[Welcome to the dream realm awakening space]
"What..?" That was the only word that made it's way into Kaya's mind.
Confused, disoriented, he stared at what could only be described as a blue, translucent hologram hanging in the endless white space before him.
Just moments ago, the golden light had forced its way into his sphere. Then came the blinding flash of white. And now the endless dark void, the only thing he had known for what felt like forever, was gone.
In its place was this boundless white expanse. Empty. Silent. Overwhelming.
"What's the dream realm..?" Kaya wondered uneasily "Is this really all a dream after all? No...it can't be."
No.
It couldn't be.
Everything that had happened felt far too real. Too long. Too vivid. He was certain of that.
[You've met the conditions to enter the dream realm. Before entering the realm, you'll awaken your powers in this space.]
"Wait- wait, wait!"
Kaya's thoughts rushed forward in a panic, tumbling over one another.
"What happened for me to be in this white space? What is this white space? And what is this text that I'm seeing? Who is writing these words? Is there someone here? What's the dream realm? And what's this about awakening my powers???"
Questions flooded his mind, dozens of them, hundreds, but none were answered.
He wasn't given time to think about it any longer either either.
[Natural awakener detected, full core established]
[Awakening trial not deemed necessary]
[Natural aspect awakening continuing]
Only when those words were said, Kaya became aware of a change that was happening, something inside his spehere.
All the lights he had so carefully gathered—every color, every shade—were being drawn toward the golden light.
All the lights, every shade, every color he had methodically and carefully collected and placed in his sphere were now being drawn towards and absorbed by the golden light.
No.
Not golden anymore.
The light had changed. What had once been the golden light and now taken on a pristine, marble-white appearance.
One by one the white orb absorbed the other lights, and with each light it absorbed, the white orb briefly shimmered with that color before slightly taking the color onto its pale brilliance, growing steadily larger.
The process was slow, but Kaya couldn't look away, fully entranced by the sight of it, subtle but memorizing.
As the final light vanished into it, the orb had grown to match the size of his sphere, pressing against its boundaries, and then...it shattered them.
Even without senses, Kaya felt it.
A sharp, searing pain tore through his very being.
"A—Arghhh!"
He hadn't felt pain in what felt like forever. Hadn't felt anything at all.
And that made it unbearable.
Overwhelming.
Absolute.
And so he screamed, he screamed and screamed even more until the agony vanished just as suddenly as it had appeared.
[Natural awakening complete]
[You have awakened a unique aspect: Usurper]
Kaya stared blankly ahead, his mind struggling to catch up.
In the midst of his confusion, one thought finally surfaced.
Something simple and absurd, yet impossible to ignore.
"…I've awakened powers," he muttered, with disbelief coloring every word. "Just like in the fantasy stories I read."
It sounded ridiculous.
He himself knew just how absurd and unrealistic he sounded.
Even as a child, he had never truly believed in magic.
But now… that ridiculous explanation felt like the only one that made sense.
He might have still been a child, but even he didn't believe in magic and powers. He never had, even when he was even younger than he was now.
But now...that ridiculous explanation started to feel like the the only one that made sense.
"That...would be so cool!"
The thought rushed to the surface or his mind, bright, excitingly, unrestrained.
For a moment, Kaya let go of the confusion. He let go of the fear. He let himself be excited, to experience the joy fit for the mind of a child that just found out magic might be real.
Instead of being confused about everything, he thought excitedly about the possibilities of what everything could possibly be, in the most unrestrained way.
The dream realm.
Powers.
Possibilities.
His imagination ran wild.
Unfortunately his childlike enthusiasm was interrupted by yet another hologram appearing before him.
[Inherent trait awakened: Shared senseless]
[Shared senseless: A sense for a sense, a loss for a loss. You can take away the sense of one being, for as long as the wielder wills it, at the cost of losing that sense along with the targeted being.]
The words struck something deep within him.
"Is this-"
[Awakening complete]
[Commencing transportation to the dream realm]
Before he could finish the thought, the white space shattered in it's totality and warped around Kaya and reality itself.
Kaya felt his whole word spin for a fraction of a second...and when it stilled...the world spun again, abruptly, vertically, his vision smearing into a blur of color.
*Thump*
"Urghh-" the sounds escaped Kaya's lips after the thump, the air forced out from his longs in a sharp, pained grunt.
Pain followed immediately, a sharp flare in his body. Sudden. Bright. Real.
His hands clenched around something soft and coarse, something pleasently warm beneath his fingers.
A muted rush slid beside him, followed by the faint scrape of something retreating again.
And most of all...the world was no linger black like the void, nor was it white like the awakening space.
It was...more.
Overwhelmingly so.
A vast sky stretched endlessly above him, deep and alive, painted with white fields of drifting clouds.
Light poured down, bright enough to make him squint.
The sun- No, suns, hung high above him, their glare warm against his skin. And beyond them, calm and distant, a few beautiful moons hung in the sky, watching the world below quietly.
Kaya lay there, his breath unsteady, shallow and unfamiliar, as though he was taking his first breaths all over again.
His heart pounded in his chest, louder then it ever had after running, after exertion, after anything.
'I...can sense' Kaya thought to himself hesitantly, afraif that acknowledging it might make it vanish.
But it didn't.
After existing without smell or taste, without sight, without sound, and lastly without touch, which had banished him to the seemingly empty voie, his senses had returned all at once.
Suddenly.
His body lay heavy against the ground, his mind struggling to adjust to the weight, to pain, to form. His back hurt. His hands pressed into warm, coarse sand. The air carried a damp, salty tang. That steady hush rose and fell beside him, retreating only to return again. And above it all, the sky was a sihht so beautiful he never thought he would see it again, vast, brilliant, impossibly real.
Kaya had his senses back.
And with them, he had returned to the world.
Just...this world was clearly not the one he once knew.
[Welcome to the dream realm]