CHAPTER 22 — "AFTERMATH OF BROKEN DIMENSIONS"
Silence followed the war.
Not peace—never peace—but a hollow quiet that rang louder than screams.
The basement no longer looked like a battlefield between dimensions. The towering portals were gone. The demon blood evaporated into black mist. Cracked stone floors slowly stitched themselves back together as if reality itself was ashamed of what had happened here.
Adrian lay on his back, staring at the ceiling that was no longer a ceiling—just a gray void fading into solid concrete again. Every breath felt heavy. His body burned from the inside, veins still glowing faintly from the power he had absorbed and released.
Adriana knelt beside him, gripping his shoulder.
"Hey," she said sharply. "Stay with me. Don't you dare black out now."
Adrian exhaled a shaky laugh. "You always say that… like it actually works."
She didn't smile.
Her crimson energy had faded, but traces of it still crawled faintly along her whip, which lay coiled beside her like a resting serpent. Her hands trembled—not from exhaustion, but from the weight of what she had just witnessed.
Ten versions of themselves.
Ten destinies.
All gone now.
Adrian slowly sat up, wincing. "They're… really gone."
Adriana nodded. "Back to their dimensions."
She hesitated. "Or… whatever's left of them."
The thought lingered between them like smoke.
Adrian pushed himself to his feet. The moment he stood, the room reacted—lights flickered, shadows bent unnaturally toward him. The power he had briefly held hadn't fully left.
Something inside him had changed.
"You felt it too, didn't you?" Adriana asked quietly.
He nodded.
"Asmodra didn't die," he said. "She retreated. That wasn't a defeat—that was a warning."
Adriana clenched her jaw. "She called us keys."
The word echoed in Adrian's head again.
Keys are meant to open doors.
Before he could respond, the ground beneath them shuddered.
A deep, resonant vibration pulsed through the basement, like a heartbeat echoing through stone.
Adriana snapped to attention. "That's not her."
"No," Adrian agreed. "That's something else."
A section of the far wall collapsed inward with a thunderous crash. Dust and debris filled the air, and through it stepped a tall silhouette wrapped in layered black armor etched with glowing red runes.
Not a demon.
Not human either.
His helmet split open down the center, revealing cold gray skin and eyes glowing amber-orange.
An Elite Warrior.
The twins froze.
Adrian felt the pressure instantly—this presence was nothing like the mindless demons they'd slaughtered before. This was controlled. Refined. Deadly.
The warrior lowered his massive blade, its edge humming with compressed hell-energy.
"So," he said, voice calm and contemptuous, "this is the timeline where the twins survived."
Adriana's whip ignited instantly. "Identify yourself."
The Elite chuckled softly. "Names no longer matter. But you may call me Kaelzor—Third Elite of the Dominion."
Adrian's blood ran cold.
Third.
That meant two before him.
And nine after.
Kaelzor studied them like specimens. "Queen Asmodra underestimated you. A common mistake."
Adrian stepped forward, shadows curling around his fists. "Then tell your queen to try harder."
Kaelzor's eyes flicked briefly to Adrian's chest, where faint remnants of dimensional energy still glimmered.
"…Interesting," he murmured. "You absorbed multiple echoes and survived. That alone should have torn your soul apart."
Adriana snapped, "What do you want?"
Kaelzor lifted his blade slightly—not in attack, but in acknowledgment.
"To observe," he said. "And to deliver a message."
The runes on his armor pulsed.
"The illusion you believed was Season One's ending," he continued, "was merely a veil. A test designed to see how you'd respond to despair, loss, and overwhelming power."
Adrian's fists clenched. "So Rin… the silhouette… the chaos—"
"Manufactured," Kaelzor said calmly. "Except for the alternates. Those were… complications."
Adriana's eyes widened. "You used entire dimensions as bait?"
Kaelzor shrugged. "Survival of relevance."
Adrian took another step forward, rage coiling inside him. "And Asmodra?"
Kaelzor smiled behind his helmet. "A queen… yes. But not the queen."
The words hit like a hammer.
"There are layers," Kaelzor continued. "Asmodra is a sovereign of dominion war. Above her are architects. Strategists. Entities that do not rule through force, but through inevitability."
Adriana whispered, "How many?"
Kaelzor turned away, already stepping back into the shadows.
"Twelve Elites," he said. "You've met one. Wounded another. You've drawn attention."
He paused.
"And attention is fatal."
The shadows swallowed him.
The pressure vanished instantly.
The basement was silent again.
Adriana let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. "Third Elite… and he didn't even fight."
Adrian stared at the spot where Kaelzor had disappeared.
"He didn't need to," Adrian said. "That was a warning shot."
Adriana looked at him. "What now?"
Adrian closed his eyes.
Images flashed behind his lids—alternate worlds collapsing, Asmodra's smile, Kaelzor's calm certainty.
"We train," he said. "Harder than before."
She nodded slowly. "And if the rest of the Elites come?"
Adrian opened his eyes, shadows burning brighter than ever.
"Then we stop reacting," he said.
"And start hunting."
Above them, far beyond the school, something ancient shifted in the dark.
The call had been answered.
Now the war was listening.
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