Ash opened his eyes.
He wasn't in the laboratory anymore.
The cold metal walls were gone.
The glass chamber was gone.
The humming machines were gone.
Instead, he stood in a vast empty space.
Endless.
Silent.
The ground beneath his feet looked like smooth black glass that reflected faint lights drifting through the darkness above.
Ash looked around slowly.
The place felt… familiar.
Like something he should recognize.
But he knew he had never been here before.
Then he noticed it.
Floating in front of him.
A massive orb.
It hovered silently in the center of the void.
The sphere glowed faintly, its surface smooth and translucent.
Inside the orb, a strange dark substance moved slowly, shifting and swirling like thick smoke trapped inside glass.
Ash stepped closer.
The closer he got, the stronger the strange feeling in his chest became.
It felt like the orb was calling to him.
He raised his hand.
Just a little closer—
But something strange happened.
The closer his hand moved toward the orb…
The farther away it seemed.
Ash frowned.
He took another step.
The orb remained the same distance away.
Like space itself was stretching between them.
He lowered his hand and simply watched it instead.
The dark substance inside the orb continued to twist and fold in slow movements.
Then suddenly—
Something changed.
A new substance appeared.
A blueish-red liquid began to seep into the orb from somewhere beyond the void.
It flowed like glowing blood, slipping through the surface of the sphere as if the barrier didn't exist.
The moment it entered—
The dark substance reacted.
The two forces collided instantly.
The black mass surged forward violently.
The blue-red energy pushed back.
They clashed inside the orb like two storms fighting for control.
The blueish-red substance tried to dominate.
To consume.
To overwrite.
But the dark substance refused to disappear.
It twisted.
Adapted.
Resisted.
For a moment, it looked like the sphere might shatter from the struggle.
Ash could only stare.
Then—
The conflict began to slow.
Instead of destroying each other…
The two energies started to merge.
Black threads intertwined with the glowing blue-red current.
Gradually the violent movement calmed.
The sphere stabilized.
The color inside the orb shifted.
Black.
Blue.
Red.
Gold.
Silver.
Dozens of colors swirled together in a slow, hypnotic dance.
The orb had become a myriad of colors.
Then something appeared on its surface.
A symbol.
A perfect circle.
And at the center of the circle—
A cross.
The mark burned softly into the surface of the orb like glowing ink.
Ash stared at it.
"What… is this…?"
But before he could understand—
He felt something behind him.
A presence.
Ash turned slightly.
Someone was standing there.
A figure slowly stepped forward from the darkness behind the orb.
She was roughly the same height as him.
Her form looked human.
Female.
Her outline shimmered faintly, like she was made of light and shadow at the same time.
Ash felt his body freeze.
He couldn't move.
Not even a finger.
The girl stopped right in front of him.
She tilted her head slightly.
Her expression looked… confused.
Like she was examining something strange.
Ash tried to speak.
But no sound came out.
The girl stared at him for a few seconds.
Then she casually lifted her hand.
And tapped his forehead.
Tap.
The moment her finger touched him—
Everything went black.
Ash lost consciousness again.