Peter was lost in a swirling black mist. His senses drifted, his mind hazy and uncertain. He knew he was alive, but beyond that, there was nothing.
"What's going on? I was just about to leave work, and then… something happened. There was a voice, wasn't there? I can't remember. Damn it, what the hell is happening to me?"
He cried out, but no sound came. Only his inner voice echoed in his mind. It was the only sign that he was still conscious, though it felt distant and strange. Images flickered through his mind, scenes that belonged in fantasy, yet they felt real.
"I read too many damn books. Am I unconscious? Did something happen in the elevator? Am I going to die?"
There was no answer. He was completely alone.
Some sensation returned to his body, but it brought no comfort. He felt weightless, like his existence floated inside an infinite void. The sensation was impossible to describe. In his mind, he imagined it as being carried by a silent, invisible current. Maybe that story was just something he invented to explain what he couldn't understand.
The feeling lasted for what seemed like forever.
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Treetops rustled as two shadowy figures crouched among the branches, watching a clearing below. They moved with quiet precision, blending into the forest. Both wore black, tight-fitting clothes that absorbed the shadows. Without light, they were impossible to see.
Their bodies gave away their identities. One had a curvier figure, the chest compressed by fabric. The other had a more angular, slightly muscular build. One was female. The other, male.
"Look, brother. Just like we were told."
The two had been waiting in this region for some time. They knew something would appear here, but not exactly where or when. They only had fragments to guide them.
A sudden burst of light had revealed the location, briefly illuminating the dense forest.
"Good. Let's finish this quickly. I still think it's ridiculous that we came all this way for a human. Let's grab him and leave," the male said, his tone sharp.
"Have patience. We're not alone."
"Then let's kill whatever it is and be done with it."
"There's no need for that. Let's watch."
"Hmph. If you say so."
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A breath escaped.
It was long, slow, and filled with relief. It felt like life had returned to someone who had been dead inside.
"I… I can't see…"
Peter opened his eyes, but everything was still black. He gasped and started patting his body in a panic. The fear of being empty again overwhelmed him, but relief followed as he realized he was solid. That strange, formless blackness had convinced him he might have died. The feeling of touch grounded him.
"What happened? Why can't I see?"
He opened and closed his eyes several times. The darkness shimmered with each blink. Blurry spots of white light appeared faintly. He wiped at his face, hoping it would help, but nothing changed.
"How long has it been? I don't remember. Just that strange feeling of weightlessness, and that emptiness. Was I abducted?"
Still unable to see, Peter began to feel the ground.
"Dirt? I feel dirt and plants. Am I outside?"
He sat up and winced. Pain flared in his head.
"At least I'm alive… maybe. I don't know if that's a good thing."
He rubbed his eyes again, shut them tight, and rolled them beneath closed lids. When he opened them again, his vision was still blurry. But it was better. That small improvement gave him hope. Then, finally, he began to hear something. Insects. Animals. The world wasn't silent after all.
Life. Real, breathing life. He hadn't realized how much he missed it.
"How weird. I stepped into an elevator… now I'm in the dirt. I don't hear traffic. I don't smell the city. Where the hell am I?"
Then another thought hit him.
Maybe I was robbed and dumped here.
He searched his pockets and the ground around him.
"No phone, no wallet. Nothing. Did someone hit me? But I was alone in the elevator. Maybe I lost my memory."
He took a deep breath. The air was clean and fresh. It was strange, almost too pure to be real.
After another few minutes, his vision started to clear. He could see trees, leaves, shadows. Not clearly, but enough to tell he wasn't anywhere near the city.
"This is a forest? How far did they take me? How am I supposed to get home?"
He slowly stood up, checking his body for injuries. His clothes, a light blue dress shirt, khakis, and black shoes, were dirty but intact. He brushed off what he could.
Then another wave of heat pulsed through him.
"My body… what is this feeling? It's like something inside me is moving."
He paused, concern rising.
"Am I sick? Did someone drug me?"
He ran his hands over his arms and chest again, just to be sure. His memory was foggy, and he couldn't remember anything after work.
"Let's worry about that later. First I need to figure out where I am. If I'm lucky, I'm still near the city. There are forests not far from the metro area. If I can find a road or trail, I'll be able to figure things out."
He scanned the area, but the forest was thick. The trees blocked most of the moonlight, and visibility was poor. He could barely see a few meters ahead.
Peter wasn't the outdoorsy type. He had barely stepped foot in a forest before.
"But who expects this kind of thing? I guess I should've watched more survival videos. Hindsight is always perfect, right?"
He dusted off what he could and picked a direction at random.
"If it were clear out, I could use the stars. But right now, I'm just guessing."
He started walking, mumbling to himself as he went. The pain in his body hadn't gone away. The strange heat still churned within him.
Something was wrong. Very wrong.
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"Hah… I've been walking and jogging for over an hour, and everything still looks the same. How the hell am I supposed to get out of this place? I still feel nauseous, and my body feels strange. Not sure what's wrong with me. Was I really drugged?"
Peter patted himself down in several places, but he couldn't find anything visibly wrong. If there was a problem, it had to be internal. He had never done drugs or been drugged before, so it wasn't like he knew what that was supposed to feel like. Still, the nausea wouldn't go away, and he'd even thrown up a few times.
Thankfully, even though his body was in pain and he didn't feel great, he could still walk. He hadn't gotten tired or weak yet.
"I'm not exactly in shape, but somehow I've been jogging for a while and I'm not even winded. What's going on with me?"
It was difficult to navigate through the forest in such low light. He'd tripped more than once, but he didn't want to slow down. The idea of being attacked by a wild animal kept him moving. Then again, rushing through an unfamiliar forest could just as easily get him hurt.
"Guess I should slow down a bit and try to get my bearings."
He looked around, but nothing had changed. Every direction looked the same. Just trees, brush, and shadows.
"How am I going to get out of here? Am I going to die alone without anyone knowing what happened to me? People have died like that, haven't they? Lost in forests, never found."
He paused.
"Some people do survive though. But no one even knows I'm missing. I live alone, and I don't talk to many people. Maybe someone at work will notice, but that could take days."
He walked toward a particularly large tree and ran his hand along the bark. The surface was rough and familiar, but something strange happened. A sensation pulsed through his fingers, as if he could feel something alive inside the tree, or some kind of energy. He pulled his hand back.
"Must be my imagination."
Just then, a crashing sound echoed in the distance.
"Is someone else out here?"
He perked up and started jogging toward the sound, but stopped himself.
"What if it's a wild animal or something dangerous?"
Peter approached more cautiously, moving from tree to tree. The crashing grew louder. He heard metal clashing, bodies slamming into the ground, and other sounds he couldn't recognize. Someone, or something, was definitely fighting.
He crouched behind some foliage and peeked into a clearing. A figure was leaping through the air, swinging what looked like a sword at several wild beasts. At least, he assumed they were beasts. It was hard to see in the dark, and the person's head was covered.
"Is that a sword? Who the hell fights wild animals with a sword? Is this an RPG!?"
The person moved with inhuman speed and agility, darting through the battlefield like a character from one of Peter's light novels. It was surreal.
"No way this is real…"
The person's sword didn't seem to cut. Each swing knocked the creatures back with blunt force rather than slicing them apart. They just kept coming.
"Are these things endless?" Peter muttered.
It didn't seem to matter how many the person knocked away. More kept appearing, surrounding the fighter from all sides. Then the sword began to glow faintly.
With the next swing, it pierced one of the animals clean through.
Peter's mouth fell open. He nearly stumbled backward.
"Did that just turn into a lightsaber? This is insane…"
He glanced around, half-expecting to see a film crew nearby. But there were no cameras, no equipment, nothing. Just forest.
After several more minutes, the last of the animals dropped. The fighter stood still, breathing heavily, sword in hand.
Peter noticed something else. As each creature died, a strange mist rose from its body. It floated through the air, unseen by either Peter or the swordsman, and drifted toward Peter. One by one, the streams of energy entered his body.
Peter didn't notice a thing.
The fighter scanned the area for more threats, then finally relaxed. Peter wasn't sure what to do. If this was a movie set, he didn't want to ruin the shot. If it wasn't, what if the person was dangerous?
While he hesitated, the figure suddenly turned and looked directly toward him.
Peter's heart nearly stopped.
Was I spotted?
The figure sprinted toward him. Peter jumped back, panicking, but before he could turn and run, something heavy slammed into him from behind and knocked him flat.
The weight pressed him into the dirt. He couldn't breathe.
Claws raked at him. He tried to fight back, but the thing was too strong. It felt like he was being crushed.
Then, suddenly, the weight lifted.
Peter gasped, coughing and choking. He could hear hissing, followed by a voice shouting in a language he didn't understand.
He struggled to stand. Blood filled his mouth, and the pain was unbearable. His vision swam, and everything faded to black.
The hooded figure rushed past him, sword glowing, and stabbed the beast through the heart. It let out a final hiss, then went still.
The beast's body was covered in faint, reptilian scales. The figure wiped the blade clean and returned it to its sheath. After scanning the clearing one last time, the fighter stepped over to Peter and examined him.
Kneeling down, she checked his clothing and pockets but found nothing of interest. She placed her hands over his chest, and a soft light began to glow.
As the light spread across Peter's body, a sudden dark flame erupted from within him. It struck back at the light and knocked the woman's hands away.
She stumbled back, shocked.
The flame didn't burn. It gave off no heat and no light, but it radiated something else, something terrifying. For a brief moment, she felt as though it could devour everything.
She stared at Peter, mumbling words he wouldn't have understood even if he had been awake.
Seeing that he was breathing normally again, she rose to her feet and walked over to the nearest beast. Drawing a knife, she cut into its chest, searching for something.
She clicked her tongue in frustration.
Nothing.
She tried another corpse. Still nothing.
Whatever she was expecting to find, it wasn't there. She kicked one of the bodies and turned back toward Peter.
Again, she muttered something quietly to herself.
Drawing her sword once more, she removed her hood. Her face was revealed, along with two pointed, furry ears on top of her head. They twitched slightly.
She was not human.
Her hair was long, smooth, and platinum-colored. It shimmered faintly in the low light. Her eyes were bright green and seemed to glow, even in the dark.
She looked down at Peter, raising her sword.
But after a moment, her grip loosened. Her arm dropped.
She couldn't bring herself to kill him.
His clothes were strange, like nothing she had ever seen. And that flame. She had only seen something like that once before. It reminded her of the Void. The same energy that fueled her own magic. The same energy that made up the lifeblood of the world.
Something about this human was deeply, dangerously unusual.