infinity transmigrate

The Gate didn't open all at once.

It breathed open.

Like something alive. After years of waiting, something finally decided to exhale.

Kael was the first to step forward. No dramatic speech. Just one step. Two. He vanished—swallowed by the darkness.

Inside was quiet, unlike the peace he knew.

It was the kind of quiet that shouldn't exist. Like a hospital hallway after too many screams. Or a battlefield right after the last bullet.

"Okay," Kael whispered.

"That's not ominous at all."

Inside, the air was thick. Too thick that Every breath felt like swallowing fog.

He didn't know if he was walking or floating.

The ground beneath him wasn't stone or dirt—it was memory or maybe something pretending to be memory, but he wasn't quite sure about that.

Shapes flickered past him. A Fragments. It was like a recorded dream.

The tape started glitching. He saw himself—laughing, bleeding, kneeling, and dying.

Over and over. And over. And over.

Each version stared back at him, neither accusing nor sad. Just there watching him when he passed by. 

"Creepy," he muttered.

He didn't stop walking.

Then he saw her again.

Laniriel.Still barefoot. She felt too calm for someone in a cosmic haunted house.

She sat on a ledge that wasn't there, swinging her legs like a bored student.

Her eyes spotted him right away.

"Took you long enough."

"You make it sound like I had a map."

"You always find your way here." She replied.

"Eventually."

Kael rubbed the back of his neck.

 "Yeah, well. This place sucks."

Laniriel smiled, but it wasn't a warm smile, nor was it cruel either.

She knew too much to smile easily.

"You don't like remembering."

"Nope."

"You're good at avoiding it."

Kael sat down next to her.

The ledge held him like it had been waiting.

He didn't look at her. Just stared into the swirling void below.

"Do I have to remember it all?"

"No."

He turned. "Really?"

"But you will."

"…Fantastic."

"..."

Thump! Thump!

Long enough that Kael could hear the thud of his heartbeat. he felt it sounded wrong.

It beat more than it should,

"Laniriel," he said softly. "Did I fail you?"

"..."

She didn't answer right away.

That was the worst kind of answer.

"I don't remember you," he said.

"Not clearly. Just… flashes. Your voice. The way you looked at me. But it hurts. And I don't know why."

"You made a promise," she said.

"Everyone keeps saying that."

"You did. A long time ago. Right before the last reset."

Kael leaned back on his elbows. "Was it a good promise?"

Laniriel didn't look at him.

"It was a stupid promise."

He laughed. A small, bitter sound.

"Sounds like me."

"You swore you'd fix everything. That you'd carry it alone. You shattered your soul trying."

"Sounds definitely like me," Laniriel replied as she stood.

"Do you want to move forward? You have to go backward first. That's the deal."

"Always with the metaphors."

She stepped off the ledge walk. She didn't fall and vanish into the fog.

Kael sighed and followed.

The world shifted.

One blink, and he found himself in a new place.

This time, he didn't see a memory.

Instead, he saw a scene with stone floors. Giant pillars. Candles flickering in the dark.

An altar.

And on it, a sword.Kael's sword.

He didn't know how he knew. He just did.

The blade pulsed. Faint. He moved in quietly, like a heartbeat that wanted to stay hidden.

Then he stepped closer.

The air smelled like ash.

And then he again.

Another version of him.

This time, he looked younger. Cleaner. His eyes burned with fire, not fatigue.

He stood behind the altar, blood on his hands.

"Don't," echoed a voice.

Kael froze. "Don't what?"

"Don't pick it up."

Kael looked at the blade. Then, at the boy. Then back.

"Why not?"

"You're not ready. You'll break again."

Kael rubbed his face.

"God, I hate younger me. So dramatic."

"I remember what it cost," the boy said.

"You think pain makes you better. You think dying makes you strong. It doesn't."

"I am strong," Kael said quietly.

The boy looked at him. And then said the one thing that hit too close.

"No. You're just good at pretending."

Kael didn't answer. He couldn't.

He moved around the altar and slowly reached for the sword. It didn't resist him.

It didn't hum with power.

It was cold, old, and tired. He lifted it, feeling like he was picking up a lost part of himself.

And now?

It reminded him.

The void shattered again.

The real world hit him hard as his knees hit the cracked floor of Sector 9. Hard. His body screamed. But his hand? His hand was still gripping something.

The sword.

His sword.

The others stared.Finn gasped. "What the—Kael?!"

Riven had her weapon half-raised. Silas, too. Kael slowly stood.

The fog from the gate had retreated behind him. The opening was gone. Sealed again. But the sword remained.

"…So," he said, voice hoarse. "That was fun."

"You disappeared for two hours," Riven said.

"Felt like ten years," Kael muttered.

She looked at the sword. "Where'd you get that?"

"Gift shop."

Finn snorted. "No way."

Kael smiled faintly, but it didn't last. The weight of it all crashed down again.

The memories flooded back. Laniriel's voice echoed in his mind. The promise. The fragments of lives piled up.

And under it all?

Guilt. So much guilt.

He sat down heavily, dropping the sword next to him.

Silas walked over. He opened his mouth like he might make a snarky comment.

But then he stopped. Even Silas knew this wasn't the time for jokes.

____________________________________________________

That night, Riven sat next to him.

She didn't say anything at first.

Just handed him a canteen.

He drank without looking up.

"You broke something in there," she said quietly.

Kael nodded.

"Yeah."

"You okay?"

He shook his head.

Riven didn't press him.

They sat in silence for a long time.

The firelight flickered, and the wind howled outside the broken tower.

And Kael?

Because inside that silence, inside that sword…

He heard her voice again.

"You promised..."