No one moved.
No one breathed.
The broken Berlin vault, filled with shattered Hunters and the ruins of war, suddenly felt too small for the truth it now carried.
Aarav stood frozen before the dead holographic screen.
His grandfather's final words kept repeating in his mind.
You are not the first Origin.
You are the second chance.
The sentence refused to make sense.
Because it couldn't.
Because it shouldn't.
Rohan was the first to recover.
He pointed at the blank screen like a man accusing reality itself.
"No."
A beat.
"I reject that plot twist."
Honestly?
Same.
Aarav ran a hand through his hair and stared at the floor.
"There was another me?"
Aelina's face had gone pale.
Mira looked genuinely unsettled.
Selene—who usually reacted to emotional devastation the way normal people reacted to weather—was silent.
That silence was enough.
They knew something.
Or at least feared it.
Aarav looked up.
"Tell me."
No one answered immediately.
Then Mira finally spoke.
Quietly.
"There were records."
Her voice lacked its usual sharpness.
"Old ones. Fragmented. Restricted even in my era."
Aelina stepped beside her.
"In every classified archive regarding the Origin Sequence…"
She hesitated.
"There was mention of someone called the First."
Selene's golden eyes remained fixed on Aarav.
"Not a person."
A pause.
"A catastrophe."
The word landed like a weapon.
Rohan slowly sat down again.
"…Cool. Fantastic. Love that."
Aarav stared.
"You're saying there was another me… and he became a disaster?"
Selene did not soften it.
"Yes."
Aelina activated the hologram again.
The blue light flickered weakly, reconstructing old data from damaged archive fragments.
The image that formed was incomplete.
Glitched.
Broken.
But visible enough.
A battlefield.
Not a city.
Not a country.
A world.
Burning skies.
Collapsed oceans.
Entire continents split apart.
And standing at the centre—
a man.
Silhouette only.
Golden light was spreading from his body like divine fire.
Reality itself seemed to bend around him.
Time fractured where he stood.
He looked less like a human and more like the final answer to violence.
Aarav couldn't breathe.
Even without seeing the face—
He knew.
Somehow, he knew.
That was him.
Or something close enough to be terrifying.
Mira's voice was low.
"He was the first complete activation of the Origin Code."
Aelina continued.
"He tried to stop the collapse of humanity."
Selene finished.
"And when he failed… he chose to rewrite everything."
Aarav's chest tightened.
"Rewrite?"
Selene nodded.
"He tried to force reality into a perfect future."
Her expression darkened.
"He broke time."
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Rohan whispered,
"...Bro really said, 'fine, I'll do it myself.'"
No one laughed.
Because that sounded exactly right.
Aarav stared at the ruined hologram.
A version of himself.
One who lost everything.
One who decided grief was reason enough to control existence.
One who became the reason the future feared love.
The Null Sovereign's words returned.
Ask them whose hands are covered in blood.
A cold thought crawled into his mind.
"What happened to him?"
No one answered.
That was worse.
Aarav's voice sharpened.
"What happened?"
This time, Aelina answered.
"We don't know."
Her blue eyes were filled with regret.
"Some records say he died."
Mira looked away.
"Others say he was erased."
Selene's answer was the heaviest.
"And some believe…"
She paused.
"…he became the Null Sovereign."
The world stopped.
Even the rain seemed to disappear.
Rohan stood up so fast he nearly fell.
"Nope."
He pointed at the ceiling.
"No. Absolutely not. We are not doing evil future clone father-son villain philosophy."
Aarav's pulse thundered.
The First Origin.
The broken world.
The final villain.
The Null Sovereign.
Was he fighting some distant enemy—
Or the shadow of what he himself once became?
That possibility was worse than fear.
Because how do you defeat something that understands you before you exist?
Mira stepped closer.
"Listen to me."
Her voice was sharp again.
Grounding.
"You are not him."
Aelina nodded immediately.
"You are different."
Selene's gaze never wavered.
"And if you ever stop being different…"
Her hand rested lightly on the hilt of her giant sword.
The message was clear.
Terrifyingly romantic, once again.
Rohan whispered,
"She's still winning."
Still true.
Aarav exhaled slowly.
He should have felt crushed.
Broken.
But strangely—
He felt clearer.
Because now he understood the real battle.
This wasn't just about surviving Hunters.
Or rescuing future girls.
It was about proving that history could be rewritten without becoming a monster.
He looked at the image of the First Origin one last time.
Then spoke quietly.
"I'm not here to replace him."
The golden code beneath his skin pulsed.
"I'm here to end what he started."
The room seemed to respond.
Even the air felt different.
A choice had been made.
A path chosen.
Then—
The floor trembled.
Because peace, once again, remained illegal.
A new transmission forced itself onto the screen.
Not red.
White.
Frozen.
Arctic coordinates.
Nysera.
Her image appeared immediately.
Silver-white hair.
Calm, star-like eyes.
Snow is moving behind her like a kingdom of ghosts.
But this time—
Even she looked urgent.
That alone was terrifying.
"Aarav."
No title.
No ceremony.
Just his name.
"The First Origin's prison has been opened."
Silence.
Then everyone moved at once.
Mira's expression darkened.
Selene's sword was already in her hand.
Aelina whispered,
"No…"
Aarav stared.
"What prison?"
Nysera's answer came like winter.
"The place where humanity buried its first god."
The Arctic storm howled behind her.
Her final words froze the room.
"And if we are too late…"
"He will wake up."
Transmission ended.
And for the first time—
Even Aarav was afraid.
Because saving the future was one thing.
Stopping himself?
That was something else entirely.