Oroz lay in the sterile hospital room, the steady beep of the heart monitor his only companion. His mind was a whirlwind of confusion and questions. How could this be? How could he have woken up here, in this mundane world, after everything he had experienced—the battles, the Mana Beasts, the allies and enemies, the magic that had coursed through him?
The nurse had come in earlier, checked his vitals, and assured him that he'd been unconscious for weeks after a mysterious accident. But Oroz felt as though something more was at play. The life he had lived in the magical world felt real—too real. His memories were sharp, detailed. They couldn't be a dream, could they?
As he sat in his hospital room, staring blankly at the white walls, the confusion gnawed at him. Was this a second chance at life, or had the world of magic been a figment of his imagination, created to fill the void of his ordinary, uneventful existence? His phone, lying untouched on the bedside table, buzzed. A message flashed across the screen, sending a chill down his spine.
*"We are waiting for you. Come back, Oroz."*
The message was from an unknown number, and the words seemed to carry an urgency that made his skin crawl. Who was waiting for him? How did they know his name? Was it a prank? Or something more? The name "Oroz" felt foreign yet familiar in his mind. Hadn't he been called that by someone before? Was it just another fragment of the life he had imagined—or had he been in two worlds all along?
His heart raced as he tried to make sense of the situation. He couldn't ignore the fact that the message had come from an untraceable number. Had it been sent from the world he thought he had left behind? But why would they reach out to him now? What was the significance of this world, of the life he was now living?
Oroz reached for his phone, but as his fingers brushed against it, a sudden, sharp pain lanced through his chest. It wasn't physical; it was a mental jolt, a pulse of energy, as if something—or someone—was reaching out to him from across the veil of worlds. A voice whispered in his mind.
*"You cannot escape your fate, Oroz Kimberg. You are bound to both worlds."*
He froze. The voice was unmistakable. It was Aqualis—the creature of water, his companion, his ally. But why was it speaking to him now? Was he still in the magical world? Had the battle truly ended? The nurse had mentioned he'd been unconscious for weeks—so how could this be happening?
He clutched his head, trying to ground himself in the reality before him. The hospital room, the dull buzz of the machines, felt too real, too solid. But the voice, the feeling of magic lingering in the air, told him otherwise. There had to be more to this than he was being told.
Before he could process further, the door to his room opened, and in walked a figure he never expected to see: Thalia. His ally from the magical world, the one who had fought beside him in the battles, the one who had shared his burdens and hopes.
But how could she be here? In this world?
Her eyes locked onto his, filled with the same mixture of confusion and understanding that he felt. "Oroz," she whispered, her voice strained. "We need to talk. There's no time."
Oroz's heart skipped a beat. He wanted to ask her how she was here, what had happened to the world he had fought so hard for. But the words wouldn't come. The question that filled his mind was much darker, much more urgent.
"Am I dreaming, Thalia? Or is this real? Is this... is this really my life?"
She stepped closer, her face a mixture of sorrow and resolve. "Both," she said softly. "You are in a world that is not your own, but neither is the world you came from. You're caught between two realms, Oroz. The boundaries are thinning, and the magic is slipping through."
Before he could respond, the heart monitor in the corner of the room began to beep rapidly. Something was wrong. A surge of energy rippled through the room, causing the lights to flicker. Oroz felt a strange pull, a magnetic force, as if something beyond his understanding was drawing him in.
Thalia grabbed his arm, her grip firm and urgent. "We have to go. Now. If we don't, the rift will consume both worlds."
Oroz didn't have time to question. He followed her, his mind reeling, as the hospital room around him began to warp, the walls warping like liquid, the floor shifting beneath his feet. Everything he had known about this world started to dissolve into something far more dangerous and unstable.
The door slammed open, revealing the hallway beyond, but it wasn't the same hallway he had seen when he entered the room. The walls seemed to pulse, throbbing with dark energy. Shapes—twisted and monstrous—moved in the shadows, their eyes glowing with malevolent intent.
Thalia didn't look back as she tugged Oroz along. "You're the key, Oroz. The magic that binds the worlds together—it flows through you. You're the anchor. If the rift destabilizes, everything we know will cease to exist."
Oroz's heart pounded as he tried to process the impossible situation unfolding around him. His life was far from over, but now the battle wasn't just for magic—it was for reality itself.
He couldn't escape the feeling that his true destiny was just beginning, that he was tied to something much greater than himself. And as the dark figures closed in around them, Oroz realized that his journey had only just started. The world he had fought for, the one he had thought lost, was not gone. It had followed him here—into this twisted new reality.
The door ahead of them burst open, revealing a strange vortex of light and shadow. Thalia looked at Oroz one last time, her expression filled with both fear and determination.
"Come with me," she urged. "We have to stop the rift. If we don't, both worlds will fall."
Oroz hesitated for a moment, but then, as if something deep within him clicked, he stepped forward. He didn't know how or why, but he knew one thing: his journey was far from over.
With a deep breath, Oroz stepped into the vortex, ready to face whatever awaited him on the other side, knowing that the fate of both worlds rested in his hands.