Darkness.
But not ordinary darkness.
This was emptiness that was aware of itself.
A void so profound that even the system couldn’t define it.
This place—was neither hell, nor heaven, nor the world.
It was: The Transcendental Space, the final arena that appears only when existence begins to reject its own reality.
---
Lucian stood amidst the swirling nothingness.
No wind blew. Time did not move.
But something was watching—something without form, without a name.
---
╔════════════════════════════════════╗
[VOID PROTOCOL ACTIVATED]
[Unstable Identity: Self-Fragmentation Reaches 93%]
[Void Protocol: Execute the Final Version of Yourself]
╚════════════════════════════════════╝
---
"Is this... the final battle?"
No.
This was not a battle to win—but a test to become whole.
---
Then, a voice emerged.
"Lucian... why did you never cry?"
The voice wasn’t an enemy.
Not the system.
Not a shadow.
It was a voice he had nearly forgotten.
His mother’s voice.
---
But the voice faded—swallowed by the echo of an alien force.
And from the vortex of the void came the Void Protocol:
An entity without face, without voice—yet it echoed in his mind like a broken god.
"You wished for a perfect system, Lucian?"
"Then you must destroy your final self."
---
╔════════════════════════════════════╗
[ULTIMATE CHOICE UNLOCKED]
A. Dominate Emotion (Risk: Permanent Loss of Rationality)
B. Dominate Rationality(Risk: Permanent Loss of Emotion)
C. Dominate the True Self (Risk: You Will Never Be the Same Again)
╚════════════════════════════════════╝
---
Lucian gave a small smile.
"Choices? None of them are fair."
"But fairness... was never a requirement for victory."
---
The Void Protocol roared.
"Who are you, to challenge the system itself?"
Lucian raised his head—his blood-red eyes gleaming like the final star before the end of the world.
"I am Lucian Veylor."
"And if I was not born to sit on this throne—"
"—then I will build it myself, from the ruins of every possibility I refused!"
---
The sky of the soul-dimension cracked.
Soundless lightning struck memories.
Fragments of the past manifested as spears of emotion, blades of pain, and daggers of betrayal.
Lucian seized one:
The memory of being dragged into the abyss by his own father.
He twisted it—shaping it into a weapon of judgment—and hurled it at the Void Protocol.
---
Explosion.
Fractures.
The Void Protocol screamed in silence.
"Pain is not weakness. It is my identity."
"Because only I can bear it all—and still choose to stand."
---
╔════════════════════════════════════╗
[System: Identity Balance Collapsing]
[Dominant Identity: Lucian Veylor Established]
[Secret Option Unlocked: Absolute Transcendence]
╚════════════════════════════════════╝
---
But the system issued one final warning:
"To choose transcendence is to erase your deepest emotions in exchange for power stability."
"Are you certain?"
---
Lucian closed his eyes.
And in that final moment... he heard a faint whisper, distant, barely real—perhaps just a dream:
"Don’t forget... who once loved you."
---
He opened his eyes.
Eyes that no longer mirrored a human being.
"If the world gave me no place to sit on the throne—"
"—then I will forge a world that knows only me as its supreme law."
---
"I am Lucian Veylor."
"And from this moment—I am no longer part of any system."
"It is the system... that must now adapt to me."
---
TO BE CONTINUED...