The dinner was perfect, as always. Kaelen had prepared dishes from multiple different culinary traditions, arranged with the kind of care that came from centuries of practice and genuine love. Aria sat at the table, her six-year-old form radiating the calm confidence of a Universe God, occasionally causing her food to exist in quantum superposition just to watch it flicker between states.

"Aria, stop playing with your food," Kaelen said automatically, though there was amusement in her voice.

"But Mother, I'm practicing probability manipulation! Father says mastery comes from constant application."

"Your father also says there's a time and place for everything," Kaelen replied, glancing at Elias with a knowing smile.

Elias sat at the head of the table, outwardly calm, but his Quantum Divine Processor was running calculations at unprecedented speeds. He had delayed this conversation for three weeks, running probability matrices on optimal timing, best phrasing, ideal emotional preparation. But no calculation could make this easy.

There would never be a perfect time to tell his family he was leaving.

"I need to tell you both something," he said, setting down his utensils with deliberate care. The simple action carried enough weight that both Kaelen and Aria immediately stopped what they were doing.

Aria's eyes, those impossible violet-silver eyes that saw too much for a child, studied him with sudden intensity. "You're leaving."

It wasn't a question. His daughter had inherited his analytical mind and her mother's emotional intelligence—a combination that made her frighteningly perceptive.

"Yes," Elias confirmed. "I'm going to ascend to the Infinity Realm."

The silence that followed was profound. Kaelen's hand, reaching for her cup, froze mid-motion. Aria's food, which had been flickering between quantum states, collapsed into a single reality and sat forgotten on her plate.

"When?" Kaelen asked quietly.

"In three weeks. I want to spend that time with both of you, making memories, ensuring everything is prepared."

"Why?" Aria's voice was small, younger than her usual precocious tone. "Why do you have to go?"

Elias looked at his daughter, seeing the tears already forming in those ancient eyes set in such a young face. "Because knowledge is my eternal goal, Aria. You know this. The Infinity Realm contains understanding I cannot achieve here. Laws I haven't learned. Principles I haven't grasped. Questions I don't even know to ask yet."

"But you've mastered Reality Law and Quantum Law," Aria protested. "You're the strongest being in the multiverse! What more could you possibly need?"

"Strength and knowledge are different things. Yes, I've mastered what exists in this reality. But the Infinity Realm operates on different principles entirely—Infinity Law, the comprehension of limitlessness itself. Without understanding it, my knowledge remains incomplete."

"Your knowledge," Aria repeated, and there was an edge to her voice that reminded Elias uncomfortably of himself. "What about us? What about your family?"

Elias took a breath, choosing his words carefully. "The Infinity Realm is completely unknown. Every historical record we have shows the same pattern—beings who ascend never return. They don't send messages. They don't maintain contact. They simply... vanish from the multiverse's awareness."

"Then why would you go there?" Kaelen's voice was steady, but Elias could see the tension in her shoulders, the way her cultivation base flickered with suppressed emotion.

"Because I have something no one else who's ascended has ever had—perfect Quantum Law comprehension. The ability to exist in superposition across dimensional layers. Theoretically, I can maintain connection to the multiverse even while existing in the Infinity Realm."

"Theoretically," Aria seized on the word. "You're not certain."

"No. I'm not certain. Which is why I must go alone first."

"We could come with you!" Aria stood up from her chair, her small hands planted on the table. "I'm strong! I'm almost at Multiversal level! And Mother is already a Multiversal Being! We can handle whatever's up there!"

Elias shook his head. "Strength isn't the issue. The Infinity Realm's fundamental nature is unknown. The atmosphere, if it has one. The Laws that govern it. The entities that exist there. I don't know if beings without perfect Quantum or Reality Law comprehension can even survive the transition."

"You have 100% Reality Law," Aria pointed out. "Mother has 43%. That should be enough!"

"43% Reality Law is extraordinary for the multiverse. But in the Infinity Realm, where 100% is the baseline requirement for entry? It might not protect her from whatever exists there. And you—" he looked at his daughter with profound love and equally profound concern, "—you're powerful beyond measure, but you haven't completed your Reality Law comprehension yet. You're at 47%. I won't risk bringing you to a place where that might not be sufficient."

"So we're not strong enough," Aria said bitterly. "Even though I'm the Daughter of the Multiverse, even though Mother is a perfect cultivator, we're still not good enough for you to—"

"Aria." Kaelen's voice cut through the rising emotion. "That's not what your father said, and you know it."

Aria's face crumpled. "But he's still leaving us."

Elias stood and moved around the table, kneeling beside his daughter's chair. "I'm not leaving you. I'm ascending to a new realm, yes, but I will maintain connection. I will visit regularly—every day if possible. My Quantum Law allows me to exist in both places simultaneously. You won't even notice I'm gone."

"Don't lie to me, Father." Aria looked at him with those too-old eyes. "You exist in quantum superposition all the time now. I can feel the difference between your full presence and a quantum echo. If you ascend while leaving an echo here, it won't be the same as having you with us."

She was right, of course. His daughter's perception was too refined to be fooled by comfortable lies.

"You're correct," he admitted. "The version of me that remains here while my primary consciousness explores the Infinity Realm will be... diminished. Not in power or capability, but in focus and attention. It will be me, but not all of me."

"How long?" Kaelen asked. "How long before you can bring us to join you?"

"I don't know. Time flows differently in higher realms. What feels like days there might be years here, or vice versa. I'll need to verify it's safe, understand the environment, establish proper anchors and protections. Then, and only then, will I bring you both to join me."

"And if you can't?" Aria's voice cracked. "What if you get there and discover you can't come back? What if the Infinity Realm changes you so much you forget about us? What if—"

"Aria." Elias took her hands in his. "Listen to me very carefully. I have calculated 47,293 different scenarios for what might happen in the Infinity Realm. In 47,292 of them, I maintain my connection to you and your mother. In the single scenario where I don't, I have already established contingencies—automated messages, resource transfers, protective arrays that activate if I fail to check in within specified timeframes."

"And the 47,293rd scenario?" Aria asked.

Elias was quiet for a moment. "In that scenario, something so catastrophic occurs that probability itself breaks down. At which point, whether I had ascended or not becomes irrelevant because reality would no longer function coherently."

"That's not comforting, Father."

"It's honest."

After Aria had finally gone to bed—though "bed" was a courtesy since she didn't need sleep and was probably running calculations in her room—Kaelen found Elias standing on the observation platform that overlooked the multiverse.

"You're really going," she said, not a question.

"Yes."

"And nothing I say will change your mind."

"Nothing you say will change the fundamental truth that the Infinity Realm contains knowledge I need to understand. But..." he turned to look at her, "everything you say matters to me. If you asked me not to go, I would at least delay. Consider alternatives. Run additional calculations."

Kaelen smiled sadly. "That's the problem with loving someone like you, Elias. I can't ask you to abandon your pursuit of knowledge any more than you could ask me to stop breathing. It's fundamental to who you are."

She moved to stand beside him, looking out at the infinite expanse of realities spreading before them. "I understand why you need to go. Intellectually, I even agree with your reasoning. The Infinity Realm is unknown, potentially dangerous, and your unique abilities make you the only one who might be able to maintain connection while ascending."

"But emotionally?" Elias prompted.

"Emotionally, I'm terrified. Not of you getting hurt—you've made yourself functionally immortal with that probability manipulation. I'm terrified of losing you in a way that's worse than death. What if the Infinity Realm transforms you? What if beings there operate on such different principles that you forget what it means to be husband, father, family? What if you come back, but you're not really you anymore?"

Elias took her hand. "Then the universe will have created the first mistake in its existence, because there is no version of me, transformed or otherwise, that would willingly abandon you or Aria. My pursuit of knowledge is fundamental to my nature, yes. But you two are the reason that pursuit has meaning."

"That's illogical," Kaelen said, but she was smiling through tears. "Knowledge should be pursued for its own sake."

"Perhaps. But I've discovered that logic without purpose is just calculation. You and Aria give my calculations purpose."

They stood in silence for a long moment, hands intertwined, watching the cosmos spin.

"Three weeks," Kaelen finally said. "That's not enough time."

"No amount of time would be enough. But it's what we have, so we'll make it optimal."

"Elias Vance, if you try to create a scheduled itinerary for our last three weeks together, I will use all the Laws I have mastered to make you experience every emotion you've been suppressing simultaneously."

"That's a terrifying threat."

"I mean it."

"...I had already started drafting an optimal schedule."

"Tear it up. We're going to be spontaneous. Chaotic. Illogical. And you're going to enjoy every minute of it."

Elias actually laughed, a sound he rarely made. "That sounds terrible."

"It sounds like family," Kaelen corrected. "Now come to bed. We have three weeks to create memories, and I refuse to waste a single moment."

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