The silence weighed heavily on Kael's shoulders, the unspoken burden of everything he had lost pressing against him, leaving him motionless. His eyes traced the distant stars, the vastness of the universe almost mocking his insignificance. He whispered, barely audible, "What is your plan, forces?" The question wasn't directed at anyone in particular, but to the cosmos itself, as though pleading for an answer, for some kind of sign. But the only reply he received was the relentless gnawing feeling of exhaustion—mental, physical, emotional.
Before he could comprehend what was happening, he was sucked into an abyss, the world spinning out of control. It wasn't sleep. It wasn't death. It was something in between—an endless void where dreams and nightmares coiled together. Kael was no longer on his planet. He found himself in a corridor, one built entirely of glass. But this was not just any corridor. The walls stretched infinitely, distorting time and space, showing him flashes of humanity's history—moments of brilliance and darkness, moments of joy and suffering. The images twisted and writhed like living things.
"What a strange dream..." Kael murmured, barely able to process the chaotic fragments of the world that whirled around him. His hand instinctively gripped the sword at his side, as though it were the only anchor left to him in this maddening place. "Aelina... if only you were here..."
He walked, his footsteps silent against the glass floor, as if the world itself had forgotten him. At the end of the corridor, a massive door stood before him—two immense, ornate gates, their surface rippling with strange, ethereal energy. The door wasn't simply a portal; it was a threshold between worlds, each side representing something Kael could scarcely understand. As he approached, the door seemed to beckon him, its intricate carvings glowing with life—ancient forces pulsing behind them, waiting.
Stepping through the door, Kael found himself face-to-face with two colossal, godlike entities. One force shimmered with emerald green light—the embodiment of life, its power radiant and overwhelming. The other was a mass of swirling energy, chaotic yet structured, a representation of pure emotion—the full spectrum of feelings and desires, from unyielding love to crippling hatred. These two forces coiled around each other, connected at their core by a thread of brilliant light, an almost divine creation, both beautiful and unsettling.
Kael approached them, drawn to the shimmering thread between them, but a wall—an invisible barrier—stopped him. It was as though the forces were locked in a battle of wills, and he was not welcome in their space.
"Hey, you—emerald force!" Kael's voice broke through the stillness, laced with desperation. "What are you doing there? Can you break this wall? I need to know what's beyond it."
The emerald force did not respond immediately. Instead, it glanced at him with an ancient, sorrowful gaze, its voice a distant echo. "What are you doing here, human? Do you think you can simply walk into the realm of the gods?"
Kael's heart clenched as he responded, his words coming out in a rush. "I need to see what's beyond this. Can't you feel it? Can't you understand my pain? I need to go there. Please, break the wall."
The other force—the emotion force—spoke, her voice lilting and sharp. "What is this? Do you sense it too, Life? This human... he is not what he appears. There is something else in him, something... broken."
The life force nodded slowly, a flicker of understanding passing between them. "You seek answers, Kael. But there is no simple answer. The wall is not of our making, nor is it meant to be broken. You are not ready to see what lies beyond it."
"Please, I need to understand!" Kael's voice cracked, his frustration bleeding into his words. "I have nothing left—nothing but this sword, this last piece of her! Do you know what it's like to be empty, to be haunted by the echoes of love lost, by the weight of what you've done?"
The forces looked at him in silence for a long time, their presence an unspoken weight. Then, the emotion force spoke, her voice soft but carrying the weight of truth. "You have not yet healed the wounds inside you, Kael. You've lost the memories of your parents—the first sacrifice you ever made. That is your burden to bear. You must face your own darkness before you can move forward."
Kael felt the blood drain from his face. "I killed them. I killed my parents," he whispered, barely able to speak the words. "How can I ever atone for that? How can I live with the shame, with the guilt that suffocates me every moment of every day?"
A bitter laugh escaped his lips as his anger surged. "You don't know what it's like, do you? To carry this burden alone. You're gods, watching from above, manipulating everything. While I'm down here, fighting, struggling, dying a little every day. This world—this universe—is nothing but pain. And you dare call it life?"
Both forces recoiled, the energy in the air thickening with tension.
The emotion force's voice echoed, harsh and cutting. "Why, then, do you try to save everyone, Kael? What is it that drives you? Why do you sacrifice yourself, knowing that you can never escape your sins?"
Kael's fists clenched, the pain in his chest threatening to consume him. "Because I was the first to step into the threads. I'm the one who sacrificed everything—everything I had—for her. I couldn't save her, but I couldn't let go. I couldn't let her go." His voice trembled as memories of Aelina, of her last smile, flooded his mind.
The life force and emotion force fell silent, their presence heavy, as though they were waiting for something.
Kael's heart thundered as the time between them stretched on, like an eternity. Then, in a voice that trembled with truth, the emotion force spoke again, "You know something, Kael… You don't even understand the depths of your own soul. You think you're the only one suffering? You have no idea what's coming. You have no idea what you truly are."
The ground trembled beneath him as the invisible barrier shattered. Kael took a step forward, trembling with a mixture of rage and hope, gripping the sword tighter.
He entered a new realm—another tunnel, but this one was unlike any other. The walls of this place were mirrors, endless reflections of himself. Each mirror cracked as he passed, each one showing a different version of Kael, some broken and battered, others consumed by rage, others hollow with despair. The reflections wept, screamed, or smiled grotesquely, and blood seeped from the cracks between the shards, pooling on the floor.
Kael's breath hitched in his throat as he felt the weight of the madness pressing in on him. "What is this place? What's happening to me?" he whispered, his voice barely audible. He stepped forward, his body aching, as the broken mirrors seemed to close in on him, each one showing a different facet of his tortured soul.
The deeper he went, the darker the corridor became, until there was nothing but the sound of his footsteps and the soft, distant echo of his own screams. And all around him, the blood-filled mirrors shattered. The path ahead twisted, becoming a labyrinth of broken emotions and shattered reflections—a place where even Kael's identity was no longer his own.