The wind from the wasteland carried a low hum that only those attuned to energy could hear. Beneath Aiden's boots, the ground trembled faintly, like a living creature breathing in its sleep. The afterimage of the envoys' departure still shimmered in the air — faint silver dust that refused to vanish.
He stood in the center of that quiet devastation, the Obsidian Edge still glowing faintly in his hand. Its black blade drank in starlight, and for the first time since he had arrived on Blue Star, Aiden felt the presence of something larger than himself. Not a being. A direction. A pull that wanted him to move upward.
The System spoke softly, its voice a calm undercurrent within his mind.
[Host status updated.][Gate Fragments collected: 3 / 9.][Next target coordinates: Unknown – Activation requires atmospheric exit.][New function unlocked: Spatial Step (Expanded). Interplanetary jump capacity available for single instance traversal.][Warning: Reentry without anchor may result in spatial drift.]
He read the data and let it sink in. The words interplanetary jump capacity should have filled him with elation. Instead, he felt only a steady awareness of what it meant: once he used it, there might be no going back.
Behind him lay a world still recovering from a catastrophe it barely understood. Ahead lay the unknown — the Verse, civilizations billions of years older than his, and entities that could erase him with a thought.
And yet, he smiled.
"If this is where the road leads, then I'll walk it."
He turned and began to make his way back toward the city lights flickering on the horizon.
By the time he crossed the gates of Base City 5, dawn had painted the dome gold. The defensive towers pulsed with new energy fields, and the streets buzzed with the nervous rhythm of recent events.
Holographic news projections covered the sky:
[MYSTERIOUS ENERGY FLARE OVER CITY CENTER: OFFICIALS DENY THREAT][ASSOCIATION DEPLOYS HUNTERS TO INVESTIGATE WESTERN SEA.][SIGHTINGS OF UNIDENTIFIED HUMANOID FIGURES — POSSIBLE ILLUSIONS?]
People moved beneath the headlines, tense but pretending otherwise. Humanity had learned to live beside chaos — to call it progress when it came wearing light. Aiden passed among them quietly, his presence wrapped in the Silence Spindle's cloak. To their eyes, he was just another face, another citizen.
At a corner vendor, a child tried to launch a paper drone, laughing as it looped through the air. For a moment, Aiden stopped and watched. So fragile, he thought. And yet they still play beneath the stars.
He reached his neighborhood without realizing it. The familiar villa stood as it had before, the glass walls reflecting morning light. His parents' car was parked outside.
He hesitated at the door.
How much longer could he pretend to be their son — the quiet student who once failed his exams, who ate dinner at 7, who promised to visit his grandparents during winter break?
He stepped inside.
The smell of freshly brewed tea and the faint sound of his mother's humming filled the air. She looked up from the kitchen counter, surprised and relieved.
"Aiden! Where have you been? You disappeared for days again!"
Her tone was scolding, but her eyes were soft. She moved toward him, hands still dusted with flour. "I thought something happened after those explosions downtown. The news said—"
"I'm fine," he said quickly, forcing a small smile. "Just went on a field trip with the Association's volunteers. They needed people to monitor the outer zones."
His father, Marcus, emerged from the study, eyes tired but calm. "Your mother's been worried sick. At least send a message next time."
"Sorry," Aiden said, bowing his head slightly. He meant it.
Marcus studied him for a moment longer. "You look different, son. Taller. Stronger."
"Must be the training," Aiden replied, smiling faintly.
His father chuckled. "If you keep this up, maybe you'll finally pass that martial test and show those Silva brats how it's done."
Aiden laughed quietly with him. The normalcy of it stung more than any wound. He sat down at the table as his mother served breakfast — eggs, toast, fruit — a meal so painfully ordinary that it almost felt unreal.
They talked about small things. The economy. School. A neighbor's daughter getting into Aurora University. And Aiden listened — really listened — to the cadence of their voices, the rhythm of a life he could never return to.
When the conversation turned to his future, he only said, "I might go on a research trip soon. It could take a while."
His mother froze mid-motion. "How long?"
"A few months, maybe more," he said. "It's… an opportunity."
She stared at him, sensing something beneath the words. "You're not telling us everything, are you?"
He smiled softly. "If I told you, you'd only worry more."
She exhaled, then nodded. "Just promise you'll come back."
"I will," he said — and meant it, though neither of them could imagine what "back" would look like.
That evening, after his parents slept, Aiden stood on the rooftop beneath the open dome. The stars stretched endlessly above him, alive with faint silver currents — energy lines that connected worlds like veins in a body.
The System unfolded its interface again.
[Gate Fragment resonance stable.][Next vector activation requires altitude: 100 km minimum.][System suggestion: utilize planetary orbit to locate anchor.]
He looked up, then down at his hands. If the next gate is off-world… then this is goodbye, for now.
He focused, activating the Spatial Step.
Space folded with a soft sigh. The city, the dome, the clouds — all fell away. In the blink of an eye, Aiden was standing above the planet.
Blue Star filled the void beneath him — a sphere of oceans and storm bands, glowing faintly from the network of base cities along its single supercontinent. The curvature of the horizon gleamed under sunlight.
For a moment, he simply stared, awe and melancholy mingling in equal measure.From here, humanity's wars, fears, and ambitions were invisible — too small to disturb the silence.
"So this is the world I was reborn in," he whispered.
The System pulsed again.
[Altitude stable.][Resonance synchronization initiating.][Gate Fragment (3) activating…]
Three points of light appeared before him — golden, crimson, and silver — orbiting like planets around his chest. Lines of energy linked them, forming a triangle that spun faster and faster until the void warped.
A tear opened in front of him, faint at first, then vast — a doorway made of pure geometric light, leading into a tunnel of shifting colors.
[Gate to Outer Verse detected.][Destination: Verse Cluster Delta-7, Core Node – Ardentus Prime.][Warning: Host realm synchronization will temporarily pause during traversal.]
Aiden stared into the gate. Through the distortion, he could see flashes — colossal structures floating in the dark, cities suspended above stars, and beings of flame and glass moving between them.
"Ardentus Prime…" he repeated, the name rolling off his tongue like a promise.
He tightened his grip on the Obsidian Edge. "Let's see what waits beyond."
And he stepped forward.
The transition was not falling nor flight. It was rewriting.
Space folded, light inverted, and his consciousness stretched until he could feel the pulse of galaxies passing through him.He glimpsed the outlines of countless worlds, the shadows of beings watching from higher dimensions — architects, guardians, and something darker still.
When it ended, he stood beneath a scarlet sky.
The air was dense with energy, thick enough to taste — metallic, ancient, alive. He stood on a platform made of black stone etched with runes that glowed faintly beneath his feet. Above him, towers of translucent crystal reached into clouds that pulsed like veins of light.
A city unlike anything he'd seen before sprawled across the horizon — floating platforms, cascading rivers of plasma, ships shaped like living creatures gliding between structures.
[Welcome to Ardentus Prime — Core Node of the Seventh Verse Cluster.][Energy density: 1,300 × Blue Star baseline.][Caution: Local entities possess multidimensional attributes. Remain concealed.]
Aiden exhaled slowly. "Beautiful… and dangerous."
He could feel hundreds of presences across the city — each one radiating enough power to rival a Martial Emperor. The Verse Council's Envoys had merely been scouts compared to this.
"Then this is the Verse beyond my world," he murmured. "The place where gods live and mortals vanish."
The System hummed.
[Objective: Locate next Gate Fragment.][Hint: Energy resonance detected beneath Core Node.]
He smiled faintly. "Underground, of course."
But before he could move, a voice echoed through the air — calm, authoritative, impossibly vast.
"Unauthorized traversal detected. Identity: unknown. Power signature: impossible. Entity classification: undefined."
A beam of white light speared down from the crimson clouds, surrounding him in a cage of pure energy. Dozens of armored figures descended from above, wings of light unfurling behind them.
"By decree of the Verse Council, you are under containment, anomalous being!"
Aiden sighed and drew the Obsidian Edge, its shadow flaring against the brilliance of their light.
"Already? I just got here."
Far away, unseen across dimensions, in the infinite halls of the Verse Archive, the record keepers stirred as a new entry etched itself into the walls of reality:
[Entity: Aiden Cross][Title: Successor of Infinity][Current Location: Ardentus Prime, Outer Verse Cluster Delta-7][Status: Containment Attempt — Pending.]
And as the golden-armored sentinels closed in, Aiden's eyes gleamed silver.
"Let's see what the stars can really do."