Location: Unknown, Time: Unknown.
"hmm?..."
When Alex opened his eyes, he found himself standing in a completely different place.
But instead of panicking, his mind felt calm, and his thoughts were very slow and suppressed.
As if someone had cast a 'slow' spell on him, his movements were slow, and even his breathing had slowed down considerably.
Looking around, there was a vast devastated land in every direction.
It was as if someone had shattered the very fabric of reality; there were cracks in the entire area around Alex.
Not only on the ground but also in the air and in the sky, it was as if the entire world was just a mirror shattered and broken in many places.
Alex looked at his body and found that he could see right through it, as if he were just a weak, helpless soul in this broken and destroyed realm.
"What… is… this… place…?"
Even when Alex talked, his mouth moved very slowly, and words took time to come out.
Alex tried to move to find something that could give him some clue about where he was, and when he turned toward his back, he noticed that there were some broken ancient ruins far away near the horizon.
Alex wanted to move forward, but everywhere around him was just cracked ground and nothing in existence at all.
Everywhere around him were dangerous-looking cracks, and he felt that if he got anywhere closer to them, he would die instantly.
'Where…. Am… I…?'
Before Alex could understand what was going on, he suddenly felt that his body was disappearing and his 'connection' to this 'bizarre' place was weakening.
…
Church of the God of Wisdom.
Core Area, Alex's Room.
"Hmm!?"
Alex jolted awake from sleep as his eyes opened wide in shock.
"What?.. What was that?... A nightmare?"
As a scientist who had worked on many dangerous experiments in his previous life, he was very familiar with getting stuck in nightmares quite often.
Nightmares were a regular occurrence to him, but this was the first time Alex saw something so bizarre and incomprehensible in his dreams.
'Usually, my dreams are mostly about the horrific 'job application forms' and being called a 'failure' by my parents…'
'This one is new…'
Most nightmares occur from stress and anxiety, generally in cases when you are going through struggles in life and have some bad memories that haunt you over and over.
But the nightmare that Alex saw was extremely real.
He could feel almost everything; he could remember everything vividly.
Not only did Alex remember that 'bizarre' world, but he also remembered the smell and all kinds of sensations he felt while inside it.
'It smelled like sulphur and ash… the environment of the area looked like it was destroyed by some powerful wildfire or volcanic eruption…'
'And there were those cracks too… are those what they call… 'Cracks in the space-time fabric,' cracks in the very fabric of 'reality' itself...'
Many scientists have spent their entire lives gazing at the stars and studying the 'laws' of the endless cosmos, and several theories consider the universe as a fabric of reality.
A fabric of space and time on which all cosmic entities reside, each cosmic entity has a different effect on the space-time fabric according to its mass and gravity.
But it's speculated that 'black holes' are able to create 'singularity,' which is basically having 'infinite gravity,' and thus they are capable of breaking the fabric of reality.
They rupture a hole in the very fabric of space and time, making them extremely dangerous and mysterious.
'To be able to create such permanent cracks in the fabric of reality… it would take insane amount of power…'
'What was that dream trying to show me, I wonder?...'
Although Alex was a scientist and believed in science, he had no other choice but to consider everything with an open-minded perspective, as he was now in a completely different world.
There were people who could fly in the sky without needing wings or airplanes! So obviously it was possible for any kind of mysterious phenomenon to happen.
'I did read in novels that there are some powerful characters that can control people's dreams… is someone trying to show me nightmares to make me go insane?'
Alex couldn't find any proper answer to his questions for the time being, so he had no other choice but to stop thinking too much about it.
He got up from his bed and looked out the window only to notice that it was morning and it was time to get ready.
'I need to get ready; I don't have the time to think too much about dreams right now…'
'I have to figure out who's conspiring against me today and have to lay out the foundations for my control over the entire church…'
With newfound determination flashing in his eyes, Alex got up, stretched his body, and got ready.
He even wore the official saint robes placed in the wardrobe, even though they were a bit oversized for him.
"These robes do look nice on me though… well, with such a handsome face, anything would look good on me…"
The robe was very comfortable to move around in; it was white in color with designs of books and scrolls engraved all over it in silver.
There were words engraved on the cape hanging behind Alex's back in silver letters saying 'Saint.'
"How nice… I just lack a golden sword now and I will be ready to fight demons… hehe, just kidding. Why would I fight them myself…"
*Knock!* *Knock!*
Just when Alex was admiring himself in the mirror, someone knocked on the door, snapping him out of his daze.
"Yes? Come in…"
The door opened, and it was good old Ethan who came inside, but this time he was not wearing full body armor.
He was in formal clothes with decorative armor and a cape behind him; his left hand rested on the hilt of his sword while the right was on his chest as he nodded his head to pay respects.
"Lord Saint, I hope you were able to get a good sleep. I am here to escort you to the main hall; everyone has already gathered and they are all excited to meet you…"