A faint sound, almost a knock on the wall between worlds, awakened Albert. He hadn't been sleeping. But in that realm, consciousness floated like a ribbon between present, past, and something yet without form. He opened his eyes.
Beneath him… there was no ground. Just a canvas of light undulating with every breath.
— You're awake, said a calm voice.
It was the Stranger. He stood at the edge of a glowing circle, drawn directly into the air.
— What is this? Albert asked.
— Not a summoning circle. Nor one of protection. This… is a circle of **possibility**.
Albert stepped closer.
— And what does it mean?
— Here, everything you could be… **exists simultaneously**.
*
Kaelya, Elion, and the Entity watched in silence. No one wanted to disturb the balance of this place. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.
— This place… is no longer a question, said the Entity. It is **the answer that watches us**.
— Or waits for us, added Elion.
*
Albert closed his eyes. A wave of energy passed through his body. In that moment, he felt all possible versions of himself: abandoned child, king of a world, renegade, killer, savior, shadow, fire, silence.
— I could lose myself here, he whispered.
— Only if you forget who you are **when no one is watching**, replied the Stranger.
*
From the light beneath his feet, a symbol began to form. Not a magical one. A **personal** one. A blend between the letter "A" and a spiral. Then, a sphere opened in front of him — containing a memory he had not yet lived.
*
In that memory, Albert stood before a destroyed city. There was no sadness in his eyes. Only calm.
— Who am I here?
A voice from the future replied:
— The one who understood he couldn't save everything… and kept moving forward.
*
Suddenly, the canvas below began to pulse. Not with danger, but with **invitation**.
The Stranger stepped back.
— The choice is yours alone. But if you enter… you will no longer be *just* a traveler.
Albert looked at his companions. Not with fear. But with gratitude.
— I stopped being just a traveler the moment I chose not to run.
And he stepped into the circle.
*
The sky twisted. Space folded. And time… **embraced him**.
Because in that moment, **Albert stepped into himself**.
The light consumed him, but did not burn. Albert felt memory, the present, and what *could be* wrapping around him like threads of liquid energy. He was not walking, but he was moving. He was not falling, but he was being pulled.
He awoke in a round chamber. There were no walls—only shadows. The floor had no borders, only intention. In the center, a stone altar held a blue flame. It wasn't fire — it was the **essence of a question** awaiting a name.
Albert stepped forward.
— Is this… my form? he asked.
An echo replied:
— It is what you may become, if you choose to **understand** yourself.
*
Kaelya felt a vibration through the ground. Her eyes, though calm, revealed unease.
— I can feel his aura… it's changing. Deeper than any of ours.
Elion:
— What if he gets lost in there?
The Entity:
— He won't get lost. He will **construct himself**.
*
Inside, Albert touched his chest. He felt the entire world pulsing in sync with his heartbeat. He sat on the altar, and the flame didn't burn him — it **engulfed** him in rings of light.
Around him, nine doors opened. Each one a color, and each color... a **level of consciousness**.
— This is that absolute ability… he whispered.
His eyes began to glow with color. First yellow. Then red. Then green. With each hue, his thoughts became clearer, as though he could see through his own **history**.
Suddenly, an image of a shattered mirror appeared. A female voice — cold and familiar — slid into his mind:
— You've returned again… to see what you cannot comprehend?
It was the **Woman of Mirrors**.
— No, said Albert. I've come… to see what I've refused to accept.
His eyes blazed in a **deep red**, and the flame around him paused.
— Are you ready to see time? the voice asked.
Albert:
— I'm ready to choose what to **do with it**.
And he stepped toward the first door.
*
Outside, the sky began to crack softly — not in destruction, but like a canvas tearing to reveal **what lies beneath**.
Kaelya:
— We're approaching something irreversible.
The Entity:
— We're not approaching. We're already **within** it.
Interlude – The Shadow of a Global Breath
As Albert stepped into himself, the world began to vibrate in a different way. It wasn't sound, nor light. It was a **rhythm**. A pulse. A universal blink.
*
1. Leon – *Port of Aurelith*
Night had fallen over Aurelith, but Leon was not asleep. He stood in the southern tower, the same one Albert had departed from long ago.
He felt a **thickening of time** in the air. The clocks in the city below began ticking out of sync. People moved slower in the morning, faster at dusk, as if the city… was trying to sync with something else.
Leon:
— He entered a circle. We are its edge.
*
2. Arkan – *Circle of Dragons*
In the mountains, Arkan opened his eyes just as the eternal flame of the ancestral temple extinguished without warning. The other dragons felt it too.
Zelyra:
— What does this mean?
Arkan:
— He's entered the nucleus. And the nucleus has no edges.
*
3. Torenhael Academy
Maestra Vayra sat silently in the spherical observatory chamber. The central globe — called "The Heart of Language" — began projecting unknown symbols. Each symbol transformed into another before it could be understood.
A disciple:
— What language is this?
Vayra:
— It's not a language. It's **raw will** turning into reality.
*
4. Jade Kingdom
The fallen oracle opened her eyes. And spoke a single sentence, in a tone that made the air itself tremble:
— The circle is not a destination. It is a beginning that has not yet had a past.
Nelyra, calm-faced, leaned closer:
— Then… what comes next?
*
5. The Demon King
On the Throne of Shadow, in the heart of an extinct volcano, the Demon King felt fire shiver beneath his skin. It was a sensation he hadn't experienced since becoming immortal.
— He… has begun walking without feet, but leaving footprints that will last forever.
*
6. The Ancient Spirits
In the unmapped forests, the spirits gathered around a blind tree. And the tree, silent for thousands of years, finally spoke:
— The son of those who never asked… **has asked everything at once**.
*
The world was not collapsing. But it was **holding its breath**.
Because somewhere in existence, a single man… was becoming the **gravitational center of the absolute question**.
Albert stepped through the first door. The world didn't change immediately. Everything remained… silent. Then, a massive heartbeat shook the space, like a gong echoing through the entire plane of existence.
Before him was a hall of mirrors, but each mirror showed a different reality. In one, he was an absolute ruler. In another, an exile. In yet another… he was dead.
— What are these? he asked.
— Possibilities that were never chosen, replied a calm voice. It was **himself** from a future where he had become a tyrant.
— I didn't choose that.
— Not yet.
Albert closed his eyes. He focused. Not to reject these realities, but to accept them. Only then could he move forward.
And then… a mirror cracked, and from it emerged a being made of black mist and white symbols. It spoke with every voice he had ever carried.
— Why have you come?
Albert:
— To understand **what I cannot become**, so I know what I **choose** to be.
The creature was silent. Then it unraveled, and the mirror cleared.
On its surface appeared a phrase:
**"Self-knowledge is the only magic that cannot be stolen."**
*
The second door opened without being touched.
*
Outside, Kaelya held her hand to the ground. She felt the pulse of the door activating.
— He passed the test of reflection, she said.
The Entity:
— Now comes the test of **will**.
*
Inside, the second chamber was empty. Only a pedestal with a sword. But beside the sword… a child. Frail, hungry, with wide eyes.
Albert approached.
— You're not real, are you?
The child shook his head.
— I am what you were. Your voice before you knew who you were.
Albert knelt.
— And what do you want to tell me?
— That everything you have now… wasn't always there. And if you forget that, sword or no sword, **you'll be weak**.
Albert left the sword.
— Power that demands to be remembered… is power no one deserves.
And the child smiled.
*
The third door was already forming. But before he touched it, Albert's eyes turned red again.
— Another vision, he said.
This time… it wasn't just the future. It was also a voice.
— "You've chosen well. But good paths are never short. And long ones… birth shadows."
It was the voice of an **unknown god**.
*
Albert took a deep breath.
And stepped forward.
The third door did not open. It **dissolved**.
Beyond it, there wasn't a chamber. There was an **entire world**. It floated in an inverted sky, where clouds flowed downward and light moved in spiraled circles. There, every sound was a question. Every touch—an echo.
Albert stepped forward. And felt… everything.
The thoughts surrounding him did not come from beings. They came from **unlived ideas**.
— This is the trial of concepts, said an inner voice.
— Who are you now? Albert asked.
— I am your instinct before you ever asked the question. I am your fear of what cannot be named.
*
In the sky, a vague form appeared — like a being of light crying from a thousand eyes.
— If you transform, you can no longer be who you were, the entity said.
Albert:
— Maybe I don't have to be.
*
Then, at the center of the sky, an image appeared: a **seven-year-old girl**, looking at him with green eyes. No fear. No words.
— Who are you?
— I am what you refused to accept.
— What is that?
— That you weren't made just for power. You were made for **choice**.
*
Albert felt his chest tighten. Not from fear. But from **truth**.
— If I want to become what I am… I must let go of what I thought I was.
And the world inverted. The clouds rose, the light fused, and he was alone again.
*
Outside, Elion fell to his knees.
— I felt his decision. Not to move forward. But to **leave something behind**.
The Entity:
— The hardest part of any evolution.
*
The fourth door took shape in white flames. And behind it… **nothing**.
Albert stared at it for a long moment.
— Sometimes, nothing is the last place you find your center.
And he stepped inside.
*
Time stopped. The world stopped.
And in that nothingness… a heartbeat was heard.
Not his own.
But the **heartbeat of the universe**.
Interlude – Mirrors Without Frames
*
Leon – *Aurelith*
In an improvised library, Leon reread Albert's old notes. Simple words written in a worn notebook:
> "Power without understanding is just noise. Truth only hurts if you refuse to see it."
He stopped. Then looked up. One of the room's walls… reflected an image. Not his own. But of an older Leon. More tired. More alone.
— Frameless mirrors… they've started to appear. And all of them show what we might have been, he whispered.
*
Arkan – *Circle of Dragons*
Zelyra hovered in the air, sensing magical waves. They no longer vibrated in the dragons' frequency, but something subtler — **abstract thought**.
Arkan closed his eyes and said:
— He has begun to choose himself.
— What does that mean? asked Yurehl.
— It means all his versions are seeking to merge into one… and we don't know which.
*
Vayra – *Torenhael*
In the Language Chamber, a new set of symbols appeared: two overlapping circles, a vertical line between them, and a red dot. Vayra could not translate them.
— We have a problem, said one of the mages.
— No, we have a transition. The problem is that we're too old for the new rules.
*
Nelyra – *Jade Kingdom*
As the sacred dancers began a ritual of clarity, Nelyra stared at a mirror that refused to show her reflection. Instead, it showed a child crying in the snow.
— It's not about what you see, said the oracle. It's about what you're ready to accept.
— And if I'm not?
— Then the mirrors will begin to lie.
*
Demon King – *Throne of Shadows*
He rose from the throne. Looked at the red sky.
— There's no more time. When a man begins to confront every path he refused… it's too late to deny what follows.
And for the first time, he **sent an emissary** beyond the demonic lands. Not for war.
For answers.
*
The Ancient Spirits
The blind tree spoke again:
— He no longer seeks the exit. He seeks the **point of entry into himself**.
All the spirits began to bow.
Not to the sky.
But to the center of the earth.
*
In that silence, the entire world… **listened**.
Because it knew: if Albert emerged from that circle, he would no longer be a question. He would be **pure will in the form of a being**.
Albert stepped into the "nothingness" of the fourth door. There, the senses did not follow rules. He didn't see, yet he knew. Didn't hear, yet understood. Didn't feel, yet lived.
A presence floated around him — nameless, formless.
— What are you seeking here? the voice asked.
— Myself.
— You are not here. Here are only the layers you've left behind.
— Then I will walk through them. Until I reach the one that remained.
*
Albert walked. At each step, a version of himself appeared — one who had run, one who had given up, another who had tried to end it all. They did not confront him. They only looked at him.
— I see you. And I carry you with me, he said.
They vanished.
— Acceptance is not resignation, said the voice. It means you've understood… without judgment.
A faint light appeared.
— Then I move forward.
*
When he opened his eyes, he was back in the circle. Four doors behind him. The fifth awaited.
It was made of pure glass, but inside it moved blood. A living pulse. It didn't resemble the others.
Albert hesitated. Then stepped forward.
*
The room was a circular corridor. Each wall bore a tiny door — doors of **small choices**: when to speak truth, when to leave, when to forgive.
In the center stood an old man with a wooden mask.
— What do you see here? he asked.
Albert:
— The unimportant choices that, together, changed everything.
— Correct. Do you remember how many were made in haste?
Albert closed his eyes.
— Too many.
— And yet… you arrived here.
The old man raised his hand. He pointed at a very small door.
— Had you not opened this one once, you would not be here now. Do you want to close it?
Albert:
— No. I want to **bless it**.
He touched the door. And all the tiny doors vanished.
*
— Sometimes, the greatest victories… are born from the smallest gestures, said the old man. And disappeared.
*
Outside, in reality, the sky pulsed with Albert's heartbeat. The earth stood still. And no one, in the whole world, dared to speak his name lightly anymore.
Because that name… **had begun to write itself in the hearts of those who felt the change**.