CHAPTER 146: CLONE AND REAL

A sharp, reverberating hum filled the air—thin at first, like the buzz of electricity crackling in the distance. Then came the voice.

Smooth.

Cold.

Amused.

"Such a cruel younger brother..."

The sound echoed from within the crystalline cube that held the clone, though it had not spoken until now.

Its mouth didn’t move. Its five swords—slower now—hovered like the still arms of a dying machine. And yet the voice... it was unmistakably Elius.

The four turned at once—Zhark, Fraven, Shania, and Keith—eyes snapping to the cube with horrified realization. They had sealed the dungeon. They had closed it shut. They had locked away Elius, the monster.

So how was he—?

"No..." Keith muttered, stepping back. "No, no, no. That’s not possible. That’s not possible!"

Fraven’s mouth opened, but no sound came. His brain screamed against the facts. His calculations. His surveillance. His psychic probes. They had confirmed the real body was inside. Hadn’t they?

Shania’s blade lifted on instinct, ready to strike again, though there was nothing to slash—only a sealed cube of frozen energy that should’ve been helpless.

Zhark bared his teeth, thunder rolling around his fists once more.

The clone tilted its head slowly.

A blink.

And then the voice again, deeper now. Amused. Sharp with irony.

"You did everything right," Elius continued. "Sealed the gate. Closed the dungeon. Purged the rift. Locked in the soul. You were so close. Truly, I mean that."

"You’re lying," Keith said, voice shaking. "You’re bluffing. You’re in the dungeon."

"I was," Elius said. "Was. But just before you slammed shut that dimensional wound... I switched."

There was no grin. No gesture. Just that chilling calm.

"You sealed the wrong me."

Fraven’s hands clenched. "Impossible—psychic resonance can’t be copied that perfectly—!"

"Oh, Fraven," the clone replied. "That’s why I sent the decoy’s soul signature into the dungeon instead. You were so sure you were reading me, but you were only reading what I let you read."

The four fell into a stunned silence.

Then Shania broke it, whispering, "He tricked us..."

"No," Zhark growled. "No. We tricked him—he’s just talking, trying to confuse us!"

Elius laughed softly. "Oh, is that what you think?"

His voice, now unmistakably alive, pulsed with a dark charisma.

"Let me tell you something about this dungeon you’re so proud of sealing," he continued. "Every stone of it breathes with my presence. Every flame that flickers in the tunnels sings my name. The beasts within bow to me. The laws written into the framework—bent by my will. This place is mine. You didn’t seal a prison—you sealed a throne room."

The cube trembled. Slightly at first.

So slight it could have been the cooling arcane reaction.

But then it trembled again. And again. The air around it warped—an invisible pressure pressing outward.

Fraven stepped forward, horror mounting. "He’s... he’s destabilizing the barrier."

Shania whispered, "His will... It’s attacking the cube from the inside."

Elius’s voice didn’t stop. He was speaking still, never louder, never yelling, but somehow overpowering the very silence with his presence.

"You four don’t realize what you’ve done," he said. "I was born to be the best and it’s dungeon as made for me, reborn by its rules, sharpened by its enemies. I marked this place long ago. I branded it with the essence of my soul. It’s not your battlefield. It’s my temple."

"That’s not possible!" Keith shouted. "The sigils, the formations—they’re airtight! This isn’t how it works!"

"Oh?" Elius asked. "Then explain this."

Crk—

A tiny sound. Barely a noise.

But the others felt it.

Not heard.

Felt.

Like a splintering of bone beneath the skin of the world.

The cube shimmered again, brighter this time.

The floating swords resumed orbiting—faster, sharper, humming with energy.

The crystal’s internal matrix buckled with hairline fractures that spiderwebbed across its surface.

"He’s—he’s breaking it!" Fraven yelled, backing up.

"Reinforce the seal!" Keith barked. "NOW!"

"Reinforce the barrier—make it stronger!" Zhark bellowed, his arms already glowing with thunder sigils. "Don’t let him out!"

Shania dropped a storm of illusion glyphs into the air, turning each one into a prism of refracted warding.

Fraven poured everything he had into raw kinetic compression, layering invisible walls atop invisible walls.

Keith activated three emergency anchor rods, driving them into the stone floor—runes lighting up across the chamber, racing toward the cube.

But Elius kept speaking.

"Oh, you poor fools. All these years, all these tools, all your schemes. You think you were the predators? You were just my cage builders."

The seal glowed violently.

The air screamed.

A swirling vortex of raw spiritual energy—gold and black and red—whipped around the cube, eating away at their reinforcement barriers like a tornado through paper.

"I will break this cube," Elius whispered. "I will find you. And I will burn out your names from the history of the stars."

The cube cracked again.

Then again.

Fraven screamed, pouring out blood from his nose, psychic backlash hitting him like a brick wall. "It’s not holding! I can’t—he’s—he’s overriding the logic of the seal!"

"What does that even mean?!" Keith yelled.

"He’s rewriting the fundamental law inside the cube—he’s reprogramming the dungeon’s magic language from the inside out!"

"I told you..." Elius said, voice warping now, echoing not just in the air, but in their minds. "This victory was never yours. It was always mine. And now, so are you."

The cube imploded inward for a heartbeat—

Then EXPLODED.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

A blinding storm of light, shrapnel, thunder, and elemental backlash surged outward like a divine detonation.

Earth shattered. Floors cracked. Glyphs sputtered and died. The monoliths split down the center as magical feedback whirled around them.

Shania was thrown back twenty feet, colliding with a stone pillar.

Zhark crashed into a crumbling wall, blood spraying from his mouth.

Keith and Fraven barely survived, clutching each other in the dirt as the remains of the cube disintegrated into dust.

And standing in the center of the ruin—

Not a clone.

Not a projection.

Not an echo.

But Elius.

His robes burned at the edges. His body bleeding golden light. His eyes glowing like suns behind a hurricane of power. Five swords hovered behind him like silent judges.

He was smiling.

Breathing.

Alive.

And free.

"Boom," Elius said.

The cavern groaned under the pressure.

And everything began to fall apart.