CHAPTER 58: THE GODLESS STIR

The chamber screamed.

It wasn’t sound—it was existence folding in on itself. A thousand timelines combusted simultaneously. Future, past, and present warred for dominance, and the Godless emerged from the folds like nightmares given permission.

Shapes that defied reason loomed overhead. One had no face—just a ring of open mouths weeping flame. Another resembled a cathedral with wings made of ash. Dozens more formed in the black light above the spiral nexus, where Alex—Valerian’s original self—stood with arms outstretched.

He wasn’t afraid. He welcomed them.

"Do you feel it?" Alex whispered, eyes locked with Valerian’s. "This is what we were born for."

Kael stepped forward, blade crackling in defiance. "You call that birth? Looks like death to me."

"No," Alex replied. "This is freedom from the system. Freedom from cycles. The Godless are entropy—pure will. No more resets. No more fate."

Valerian’s heart thundered. The system was silent now, frozen. Frightened.

Selene conjured glyphs midair, but they flickered, distorted by the unstable flow of time around them.

"Nothing’s anchoring reality anymore," she murmured. "The rules are breaking."

Alex raised a hand—and the void around them twisted.

From the spiral floor surged replicas. Dozens of Valerians. Some with hollow eyes. Others wearing crowns of bone or draped in robes of divine fire. Failed versions. Broken attempts. Echoes from timelines aborted before birth.

Lira gasped. "Those are... you."

Alex’s voice echoed across the spiraling void. "Every version I ever was. Every version I abandoned. They remember. They hate me. And they hate you."

Valerian drew his blade, his knuckles white.

"They can hate me. But they’re not me. I didn’t break—I changed."

Kael shouted, "Brace yourselves!"

The replicas charged.

One reached Valerian first—eyes black, mouth sewn shut, dual blades glowing with red light. Valerian blocked a cross-slash and spun, severing the replica’s arm. It dissolved into glass, screaming as it shattered.

Kael met two at once, his thunder-infused blade erupting with a shockwave that knocked both off the spiraling path.

Selene hovered midair, weaving spell upon spell—golden serpents of flame coiling around her as she screamed a word of unmaking. "AETHERON!"

A glyph exploded, taking three replicas with it.

But more kept coming.

Each one different. Each one uniquely dangerous.

One replica wielded pure corruption—a black fog that disintegrated the very stone beneath it. Lira intercepted it, dancing between shadows, cutting a line through its torso with her blood-coated dagger.

Still they came.

Still the Godless watched.

Alex stood in their center, untouched, as if this were just prologue.

Valerian locked blades with another him—this one silent, with gray, dead eyes. But as they fought, something clicked.

Each replica moved like a memory. Predictable. Familiar.

"They’re all bound to choices I never made," Valerian muttered. "But they don’t evolve."

He leapt, driving his blade into the skull of one wearing royal armor.

[CRITICAL STRIKE: TIMELINE REJECTION COMPLETE.]

[Data Integration Successful.]

A surge of understanding hit him. That version... had been a king. Merciless. Loved by none. Hated by all.

Valerian turned. "The more I kill, the more I absorb."

Selene nodded quickly. "Then devour them all, Valerian. End every version of yourself that failed!"

Kael laughed as he shoulder-slammed a replica off the ledge. "That’s a hell of a therapy session."

One after another, Valerian fought them.

The system flickered to life—unstable, glitching.

[NEW PATHWAY UNLOCKED: BLOODLINE ASCENSION]

[WARNING: LEVEL CAP REMOVED.]

Valerian’s aura exploded outward.

Black and crimson energy flooded the chamber, coiling around his blade, his eyes blazing with a light that belonged to none of his predecessors.

The Godless stirred.

One moved—a being of burning time and reversed light. It descended toward him, claws outstretched, not to kill—but to assimilate.

Selene screamed. "VALERIAN!"

Too late.

The Godless touched him.

And Valerian sank.

---

He wasn’t in the chamber anymore.

He stood on a ruined battlefield. Fire raged. Cities burned. Corpses stretched for miles.

At the center sat Alex—not the cloaked version. This one was young. Mortal. He looked up.

"I failed," he said softly.

Valerian stepped forward. "What is this?"

"A memory the Godless use to torment me," Alex whispered. "My last moment before I let them in."

Lightning cracked the sky. A voice, deep and vile, echoed through the burning air:

"ONE OF YOU MUST BREAK."

Valerian clenched his fists.

"I won’t let them win."

Alex stood, facing him fully. "Then you’ll have to kill me."

He raised a blade of glass and flame—an exact replica of Valerian’s own.

The two charged.

The clash shook the battlefield illusion. Steel met steel, will met will.

They fought as one mind split in two—every strike calculated, every counter mirrored.

But Valerian had changed. He wasn’t Alex anymore.

He wasn’t bound by regret.

With a roar, he feinted left, ducked under a slash, and drove his blade into Alex’s chest.

Light burst outward.

Alex collapsed, choking on blood, smiling.

"You... chose a better path."

The memory collapsed.

---

Valerian’s eyes flew open.

He was back.

The Godless above reeled. The one that had touched him shivered, then cracked apart—unable to digest the contradiction that he had become.

[BLOODLINE ASCENSION COMPLETE.]

[CLASS CHANGE: PARADOX BLADE.]

[New Skill: Temporal Ruin – Each strike deletes a failed fate.]

Valerian rose, energy rippling from him like an incoming storm.

Kael stepped back. "Damn, you’re glowing like a star."

Selene’s mouth parted slightly, awe in her eyes. "You killed the memory of your origin."

"No," Valerian said, stepping forward. "I forgave it."

Above, the Godless shrieked—not in rage, but in alarm.

They saw now that he was no longer a vessel.

He was a threat.

Alex laughed from the center spiral. "So you’ve finally broken their chain."

Valerian locked eyes with him.

"It’s time we ended this."

Alex raised both hands. The chamber warped.

And the final arena emerged—a floating sphere of collapsing worlds. Time fragments drifted around them like debris from dead stars.

Selene floated to Valerian’s side. Kael and Lira flanked him.

"I won’t fight you alone," Valerian said.

Alex grinned. "Good."

He drew a blade of absolute stillness—a weapon that did not reflect light.

"The Godless are watching. Let’s give them a show."

---

The war of selves had begun.

And only one would remain.