---
The Seventh Fracture knows no time. It is a dimensional graveyard, where all that fails and is discarded rots in eternity. But Kael does not rot. He evolves. Like a flower blooming from a corpse-ridden soil, he blossoms atop suffering.
Each of Kael's steps tears through reality. His feet tread on surfaces that never remain constant: sometimes flesh, sometimes liquid metal, sometimes just emptiness. His body itself has begun to change. There is no longer a boundary between flesh and power. His blood is energy; his bones echo strength.
In the distance, violet mist churns. A voice calls out, echoing from hundreds of tongues growing between the cracks of the dimension.
"You are not ready," the voice whispers.
Kael laughs. The voice is familiar. It is him—his former self. The past version who was weak, who once cried, who once believed in hope.
"I've swallowed all my pain," Kael mutters, his eyes glowing like dead stars. "I am no one now. And because of that, I am everything."
Suddenly, entities begin to appear: Lira's shadow with a gaping hole in her chest, Lian with a burning body, his mother whom he never knew, and the father who threw him into the valley of death.
They form a circle, staring at Kael.
"We are your fragments," they say in unison.
Kael walks through them without expression. As he touches each one, they burst into black mist. Each explosion amplifies Kael's aura.
"I don't need you anymore," he utters. "I am the remains of a tragedy even demons refuse to see."
The sky above begins to split. Silent lightning stretches out, creating the illusion of a chaotic world. But Kael is not surprised. He has been waiting for this.
From behind the fracture, a giant face emerges. Its eyes are mirrors. Within them, Kael sees a version of himself… crying.
"You cannot erase everything, Kael," says the mirror self. "You only bury the pain, not heal it."
Kael steps forward, his hand morphing into a blade of dark light.
"I don't need healing. I need power."
With a single slash, he shatters the mirror. A scream echoes—not from the mirror, but from within him. A small voice, held back for years, finally vanishes.
Kael falls to his knees, not out of weakness, but because his consciousness has breached a new threshold. He has fully become part of the Seventh Fracture.
From the shadows, a figure in a white cloak bearing the Eye of Sky insignia on its forehead watches Kael.
"Subject successfully fragmented. Next phase: integration into the Eternal Display."
This world still holds many riddles, but one thing is certain: Kael is no longer human. He is an idea. He is will. He is distortion.
And that will… is preparing to return to the real world.
---