The city had begun to settle, but Kael knew better. The fractured streets still hummed with unstable energy, threads of possibility stretching invisibly between realities. Each step he took made the ground ripple as if the world itself were holding its breath.
Aris hovered nearby, staff glowing faintly. "You handled yourself well, but you only glimpsed a fraction of what your threads can do. Every fight awakens more, and some threads… are dangerous even to you."
Kael's hands trembled. "I can't even see them all. How am I supposed to control what I can't even touch?"
Aris's eyes glimmered. "You don't have to see everything. You have to feel it."
Before Kael could ask what that meant, a sudden pulse shattered the air. Reality bent again. Shards of a new world appeared above them: jagged floating islands where rivers of molten silver poured into the void. On one island, creatures with four arms, semi-transparent skin, and eyes that rotated like gears stalked a figure identical to Kael. On another, a cosmic stag leapt across broken gravity planes, antlers radiating threads that seemed to tug at Kael's own.
Kael's threads quivered. Something deep inside him responded, a melody of possibilities he had never felt before.
"Threads are alive," Aris said quietly, almost to himself. "They connect you to every potential you've ever had, every you that could exist. If you ignore them, they become hostile… or worse, they merge into something you can't fight."
From the largest fissure in the street, three new clones emerged. One shimmered like liquid glass, reflecting the fractured cityscape in distorted angles. Another seemed almost invisible, only outlined by faint ripples in the air. The last had jagged cracks across his skin, glowing faintly with energy that bent light around him.
Kael realized instinctively that these weren't just clones—they were manifestations of his choices, the lives he might lead if he acted differently.
"Do not engage them like enemies," Aris warned. "They will mimic you, yes—but they are part of your power now. If you synchronize them… you can fight across multiple timelines at once."
The invisible clone darted first, phasing through the air, striking with threads that flickered as if alive. Kael barely deflected the attack, feeling the energy pierce through his chest. A jolt surged from his core and his threads glowed, wrapping around the invisible clone like a living net. The clone's form wavered, slowed, and for the first time, Kael sensed it reacting to his intent rather than its own.
The glass clone mirrored Kael's movements, but he noticed its attacks were exaggerated, almost theatrical—fires erupting from palms, shards of crystallized energy slicing through the rifts. Kael focused, sending pulses of threads into the clone, and it staggered, its movements syncing perfectly with his own.
Above, the cosmic stag landed, hooves tearing through reality. Threads extended instinctively from Kael, wrapping around the stag's glowing antlers, creating a bridge between timelines. He realized he could now pull allies and enemies alike through threads, bending time and space to his will—but it required precision, and every misstep threatened to collapse the fragile rifts.
The jagged clone charged last, wielding weapons made entirely of condensed time. Kael dodged, his chest burning as threads flared uncontrollably. For a moment, the world wobbled, streets folding over themselves, and he glimpsed dozens of alternate realities overlapping—crystal forests, liquid rivers, molten skies, and dreamlike cities with impossible architecture.
Kael acted. With a pulse of will, he synchronized the three clones, the cosmic stag, and his own threads. Energy radiated outward, wrapping all enemies in a woven net of temporal threads. The jagged clone's weapon shattered. The stag froze mid-leap. The invisible clone blinked, caught in a loop of Kael's intent.
For a heartbeat, silence. The shards of fractured worlds shimmered, stabilizing. Kael gasped, chest heaving, as the threads hummed like living things.
Aris landed beside him. "This is only the beginning. Every fight will expand your threads further, awaken fragments you cannot yet comprehend. You are becoming… something more than yourself."
Kael stared at the fissures. From one, a humanoid figure stepped out, taller than any human, covered in swirling cosmic markings, eyes like black stars. Threads quivered violently inside Kael.
"Not… another one," he muttered.