Place: Unknown – Time: Undefined
The next step in their journey was not a step at all... but something else.
It was neither a destination nor a choice.
But a silent collapse in the fabric of reality.
Ryan felt it first—as if the world itself stopped believing it existed.
Lima grabbed Niko's arm, but her hand passed through him like a faint light.
Then came the rift.
It opened in their perception, not in the air,
And through it formed a path—not made of roads or trails,
But of thought… and will.
Before them appeared a structure hidden between dimensions,
Older than language, yet still pulsing with knowledge:
The Great Library of Cosmology.
Not merely a place to store books,
But a repository for answers that cannot be spoken...
Except if you become the question.
The Threshold – 15:04 PM
The library had no walls, nor doors.
Instead, it appeared differently to each of them—as if it looked inside them, then took the form it found.
To Ryan, it appeared as an infinite staircase carved from shadow.
To Lima, a sea of floating books tethered by lightning.
To Niko, it looked like the skeleton of a giant creature, its bones hiding secrets within its marrow.
A voice emerged from the space itself:
"Knowledge is not given here… it is remembered."
Ryan stepped forward, and the ground beneath him glowed with light.
His old notebook in his pocket trembled… then burned to ashes.
"There are no pages where you are going." the voice said.
The First Room – The Index of Forgotten Questions
Rows of books floated in the air,
Each glowing with a different color… not by title, but by truthfulness.
They weren't classified by subjects, but by impact—
How a question changed the soul of the one who asked.
Ryan reached toward a book titled:
"Why was I born to forget?"
But it vanished.
"Not yet," Lima said, looking at another book with tearful eyes.
"We must earn the right to knowledge."
Niko pointed to a spiral door that seemed made of repressed dreams:
"There. The librarian awaits."
The Librarian – The Dual-Time Being
The being was covered in layers of old paper,
His eyes like hourglasses, moments falling from them… not sand.
His voice carried echoes of futures not yet happened:
"To begin your journey, each of you must give up something irretrievable."
Ryan hesitated, then whispered:
"I relinquish my belief that I am the center of this story."
The librarian nodded without expression.
Lima stepped forward, her voice trembling with a pain deeper than sorrow:
"I relinquish the memory of my child's name… so I may meet him anew, without the ache."
Silence… then a slow nod.
Niko clenched his hand, as if to keep from falling with what he said:
"I relinquish my question. The one that has haunted me all my life. I do not want the answer… but peace."
The room trembled. Walls split by themselves.
A door appeared.
"Enter. But know this: the truth is not what you seek… but what you become."
Inside the Library – The Flow Map of Universes
It was not a map as we know it.
But a living painting—rivers of consciousness flowing like light,
Connecting lives, copies, and echoes.
Ryan reached for a glowing thread.
He saw himself… as a child who never lost his parents.
Then as a soldier.
Then something else—
A writer… not of tales, but of reality itself.
He quickly withdrew his hand, a silent moan escaping him.
"This is where the journey begins," Niko said, staring at the web of worlds.
"A journey to reclaim—or rewrite—the fabric of existence."
Final Scene – 15:33 PM
Outside, the world still existed…
But less real, as if a shadow of what it was.
They would not return as they were.
Ryan looked at the others.
Lima's eyes began to glow—a new vision was born within her.
Niko seemed taller… as if purpose had stretched his frame.
"We step toward worlds not yet born," the librarian's voice faded.
"And not all of you will return."
End of Chapter Eleven
❓ If you had the chance to read the story of your other selves…
Would you risk becoming someone else to truly understand who you are?
Next Chapter: The Room of Broken Timelines.