[Photon Step] 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Eugen divided his own body into luminous afterimages. They weren’t clones, nor illusions.

They were delayed light trajectories in space, each of his movements leaving an echo of photons that persisted for seconds.

"What the hell is this!?" Blandina exclaimed, partially losing focus.

Five Eugens at the same time, all moving, all seeming real, light distorting perception.

The twins began attacking photon echoes, irons piercing images that disappeared.

They almost collided with Blandina, getting tangled up among themselves.

"STOP!" She screamed, dodging the irons.

Eugen’s system notified:

```

[ENERGY COLLECTION]

◊ No more holy energy available in the field

◊ Imago Dei compilation: 7.01%

```

"What a pity..." Eugen murmured, "...I have to go. Just when I wanted to test the [Imago Dei] on you..."

Blandina managed to intercept him, appearing from behind.

But Eugen turned, grabbing her throat with his armored hand.

The [Photon Step] stopped, all echoes disappearing, leaving only the real one.

All the iron spears locked onto Eugen because he had grabbed Blandina. Hundreds of iron spears floated around.

"We can’t attack..." a twin whispered.

"What are you waiting for!?" Blandina shouted. "You idiots, attack now! I’m a vampire, damn it! I’ll regenerate!"

"You’re not ordinary trash..." Eugen interrupted, his tone clearly showing interest.

He lightly squeezed her throat.

"Interesting... a body that refuses to die, isn’t it?"

He moved his other hand to pull off Blandina’s hood.

"Shit, he’s going to see my face... I have to do something..." Blandina thought desperately.

But she was getting weak, the effect of the draconic blood had worn off, her horns were disappearing, her strength waning.

Suddenly, one of the twins spat blood; the Living Forge skill required a lot of mana and concentration, and he was already at his limit.

The iron stiffened, some fell with a loud, metallic crash.

```

[BLANDINA]: Shit... I think it’s over...

[BLANDINA]: Seline... you’ll be captain from now on...

```

She sent a message to the Squad.

```

[MESSAGE FAILED]

◊ Cannot send to Seline

◊ She is inside of a Resonance

◊ Squad level insufficient to send messages

to members inside Resonances

```

Eugen pulled back her hood.

Hair fell, long and shiny, revealing her full face.

Vampiric red eyes. Features too delicate for rebellion.

He smiled inside the mask, and even without seeing, Blandina felt it.

"Who would have thought..." Eugen began, "...that the first daughter of the famous Shadow King is now Gamer..."

He paused, letting the weight sink in.

"How noble... and chaotic..."

He tightened his throat.

"Hahahaha! Blandina Rosengard Van’Morvayne... I’ve discovered your secret..."

```

Father Elias turned the page of the gleaming book.

"Rey..."

He stopped.

"Ke..."

He stopped again.

The name the Codex revealed was constantly changing, letters rearranging themselves, symbols shifting.

"What!? How!?" he thought mentally. "Could one of them have overridden this Resonance...?"

He analyzed the possibility.

"No. It’s obvious that the chances of finding a flaw in a Resonance, being of lower rank than the resonant one, are minimally minimal..."

"There must be something..."

Father Elias looked at the Gamers trying to reach him, unable to do so because of the chains blocking them.

But his vision caught a glimpse of something in all that movement.

One Gamer was still standing on the platform.

"In the Codex Veritas... remaining motionless on a platform is surrendering to the truth. They jump because they know: whoever remains still will reveal the truth about themselves..."

"The cause of this must be only that one..."

He stretched out his hand to Haru, who was standing there.

And hundreds of chains appeared to grab him.

Meanwhile, Genius was rushing as fast as he could towards Haru’s platform.

"Tokyo... Tokyo... TOKYO!" he shouted, jumping from platform to platform.

The chains were moving faster than him; after all, he was in a space-time where his statistics could fail at any moment.

In that short space-time, Haru was inside himself.

He saw himself fragmented into several memories that weren’t his own:

*Spirit 1: Peasant being hanged.*

*Spirit 23: Warrior dying in battle.*

*Spirit 56: Child crying.*

*Spirit 89: Necromancer laughing.*

More than 100 voices. 100 lives and 100 deaths.

Because of so much dissonance, his conscience wasn’t coping well, he was stuck there trying to choose who he truly was. But he felt he had to do something, instinct screaming, his body wanting to move.

All because of the corruption he carried, and because this was a sacred space where the truth had to be revealed.

"But who am I now...?"

From the platform where he stood, chains appeared, grabbed Haru and tightened tightly, binding his arms, legs, and neck.

Genius suddenly stopped, hesitating, watching it happen.

"What am I doing!?" he thought, trembling. "I only met that guy today... and I’m already risking myself like this!?"

"No... I... I..."

But in a flash, he remembered his mother’s voice: "Genius, wake up, my son..."

"I have to finish the game! And for that, this time I won’t blow up the lab and feel alone because I have no one to share it with..."

He opened his eyes with absolute determination.

[Genius Eyes: Overlock]

Everything slowed down, the world around him decelerating, each second turning into ten.

His eyes glowed an intense gold, processing at maximum capacity.

"[Genius Eyes: Overlock]. With this skill, I can accelerate my brain beyond normal, making my thoughts faster than my actions."

"But the flaw is that the body can’t keep up. And prolonged use causes damage..."

"Since this is a Resonance environment, anything I don’t expect can happen. I needed it to..."

[Overlock: Probability Collapse]

"By combining these skills, I can... let’s say force an impossible possibility into a given space. Or that’s what should happen, but the skill is incomplete."

Genius began to see:

```

132 possible trajectories.

441 magical answers from the Codex.

98% failure rate.

1.9% death rate.

0.1% survival rate.

``

"I just need to hit one chain..."

Time returned to normal.

"Kimyo!"

Before advancing, a sword shot from his bright, swift eyes, targeting a specific chain.

The sword struck the chain, which hit another, a domino effect, delaying three by 3 seconds.

"Enough time to get to where Haru is!" Genius thought, already arriving.

Genius was in the air, between the chains and Haru’s body trapped on the platform.

"132 trajectories. 441 answers."

Two swords appeared... Genius spun his body, stepped on chains as if they were platforms, ricocheting off all the chains at an absurd speed.

When a chain escaped, he called for Kimyo’s help, and more swords appeared, pushing the chains away from Haru.

"98% failure rate. 1.9% death rate. 0.1% survival rate."

He turned his body absurdly, visualizing what lay below: the infinite void where falling would mean not returning.

"What?!" Father Elias thought, almost irritated. "Second-rate anomaly!"

"I need to know why I can’t read this anomaly’s name!"

The chains joined together, forming a giant, swift one.

**WHOOSH.**

They struck Genius, sending him high into the air like a rocket.

Then they vanished, leaving Genius to fall from there.

And Haru remained there vulnerable, with more chains coming to grab him.

"Damn... I have very little mana left..." Genius thought, falling.

When the chains were almost catching Haru...

"But I’m not finished yet..." he smiled, falling.

He stretched out his hand, almost there.

"KIMYO: SCHRÖDINGER FIELD!"

Haru’s body failed; it didn’t teleport, it didn’t cut the chains, it didn’t explode anything.

Genius made Haru statistically undefined.

The chains passed through Haru’s body, as if he were a ghost.

However, there were many chains passing through.

And Genius remained in that state while falling, tears already streaming down his face from the wind.

"I’ve been thinking about this skill for a long time..." tears streaming down. "I wanted to test it on myself... but unfortunately it had to be with Haru..."

"Schrödinger Cat. The cat that is alive and dead at the same time until observed."

"I applied it to Haru. I made him a superimposed state. He exists and doesn’t exist simultaneously. That’s why the chains can’t catch him; if the skill were complete, Haru would be in every possible state at the same time... literally."

"But... it costs an absurd amount of mana. And if I failed... he would collapse into a random state. He could become nothing."

His nose was bleeding, his mana bar dwindling every second.

"TOKYO!"

"TOKYO!"

Haru opened his eyes, waking up.

[Ignition: Burning Aura]

The chains around him were repelled, some even melting in flames. Valtherion.

He gave them a chance.

Haru jumped, leaped across several platforms by pure instinct, instinctively engaged Genius, caught him in mid-air, and threw him onto his own back.

"Come on, little horse!" Genius shouted, exhausted. "Damn it, what’s wrong with you?!"

Haru didn’t answer, he just tried to join the other Gamers to make Elias lose sight of him for a bit.

"If it weren’t for Genius’s voice... I’d definitely be done for."

"I have to learn to control what I have. But first, let’s get out of here..."

"Can you give me some context?" Haru asked Genius, jumping nonstop.

"Well..." Genius began, panting.

Father Elias called out a name, a random Gamer was caught out of nowhere, chains binding him, identity revealed, strength drained.

"Basically, that’s what you saw. Whatever you do, don’t stop jumping. That speeds up his process."

Genius breathed heavily.

"And somehow, I think the platforms are getting smaller. But the good thing is: the weaker he is, the easier it is to reveal him..."

"The bastard is a genius..." Haru thought. "Technically, sooner or later the mana will run out because of the long jumps and... "

Before Haru could finish his thought...

He saw it from the end, everyone saw it.

Platforms increasing. More Gamers appearing, each on their own platform.

The Gamers who were in the courtyard, fleeing from Eugen, fleeing from the radiation, were coming there.

Some to help their own. Others out of fear of what they saw outside.

More and more and more.

Ten. Twenty. Fifty Gamers.

Elias watched.

And smiled, genuinely, satisfied.

"How many rats for Veritas..."

But for a brief moment, Haru and Genius saw her, and she saw them too.

Seline, hooded elf, spear in hand, cold eyes recognizing them.

Standing on a distant platform.

Looking directly at them.

"Ah, shit..." Genius murmured. Haru didn’t say anything.

He just kept jumping.

Seline smiled slightly, not a friendly smile, and started jumping too, towards them.