The air was thick. Not with smoke, or fog — but with something worse. Something silent. A wrongness Kael couldn't name. The kind that made the skin crawl, even when nothing touched you.
He had walked maybe a hundred steps from where he woke up — if "woke up" was even the right phrase for it. His body moved like it remembered how to move, but his mind was lagging behind.
"This isn't right," he muttered. "This isn't real."
His voice sounded odd in this place. Echo-less. Like the world was absorbing sound rather than reflecting it. Trees stood like statues, frozen in a windless void. The sky overhead was painted with stars too still, too perfect. Not a single cloud. Not a single breath of wind. Like someone had taken a screenshot of reality and printed it on canvas.
Is this purgatory?
He pressed his fingers to the bark of the nearest tree. It felt like wood. Real. Solid. But cold. Too cold. Like the life had been drained out of it. Out of everything.
Kael turned in a slow circle, trying to find… anything. Movement. Light. A person. A clue. But there was nothing.
"Fantastic," he whispered. "Wake up in glitch-land with no instructions. Thanks, whoever programmed this hellhole."
There was no response. Not from the trees. Not from the void.
But then — it started.
A humming. Soft. Like a computer powering on. It didn't come from outside, though.
It came from inside his skull.
Kael dropped to one knee, clutching his head. The hum deepened into a low-frequency growl. A vibration. And then…
[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION: 73%... 85%... ERROR.]
[WARNING: SYSTEM INTEGRITY FAILURE.]
[Attempting Recovery...]
[Glitch Detected.]
[Welcome back, Kael.]
He blinked.
The forest — if you could call it that — flickered. Like bad reception on an old TV. And suddenly—
He was somewhere else.
—
Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead. Sterile. White. Blinding. The sharp scent of antiseptic filled his lungs. Tile floor. Steel walls. A lab. Or maybe a hospital?
His heart lurched.
"No. No. No. This place... this place is real— I've been here—"
Flashes tore through his mind.
White coats. Screaming voices. Cages. Experiments. Pain.
Pain.
So much pain.
His knees buckled and he slammed to the ground, gasping.
"What the hell is happening to me?"
[You have experienced a temporary dimensional sync. Returning…]
[System Reset in 3…]
[2…]
[1…]
The lights vanished. The hum vanished. The smell, the walls, the sharp sting of the memory—
Gone.
And Kael was back in the forest. On his knees, clutching dirt that didn't feel quite like dirt.
He vomited.
There was nothing in his stomach, but his body retched anyway.
He knelt there for what felt like hours. His breaths were sharp and ragged. His body trembled.
What was that? That place. That memory. It felt real. Too real.
His thoughts spiraled.
Was that my world? Did I die there? Is this… an afterlife? Or a test?
Something deep in his chest twisted. Not fear. Not even rage.
Grief.
He didn't know why — but the grief sat there like a shard of glass in his soul. Sharp. Inescapable. Familiar.
Time passed. Or didn't. There was no sun to track. No clock to follow. But eventually, Kael stood.
His legs ached. His mind didn't.
That scared him more.
He felt… fine. Physically.
Too fine.
He tested it — jumping, sprinting forward. His legs obeyed. Effortlessly. No fatigue.
He pulled his arm back and slammed it into the nearest tree.
It splintered.
Cleanly.
"What the…"
He looked at his hand. Not even a bruise. Not a scratch. The bark, though — it cracked like glass under pressure.
He tried again. This time, a kick.
The trunk snapped like a dry twig and collapsed sideways with a silent crash.
[Physical Output Test: Complete.]
[Strength Multiplier: 4.6x baseline.]
[Combat Suitability: Poor.]
[Energy Core: Unstable.]
[ERROR: System Rating — C-]
"C- what?"
His voice cracked. That pissed him off.
"I just broke a tree in half with my foot and I get a C-? Are you serious?"
The system didn't respond.
Of course it didn't.
"Stupid glitching-ass piece of—"
[ERROR: Emotional Stability Dropping.]
[...Recalibrating.]
Kael took a deep breath. Then two more. It wasn't meditation. He wasn't a monk. But it helped.
He was beginning to understand two things:
This… wasn't a dream.
And he wasn't supposed to be here.
That lab he saw — that was his world. Or used to be.
But now he was stuck in whatever this was. An empty, broken game-world with trees that shattered and a system that glitched harder than a beta build.
"Okay. Think," he muttered. "If this place is glitching... and the system is tied to me... then maybe—just maybe—I can break it on purpose."
He grinned.
It wasn't a happy grin. It was the kind a man wore when he realized the world had made a mistake putting him in a cage.
You locked me in here… but you handed me the keys.
He spent the next few hours — or minutes, or years, who the hell knew — testing limits.
He ran faster than he thought possible. Jumped higher than physics should allow. Slammed fists into the ground and cracked stone.
And each time, the system rated him average.
[Strength: C]
[Speed: C]
[Agility: D+]
[Intelligence: B-]
[Luck: Unknown]
He laughed.
"So I'm a weakling with B-minus brains and a broken power meter. Great. Just great."
But deep down?
He knew it wasn't true.
He wasn't average. Not anymore.
He just looked average.
And that was far more dangerous.
As he lay against a cracked boulder, watching stars that didn't move, something… shifted again.
Not the world.
Him.
A feeling — small at first — like a heartbeat that wasn't his own. A vibration. A tremor in his bones.
"Oh no."
[Glitch Triggered.]
[Returning to Last Known World.]
[WARNING: Time-Limit Exceeded.]
[WARNING: Core Stability at 14%]
[WARNING: You are not supposed to be here.]
And then—
The forest vanished.
Light exploded behind his eyes. Pain lanced through his nerves.
And Kael stood — in a courtyard.
His courtyard.
War-torn. Blood-stained. Collapsing under ash and skyfire.
People — his people — gasped.
Voices rose in horror.
"He's back—"
"That's impossible—he DIED—"
"That's the Tyrant of the Black Sigil—"
"Kael Vire is alive?!"
His name echoed through the broken city like a curse.
Kael blinked.
Then looked down at his hands.
They were glowing.
Not with light.
But with code.
A flickering, fractured interface layered over his skin like a tattoo written in a language only ghosts remembered.
And then—
[You have 60 seconds.]
He grinned again. This time, wider. Darker.
"Sixty seconds to say hello? Let's make it count."
[To be continued...]