Ahan hit the ground harder than he expected.
Dust scattered.
His vision blurred for a moment.
Then everything sharpened into clarity.
He stood inside a colossal hall of obsidian-black stone, arched like the ribcage of some ancient beast.
No torches.
Yet everything glowed with a pale, ghostly light—
as if the darkness itself had learned how to emit it.
Ahan exhaled slowly.
"Great. Another hallucination realm."
His voice echoed for a long time.
Too long.
Ahan walked forward.
His footsteps didn't sound right.
Instead of the usual tap—
each step reverberated like a heartbeat inside a cavernous chest.
He frowned.
Something about this realm felt aware.
Watching him from impossible angles.
Judging him.
His hands tightened slightly.
He wouldn't show fear.
Not here.
Not in front of anything.
He stepped onto a wide circular platform at the hall's center.
Its surface glowed faintly—
and suddenly—
a shadow rose from the ground.
A human silhouette.
Same height as Ahan.
Same build.
But faceless.
Ahan raised an eyebrow.
"Really? You're giving me the no-face treatment?"
The silhouette tilted its head.
Then its features melted into shape—
until Ahan found himself staring at…
Ahan.
Not as he was now—
but as he could have been.
Eyes colder.
Aura heavier.
Power crackling just under the skin like chained lightning.
The doppelgänger smirked.
"So this is the weak version of me."
Ahan felt his stomach drop for the first time.
Not from fear.
But because he recognized the voice.
He had heard it before.
In screams.
In nightmares.
In flashes of memories he wasn't supposed to have.
Overlord.
The doppelgänger paced in a slow circle around him.
"You know who I am," he murmured.
"Yeah," Ahan said flatly. "The edgy version of me. Congratulations."
Ahan kept a casual tone,
but his heartbeat wasn't casual.
Because this wasn't some random hallucination.
The aura was too precise.
Too familiar.
It was his own aura—
but unfiltered.
Unrestrained.
Unbroken.
The doppelgänger stopped behind him.
"You're trying to pretend you don't feel it," he whispered.
"A fate that's strangled your dreams since childhood."
Ahan's jaw tightened.
His breath hitched, almost imperceptibly.
The shadow-Ahan walked in front of him, eyes glowing with a dark cobalt flame.
"You're terrified," he said.
"Not of me."
He leaned closer.
"But of what you could become."
The hall darkened.
Stone shivered.
The floor split into a thousand reflections around Ahan—
each one showing a different version of his future:
Ahan was drenched in blood.
Ahan standing atop ruins.
Ahan crowned in void.
Ahan alone in eternal silence.
Ahan destroying the world.
Ahan becoming Overlord.
The real Ahan swallowed, breath shallow.
"Enough."
"Is it?" the shadow whispered.
The reflections flickered faster—
violent, unstoppable—
like memories from a life he never lived but somehow remembered.
The shadow snapped its fingers.
Chains erupted from the ground—
wrapping around Ahan's arms
his chest
his throat.
Ahan's knees crashed into the stone.
He couldn't move.
The shadow crouched down, eye-to-eye.
"You pretend to be carefree.
You pretend to be lazy.
You pretend to be unbothered."
Each word felt like a blade sliding under his skin.
"But deep down… you know the truth."
The hall turned dead silent.
Ahan closed his eyes.
Because he did know.
He'd always known.
Somewhere inside him, buried beneath the jokes and the careless attitude, was something monstrous.
Something is wrong.
Something tainted.
And every time he used too much power—
every time he pushed past his limit—
he felt it tearing at its cage.
The shadow breathed out a laugh.
"You fear yourself more than any enemy."
Ahan's voice cracked—barely.
"So what? You want me to admit I'm a monster?"
"No," the shadow said gently.
"I want you to realize—
that fear does not stop a destiny."
The chains tightened.
Ahan gritted his teeth in agony.
"But it can shape one."
The shadow stood and extended a hand.
"Break the chains.
Not these—"
He tapped one around Ahan's arm.
"—but the ones you placed on your soul."
The shadow stepped back, waiting.
Ahan stared at the chains.
He breathed shakily.
He had always run from this moment.
Always avoided facing the truth of what slept inside him.
Always pretended his inner darkness was someone else's problem.
But not now.
Not anymore.
He inhaled deeply.
And for the first time—
He didn't resist the fear.
He embraced it.
A soft blue-white aura surged from within him—
gentler than he expected,
warmer than he deserved.
The chains cracked.
One by one—
SHATTER
SHATTER
SHATTER
Until the final one around his throat split like brittle sand.
The hall glowed.
The shadow-Ahan smiled.
"Well done."
The doppelgänger walked up and placed a single fingertip on Ahan's chest.
"You will always walk close to the edge," he said softly.
"Your destiny is shaped by destruction… but destruction is also rebirth."
Ahan looked away.
The shadow lifted his chin gently.
"Listen carefully:
You don't become Overlord."
Ahan's eyes widened.
"You face him."
Ahan stepped back.
"That means—"
"Yes," the shadow said.
"The one you fear… is not your future."
Ahan's breath shook with relief.
But the shadow wasn't done.
"But the line that separates you and him—
is thinner than you think."
The hall trembled.
A fragment of the Artifact Map lowered from the ceiling—
glowing deep cobalt, pulsing steadily with his heartbeat.
Ahan reached out.
The moment he touched it—
The shadow whispered:
"Do not fear what you could become.
Fear what you choose to ignore."
The hall collapsed into pure white.