They say waking up in another world should feel like a dream.
This didn't.
It felt like cold sweat clinging to my skin and blood that hadn't caught up to the pulse in my chest. The forest around me whispered like it had breath. Leaves glowed with faint blue light. I was alive—but not in the way I remembered being.
And on my forearm, something had changed.
It glowed faintly, a sigil of some kind, pulsing in rhythm with my heartbeat. The lines twisted and reformed every few seconds, like it was alive… waiting for me to notice.
The voice from earlier—the one that called itself LAW—was gone. But its presence lingered, like the taste of a half-remembered dream.
I tried to stand.
"Easy," a voice called.
I turned sharply.
A man—or something like one—stood at the edge of the clearing. He was cloaked in stone-gray robes that shimmered like mist, but his face… wasn't a face. It was smooth, expressionless, like a mask carved from old marble. Two glowing blue slits stared out from where eyes should be.
"Who are you?" I asked, my voice hoarse.
"The question is not who I am," the figure said. "It is what you are now."
"I'm… Gerson. I'm—" I hesitated. Was I still human?
"You've been Called," he said. "Chosen by LAW. One in a hundred. Your life before is over. You walk a new path."
"LAW…" I looked at my arm again. The sigil shimmered, then rearranged. Suddenly, glowing words hovered before me in the air.
---
LAW Status – Initiation Phase
Name: Gerson
Designation: Called
Tier: Zero
LAW Alignment: Adapting...
Trait Acquired: Adaptive Soul
> Growth increases under emotional pressure. Unstable. Unclassified.
---
"What the hell…" I whispered.
"You have awakened your Trait. Your LAW is watching," the masked man said, stepping closer. "That mark will evolve as you do. But know this—LAW does not choose lightly. Nor does it forgive failure."
I clenched my fist. "Why me?"
"There is no why. Only probability. One in a hundred… and you were the one."
I could feel it now—energy flowing beneath my skin. Like something deep inside me had been unchained. But instead of excitement, I felt dread.
"What's expected of me?"
"To survive. To grow. To obey your LAW's whispers. Or vanish into the Veil."
My mouth went dry.
"You are not the only one," he continued. "Others have come. Most perish. Some ascend. All are tested."
He turned, motioning toward a narrow path between glowing trees. "Follow if you wish to live. Or stay, and let the forest take you."
I hesitated. "What's your name?"
He paused. "I have no name. But if it brings you peace, call me Sentinel."
Then he walked into the glowing mist.
And I followed.
---
The forest felt like it was breathing. Every step I took made the ground pulse faintly. Trees bent slightly, as if observing me. Sentinel said nothing as we moved, but I had too many questions.
"What happens if I die here?" I asked finally.
He didn't look back. "Then you die for good. LAW grants no second rebirth."
We passed a patch of stones covered in moss. They weren't natural—each had symbols like mine carved into them. I stopped, reaching toward one.
A sudden pulse of energy surged through my arm.
Pain. Not physical—internal. Like my very soul was being tugged.
The stone lit up, then dimmed.
"Do not touch forgotten Trials," Sentinel warned. "They are for those ready to ascend. You are not."
My mark still shimmered with residual light. I pulled my hand back.
"How do I know what I'm supposed to do?" I asked, frustrated.
Sentinel paused at a ridge overlooking a wide basin.
"You listen," he said, "to the LAW."
---
Down below, a strange arena lay carved into the rock. Eight stone pillars, each glowing with soft energy, circled a platform covered in intricate runes. Something moved in the center. No—someone.
Another person.
They were facing away from us, but the markings on their arms glowed red instead of blue. Their body shifted unnaturally—like their bones bent wrong.
"What's wrong with them?" I whispered.
"They were Called, like you," Sentinel said. "But they rejected their LAW's path. Now they are unstable."
Before I could speak, the person roared—a sound too deep for a human throat—and charged the center pillar. Their body shattered into smoke the moment they touched the runes.
Gone. Like they never existed.
"They failed," Sentinel said simply.
I swallowed hard. "And if I follow the LAW?"
"Then it may grant you more than you could imagine. Power, yes. But knowledge… truth… perhaps even purpose."
I stepped back from the ridge.
I didn't understand this world. I didn't know what LAW truly was. But I knew one thing—I wasn't ready to die again.
I looked down at the mark on my arm.
It pulsed once.
Warm.
Alive.
And for the first time since waking up, I felt something dangerous stir inside me.
Not fear.
Potential.