When Je awoke, there was no floor beneath him — only an infinite expanse of broken glass, each shard reflecting a different version of himself.
Some were older. Some were dead.
Some were not… human.
[System Recovery at 43%…]
[Warning: Entity Trace Detected.]
He staggered forward. His reflection in the nearest shard spoke without moving its mouth:
> "You've already been chosen."
The words crawled beneath his skin like insects.
"You're just my imagination," Je whispered, but the shard shattered… and the voice remained.
A distant tolling — a bell that did not belong to this reality — rang once, twice, thrice. Each strike made the shards tremble, spilling flickers of fire, ocean, and void into the air.
[System Message: Do not answer the third call.]
But Je had already turned toward the sound.
---