Chapter 8: Shadows of the Past

The safe house was silent, the air thick with tension. The only sound came from the faint hum of fluorescent lights flickering overhead. Adam sat across from Kara, her wrists bound to the chair in reinforced restraints. She had been their ally once, a trusted member of his growing network. Now, she was a traitor, a seer who had chosen the other side.

Her betrayal had nearly cost them everything.

Evelyn stood by the door, arms crossed, eyes hard. Marcus loomed behind Adam, silent and unmoving. Lilith was absent, having refused to be part of the interrogation. She had her methods that Adam wasn't prepared to entertain just yet.

Kara looked up, her lips cracked, and blood dried along the corner of her mouth. "Still wasting time, Adam?" she rasped.

Adam leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "You saw the future," he said, his voice low. "Tell me what you saw."

She chuckled, though there was no humor in it. "Why would I?"

"Because you're still alive," Evelyn said coldly.

Kara's smirk faltered for a second, but she quickly masked it. "I saw you lose," she finally said, looking at Adam directly. "No matter what you do, no matter how many safehouses you build, how many people you recruit, you won't win."

Adam studied her carefully. "And yet, you switched sides instead of warning me."

Kara didn't reply.

He exhaled slowly. "You're not working for them out of fear." He tilted his head slightly. "You saw something, didn't you? Something worse."

A flicker of emotion passed over her face—guilt, hesitation. Adam caught it immediately.

She turned away. "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me."

Kara was silent for a long moment before finally whispering, "I saw what happens if you win."

A cold chill ran down Adam's spine.

Kara lifted her gaze, her expression hollow. "You don't understand what you're fighting for, Adam. You think you do, but you don't. You think the Game is just about survival, about getting strong enough to endure the Age of Eternity." She shook her head. "You have no idea what happens after."

Adam's hands clenched into fists. "Then tell me."

Kara hesitated, then spoke so quietly it was almost a whisper.

"If you win, the world doesn't survive. You destroy it."

The Fork in the Road

The room fell into silence, the weight of Kara's words settling over them like a suffocating blanket. Adam studied her, looking for deception, for any sign that she was lying. But she was a Seer. She had seen something real.

Marcus finally spoke, his deep voice cutting through the stillness. "How?"

Kara licked her dry lips. "The Game isn't just a test, Adam. It's a filter."

Evelyn frowned. "What do you mean?"

Kara inhaled sharply, as if bracing herself. "The gods don't want just anyone to ascend. They want someone specific. Someone who fits the mold. Someone who—" she hesitated, "—becomes something else."

Adam's patience thinned. "Stop speaking in riddles."

Kara's eyes met his, filled with something close to pity. "The Adam I saw in the future… wasn't you anymore."

A cold, gnawing feeling settled in his gut.

"What do you mean?" Evelyn pressed.

Kara turned to her. "You saw it too, didn't you? You feel it every time he fights, every time he makes a choice." She looked back at Adam. "The Game isn't just about power. It changes you. Not just your body. Not just your mind. It rewrites who you are."

Adam exhaled slowly, his jaw tightening. "And what did I become?"

Kara hesitated before answering. "A god."

Silence.

Evelyn blinked, her hands tightening into fists. Marcus remained unreadable, but his expression darkened.

Lilith chose that moment to enter the room. She had been listening from the other side of the door. "Of course he does," she murmured. "That's the whole point."

Adam turned to her. "You knew?"

Lilith smirked. "I suspected." She stepped forward, glancing at Kara. "She saw the endgame. The gods aren't just testing humanity; they're grooming us. Searching for a successor. And apparently, you're a prime candidate."

Adam's pulse thundered in his ears.

Kara leaned forward, her voice urgent. "That's why I left. That's why I had to stop you."

He stared at her, trying to make sense of it all. He had come back to change the future, to stop the destruction that he had lived through. But had he been playing into the gods' hands all along?

Had he been walking the exact path they wanted?

A Choice That Wasn't One

Adam left the room without another word.

He needed time to think. Time to breathe.

He walked through the darkened corridors of the safehouse, the echoes of Kara's warning rattling in his skull. You become something else.

He reached a control room, multiple monitors displaying various locations tied to his growing network. He had spent so much time preparing for the collapse, gathering resources, and training people, but had he truly considered what came after?

Had he ever questioned what he was becoming?

Evelyn entered behind him. "You're quiet."

Adam exhaled. "I need to know if she's telling the truth."

Evelyn hesitated. "You think she's lying?"

"No." He turned to her. "That's what scares me."

Evelyn crossed her arms. "So what do we do?"

Adam looked at the screens, watching the pieces he had put in motion. The war hadn't even truly started yet, and already he was questioning everything.

There was no stopping now. He knew that. The Game was inevitable. The gods had ensured it.

The only question left was simple.

If the price of winning was becoming something inhuman, was it worth it?

Adam's jaw tightened. He had come too far to stop.

Maybe the answer wasn't to avoid the transformation. Maybe it was to control it.

He turned back to Evelyn. "We move forward. But from now on, we don't just play the Game."

He exhaled, his eyes steely with new resolve.

"We break it."