---
Yuki stood in an endless white expanse. It wasn't light—it was nothingness, painted in soft shades of stillness. Time didn't pass here in any normal way. There was no sky, no floor, just this place that bent around his presence.
He wasn't sure how he got here. One moment, the powerful figure had abducted the others. The next, he was standing alone in this realm.
A voice echoed in his head—not a whisper, not a memory, but something deeper.
"This place is where power is either born… or dies."
He turned slowly. A figure emerged from the emptiness—shifting and formless. A being made of fractured space and shadow.
"You've inherited what shouldn't be mixed. The Void. Reality."
Yuki narrowed his eyes. "What are you?"
"A reflection. A fragment. A teacher… if you survive."
The being raised its hand, and suddenly the world snapped.
Reality folded in on itself. Gravity reversed. Pain laced through Yuki's body as the very fabric of his existence stretched.
But he didn't fall. He stood his ground, breathing hard.
His aura flared. The violet-black of void energy surged around him—but something new shimmered beneath it. Gold. Cracked white light. Raw, untamed.
Reality.
He could feel it now, like veins running beneath the void.
"Fuse them," the voice said. "Or be torn apart by them."
A platform formed beneath his feet, and twelve identical copies of himself appeared—each one twisted by fear, rage, doubt, pain.
He barely had time to react.
They charged him all at once.
---
Yuki stares at a floating number above his head.
"What the… 40 power stones?! Are those edible? No? Whatever they are, thanks!"
Ren shakes his head. "You're hopeless."