The moment Lin plunged into the abyss's maw, the world shattered.

For a heartbeat, there was nothing but crushing darkness, silence so profound it felt like the universe had ended. His body was gone—weightless, senseless—as though the abyss had unmade him molecule by molecule.

Then came the voices.

A thousand whispers surged into his skull at once, indistinguishable yet overwhelming. His pulse hammered. They weren't words so much as intentions—hunger, pain, despair—threaded together into an unbearable storm.

Lin tried to move, to fight, but he had no body to command. Only a thought, drifting.

And then, without warning, the dark bled into light.

He stood.

Around him stretched not the fleshy, metallic chaos of the abyss but a familiar place—too familiar. A narrow street lined with cracked pavement and neon signs buzzing faintly in the drizzle. Seoul. But not the Seoul he knew today; this was the city from his childhood, when he'd been small enough to hide in alleyways, before the labs, before the experiments.

Lin froze. His breath caught.

A boy stood at the far end of the street. Skinny, barefoot, clutching a ragged backpack too big for his shoulders. His eyes were wide, hollow with fear.

Lin's chest constricted. It was him.

The boy lifted his head slowly, meeting Lin's gaze. When he spoke, the words were fractured, like an echo bleeding through broken speakers.

"You never escaped."

The street warped. Buildings twisted, stretching unnaturally high like pillars of bone. Neon signs melted into crimson symbols, burning without heat. The ground cracked, black veins spidering outward.

Lin clenched his fists. "This isn't real."

The boy smiled faintly, and his face rippled, shifting. His features grew older, sharper, until Lin was no longer staring at a boy but at himself. Himself as he was now, crimson veins glowing faintly across his arms.

A mirror made flesh.

The double stepped forward, movements precise, deliberate. "Not real? No, Lin. This is the truest reality. Everything else—your little allies, your desperate fight above—it's all surface noise. Here… here is what you've always been."

Lin's jaw tightened. "I know what this is. A trick. Jin's influence."

The mirror-Lin tilted his head. "Jin doesn't need to influence what is already true. You and I—we were born from him. Shaped by him. Every chain you wield, every crimson spark in your veins… it's his gift. You can't deny your blood."

Lin's heart thudded, but he forced his voice steady. "I'm not his weapon."

The double's eyes glinted, crimson blazing brighter. "Then what are you? A stray dog clinging to Keller's shadow? A fragile boy dragging Min-joon's broken body through hell? Without Jin, without me, you are nothing but a ghost waiting to be erased."

The ground quaked. Shadows bled from the buildings, writhing like living ink. They formed shapes—faces he knew. Soldiers they had fought. The clone he had killed. Victims of Jin's labs, reaching out with skeletal hands.

"You've seen it, haven't you?" the double whispered, circling him. "Every time you kill, every time you fight—the abyss grows stronger. It feeds on you because you belong to it."

Lin's pulse spiked. His vision swam. The shadows pressed closer, clawing at his skin. For a moment, he felt himself sinking.

But then—Keller's voice cut through the noise. Not literally, but in memory, sharp and grounding. No more running.

Lin bared his teeth. "I belong to no one."

With a roar, he swung his arm. Crimson chains erupted, tearing through the shadows. They shrieked and dissolved, leaving only the warped street behind.

The double didn't flinch. Instead, he smiled, slow and unnerving. "Good. Fight me, then. Prove you're different. Prove you're stronger than your own reflection."

The world cracked like glass.

Suddenly Lin was standing in a vast hall of mirrors, infinite panes stretching in every direction. Each one reflected him—not just how he was now, but versions of him twisted by the abyss. One was covered in chains like a puppet. Another stood atop piles of corpses, eyes hollow. Another was a mindless beast, crimson veins consuming his entire body.

And directly ahead: the mirror-double, standing tall, chains coiled lazily around his arms, smirking.

Lin felt the pull immediately. This wasn't just a vision anymore. It was combat.

The double lunged, chains whipping forward with deadly speed. Lin reacted instinctively, raising his own. The collision cracked the hall of mirrors, shards raining down like glass rain.

Each shard carried an image of his past—snippets of the labs, faces of scientists, children screaming. Their voices echoed, overlapping, drilling into his skull.

Lin gritted his teeth, forcing himself forward. Their chains tangled, pulling them closer until their faces were inches apart.

"You can't win against yourself," the double whispered, eyes blazing. "Join me. Become whole."

"I don't need you," Lin spat, twisting his chains violently. The backlash hurled them apart, glass exploding around them.

But the mirrors didn't stop shattering. Instead, the fragments reformed into figures—dozens of mirror-Lins stepping out, eyes glowing crimson, chains dragging behind them like blades.

Lin's stomach sank. "Tch."

A chorus of voices rose, all his own.

"You are us."

"You are the abyss."

"You are nothing else."

The horde rushed him.

Lin's chains flared, slicing through the first wave. Shards of crimson light burst outward, but for every reflection he destroyed, two more emerged from the mirrors. They clawed at him, dragged him down, their hands cold, suffocating.

For a terrifying moment, Lin felt himself drowning—not in water, but in himself. A thousand versions of his face screamed in unison, pulling him into their endless tide.

And then—

"LIN!"

The shout wasn't in his head. It was faint, muffled, but real. Keller's voice. From the outside world.

Lin's eyes snapped open. Fury surged through him, cutting through the weight.

He slammed his chains into the ground.

BOOM.

Crimson energy erupted outward, obliterating the reflections in a wave of force. The hall of mirrors shattered completely, leaving nothing but a void.

The double stood alone now, cracks running across his body like broken porcelain. Yet his smirk remained. "You can fight me, destroy me, deny me—but every time you use that power, you call me back. You can never escape what Jin made you."

Lin's chest heaved. His chains hung loose, crackling with unstable energy. He knew the double was right—every strike he had unleashed, every crimson spark, it all tied back to Jin's legacy.

But he also knew something else.

He wasn't fighting alone anymore.

Keller. Min-joon. The faces of those who still lived because of him. That was his truth.

He raised his chains again, glaring at his reflection. "I don't need to escape. I'll carry it. And I'll make sure it ends with me—not them."

The double's eyes widened—just slightly—before Lin surged forward.

Their chains collided one last time, the impact so violent it tore the void apart.

Light consumed everything.

Cliffhanger for Chapter 192: Lin destroys the hall of mirrors and seemingly defeats his double, but in doing so, he risks tearing open the core of the abyss itself. Outside, Keller and Min-joon see the monster convulse violently, its body splitting as crimson light erupts from within.

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