My Infinite System.

They didn’t move for a while after Karl’s laughter faded. His words still hung in the air, bitter and sharp, like smoke that refused to clear.

Lucian stood near the door, his shadow stretched thin against the pale lights of the room. Nobody spoke. Not until Reia finally snapped her notebook shut and looked up at him.

”You can’t be serious,” she said, voice low but sharp. ”Gate raiding? Going through to their world? That’s suicide.”

Lucian’s eyes slid her way, calm as always. ”It’s necessary.”

Evelyn leaned forward in her chair, arms crossed. ”Necessary? No. Insane, yes. They come here because we’re forced to fight on our turf. That’s already bad enough. You want to go where they’re strongest?”

Silas clicked his tongue, eyes narrowing. ”She’s right. The gates are barely stable as they are. Even if you find an anchor stone, even if you pull it, we don’t know what’s on the other side. We’ve seen scraps. You heard Karl. Scraps. What happens when you walk straight into their capital, their armies, their... gods?”

Lucian didn’t flinch. His tone stayed flat, almost cold. ”Then I kill them.”

The words hit like stones thrown into still water. No one laughed. No one even breathed for a moment.

Reia shook her head. ”Listen to yourself. You don’t even know what’s waiting there. This isn’t like storming a dungeon or clearing a nest. This is... it’s madness, Lucian.”

He walked closer to the center of the room, into the thin circle of light above the table. His eyes caught the glow in a way that made them look darker, sharper.

”They’ve been coming for years,” he said quietly. ”Wave after wave. And no matter how many we kill, it doesn’t stop. It never stops. Why?” His gaze flicked around the room. ”Because they aren’t running out. Because they’re safe where they are. Because all they have to do is keep sending dogs through the gate while we bleed trying to hold them back. That’s not balance. That’s not war. That’s slaughter. On their terms.”

Vyn leaned forward in her chair, restless again, her cloak shifting with the movement. ”So what—you want to flip the board? Play on their side?”

”Yes.”

Evelyn’s eyes narrowed. ”And what if you open it wrong, like Karl said? What if our world collapses before you even get there?”

Lucian met her gaze and didn’t blink. ”Then at least it collapses with us doing something instead of waiting to die.”

The silence afterward was heavy, almost suffocating. Even Karl’s grin from across the room seemed to feed on it, stretching wider, like he enjoyed watching the cracks spread.

That was when the door hissed open.

Footsteps padded in. Wet. Lazy. Lucy walked through, hair messy and damp, towel in her hands. She was drying it halfheartedly, water still clinging to her neck and the collar of her shirt. She didn’t even glance at Karl as she crossed the room, heading straight toward the control table.

Her eyes found Lucian. ”Where are you going?”

Lucian didn’t move, didn’t answer right away. Then, finally—flat, quiet:

”Good to see you too.”

She stopped, lowering the towel. Her eyes narrowed. ”Don’t play with me. Where?”

Reia looked between them, lips pressed thin. Evelyn folded her arms tighter. The room suddenly had a different kind of weight in it, one no one wanted to touch.

Lucian looked at Lucy then, really looked. And said it without hesitation.

”The monster world.”

The towel slipped from Lucy’s hands and hit the floor, damp against the steel. She stared at him, silent for a long second. Then she let out a breath that almost sounded like a laugh—but it wasn’t.

”You’re not serious.”

”I am.”

Her jaw tightened. ”No, you’re not. Because if you were, you’d know how stupid that sounds. Going there? Alone? You wouldn’t last a day.”

”I’m not planning on dying,” Lucian said.

Lucy stepped closer, wet hair clinging to her cheek, eyes burning now. ”You think planning means anything when you’re walking into their home? Do you even hear yourself? You’d be walking into a nest filled with monsters that make SSS rank beasts look like pets.”

Lucian’s voice stayed calm, steady. ”And if we don’t, they’ll keep sending those pets until this world is ash. You saw it. We all did. They don’t run out. They don’t stop. The only way to end it is to break them there.”

Lucy’s fists clenched. ”You’re not going.”

”I am.”

”Like hell you are.”

The others didn’t speak. They sat in silence, watching the clash unfold like they weren’t even part of the same room anymore.

Lucian took a slow step toward her. ”Lucy. You’ve fought them. You know how it ends if we keep waiting. They grow stronger every wave. Humans die by the thousands. We patch the wounds and pretend it’s fine. It isn’t. It never was. If I can find the core and tear it open, we can bring the fight to them. That’s the only way.”

Lucy glared, chest rising and falling with her breath. ”And what happens when you don’t come back? When you’re dead over there, and we’re here without you?”

Lucian didn’t flinch. ”Then you keep fighting.”

Her hand shot out, grabbing his collar, pulling him closer. Water dripped from her hair onto his shirt. Her voice was sharp, almost breaking. ”Don’t say that to me. Don’t. You think you’re some untouchable weapon, but you’re not. You’re still human, Lucian. You bleed like the rest of us.”

His gaze stayed locked on hers, steady and unreadable. ”Then I’ll bleed there. Where it matters.”

Her grip tightened, then faltered. For a moment, something in her eyes looked ready to crack. But she dropped her hand, stepping back with a sharp exhale.

”Fine,” she said, her voice low, rough. ”If you’re that stubborn. If you’re that stupid.”

Lucian waited, silent.

Lucy’s hands curled into fists at her sides. ”Then I’m going with you.”

That hit the room like another blade dropped on the table. Evelyn sat up straighter, eyes wide. Reia’s pen froze halfway across her page. Even Karl laughed again, slow and delighted.

Lucian’s eyes narrowed slightly. ”No.”

”Yes,” Lucy snapped back, stepping toward him again. ”If you’re dragging this fight into hell itself, you’re not doing it without me. You don’t get to carry that alone. Not anymore.”

”You’ll die,” he said.

”Then I’ll die,” she fired back, eyes fierce. ”But I’d rather die beside you in their world than sit here waiting for them to eat ours alive.”

The silence that followed was different now. Heavy, yes, but alive. Like the air itself had shifted.

Lucian studied her for a long moment, then finally exhaled through his nose, looking away. He didn’t agree. He didn’t deny her either.

Lucy bent down, picked her towel up from the floor, and draped it over her shoulder. She looked at him one last time, voice quieter now, but sharper than ever.

”You’re not leaving me behind, Lucian. Not this time.”

The others said nothing. The argument was over, and the decision—whether anyone liked it or not—had been made.

Karl leaned back in his chair, his grin wicked and satisfied. ”Oh,” he said, low and amused. ”This just keeps getting better.”