Ren couldn't move.
As if his entire body had turned to stone, like invisible hands were gripping him tightly, twisting every muscle, locking every joint, imprisoning him in a cage with no visible walls and no way out.
Not from exhaustion. Not from pain. But because something, an overwhelming, intangible force, was binding him, sealing even the smallest movement.
He tried to lift a foot, but his legs were heavy, as if submerged in thick mud.He tried to raise a hand, but his arm felt like stone, stiff, weighty, useless.
A suffocating pressure… like he was sinking into an endless abyss, slowly overtaking everything.
The darkness around him wasn't just darkness. It lived. It watched. It whispered.
And from somewhere deep within the thick fog, a voice emerged, not in sound, but in thought, creeping into every corner of his mind: cold, formless, irresistible.
"Fall."
"All you need to do… is fall…"
"And I'll show you…"
One second. Two. He felt the world shrinking, twisting around him.
But...
His will stirred.
The ashes of fear still burned faintly in his chest, but within those ashes, a spark remained.A small flame. Fragile. Wavering in the freezing wind, yet never extinguished.
No.
Ren clenched his teeth.
His will screamed.
He couldn't stop here.
He couldn't fall.
Not now. Not like this.
This nightmare couldn't consume him.
And in that moment..
He tried to move.
"What are you doing?"
A question.
Soft. Faint. But heavy.
A question that demanded no answer.
Only planted doubt.
The darkness trembled. Like the surface of a disturbed lake, warped reflections emerged, distorted, swirling, fading and reforming, like mirrors of his own scattered, chaotic, unstable thoughts.
"Why are you so stubborn?"
The whisper returned, gentle, patient, like it was trying to slowly pry open the deepest doors of his mind.But beneath that gentleness was something slithering… creeping in, cold tendrils wrapping around the corners of his awareness.
"You're tired, aren't you?"
A dull thud echoed in his chest.
His throat was dry. Breath, shallow. Body, heavy.
He was exhausted.
He knew it.
"This pain… is it really worth it?"
Another question.
No pressure. No judgment.
Just a stone, dropped into still water.
Creating ripples that reached deep, awakening what had long slept at the bottom.
And then...
The images began to crack.
The journey he had walked.
The friends he had made.
The battles he had fought.
The pain. The wounds. The victories.
Each memory… one by one…
Falling.
Like petals caught in the wind.
Like ash carried downstream.
"Are you sure it was ever real?"
The whisper wove itself between the fragments of his breaking memories.
Seeping in.
Little by little.
Like a snake slipping through the smallest cracks in his consciousness.
"It's just a game."
"Just numbers."
"Just programmed characters."
"Just illusions."
Nothing is real.
Nothing belongs to you.
Nothing remains.
His breath caught.
His chest tightened.
A strange yet familiar feeling rose within him.
As if… he already knew this.
As if… he had once accepted it.
"Does this world… even exist?"
A question.
But this time…
Even he didn't know the answer.
The voice chuckled softly.
Not echoing.
Not loud.
But slithering. Creeping. Closer now, as if it had never left.
"Are you sure you exist?"
An invisible blade pierced straight into his mind.
Deeper.
Colder.
Sharper.
"If you're just a dream…"
"…then when you wake up, what will be left?"
He didn't answer.
Not because he didn't want to.
But because he couldn't.
That question wasn't merely sound. It wasn't just a passing whisper fading into nothingness.
It dug deep.
Like a blade that left no wound on the flesh, but split something within, a tiny crack in the mind, fragile, spreading, slow but unstoppable.
It lingered. Gnawed at him.
And the voice… it knew.
"You've forgotten, haven't you?"
Soft. Gentle.
But bone-deep cold.
Something brushed his mind.
Fleeting. Distant.
Something long, long ago, memories buried deep.
Like smoke that vanished the moment he reached for it.
A feeling…
Familiar.
But untouchable.
"The real world."
Those two words echoed in his head.
Heavy as chains.
Sweet as a lullaby.
"You once lived there."
"You once had a life."
"Real friends."
"A family."
"Don't you remember?"
No.
That's not how it is.
Right?
But…
A fleeting image. Just for a moment.
Faint. Trembling.
Someone's hand.
Reaching toward him.
So close, yet far away.
So real, yet blurred and distant, like the way his vision blurred after crying.He always cried alone.
And does he still cry?
No.
Ren had long since realized that crying couldn't fix his problems.
He had nearly forgotten how.
As if a single passing wind… could blow it all away forever.
"All you have to do is listen to me…"
"All you have to do is let go."
"I'll take you home."
Home… That word...foreign, yet familiar.
It repeated again.
Slowly. Patiently.
As if plucking each note from the strings of his heart.
"All you have to do is nod."
"All you have to do is give up."
"All you have to do is accept that everything you've experienced here…"
"…was never real."
What he saw.
What he felt.
What he fight to protect.
All of it...
Is nothing but a fragile illusion.
The whisper wrapped around him.
Soft as silk.
Cold as stone.
"And I will bring you back."
But...
Suddenly, a sharp, searing pain exploded in his head, like a blade piercing straight through his skull. Not a normal pain, but something cruel, violent, as if someone had hammered a nail directly into his brain, twisting, breaking every thought apart.
Everything spun. His vision trembled. The world twisted, reeling like he was drowning in a storm of chaos. His mind felt like it was shattering, thoughts torn and stretched thin, caught between reality and illusion, between the voice and himself.
Yet the pain... it kept him awake. Like an anchor hooked into the seabed of madness, holding him steady amid the swirling hallucinations, keeping him from being swept away by the smooth, seductive whisper.
Even if just for a fleeting moment, it held him back. Held him from sinking. From falling into the darkness that the voice was calling him toward.
And in that piercing agony, a thought slashed through the thick fog like a blade:
"Back to that living hell?"
He clenched his teeth. His jaw locked so tight it felt like it might shatter. Every muscle tensed as a fury surged within his chest, burning like a flame fed by despair.
Back? What was left for him there?
Friends? Gone. They'd left him behind.
Family? Cold. Faint. Distant, like a dream stolen long ago.
A reason to keep existing?
A void. A bottomless pit. Nothing. Nothing left.
But in this world…
Even if it's fake, even if it's just a game...
At least here, he still had something to hold on to. Still had a reason to fight.
He could still feel each swing of the sword in his hand. Still eat three meals a day without fighting for scraps. Still had a warm place to sleep, not curled up and shivering in the bitter cold.
Things he'd never had before.
A strong heartbeat thudded in his chest. Then another. And another.
He took a deep breath. Sharp and ragged. His chest heaved...
But his hand had already curled into a fist.
He was still here.
But the voice didn't give up.
It slid across his thoughts, smooth as silk, cold as ice, coiling around the fractured corners of his mind, slipping into the unhealed shadows.
"You've endured enough."
"You don't have to fight anymore."
"You don't have to be afraid."
"You don't have to suffer."
The whispers poured into his ears like honey, into his mind like warm water, inviting, guiding, painting a vision so distant yet so intoxicating: a world without death, without hunger, without lonely battles swallowed by darkness.
"You can have everything."
"You want food? No more dry crusts of bread. No more days spent starving. But feasts...Bowls of hot soup. Tender meat that melts on your tongue…"
Images surfaced. As vivid as reality. Flavors danced on his tongue.
"You want a home?
A place to return to.
No more sleeping under the sky.
No more curling up in the cutting cold.
A warm room. A soft light. A peaceful sleep, untouched by nightmares…"
He could feel that warmth....Something strangely familiar....Something he'd never truly had.
"You want friends?
People who'll stay. Who won't leave you. Who won't turn their backs on you?"
A hand reached out from the shadows, waiting to be held.
"You want a family?"
His chest tightened.
Fleeting images flickered through his mind, broken like distant memories he never dared to touch.
"All of that, I can give you."
"All you have to do is let go."
"All you have to do is surrender."
The words curled and coiled, echoing with each heartbeat, Tugging at him like threads of gossamer, weaving a dream as gentle as it was deadly.
"A world without pain."
"Without bloodshed."
"Without fear."
"Just accept the truth..."
"...that everything you're clinging to in this world..."
"...is nothing but a lie."