The transition from the din of torn flesh to absolute stillness did not occur through a channel of pain, but by means of a complete thermal reset. The last data recorded by Hayjin's nervous system in the slate hall had been a spike in intraparietal hydraulic pressure; then, nothingness. Not the liquid darkness of limbo, nor the iron stench of arterial blood, but an aseptic transition, devoid of temporal coordinates.
When his eyelids lifted, the first visual information to strike his corneas was not the castle garden or the purple of the Brand, but a blinding chromatic saturation, almost violent in its purity.
Hayjin found himself lying on the ground, his back resting on incredibly soft, elastic terrain, devoid of the rigidity of rock or crystal. He slowly brought his hands forward, raising his torso with a cautious, analytical movement, expecting to feel the tear of intercostal muscles or the sting of the micro-lesions suffered in the dungeon.
Nothing. His body responded with perfect biological fluidity, a muscular symmetry he hadn't experienced since before the start of the training trial.
He looked at his palms: they were clean, the skin smooth, free of kinetic excoriations and traces of quartz dust. Even his clothes had changed; he was no longer wearing his usual attire, but a tunic of light, opaque white fabric that emitted no odor and offered no aerodynamic resistance to his movements.
"What... where am I?" he whispered, and his voice rang out clear, stripped of that split, guttural echo that had characterized his phase of madness in the tower.
The boy stood up, his bare feet sinking into a carpet of emerald green grass so intense it seemed artificial. Around him, as far as the eye could see, stretched a lush meadow dotted with expanses of flowers of every shape and color: carmine red petals, golden chalices swaying in a light breeze, and cobalt blue corollas that seemed to absorb light without reflecting it. The air did not smell of ozone or death, but was thick with a sweet scent of dew-dampened earth and fresh pollen.
He raised his gaze toward the horizon. The sky was not the dark stone vault of the dungeon, nor the gray, heavy atmosphere of the outside world. It was a majestic, deep, clear azure, devoid of clouds or latent magical fluctuations. Small birds with iridescent plumage flew serenely in concentric circles above his head, emitting melodious chirps that did not follow the hunting algorithms of winged predators.
Hayjin stood motionless, his logical mind desperately trying to catalog this place within known geographical parameters.
Despite his distrustful nature, the Earthly analyst couldn't help but be fascinated by that dazzling visual harmony. It was a place designed to reset the survival instinct, a sensory paradise that invited the surrender of consciousness.
Casting his gaze further ahead, toward a small knoll where the grass seemed to grow even thicker, Hayjin intercepted a structural anomaly in the linearity of the landscape. About fifty meters away from him, isolated in the middle of that expanse of colorful flowers, stood two chairs of dark wood, carved with complex geometric motifs that recalled the arrangement of celestial constellations.
Seated upon the chairs were two strange figures.
Hayjin narrowed his eyes.
The first figure, positioned on the left side, had its back completely turned to him. It wore light plate armor matte, devoid of heraldry or military insignia which seemed to absorb sunlight without producing reflections. On its head, it wore a strange, closed warrior's helmet, with a thin longitudinal slit for breathing that prevented even a glimpse of any features of the neck or nape. The figure was motionless, its right arm slightly raised: it appeared to be holding the handle of a small white porcelain cup between its steel fingers, periodically bringing it to its invisible lips to drink tea.
The second figure, seated on the right side of the arrangement, offered a partially diagonal view. She was a girl of extraordinarily beautiful and attractive appearance, whose physical presence seemed to rival the purity of the sky above. She had incredibly long, vivid blue hair, glossy like strands of hydrodynamic silk, which fell over her shoulders to touch the back of the chair. Her eyes, a light, crystalline green, shone with an intelligent, ancient light, free of the fatigue typical of mortal beings. She wore a long, light blue tunic made of a fabric so fine it seemed woven from morning mist, tracing the harmonious lines of her body with absolute elegance.
At that moment, the girl raised a slender hand to her face, letting out a silent, melodious laugh that rippled through the air like the sound of small silver bells. She seemed to be laughing with the other mysterious figure; the two gave the impression of talking about something extremely private, a floating conversation whose acoustic frequencies Hayjin could not perceive due to the distance.
"Who the hell are they..." Hayjin analyzed, feeling the core of his caution reactivate despite the absence of imminent danger. "The girl doesn't seem to be part of the cultists, though the other guy looks slightly menacing... I need to approach calmly. Standing still here doing nothing won't get me anywhere; maybe they know a way out of here."
With measured steps, keeping his center of gravity low to be ready to spring in case of a kinetic inversion, Hayjin began to advance along the grassy path, the flowers bending docilely under the weight of his bare feet only to straighten up immediately after his passage.
Arriving less than three meters behind the back of the strange armored figure, Hayjin stopped. The scent of the tea an aromatic blend of bergamot, jasmine, and a spicy note he couldn't quite identify was extremely dense at that point in the air, as if trying to mask any other chemical emanation.
The figure with the warrior's helmet made no hint of a movement. Its steel arm remained raised in the act of holding the cup, and the axis of its back maintained an absolute geometric rigidity. Hayjin coughed lightly to signal his presence, but neither figure showed any immediate kinetic reaction. He therefore decided to use direct verbal communication, modulating his voice to the neutral and formal tone he used with sages.
"Excuse me," Hayjin began, staring at the dark slit of the helmet. "Could you tell me exactly where I am? What happened to me? Where are we right now? And above all... who are you?"
The armored figure remained motionless without taking a step. There was no breath, no sound of steel plates grinding together, no vocal response. It was as if Hayjin's question had struck a wall of silent stone.
The boy then shifted his gaze to the girl with the long blue hair. The young woman sat with her legs crossed beneath her tunic, her fingers gripping a cup identical to her companion's. As Hayjin spoke, she continued to watch him with her large, light green eyes, an enigmatic, almost amused smile stamped upon her perfect lips. She continued to drink her tea with exasperating calm, tilting her head to the side whenever the boy tried to lock eyes with her.
"I'm talking to you too," Hayjin said, taking a step toward the right side of the wooden chair, his tone veined with a slight note of analytical frustration. "If this place is another dimension, then return me to my world immediately."
The same thing. No answers. The girl did not utter a single word, nor did her expression change in the face of the boy's demand. Her green gaze remained fixed on him, filled with a benevolent condescension that heightened Hayjin's sense of disorientation.
Suddenly, the girl raised her left hand, the one free from the teacup.
SNAP.
A single, crisp snap of her fingers echoed in the middle of the flowery meadow. The sound did not produce a magical shockwave, but the air on the right side of the invisible table underwent rapid molecular condensation. Out of nowhere, fragment by fragment, dark wood fibers joined together, creating a new chair identical to the first two, positioned so as to form a perfect triangle around the center of the space.
The blue-haired girl offered an even wider smile, raised her left index finger, and, with a friendly gesture, pointed to the newly created chair, inviting Hayjin to sit with them.
Hayjin observed the wooden chair. His Earthly mind analyzed the implications of the gesture. "If I sit down now, what happens? It could easily be a trap; I might even end up getting killed without warning if I sit. However, the alternative is standing in the middle of an infinite meadow without any logical trail to follow. Currently, they don't seem threatening at all, given the absence of active weapons or visible hostile intent."
Despite the profound structural reluctance driving him to keep a safe distance, Hayjin decided to do it anyway. He took the three steps necessary to reach the chair, turned his body, and sat down, resting his bare hands on his knees covered by the white tunic.
The moment his weight settled onto the wooden structure, the girl executed a second fluid movement.
SNAP.
Another snap of her fingers. At the lower edge of the space between Hayjin's feet and the flowery ground, a cloud of white vapor instantly condensed, giving way to another cup of tea hot, steaming, its jasmine aroma rising immediately toward the boy's face.
Hayjin looked down at the amber liquid rippling inside the porcelain. His biological survival protocols activated with the highest priority. "Damn... if I drink this stuff, what could happen to me? I risk them killing me with this tea; maybe it's poisoned. That's why they're so calm; they know that if I drink it, I'll definitely meet a horrific end."
With a concise, deliberate movement, Hayjin reached out, grabbed the cup's saucer, and instead of bringing it to his lips, placed it on the ground, setting it in the middle of a bush of blue flowers that surrounded the leg of the chair.
The girl watched Hayjin's action without showing any sign of offense; she merely tilted her head to the other side, her smile remaining stable, bright, almost maternal in its expression of amused acceptance.
Hayjin cleared his throat. The situation was exceeding the limits of his ability to manage ordinary data. The silence of the armored figure to his left and the unblinking gaze of the young woman in front of him were creating a profound sense of discomfort and embarrassment within his analytical mind, which was accustomed to dealing with measurable mana flows and predictable human reactions.
To break that suffocating tension, he decided to use a softer conversational approach, akin to the protocols of diplomatic courtesy he had seen used by the nobles of the great houses around Zhilian.
"How... how are you?" Hayjin asked, his gaze shifting between the steel slit of the warrior and the light green eyes of the girl. "I hope my... sudden intrusion into this place hasn't interrupted your conversation. I must admit that... this place is extremely welcoming. Very bright. The ambient luminosity and internal temperature are balanced in a way that makes... staying here pleasant, unlike the places I come from."
The words left his mouth with a certain stiffness, his voice betraying the artificiality of that attempt to make small talk in the middle of nowhere. He was not used to pleasantries; in his first life as an ordinary boy and in his second as a weakling, his survival had always been tied to facts, numbers, and lines of blood spilled upon the ground.
At those words, the girl with the long blue hair lit up. Her perfect face expressed pure, untainted joy; she smiled very happily, placing her cup on the invisible table and then bringing her hands together before her chest in a gesture of profound gratitude for the compliment received. Her reaction was so radiant, so completely devoid of malice or visible ulterior motives, that it made the entire meadow seem even brighter, as if the sky itself responded to the expansion of her smile.
However, the figure with the strange warrior's helmet remained motionless, the steel cup suspended mid-trajectory a monument of dark iron that reminded Hayjin that, behind that facade of flowers and jasmine tea, the enigma of his death was still entirely unresolved.
Hayjin sat motionless on the dark wooden chair, hands planted on his knees. The warmth of the sun beating down on that absurd meadow felt almost fake, too perfect to be true. In front of him, the blue-haired girl and the armored figure continued their routine without showing the slightest interest in his questions. They lifted their porcelain cups, took a sip of tea, and placed them back down on the invisible table with a calm that was beginning to seriously get on his nerves.
The boy decided to retreat into silence. He no longer knew what to say. He had tried to ask for explanations, but the result had been a total wash. So he limited himself to staring at them, repeatedly crossing their gazes and clenching his teeth.
"Fine, have it your way," Hayjin thought, feeling a dull anger rise from his stomach. "The last thing I remember is my head literally exploding in the medical room. There was blood everywhere, Evelyn was screaming, Rhaegalur was distraught... and now I'm here watching two guys drink tea in the middle of some flowers. I'm going crazy. I must have gone completely insane."
The girl with the long blue hair, however, did not stop looking at him. Her face was perfect, almost divine, and that solemn, incredibly happy smile never left her lips. Her light green eyes shone as if they knew exactly what was crossing Hayjin's mind, but they had absolutely no intention of making things easy for him. Every time the boy tried to hold her gaze, she tilted her head slightly, continuing to smile at him in that manner so open and, at the same time, unsettling.
"If you intend to bore me to death, know that you've almost succeeded," Hayjin muttered under his breath, speaking more to himself than to them. "A modicum of explanation wouldn't hurt. Where are we? Who are you? At least nod your head, come on."
Nothing. The warrior with the steel helmet remained as motionless as a stone statue, cup held mid-height, while the light breeze swayed the blades of grass and colorful flowers around them. The jasmine scent of the tea continued to rise from the ground, but to Hayjin, that fragrance was starting to become sickening. It only reminded him of the trap he had fallen into.
Suddenly, without the slightest noise or change in the air, the girl set down her cup. The click of porcelain against the void rang out clear amidst the chirping of the birds.
Hayjin recoiled slightly in his chair, his eyes widening. It was the first time since arriving in this bizarre place that either figure had altered their position. The young woman's light blue tunic slid softly down her legs, brushing the petals of the red and blue flowers growing thickly on the knoll.
With slow, almost floating steps, she began to approach him. She made no sound, she didn't trample the grass; it almost seemed as if she glided over an invisible veil of air.
"Oh, so you are alive," Hayjin said, straightening his back. Despite trying to act tough, his heart had begun to race wildly in his chest. The fact that she was moving meant something was about to change, and after everything he had been through in the dungeon, sudden changes did not appeal to him at all. "Listen, now that you're on your feet, can you explain what the hell is going on? Am I really dead? Is this another hallucination of that damned cult?"
The girl did not answer the barrage of questions. She continued to advance until she stood just inches from his knees. Up close, she was even taller than she had appeared while seated, and the scent she emanated was no longer that of tea, but something ancient, fresh like summer rain on the mountains.
Before Hayjin could do anything to pull away, the young woman leaned forward. Her long, slender hands reached toward his face. With incredible gentleness, she took his cheeks, forcing him to lift his head to look her straight in her light green eyes. Her fingers were warm, strangely real for being part of a dream.
Hayjin stiffened completely, his breath catching in his throat. Panic began to claw its way beneath his skin. "Hey, wait a second... what are you doing? Let me go," he said, his voice coming out a bit higher than normal, filled with genuine concern. He tried to move his head to break free from her grip, but as gentle as her hands were, the force holding him in place was absolute. He couldn't move a millimeter. "Seriously, it's not funny. What do you want from me?"
The girl remained there, just inches from his nose. Her solemn smile grew softer, almost melancholy, while her green eyes seemed to dig into him, reading every single fear, every single secret he had tried to hide since reincarnating into this world of madmen.
Then, she opened her lips. Her voice was the most beautiful and terrifying thing Hayjin had ever heard: deep, clear, capable of making the very air around them vibrate.
"I love you," she said, with disarming naturalness.
Hayjin was caught completely off guard. His mind, which usually always sought to analyze everything and find an explanation for every single anomaly, shut down entirely. He remained mouth agape, staring at her as if she had just spoken an unknown language.
"What...?" he managed to mumble, feeling incredibly stupid and embarrassed. "What are you talking about? I don't even know you! Who are you? What are you saying?"
The boy felt as though he were dying of awkwardness. This situation was so absurd it surpassed anything he had seen in the dungeon. One moment he was a piece of slaughtered meat on a slate floor, and the next, a beautiful blue-haired goddess was cupping his face and telling him she loved him. It didn't make sense. None of this made the slightest bit of sense.
The girl added nothing more. She continued to hold his cheeks, gazing at him with that immense and inexplicable love, as if he were the only thing left in the entire universe.
But the idyll lasted less than a second.
Behind the girl's back, the armored figure suddenly stood up.
The movement was so sudden and violent that the snapping of the steel plates produced a sharp, metallic sound that tore through the tranquility of the meadow like a gunshot. Hayjin, despite having his face immobilized by the young woman's hands, managed to see the mass of dark iron rising from the chair out of the corner of his eye.
"Oh no, what does he want now?" he managed to think, trying to bolt again, but it was too late.
The warrior wasted no time on ceremonies.
With a fluid and terrifyingly rapid movement, he brought his right hand to his hip. Out of nowhere, with a silver flash that briefly eclipsed the sunlight, he drew an incredibly long sword, its blade straight and razor-sharp. There were no screams, no magical formulas, no hesitation whatsoever.
The figure took a step forward, pivoting its torso. The sword cut through the air, describing a perfect horizontal arc that passed just millimeters from the shoulder of the blue-haired girl, who didn't budge an inch, continuing to look at Hayjin with the exact same happy smile.
The blade struck Hayjin's neck with a sharp crack.
There was no immediate pain, only the sensation of a freezing cold slicing through his throat, followed by the horrible sound of muscles, tendons, and bones being severed cleanly in a millisecond. The girl's grip on his cheeks vanished instantly not because she had let go, but because his body was no longer connected to his head.
Hayjin felt his head fly into the air.
The momentum of the slash had propelled him upward, sending him spinning. It was an absurd, terrifying sensation: he was still perfectly conscious, his brain continuing to register visual information while the entire space around him began to spin violently.
As he floated in the azure sky, he saw the world upside down:
He saw his body remaining seated on the wooden chair, a headless torso dressed in white from which not a single drop of blood escaped, as if it were an empty mannequin.
He saw the blue-haired girl raising her gaze toward him, continuing to smile at him with that immense warmth, moving her lips to repeat those same words he could no longer hear.
He saw the armored warrior sheathing his sword with the same calm with which he had been drinking tea just a moment before.
"Again... I'm dead again..." was the last, desperate thought to cross his mind as gravity began to pull his head back down. "But why does this keep happening to me? Why do they keep cutting me to pieces?"
The azure sky began to fade; the green meadows and colorful flowers were swallowed by black splotches that spread like ink on a wet sheet of paper. The chirping of the birds turned into a sharp, annoying whistle that filled his ears before dying out completely.
Hayjin's head hit the soft ground, rolling among the red petals, and his consciousness extinguished for the second time, plunging back into the most absolute darkness.