Victor slowly opened his eyes.
The first thing he felt was weight.
Not pain, not fatigue, but the simple weight of his own physical existence returning all at once.
Inside Rowena's ring, he had spent so long without needing to think about muscles, breathing, or gravity that returning to his own body felt, for a few seconds, like being dragged back down to the bottom of an ocean.
His fingers moved first.
Then his feet.
Victor took a deep breath, feeling his chest expand with some difficulty. His energy was still far from fully recovered, but his body no longer felt empty like before. His heart beat normally, his blood circulated steadily, and that suffocating sensation caused by extreme exhaustion had disappeared.
"Fuck, this is heavy..." he muttered, running his tongue over his teeth as he tried to get used to his own body again.
Victor slowly lifted his torso.
The bed creaked beneath his movement.
