Two people moved deeper into a tunnel, the air growing colder with every step. The darkness pressed in around them, endless and suffocating, the faint glow of their path doing little to push it back. The tunnel felt like a vein running beneath the earth, stretching on forever.

  Elias finally broke the silence. “Tell me more about my father.”

  Dorian kept walking, his voice even. “Years ago, a dark force emerged in the universe. Its origins are unknown, but one thing is certain—if it isn’t stopped, our world, and many others, will fall.”

  Elias frowned. “You make it sound like some kind of a war.”

  “It is.” Dorian glanced at him. “Your father wasn’t just an ordinary man. He belonged to an ancient order of Templars, warriors who’ve fought for centuries to maintain balance between worlds. Their mission was simple—hunt the darkness before it consumes everything.”

  Elias slowed his pace, his mind reeling. Worlds? Plural?

  His breath came short and fast, his pulse hammering against his ribs. He had spent his entire life believing in one reality, one sky, one earth beneath his feet. But now—countless worlds? That means races other than humans ? The weight of it crushed down on him, making his surroundings feel suffocatingly small. He ran a hand through his hair, his fingers trembling slightly. "That’s not possible," he muttered, more to himself than to Dorian. But deep inside, something stirred—an instinct, a whisper in his blood. And that terrified him more than the truth itself.

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  Dorian gave him a knowing look. “There are countless worlds, Elias. Some parallel to ours, some vastly different. And the thing about darkness? It doesn’t belong to just one world—it spreads.”

  Elias let out a long breath, trying to process everything.

  “I was nothing before I met your father,” Dorian continued. “A homeless beggar. Just another man trying to survive.” His voice dropped slightly, distant. “Then he found me. Together, we traveled across dozens of worlds, built alliances, and formed an underground resistance against this evil.”

  The tunnel finally leveled out, the descent ending. A dim, fluorescent glow shimmered ahead, growing brighter as they moved forward. The air shifted, charged with a strange energy.

  Then, the passage opened into a vast, carved-out chamber.

  Weapons lined the stone walls—ancient blades, firearms pulsing with energy, tools of war from worlds beyond this one. In the center stood a shimmering membrane, its surface shifting like liquid starlight.

  Dorian motioned toward it.

  “This,” he said, “is where your father and I prepared for battle. And that—” he pointed to the membrane “—is the gate to the worlds beyond.”

  Elias stepped closer, the strange surface responding to his presence, pulsing as if alive.

  He took a slow, unsteady breath, forcing himself to steady the chaos in his mind. The world—his world—had just been shattered, yet the ground beneath his feet remained the same. He clenched his fists, his mind still racing, but one thought cut through the noise: whether he believed it or not, there was no going back.