An absolute silence follows and remain until Kazuki opened his eyes to find himself adrift in a sea of twilight. The world around him wasn't one he recognized, but it wasn't entirely unfamiliar either. Colors shimmered and shifted like spilled oil, and the air felt heavy, dense with an otherworldly feeling.
His first thought was that he'd fallen asleep. His second was that this couldn't possibly be a dream. If it was, it could be saying something.
The ground beneath his feet wasn't solid, but it held him, rippling like water with each hesitant step. Above him, the sky churned in shades of deep indigo and molten gold, its expanse broken by strange, luminous orbs that hovered like stars. They pulsed faintly, their glow rhythmic, as though….alive.
Kazuki blinked, his head throbbing faintly. He reached up instinctively to touch the back of his skull, but his hand came away clean. No blood, no pain…just the faint, lingering sensation of something wrong.
"Where... am I?" he muttered, his voice barely more than a whisper.
His words dissolved into the air, swallowed by the silence. It wasn't the kind of quiet he was used to. This was thick, oppressive, like the world itself was listening.
Kazuki took a step forward, then another, his movements cautious. The air around him shimmered, and with every step, the landscape shifted subtly. The water-like ground darkened, deepening into a mirror that reflected the sky above. Strange shapes moved beneath the surface, shadows that didn't belong to him, shifting and twisting in ways that made his skin crawl.
"Hello???" he called out, louder this time.
The silence answered him again, but now it felt different. It pressed against his ears, vibrating faintly, as though something just out of sight was breathing in tandem with him.
—
Kazuki's heart pounded as he continued walking, his footsteps soundless against the liquid ground. The air carried a faint hum, barely audible.
Ahead, a faint glow appeared, a pale light cutting through the twilight. It flickered, beckoning him forward. He hesitated for a moment before steeling himself and moving toward it.
As he drew closer, the glow resolved into a structure, a towering monolith of crystalline spires. It stood impossibly tall, piercing the shifting sky. The surface of the spires shimmered with images that changed constantly: a boy running through a field, a girl crying under a tree, a crowd cheering in a darkened auditorium. Each image vanished as quickly as it appeared, replaced by another.
Kazuki stopped in his tracks, his breath catching in his throat. The monolith exuded a presence that was both magnetic and repellent. He wanted to move closer, to touch it, but every instinct screamed at him to stay away.
"What in the world is this place?"he whispered, his voice trembling.
A soft sound reached his ears then…a faint, melodic hum. It wasn't coming from the monolith but from somewhere behind him.
Kazuki turned sharply, his eyes scanning the shifting landscape.
There, in the distance, stood a figure.
—
The Stranger
The figure was cloaked in shadow, its edges blurry and indistinct. Unlike the imposing form that had struck him down, this figure was smaller, almost human in shape. It stood still, watching him…or at least, that's how it felt.
"Hey!"Kazuki called out, his voice echoing unnaturally in the strange air.
The figure didn't move.
"Do you know where this is? What's going on?"
Still, no response. But then, as Kazuki took a cautious step toward it, the figure tilted its head. The motion was unnervingly slow, deliberate, like it was considering him.
Kazuki felt a shiver run down his spine. He opened his mouth to speak again, but before he could, the figure raised a hand.
The ground beneath him rippled violently, and the twilight sky above darkened, the orbs of light dimming one by one. Kazuki stumbled, struggling to keep his balance as the air itself seemed to twist and compress around him.
"What the…"
The figure vanished.
—
Kazuki found himself standing in a different place entirely. The ground was solid now, rough stone beneath his sneakers. The air was thick with the scent of burning wood, and faint embers floated around him like fireflies.
He turned in a slow circle, taking in his surroundings. He was in what appeared to be the ruins of a village. Crumbled walls and charred timbers jutted out of the ground like skeletal remains. The only sound was the crackling of distant flames, and even that felt muted, as though filtered through layers of glass.
"Why does this feel... familiar?"Kazuki murmured.
He took a few hesitant steps, his eyes scanning the ruins. There was something about this place,something that tugged at the edges of his memory.
He stopped in front of a broken-down structure, its wooden beams splintered and blackened. A faint, ghostly image flickered in the air: two children laughing as they chased each other around the house.
Kazuki blinked, and the image was gone.
"What the hell is happening?"
His voice cracked, and for the first time, he felt the weight of fear pressing down on him. This wasn't just a dream. It couldn't be. The sensations were too vivid, the emotions too raw.
As he stood there, trying to make sense of it all, the faint hum returned, louder this time. It resonated deep in his chest, vibrating through his bones.
—
Kazuki turned toward the sound, his heart hammering. The hum grew louder, morphing into a low, rhythmic pulse. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once.
Then he saw it.
The monolith from before had appeared again, but this time it was fractured, its crystalline surface cracked and jagged. A dark liquid seeped from the cracks, pooling on the ground beneath it.
Kazuki took a step back, his instincts screaming at him to run. But his legs refused to move. He was rooted in place, unable to look away as the liquid began to rise, taking shape.
It formed into a figure…not the shadowy one he had seen earlier, but something worse. Its body was humanoid, but its surface shimmered like liquid mercury, reflecting fragmented images of the world around it. Its eyes…or what passed for eyes, glowed with an intense, unnatural light.
Kazuki's breath caught in his throat as the figure raised a hand, pointing directly at him.
The hum grew deafening, and the ground beneath him cracked, splitting open to reveal an endless void.
Kazuki screamed as the world dissolved around him, the last thing he saw being the figure stepping toward him, its form rippling with which seems to be the chaotic energy that kazuki is used to seeing in games and anime.
—
Kazuki's eyes snapped open, his chest heaving as he gasped for air. He was lying on the ground, but it wasn't stone or water beneath him now, it was dirt.
The air was dry, tinged with the scent of decay, and the sky above was a muted gray, broken by jagged streaks of crimson.
He sat up slowly, his head spinning. The landscape around him was barren and lifeless, dotted with the skeletal remains of trees. In the distance, a towering structure loomed…a twisted, grotesque version of the monolith he had seen in his dream.
Kazuki's hands trembled as he pressed them to the ground, trying to steady himself.
"Where... am I now?"
This time, the silence didn't feel like it was listening. It felt like it was waiting.
To be continued...