The heart convulsed in Adrian's grip, its ventricular muscles twisting into topographical flesh. Each pulse ejected not blood, but liquid memory—obsidian droplets that splashed against the rig's shuddering bulkheads and crystallized into:
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Control Group Coordinates:
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Facility Alpha: A cathedral built from the fused skeletons of failed Omegas
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Facility Theta: Its corridors lined with seven-sided mirrors, each reflecting a different Adrian screaming
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Facility Sigma: Where the air itself whispered the Lex Daemonium in reverse
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Scar-Script Revelations:
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The spiral on Kaelis' spine was a countdown
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The child's handwriting morphed into the Overseer's mechanical scrawl: "VIII is not a brand. It's a failsafe."
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The heart's arteries suddenly lashed around Adrian's wrist, feeding him visions of the Original Omega's death:
A younger Kaelis kneeling before the inverted drill, plunging his own hands into the wellhead—not to stop the Demon King, but to merge with it. His final words before disintegration: "They'll keep sending you back until you understand the invitation."
2. The Twin Echo
The memory strata ruptured further, revealing the experiment before the experiments:
Nursery Observation Log VII-Alpha
Subject: Adrian & Subject: "Null"
Twins exposed to [REDACTED] via seven-sided mirror. Null exhibited immediate assimilation with reflection. Adrian's containment successful. Null designated for Demon King incubation protocol.
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The Demon King's child form now clung to Adrian's back, its fingers dissolving into his VIII brand. With each digit that vanished, Adrian remembered:
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The lullaby it sang was Null's voice
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The seven-sided mirror was never a mirror—it was a door
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His childhood bedroom's nightlight (a gift from "Uncle Vaulk") bore the Control Group's insignia
3. Octave Collision
As the eight Adrians merged, their overlapping screams generated a harmonic resonance that:
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Shattered the Overseer's mechanical arms into living shrapnel (revealing each limb contained a Demon Lord's compressed scream)
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Forced the Demon King's form to age rapidly—from child to something wearing Kaelis' face
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Unlocked the VIII brand's final layer:
YOUR FAILURES ARE NOT YOURS
THEY ARE OURS
WE ARE THE EIGHTH
The words weren't etched—they squirmed beneath his skin, formed from the same black fluid now geysering from the well.
4. The Overseer's Truth
Future Adrian's chest cavity split open, exposing:
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A clockwork abyss where his heart should be
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Seven interlocking gears (each stamped with a different Adrian's name)
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An eighth gear missing its teeth
"You finally see," the Overseer gurgled through silver wires. "We're not failed Omegas. We're rehearsals."
His vortex eyes projected the ultimate revelation:
An infinite corridor of control rooms. In each, an Adrian at a different age fights an Overseer. The cycle repeats—not horizontally through time, but vertically through eight stacked realities. The "Demon King" is just the first Adrian who broke the mirror.
5. The Shattering
Adrian's choice manifested not as an action, but as a fractal:
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Synchronize Path: His fingers fuse with the heart, veins branching into the rig's controls. The Overseer's arms embrace him as the VIII brand unlocks—not a door, but a maw.
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Shatter Path: The heart's halves scream. One half crumbles to ash that spells "REMEMBER" on the floor. The other transforms into a rusty key (identical to young Adrian's forgotten nightlight charm).
He chooses the key.
The Octave splinters:
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The eight Adrians scatter across timelines
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The Overseer's body petrifies into a memorial statue (its plaque reading: "HE ALMOST UNDERSTOOD")
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The Demon King's form regresses to a single black tear that falls into Adrian's VIII brand
Final Image:
Adrian stands alone on the collapsing rig, clutching the key.
The wellhead whispers: "You have six more mirrors to break."