Spring rain swept across the glass window of a fifth-floor apartment in Paris's 14th district, creating a soft rhythm that accompanied the quiet morning. Inside a minimalist room brimming with artistic taste, a young man sat by the window, a fizzy drink in hand and a scattered pile of fashion sketches covering the nearby table.
His name was Kaelion Leclair.
His long red hair, still damp from the shower, clung slightly to his cheek. On his tablet screen, a winter-themed fashion design glowed softly. His calm eyes held a quiet focus, the kind that suggested a world of thought behind them.
From the kitchen, the morning peace was interrupted.
"Kaaaeel! You still haven't eaten! Want me to make you an omelet, or are you still on that weird diet?" shouted a teenage girl's voice.
Kaelion chuckled. "I'm not on a diet, Lia. I'm just… waiting for inspiration to get hungry."
Lia—his younger sister by five years—appeared, holding a bunch of lettuce and wearing her signature unimpressed look.
"Inspiration won't come on an empty stomach. You're a future designer, not some mountain monk."
"Exactly! I need to starve a little to feel the drama," Kaelion replied with mock poetry.
This was normal in the Leclair apartment: light-hearted, full of banter, and warm.
Their father was out of town, their mother busy managing a small boutique somewhere in Asia, but the family stayed close through nightly video calls. The Leclairs were a blend of two worlds—French and Asian—woven into a harmony that had always been their strength.
But that day was different.
At 9:12 AM, the TV—which usually played cheerful talk shows—suddenly switched to an emergency broadcast. A satellite image of Earth filled the screen, accompanied by a tense reporter's voice.
> "...the discovery of an unknown structure in the Arctic by a U.S. expedition team has sparked global uproar. The structure, dubbed the Northern Gate, is believed to be not of this world. Some are calling it a 'doorway to another realm'..."
Kaelion and Lia exchanged glances.
"This… feels like a movie," Lia whispered.
The footage continued, showing blurry recordings—an enormous stone gate rising from the Arctic ice, shrouded in mist and glowing with an eerie blue light.
> "Experts are unable to confirm its origin. However, ancient texts found by the team mention the name 'Terra Infinita' repeatedly, as if hinting at a world beyond the gate..."
A chill crept down Kaelion's spine.
Something about that name—Terra Infinita—sent an instinctive cold through his body.
In the following hours, chaos began to spread.
Internet networks grew unstable.
News broadcasts were interrupted. Strange videos surfaced on social media—skies shifting colors, rumbling from underground, flashes of light cracking across the sky like shattered glass. Some started calling it The Cracking of the Sky.
At 2:45 PM, the world stopped.
The Parisian sky turned a deep violet. A blinding light flared from the north, followed by a deafening, unseen shockwave that shook the very foundations of the city. The air thickened, impossible to breathe. People screamed. Birds scattered in frenzy. Cars stalled in the middle of the roads.
Kaelion grabbed his sister's hand and pulled her under the dining table, desperately trying to reach their parents.
No signal.
Then, time... stopped.
Everything turned white.
No sound.
No sensation.
Only complete, overwhelming emptiness.
And when Kaelion came to—he was no longer in his apartment.
He awoke among moss and damp stones, inside a cold, unfamiliar cave. Soft green light dripped from strange fungi on the walls. He still wore his home clothes, but his tablet and all his devices were gone.
No human voices.
No Lia.
No buildings.
No Paris.
Only the mouth of a cave leading into an alien forest… and a world that was no longer his own.
This was how the world began to fracture.
Because of mankind's curiosity—because someone touched what should've been left alone—the barrier between Earth and Terra Infinita collapsed.
The old world had shattered.
And now, people were scattered across the unknown… alone.
Kaelion Leclair was one of them.
And this is the story of how he tries to survive, to endure,—and perhaps—
to defy fate itself.