My eyes felt heavy, and my head was so dizzy, like I had just been hit by a wall. My hands barely moved, and both my legs were just static in their position. Just what happens when I fall asleep? I tried to open my eyes.
Weird. I thought that I'd opened them, but why can't I see anything? It's all dark. I was anxious. What happened? I thought I fell asleep while sitting, but now I feel like I'm standing. Where's Folmen? Did he forget about me?
"Oh, you're awake?" A similar voice rang through my ears.
"Folmen, help! I can't see anything, even though I feel like I'd opened both of my eyes." I'm panicking, and I don't know what has happened to me. Did one of my senses just go away while I'm sleeping?
"Oops, my fault." He grabbed something around my eyes and pulled it. It's just a fabric, so that's why my sight is blocked. I want to stand, but it's hard. I looked at myself and was shocked that all parts of my body were tied with a thread that was so thin yet so hard to loosen.
Folmen, what the hell is this? I swore at him.
"You still don't realize it? You sure are clueless, child, huh?" said Folmen, his voice suddenly colder — devoid of that calm tone from before.
My heart dropped. "W-What are you talking about? You said… You said I could awaken my powers. That I had potential…"
He let out a laugh. Not the friendly kind. It's the type that crawls down your spine.
"Oh, Louis. I didn't lie. You do have potential. In fact, you're one of the rarest subjects we've ever seen. That's why I couldn't just let you go with a simple pill."
"What do you mean… subject?" My voice cracked. My throat was dry.
"I injected you while you were asleep."
He pointed toward my arm. A small puncture mark glowed faintly under the lab's pale light.
"That 'chocolate drink' earlier had a mild sedative. By the time I returned, your body was perfectly ready for the serum. But not the Nexus Pill — no, no. You're the perfect candidate for something more advanced. Something experimental."
My breathing grew rapid. I yanked my hands, legs, even teeth — trying to escape that string-like bind. It didn't even budge.
Folmen stepped closer. "You're now the sixth one. The first five didn't make it this far. They screamed, begged, even bit off their own tongues. But you… You've been stable. That's fascinating."
"You're insane…! You lied to me! You—!" Before I could finish, he grabbed my jaw — not forcefully, but firmly, like a doctor examining a patient. My worry wouldn't dissipate, even though I tried to relax and stay calm, but this crazy man kept acting like my enemy.
"Listen carefully, Louis. You are not just some random failed student from the hall. Your constellation… is not 'undetectable' because it's hidden. It's undetectable because it isn't part of this world."
I froze.
"What do you mean…?" I asked, my voice full of fear. I don't know why, but this man who kept spouting nonsense always makes me feel uneasy. This man is truly the real deal.
"As you may know, we don't know how many constellations are out there. It could be thousands, millions, or even billions. But the machine that evaluated your test just a while ago can still detect and identify the constellations. On the other hand, why is yours undetectable rather than a failure?" Folmen's gaze fixed directly on me, making it hard to breathe.
I don't know what you are talking about, but please let me go. My voice started to crack from the endless wave of anxiety.
"Let you go?" He stared at me with sharp eyes, his presence spreading through the lab. Then he chuckled. From his expression, I guessed he thought I was joking. A moment later, Folmen placed his hand on my head like someone petting an animal.
"You are funny. You don't know how valuable you are for this experiment, yet you still ask me for mercy. Silly!" he yelled at me. His eyes turned red, and my surroundings felt like many people were watching me, though only Folmen and I were in this room.
I clenched my jaw. My instincts were screaming — this isn't right, this isn't what you were promised, run if you can.
"You're lying…" I muttered.
"I don't lie," Folmen said flatly. "You want proof?" Then he walked away, put some distance between us, and grabbed a curtain. He pulled it aside, revealing a huge digital screen behind it.
He snapped his fingers.
The lights dimmed. A screen lit up above me — data streams, raw code, and fragmented images of my earlier scan results. The final line caught my eye:
[ERROR CODE: C-13X]
SUBJECT CORE: ANOMALOUS / MULTIDIMENSIONAL
CONSTELLATION: UNREADABLE | STATUS: "AWAKENING PROCESS INITIATED"
My blood ran cold. My mouth didn't want to admit what had been shown before my eyes. Though the details are too complicated to understand, I could still grasp the smallest fragments of information. I looked up at Folmen, as I'd expected he was staring back at me with those evil eyes, his fingers idly playing with his beard.
"You've already started awakening, Louis. The moment you drank that hot chocolate, the chemical trigger was released." he said, stating the obvious with that annoying voice of his.
I looked at my hands — they were trembling. Not from fear… but something deeper. Something inside me was twitching, twisting.
"Your body is changing. Bit by bit. And soon, you'll start to hear it — that voice."
"Voice…?" I whispered.
Folmen smirked.
"Yeah, the voice of your constellation." His cold voice made me shiver. He walked away from me, probably wanting to take a stroll outside the room.
Wait, what nonsense are you spouting about? I asked before he stepped outside.
"You will find out soon, so just wait for the right time," he said as he closed the door, and the sound of his footsteps faded as time went by, swallowed by silence.
I just stayed quiet and had no intention to cause problems. If I did, I would be buried alive here. I glanced around the lab. It's not like the room I fell asleep in. It's warmer yet strangely chilly and surrounded by many transparent containers filled with strange specimens.
So this is how Radiance Lab operates and all their secrets… laid bare. I lowered my gaze to the floor. So it's really my fate.
I sat there, silent, trying to slow my heartbeat, but every second only made it louder. The room seemed to breathe with me — the air pulsing, reacting to my presence. Or… was it reacting to what I was becoming?
A soft ringing started in my ears.
At first, I thought it was just the pressure, maybe a side effect of the serum. But it sharpened — into a whisper.
"Louis..."
I snapped my head up. "Who's there?!"
I didn't recognize that sound and had never heard it in my life. I was sure of that, but somehow it felt familiar, like it was a voice I'd known all along. Just what's going on?
"It's not your time yet…"
What time? I asked. I don't know where that voice came from, but I could feel it in my head, like what humans would call telepathy.
"However, you need to prepare yourself for the worst… Why… do I need to prepare myself? And what will come after me? I'm trembling. I don't know either, I'm anxious right now, but my body felt colder than before, my lungs struggled for air, and my heart was pounding like crazy. What's wrong with my body?
"Just…prepare…for what's to come"