Elias's lungs burned as he sank deeper into the abyss, the weight of countless memories pressing against him like a tidal wave. Faces blurred past him—some familiar, some foreign, yet all undeniably his. Each version of himself carried a different fate, a different regret, a different choice.
The deeper he sank, the clearer it became.
He had been running in circles.
The cycle wasn't just a metaphor—it was real.
And he was trapped inside it.
A voice, distant yet piercing, cut through the drowning silence.
"Wake up."
The abyss convulsed. A tremor ran through his bones, shaking him to the core. Elias gasped, his breath stolen as the void around him began to crack, splintering like fragile glass.
Another voice, softer, familiar—
"Elias, you have to wake up."
He knew that voice.
A name surfaced in his mind, rising like a whisper from the depths of his fractured memories.
Ilyana.
Light flooded the abyss, piercing through the darkness. Elias was yanked upward, his body breaking through the surface like a diver gasping for air.
His eyes shot open.
The great tree loomed above him, its ancient branches swaying in an unseen breeze. The sky was different now—fractured, split between the deep indigo of night and the warm hues of dawn. Reality itself seemed unsure of what it wanted to be.
And standing before him—eyes wide with a mixture of fear and relief—was Ilyana.
"You're awake," she breathed, her voice trembling.
Elias stared at her, his mind still reeling from what he had just experienced. The weight of the paradox pressed against his thoughts, but for the first time, something was different.
A crack in the cycle.
A chance to escape.
But how?
Before he could speak, Ilyana reached forward and grabbed his hand, her grip firm and grounding.
"Elias," she said urgently, "we don't have much time. You need to remember."
His heart pounded.
Remember what?
As the sky above them flickered like a dying flame, Elias realized something.
The cycle was breaking.
And whatever came next—
It would change everything.