Darkness.
A darkness William knew better than his own reflection.
Not the darkness of space.
Not the emptiness that existed between galaxies.
Not the void born from the destruction of matter.
No.
This darkness was smaller.
More insignificant.
A single room.
A single memory.
And somehow…
More terrifying than anything he had encountered across the universe.
William remained on his knees.
His breathing was erratic.
His hands shook uncontrollably.
He had faced ancient forces.
He had stepped into a realm where even the act of breathing required understanding.
He had witnessed the threads that connected existence itself.
He had touched the boundary between destruction and creation.
Yet all of that meant nothing here.
Because this was the place where William had been nothing.
Weak.
Helpless.
Broken.
Slow footsteps echoed through the darkness.
Each sound was like a hammer striking his mind.
His instincts screamed at him.
Run.
Hide.
Escape.
The same instincts that had controlled him all those years ago.
The same instincts that had followed him through every battle since.
The footsteps stopped.
A figure emerged from the shadows.
The same cold expression.
The same eyes.
The same presence that had haunted his nightmares for years.
Kate.
The man who had shattered his old life.
The man who had turned his world into a prison.
William's fingers dug into the ground.
His heart pounded against his chest as though trying to escape.
"No..."
The word escaped his lips before he even realized it.
Kaite smiled.
A smile William remembered too well.
"After all this time..."
His voice was calm.
Almost amused.
"You're still the same."
William's eyes widened.
He knew this was not real.
He knew Andrew had created this illusion.
He knew the man standing before him was nothing more than a memory.
And yet—
His body did not care.
His body remembered.
The fear.
The pain.
The humiliation.
The despair.
The human mind was strange.
It could understand a lie…
while still suffering from it as though it were the absolute truth.
Kaite took another step forward.
"You became stronger."
Another step.
"You learned incredible things."
Another.
"You touched the secrets of the universe."
Another.
"But what changed?"
William remained silent.
His breathing became heavier.
"What changed?"
The voice repeated.
"You are still kneeling."
The words struck harder than any attack.
Because they were true.
William looked down.
His fists were pressed against the ground.
His body was trembling.
His eyes were lowered.
Exactly as they had been years ago.
For all the power he had gained…
For all the knowledge he had accumulated…
A single memory had brought him back to the weakest version of himself.
Outside the illusion, Andrew watched without speaking.
The silver-haired woman looked at him.
"Will you not interfere?"
Andrew shook his head.
"No."
"He is suffering."
"I know."
"He could collapse."
The old man's expression did not change.
"Then he will rebuild himself."
His eyes remained fixed on William.
"Every creature in the universe has an enemy."
"Some fight armies."
"Some fight gods."
"Some fight the laws of reality itself."
A faint sadness appeared in his ancient eyes.
"But the cruelest enemy is the one that lives within."
Inside the darkness—
Kaite stopped moving.
Then something impossible happened.
His appearance changed.
His body became covered in golden light.
His form became faster.
Brighter.
More overwhelming.
William immediately recognized him.
Mark .
The same terrifying speed.
The same impossible attacks.
The same sensation of being unable to react.
His body froze.
Again.
A voice echoed from the darkness.
"Too fast."
Mark disappeared.
And before William could react—
A sharp pain exploded through his shoulder.
Blood flowed.
The same wound.
The same helplessness.
The same feeling he experienced inside the simulation chamber.
Then the voice came again.
"You cannot follow him."
The golden light disappeared.
The darkness returned.
But only for a moment.
The space around William began to distort.
The concepts of distance and direction started collapsing.
The world became empty.
Silent.
Meaningless.
Merito appeared.
His expression was indifferent.
His finger slowly rose.
William's entire existence trembled.
Not because he was weak.
Not because Merito was stronger.
But because his mind remembered that feeling.
The feeling of losing himself.
The feeling of becoming nothing.
"Disappear."
Merito's voice was emotionless.
And once again—
William forgot.
His name.
His purpose.
His power.
Everything.
For a moment, he became an empty shell floating in nothingness.
Then—
A memory appeared.
A small one.
The ocean.
The waves moving in their endless rhythm.
"Everything breathes."
Andrew's voice echoed.
Another memory.
The volcano.
"Power is not always an explosion."
Another.
The desert.
"Sometimes strength is the ability to endure."
The forest.
"True control is communication."
The mountain.
"Understand the world, and the world will answer."
The white room.
"Creation requires understanding."
Each lesson.
Each failure.
Each wound.
Each year.
Ten years.
Ten years of suffering.
Ten years of growth.
Ten years spent becoming someone who could stand among the monsters of the universe.
And suddenly—
William realized something.
The person kneeling in this darkness was not the same person who had been trapped years ago.
That person had died.
Not physically.
But spiritually.
He was gone.
He was only a memory.
A shadow.
A ghost.
William slowly raised his head.
The emptiness around him trembled.
His breathing became steady.
His hands stopped shaking.
Kaite.
Mark .
Merito.
They stood before him.
Three different faces.
Three different fears.
But the same chain.
The same weakness.
The same illusion.
His own fear.
A small smile appeared on William's face.
For the first time since his entering this nightmare—
He stood up.
The three figures moved simultaneously.
Kaite approached
Mark became light.
Merito erased the space between them.
An attack from every direction.
An unavoidable death.
Years earlier, William would have broken.
A year earlier, he might have panicked.
But now—
He simply closed his eyes.
The universe appeared before him.
The threads.
The endless web of existence.
Not as weapons.
Not as tools.
But as truth.
He looked at the threads connected to Kaite.
To Mark.
To Merito.
Then he looked deeper.
Beyond their forms.
Beyond their powers.
Beyond his own fear.
And he found the thread that had controlled him all this time.
The thread connecting his present to his trauma.
The chain he had created himself.
He reached toward it.
His hand trembled for a brief moment.
Then stopped.
He remembered Andrew's words.
"Destroying is easy."
"Understanding is difficult."
A tear escaped his eye.
Not from pain.
Not from fear.
But acceptance.
He did not erase the memory.
He did not destroy his past.
Because his suffering had created the person standing here.
Instead—
He changed his relationship with it.
He rewove the thread.
The chain became a scar.
The scar became a lesson.
And the lesson became strength.
The darkness shattered.
Kaite disappeared .
Mark vanished.
Merito dissolved .
The prison that had existed inside his own mind collapsed.
William opened his eyes.
He was back in the white chamber.
Andrew stood before him.
For the first time in many years—
The old man smiled with genuine pride.
The silver-haired woman stared at William in silence.
Not because his power had increased.
Not because he had defeated an enemy.
But because she understood what had just happened.
A mortal had done something that many ancient beings had failed to achieve.
He had conquered himself.
Andrew walked toward him.
"Now..."
His voice was calm.
"But only now..."
A faint smile appeared on William's face.
The fear that had followed him for a decade was finally gone.
Andrew continued:
"You are ready to fight the universe."