The glass chamber vanished behind Albert, leaving behind a deep silence. In the circle of possibilities, the next four doors began to form, one after the other, vibrating at a frequency only a consciousness that had faced its own reflection without fear could perceive.
The first of them — the **sixth door** — was made of smoke. It changed shape with every blink, taking forms from the past, forgotten voices, broken promises. Albert touched it without fear.
*
Inside was a city. Not just any — it was the **city where someone dear to him had died for the first time**. Everything was recreated: the buildings, the smell in the air, even the sound of footsteps in the rain. But it wasn't a dream. It was an **emotional reconstruction**.
Albert walked among the shadows of memory until he heard the voice of the one he lost.
— Do you think you've forgotten me?
— Never, said Albert. But I stopped living that day… for a while.
— And now?
— Now I've learned to live for you too.
A single tear rolled down his cheek, and the entire scene dissolved. The door closed behind him without a sound. He was at peace.
*
The **seventh door** looked like a spiral of crystal. As soon as Albert stepped through, he was surrounded by the voices of a thousand people.
— You saved us.
— You lost us.
— You led us.
— You ignored us.
It was a chamber of judgment. Not from others — but the collective voice of those whom **his choices had affected**.
Albert knelt down:
— I am not without fault. But I made my mistakes with heart.
And the voices turned into a single drumbeat. The door vanished.
*
The **eighth door** was made of ice. At his touch, it didn't melt — but the world inside… **wept**.
It was a world where he had never been a hero. Where he had chosen to walk away. Where Albert had lived in anonymity, leading a simple life. A wife. Two children. A small inn on the roadside.
When they saw him, the two children ran toward him.
— Dad, you're home!
Albert trembled. It wasn't an illusion. It was a choice that **could have been real**.
— What are you doing? he asked, barely a whisper.
— We were waiting for you, said the children.
In his heart, a sudden ache appeared. A love he had never lived… yet which defined him.
And with all the effort in the world, he turned away and left. The door melted behind him, leaving only a trail of cold mist.
*
The **ninth door**. The one that pulsed. The one that trembled.
Albert raised his hand… but didn't touch it.
The door **pulled him in**.
*
The scene changed instantly. He was a child. Sitting in the corner of an empty room. Outside, someone screamed. Silent tears rolled down his cheeks. The voice outside was shouting a name — his name.
Albert hugged his knees. A long-forgotten memory sent shivers through him.
And then, his eyes **lit up in blue**.
The entire world… stopped.
The magical pressure released from his body did not flood just the room. It swept across the **entire world**.
*
In the Jade Kingdom, Nelyra fell to her knees, bleeding from her eyes.
In the Circle of Dragons, Arkan opened his eyes wide and whispered:
— Now it's **no longer about choice**. It's absolute awareness.
In Torenhael, all magical globes shattered simultaneously.
*
The voice of the one who tested him, a presence unknown until now, collapsed into a desperate sigh:
— I shouldn't have done that… Because of me, the world… could have **ceased to exist**.
Albert opened his eyes. Within them, the blue sea of infinity pulsed.
*
And then, everything… **fell silent**.
Interlude – Beneath the Blue Gaze
*
Jade Kingdom
Nelyra felt a sharp pain in her chest just before the earth began to tremble. The sacred temple — thousands of years old — shifted hue to electric blue. One of the priests, terrified, fell to his knees.
— What is happening?
Nelyra replied with a broken voice:
— Someone has touched the truth… and the truth is **pressing on us**.
*
Torenhael
Magic globes shattered one by one. Vayra placed her hand over her heart. Symbols from sacred books faded, refusing to remain on the page.
— I can no longer contain what is coming, she said.
— What is coming?
— **Him**. He is no longer a man. He is pure echo.
*
Arkan – *Circle of Dragons*
The younger dragons writhed in pain. Some began to tremble, others screamed into the air. But Arkan... smiled.
— I felt only a sliver. Just a sliver. And it's enough to destroy **entire continents**.
Zelyra:
— How can a mere memory… create something like this?
Arkan:
— It wasn't a memory. It was a **wound**.
*
Throne of Shadows
The Demon King rose abruptly. His once-terrifying aura dimmed before the wave of pressure that swept across the demonic lands.
— This isn't magic. This isn't will. It's the **raw truth** of pain turned into existence.
And he sat back down, saying nothing else. He was trembling.
*
In the Spirit Woods
The blind tree began to burn with blue fire, without being consumed. The spirits, for the first time, withdrew in silence.
— It is judgment without a judge, said an ancient voice.
— It is the beginning of a world where **lies can no longer stand**.
*
At the Edges of the World
In a land forgotten by gods, where no one lived anymore, an eye opened.
An eye **terrifyingly old**, with a pupil like a constellation. It belonged to no man, no known race.
And that eye shed a single blue tear.
*
> "He did not raise a hand. He uttered no curse. He opened... a wound."
And the wound spoke for him.
The silence that followed the blue explosion wasn't natural. It was sacred silence, as if the entire world waited for the next word of a prophet. But Albert said nothing. There was no time for words. He was in a space that pulsed with every breath he took — **not outside of reality, but at its center**.
Before him stood the final two doors.
But they were different.
**The tenth door** didn't resemble the others: it wasn't made of matter. It was a rupture. A tear in the very **structure of existence**. Through it, Albert could feel... something else. Not a future. Not a past. But a **parallel reality**.
*
— This is the threshold between who you are and who you can become, said a bodiless voice.
— And if I cross it?
— You will not be able to turn back. You will become… **a constant**. A force. An eternal choice.
Albert raised his hand toward the door. But stopped.
— Not yet, he whispered.
He turned to the eleventh door. It was... **completely sealed**.
But something in his chest pulsed.
— This isn't a door. It's a... **seal**.
The voiceless presence:
— It is the door you could never create. It existed before you. It is where all your paths… **end**.
Albert stepped closer. The door didn't feel cold or warm. It didn't feel material. It felt like... *truth*.
— And what's beyond it?
— Something even you are not ready to see… but which is waiting for you.
*
For the first time, Albert hesitated. Not from fear. But from **respect**.
*
Suddenly, from the circle around him, a pillar of light rose. The doors vanished. Everything fused into a single **point of consciousness**.
And in that point, he saw:
— all of his versions,
— all his choices,
— all his loves,
— all his losses,
— and all his beginnings.
*
In that moment, Albert **was no longer a man**. He was an idea. An intention. A presence.
And yet… he returned.
He opened his eyes.
He stood again before Kaelya, Elion, and the Entity.
Kaelya looked at him in awe.
— Did you… succeed?
Albert:
— There's no such thing as "success." There's only the **choice to continue forward**.
*
The sky above them glowed in nine colors. The last was the blue of infinity.
The Entity:
— He has become **something even time can no longer contain**.
*
Albert stepped out of the circle.
And the world… began to **rewrite itself**.
Interlude – The Rewriting of Silence
*
Leon – *Aurelith*
The window in the tower where he stood began to gently vibrate. Not from wind, not from sound, but from something **undefined**. All the clocks in the city stopped at the same time. The water in the fountain turned bluish for a moment.
Leon stood up. He no longer needed explanations.
— It happened... and we're no longer witnesses. We are now **parts** of it.
*
Arkan – *Circle of Dragons*
All the dragons felt it. Arkan, gazing at the sky, smiled sadly.
— The pressure lifted... and yet it doesn't come from outside. It comes from **within** us.
— From him? asked Zelyra.
— No. From what he **activated** in us.
*
Maestra Vayra – *Torenhael Academy*
The ancient words in the unchanging book began to rewrite themselves. Symbols in the primordial language formed a single word:
> "ALBERT"
Vayra felt a chill.
— His name has become a **formula**. An existential equation.
*
Nelyra – *Jade Kingdom*
Before the temple, a jade flower bloomed in a season when it never should have. The earth recognized something. Something that was **rewriting itself**.
Nelyra:
— In every cycle, someone becomes the **inflection point**. He is ours.
*
Demon King – *Throne of Shadows*
No words. No gestures.
He simply **closed his eyes**.
And sent a messenger... with a white flag.
*
The Ancient Spirits
In the middle of the eternal forest, the spirits began to dance in a circle. Not a ritual. But a **response**.
The blind tree spoke for the third time:
— When someone becomes Truth... the world has no choice but to sing a **new melody**.
*
And then, in every corner of the world, in dreams, in temples, in shadows, and in light, a phrase was whispered in unison:
> "He has stepped out of the circle."
Tower Beyond Time – *The Eternal Council*
In a place that appeared on no map, in a time that flowed differently, the twelve members of the **Eternal Council** sat around a circular table, each within a distinct aura, each a balance between divinity and humanity.
— Did you feel it? one of them asked, his voice resonating like a galaxy.
— We didn't just feel him, said another, her eyes made of living glass. **He saw us**.
A heavy silence.
— He reached the level... without initiation, without calling, without a pact, murmured a figure cloaked in shadows.
The eldest among them, who hadn't spoken in millennia, said:
— When a mortal walks through fire and remains intact… **truth spreads across all planes**.
Another member:
— And what shall we do?
— What we've always done, replied the elder. We will **observe**.
*
Above them, in the transparent dome of time, for the first time in history, a **blue fissure** formed.
And all twelve stood up.
— He was not summoned to the Council. But the world… **writes him into the code of existence**.
*
> "And when the one who was never summoned disturbs the silence of those who watch... neutrality ceases to exist. Only the choice to be or not to be remains."
As the world began to rewrite itself and Albert's comrades looked at the transformed sky, he closed his eyes for a single moment. But in that moment… **the universe fell silent again**.
His eyes lit up in blue. Not just light. An **active calling**. The space around him melted, and time pulled back like a curtain.
— I need to leave for a moment, he told Kaelya and Elion, smiling calmly. I know exactly where.
And then… **he vanished**.
*
Albert appeared in the **Tower Beyond Time**, before the round table of the Eternal Council. The twelve members looked at him in silence.
No shock. No surprise.
Albert walked among them, without hesitation. Without uttering a single word of power. And he sat on the thirteenth empty chair.
— I sensed you long before you sensed me, he said.
One of the council members closed their eyes:
— You knew of us?
— I felt you when I was a child. When no one knew I was staring into the void, I was looking through the fracture in the world… toward **you**.
— And why come now?
Albert looked directly at the eldest of them:
— Because I'm not an exception. I'm a **recalibration**.
*
Time in the tower began to flow backward for a few seconds. The lines in the walls moved, the ancient words rewriting themselves.
A councilwoman, her voice like a silent bell:
— What do you want from us?
Albert:
— Nothing.
— Then why?
— I simply wanted you to know… that **I know**. That you no longer watch alone. And if you ever descend, **I'll already be there**.
*
A murmur ran through the table. The chairs seemed to pulse gently. The elder nodded:
— The truth is, we are not the gods of this world. Only its watchers.
Albert smiled.
— But a watcher… is sometimes more important than a king.
*
Albert stood up.
— I didn't come to ask, but to confirm. You already know how everything ends. But I… choose to **rewrite it**.
And he turned toward nothingness. The nothingness opened.
*
Before leaving, he turned slightly:
— Don't forget… sometimes, **a question asked at the right time is stronger than any magic**.
And he vanished again.
*
The twelve remained silent.
On the table, at the center of the circle, a thirteenth blue light appeared.
Not imposed.
But… **accepted**.
A blue flash, invisible to ordinary eyes, silently crossed the sky. The air felt denser, and the earth… quieter. When Albert returned to the circle where Kaelya, Elion, and the Entity were waiting, he looked the same — and yet **completely different**.
Kaelya looked at him in awe:
— You left...
Albert raised an eyebrow slightly.
— I was never truly gone.
Elion stepped slowly toward him.
— Your eyes… they seem to hold something that used to be scattered everywhere.
— Because I gathered it, said Albert. I gathered everything and learned not to run from anything.
*
The Entity seemed, for the first time, speechless. Silent. Observing. But her eyes followed Albert's movements as if watching a god in the making.
— You met them?
Albert:
— I've known about them. Now… they know about me too.
*
The sky above them was no longer the same. A thirteenth constellation had appeared — one never charted before. Some called it *The Blue Shadow*. Others simply… bowed in silence.
*
— And now what do we do? Kaelya asked.
Albert looked forward. The path continued. It wasn't clear. It wasn't easy. But it was **his**.
— Now… **we write a world that even they never dared to dream**.
*
From behind the trees, an unfamiliar figure watched them. Not demon. Not human. Not spirit.
But it knew.
It knew the time had come for **those who no longer watched from the shadows**.
And the steps toward what was to come… **began**.