The moment they returned from the Vault of Reflections, the Mirrorrealm sealed itself shut.
Zhen stood in silence before the now-frozen crystalline pathway, heart still echoing with the Architect's voice.
> "A ranker must rise who can defy the order I created."
He had heard it in his bones more than his ears—a message from a being that stood outside all things, who once built the System Zhen was bound to.
Yet behind that knowledge lay something colder.
Something darker.
Yue Lian approached, her hair trailing like smoke in the mirror-lit air. "You saw too much," she said softly. "And the realm sees you differently now."
"Let it," Zhen replied. "If it fears the truth, it shouldn't have left it behind."
Yue Lian sighed. "You'll learn that not all truths are meant to be borne. Some are weapons. Others, prisons."
He turned to her. "Then I'll turn mine into a key."
---
✦ Back Through the Gate
When they exited the Mirrorrealm, the multiversal skies beyond were…different.
Cracked.
Not visibly—but subtly, as though the fabric of spacetime was a bit more tense, more aware of them.
Zhen immediately sensed the shift in his core. The System interface glitched slightly as he materialized outside the dimensional veil.
> [System Update:]
Alignment: Partial Architect Signature Recognized
Rank Advancement Path: Modified
Warning: Multiversal Surveillance Detected
Quest Updated:
➤ Path of Defiance (Mythic Quest Chain)
Objective: Uncover the purpose of the Sovereign Hunters
Reward: ???
[A hidden skill branch is now accessible]
Zhen narrowed his eyes.
"Something's watching," he murmured.
Yue Lian didn't speak. Instead, she lifted her gaze to the stars—and for the first time, they moved.
Not metaphorically. Literally.
The constellations shifted like clockwork, rearranging themselves into new patterns. This was not Zhen's universe. Not anymore.
---
✦ The Jade Envoy
They descended toward a floating palace fragment hovering over a world-scar. Below, the ground shimmered with lingering cosmic damage—evidence of some ancient battle.
Waiting at the edge was a figure in pale green robes, his face veiled, hands folded respectfully. He stood alone, but Zhen could feel layers of formation energy swirling around him—power hidden so deeply it felt like staring into a still lake hiding leviathans.
The man bowed deeply.
"Zhen of the Ascending Blade. Yue Lian of the Shattered Memory. You have crossed thresholds few dare to name. I am Envoy Jin of the Jade Seat."
Zhen inclined his head. "Are you here to stop us?"
"No," Jin said. "I am here to offer a message... and a warning."
He extended a scroll—crafted from woven qi-strands, pulsing faintly with ancient energy. "The Sovereign Code has been breached. A ranker has awakened outside the chain of dimensions."
Yue Lian stiffened. "Impossible. The system enforces dimensional isolation."
"Not anymore," Jin said, gravely. "The breach is caused by a Living Paradox. One whose existence destabilizes the multiversal hierarchy."
Zhen's heart pounded. "You're talking about me."
Jin didn't answer directly.
Instead, he unfurled the scroll.
On its surface danced a sigil—one Zhen had seen once before, etched into his weapon during his first awakening.
> Ranker Zero
Yue Lian inhaled sharply. "That rank... hasn't been used since the Architect Era."
Jin nodded. "Because you were never meant to exist. But now... all Sovereign Orders have taken notice."
Zhen stared down at his hands.
"They'll come for me, won't they?"
Jin looked him in the eyes.
"They already are."
---
✦ A Choice of Realms
After Jin departed, leaving them with nothing but the cryptic scroll and a sense of impending collision, Yue Lian guided Zhen to an ancient portal nexus hidden beneath a half-collapsed temple floating over a storm-torn dimension.
Dozens of realm gates buzzed faintly, each pulsing with different world-signatures—fire worlds, time-broken ruins, sealed training domains, living labyrinths.
"This," Yue Lian said, "is where you choose the next step."
Zhen looked at the gates.
Each gate was labeled not with names, but rank challenges:
Trial of the Golden Fang (Combat Ranking)
Trial of Eternal Return (Time Paradox Ranking)
Trial of the Ninefold Dream (Spiritual Will Ranking)
Trial of the Void Choir (Multiversal Harmony Ranking)
Some of the names meant little to him, but the System flashed a warning:
> Choose wisely. Your next Realm Trial will shape not just your growth—but your destiny tree.
Yue Lian pointed to the Trial of Eternal Return gate, glowing softly with pale blue runes.
"This one is dangerous," she said. "But it may help you unlock the next tier of your core. It also… reveals fragments of yourself that haven't yet existed."
Zhen hesitated.
"Which gate would you choose?" he asked.
Yue Lian didn't look away. "I already chose. Long ago. And it cost me everything."
Zhen stepped toward the Trial of Eternal Return.
Then stopped.
"No," he said. "I'll take two trials. At once."
Yue Lian blinked. "That's suicide."
Zhen smiled. "Or exactly what the System never expected."
He placed one hand on Void Choir, and the other on Eternal Return.
The gates trembled.
The runes rebelled.
And the multiverse opened in protest.
✦ Dual Realms Initiated
As Zhen's hands made contact with both gates, reality screamed.
Not in sound—but in concept.
Threads of causality twisted. Law runes around the gate fractaled and rewrote themselves in real time. The two trials, never meant to be undertaken together, began colliding. Systems flared, crashed, and rebooted across dimensions.
> [System Critical Alert:]
Unauthorized Dual Trial Initiated
Conflict Detected between Realm Nodes [Choir-67α] and [Return-13λ]
Synchronizing...
…
Synchronization Success (42.3%)
Generating Hybrid Trial Instance:
➤ "Choir of the Echoed Self"
Warning: Survival Probability < 2.1%
Zhen was already being pulled in.
Not teleported—disassembled. Pulled apart across time and layered through dimensional harmonics. His consciousness blurred into echoes, timelines overlapping with memories that hadn't yet happened.
In a flickering moment, he saw:
A version of himself kneeling in a shattered realm, blade broken.
Another—crowned in black flame, stepping over ruined worlds.
A child Zhen, watching his mother vanish behind a collapsing door.
A future Zhen, standing alone on a throne of silver bones.
Then silence.
---
✦ The Choir Begins
He awoke in a cathedral.
Not of stone, but sound.
The walls pulsed with hymns sung in forgotten tongues. Every step echoed not from the ground—but from somewhere deeper: the soul.
Zhen stood alone in a chamber of lightless mirrors, each reflecting a different version of himself.
A voice spoke—not aloud, but from the surrounding harmonics.
> "To rise beyond the System, you must confront the dissonance within. Your echoes have grown too loud."
Before him appeared seven figures—versions of himself drawn from alternate timelines:
The Tyrant: Crowned and cruel, bearing a blade of molten stars.
The Martyr: Bleeding endlessly, his body cracked with runic chains.
The Hermit: Eyes closed, meditating atop a floating stone of silence.
The Devourer: Laughing wildly, devouring the System UI interface itself.
The Child: Lost and crying, holding a wooden training sword.
The Betrayer: Clad in Yue Lian's bloodstained robes.
The Forgotten: Faceless, flickering in and out of existence.
Zhen raised his blade.
"I am not you."
The Tyrant stepped forward. "No. But we are what you could become."
---
✦ Trial of Echoes
Each Echo charged.
But this was no ordinary combat.
Each strike was layered with memory attacks—flashes of choices he might've made, regrets he'd buried, and the weight of destinies he'd defied.
The Martyr slashed at him with guilt. The Child cried out for a mother Zhen couldn't save. The Betrayer whispered Yue Lian's name as she died over and over.
But in the storm of identity, Zhen found clarity.
He wasn't meant to choose one version.
He was meant to transcend them all.
He planted his feet, raised his weapon—not of steel, but Will, forged in Mirrorrealm truths—and roared:
> "I am the convergence. I do not kneel to paths already walked. I walk the void and rewrite the score."
In response, the cathedral sang.
Not a hymn of gods, but of mortals defying limits.
The mirrors shattered.
The echoes screamed.
And the realm folded around him—
---
✦ Trial Passed: Fragmented Harmony
> [System Notice:]
Trial "Choir of the Echoed Self" Completed
Status: PASS
Rewards Unlocked:
➤ Unique Skill: [Concord of Infinite Will] – Allows fusion of conflicting abilities across timelines.
➤ Trait Acquired: [Multiversal Anchor] – Grants partial immunity to timeline erasure and identity overwrite.
➤ Secret Title: [Echoborn Sovereign]
But that wasn't all.
Another notification pinged.
> [Hidden Mechanism Detected…]
Architect Memory Seal Weakening (18%)
Projection Available: Would you like to access a fragment of Architect Consciousness?
Zhen hesitated only a moment.
"Yes."
The world around him dimmed.
A fragment of golden light appeared—a radiant figure seated upon a throne that existed across all possible dimensions, its face obscured by shifting geometries.
It turned its unseen gaze toward him.
> "So you've begun to remember."
Zhen took a step forward, steady.
"I'm not done."
The Architect fragment nodded.
> "Then prepare, Ranker Zero. The Sovereign Orders move to erase you from before you ever were."