"Wake up, Eldritch. You're going to die if you keep lying there like that. Well… if you die, I die. And that's not… good."
The voice was soft. Familiar. Too familiar.
Even now, the voice of the one I loved was being mimicked by something that had no right to wear it. There was a slight distortion beneath it, subtle enough that most would miss it, but to me it was unbearable. Like hearing a melody played just slightly out of tune.
My eyes slowly opened.
The battlefield was gone.
No blood staining the earth.
No shattered armor.
No screams.
No tide of monsters clawing their way toward us.
Only silence. A suffocating, unnatural silence.
Instead, I lay on cold, cracked stone beneath a fractured ceiling. Jagged beams of light pierced through the ruin above, illuminating drifting dust that moved lazily through the still air. Each particle floated as if time itself had slowed, as though this place existed outside the rhythm of the world I knew.
The walls around me were ancient, their surfaces worn smooth in some places, jagged in others, etched with bloody symbols I could not recognize. They pulsed faintly, almost imperceptibly, as if something within them still lived.
A ruin.
But not an ordinary one.
There was something wrong with it.
Something watching.
I pushed myself up, my body heavy, as though I had been dragged from the depths of something far worse than sleep. My limbs responded slowly, resisting me, as if they no longer fully belonged to me.
And then… I saw her.
Standing just a few steps away.
Watching me.
Wearing that same familiar face.
My chest tightened painfully.
Sorrow rose first, sharp and suffocating.
Then confusion, twisting through my thoughts.
And beneath it all… Anger.
A quiet, burning anger that threatened to consume everything else.
But anger would only cloud my thoughts. I had learned that long ago. Learned it through years of war, through loss, through watching everything I once held dear crumble into ash…
I forced myself to breathe.
Slow.
Controlled.
Then another.
Administrator 99.
"Where am I?"
She tilted her head slightly, almost playfully, as if amused by my question.
"Welcome the Infinite, Lord Kael," she said. "You're in a ruin."
A small pause followed, as though she were considering how much to reveal.
"Let me explain."
She turned and began to walk, her steps light, almost soundless against the stone. No dust stirred beneath her feet. No echo followed her movement.
As if she wasn't truly there.
"It all began with Origin, the creator of the Infinite," she said. "A realm beyond your world. Endless. Boundless."
She paused briefly.
"But not without rules."
The air shifted as she spoke.
Faint distortions rippled outward from her presence, and then, illusions formed.
Vast landscapes stretched across the air itself. Endless oceans with no horizon. Towering forests that pierced into nothingness. Skies filled with unfamiliar stars that pulsed like living things.
They appeared…
Then vanished.
It was a familiar trick… something mages used for entertainment back in the kingdom.
But this time, it felt different.
Leaving behind only a lingering unease.
"The Infinite is a realm for the apostles," she continued. "Chosen ones by spheres of power. Brought here to pursue strength beyond mortal limits."
Her eyes locked onto mine.
"Power that can reshape existence."
She raised her hand.
Light gathered in her palm, condensing into shifting forms. Continents formed and fractured. Mountains rose and collapsed. Entire worlds flickered into existence… then unraveled into nothing as if they had never been.
"Administrators guide Apostles," she said. "We oversee your progression. Enforce the rules…"
A faint smile touched her lips.
"…and ensure your survival as if it were our own."
She paused.
The air grew still again.
"…There is one rule that defines everything here."
"The Dominion Cores."
The moment the words left her lips, the air grew heavier.
The walls seemed to close in around us.
Even the light dimmed, as if the very concept of those words was unwelcome in this place.
From the name alone… I understood.
They were not symbols of order.
They were the embodiment of chaos, war, and death itself.
"Fragments of authority," she continued. "Each core holds another fracture of Origin's power. Only apostles can claim and control them."
She paused, letting the weight of it settle.
"And if one gains control over all of them within the Infinite…"
For a moment, she went still.
Not warm. Not cold.
Just… distant.
"They ascend beyond limitation."
Her gaze sharpened.
"Creation. Destruction. Dominion over existence itself."
She stepped closer.
Too close.
I could see everything now.
Every detail of her face.
Every memory tied to it.
And the emptiness behind it.
"In many worlds," she said softly, "they call it… Godhood."
Then she leaned back, tapping a finger lightly against her lips, as if the conversation had already begun to bore her.
I stared at her.
None of this made sense.
The life I had lived.
The war I had fought.
Everything I had lost.
Was it all meaningless?
No.
I refused to accept that. I refused to accept any of this.
My jaw tightened.
I gritted my teeth.
In that moment, my patience snapped.
I moved. Fast.
I lunged forward, reaching for her throat,
And passed straight through.
Nothing.
Not even air.
I looked back at her.
For a moment, I couldn't move.
Couldn't think.
"It's no use," she said calmly. "I am nothing more than a byproduct of the sphere you destroyed… the very same one that chose you and brought you here."
Her gaze lingered on me, unreadable.
"You cannot touch me. Not yet."
A brief silence followed.
"For now…"
"You must meet your follower, Lord Kael."
My eyes narrowed.
"Follower?"
She smiled.
"She's already here."
The door behind me exploded inward.
Wood shattered violently. Dust surged into the air, filling the ruin with a choking haze.
From the shadows, a figure emerged.
A woman.
Her nun's habit hung in torn strips, soaked in layers of dried blood. The fabric clung to her frame, stiff and heavy, as though it had absorbed years of suffering.
White hair framed her face, uneven and stained.
Her crimson eyes burned.
Not with rage.
With devotion.
Unstable.
Absolute.
She staggered forward, each step uncertain, her body trembling as if it had long since reached its limit.
And then, she collapsed to her knees.
Her head bowed low.
Tears fell freely, carving clean paths through the grime and blood on her face.
"The ritual…" she whispered.
Her voice broke.
"…it worked…"
She pressed her forehead to the ground.
As if offering everything she was in that single motion.
"I've been waiting…"
Her voice trembled.
"For your return…"
Her hands clenched against the stone.
"My lord."
Silence fell once more.
Heavy.
And for the first time since awakening…
I understood.
Not everything. Not yet.
But enough.
This place.
This fate that had been forced upon me…
This was only the beginning.