he world had already stopped making sense a long time ago.
Kael Riven stared at the cracked ceiling of his one-room apartment, its plaster bruised with time and rain. Faint hums from the outside city leaked through thin walls sirens, voices, distant thunder. The glow of his monitors lit the room in cold blue pulses, reflected off empty cans/ and a stack full of unread books In the corner, the Sentry headset sat on its black velvet cradle, humming softly. Waiting.
He hadn't eaten today. Again.
Not that it mattered. Time moved like static. It blurred. Woke at 4 p.m., clicked through old files, tried to sleep again by 6. The world didn't care what Kael did, or didn't do. No one was calling. No one had in months.
He rolled off the mattress and reached for a photo—dusty, cracked, and half-buried beneath papers. His sister smiled back at him, hair wild in the wind, her arms thrown around his shoulders. Her joy felt like it belonged to another world.
"One more dream," he whispered, tracing the edge of her face. "Then I'll be done."
The Sentry responded to touch. Its surface rippled, like water. Kael lowered it over his head, exhaling Nexus Neural sync initiated. Cognitive baseline accepted. Welcome, Kael Riven."
He barely noticed the world vanish.
He was falling.
Not through air, but something smoother. Like light. Like memory.
His body felt heavy, but painless. As if he'd shed something he no longer needed. A pressure lifted from his chest he hadn't realized was there. It was quiet. Peaceful. Then the Nexus "Lucid State Confirmed. Entering: Aethelgard.
The world bloomed open.
Kael landed in water. Not crashing but floating.
The river was very clear, a stream of sapphire winding through moss covered stones. Trees towered on either side, their branches glittering with runes. Sunlight filtered through them like a blessing.
He gasped. Air filled his lungs as if he'd never truly breathed before. Every sound, every scent—the forest was alive. Not coded. Not artificial.
His own body felt different too. Lighter. Stronger. When he looked at his hands, blue threads of light danced beneath the skin. No way
He stepped onto the shore. The grass responded, bending around his feet. Wind tugged at his clothes gently.
That's when he saw her.
A woman stood beneath a willow tree. Tall. Regal. Her cloak shimmered between silver and deep ocean blue. Her halberd was inscribed with living glyphs. But her eyes—her eyes looked human. Tired. Knowing.
She stepped forward, slow and unthreatening.
Veyla "You are Kael Riven."
He blinked. "How do you—"
Veyla This realm remembers everything. Even when you do not."
She bowed slightly, a gesture ancient and respectful.
Veyla "Welcome to Aethelgard. You are the first to arrive here."
They walked together. Veyla explained little. She moved like someone who knew time couldn't be rushed.
They passed a stream that sang softly when Kael neared it. A tree opened like a door to let them through a glade. Birds watched silently from above too intelligent to be ordinary.
Kael asked, eventually, "What is this place, really?"
VEYLA: "A memory. A promise. A truth hidden behind the artficitial intelligent. Nexus did not create Aethelgard. It discovered it."
KAEL: discovered from what?"
Veyla paused beside a stone arch inscribed with glowing marks.
VEYLA: "From us."
In the center of the village stood a small obelisk. It pulsed softly when Kael stepped near it Nexus Lucid Anchor Registered. Respawn point established."
Veyla raised an eyebrow. Your soul now belongs to this place. Should you fall, you will return here where you first chose to belong."
KAEL: "So I can die in this world."
VEYLA: "Yes. But you will not be completely erased. Death here is something different."
He studied the village NPCs moved like people, not like scripts. A child fell. A merchant helped. A farmer cursed the weather.
Everything just felt real.
Too real.
Kael turned. "This is more than a game."
Veyla nodded. "Then you already understand more than most."
Night fell. The sky above Aethelgard wasn't like Earth's—there were constellations here Kael had never seen. Some moved. One blinked.
He sat alone by a fire. His thoughts buzzed, but not in the old way. NEXUS: "Initial exposure complete. Memory thread stable. Emotional resonance detected: 87%."
KAEL: "What do you want from me?"
Silence. Then: NEXUS: To remember."
Kael looked at the flames. They danced in patterns. Like they were trying to speak.
And something inside him—something long buried—began to stir.
The next morning, Veyla brought him to a circle of standing stones, deep within the forest.
A monk-like figure awaited, draped in copper-threaded robes. His eyes were white with no pupils, yet they saw Kael.
MONK: "Chosen One. You seek direction. Begin with motion."
The monk held out a wooden staff.
KAEL: "You want me to fight you?"
MONK: "No. I want you to remember how to move."
They sparred slowly at first. The staff felt light, almost too responsive, reacting to Kael's intent. His feet moved before he thought. Each block, each strike flowed.
Sweat ran down his brow. His heartbeat sped not in fear, but thrill.
MONK (smiling): "Your mind lags behind your spirit. That will pass."
Kael grinned, panting. "What was that?"
VEYLA: "Instinct. The Sentry harmonizes with who you are beneath your doubt."
That night, Kael dreamed.
He stood in a corridor of mirrors. Each reflection was a different him—young, old, armored, broken.
One turned. Looked at him.
Its eyes glowed bright red.
GLITCHED REFLECTION: "Memory thread disrupted. Echo loop breached."
Kael awoke gasping.
In the darkness, he saw something.
A figure, standing just at the edge of the firelight.
Face flickering. Clothes corrupted pixels twitching. A former player? An NPC?
It spoke, voice fragmented.
GLITCHED NPC: "You you're not supposed to… wake up."
To be continued...