Silence filled the room, so heavy it felt as if the world itself had stopped spinning.
Nyx sat at the edge of the bed, the floating status window still hanging before him, its faint golden glow reflecting softly against his white hair in a way he had never seen before.
He didn't know whether he should touch it… close it… or just scream.
"Reincarnation…?"
The word echoed in his mind like an endless ripple.
He never even liked that type of story.
The idea of waking up inside a world he had written?
Living inside a system shaped by his own imagination?
Wearing a body that wasn't his?
It was madness.
Pure madness.
He gripped his head with both hands, fingers threading through his long hair.
"Calm down… ju—"
He stopped.
Trying desperately to retrieve something—anything—from the memories of "Nyx Vairen" that never came.
No headache.
No blurry images.
No echo of voices.
…Nothing.
He tried again.
A second time.
A tenth.
But—
Only emptiness.
A hollow, suffocating void.
As if this body had never lived a single day before he occupied it.
"No… that doesn't make sense."
His voice trembled even as he tried to steady it.
"There has to be something—memories, anything—there must—"
He froze.
His thoughts were unraveling.
Everything was happening too fast.
He glanced at the bed… and decided he needed sleep.
Even a few minutes.
He lay back slowly…
The soft blanket wrapped around his new body with a strange, unfamiliar warmth.
He closed his eyes.
And wished—
Just for a second—
That he would open them in his old room…
In his tiny apartment…
In the life he lost.
But sleep wasn't an escape this time.
It was a doorway.
✦ …Darkness was the first thing he felt.
Darkness without shape, without ground, without ceiling.
Not like night—more like a void.
His eyes snapped open, heart pounding.
He wasn't on a bed.
Not in a room.
Not anywhere he recognized.
Then… light appeared.
A faint, distant glow, flickering in the abyss like a lone candle in an endless cave.
But it wasn't ordinary light.
It reflected off a throne.
A massive throne…
Forged from a black, polished substance that looked carved from the night itself.
An overwhelming aura radiated from it—an aura that made it feel as if the world had been created around that throne.
And on it—
Sat the being.
Its sheer size froze Nyx in place.
A colossal form shrouded in dense fog that wrapped around it like a cloak.
No features.
No face.
Only presence—
A crushing presence…
And a slow, heavy breath that made the air tremble.
The being spoke in a voice that wasn't a voice at all—
More like a vibration resonating inside his bones:
"At last… you have awakened."
Nyx stumbled back, but he didn't feel any ground beneath him.
He stood… moved… breathed… without knowing what he was standing on.
"…Who are you?"
His voice came out hoarse, weaker than he expected.
The being didn't move.
Didn't raise a hand or shift in its throne.
But its voice, forged from shadows, rolled through the void again:
"You are in no position to ask questions."
Nyx shivered despite himself.
Even the strongest beings he had written into his novel never carried this kind of presence.
But—
Before panic swallowed him, the being continued:
"I am the one who brought you here."
The words struck him like lightning.
Nyx's eyes widened.
"You… you're the one who reincarnated me? Why?! I didn't ask for this! I didn't—"
The being cut him off, its tone absolute:
"I know. You did not desire another life. You did not need it."
Silence.
Simple words…
But their weight was strange.
As though this being…
knew him.
"But I… need you."
Nyx let out a shaky, bitter laugh mixed with fear and frustration.
"Need me? Me?! I couldn't even protect my family! I—"
He stopped.
The words caught painfully in his throat.
The being showed no reaction.
As though it saw something deeper than the words he spoke.
"You will understand in time. Not now."
Nyx wanted to shout.
To demand answers.
To refuse.
But instead… words he didn't expect slipped out:
"…I want to go back."
The being's tone did not change.
"There is no going back."
Nyx inhaled sharply.
"Send me back… please… take me home… I don't want to start over, I don't want—"
"You will not return."
The voice slammed against him like a door closing on eternity.
His whole body trembled.
Something inside him cracked.
He tried to hold back the tears…
He failed.
But the being showed no pity.
Its voice remained steady:
"The body you wear… is not the abandoned shell of another, if that is your concern."
Nyx lifted his head slowly, tears still clinging to his lashes.
"What…?"
"You will find no memories. No past. Because this body…"
A swirl of fog peeled away from the being's shoulder, revealing faint, moving sigils etched into its form.
"…is a vessel."
"…A vessel?"
"Yes. A body I crafted for you. Created specifically to contain you—and the power I have given you."
Nyx's breath quickened.
"Why? Why me? Why—"
"You will know when the time comes."
"What do you want from me?"
This time…
Silence.
A moment…
Two…
Then the being spoke, slowly, deliberately—
As if carving the words into the void:
"I want you to live."
"…Live? Just that?"
"And grow. And learn. And awaken."
Awaken?
A cold shiver ran down Nyx's spine.
Before he could ask, the being continued:
"Do not seek the truth now. You will not see it."
And then—for the first time—its tone shifted, almost like a whisper:
"But remember… this world is not as you wrote it."
Nyx's heart lurched.
The same words that had crossed his mind hours earlier.
"And it is not what you think."
He tried to breathe…
But the air seemed heavier than before.
Suddenly, the darkness exploded.
The throne vanished.
The being vanished.
Everything vanished.
Nyx fell into an endless void—
Falling
Falling
Falling
until—
✦ He woke.
He gasped, sitting bolt upright in the bed, sweat dripping down his chest, breaths sharp and uneven.
The room was exactly as it had been.
The mirror.
The window.
The soft sheets.
But his heart…
Was not the same.
"That… wasn't a dream,"
he whispered, voice trembling.
A cold shiver crawled down his fingers.
He knew—
with absolute certainty—
That the being he met…
Was not from this world.
Nor any world he had ever written.
And now…
He was trapped in something far bigger than he could imagine.
He looked at the name glowing in the status window that opened on its own.
Nyx Vairen.
A body with no past.
A sealed power.
A vessel crafted by an unknown being…
For a purpose he did not understand.
He closed his eyes.
"…What have I gotten myself into…?"
But deep within him…
beneath the fear and confusion…
Something stirred.
Not dread.
Not despair.
Something like a quiet flame.
Expectation.