My Talent's Name Is Generator

Chapter 1309: A Familiar Face In The Void

We continued rushing toward the distant palace, neither of us speaking as the darkness of the dead zone stretched endlessly around us. I kept my perception fully expanded, watching every fluctuation in the surrounding void while my Time Origin remained active, ready to respond to anything that appeared.

For several minutes, nothing happened.

Then I felt it.

My body suddenly stiffened.

The sensation was faint at first, but there was no mistaking it. The same temporal force that had previously descended upon Lyrate had appeared again, except this time its target was different.

Me.

My eyes widened.

"Fuck... this is bad."

Lyrate immediately turned toward me.

"What happened?"

I didn’t answer.

I focused on the incoming temporal force and activated my own Time Origin, forcing it forward to collide with the strange power before it could reach me.

The instant the two forces touched, my consciousness was ripped away.

Once again, I found myself standing inside that endless corridor.

Doors stretched into infinity on both sides, each one representing some unknown possibility of the future. The corridor itself seemed alive, filled with an ancient temporal pressure that made my instincts scream at me to leave.

I didn’t hesitate. I raised my hand and released my Absolute Authority.

The corridor trembled violently.

Cracks spread across its walls, tearing through the countless doors before the entire structure collapsed under the pressure. My consciousness was thrown back into my body.

I staggered slightly.

My breathing became heavier, and a tremor ran through my arms as the backlash coursed through me.

Lyrate immediately moved closer.

"Billion, are you alright?"

"I’m fine."

I steadied myself and looked toward the palace.

"Just keep moving."

She hesitated for a moment before nodding.

We accelerated again.

The palace remained distant, barely visible through the endless darkness, but every second we spent inside this place seemed to make the surrounding temporal pressure more oppressive.

Then, after several more minutes, it happened again. This time, I felt it before the attack even arrived. The Time Origin surged through the dead zone with considerably greater intensity than before.

My expression changed.

"Again?"

I immediately activated my Time Origin and sent it crashing toward the incoming temporal force.

The collision was far more violent this time. My consciousness was dragged into the corridor once more, but the structure around me was different. The walls were already beginning to crack from the pressure of my arrival.

I unleashed my Absolute Authority.

The corridor shattered.

But the backlash was brutal.

My consciousness slammed back into my body, and I nearly lost control of my flight. My entire body trembled, and a sharp pain spread through my head as if my mind itself had been struck.

Lyrate grabbed my arm.

"Billion!"

I steadied myself, but this time I didn’t immediately continue.

I stopped completely.

Lyrate looked at me with growing concern.

"What happened?"

I stared ahead.

For the first time since entering this dead zone, I wasn’t looking toward the palace. I was looking at the darkness directly before us.

"We’re dead."

Lyrate’s expression froze.

"What?"

I slowly raised my hand and pointed forward.

"Look."

She followed my finger. For several seconds, there was nothing.

Then the void rippled.

Once.

A strange distortion spread outward through the darkness, causing the surrounding space to bend as though something enormous was forcing its way through reality.

Lyrate’s eyes narrowed as she stared into the distortion spreading across the void. "What is that?" she asked, but I didn’t answer because I was already watching the fluctuations intensify, my perception desperately trying to understand what was attempting to emerge.

The darkness twisted in front of us as if space itself had become a sheet of fabric being pulled from opposite directions, and after several moments of violent distortion, a figure finally stepped through.

My breath caught the instant I saw him.

Lyrate went completely still beside me, and for several seconds I just hoped it was a dream. The figure floating before us was a human man, and there was something deeply unsettling about the way he looked. He had my face, my body and my eyes. Every detail was identical, so perfectly replicated that there was no possibility of mistaking what stood before us.

I stared at him in disbelief because there was no question about his identity.

I was looking at myself.

But not the version of myself standing beside Lyrate.

The man before us carried a presence so overwhelming that the surrounding dead zone itself seemed to tremble beneath it, and beneath that terrifying pressure I could clearly sense something that made my heart sink even further.

It was my Soul Force, my Origins, my very existence, all of them carrying the same unmistakable signature that belonged to me, yet there was something fundamentally different about them.

They were stronger.

Far stronger.

The figure slowly raised his head, and his eyes settled directly onto mine. We remained locked in silence for several long moments, neither of us making the slightest movement, until his lips gradually curved into a faint, almost knowing smile.

"Billion..." Lyrate whispered beside me, her voice carrying a mixture of disbelief and unease.

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the man floating before us. "Yeah," I finally replied, my voice quieter than I intended as the realization settled heavily within me. "I know."

The answer was already staring back at me. The man standing before us was me.

A future version of myself.

The future Billion looked at Lyrate and me before slowly turning his gaze toward the surrounding void, as though taking in the familiar darkness for the first time in years. His eyes eventually settled somewhere beyond us, and he turned his head to look behind him, seemingly searching for something hidden within the endless darkness.

"Oh," he muttered, his expression changing as recognition dawned on him. A faint smile appeared on his face. "Ah, this brings back memories."

Lyrate cleared her throat, still staring at him with obvious suspicion.

"Is that really you, Billion?" she asked.

The future Billion glanced back at her, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah, I am. Why do you sound like you’re doubting me?"

Lyrate hesitated before narrowing her eyes further. "Are you not being controlled by... this zone, or whoever owns that palace?"

"Controlled?" Future Billion repeated, rolling his shoulders as though loosening up after a long journey. "Well, it has certainly been trying. I can feel it constantly probing at my existence, attempting to pull me into its flow and overwrite my will, but controlling me isn’t quite that easy."