A dark purple light engulfed Ryu's sight and body, swallowing him completely.
'This feeling... I want to—'
Ryu immediately clamped his hand over his mouth.
It was as if his entire existence was being hurled through space, twisting and churning—he felt like vomiting.
The sensation lasted no more than ten seconds, but to Ryu, it felt like an eternity. Then the light vanished—and with it, the urge to vomit disappeared.
No... not vanished. It had merely been replaced—by something worse.
Suffocation.
"!!"
Panic surged through him. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't move properly.
'What is this?! Water?!'
He struggled to see. His eyes were open, yet the world remained pitch black. Only suffocation. Only stillness.
Hesitantly, he parted his lips just enough to taste the liquid surrounding him.
'It's warm... tastes fresh, but bitter... A lake.'
It made no sense. Moments ago, he had died in a snowy wasteland. Then he woke in a strange, endless land of dirt and mountains. And now—he was underwater?
Then he noticed something odd on his ankle. A sensation of metal, tight but not enough to cut circulation.
'What the hell is this...? No, I don't have time for this...'
He had to swim up—but which way was "up"?
'I don't have much breath left... God, can't I just die in peace?!'
And then, an idea struck him.
He would swim in different directions. If his lungs felt more pressure in one way, that meant he was going deeper—and he would reverse it.
'Let's try this direction...'
He pushed forward. Nothing.
He reversed. Still nothing.
'Sideways, maybe?' he cursed in his mind.
He shifted to another direction. This time, the pressure increased.
'This way... it's down. Reverse...'
His breath was nearly gone. Pain clawed at his lungs, his mind spinning from the lack of oxygen.
'Just... a little more.'
He didn't care about dying. He had already accepted death before.
But something inside him still resisted. Still fought.
Because more than death—he hated the idea of giving up.
With one final push, he broke the surface, gasping. His lungs ached. His head pounded.
"Where... am I...?" he panted.
Though he had surfaced, he could see very little—only a few stars and the dim shimmer of a cloud-obscured moon.
Then he remembered.
'The metal around my ankle...'
He reached down with shaky hands to feel it—and what he discovered sent chills down his spine.
An iron shackle.
And worse—
"Chains...!"
No sooner had the word left his lips than the chains began to stir.
He could feel it—the pull building.
Without a second thought, Ryu drew in a deep breath.
His fears were confirmed.
The chains yanked him beneath the surface with brutal force.
Ryu struggled to maintain a sense of direction, but it was useless. The chains dragged him violently, pulling him through twisting paths underwater.
Then—
His body slammed into dirt.
Pain shot through him.
No broken bones, he quickly assessed. Small mercy. The last thing he needed now was an injury.
He continued to be dragged across the lakebed for several meters before the pull weakened. The chains still twitched now and then—but not enough to move him further.
'Whatever's on the other end of this chain... I don't want to know. I don't want to meet it.'
The strength of the earlier pull told him enough. Whatever it was, it wasn't human.
'I need to get rid of it... these chains.'
He sighed silently, still trying to wrap his head around the surreal horror he'd landed in.
'I can't risk attracting that thing.'
He looked around. The moon was up, but cloaked by heavy clouds—explaining the faint light.
"It's a lake, alright... a big one."
He wasn't an expert, but judging by the distance to the shore and the lack of visible boundaries, he estimated the lake stretched at least 10,000 square kilometers.
'The fact that it dragged me from that far away in under a minute...'
The thought chilled him to his core.
He glanced toward the treeline—dense, tall trees clustered tightly together.
A forest. A thick one...
He almost laughed—more out of dread than amusement.
'What's waiting for me at the end of this chain? This can't get any worse.'
And then, as if the world had heard him—mocked him—
The chain jerked.
Ryu stumbled, falling face-first onto the ground.
Then it began to pull him again.
Toward the forest.