Kair stumbled, his arms flailing about trying to find something to hold on to.
Somewhat regaining his footing shortly after, he looked around more intently and found what seemed like a bright orb of light.
It radiated an extremely unpleasant vibe. Almost as if feeling reverence to the ancient light that now hovered in the distance, Kair's ethereal self instinctually tried to kneel before it.
Struggling against the urge, Kair's mind was in a complete disarray.
'What is that? Why do I feel so intimidated by it? What the fuck is going on?!'
Occupied mentally by his questions and physically by his resistance, the orb of light continued fluttering in the distance. How far away it continued to do so was impossible to discern, as the concept of space itself seemed to be wholly absent in the void that Kair currently found himself in.
After what felt like a lifetime of struggling, Kair finally felt the pressure lift off.
As if relenting from its assault, the orb retracted its 'aura' and started vanishing into motes of light.
Those same motes of light however didn't fade away. Instead, they started growing, taking the form of a... portal?
After it finished materializing fully, Kair was left speechless.
A grand archway stood before him, radiating the same glow the orb of light had been. However this time, it felt much more warm, almost inviting to an extent.
The arch itself was constructed by what seemed like extremely old rocks, moss growing all over them. Indiscernible runes were etched on each one. Staring at one of the runes, even for a few seconds, left Kair with a substantial stinging pain in his eyes.
This was especially surprising considering the fact that his ethereal self, or in other words his soul, shouldn't really be able to feel any pain.
The path beyond the portal wasn't anything special, only a plain white expanse that stretched to infinity visible to Kair.
'What is that thing?' Kair wondered.
Subconsciously, due to the subtle similarities between his novel and his current predicament, he had started relating his novel's descriptions to the experiences he was currently going through.
Right now, though, he came up empty.
'I never mentioned this... portal in my novel, ever. Maybe the theories in 'Chaos' weren't factual, after all, ha-'
As if Kair had recited a chant, the portal violently reacted, cutting Kair off by a deep humming sound that suddenly started emanating from the portal. It slowly rose in frequency, going from a deep bass to an uncomfortably high-pitched noise in a matter of seconds. Then, it stopped.
The white expanse that could be seen in the portal twisted and turned, different colors like red, green and blue appearing and mixing together to form a scenery.
VOOM!
A large suction force suddenly assaulted the space Kair was in, including Kair himself. The source?
The portal.
Unable to fight against it, Kair was immediately sucked towards it, his consciousness quickly fading away.
As Kair's soul entered head first into the portal, his ethereal self also faded away making space for what seemed like a white structure, assumedly the human skeleton, to take its place.
By the time his shoulders had crossed over, fibers had sprouted on his bones, weaving together to form organs and muscles.
By the time his entire torso was inside, blood had began flowing in his body, mysteriously staying in shape and not splashing all over the portal.
Finally, as his legs were about to completely vanish, skin started rapidly covering his entire physique.
Now, Kair finally looked like a human. Weirdly enough though, the body he currently had been granted now was completely different from the one he had possessed back when he was on earth.
Why? This was a question whose answer would only be revealed to him in the far, far distant future.
After Kair had fully been absorbed by the portal, it disappeared with a soft whooshing sound. The surrounding space returned to equilibrium, any trace of the portal's presence being erased thoroughly.
---
A being opened its eyes.
It was hard to tell what exactly it was. Boasting a humanoid form, it lacked any features that would indicate what species it belonged to.
On its pitch black skin, golden runes were etched all over. They almost seemed alive and made of liquid gold, churning gently in waves.
It sat in a meditative position, seemingly in a state of zen.
Suddenly, on its face, two holes appeared. Presumed to be his eyes they opened slowly, revealing two sets of terrifyingly beautiful irises. They looked like spiral galaxies, twirling softly around what seemed like black holes, which served as its pupils.
They stretched fully, the chaotic space around the being quaking uncontrollably before returning to its 'usual' chaotic state.
It was impossible to say how large the being really was. From being an average human's size to being bigger then entire universes, there really was no limit placed on such existences.
Regardless, currently the being was looking downwards towards an extremely distant universe. One that was in fact one of the current lowest ranking universes throughout the Multiversal Pact.
Keeping an eye on where the Revenant Portal had appeared, it kept observing. Then, suddenly, the portal disappeared without a trace, .
Even to the being, it would've been the honor of a lifetime to be granted a visit by the Revenant Portal.
Throughout his countless years of existence he had heard legends of great beings, existences even more powerful than him, being visited by the Revenant Portal. The results of the visit would prove to be unfathomably helpful to said existence.
He himself had been silently waiting for eons, yet had never even been given a sign that he might have caught the attention of the portal.
Yet, for some reason, it had wasted its time to appear on what could be assumed to be a worthless universe? For what purpose?
Of course, the current being wasn't the only one who had sensed the portal's appearance. Other existences along with some more powerful ones had carefully taken note of the location and timing of the portal's appearance, marking it with extra caution. Then, they all returned to their slumbers and meditations.
---
A creature cut through the blue and cloudless skies, its dark silhouette starkly contrasting the image of two suns radiating reddish-yellow hues. It was truly a peculiar sight.
The airborne creature raced through the air at unimaginable speeds, faster than an earthen race car, its two furry tails billowing out behind it like whips. Its wings were sharp, allowing it to reach even an even more ridiculous pace, flattening them against its streamlined body. Its claws were long and black, curved like a half moon, resembling a scythe's blade.
A yellow beak served as its mouth along sharp, yellow eyes that seemed to bore into ones' soul if looked at too long.
Sonic booms were sometimes left in the bird's wake, wreaking havoc in the air wherever it passed.
A few kilometers away from the bird's hunting grounds, a luscious green field could be seen, stretching out over the horizon. Patches of bright, rainbow colored flowers were randomly strewn along with butterflies of even more mesmerizing colors fluttering between them creating a picturesque scene.
However, if one looked closely, somewhere in the field there was a small, circular crater. In this crater lay a human boy, a seemingly young one at that. He was completely naked, his physique rippling with lean muscle. Dark brown hair coupled with light skin and an average height of 5'10 made easy to mistake him for another resident of this world.
Suddenly, he twitched, subconsciously feeling something at his toe. A centipede-like creature was slowly wrapping itself around the boy's left foot, it's pincers snapping together as if in anticipation of a delicious meal.
The second they bit into the soft flesh the boy jerked awake, yelping in pain.
Kair looked down at his toe where the centipede was suddenly frozen and kicked his leg upwards violently, sending the centipede flying a couple of meters away from him, landing with a soft thud.
He looked down at his toe, sighing in relief when he saw that his toe remained unharmed.
Only then did Kair realize that he was not only naked, but also laying in a field in the middle of nowhere.
He tried standing up, staggering slightly, but managed to maintain his balance. Uncaring of his genitalia that were so proudly exposed, Kair looked around with confusion coloring his features, which was becoming more apparent by the second.
'Where is this? What am I doing here?' He paused, looking down at himself.
'Since when was I so ripped? What?' Kair wondered, softly gliding his hands across his torso, feeling the defined muscles which he never had in his previous-
'Previous? Previous what?' His train of thought stopped right there, a pain assaulting his mind suddenly as his memories flooded back.
All the haze that had been clouding Kair's mind vanished in an instant, the memories that had been suppressed surfacing again viciously, causing him to pass out immediately after. He collapsed on the spot, falling back in the position that he had been in before waking up.
A few hours later he regained consciousness again, groggily rubbing his eyes and standing up. Still weary from the memories he had digested in his sleep, he didn't notice that the memories of him inside the void and the communication with the portal were strangely wiped away as if they never had existed in the first place.
The two suns were already setting, casting an array of yellow, orange and pink hues across the skies.
Kair, looked around, somewhat mesmerized by the beautiful and impossible scenery unfolding around him.
'Okay, I think I know what's going on. I'm probably just... dreaming, aren't I?' Kair chuckled to himself.
'Right, that's got to be it. The suns look suspiciously similar to that one series back home, no?' he continued to wonder as he slowly started walking around the field.
He still felt... weird. Every sensation throughout his body was somehow amplified. The light breeze that flowed through the field, the crunch of the grass and dirt beneath his feet... it felt like this were the first time he had ever experienced something so clearly.
Suddenly, he looked up in a certain direction, hearing a light woosh. High above him, the bird from before was circling his location. Once it realized that Kair had noticed its presence, it released a sonorous call which echoed throughout the air, assaulting his eardrums making his face contort in light pain.
'Wait.. pain?' Kair halted in shock.
It was strongly believed that pain wasn't something that could be felt in a dream. After all it was scientifically proven that feeling pain in dream was extremely rare.
Now, here he was, flinching from pain?
'It's not like feeling pain in dreams is wholly undocumented though, right?' He thought to himself, trying to calm down.
After clearing his head, Kair looked at the creature again, which was now closer to him than it had been before. After observing at the creature's features, Kair realized something which he previously brushed off as a coincidence.
'Hmm.. that creature looks familiar. Could it be..! Right, this was the Starry Eagle from 'Chaos'! Haha, this definitely has to be a dream now!'
In Kair's eyes, the existence of such a creature could only mean that he was dreaming.The bird had been an abbreviation of a griffin, the widely known mythic creature that had only been mentioned in legends.
How could it exist in anything but his dreams?
Now relieved, Kair continued observing the eagle, thinking it was still all his imagintion. So, it was obvious that he hadn't been prepared when the eagle turned sharply, then nose-dived towards him at a speed that Kair just couldn't keep track of.
It was like that time when he had 'died' again. The image of the car rushing towards him at a speed he couldn't do anything against, but this time replaced with the image of this magnificent eagle which was, now that he realized it, strangely huge.
So massive in fact, that the eagle seemed to be just as long as Kair was tall, which shocked Kair even more.
'Why in gods name is this fucking eagle so big?! It wasn't like this in my nov-'
Thud!
His questioning was suddenly cut off as the eagle crashed into him, slightly fracturing his ribcage, its claws slicing apart his right arm.
Kair was forced to the ground with the eagle now on top of him. Feeling overwhelming fear, Kair passed out again, now with a gigantic eagle-like bird laying on top of him.