Chapter 29 - Awakening
Sid could no longer move.
He lay there, blood pooling beneath him, his chest rising in shallow, broken breaths. His body was wrecked — skin torn, bones cracked, vision smeared with red haze. He couldn't lift his arm, couldn't speak, couldn't even groan.
All he could do was stare.
At the shattered remains of his replica.
It was slowly turning to dust.
Fragments of the figure that tormented him now disintegrated in the void, scattering like ash, carried into the shadows by invisible wind.
Sid's breath rattled in his chest.
Darkness crept into the corners of his mind, pulling him under. He felt the edges of sleep — or death — grasping at him.
Then—
A low, groaning rumble.
The colossal black gate before him began to open.
Sid's half-faded eyes widened just enough.
The sound shook his soul.
And the space around him began to tremble.
The world itself cracked at the seams. It was as if the entire realm, forged of void and trial, was being torn apart.
From the widening gate, a force leaked through.
Tremendous. Unrelenting.
Violent.
Sid felt it instantly. Like being dragged underwater by an unseen tide. The moment it touched his skin, he expected to be crushed.
Instead—
He felt warmth.
It was violent. Overwhelming. But strangely comforting. Familiar.
Like something he had once known in a dream long forgotten.
His breath returned. His vision cleared.
His wounds began to seal. Muscle reformed. Bones adjusted. Skin knotted back together.
Power surged through him like wildfire.
His entire being shifted from a dying state—to something reborn.
It was… divine.
The force pouring from the gate grew stronger, enveloping him. The realm stabilized as it settled, but the fire from the great torches had long since died.
Only darkness remained.
And Sid, floating alone.
His body glowed faintly, drawing in the force like a vessel drinking from a flood. But as immense as the power was, he realized:
He had absorbed almost nothing.
Yet his body already felt like it would burst.
The pressure mounted. The gate's force was still flooding in, filling him.
Then — pain.
The worst pain he had ever known.
It began in his veins.
They twisted. Expanded. Forced open by the sheer volume of power invading him.
He arched violently. His bones cracked. Mouth opened in a silent scream.
His limbs convulsed, his teeth grinding until blood poured from his lips.
His fingers bent unnaturally. His back curled. His eyes flickered, unable to focus.
And still, it grew worse.
His body thrashed, contorting, roaring.
He couldn't hold on.
The pain blurred the edge of reality. He passed out — only to be forced awake again by the next wave.
No rest. No escape.
The violent surge ripped through him again and again, and just as he thought he might die—
It stopped.
The pain ebbed.
Dark energy flowed over his shattered bones. They fused. Strengthened.
His blood shimmered with black light. His body had changed.
He floated there, barely breathing, when a new pain slammed into him.
Different.
Not his body.
But this time, his soul.
His mind blanked. The force tore through his soul like a blade. Not crushing flesh, but unraveling who he was.
Like a balloon being overfilled, his soul expanded.
He screamed — not with his mouth, but from something deeper.
It was agony unlike anything he'd ever imagined.
A pain no body could feel. Only the soul.
He wanted to die. Right there. Anything to stop it.
But the darkness kept pouring in.
Until — finally — it ceased.
And he dropped.
His body slammed into solid ground.
Gasping. Clutching his chest.
Alive.
Changed.
A silent moment passed.
Then — a swirling vortex opened before him.
Without mercy, it pulled him in, dragging him back through the dark.
Back to the world he came from.