Aahan ran his hand through the fissure again, but the jolt he felt was much more intense this time. It almost felt like he had inserted his hand into an electrical outlet.
"Argh!" he screamed in pain before pulling his hand back. "Damn it! What is this thing!?"
Aahan wrestled with the pain that shot through his arm while staring at the fissure. Whatever this strange phenomenon was, it held a power unlike anything he had ever imagined. Clutching his tingling hand, he took a step back from the fissure.
"This can't be real," he said. "I have to be dreaming... but since when did people start feeling pain inside dreams? Breathe... I need to relax. Augh, this stupid smell makes me want to puke!"
Just then, he saw something in front of his eyes. Texts were floating in the air right in front of his eyes. Aahan thought he was seeing things and rubbed his eyes. But sure enough, the text was still there after he was done.
[Transdimensional door has been sealed from the outside. Please defeat the Asura to unseal the entrance to the human realm.]
"What is this..."
Aahan waved his arms around, trying to disperse the thing written before him. But his hands phased through the texts as if they only existed in his mind.
"Defeat the asura... did those jailers do something to me?" Aahan scratched his forehead. "Or did I die and end up in a game or something? I used to enjoy those kinds of novels before... focus on the present, you moron!"
Suddenly his vision began to blur, and a searing pain shot through his head. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to fight off the sudden bout of pain.
And then, just as quickly as it had started, the pain receded. Aahan opened his eyes cautiously, half-expecting the fissure to have vanished along with the strange text that had appeared before him.
But to his annoyance, the text remained along with the fissure, suspended in the air like a ghostly apparition, only this time, a different line of text appeared before him.
[Your vitality has been reduced due to extended exposure to Ahur radiation. Please defeat the Asura to unseal the gateway and return to the human realm.]
He blinked, rubbed his eyes, and blinked again, but the text refused to disappear.
"Transdimensional door... Asura... unseal the entrance..." Aahan muttered the words under his breath. "How am I supposed to do any of that without a weapon? Forget about that. How am I supposed to find something in this place!?"
As Aahan said those words, he remembered the pain he had received for idling around. Not wanting to go through it again, he decided to get a move on and at least try looking for the so-called Asura.
He cautiously walked through the dystopian world, and the more he looked, the more fascinated he grew about the world before him.
The place was an exact copy of the world Aahan remembered growing up in, but at the same time, it was significantly different.
Firstly, there weren't as many buildings around him as he had seen before. But the buildings that were there were overrun by the forces of nature, and their state wasn't good enough for Aahan to go inside and explore.
Also, unlike the earth he knew about, there were only a hand full of plants around him, and none of them resembled any plant or tree he had ever seen.
But there was one thing in common amongst all of them... there were as red as blood, almost giving an illusion that they were made out of flesh.
"I really... don't like this place- what was that?"
Suddenly, a distant sound of clashing blades reached his ears. At first, Aahan was a bit taken aback by the sudden noise, but he soon realised that the source of the sounds could be his ticket back to his world.
Aahan's curiosity piqued, and he quickened his pace, following the source of the commotion. With each step, the clashing sounds grew louder, filling the air with tense energy.
As he approached the source, he felt a knot form in his chest as if something heavy had been dropped on his chest. His breaths came quicker, and his palms grew sweaty.
It was the first time he had felt like it ever since that night eight years ago. It was then he realised that the smell he had been following had gotten intense like never before, making it difficult for him to breathe.
Regardless of the problems, Aahan kept pushing through with the thought of meeting his brother running through his head. However, he was in for a surprise.
His eyes widened as he rounded a corner, and there, before him, was a sight that sent a shiver down his spine.
A man in a sleek, black and red bodysuit was engaged in furious combat with a creature that resembled demons from the fables. Its hideous figure twisted and writhed, its eyes glowing with a strange fire.
Its skin was a sickly shade of grey, stretched tightly over its over-bulging muscles that seemed ready to burst forth. Jagged horns protruded from its skull, curving maliciously towards the sky.
Aahan's mind raced as he took in the scene. He wanted to turn and flee, to escape this nightmarish confrontation. He wasn't a warrior but an ordinary man caught in the circumstances.
His legs felt like they were made of lead, his feet rooted to the spot even as his instincts screamed at him to run. The fear gripped him, its icy fingers clutching his heart, rendering him momentarily paralysed.
'I need to get out of here...' Aahan thought, but before he could do anything, the Asura sent the other guy flying towards him.
The man crashed before Aahan, his sword slipping out of his hand. Through the tattered remains of the bodysuit, Aahan could see that the man had taken a hell of a beating.
But through all that, Aahan didn't notice that the man's helmet had fallen off, revealing his bruised face...
"Vivaan!?" Aahan shrieked as the man in the bodysuit turned out to be his elder brother.