The universe didn't open.
It recoiled.
Reality pulled away from Kael the way a wounded animal pulls away from fire.
The Architect lifted a shaking hand toward a blank patch of air—
a place that looked like nothing
because it wasn't allowed to be seen.
"This…"
their voice cracked,
"…this is the boundary. Beyond here is the Place Reality Forgot."
Kael narrowed his eyes.
"It doesn't look like anything."
"That is the point," the Echo whispered.
"No mind—mortal, divine, or conceptual—can remember it unless already inside."
Kael stared at the blankness.
"So how do we enter?"
A shadow appeared beside him.
Arms folded. Smirk sharp. Presence like an amused singularity.
Your Co-worker.
Your BFF.
The Voidborn.
"Simple.
You don't enter.
You get erased correctly."
Kael glared. "Explain."
The Voidborn pointed at the blank patch of unreality.
"This place refuses to exist.
So the only way inside…
is to temporarily refuse yourself."
Kael blinked.
"That sounds stupid."
"It is extremely stupid.
That's why you invented it."
That shut Kael up.
The Architect rubbed their temples.
"Voidborn… please do not explain it like that."
The Voidborn shrugged.
"I like precision.
And technically, 'self-erasure with post-return identity stability' is stupid.
But very on-brand for him."
Kael exhaled sharply.
"So the 'First Mistake' made this place?"
Silence.
Then—
The Echo stepped forward, expression tight.
"No.
This place made the First Mistake."
Kael's breath hitched.
"…Meaning?"
The Echo whispered:
"You were born here."
The Remnant shuddered.
Even the Sovereign flinched.
Kael shook his head violently.
"No.
No, I was human.
I remember my childhood.
I remember the orphanage.
I—"
The Architect raised a hand.
"Those memories are real.
But the identity wearing them is not your first."
Kael felt the Crown tighten around the air.
The Voidborn tapped his shoulder lightly.
"Relax.
You're still Kael.
But you're also the only being ever built by something reality refuses to remember."
Kael clenched his fists.
"…So I'm both Kael and something older?"
The Voidborn smirked.
"You're Kael until you decide not to be.
That's the dangerous part."
Kael stepped toward the blankness.
The Remnant screamed.
The blank patch twitched.
A crack of utter emptiness blinked into existence—
a tear with no color, no meaning, no permission.
The Sovereign whispered in horror:
Do not enter it casually, Majesty…
Your true name is waiting.
Kael inhaled.
"I'm tired of being afraid of myself."
The Architect's voice cut the air sharply:
"Kael.
If you meet your first identity—
if you even see it—
you might not return."
A pause.
"And if you do return…
you may not be Kael anymore."
Kael looked at the Voidborn.
His co-worker nodded once.
"Don't overthink it.
If the ancient you tries to overwrite you,
I'll kick them in the conceptual teeth."
Kael almost laughed.
Almost.
He reached toward the blankness.
His fingertips blurred.
His hand evaporated from memory.
His pulse dissolved into nothing.
His name— Kael— flickered.
The Crown dimmed.
The void screamed.
"STOP!" the Architect shouted.
"You're crossing too fast! You need an anchor—"
Kael whispered:
"I have one."
The Voidborn grinned.
"Damn right you do.
Let's go, partner."
Kael stepped into the Place Reality Forgot.
The blankness swallowed him instantly.
He didn't fall.
He didn't move.
He didn't exist.
Not until something impossibly vast noticed him.
A voice with no shape.
No direction.
No time.
A voice that wasn't Vorath.
Wasn't Kael.
Wasn't human.
Wasn't divine.
A voice that sounded like an idea remembering itself.
"…I remember you."
Kael froze.
The void around him pulsed.
The Crown evaporated.
The Seal in his chest glowed.
A silhouette formed ahead—
not made of darkness,
not made of light,
but made of the absence of both.
Its presence forced Kael to his knees.
Not by power—
by recognition.
It whispered:
"You returned to the womb that rejected existence."
Kael forced out a breath.
"Who are you?"
The silhouette stepped closer.
Its voice was soft.
Terrifyingly soft.
"I am the name you abandoned."
"I am the identity you hid from yourself."
"I am the first version of you."
Kael's heart cracked.
"…I'm Kael."
The silhouette shook its head slowly.
"Not anymore."
The worldless room began to collapse.
Memory shattered.
Kael felt something reaching into him— rewriting, reassembling, reclaiming.
The true name whispered:
"Welcome back."
Kael screamed.
The Voidborn grabbed his shoulder from behind—
a physical impossibility in a place with no physics.
"HEY.
Not today.
He's MY idiot co-worker.
Back.
THE.
HELL.
OFF."
The ancient silhouette turned.
And for the first time—
its shape hesitated.
Then it spoke a single line that froze the void:
"You cannot protect him from himself."
The Voidborn's smile turned razor-sharp.
"Watch me."
---