I stood before the machine.
The Interdimensional Piercer rose like a blade stabbing the sky—ten kilometers tall, humming with power. It pulsed in rhythm with my mana core, our resonance a silent pact of blood, thought, and destiny.
Every empire has its monument.
This one was mine.
And unlike the pyramids or the towers of Earth, this monument moved.
[SYSTEM INTEGRATION COMPLETE]
Piercer-Core Sync: 100%
Quantum Anchor: Stable
Dimensional Layer Calibration: 14.6 million strata indexed
Warning: Chrono-bleed risk 0.4% — proceed with caution.
But caution was a luxury I had no time for.
The Gate was a circle, framed in obsidian alloy infused with soulstone veins. Runes of forgotten languages glowed blue-white along its inner ring. The space within the circle… shimmered.
Not a surface.
Not a void.
Something in between.
"Are we really doing this?" Reina asked from behind, arms folded.
"We're not meant to stay in our own pond forever," I replied. "And if the Griever King came through a door, then there's more out there. Watching. Waiting."
"And you're going to knock?" she asked dryly.
"No," I said. "I'm going to kick it open."
I stepped into the Gate.
For 0.04 seconds, my body was everywhere and nowhere.
I felt time like a current.
I saw versions of myself:
– A dead king on a broken throne.
– A warlord consumed by his own tech.
– A father holding a starborn child.
– A god walking alone.
Then I arrived.
The world beyond wasn't a world.
It was a mirror.
Not literal—but reflected. The terrain looked like Nova Terra, but inverted. The sky was pale crimson, and the oceans shimmered like liquid mercury.
[SYSTEM DIAGNOSTIC]
Name: Echo Terra
Temporal Layer: Disjointed
Threat Assessment: Unstable
Dimensional Overlap: 91.7%
— Origin: Parallel Collapse Outcome
This wasn't just another world.
This was what our world could have become.
Burned. Twisted. Rebuilt by something else.
And I wasn't alone.
From behind broken ruins came movement—figures cloaked in skin-tight void suits, their faces mirrored masks.
They stopped when they saw me.
Then the tallest among them stepped forward and spoke:
"You wear the armor of the Origin Line."
"I am the Origin Line," I said. "Who are you?"
The mask retracted.
I stared at my own face.
Older.
Scarred.
Eyes hollow, like someone who had lost everything.
"I am what you become when you fail," he said. "And I am here to stop you from doing worse."