For a moment, there was nothing—no sound, no movement, not even a whisper of the wind. Levi stood still, his senses dulled, as if the world had paused to take a breath.

But then, without warning, a searing pain ignited in his chest, like a white-hot blade being driven straight through his heart. The agony radiated outward, spreading through his veins like wildfire, scorching everything in its path.

His breath hitched in his throat, and Levi's legs buckled beneath him. He crashed to his knees, fingers clawing at the dirt as he gasped for air that refused to come.

His vision blurred, the once-sharp outlines of the desolate landscape now swirling into a chaotic maelstrom of colors and shadows. His heart beat loud and fast, like a thunderous pulse of pain, echoing in his ears, drowning out the world around him.

The ground beneath him felt like it was spinning, dragging him down into a pit of darkness. Levi tried to fight it, to cling to consciousness, but the pain was relentless, an unknown force tearing at his very soul. His body trembled uncontrollably, his muscles seizing up as if caught in the jaws of a monstrous vice.

And then, through the haze of torment, he saw it—the Lunacy Incarnate. The creature still stood wrapped around a distant tree, its form a nightmarish mass of writhing limbs and pulsating flesh. The air around it shimmered with an otherworldly energy, distorting reality as it greedily absorbed more of the larvae that swarmed at its feet.

Levi's vision darkened further, the edges of his sight fading to black as the Lunacy Incarnate grew larger in his mind, a monstrous void that consumed all light and hope. The last thing he saw before the darkness claimed him completely was the creature's grotesque maw opening wide, as if to swallow him whole.

And then, there was nothing. Only the cold embrace of darkness.

***

Levi woke up suddenly, but he was not where he thought he would be.

He could no longer feel his limbs, not any part of his physical body for that matter. Instead, he floated, weightless, his senses dulled to everything but an overwhelming sensation of falling.

Then, abruptly, he wasn't alone.

Voices erupted around him, a jarring cacophony of whispers and screams that assaulted his mind.

"You could have saved her."

"Ungrateful bastard, push him to the grave with her."

"Look, there isn't even a drop of tear."

Words that he had long forgotten whispered back.

"Please spare me."

"I shouldn't have done it, please."

"You deserve that, bastard."

Some begged for mercy, others cackled with malevolent glee. Levi crouched, holding his legs, trying to cover his ears, but the voices were inside his head, impossible to shut out.

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"Make it stop!" he cried, but his words were swallowed by the darkness.

Suddenly, a familiar presence made itself known.

From within the darkness, he saw someone walking toward him.

He looked up, and to his surprise, it was himself—or at least something that bore a very similar appearance to him. It was like looking into a mirror, except the reflection wore a mocking smile that Levi had never seen on his own face.

Levi didn't need to think much to know who it was—his own dark twin, the consciousness born out of his innate ability, the Shadow self.

"We finally meet! Welcome to the depths of darkness, Levi," his twin spoke, its voice echoing strangely in the void. "Quite the ride, isn't it?"

Levi struggled to form coherent thoughts amidst the chaos of voices. "What's happening to me?" he managed to ask.

His twin's smile widened. "You're expanding, Levi. Growing. The essence you consumed... it's breaking down the barriers in your mind."

As if on cue, images began to flash before Levi's eyes.

He saw himself, but not as he was now. He saw countless versions of himself—some older, some younger, some barely recognizable. In one, he stood atop a mountain of corpses, a crown of bones upon his head. In another, he cowered in a corner, muttering incomprehensibly to himself.

"These are... me?" Levi asked, bewildered.

"Possibilities," his twin corrected. "Paths you could take, lives you could lead. The essence of lunacy shows you the infinite potential of your existence."

The images came faster now, a dizzying kaleidoscope of alternate lives. Levi saw himself as a demon, a beggar, a saint, a monster. He saw worlds where he had never been born and worlds where his actions had shaped the course of history.

"It's too much," Levi gasped, feeling as though his mind might shatter under the weight of these visions.

His twin nodded sagely. "That's the price of true sight, Levi. The world as it truly is—infinite, chaotic, beautiful in its madness. Most minds can't handle it. They break, consumed by the possibilities."

Levi felt a creeping dread. "And me? Will I break too?"

For the first time, his twin's smile faltered.

"That depends on you. The essence grants power but at a cost."

"What cost?"

Then the smile crept back onto the twin's face.

"You will know," it said, turning its back to Levi as if waiting for him to ask something more.

And Levi did.

"You... What are you?"

There were many questions he wanted to ask. Is he good? How did he know so much about things Levi had never known? What was its goal? But first, he needed to know what exactly it was.

"Me?" The twin turned around, seamlessly floating in the darkness. "I am you, but better."

Levi frowned at that answer, but before he could say anything, the twin-spoke again.

"I know, you may feel hurt. But that's the truth," it said. "I can't say anything more—but just know that I don't mean you any harm, at least not to your physical self. I exist because of you—you die, I die. So try to stay alive, even if you can't—I'll make sure of it."

There was a dark glint in its eyes as it said so.

"You... You are trying to take over my body, aren't you?" Levi said, angered by the fact that his own shadow self was trying to take over him.

The shadow self, however, laughed aloud.

"Well, who likes to stay trapped inside this darkness? Of course, I would try to take over your body, but that also depends on you..."

Its tone suddenly grew cold.

"If you promise me some things... I will cooperate with you."

Levi felt an ominous premonition. "What things?"

When Levi asked that, the twin just turned around.

"We don't have time to chat now. You better go back and clear the sanctum. I will tell you when the time comes."

As his twin spoke, Levi became aware of a growing pressure in his mind—now that he noticed it, his form was slowly dissolving into the darkness.

"How do I talk with you again?" Levi asked, his voice tinged with urgency.

The dark twin, however, smiled at Levi. "I dunno? Maybe you'll find some way, or who knows, I may take over you by then."

Levi squinted his eyes, trying to hold on, but by then, he could no longer talk.

His form completely dissolved, and he once again lost consciousness.

In the darkness, his shadow self remained alone, and in front of it, two oval images appeared, displaying scenes of the forest. It was Levi's vision—the shadow self was watching what Levi was seeing.

"Soon, we will get our revenge very soon..." it muttered, standing alone in the pitch darkness.

---***---