He opened his eyes only to see a pitch-black darkness, he felt nauseated. He was laying down on his back, he was laying on a cold and hard surface. He tried moving his arms but they did not respond, then he tried moving his legs which sequentially failed. When he thought about it, the realization that he could not feel his limbs at all.
He felt cold though, almost as if though he would shiver but he was unable too. As he was thinking an urgent though bounced towards his thought process. He had heard something behind him. It was multiple small steps happening incredibly quickly, on top of that the steps were loud. This creeped Alexander out and made him try moving again. It failed.
It took him a few minutes but he finally calmed down, especially since a few minutes is comparable to hours when you almost have all your senses deprived. He was alone, and all he had was his thoughts.
He had trouble thinking, he had a tough time trying to remember how he had ended up in this spot. It is as if though his brain capacity had become a lot smaller. His thoughts were processed slower, he had a harder time coming up with thoughts and his mind felt cramped.
He had lived in his own body for 16 years, he knew his mind and its limits. He peaked at the edges of his mind, what he found there shocked him. It felt as if though another sentient being had taken over his mind. It was parasite like, he had something living inside of him except this was inside his mind. He focused enormously on that part of his mind until he entered the zone where he could not think himself because all his focus was on whatever this was.
He then felt the cold disappear, he felt himself standing up, he felt the warm airbrush upon his skin and he had control over his limbs. His mind did not feel cramped in. He opened his eyes only to realise that he was in a completely different spot.
In front of him stood a familiar creature. It was the salamander. It stood still looking at Alexander, after a few minutes it sounded. "I can't believe a puny little sub-lifeform would ever be able to catch me. Then it had committed suicide, is this some sort of joke?" it had said all of this without moving its mouth, it was all done telepathically it was after all inside of Alexander's mind. Alexander could still feel the rage behind those words.
The salamander disappeared instantly after. Alexander was left standing in a hall that was quite long but he could still see the end of it. The hall had uncountable doors attached to it. The doors could be separated into two groups, the ones made out of iron and the ones made out of wood. Each door something written on it.
Right now there was only one wood door
He walked over to the suspicious wood door and read what stood on it. "Body temperature heating system", Alexander became interested but not enough to warrant further inspection.
Instead, he went to the door behind him in the hall. It was a door made out of iron on it stood, "Sparks". Again, this made Alexander intrigued. Alexander kept progressing through the hall and then read a door that caught Alexander's eyes. "Fire control basic", he walked over to the door and pulled down on the handle. The door did not budge, he tried repeating himself but the result was the same.
He thought to himself for a second or two before trying another iron door, then another and then another one. It had been as he had suspected. The iron doors were inaccessible to him, he walked back to the first door, the only one made out of wood. He pulled the handle down and he was instantly transported into a new area. It was a large field, then he heard a similar voice. It begrudgingly said.
"In this easy challenge, hahaha, more like a pleasure. You will behave to stand out with cold.." it stopped almost as if to restrain itself from laughing. "if you can stand up straight without moving for a whole minute, the challenge is completed."
"Are you ready sub-lifeform"
Alexander felt really confused, but after calming down his thoughts, he answered "yes".
"Did you not hear…" this time it stopped from rage, "take. the. starting. position. Make yourself worthy of capturing the great Alburazath Kanako Zelado the third of the second force."
Alexander, once again, struck with confusion. He guessed that he was supposed to stand with a perfectly straight back. He pushed out his chest as if he was bearing something heavy making pulling his back as far as it possibly could be.
The second he did so the challenge had begun. Cold had been an extreme understatement, it felt like a blizzard had assaulted him, he felt like he had gotten ant bites over his entire body. His natural reaction to this was to bend over and so he did it.
Then his entire environment disappeared once again. He was back to laying on his back suffering from a mental cramp and no control over his body. He could feel his body shivering, shivering was a light word, it was swinging. The small part of Alexander's mind he had control over sent him a dose of pain. It was as if his entire body was frozen.
With the pain Alexander felt, it was a lot harder to concentrate on the part another part of his mind but eventually he succeeded. He found himself in the corridor again. He walked over to the same door and opened it.
Again, he found himself in the field.
"Are you ready"
He mentally braced himself for the upcoming challenge.
"ready"
The cold attacked him once again. However, this time he was ready for it. He controlled his natural urge to bend over and instead stood still. He pictured himself in front of the woods, a peaceful sight. The issue was that after a mere ten seconds had passed ít felt like a whole minute. And after you think you are done, each second becomes a whole lot longer.
Alexander tried to keep his mind off the challenge, he tried his best to ignore the pain but it was not easy. Around him he could see the plain freeze, the grass became stiff and small ice particles formed on it. A solid 40 seconds had passed but then he had failed. His body had started shivering, he had tried his best to hold back but it eventually broke loose.
Again he found himself lying on the floor. However this time it felt different, he no longer felt cold. Actually, there were no resemblances of any sense of cold whatsoever. Instead, he felt a sense of warmth, followed by sleepiness. His body simply wanted to fall asleep and rest. Alexander knew what this sense was, his body was giving up.
Without the pain, he could a lot easier come back to the hall and he did. He went to the same door and opened it. Again he stood in an endless field.
"ready?"
He mentally braced himself, he got hyped. When a sudden realization came, why not get warm before starting the test? He started running around, he did pushups and situps in an intense pace. Just when he reached the spot when his heart was working at maximum capacity did he stand up straight and start the test.
The blizzard assaulted him once again. He almost flinched, the pain felt greater than the previous times but he knew that he could last longer this way. Then the endless waiting started, this time however he had a stronger will behind him. The will to live had overclouded the will to succeed.
He was no longer pictured a peaceful forest in front of him, all his focus was at staying still, even if he had to forcefully will his body to do so. This intense focus came with an inevitable consequence. The pain had gotten a lot more apparent and real, however, there was a positive consequence. Time was rolling by faster. When your focus does not think about time at all, time speeds by.
10 seconds passed.
20 seconds passed
30 seconds passed.
40 seconds passed.
50 seconds had passed.
His body was burning at this point. His body wanted to start shivering and it manifested itself in a crazy strong itch. Alexander held though if his mind wandered for so much as a second his natural instinct would take over and he would shiver. He had to focus his mind on this itch alongside the pain. He had to withstand all of it and he did so, and just when he was about to succumb, he had won.
"see, it was simple after all "
He was transported back to the pitch-black cold spot he had started in. His sleepiness had gotten extreme, Alexander was about to doze off. Before it happened something extremely satisfying flowed through his body. It felt like honey spread all over his body, from his head to his stomach and then into all four limbs. Then he fell asleep.