Kai's head throbbed, pulsing with a pain unlike anything he had ever experienced.
The eighteen-year-old boy who just woke up and slowly rose began to look around. His gaze sweeping over the scene before him — a dark strange cave filled with corpses stretched out all around him. A deep cry filled with fear burst from his throat.
Fear gripped him as he wondered what event dragged him to such a place — and why.
"Where am I!"
Slumping forward, he yelled in confusion, trying desperately to understand the situation.
But a new feeling hit him before he could recover.
Excruciating, blind pain.
His mind felt as though it had been split into three parts, each one seeing a different world, each one fighting for dominance. It was like hallucinating — but worse.
He moved while reeling in despair trying to push — and immediately regretted it. His leg gave way with a sickening crack, disintegrating into dust that blew in all directions.
Screaming, Kai collapsed, pain consuming every thought. He tried to cry, but no tears came. Shaking, he reached up to touch his cheeks — only to feel bone beneath his fingertips.
The shock froze him in place.
He dared not move again. The pain began to fade, but so too did his leg — it was simply gone, along with any nerves that once connected it.
Kai stood trembling, terrified that even a single step might cause the rest of his body to crumble apart.
A voice pierced the heavy silence, so clear and close it made Kai flinch.
"Master, did you succeed?"
He turned around slowly, heart pounding — but there was no one there.
His mind buzzed violently, the new voice calling out to him was somehow both imaginary and painfully real.
Shutting his eyes against the stabbing pain, Kai tried to steady himself. When he opened them again, the world had changed.
He was no longer standing among corpses — instead, he found himself in a vast underground laboratory.
Strange glass tubes lined the black stone walls, each containing grotesque shapes that twitched and floated in green, bubbling fluids. Dim, cold light spilled from crystals embedded in the ceiling, casting long, twisted shadows across the cracked marble floor.
The air smelled of metal, old blood, and chemicals of all kinds
Before him stood a girl — or what had once been one. She was clearly an elf, or looked like one due to her long ears, but was clearly undead. Her skin was deathly pale, her eyes glowing an unnatural green aura.
"Did you finish your experiment, sir?" she asked, her voice calm and hollow. "I brought more of the mined mana stones to aid in your recovery, it looks like you had quite a drawback from using all your mana. Here — hold on to this one."
She extended a jewel the size of a fist, its surface shimmering with shifting colors.
Kai stared down at it, confusion deepening — then caught a glimpse of his own hand.
Gnarled, withered, and trembling, the hand that held the jewel looked like it belonged to a centuries-old corpse, veins and tendons were showing along with exposed flesh.
But the moment the crystal touched his hand, a strange warmth surged through him.
The shriveled, cracked skin began to mend itself lightly, veins knitting back together, muscles pulsing with new life. His relentless headache dulled — if only slightly.
"There are more, Master Gilgrim," the undead girl said, her long gray hair brushing her shoulders as she bowed. "We managed to mine nearly twenty more mana stones today, ready for your recovery."
Kai could only stare at her. She seemed to draw energy from the crystals herself, though not enough to fully restore her own battered form.
He could sense the hesitation in her voice — as if she expected a reprimand that never came.
"Are you truly alright, Master?" she asked, concern flickering across her undead features.
"You still haven't used your Grand Scale Recovery. Also… these stones won't be enough to fully heal you it seems."
Her words barely registered.
Kai looked down at his hands again — now partially restored — then glanced around the room.
This wasn't the corpse-riddled place he first awoke in.
This was... a laboratory. Vast, ancient, crumbling. The stone walls were lined with shelves of blackened tomes, dusty artifacts, and flickering green crystals.
The air smelled of metal, decay, and something far older.
Even stranger, his skin wasn't the right color.
It wasn't the skin of his eighteen-year-old body, it was pallid, stretched thin, bruised by time.
"Master Gilgrim...?" he muttered, confusion tightening his throat.
His molars clenched, and the splitting headache returned, worse than before.
He doubled over, clutching his skull, a raw scream tearing from his throat.
"What do you mean?" he gasped. "Tell me — quickly! How do I heal myself faster?"
Without waiting for an answer, he staggered toward the pile of crystals, desperate.
The girl's brows furrowed, her pale hands hovering uncertainly over the stones.
"You should know the spell already... unless..." She hesitated, then shook her head.
"Just—here, allow me."
She placed her hand atop the crystals, her voice low and melodic as she began to chant.
The girl placed her hand over the crystals, each one began to glow even before she chanted.
"Elenai silme galadren, lúthien anarion eiriel..."
The undead girl's voice echoed through the cavernous laboratory, weaving around Kai like a living thing.
He watched in stunned silence as the mana crystals pulsed brightly, then crumbled into dust between her fingers.
A wave of warmth crashed over him.
The ancient, sagging skin on his arms began to tighten. The dry, mummy-like flesh smoothed and filled with color, the blemishes vanishing one by one.
Each passing second peeled centuries from his crumbling appearance — yet he remained far from the youthful boy he remembered being.
"There," the girl said with a hollow, almost mechanical voice. "You look a little better, though still far from the handsome child you adore being, Master."
Kai barely heard her.
He struggled to remember who the pale, loyal creature was, only nodding at her words which contain some kindness to them.
Kai tried harder to remember who she was, yet no memories surfaced. Only the pounding in his head.
A sharp, brutal pulse of pain cracked through his skull, forcing him to his knees.
When he opened his eyes again, the world had changed once again.
The laboratory was gone.
In its place stretched a barren wasteland, endless and silent.
Above him, the stars hung low, unnaturally close — so close it felt like he could reach up and pluck them from the void.
Yet there was no sun, no moon, no warmth. Only an eerie half-light and an oppressive silence.
Kai stumbled forward.
He felt no air in his lungs, no gravity pulling him down — only the gnawing ache of his headache, rising and falling like ocean waves.
Then a new pain erupted in his abdomen, sharp and consuming, as if something had torn a hole straight through him.
He collapsed, curling into himself, gasping silently.
"What's wrong?"
The girl's voice came again — distant, echoing through this empty world.
"Do you need more crystals?"
Kai clenched his teeth that seemed to have two large fangs, confusion and fear swirling in his gut.
Where was he? What was happening to him?
Kai squeezed his eyes shut, trying to focus on the girl's voice — to anchor himself.
When he opened them again, the world shifted.
The endless wasteland was gone.
He was back in the crumbling laboratory, surrounded by dust, rotting tomes, and the faint green light of mana crystals.
"What... happened?" Kai gasped, clutching his stomach where the phantom pain still lingered.
"Why am I back here?"
The buzzing in his head grew louder, fracturing his thoughts.
Pain stabbed through him from different directions — his skull splitting, his body weakening, his soul trembling — as if three separate beings inside him were each crumbling apart in their own way.
He staggered, barely able to stand.
A wave of helplessness hit him. He wanted to scream, to vomit, to fall into nothingness — anything to escape the agony.
"Who are you?" he cried, voice raw. "Why is this happening to me?!"
The undead girl moved closer, confusion darkening her glowing green eyes.
"What do you mean, Master Gilgrim?" she asked, tilting her head. "You're in your laboratory. You were... working on your phylactery, weren't you?"
Kai's heart hammered against his ribs.
"Phylactery?" he echoed, voice cracking. "What... what is that?"