Brant knew before the Wheel spun that something was wrong.
He was already shaking. Not from fear, not entirely. From something deeper. A sickness in the soul that came when you realized the system had measured you and found you lacking.
But he spun anyway.
---
Lucia and Saylor stood a platform away, watching. The platform was narrow, shaped like a broken key, suspended over a yawning drop of static fog.
The Wheel didn't spin with a click this time. It spun with a shudder.
A sound like metal scraping across a tombstone.
And then it stopped.
---
> [TICKET: REPLICANT SPIN ACCEPTED] [ABILITY ISSUED: REFLECTIVE BIND]
Brant gasped.
Chains erupted from the ground around him—twisted, twitching. They lashed out in perfect mimicry of Saylor's Dustroot Bind.
But instead of anchoring the terrain, they anchored him.
Every time he moved, the binds pulled tighter. The system had given him power—but with it, it had mirrored his fears.
Saylor stepped forward.
"It copied my tether, but inverted the link. It's feeding on his intent."
Lucia's eyes narrowed. "Then what's the anchor?"
Saylor glanced at the Wheel.
"His own reflection."
---
A pulse echoed through the Field.
A second Brant formed across from the first.
Not quite a clone. Not quite a ghost.
A mirror.
It moved backward when Brant stepped forward. It raised its fists when Brant lowered his own. A recursive reflection stitched from unresolved cycles.
> [SYSTEM MESSAGE: REFLECTION ENTITY ACTIVE] [BRANT_R INITIALIZED]
Lucia grabbed her chain. "That thing's going to consume him."
"No," Saylor said. "Worse. It's going to overwrite him."
---
The battle erupted without a signal.
Brant charged. His clone shimmered and snapped forward at the exact inverse angle. Their fists collided. For a heartbeat, both existed.
Then the mirror staggered—but so did Brant.
Every blow shared. Every injury doubled.
> [RECURSION MIRROR STABILITY: 93%]
Saylor activated Mimetic Thread. He tethered to the platform and blinked behind the clone, striking low with a memory-fused elbow.
The clone spasmed, then twisted—repeating Saylor's own move backward.
It didn't just copy Brant. It was starting to copy everyone.
---
Lucia released her chain.
She used her new ability: Temporal Anchor. A light flared beneath Brant's feet.
> [TEMPORAL STABILITY ZONE: 10 SECONDS]
Brant's reflection flickered.
He broke the tether. For just a second.
"Saylor! Now!"
Saylor invoked Reverent Link.
> [MEMORY FRAGMENT: TAELRIN — DEFIER]
The air split.
A voice echoed from the past:
> "You are not your echo. You are your defiance."
Saylor charged and struck the clone with a tether loop that reversed its own movement.
> [REFLECTION ENTITY ERROR: CYCLE OVERWRITE FAILED]
The mirror shattered.
Brant dropped to his knees.
---
The Wheel pulsed.
But did not spin.
> [SPIN DENIED — ENTITY CANNOT BE RENDERED] [RECURSIVE ERROR CODE: DELTA-REFLECT]
Brant looked at his hands.
"What did it mean?"
Saylor looked at the sky.
"It meant you're not a player anymore. You're a residue."
Lucia grabbed him. "That doesn't mean you're lost. We anchor you. We move forward."
Saylor nodded slowly.
"Then we move. Because the next god—"
The sky cracked.
The Field screamed.
And the god didn't descend.
It rose.