[Day Three — Awakening Chamber Ruins]
Smoke clung to the air like ash after a storm.
Kai leaned against the fractured wall, chest heaving. The sparring chamber — once pristine steel and glass — lay in ruins. Craters ripped through the flooring where Adaptive Luck had redirected probability like a mad god, saving him again and again.
But his hands still shook.
Because this wasn't victory.
It was survival. Barely.
His OmniBand pulsed faint gold, scrolling warnings across his vision.
[Omni-God Status Update:]
Tier: Zero Anomaly
Evolution Paths Active:
• Adaptive Luck [Tier-β]
• Neural Overclock [Tier-β]
Memory Bleed: 12% (Three anchor memories erased)
Branch Instability: Severe
Recommendation: Evacuate Branch-Zero Immediately.
Kai wiped blood from his lip, shaking his head.
"…Evacuate to where?"
[Catalyst Intervention Detected]
The mirrored fragments around him rippled, warping like liquid glass.
And then, Catalyst stepped out.
Not a projection.
Not a hallucination.
Catalyst Kai — Variant 017 — physically inside Branch-Zero.
His silver-blue eyes glimmered faintly, calm as an ocean under starlight.
"You're collapsing faster than expected," Catalyst said softly.
"Guess Omni-God really did pick wrong."
Kai stumbled backward, raising the OmniSpear defensively.
"Stay out of my branch."
Catalyst tilted his head.
"Your branch?" A faint smirk. "Kai, these aren't your timelines. They're mine."
[Omni-God Directive Alert]
Kai's HUD exploded with new warnings:
[Variant Kai Detected — Catalyst Synchronization: 68%.]
Status: Preferred Candidate
[Initiating Branch Convergence Event.]
Estimated Structural Integrity Loss: 97%.
[Branch Convergence Begins]
Reality screamed.
The ground splintered into shards of mirrored glass, each fragment flashing alternate versions of Kai's life — memories he didn't remember living:
One Kai crowned as an Omni-God warlord.
One Kai dead on an operating table, chest hollow.
One Kai holding Lyra's hand, smiling…
His breath hitched.
"…Who… is she?"
Catalyst stepped closer, placing his palm against one fragment.
The shard lit up, bending physics around his Origin Bloom.
"You're missing pieces, Kai. And Omni-God intends to keep it that way."
[Adaptive Luck Malfunction]
[Adaptive Luck Engaged.]
Probability Override: 152%.
Warning: Probability loops collapsing.
Outcome Error Detected.
Multiple simultaneous survival branches competing.
Kai stumbled as his body spasmed involuntarily.
Neural Overclock tried to compensate — too late.
Suddenly, the entire chamber split into two overlapping realities.
In one, Catalyst stood untouched.
In the other, Catalyst's spear pierced Kai's chest.
And then both timelines fused again, leaving them breathing the same air — unharmed, but frozen in shock.
[Glassborn Apex Protocol Activation]
A low vibration hummed beneath the floor, deep and guttural.
Kai's HUD blared violently:
[Omni-God Emergency Protocol:]
Branch Instability Threshold Breached.
Apex Predators Deployed: Glassborn Entities Active.
Survival Priority: Tier-Sigma Candidates Only.
Catalyst's expression finally shifted — faint annoyance.
"…They're early."
From the mirrored fracture above, something crawled out.
Its body was fluid, crystalline, teeth refracting light into a violent spectrum of red, violet, and cyan. A Glassborn Apex Entity — massive, silent, and wrong.
Its presence alone bent physics, distorting Kai's HUD into static.
[Variant Kill Order Issued]
[Omni-God Directive Override:]
Candidate Kai Veyren flagged as Rogue Anomaly.
Catalyst Kai authorized Variant Elimination Protocol.
Recommended Outcome: Terminate Kai Veyren to stabilize Branch-Zero.
Catalyst glanced at Kai without hesitation.
"Don't take it personally."
[Adaptive Luck Overdrive]
[Adaptive Luck Probability Override: 191%.]
Passive Limit Exceeded.
Event Chain: Catastrophic.
Before Catalyst's strike could land, the Glassborn entity lunged — not at Catalyst, but at Kai. Its mirrored limbs slashed through reality itself, tearing open a temporal bleed.
Kai dove instinctively, Neural Overclock igniting, movements sharper than physics should allow. He rolled beneath one mirrored claw, OmniSpear spinning upward into its crystalline core.
The spear shattered instantly.
The entity didn't bleed.
It screamed — not sound, but data fracturing.
[Catalyst's Power Revealed]
Catalyst moved faster than Kai's Neural Overclock could track. His Origin Bloom flared, threads of light bending like warped gravity. With one smooth gesture, he slashed through the Glassborn's limb — the entire room flickering between timelines as if rejecting the entity's existence.
"You're welcome," Catalyst murmured coldly.
Kai snarled, forcing himself upright.
"I didn't ask you to save me."
Catalyst glanced back, expression unreadable.
"I wasn't saving you. I was saving the branch."
[Singularity Collapse Warning]
Kai's HUD flashed violently:
[Branch-Zero Stability: 11%.]
Forced Divergence in 90 seconds.
Recommendation: Choose a survival path.
Three glyphs unfurled across his vision, glowing faint gold:
[Available Evolution Path Expansion:]
• Reality Anchor — Stabilizes one branch (cost: 2 memories)
• Quantum Phase Shift — Split timelines temporarily (cost: 10% Neural Integrity)
• Blind Divergence — Relocate beyond Omni-God's scan (cost: Unknown)
Catalyst watched him choose, silent.
[Volume 4 Closing Scene]
Kai slammed his palm down on Quantum Phase Shift.
[Evolution Installed.]
Neural Integrity Reduced: -10%.
Temporal Fracture Initiated.
The chamber shattered.
Kai was everywhere at once — a thousand mirrored selves scattered across colliding branches.
In one, he killed Catalyst.
In another, Catalyst killed him.
In another, Lyra stood alive, smiling faintly…
And Omni-God's voice whispered, fractured, cold:
"One branch survives. The rest burn."