For a moment, everything else faded.
A smile tugged at V?rher’s lips, breaking through the usual stoicism carved into his face. And without a second thought, he broke into a sprint.
Hegemon did the same.
They collided not as warriors or tacticians, but as brothers—arms wrapping tightly around each other in a long, overdue embrace. V?rher trembled slightly, burying his face into Hegemon’s shoulder as the tears finally broke free, spilling down his cheeks.
“I thought I lost you,” he whispered.
The others stood frozen, confused by the sudden shift. Seraphina raised a brow. The Director glanced sideways, unsure. Only Rück didn’t react—he already knew.
His jaw clenched, fists tightening instinctively. But then… he exhaled and let it go, a soft smile creeping across his face as he watched the two embrace.
They stood there for a while, unbothered by time. Finally, Hegemon broke the silence.
“Remember those old traits we used a long time ago?” he said, his voice low and nostalgic. “You have no idea the potential they actually hold.”
V?rher leaned back slightly, laughing through his tears. “Oh, I do. And trust me—I’ve seen just how far they can evolve.”
Hegemon smiled wider.
And then—two new presences blinked into existence behind them.
The Administrator, graceful and composed, stepped forward quietly and placed her hand gently on Hegemon’s shoulder.
Behind her stood King Chaos—or what remained of him. His form was battered, fractured, dripping with traces of unimaginable destruction. His mere presence sent instinctual shivers through the others.
Instantly, everyone tensed.
Seraphina summoned her blade, The Director’s hands lit with code-based energy, and Merkmal was already halfway into rewriting defenses.
But Hegemon didn’t flinch.
“Hey,” he said with a raised hand, calm and casual. “No need to get all hostile.”
He gave them a look that cut through the tension like a blade through silk.
“Let’s just go home,” he added. “We’ll fill each other in. Together.”
As the golden light in his eyes flared, everything shifted.
In a blink, they were gone from the fields—and back in the lab.
The sterile white lights hummed overhead. Familiar screens, machinery, and half-disassembled tech surrounded them. But the silence was thick with curiosity.
The Director was the first to speak.
“Wait, how did you do that?” he asked, stepping forward. “What trait power was that? That wasn’t anything I’ve ever—”
But he stopped mid-sentence.
Because before their eyes, Hegemon’s form began to shift.
His coat dissolved into data fragments, reforming into a blue jacket with a glowing white pattern, over a deep red shirt with bright yellow outlines curling across the fabric like circuitry. His skin faded away, revealing a perfectly structured skeletal form beneath, elegant and eerie.
And then his eyes—brilliant glowing purple orbs—locked onto them.
The room went dead silent.
V?rher took a step back. “What in the world happened to you?!”
The Administrator stared, horrified. “Hegemon… what are you now?”
The panic spread like wildfire. Seraphina dropped her blade in shock. The Director scrambled through mental logs for answers. Even King Chaos, for once, said nothing.
Only Merkmal remained seated at the lab bench, one hand resting against his temple.
Hegemon raised a skeletal hand, stopping the rising tide of voices around him.
“Alright—before we dive into… this,” he gestured to his constantly warping form, “this slight issue… let’s go over what’s happened in the last… how long has it been, actually?”
V?rher crossed his arms, his brows drawn in as he calculated. “…It’s been about three years since we last… well… killed you.”
That sentence alone froze the room.
V?rher blinked. “Wait—how are you even here when we watched you die?”
Hegemon chuckled softly, voice layered with echoes from beyond the grave. “That’s exactly what we’re going to unpack. From the beginning.”
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The tension slowly bled from the room as the group gathered, pulling chairs, clearing debris, and preparing to share the impossible. For hours—maybe longer—they traded stories.
Every angle.
Every timeline.
Every consequence.
From V?rher’s perspective in the fractured multiverse, to The Director’s attempt to preserve code within collapsing timelines. From Seraphina’s secret campaigns in the inner realms to Merkmal’s reality bending experiments with Rewrite. Even Rück offered his version—silent at first, but honest when it mattered.
Throughout it all, Hegemon’s form kept shifting, his body glitching through moments in his own timeline:
- First: His human self, flesh and eyes full of resolve.
- Then: A skeletal version, his form melting like wax under temporal strain.
- After that: A fixed skeletal version, almost identical but solidified.
- Then: A terrifyingly gigantic variant, towering like a living monument of death, causing Rück’s breath to hitch—he’d seen that form once before and hoped never to again.
And finally, as their stories ended, Hegemon’s appearance began to flicker with infection— shadows leaking as his skin reformed from under his skin, his skeletal face flickering with bursts of static.
He stood slowly.
“…Loading,” Hegemon said calmly, “I think it’s time you showed them. Show them everything.”
The entire room stilled.
With a subtle hum, the shapeshifting halted. Bits of armor and flesh fell away in a cascade of particles. The illusion broke—and what remained was chilling.
A corpse.
Or rather, the remains of Hegemon’s original body—partially hollowed, suspended like a puppet. Beneath it was a blurred, seething black entity, like a void wrapped in illusion, barely maintaining cohesion.
And then the corrupted shell returned, reforming around it. The truth hidden once more.
The silence that followed was sacred.
“…I am not alive,” Hegemon finally said. “But I am not dead either.”
His voice didn’t waver.
“This is me—not a copy, not a doppelg?nger. Thanks to Loading… I’ve broken the laws he once enforced. Or, I should say—the laws that Eternity originally put in place.”
He began to pace slowly, eyes glowing with golden intensity.
“I was meant to be gone. A fallen Conduit. A constellation at best—a memory at worst. But somehow… here I am.”
He paused, lifting his hand and watching it flicker between forms.
“My abilities… they’re limited to what I had during the moment I was sealed in time. Frozen potential. But hey—at least I kept my memories, right?”
The group absorbed it in silence, and for the first time, there was understanding.
V?rher broke it. “So… what now? What happens next?”
Hegemon turned toward him with a sly smile. “Now? Now we can do whatever we want.”
He extended his arms as if presenting the very concept of freedom.
“You wanted to teach the world about trait magic—and we will. But there’s so much more out there than we ever imagined. More than trait magic. More than we’ve dared to believe.”
He gestured toward Merkmal.
“Merkmal’s power is a unique strain of magic—something not even bound by traditional trait classifications.”
Then to Rück.
“Rück wields Code as his magic. Not just an application, but as a language of reality. But… his version isn’t stronger than mine.” He smirked slightly. “After all, I’m still the Conduit of Code.”
Hegemon’s tone deepened, reverent yet excited.
“Magic isn’t something that can be truly limited. It’s tied to aptitude, to intention, to understanding. Most people barely master a single trait class… and yet some of you—” he glanced at V?rher, The Director, Seraphina, and Merkmal, “—have all seven base traits. That alone is insane.”
He looked around at them all as everyone smiled.
Hegemon and the others eventually began rebuilding the central hub of knowledge: the Die Akademie der Magie und darüber hinaus, now designed as the main magic hub of the world, a place speaking on all the known realms, timelines, and systems of magic.
Classes in Trait Theory, Conduit Channels, Paradox Stabilization, and Multi-School Synergy became the new educational norm for those possessing and wanting to learn in the highest forms of magic.
V?rher took charge of structuring the academic framework, blending his analytical mind with emotion-driven magic evolution.
The Administrator stabilized the Mainframe’s deeper systems, reconstructing its Conduit Anchor and shielding it from Timeline Feedback Whilse eventually getting engaged with Hegemon.
Merkmal started teaching advanced Trait Theory—where studentslearned highly advanced forms of trait magic and even were able to evolve it from basic versions
Seraphina took the role of diplomatic guide between theother institutions that eventually popped up around the world and decided to get together with V?rher.
Rück trained the most promising students in Trait and Magic Combat—a discipline blending magic and swordplay, teachings in Augmentation Constgruct Generation Medical Projectile Generation Quantum manipulation and Meta-Abilities, To learn there skills in real training.
The Director ended up becoming a student at the main institution to keep learning things from the others.
Kara ended up staying as a teacher assistant for Rück as she helped teach people in combat and other things as well.
King Chaos ended up going back to the where he ruled the Multiverse at things did change slowly form him over time but his iron rule became a headache for Hegemon while still being slightly nicer than before yet so much more powerful.
And Hegemon—well, he became the head of not only the world but the Mainframe, the heart of the new age. He offered guidance, sometimes cryptic, other times fatherly, but always pushing everyone beyond their limits and even learning things With the help of Loading while in the Mainframe.
Things were peaceful.. Well, almost. Other countries still didn’t always approved of hegemon’s methodsand that he was somehow alive and back from the dead yet again. But as time continued things had to change with it for good or for worse.