Darkness.
Adrian floated in it.
Weightless. Silent.
But it was not empty.
Something moved.
Breathing.
Watching.
The presence from before had followed him here.
He felt it behind him.
Above him.
Inside him.
His heart pounded.
Then the darkness split.
Three shapes emerged.
Three versions of the same moment.
Three deaths.
The first.
The creature lunged.
He froze.
Its claws pierced his chest.
The sensation was not pain.
It was absence.
As if something had erased the part of him that had been touched.
The world dissolved.
The second.
He ran.
The distortion stretched.
Its body elongated unnaturally, limbs bending in directions that should not exist.
It caught him.
The pressure crushed him inward, as if reality itself was folding.
Bones never broke.
They simply... disappeared.
Darkness.
The third.
He moved.
Not away.
Forward.
For a single moment, he survived.
Adrian's eyes snapped open.
The abandoned building returned.
But something was wrong.
The creature behind the Shepherd was no longer just a blur.
It had form.
And that form was constantly changing.
Faces appeared and vanished across its body.
Some were human.
Some were not.
All of them were screaming.
But the sound lagged, arriving a second too late.
The world stuttered.
Time froze.
Adrian could move.
The creature could not.
His mind raced.
"What... is this?"
Fragments of the three deaths remained in his mind.
They felt real.
Too real.
Like memories.
Like warnings.
The world resumed.
The creature attacked.
Adrian moved.
The claws missed.
The ground behind him collapsed as if something had erased it.
Dust rose.
Then froze in mid-air.
Reality glitched again.
The Shepherd watched calmly.
"Good."
"Again."
The creature screamed.
This time the sound arrived.
Layered.
Distorted.
Dozens of voices speaking over each other.
Some begging.
Some laughing.
Some whispering his name.
Adrian's skin crawled.
Fear tried to lock his body.
He forced it down.
Observe.
Pattern.
Survive.
The distortion lunged again.
The threads appeared.
Clear.
Bright.
The moment fractured.
First loop.
He dodged.
Too early.
The creature's tail passed through his ribs.
He felt cold.
Not pain.
Cold.
As if the inside of his body had been replaced by empty space.
He fell.
The world rewound.
Adrian gasped.
Back in place.
Uninjured.
But the cold remained.
Second loop.
He waited.
The claws passed.
He countered.
Too slow.
The creature's jaws closed around his arm.
The sensation was wrong.
It did not bite.
It erased.
His arm began to disappear, pixel by pixel.
He screamed.
The world snapped back.
Adrian staggered.
His arm was intact.
But the memory of it vanishing made his stomach twist.
The Shepherd's smile widened.
"Yes."
"Three chances."
"Use them well."
Third loop.
Adrian forced himself to breathe.
Slow.
Calm.
The world narrowed.
The creature moved.
He stepped forward.
Into danger.
Inside the distortion's reach.
The creature hesitated.
For the first time.
As if confused.
As if it could not predict him.
Adrian struck.
His fist entered the creature's core.
For a moment, he felt something.
Not flesh.
Not energy.
Something deeper.
Like touching the structure of reality itself.
The threads shattered.
The creature screamed.
Its many faces twisted.
Some looked relieved.
Then it collapsed.
Fragments of light faded.
Silence returned.
Adrian stood there, shaking.
His legs felt weak.
His head throbbed violently.
The world spun.
But he was alive.
The Shepherd clapped once.
The sound echoed too long.
"Excellent."
Adrian glared at him.
"What was that?"
"A glimpse of the future."
"You could have killed me."
"Yes."
Rage burned in Adrian's chest.
"Why?"
The Shepherd's eyes sharpened.
"Because the world will not wait for you to become strong."
The air grew heavier.
Reality bent around the Shepherd.
"But you are still fragile."
Adrian's instincts screamed.
Danger.
The Shepherd stepped closer.
"Let me show you despair."
The ground cracked.
The shadows stretched.
Time twisted.
Adrian felt something behind him.
Breathing.
He turned.
Nothing.
But the sensation did not fade.
The Shepherd raised one hand.
"Most versions of you die here."
Adrian clenched his fists.
"I'm not most versions."
The Shepherd smiled.
"Then prove it."
The world shattered again.
And this time—
Adrian felt something else.
Something vast.
Something ancient.
Something that had been watching him since the moment he touched the corpse.
It was closer now.
Interested.
Hungry.
The Shepherd's voice echoed as reality collapsed.
"Show me the future you will create."
Darkness swallowed everything.