial appeared—slim glass, swirling liquid inside glowing faint silver-blue. He bought it with a thought. The hum of points deducted whispered in his ears.
A shimmer in the air. The potion materialized in his palm. Cold glass against bloodied skin.
He popped the seal with his thumb and tilted it back.
The taste hit sharp—metal, bitter, then sweet enough to burn. The glow ran down his throat and spread instantly, a warm flood racing through veins, filling cracks in his bones, stitching torn muscles together. His chest eased, the ache in his ribs dulled, the fire in his nerves finally, mercifully, softened.
He leaned back against the wall, exhaling slow. His eyelids grew heavy, body sinking into the floor as the potion settled deeper, pulling him toward rest.
The system’s last whisper brushed his ears.
[Entering Rest State.]
Lucian closed his eyes. The last thing he felt was Kaelis’s faint shadow curling near him, the dragon’s watchful presence hovering.
And then, finally—he slept.
Like a man who had torn down gods and earned the right to breathe again.