The shadow's hand still lingered in Je's mind, though it had dissolved into nothingness when he chose.
Yet the silence it left behind was heavier than any battle.
The System flickered again, not with commands or quests — but with a mirror.
Not glass.
Not metal.
A reflection woven from fragments of forgotten time.
Je stared into it and saw… himself.
But not as he was.
He saw himself with eyes that burned like collapsing stars, skin etched in runes that pulsed with hunger. A thousand wings of ash and bone stretched from his back, devouring entire constellations in silence.
And yet… another vision followed.
Himself, bound in chains of light.
Kneeling, unmoving, as countless shadows laughed.
The Devourer silenced. The Infinite broken.
Both futures glared back at him, shimmering in the void like a cruel riddle.
The System's voice, cold and detached, whispered:
— [Choice Recorded. Outcome Pending. The Devourer must know hunger is not strength, but destiny unfulfilled.]
The mirror shattered.
And with its collapse, the fissure behind Je began to close — sealing not just the voices of failed Devourers, but the promise that his own end might one day join theirs.
Je clenched his fists. He no longer feared the whispers.
But deep down, he feared the reflection.
Because it was not a vision.
It was a warning.
---