[Important Note at the end]
The dust had finally settled.
Fragments of shattered simulants lay strewn across the broken cathedral floor. Scorched stone bore the scars of fire and lightning. Broken pews, half melted by Voidfire or split by phantom blades, lay like corpses around them. Some simulants smouldered, wisps of mana evaporating from their forms. Others lay eerily still glass like bodies cracked open, their hollow eyes empty. A few of the mirror versions still clung to life, groaning faintly before falling into silence.
Arthur's simulant had been devoured entirely, consumed by the feral hunger of his own Voidfire. Sasha's clone slumped in a pool of writhing shadow, unmoving. Only Dean's and Lia's simulants lingered at the edge of life, their breaths shallow before slipping into unconsciousness.
Silence pressed against the cathedral's ruined walls.
And Ryker stood in the center of it all.
His breath came ragged, the front of his robes scorched, cuts bleeding faintly across his arms. The battle had drained him not just physically, but something deeper. Something inside had stirred. And it hadn't settled.
"Sanctuary Veil," he murmured.
A flickering golden sigil expanded from his hand. The spell pushed outward like a heartbeat, a dome of light cascading over his team. Warmth embraced them knitting small wounds, slowing their racing pulses, calming the madness that still clung to the air.
Boom!!!
A distant rumble thundered overhead.
A large portion of the cathedral's roof gave way, collapsing in a cascade of debris. Chunks of stone plummeted down, echoing like war drums across the ruined sanctuary. Dust rose again, thick and choking.
But Ryker didn't flinch.
His eyes weren't on the rubble. Not on the simulants. Not even on the damage.
They were locked onto the space before the grand, cracked altar. A place that pulsed… wrong.
A flicker crossed his mind so fast it nearly escaped thought. A vision, or maybe a memory not his own.
A man.
Clad in white armor that shimmered like divine steel. He stood before a mirror. But the reflection?
It wasn't him.
The mirror showed someone else someone cloaked in black.
Someone who wore his face… but smiled without warmth.
Crack!!!
A migraine split through Ryker's skull.
His hand flew to his temple, steadying himself.
"Ryker?" Arthur's voice cut through the fog. "Hey, are you okay?"
Ryker blinked. The vision vanished like dust in wind. "Yeah... just lightheaded," he lied.
Arthur narrowed his eyes but said nothing.
Near the broken pillar, Lucas leaned against the stone, sparks of lightning still flickering off his arms. His breathing was shallow but steady.
"That was different," Lucas muttered. "They were stronger than they should been."
"They weren't just imitating us," Lia said softly. Her gaze was distant. "They were... perfect versions. Our peak selves"
"You think this was a test?" Sasha asked, emerging from the shadows. "Or a message?"
"Both," Lia replied. "They weren't just showing us who we are. They showed us who we could become or who we were supposed to be."
Ryker's fists clenched. That wasn't all. He knew it. Something in the simulation had peeled open a curtain inside him. And what he saw what he felt wasn't something that belonged in this world.
Who was that in the mirror?
The original Ryker?
Or something far worse?
Clang!!
The sound rang through the cathedral like a blade drawn across stone.
Every head snapped toward the noise.
And there hovering just above the shattered throne at the cathedral's heart stood a figure.
Tall.
Imposing.
Draped in flowing red robes that shimmered like corrupted code, glitching between fabric and raw data. The material didn't belong to this world. It was like the simulation couldn't decide whether it was real.
Its face was smooth, almost glass like. Not a mask but a featureless, expressionless visage etched with glowing crimson lines that pulsed like veins. Lines that shifted like they were alive.
It said nothing.
No one moved.
Because the figure hadn't just arrived.
It had been there before.
They all felt it now that presence, that pressure.
Watching.
Observing.
Hovering.
Waiting.
"I don't like this," Sasha muttered. Her daggers slid from her sleeves, bloodied and ready.
Dean stepped in front of the group, his shield rising instinctively. "Who the hell is that?"
The figure moved.
Just a hand.
Slow.
Graceful.
Terrifying.
Weapons came up. Ryker immediately began channeling mana, golden threads weaving into a defensive spell.
"Luminous Barrier," he whispered under his breath.
But the figure didn't attack.
Instead, it spoke.
Its voice was… broken.
Not by weakness but by multiplicity.
Male and female
Child and elder
Human and…something else entirely.
A corrupted choir in perfect disharmony.
"The Light fractures."
"The Shadow stirs."
"The balance…is breaking."
Dean growled. "What the hell does that mean?"
But the figure didn't stop.
"The Dissonant spark has not yet sung. But the melody begins anew."
Lia frowned. "Is this another layer of the simulation?"
Ryker didn't answer.
Because the words struck something in him.
The Dissonant spark.
His soul trembled at those words. A soundless echo rang inside him. He didn't know what it meant. Not logically. But something remembered.
Like a song from childhood. A memory too old to be his.
"Who are you?" Ryker asked.
The figure tilted its head. Slowly. Like it had waited centuries to be asked.
Then it whispered.
"You wear his name... but not his truth."
A pulse tore through Ryker.
A second vision stronger now.
A circle of cloaked figures chanting.
A mirror cracked in seven places.
A sword of radiant light buried in a bleeding sky.
A voice screaming his name.
His knees wobbled.
Lia reached for him. "Ryker…."
"I am fine" Ryker snapped, brushing her hand away. His voice shook.
Dean's stance tightened. "If this thing's the final boss, we can end it now."
"No," Ryker said, breathing hard. "This isn't part of the simulation."
Arthur stared at him. "Are you sure?"
He nodded. "It feels real."
The figure's mask pulsed, brighter than before. For a moment, the entire cathedral warped around. Pillars bent inward, stone twisted and the floor beneath them flickered like it was trying to remember reality.
Then the light dimmed.
The figure floated down, descending slowly until it hovered just inches above the shattered stone floor.
Its presence was suffocating.
"The melody calls… Let the dissonance ring true."
Then, it raised its hand.
Flames of shifting code erupted from its palm. It was unstable and chaotic. They didn't stick to one element. Fire, lightning, shadow and light, twisting in and out of each other like warring threads.
Ryker's heart pounded.
This wasn't just raw data.
This was something else.
Something sentient.
Something wrong.
"Luminous Barrier"
Ryker cast his ward, a golden dome forming over his team. It shimmered and cracked immediately, struggling to contain the sheer pressure this figure exuded simply by existing.
Arthur stepped beside him, his Voidfire roaring to life along his blade.
"We've come too far," Arthur said coldly, "to die now."
Lucas sparked with electricity, eyes blazing. Lia's flames curled up her arms, Sasha melted into the cathedral's broken corners and Dean braced his shield, grounded and unmoving.
Ryker looked at them all.
Bloodied.
Exhausted.
But standing.
Unyielding.
He turned to the figure.
Whatever this was. It had been tested them, judged them, pushed them.
Now?
Now it was their turn.
"We are ready," Ryker said, his voice unwavering.
The figure didn't reply.
Instead, it raised its hand again.
The air screamed as a tear split the space behind it. Glitches cracked across reality like lightning and the cathedral bent inward as if it could no longer hold the truth of what stood before them.
The world shifted.
And the final battle began.
[A/N: My grandpa died a day ago due to that I won't be able to update any chapters this month. I will be back within the first week of May. I hope you all will understand and thank you for reading my novel]