"Interesting…"

The word drifted through the void, heavy with cold amusement and something far darker beneath it. This was no projection, no fragment, no disposable scout cast into the lower worlds to test the waters.

This was the true body. The source. A colossal, Cthulhu-like existence whose soul stretched across dimensions, whose awareness spanned countless worlds, and whose will had just encountered something wholly unexpected, something painful. A loss.

One of its detached soul fragments had been destroyed, not consumed, not sealed, not suppressed, but shattered outright, erased with a finality that left no residue to reclaim.

Its vast crimson eyes narrowed by the slightest degree, yet that minute change carried enough weight to warp the surrounding void.

For the first time in countless cycles, something resembling caution seeped into its ancient, unfathomable mind.

A low, reverberating chuckle rolled outward soon after, the sound bending space itself as nearby reality trembled under the sheer pressure of its presence.

"Velmora…" The name was spoken slowly, deliberately, as if savored, as though the world itself were an unfamiliar flavor worth remembering.

The countless tentacles coiled within its abyssal maw writhed more violently, and its aura thickened as red and black energies spiraled chaotically around its immense form, bleeding into the void like a spreading stain.

"And you…" Its gaze sharpened, piercing through layers of space, causality, and fate itself, locking onto a distant, unseen figure far beyond the reach of ordinary perception. "…are far more interesting than you should be."

The words vanished as the void swallowed them whole, leaving no echo behind, only intent.

And so the being continued to drift in the darkness, watching, waiting, learning, its attention now firmly fixed on a world that had unknowingly earned its notice.

---

A shiver ran through Bruce's spine. It was faint, so faint that, under normal circumstances, he might have dismissed it as lingering tension from the battle or residual mana backlash. But it wasn't physical, and it wasn't fear.

It was something deeper, an instinctive ripple that brushed against his soul and vanished before he could properly grasp it.

Bruce frowned slightly, the sensation already fading as he tried to pinpoint its source.

"…That was strange," he muttered. There was no aura, no warning, no system alert to justify the feeling.

Whatever had noticed him, if anything had at all, was far too distant for even Vaelith to react to. After a brief pause, he shook the sensation off and exhaled slowly, turning his attention back to what lay before him.

Axiom's Labyrinth.

The vast expanse stretched endlessly in every direction, its scale and stability far beyond what it had been when Bruce first claimed it. The invisible barriers separating the three regions, the mountain, forest, and snow zones, stood firm once more, seamless and absolute. The fractures he and Ash had torn open during the initial clearing had completely healed, the space knitted together so cleanly it was as if the damage had never existed.

Bruce nodded faintly at the sight. "…Good."

While he had been away, his clone hadn't been idle. Per his orders, it had made full use of the corpses Bruce had accumulated, harvesting, replicating, refining.

Through Mirrored Surgeon, the remains of the slain beasts had been repurposed to replenish the Labyrinth's population, each region restored with creatures perfectly suited to its environment.

Bruce willed it.

Space folded gently around him, and in the next instant, he stood high above the mountainous region, the domain of the Moon variants.

Cold, thin air brushed against his bare chest as he hovered effortlessly at a lofty vantage point, gazing down at jagged mountain ranges that stretched as far as the eye could see. Pale red moonlight bathed the terrain, reflecting off icy cliffs and razor-sharp ridgelines, and far beneath him, movement stirred.

A lot of movement. Moon Wolves prowled in coordinated packs, their silver-flecked fur glowing faintly under the lunar light, while Lycans patrolled the higher ridges, massive silhouettes leaping effortlessly between cliffs, their presence dominating the terrain.

And at the center of it all were the Alphas, around twenty of them, each a refined version of the original Alpha Bruce had once faced.

Larger, stronger, and far more composed, they moved with intelligence and restraint, occasionally releasing low howls that rippled across the mountains like declarations of dominion.

Bruce watched in silence as one Alpha halted a brewing clash between two Lycans with nothing more than a glance.

[Your clone was… efficient,] Vaelith commented, a quiet note of approval threading through her voice. [The hierarchy is stable. No internal conflict. Absolute obedience.]

Bruce's lips curved upward slightly.

"They're not just obedient," he replied calmly. "They're disciplined."

His gaze lingered as the packs resumed their movements in perfect order.

"…They're learning."

The realization warmed something in his chest, subtle but undeniable. "They're all mine," Bruce said softly, not in greed or arrogance, but with certainty.

He willed Axiom again, and the world shifted.

This time, he appeared above the forest zone, the Shadow variant region.

The change was immediate. Dense, mana-infused trees stretched endlessly beneath him, their towering canopies blotting out most of the light and casting the forest into perpetual gloom.

Shadows moved unnaturally between the trunks, slipping, merging, and dispersing as if alive.

Shadow Wolves emerged and vanished without sound, their half-ethereal forms gliding through the undergrowth, eyes glowing faintly as they prowled. They were active, alert, constantly moving, predators born for ambush. Bruce felt it the moment he arrived.

"…They're sharper," he murmured.

[Shadow variants adapt faster than the others,] Vaelith replied. [Their connection to you, and to death, is stronger.]

Bruce nodded slowly. He could feel them, every shadow wolf tugging faintly at the edges of his awareness, waiting, ready, loyal beyond question.

He willed Axiom once more.

The cold hit instantly as he emerged into the snow region.

A raging blizzard consumed the land, white winds screaming across endless frozen plains as visibility dropped to nearly zero.

The storm was thick enough to swallow sound and sight alike, but Bruce raised a hand and let Heal flow.

His vision sharpened at once, perception cutting cleanly through the swirling snow and ice until the chaos of the storm became irrelevant. Through it all, he saw them.

Snow Wolves moved effortlessly through the tempest, massive white shapes blending perfectly into the frozen landscape.

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