In the endless silence of the void, the Cube drifted in ption. The worlds he had built not on the full might of primordial w, but on delicate, imagined echoes. It had fashiohese realms as gentle imitations of primordial ws meant to guide growth without overwhelming the chosen one. Each trial had been carefully calibrated, each w a mere refle—a slender hint of that a power rather than its true, unbridled force.

  Yet now, in the dark stillness of the void, the Cube sensed a subtle ge. Amid its meticulous design, a curious disturbance had emerged—a faint, unbidden spark that it did not recall summoning. In its vast awareness, the Cube had always maintairict trol, eling only the delicate hues of ic imagination. But as it reviewed the framework of the mortal trials, it noted, almost imperceptibly, that a different quality had seeped into its creation. A spark of gee, potent and raw, had been invoked.

  The Cube's ihoughts murmured quietly to themselves:

  "I have always fined my influeo mere shadows—refles of the true primordial ws. This has been my way, a gentle nudge for mortal growth. A… a power unlike any I intended now stirs within my design. It is as if something other has touched my prowess, f my hand to call upon the real essence of fate."

  It paused, its vast mind sidering the implications without fully grasping the intrusion. To the Cube, the appearance of this gee power seemed merely aension of its deliberate i—a natural, if ued, evolution of its designs. It did nister the anomaly as an error or interfere simply accepted that a spark of true destiny had es work.

  Still, even as the Cube moved forward with its pn, there remained a quiet mystery that it could not expin: an unseen force from beyond the known universe had, in its own silent way, intervehe Cube tinued, with an almost detached acceptance:

  "I have shaped these trials using the imagination's refle—a pale echo of the primordial ws. And now, by my own design, fate has been invoked. Let this be as it is meant to be."

  Unaware of the deeper interferehe Cube pressed oing the stage for the rial—a trial that would test the chosen mortal in the realm of fate. This subtle alteration, hidden even from its own scious calcutions, would ripple through the mortal world in ways the Cube had not fully foreseen.

  Adrian awoke to the sound of distant cars and the warm light filtering through a bedroom window. He blinked, adjusting to the sight of a modern world. The room around him was familiar yet different, as if shaped from memories that were irely his own.

  He sat up, rubbing his temples. Uhe previous trials, this world felt more… substantial.

  He stepped outside into the bustling city. Buildings stretched high into the sky, their gss windows refleg the sun. People moved about in their daily routines—workers hurrying to their jobs, students chatting as they walked past, vendors calling out their wares. It was a world that pulsed with life.

  Days passed. Adrialed into this life, the patterns of fate in motion.

  At first, he assumed everything redetermined. People followed set paths, routines pying out like a script. But as he watched, he began to notiething else. Small choices, insignifit at first gnce, altered outes. A maating before crossing the street avoided an act. A child choosing a different dire found a lost pet. Fate, it seemed, was not just a fixed path—it respoo a.

  Yet, not everything could be ged.

  As Adrian lived through the days in this modern world, he gradually observed patterns in the lives around him. Fate, at first gnce, seemed like a singur path, a straight road leading toward aable clusion. However, the more he paid attention, the more he realized how choices—both his and others'—iwined in ued ways.

  One evening, he was at a café near his apartment, watg the street outside while sipping a cup of coffee. A businessman in a hurry rushed past, bumping into a young woman and causio drop a stack of dots. Frustrated but patient, she ko gather them. The businessman muttered a quick apology and moved on. It seemed like a trivial moment, just another instance of city life.

  But then, Adrian saw how the event rippled outward. The woman, deyed by the i, missed her bus and had to wait for the one. On this ter bus, she met an old friend she hadn't seen in years. Their versatinited a fotten opportunity, and ter, Adrian overheard them discussing how they might start a busiogether. A single moment of invenience had reshaped the course of her life.

  Curious, he started testing small choices himself. He bought flowers from a struggling vendor, only to see the vendor ter give a free bouquet to an elderly woman, brightening her day. He helped a child find their lost toy, notig how it kept the child from wandering into the street at a dangerous moment. None of these were grand as, but the effects built upon each other, iwining like threads in a vast web.

  It was then that Adrian uood—fate was not a rigid road, but a plex work of iions. It wasn't about a single, ungeable destiny, but about how tless choices interlocked to create outes. Even if ohread was altered, the rger tapestry remained. Some things could ge, yet others might still happen in different ways.

  That night, Adrian stood in front of the mirror. His refle stared back, tired yet thoughtful.

  Then, the surface of the mirror rippled.

  His refle's lips moved, but the voice that reached his ears was not his own.

  "I see. Your journey has begun."

  Adrian stiffehe air felt heavy, charged with an unseen force.

  " "I" await you beyond the universe."

  Then, silehe refle returo normal, as if nothing had happened.

  Adrian exhaled sharply. His thoughts swirled—was this part of the Cube's design, or had something reached into this world?

  Then ahought came to him why would he even think this way, the cube was a mighty w, how could something escape his grasp.

  But before he could fully grasp it, the memory slipped away.

  As the trial came to an end, Adria a deep certainty—he had learned something, though he could no longer name what. The Cube, watg from the Void, also believed the trial had served its purpose.

  Yet her of them realized—something else had left its mark.

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