Taro didn't remember falling asleep. One moment, he was chuckling bitterly at a plastic star. The next, he was standing in the middle of a vast, empty street. It was silent, motionless, unnervingly perfect.
The sky above shimmered with flat, garish colors. Not sunlit, not blue, but a swirling, liquid gold, like someone had poured paint across the heavens and forgotten to let it dry.
"What… is this?" Taro muttered. He looked around. The buildings were familiar but wrong, their geometry curved in impossible, nausea-inducing ways. A dog walked by on two legs, sipping a cup of tea, utterly unbothered.
"I'm dreaming?"he said aloud. "No way. I never dream."
He took a single, hesitant step forward.
Boom.
The ground pulsed beneath his feet.A strange, silent wind surged past him—and for a split second, the sky cracked. A jagged tear ripped through the golden veil, revealing the vast machinery behind it: colossal gears turning, cold stars blinking like data points, and at the center... a gate. Gigantic. Ancient. Breathing.
Suddenly, three distorted figures oozed from the tear. Their forms shifted and glitched, barely holding a solid shape.
"What the hell is happening right now?"he asked himself, his own voice sounding distorted.
A naive hope flickered in his chest."Maybe they're friendly?" Taro thought. He took a chance, stretching a hand out cautiously. "Hi?"
One of the creatures lunged,jaws snapping, nearly taking his hand off at the wrist.
"Argh!"Taro stumbled backward, then turned and ran. "Okay! Not friendly!" But he was no lucky man. The creatures were already in pursuit, moving with a terrifying, skittering speed.
Taro ran as fast as his legs could carry him, his heart hammering against his ribs. He misstepped, his foot catching on nothing, and fell face-first onto the unnaturally smooth pavement. "Urgh! My face!"
The three creatures closed in,surrounding him. Their distorted forms loomed.
Taro's mind raced,his heart skipping beats in a frantic, panicked rhythm. What do I do? Don't dreams usually end at moments like this? I've never had one! I don't know the rules!
They lunged.Just as their claws were about to find their mark, he screamed from the depths of his soul, "DON'T GET ANY CLOSER!"
A sudden beam of violent green light erupted from his chest, engulfing the entire dreamscape. The force of it threw the creatures backward.
And as the light faded,a figure stood in its epicenter.
It was Taro.But different.
He was clad in an elegant design of black and deep green,his hair flowing darker and longer. His eyes glowed with an emerald fire, and in his hands, he held a unique, beautifully crafted sword humming with power.
The creatures hesitated, looking at each other in a moment of glitched communication, then attacked again in a coordinated rush.
But this Taro was different.He moved with preternatural grace, weaving perfectly between one creature's attack and delivering a punch so devastating it sent the thing flying through the air, shattering the facades of multiple impossible buildings.
He didn't wait.A sphere of green energy bloomed in his free hand, and he launched it. It expanded, covering a massive radius and completely annihilating the first creature in a burst of static.
The second was relentless,leaping at him from behind. Taro shot into the air, met it mid-flight, and with a single, flawless swing of his sword, cleaved it clean in two.
Before the two halves could hit the ground,the third creature tried a surprise attack from his blind spot. Taro didn't even look. He caught its wrist mid-strike, spun, and hurled it high into the shimmering golden sky. From his position, he raised his sword and brought it down in a final, decisive arc.
A blade of pure green energy shot forth,so powerful it didn't just destroy the creature—it ripped the sky in half, tearing through the gold to reveal the cold, grinding gears beneath.
Taro descended slowly, landing softly on the street. He looked at his hands, the emerald light fading from his eyes. "What... just happened?"
But suddenly, a loud, abrasive sound began to bleed into the world. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
"Stop,"he whispered.
The sound grew louder,shattering the silence of the dream.
"Stop!"he yelled.
It was deafening,tearing the world apart. "STOOOOOP!"
He jolted awake,slapping his alarm clock into silence. "Tch. Stupid alarm."
He sat in his bed,breathing heavily, staring at his perfectly normal hands. "But... what happened before?"
"I can tell you."
A voice.Clear as day. In his room.
"Ahhhhhhhh!Who said that?!" Taro scrambled back against his headboard, terrified.
"Me. The star. Look over here."
His eyes darted to the nightstand.The golden star he'd fished from the trash was… glowing. Softly.
Hesitantly,he picked it up.
"Hi,"the voice said, cheerful and confident. "I'm Mexus. Senior Dremapol. And you, my friend, have a lot to learn."