Chapter 48
The world didn't simply crack — it screamed.
Nezutsu stared across the fractured sky, where a mirrored version of himself stood suspended in flame. This other Nezutsu had no eyes, only burning sockets of violet. His robes were scorched with runes of ancient languages, and around him danced silhouettes — not shadows, but souls he had consumed.
"That's what you become," Eshryn whispered, "if you stop choosing to be you."
"That's not possible," Kaelith said. "You're saying that's some kind of… future?"
Eshryn nodded. "Not a future. A branch. One Silex wants. One the gods once feared so much, they rewrote time to prevent it."
Nezutsu's voice shook. "And yet… here he is."
The Other Nezutsu Speaks
The second Nezutsu moved — hovering down from the wound in the sky like an angel on fire.
He didn't walk. He commanded gravity.
When he landed, the earth hissed in pain.
"I am not here to fight you," the Other said. "I am you. I survived where you hesitated. I burned when you wept."
"You're not me," Nezutsu replied, stepping forward. "You're what they want me to become. Cold. Controlled. Dead inside."
The Other Nezutsu tilted his head.
"Emotion is ash. Memory is weight. Power is flame unburdened by love."
Kaelith raised her blade, but it melted in her hand before she could blink.
"Fighting him is pointless," Eshryn said urgently. "This version is connected to the Root Rewrite of Project Silex. Killing him here will cause a feedback collapse."
"Then how do we stop him?" Kaelith asked.
Nezutsu stared at his future self. "We don't stop him. I have to talk to him."
Subplot Twist: The Thread of the Motherfire
Eshryn reached into her robes and pulled out a glowing filament — a tiny thread of golden light.
"This… is the Thread of the Motherfire. The first magic. Before gods. Before Will. Before memory."
"Why do you have it?" Nezutsu asked.
"Because the Mirrorborn were created to guard the First Flame. And you — you are its echo."
The thread began to spin in Nezutsu's hands.
"If you can thread your Flame into this," she said, "you can burn away the false futures. Burn away him."
But it would come with a price.
If he used the Motherfire… a part of him would be lost. Forever.
"If I lose myself," he asked, "how will I find me again?"
"You won't," she whispered. "You'll just have to become something new."
The Battle of Identity
The Other Nezutsu summoned flame-forms — versions of people Nezutsu loved, twisted and warped.
A burning Velgrim, whispering, "You failed me."
A dying Kaelith, gasping, "You chose fire over heart."
A child version of himself, crying in the shadows, "Why didn't you protect me?"
Nezutsu dropped to one knee.
The guilt. The memories. The weight.
"You can't carry it," said the Other. "Let it go. Become me."
But Nezutsu looked up — and smiled.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because I'm not made of forgetting. I'm made of everything I refuse to lose."
With a scream, he wrapped the Thread of the Motherfire around his fist — and punched it into his own chest.
The fire inside him roared — not outward, but inward.
It devoured the illusions.
It seared the false future.
It reclaimed the child in shadow.
"I am Nezutsu," he roared. "Not a god. Not a rewrite. Just a man who remembers too much — and still chooses to feel."
The Other version screamed — breaking into glass-like shards of flame — and vanished.
The Timewalkers Awaken
As the last of the echoes burned away, the World Shatter Clock stopped ticking.
Kaelith knelt beside him.
"Is it over?" she asked.
Eshryn shook her head.
"No. The flame chose. But now... the world must respond."
The sky above opened again.
But this time… they descended.
A dozen figures in robes made of time itself.
Eyes like turning gears. Voices like clocks breaking.
"You are not meant to exist," they said as one. "The Thread has been altered. The Silex System is unraveling."
"Who are you?" Nezutsu asked.
"We are the Timewalkers. The Custodians of the Rewrite. And now… you must be erased."
[TO BE CONTINUED…]