The underground chamber was darker than expected. No ambient light filtered in through cracks or hidden panels—just an oppressive void of pitch-black silence that seemed to press down on Lucien's shoulders like a shroud.
Yet, he wasn't alone.
A soft whisper cut through the dark.
"You weren't supposed to survive the Blood Trial."
Lucien didn't flinch. He recognized that voice. Smooth. Cold. Calculated.
"Professor Kael," Lucien said, his voice echoing slightly. "So it was you."
A faint glow flickered ahead. A tall man emerged from the shadows, his robes trimmed in gold thread, eyes like smoldering coal. His presence alone seemed to manipulate the air pressure in the room.
Kael smiled thinly. "I told them the prototype Ascension Core would break you. But then again, I underestimated you—just like everyone else."
Lucien stepped forward. "You knew what would happen if you exposed me to that corrupted system. I felt it... trying to rewrite my soul."
"You survived," Kael said flatly, "which makes you more valuable than ever."
"No, it makes me a threat."
Lucien's fists tightened at his sides. The Core had evolved within him—not just integrated, but awakened something primal. Something not even the Council could quantify.
Kael began to pace slowly around a stone dais at the center of the chamber. On it lay a body—still, unmoving. Lucien's breath hitched. The face was familiar.
His own.
Cloned. Or… reconstructed?
"What the hell is this?" Lucien demanded.
Kael gestured calmly. "Insurance. The Order has always maintained contingencies. You are powerful, but unpredictable. What if you defect? What if you break?"
Lucien's heartbeat pounded in his ears. "So you made a spare?"
Kael's expression didn't change. "We didn't make you, Lucien. We revealed you. The original Ascension Protocol was never meant to create power. It was meant to unseal it. You are not the only one."
The words struck like a hammer.
Lucien stumbled back a step. "There are more?"
Kael nodded. "Seven candidates. You are Prototype IV. Each one activated under different planetary alignments. You—however—are the first to reach Phase Three without psychological collapse."
Lucien's memories surged like a flood. The dreams. The echoes. The sensation that his thoughts were never entirely his own.
"You played god," Lucien growled.
"No," Kael replied. "We played historian. You are a relic. A construct from a forgotten war, long before this world reset itself. We merely peeled back the layers."
"Then you don't understand me at all."
Lucien summoned his system interface. The panels shimmered to life around him, radiant blue light filling the darkness.
[PHASE 3 ACTIVE: CORE SYNC 98.6%][WARNING: System Data Conflict Detected][Override Option Enabled]
Kael stepped back. "You're attempting a manual override? That would destroy you."
"Maybe," Lucien said, "or maybe it'll free me."
A second later, the room shuddered.
The clone on the dais spasmed violently, veins glowing red beneath its pale skin. The chamber's walls groaned with ancient mechanisms sparking to life.
[CONFLICT RESOLUTION INITIATED][Synchronizing Dual Cores…][WARNING: Identity Displacement Detected][Willpower Threshold Test Initiated]
Lucien grit his teeth. Pain shot through his spine like molten fire. The system was trying to split him. Two entities—one born of flesh, one forged from data.
But Lucien didn't run.
"I am not your weapon. I'm not a contingency. I am the one who ends this cycle."
Kael's eyes widened for the first time. "You're fusing both cores? That's suicide!"
Lucien roared.
His aura exploded outward, hurling Kael into the far wall. The system's notifications turned red, then pure white.
[Dual Core Integration… COMPLETE][New Protocol Unlocked: Sovereign Rebirth][Warning: Unstable Evolution Path — No Precedent Recorded][Title Acquired: The Paradox Incarnate]
Lucien fell to one knee, gasping, sweat pouring down his face—but the energy coursing through him was unlike anything he'd known.
It wasn't just power. It was memory.
Forgotten wars. Broken worlds. The scream of a sun devoured by entropy.
And through it all, a symbol: the same fractal sigil that had haunted his dreams.
He looked up at Kael, who was struggling to rise, his face twisted in awe and terror.
"You weren't supposed to reach this level," Kael said hoarsely.
Lucien rose to his feet. His eyes glowed—not gold, not blue, but something deeper. An impossible spectrum.
"No one is supposed to reach this," Lucien replied, "but someone had to."
"And now that I have… I'll choose what happens next."
Kael began to laugh bitterly. "You still don't get it. The Sovereign Protocol was locked for a reason. You're tampering with creation's last defense mechanism."
"Then I'll rewrite it," Lucien said.
"Not with anger. Not for revenge. But because someone has to break the chains."
From above, the chamber ceiling cracked. Light burst through the cracks—sunlight, real and raw. The chamber was not underground. It was beneath the ruins of the First Tower.
Lucien stepped toward the light, every footstep disintegrating the data fragments of the fake Lucien behind him.
One step at a time, he rose from the grave the world had prepared for him.
And ascended again.