Drifting in a void of endless night, his mind drowned in whispers that slithered like blades through his ears.
Familiar voices words he had once heard from those he loved, and from those he despised clashed violently. Their emotions pressed down on him: anger, sorrow, longing a psychic weight that nearly crushed his sanity.
In his mind, a panicked whisper echoed.
He strained, trying to retrieve a single coherent thought, but found only emptiness.
'I cant think... my mind is a vacuum.'
He attempted to lift a hand, but his limbs were locked, bound by invisible
chains. He gasped for breath, his lungs burning as if he'd been drowning in
suffocating water for an eternity.
'My soul is slowly hollowing out, becoming nothing but a cold coffin for something else.'
In that suffocating dreamscape, emotions struck him in waves sharp and merciless. Then, suddenly, she appeared.
A woman.
Her figure emerged through the haze, luminous, like a distant, fixed star.
She had a notably gentle and compassionate appearance. Her eyes were a soft fuchsia pink, contrasting sharply with their deep, inky-black pupils. This combination gave her look a quiet, yet undeniable dignity. She was utterly unfamiliar, yet her presence felt painfully known, radiating the scent of preserved silk and dried lavender.
'Who is she?'
The moment her image took form, the storm of voices vanished. The chaos of emotions dissolved, leaving only silence.
But the silence did not last. The vision wavered, like smoke unraveling in the wind, and her beautiful, severe presence faded. The voices fell back into nothingness. The dream violently collapsed.
And he fell with it.
When consciousness returned, pain surged through his body like fire cracking bone and scorched skin.
"Ugh... feels like my entire skeleton just shattered."
But in his head, there was nothing. No ache, no thought just a hollow void, as if his mind itself had been erased. His head throbbed with emptiness, thoughts scattered and unreachable.
Above him stretched a sky veiled in ashen clouds, heavy and unmoving, as though the heavens themselves had suffocated.
With trembling arms, he pressed his palms against the ground. Sharp stone bit into his skin, and the pain grounded him in the reality of this strange place.
Groaning, he pulled himself upright, using his arm like a crutch. His spine ached as he forced himself to kneel, then to stand, steadying against a rough tree branch jutting from the earth.
Only then did he dare look around. Cold mist coiled across the barren land, obscuring the horizon. Yet through the fog, two colossal things stood out: ahead, a gigantic, imposing gate vast and magnificent, seemingly built for gods, not men. Behind him, a lonely, still lake shimmered quietly in the desolate realm.
He stood, body trembling, mind reeling from the dream, staring at the gate that waited like a silent judge.
Slowly, he walked toward the lake, kneeling as if to wash his face.
In the lakes reflection, he caught sight of his own image.
An eighteen-year-old boy named Jun stared back. His thin, pale skin looked dry; his messy hair tangled as if never combed. He stood about 1.8 meters tall around five feet eleven.
His eyes were dark brown, nearly black, carrying heavy drowsiness that made him look frail and exhausted. He wore a navy windbreaker and long denim pants ordinary clothes, yet worn heavily.
The moment Jun saw his reflection, fragments of memory surfaced: his mothers trembling voice.
"Mom... I have to go back to Mom."
"She's sick. I have to stay by her side."
Confusion struck him.
"Am I just dreaming?''
Muttering to himself, he pulled sharply at his cheek until it stung.
"Huh? This isn't a dream?''
Panic welled up, his body trembling as if losing all foundation.
Suddenly, a piercing voice echoed in his head, sharp enough to make him clutch both ears.
When the sound faded, he heard something faint coming from the direction of the great gate.
Curiosity drove Jun forward. He grabbed the withered branch and crept toward the source. Behind the massive gate came a low, constant hum, like the slow grinding of ancient, rusted machinery.
"A gate that big...looks like something out of history.''
On its surface, strange creatures were carved in grotesque relief. Around the frame coiled an enormous serpent an Ouroboros devouring its own tail.
To the left of the gate, demons writhed in eternal battle. On the right, gods struck them down with furious might.
The closer Jun stepped, the more he felt a force pressing against his chest, as if the gate radiated power.
Then, without warning, the gate split open.
Beyond it stretched a barren field of twilight. From within that desolate expanse, countless black, claw-like hands surged forth, grasping hungrily for him.
"Ahh...Let go of me!...Let..!''
Jun struggled, thrashing with all his strength, but no matter how he fought, the hands dragged him deeper.
With one final pull, darkness swallowed him whole, pulling him through the gate into the unknown. His screams vanished into the darkness.
He was enveloped in the crushing void, the countless appendages piercing his skin one by one. Excruciating pain, like being consumed by fire, ravaged his body. He screamed, his eyes barely open just slits of consciousness.
Through his blurred vision, he saw a single, enormous, brilliantly glowing crimson eyeball, staring directly down at him. The eye wasn't just observing; it was analyzing, judging. Surrounding that colossal orb, fleshy, twisted tendrils rooted themselves deep into his every limb.
The torment lasted for what felt like an entire day, a relentless, agonizing ordeal. Then, just as suddenly, it ceased, and he woke up.
He felt no pain. His body was perfectly normal, whole.
"Damn it... that was a long and awful nightmare, even for a dream."
He sighed, wearily surveying his new location.
The moment Jun's eyes snapped open, he was greeted by a sight of shadowed decay and the faint, lingering scent of a bold magical presence hanging heavy in the air. He lay sprawled in the center of a small chamber, roughly 20 feet in wide.
The floor beneath him was covered in damp, mossy stone slabs, their surface long since corrupted by the relentless march of time. Everywhere, water damage, deep cracks, and scattered debris of shattered rock lay in chaotic disarray.
At the room's epicenter lay a great stone circle, about 10 feet in diameter.
The outer rim of the circle was deeply etched with incomprehensible, ancient runes, clearly the remnants of a powerful Occult Circle.
Within the inner angles and along the inscriptions, only scattered waxy residue from burned-down wicks remained. No flame flickered now, yet the residual stains hinted that a cruel sacrifice or a profound, dark ritual had recently concluded here.
The walls surrounding the chamber were constructed of rough-hewn boulders, supported by massive, darkened stone pillars that stood like skeletal sentinels.
Upon these walls, ancient statues and the decayed fragments of inscriptions were barely visible. Their forms were not those sculpted by human hands, but seemed to have been carved by some supernatural force, lending them an unnerving, terrifying aspect.
The only light entered through a domed aperture high up on the ceiling, a stone skylight that filtered a weak, gloomy illumination. Through this opening, wisps of black mist, like smoke, flowed slowly and deliberately into the room. The entire chamber was saturated with a pervasive atmosphere of cold.
He was inside a dilapidated, aging ruin. Intrigued, Jun examined the ancient wall paintings.
The religious iconography depicted strange, insectoid creatures being worshipped, and the cryptic text was carved deep into the stone.
Jun thought:
'This looks like a transmigrated world,'
'Just like in those fantasy novels, this world is probably full of unknown dangers.'
'I have to stay vigilant. There could be legendary monsters here.'
A faint, strange footstep sound outside the ruin jolted him. He froze, desperately searching for a weapon. His foot scuffed against something: a broken sword hilt, rusted and filthy, typical of medieval knights. The bronze hilt was finely crafted, once befitting a prince or royal.
"Damn my luck sucks... But at least I've found something that vaguely resembles a weapon. I suppose I should be grateful for that much."
Jun frowned, gripping the broken sword and cautiously stepping out of the ruin.
As Jun finally stepped out of the dilapidated ruin, a subtle but crushing pressure settled immediately upon his mind. It wasn't a physical weight, but a psychological heaviness that made his instincts scream.
He found himself standing at the edge of a dense, shadowy forest. Treesancient and twistedwere the only features he could discern. Everything was rendered in a muted, oppressive palette, as a thin, unsettling layer of smoke-gray mist hung motionless between the trunks.
The air was heavy, the silence absolute, hinting that this was no ordinary woods, but a place where the Chaos Impact's influence had already begun to saturate the land.
The auditory illusion began.
Then... voices.
Familiar ones.
"Jun...wake up, Jun. How long are you going to sleep?"
"Class is over, man. You overslept again."
"Shall we go to that fried chicken shop we went to the other day, guys?"
"Yeah, that's a great idea! I love the sauce there."
"Jun probably stayed up all night playing games, as usual!"
Jun slowly opened his eyes, recognizing the voices.
Then... He froze.
Those names....Ethan, Liam, Marie, Olivia...
His heart pounded.
He saw
Ethan (muscular and toned),
Liam (slightly overweight),
Marie (beautiful, well-proportioned), and Olivia (cute, bespectacled class president and nerd).
Olivia giggled.
"You look so pale, Jun. Dream something scary?"
Ethan laughed.
''Probably one of those fantasy novels again. Poor little dreamer.''
In a hurry, Liam urged.
"I'm starving, Jun. Let's go now!"
Marie was astonished and countered.
"You always want to eat, Liam. Didn't you sneak food during class?"
He listened to their joyful chatter, a faint smile of relief touching his lips and in his mind, he murmured
'Phew... thank goodness. It was just a dream. I woke up.'
He stood up from his seat, ready to leave with his friends.
Then... Suddenly;
Ethan: "JUN! My man! Get your mind together! You have to snap out of it!"
Olivia: "Yes, Jun! Remember! You have to come back now, Jun!"
Jun was startled by their strange behavior, and the image of the dilapidated ruin flashed in his mind.
"Guys, what are you talking about? I'm up. Aren't we going to the fried chicken shop?"
"JUNNNN!" Ethan roared.
Jun's vision snapped. The cheerful high school scene shattered like glass.
"Oh God! This is just too much!
Guess the Goddess of Fate really loves me, huh?''
his voice trembling between mockery and despair.
He was back outside the ruin, still holding the broken sword. Standing directly in front of him was a monstrous, terrifying creature.
It towered over him, easily 2.6 meters (8.5 feet) tall, with a gaping, horrifying maw. Its face was vaguely human but its pupils were entirely white and staring him. Large and sharp spines jutted from its spine. It had four long arms, tipped with talons so long they nearly scraped the dirt, and its legs were unnaturally elongated. The body was human-shaped but horrifyingly emaciated, its bones visible through the stretched skin.
"Shit... I think I really am DEAD."