The night was quiet—so still it bordered on dull—as Alex sat alone in his small room, surrounded by faded walls and the pale glow of his phone screen reflecting on his exhausted face. The room was a mess: scattered books, a cup of cold coffee, and worn-out curtains that allowed the moonlight to slip through in hesitant strands. He never expected that this mundane moment would twist into an unforgettable nightmare.
As he scrolled absentmindedly through his phone, the room suddenly exploded with a blinding white light that pierced every shadow, so intense he thought the sun had detonated at midnight. Alex snapped his head up, eyes widening as he blinked against the brilliance. Before him, a shimmering circle of energy formed—spinning rapidly, releasing blue and gray sparks like compressed lightning.
"What… what's happening?"
He couldn't comprehend what he was seeing. The gate unfurled before him like an eye from another world, its center pulsing like a living heart, swallowing the light around it. He had no time to think. A force seized him—an invisible, ravenous pull that wrapped around his body and dragged him forward without mercy.
Alex screamed, grabbing at the edge of the bed, but everything around him began to dissolve—walls, floor, even his own voice swallowed by a deep, alien roar, like a storm screaming across another dimension. Pain slashed through him, raw and pure, as if his body was being ripped apart and rebuilt from nothing. It was unbearable—yet it lasted only a heartbeat before the light vanished.
He fell out of the void, crashing hard onto coarse, dusty ground. His body rolled before coming to a halt on his side, breath ragged, face smeared with sweat and dirt. His chest heaved violently as he tried to understand what had just happened.
Slowly, he raised his head.
He wasn't in his room. He wasn't anywhere familiar. The building he found himself in was abandoned—cracked walls, shattered windows, decayed furniture barely recognizable as objects. Everything was gray, drained of life, as though color itself had died here. Dust coated the floors and walls in a thick blanket, and the air was heavy with the scent of ancient rust and suffocating stillness.
"Where am I? What happened? Where in the hell is this place…?"
Moonlight seeped through a broken window, shimmering against the drifting dust, giving the room a bleak, ghostly glow. A chill ran down Alex's spine. He understood one thing clearly:
He was somewhere else. Another world.
Moments later, a sharp, stabbing pain erupted in his skull, like a knife twisting into his mind. He clutched his head and let out a strangled scream, feeling his brain ignite. Suddenly, something began pouring into him—information, symbols, formulas, and sounds unlike any language he had ever heard.
Flashes filled his consciousness: equations of energy, chains of light, words glowing inside his mind—Mana, Primordial Adaptation, Spiritual Structure. The knowledge came too fast, threatening to crush him beneath its weight. He staggered, losing balance.
The gate hadn't just transported him…
It had changed him.
His breath quickened. His eyes darted around, following lines of energy only he could see—webs of invisible power woven through the air itself.
This was no accident.
Or maybe it was.
He honestly didn't know anymore.
Inside his mind, words began repeating.
His True Name.
Mana.
What did a True Name even do? Why did he have one?
It felt like something he had possessed all his life—yet never recognized until now.
He could feel mana coursing through his body in waves. It was surreal… like sinking into a warm bath during a winter storm. His entire being radiated with health and strength he had never known.
"I feel like I could punch through the wall…"
Euphoria washed over him. It took Alex a few moments to steady himself before he forced his thoughts to focus.
"Alright… I've been transported somewhere. I doubt I'm still on Earth, but there's definitely some kind of civilization here. The architecture is too close to human design…"
He adapted quickly. He always had.
He needed to stay calm, analyze the situation, and make decisions fast.
The silence of the building felt wrong—dangerous.
"Okay… let's see what the hell this 'True Name' is."
Alex sat down, closed his eyes, and tried to relax. He sifted through the torrent of information crammed into his mind like files being forced onto a drive.
After several minutes, he opened his eyes.
The room was still dusty, still drowned in bleak moonlight.
"I understand now…"
Shock pulsed through him.
No—this wasn't just shock.
This was stepping into fantasy.
According to the knowledge in his mind, every being had a True Name—unique to them, tied to countless facets of their soul and character. Each Name granted extraordinary abilities, and even if two Names had similar powers, they would never be identical. Ever.
A True Name awakened through mana as a catalyst.
And judging by the dense mana in the air, every creature in this world possessed power.
Which meant: this world was extremely dangerous.
"My True Name has three parts. But why do I need to activate it? Was getting thrown through a cosmic gate not enough?"
Frustration gnawed at him.
Even with his True Name awakened, he couldn't use it yet. He needed to activate it manually. Thankfully, the process didn't seem too difficult.
"My Name… its aspects are: Soul Partition, Soul Growth, Soul Manifestation. I don't know what they do yet, but I need to find out. This place isn't safe, and I need any power I can get."
A faint, inhuman scream echoed outside—rising into the night sky. Through the window, Alex could see a vast forest stretching endlessly into the darkness.
"If every creature here has mana, then they all have True Names. Staying here is suicide. I need to activate mine as fast as possible."
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