As Mila awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, she found herself transformed in a forest into an elf.
But was it really a dream? Mila asked herself.
…that dream was so incredibly strange…
She had been in a vast mountain range, and she explored every corner of it; every tree, river, cave, footprints on the ground… until, finally, she found herself in a savanna. Water flowed beneath her feet, and she realized she wasn't stepping on the water, but rather floating. Like flying, but she wasn't sure if she was actually flying…
…Ah, is this what they call a lucid dream? If so, I will make myself free.
She thought, 'Fly!' and so she flew.
For the first time since being born twenty-three years ago, Mila could finally feel this free.
She began to explore the sky. From above, she saw the world stretching out. Mountains stood like stakes driven into the earth. She saw the headwaters and the downstream flow of rivers, and rows of trees with lush leaves creating a mosaic on the ground just as orange hues spread across the sky.
'So beautiful… When was the last time I saw the green of nature?'
Mila had spent her entire life in the city. Seeing only gray tones and the neon colors of the night. Which, in turn, made her stressed and caused her to overthink her life; about work, about school, about romance—ah!
In the dream, she didn't want to remember anything from the real world. She only wanted to explore this nature. So she flew further and further, continuing her exploration of this dream world.
Mila glided through the clouds, which felt like cold cotton against her skin.
The further she flew, the scent of damp pine forests began to shift into the sweet, exotic fragrance of wild flowers. Below, the once-dense forest began to open up, revealing a crystal lake that perfectly reflected the orange light of the sunset.
At the edge of the savanna, Mila saw a natural gateway formed by two giant oak trees twisting around each other. In the center, there was a curtain of a waterfall that flowed upward.
"If this is my dream," Mila whispered to herself, "then behind that is the peace I have been looking for."
She flew through the curtain of water without getting wet. Behind it, she found thousands of floating bubbles. Each bubble contained a beautiful vista from every corner of this dream world: glowing ice fields, caves with shimmering blue crystals, even an ocean of clouds.
Mila touched one of the bubbles, and instantly she felt an extraordinary tranquility she had never felt in her twenty-three years of life. There were no work deadlines here. No expectations from others. There was only Mila and absolute freedom.
As night began to fall, she returned to the forest and found a small campfire burning beside a cave.
'Oh, is this the first human I've met in the dream?'
She approached it out of curiosity, her "flight" bringing her silently toward the warmth.
Beside the campfire, there appeared to be a small girl, sleeping while clutching her stomach. She looked to be in immense pain, judging by the grimace on her face and the way she was curled into a tight ball. Her breath came in ragged, shallow hitches, as if something was twisting inside her gut like a hot iron.
Mila approached the girl, her heart aching with a sudden, maternal instinct.
"H-hey! You there!" she shouted slightly.
…
The little girl did not budge, as if she didn't hear anyone approaching at all. Mila tried to get even closer, the crackle of the fire the only sound in the clearing. From up close, Mila realized the girl had long, silken gray hair, and long ears.
'Huh? There's an elf in my dream? I can't see her eyes because she's squinting them shut in pain… But… Oh, poor elf…'
Mila set her feet on the ground, but she couldn't feel the texture of the earth; she was still as if floating.
"Can you hear me?" She raised her voice now, her hand reaching out.
But still, there was no answer.
The little girl did not respond, as if Mila were a specter from another dimension. Was she in so much pain that she was ignoring her? Or…
'Ah right, maybe because this is just a dream… everything feels real though… the heat of the fire, the smell of the smoke… but, yeah, this is a dream, Mila!'
But then…
"Aaaaugh." The little girl groaned, a sound so raw it made Mila flinch.
"H-hey! Are you okay? Where does it hurt?"
…
Still no answer. Mila approached her until she was only an arm's length away.
The girl's skin was pale, almost translucent in the firelight.
"A-aaughhh— COUGH—!"
The elf groaned louder, adding a wet cough that brought up dark blood, splattering on the dry leaves.
'Oh, how pitiful. I have to hug her. Even if it's a dream, I have to give her comfort…'
Mila moved closer and knelt—or attempted to kneel—and tried to give her a hug.
"H-hey, it's okay… I'm here. What can I do to help…?"
But when Mila touched her…
'Huh?'
…A bright white light suddenly radiated from the girl's chest, blinding and absolute.
Then she felt her body being sucked into that light. It was a violent, gravitational yank.
Mila tried to resist, tried to pull herself away from the girl, but her efforts were in vain.
The light was like a black hole sucking in everything within its reach. And the pressure was so great she couldn't counter it.
'A-ah, what is this? What is this? Uh...'
Mila felt her head as if being pierced by thousands of needles.
Stinging. Hot. Painful.
This wasn't the "painless" sensation of a dream. This was… this was truly unbearable!
'Anything… anyone please help me…'
But who would help her when she had no one? She had no family left back in the city, no friends she could truly trust. In the real world, she was alone.
The light grew brighter, turning the world into a featureless void of white.
Mila felt her body—no, her soul—being dragged into the girl.
She felt a warmth enveloping her, but it quickly turned to a searing heat.
Then… the needles she felt earlier turned into information. It was like a hard drive being forcibly overwritten. Foreign memories, smells of flowers she'd never seen, the feeling of a mother's hand, the taste of waybread; it was all flowing into her.
'Uh… please… make it stop… it's too much…'
But the pain grew wilder.
She felt like she was burning now. It hurt so much her skin felt like it was peeling off, layer by layer, being replaced by something else.
And those needles now felt like they were piercing not just her head, but also her body; her legs stretching, her hands thinning, her neck, her torso, her stomach, everything!
As if reality was a tailor, sewing her soul into a brand-new body.
The pain intensified until it was a white noise in her brain. And then, she screamed with a voice that didn't sound like her own.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
…
…
Until finally, the pain could no longer be contained and…
…darkness.
She fell asleep… or died? Mila didn't know. What was clear was that the pain had subsided now, and she only wanted to sleep peacefully.
A long, peaceful sleep.
'Ah, I have to go to work tomorrow.' That was Mila's last thought as a human.
…
…
'Huh? Why is my bed so hard? And why does it smell like... pine needles?'
Mila opened her eyes, and in her view, instead of the cracked plaster of her bedroom ceiling, there was a brilliant blue morning sky.
Morning light beamed at her through the gaps of lush, green leaves.
'Where am I?' Mila thought, her mind sluggish. What she remembered was that last night she had uneasy dreams. A dream where she could fly and roam in a lush world. Then…
'Ah! What happened to that elf?! No, what happened to me after being sucked into that bright light?!'
She sat up in shock. As she did, her head throbbed with the sensation she had felt last night; thousands of needles piercing her head, but this time it was more bearable—like a fading headache—and she found that foreign memories were already neatly filed inside her mind.
I-Impossible… It's impossible for this to happen, right?!
I-Is this reality?!
I became the elf I met in the dream last night!
***
'Uh, it's been two hours and I still can't believe what happened.'
Yes, Mila was now that elf. She looked down at her hands; long, elegant fingers with pale skin. She touched her ears, feeling the long, pointed cartilage that extended past her hairline.
In her memory, the elf—herself—was named Vienna.
She had managed to escape from a group of demons that had purged her village. Her father, her mother, her brothers and sisters… all died at the hands of those terrifying demons.
To be more spesific, that night, about two days ago, the village was sleeping normally when Vienna heard a loud explosion.
And when she woke up, her house was already on fire, and several [Fighters] in her village were already on standby in the center of the village.
Vienna saw that in front of them, there were three demons. Each wore a different kind of face covering—bone masks that looked like skulls—but with the same prominent, obsidian horns.
Then suddenly, the demon in the middle raised his staff, murmuring something, and one moment Vienna was in front of her house, then seconds later she was thrown far into the forest by a concussive blast of wind.
Her eyes were blurry for a moment, the world spinning in shades of red and black.
When vision slowly returned to her head, she looked to the side and there lay the [Fighters], lifeless and broken.
Mila remembered that Vienna screamed loudly then, and one of the [Fighters], who was also her father, said before drawing his last breath, "You must survive, Vienna… Tell the world. Find your brother, Kraft, and tell him this news…"
Kraft, huh. Vienna's memory of Kraft was very limited, because she last saw him a hundred years ago, or… Hm, Mila wasn't sure. Time felt different in these memories. A century felt like a long summer.
But the most important thing at that time was to survive. So she ran, ran, and kept running until her lungs burned and her legs gave out. She ran until last night there was a strange soul that took pity on her, and instead of just watching, entered her body.
So this was the situation now; Mila is Vienna. Vienna is Mila. Those two memories intertwined in her head as naturally as ink in water.
Mila still couldn't believe this reality.
The memories belonging to Vienna planted in her head were vast and spanned a very long time. Maybe two hundred years? She wasn't sure. All that was on her mind was the sheer shock that the elves she had read about in fantasy novels actually lived such long lives.
Then Mila tried to stand up.
'Uh, surprisingly, this body is light.'
She realized that her long ears actually affected her hearing too. It was overwhelming at first. It was as if she could hear the sound of a bee's wings beating atop a tree a hundred yards away. Even the distant, rhythmic sound of water that might be a twelve-hour journey away… uh, how did Mila know that? She herself still didn't believe it, but that spatial knowledge came naturally to her head.
The most shocking thing was…
Magic.
Yes, magic!
From the knowledge in her head, she recognized that there is [Mana] in this world.
[Mana] is the basic energy that flows in nature, like a second atmosphere, and through proper visualization, that mana can be manifested into a [Spell].
And according to Vienna's knowledge, [Spells] vary, and can be obtained through a teacher or a Grimoire.
Vienna herself was not a talented [Mage]. She could barely even fight with magic. She was only taught by her grandmother and her mother basic [Spells] for survival, like [Ignite] for starting campfires or [Create Water] for thirsty travelers.
Mila thought to herself.
"Hm, with my modern knowledge… can I create a new visualization for a [Spell]...?"
Mila didn't know, but the possibility was definitely there.
If magic was limited only by visualization, then a girl from a world of skyscrapers and jet engines had a very different "vision" than a forest-dwelling elf.
'I just have to try it and experiment as much as possible.'
Because it is really important.
This world is not safe, Mila thought to herself. So she had to find any way to survive!