Chapter 1: Multiple Silhouettes
Zyla panted, wiping blood from her lip.
Blood Reaper stood across from her, chest heaving, claws dripping with black poison, eyes blazing in the dark void.
They circled each other, both shaking from the intensity of the fight.
Zyla frowned.
“You’re not human.”
Blood Reaper growled.
“And you’re not supposed to exist.”
Zyla stepped back, confused.
“What does that even mean—?”
Blood Reaper lifted her hand.
Something cracked in the void.
Her shadow detached itself.
Then another.
Then another.
Multiple silhouettes stepped out from behind her — shifting shapes, dark outlines, all glowing with her molten cracks.
Zyla stiffened.
“…No.”
Blood Reaper’s voice echoed through all the duplicates:
“Nightmares… are what I control.”
Eight… nine… ten shapes formed until the void was FILLED with Blood Reapers — each identical, each snarling, each circling Zyla like wolves ready to tear apart prey.
Zyla spun, trying to keep her back to nothing.
“What is this…?!”
The Spider Boy — invisible to both, watching from the edges of the void — felt his heart stop.
Their energy.
Their souls.
Their presence.
Identical.
“Oh no… oh no oh no oh no—” Spider Boy clutched his head.
“They’re the same… their energy is the SAME… this isn’t coincidence… this is destiny—”
One duplicate lunged.
Zyla dodged.
Another struck from behind — Zyla ducked and kicked upward, sending it skidding away.
A third leapt with claws wide — Zyla rolled and jumped, flipping over it before it could slice her.
But the duplicates kept coming.
A wall of them. Dozens now, moving like reflections in a shattered mirror.
The real Blood Reaper watched silently in the center, glaring.
“This is MY nightmare,” her voice layered, deeper, older. “You don’t belong here.”
Zyla punched straight through a duplicate’s chest — it dissolved into black smoke.
Two more jumped her. She elbowed one in the jaw and threw the other across the void.
Her breathing got faster. Her movements sharper. Her eyes glowing faint violet.
Blood crackled at her fingertips.
But the duplicates were endless.
Zyla screamed in frustration:
“WHICH ONE OF YOU IS REAL?!”
All the Blood Reapers answered at once:
“I am.”
Their voices echoed like a demonic chorus.
Zyla snarled and blasted a wave of violet force — it knocked half of the illusions back, but instantly more replaced them.
She backed into darkness, chest heaving, trying to understand.
“Why do we feel the same…?” Zyla whispered.
Spider Boy whispered from afar:
“Because… you two are linked. You always have been.”
He watched Zyla’s aura flare violently — her true nature trying to surface.
He watched Blood Reaper’s aura twist and burn — corrupted by the nightmare and poison.
Both energies pulsed in the same rhythm.
Same heartbeat.
Same core.
Zyla roared in frustration, throwing herself into the fight again—
—
But the duplicates swarmed her.
Dragging her down.
Claws slicing the void.
Screams echoing everywhere.
The real Blood Reaper stepped forward.
Her eyes were endless black.
Her voice a whisper of apocalypse:
“I’ll erase you.”
Zyla smashed another duplicate into black smoke.
But they kept reforming.
Spider Boy paced the edge of the void, tugging his silver hair in panic.
“This is bad… this is REALLY bad… if she realizes she’s asleep—”
A tremor shook the void.
Zyla froze.
The duplicates froze.
Even the REAL Blood Reaper froze.
Spider Boy’s face turned pale.
“…oh no.”
A deep cracking split the darkness.
Like the sky was breaking.
Slowly…
A second silhouette stepped out from behind Blood Reaper.
Much taller.
Much darker.
Much older.
Its eyes were not black—
They were starless.
A void inside a void.
The duplicates stepped back, trembling, as if they feared their own origin.
Zyla backed up, heart pounding.
“That’s not you.”
Blood Reaper whispered, terrified:
“…that’s ME.”
The nightmare-self stepped forward.
But this thing—
Towered twice her height Had wings curled like jagged blades Horns wrapped in barbed wire A halo cracked and bleeding black light Skin not just black… but negative space, like nothingness given shape
It opened its mouth—
And its teeth were wrong.
Not sharp.
Not serrated.
But spiraling inward, like a bottomless drain.
Zyla whispered:
“What ARE you…?”
The creature spoke in a voice that didn’t echo—it devoured every sound around it:
“THE FUTURE.”
Blood Reaper screamed:
“No—NO—you’re not real!”
Nightmare-Reaper tilted her head.
“I AM YOU… WHEN YOU STOP PRETENDING YOU CARE.”
The void rumbled.
Every duplicate dissolved instantly— not defeated, not dismissed— devoured back into her.
Zyla stepped forward, fists trembling.
“You don’t scare me.”
The nightmare turned its head slowly toward her.
“YOU SHOULD.”
And then—
It moved.
Too fast.
Too impossible.
It slammed Zyla across the void, sending her flipping through the air and crashing into a pillar of bone.
Spider Boy screamed from the shadows:
“Zyla, RUN! SHE’S NOT LIKE THE REAL ONE—THIS ONE CAN KILL YOU!”
Nightmare-Reaper’s gaze fell on him.
It took a step toward him.
He stumbled back, trembling violently.
“N-no—no, no, no—”
It reached down, gripping him by the neck with taloned fingers.
Spider Boy kicked helplessly, choking.
“Don’t—don’t eat me—!”
Blood Reaper lunged and SLASHED its arm, screaming:
“LET HIM GO!”
Nightmare-Blood Reaper didn’t even flinch.
“WHY? THE SPIDER KNOWS THE TRUTH.”
Zyla blasted the creature with violet force—
The creature absorbed it like a sponge.
“Your power is MINE,” it said.
Zyla stumbled backward, horrified.
The nightmare tossed Spider Boy aside like a ragdoll.
He hit the ground, coughing.
Then the creature turned fully to Blood Reaper.
“STOP FIGHTING ME,” it hissed.
“I AM WHAT YOU BECOME WHEN YOU LET THEM BREAK YOU.”
Blood Reaper shook her head, terrified.
“No… I won’t become that—”
Nightmare-Reaper rushed her.
Grabbed her by the throat.
Lifted her off the ground.
Spider Boy cried out:
“NO! YOU’RE KILLING HER!”
Zyla launched forward, slamming into Nightmare-Reaper’s side, breaking its grip—
The nightmare turned its attention to her instead.
“THE DEMONIC ANGEL… THE THIEF OF SOULS… THE ONE WHO WILL BURN THE SKY…”
Nightmare-Reaper’s jaw unhinged.
The void warped.
Zyla braced herself—
Blood Reaper screamed:
“DON’T TOUCH HER!”
The nightmare backhanded Blood Reaper across the void.
Spider Boy shouted, frantic:
“They’re both going to DIE at this rate—somebody has to break the spell!”
