*Chapter 10: Lagos-Prime*
The air hit like a wall.
Suya. Rain on hot asphalt. Danfo horns. The smell of home.
Elux hit the ground running.
Lagos-Prime.
Not the green-sky version. Not the flying danfo version.
This was _his_ Lagos. Cracked roads. NEPA wires sagging. The sky the color of wet cement right before rain.
He was alone.
The jump was a one-way drop. Seven and Director Lin were holding World-7B. His mom was safe there, for now.
This was his job.
The Null King’s words still echoed in his head: _Starting with her._
Elux could feel it. The anchor between him and his mom was a bright thread across the void. And something was tugging on the other end.
He looked up.
Three blocks away, his mom’s apartment building.
And above it, the air was tearing.
A small fracture. Black edges. Like a cut.
Nulls were already coming through. Two. Then four.
Elux didn’t think.
He ran.
The soldier echo took over. The streets blurred. He vaulted a parked bus, ran up the side of a building, and dropped into the alley behind her block in 11 seconds.
The Nulls hadn’t even reached the door yet.
They turned when they sensed him. Faceless. Perfect.
The first one reached for him.
Elux caught its wrist.
Light exploded.
The Null came apart at the molecular level. Dust and silence.
The second swung. Elux ducked, and the punch erased a hole in the wall behind him.
He didn’t dodge the third. He walked _through_ it.
His body was glowing now. Not leaking. Channeling. He could feel the other Eluxes lending him strength. The monk’s focus. The pilot’s reflexes. The soldier’s rage.
One by one, the Nulls turned to dust.
Silence.
Elux kicked in the door to his mom’s apartment.
Empty.
The table was there. The note was gone. In its place: a single tomato. Perfect. Red.
And on the wall, written in ash:
_I KNOW WHERE SHE IS -NK_
The Null King.
Elux’s jaw tightened. The blue light under his skin flared.
He could feel her. Not here. Somewhere else. Through the anchor.
Afraid. But alive.
He closed his eyes and reached out through the network.
_Where?_ he sent to all the other Eluxes.
Images flooded back.
A white room.
Chains.
His mom, sitting in a chair, looking at a blank wall.
And standing in front of her, the Null King.
World-0. The center.
Elux opened his eyes.
His phone buzzed on the counter. Unknown number.
He answered.
The Null King’s voice came through. Flat. No emotion.
_You came for her,_ it said. _Good. Come get her._
The call ended.
The fracture in the alley widened.
Through it, Elux could see World-0. White. Endless. Empty except for one chair.
The Null King was waiting in it.
Elux stepped forward. The blue light wrapped around him like armor.
He could feel all twelve versions breathing with him.
“Let’s end this,” he said.
And he jumped.
The world tore around him.
For a second he was everywhere and nowhere.
Then he landed.
On white tile.
Across from him, the Null King sat on a throne made of erased worlds.
And in front of it, in a chair, was his mom.
She looked up when she saw him.
“Elux,” she said.
The Null King stood.
_Subject 13,_ it said. _You brought the entire multiverse with you. How considerate. Now I only have to erase one place._
It raised its hand.
The white walls began to crack.
Elux smiled.
“Then let’s fill it,” he said.
He raised his hands.
And every Elux Smith in every world answered.