Now, it's time for The Threshold of Truth

Ethan stood frozen in the middle of the city street, his breath visible in the cold night air. Neon lights flickered, illuminating his reflection in the glass windows surrounding him. Every television screen, every digital billboard, every reflective surface—they all showed his face.

And beneath them, the words:

"WELCOME BACK."

His pulse pounded. His fingers clenched. He turned, scanning the street, but the people around him continued walking—talking, moving, living their lives—as if he wasn't there.

It felt like the world had shifted around him, like he had been placed in the middle of a reality that was already moving forward, one he did not belong to.

Or worse.

One he had already lived.

A chill crawled up his spine as a new message appeared on the screens.

"IT'S TIME TO SEE."

Then—the lights died.

All at once. The entire city plunged into darkness.

Anna was running.

The sky above her boiled, shifting in ways that should not have been possible. The red glow on the horizon pulsed, like a heart that shouldn't be beating.

She had seen many things in her life. This was something else.

Her breath was sharp, her muscles burning, but she didn't stop.

Because it was following.

She didn't know what it was.

A shape in the distance. A presence in her mind. A shadow that stretched too far and never left.

It had been waiting for her the moment she arrived.

And now—it was coming closer.

She reached a precipice—wherever she was, it wasn't a normal world. There was no land beyond the jagged edge, just an endless black abyss stretching downward.

She turned.

The thing following her had stopped just a few feet away.

It had no face, yet she felt it watching.

It had no form, yet she felt it breathing.

And then—it spoke.

Not in words.

Not in whispers.

But in something deeper, something she felt inside her bones.

"You are here because you refused to see."

Anna's grip on her weapon tightened. "Then show me."

The world shattered.

Luminex's headquarters was already in lockdown.

Victoria stood in the darkened war room, watching as the last encrypted feed failed.

Every monitor in the facility now displayed a single message.

"THE CYCLE CANNOT HOLD."

She exhaled, slow and even.

She had known this moment was coming. She had prepared for it.

But knowing and facing it were two very different things.

Her earpiece crackled.

Horizon Division had arrived.

A calm, clipped voice came through. "Director Lane. We are moving in."

Victoria turned to face the reinforced security doors as they slid open, revealing the strike team.

Their armor was black. Their weapons did not belong to this world.

This wasn't just about containment anymore.

This was eradication.

And if Horizon Division was here, that meant one thing.

The cycle had already failed.

Ethan moved before he could think.

When the city had gone dark, the silence had been suffocating.

And then—they had appeared.

Shadowed figures, lining the streets, standing motionless. Their heads tilted unnaturally, their bodies slightly wrong.

They didn't speak.

They only watched.

Then, the first one moved.

Not walked. Shifted.

Like reality had bent around them, skipping frames, their bodies appearing in new positions without crossing the distance in between.

Ethan ran.

The streets stretched in unnatural ways, twisting into unfamiliar paths, turning his escape into a labyrinth of repetition.

The signs changed.

WELCOME BACK

YOU NEVER LEFT

YOU NEVER LEFT

YOU NEVER LEFT

His breath was ragged. His mind was screaming.

He turned a corner and collided with himself.

Not the figure from the void.

Not the shadowed presence that had whispered his fate.

But him.

A perfect copy, standing exactly like him, dressed exactly like him, staring with an expression of calm certainty.

The doppelgänger smiled.

And then—he spoke.

"I remember now."

Ethan staggered back. "What—"

"The cycle. How it ends."

The copy stepped closer.

"Every time, you fight it. Every time, you try to escape. But you never do."

Ethan's head was spinning. "That's not true."

The other Ethan laughed.

"Then tell me, how does this end?"

Ethan tried to answer.

But he couldn't.

Because he didn't know.

His memories fractured, pieces shifting inside his head, familiar yet unreachable.

He had been here before.

He had seen this before.

He had failed before.

The other Ethan grinned wider, stepping even closer.

"This time will be no different."

Then, the shadows behind him rushed forward.

And the world went black.

AGAIN.