How many versions of him never drew the Edge. Never walked into Null Ascent. Never climbed.
The Descent Algorithm noticed.
It had kept records.
Now it wanted answers.
The Node unfolded as Kai stepped forward from the Axiom Vault. This wasn’t a space—it was a recursive compression of paths, decisions, might-have-beens, and regrets. Twelve fragments of light surrounded him, then spiraled outward, each opening into a Path Not Taken.
[Node 12 Initialized][Domain: Recursive Choice Simulation][Host: Kai (Prime Line)][Invoked: Kai(x) Variants - 12 Threads]
He heard them before he saw them.
Voices like his. Wounded. Broken. Twisted. Some hollow, others vengeful. All real.
“You shouldn’t exist.”“We died instead of you.”“You abandoned what mattered.”
Kai gritted his teeth. “Bring it on.”
A Kai stepped out. Dressed in plain robes, no weapon in hand. His eyes were tired but warm.
“I chose peace. I laid down the Edge. I let the world die so others wouldn’t.”
He smiled, sadly. “You shouldn’t have fought.”
Kai drew his blade. “I fought so you could even speak that.”
They clashed—his Edge against a reality that resisted conflict. But Kai learned: peace wasn’t weakness. It was weight.
He struck down the variant, gently. “Rest.”
This Kai wore armor forged from rewritten gods. He ruled worlds by fear.
“I used the power. I rewrote everything. I didn’t ask permission.”
Kai stared. “And what did it cost?”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
The Tyrant laughed. “My name. My face. My soul. But I won.”
Their battle shook the Node. Tyrant-Kai was strong—too strong. He didn’t fight with logic, but with dominant narrative force—rewriting events before they happened.
Kai countered with Absolute Invocation: Retroactive Counterpoint.
He undid victories before they were achieved.
The tyrant collapsed under the weight of stories he no longer owned.
Each Kai was worse.
Kai the Coward, who ran and watched his world burn.
Kai the Martyr, who saved others but erased himself.
Kai the Broken, who wandered eternal ruins muttering lost names.
Kai the Architect, who built a perfect world and killed everyone who threatened it.
Kai the Judge, who passed judgment even on gods.
Kai the Atheist, who refused all higher systems and rewrote a vacuum.
Kai the Ghost, who never left Earth, still watching his mother die every day in looped memory.
Kai the Forgotten, whose name no system remembered.
Kai the Monster, who fused with Glitch and became hunger.
Each battle scarred Kai deeper—not physically, but conceptually.
He saw how thin the line was.
How easily any of them could’ve been him.
This one didn’t move.
He sat at a desk, surrounded by blank pages. Ink bled from his fingers.
“I made you.”
Kai froze.
“I gave you the pain. The guilt. The Edge. The glitches. I needed a story that bled.”
Kai stepped forward. “You’re not real.”
The Author laughed. “No. I’m more than real. I’m necessary. You were made to fail spectacularly. That’s what sells.”
Kai gritted his teeth. “No one owns my story anymore.”
He lifted the Edge—and the Author smiled.
“Then prove it.”
With one swing, Kai rewrote the page itself. His name bled ink. The story split. And the Author died not with a scream, but with a satisfied nod.
[Simulation Complete][Descent Algorithm Terminated][Node 12: Claimed by Kai (Prime Line)][Warning: Remaining Variants… observing.]
As the node crumbled, Kai saw the remaining versions watching from beyond the glass of reality—some still hateful. Some proud. Some… waiting.
Rynera met him outside the collapse. She looked pale.
“You saw them?”
Kai nodded.
“And?”
He whispered: “Every one of them was me. But I’m the one still standing.”
She took his hand.
“Then keep climbing.”
The Codex Ladder shimmered.
Twelve Nodes claimed. Twelve truths redefined.
Kai wasn’t a hero. He was a choice made real.
And choices… echo.
End of Chapter 82