Masteria Online: Shattering the Dark God's Grand Scheme-Chapter 117 - All it scatters.

I need to check the time.

With that thought, he started dragging himself toward the window on his hands and knees.

I need to figure out how long I was out.

The effort of crawling those few feet left him exhausted. Sweat formed copiously on his forehead despite the room’s cool temperature. When he finally reached the window and pulled himself up to peer outside, he found only darkness.

It’s the middle of the night. Ugh, is it the middle of the night?

He threw himself onto his chair, panting hard. He struggled to sit up, making sure he wouldn’t fall out of his chair. He took a deep breath, before slowly and methodically directing his body to turn his computer on. He waited patiently, closing his eyes for just a moment.

By the time he opened his eyes once more, he was unsure how much time had passed. Life felt like a blur.

He saw the time displayed on his screen. 3:47 AM. Renan blinked. But that’s... strange.

Eight hours. That’s how long he had in Masteria.

Even if he supposed he fainted for the rest of the eight hours, that was nowhere near as long as he had been out. Even if he added a few hours of time fainted afterwards, it didn’t match up. He would have had to have fainted for over eight hours.

And even if that did happen, his family should have noticed. Sure, he had accustomed them to expecting him to be gone for eight hours a day, alone in his room. But just that, eight hours. He had easily spent sixteen or so.

Why didn’t anyone come looking for me?

The question sent another spike of pain through his damaged soul, forcing him to lean against the wall for support. Something wasn’t right here. There was no way his mom would let him stay locked in his room for sixteen consecutive hours without at least making sure he was alive.

He tried to focus on the thought and explore its implications, but the effort sent waves of agony through his skull. His vision blurred, and for a moment he thought he might pass out again.

My soul, come on! Stabilize, am I leaking? Is that a thing? How fragmented am I?

He closed his eyes, trying to center himself, to find a stable point in the form of his fractured soul.

When he opened them again, he wasn’t in his room anymore.

???

The change was so sudden and disorienting that he didn’t immediately process what he was seeing.

For some mysterious reason, there were tall shelves lined with tomes. There were floating lights that cast golden illumination across the expansive room. The smell of wood and parchment filled his senses, making his head burst with pain from the whiplash.

Is this...

Merath’s library?

How?

To make things worse, something was wrong with his perspective. He wasn’t sitting or standing. Even the nearest shelves seemed to tower above him like skyscrapers, and when he tried to look down at himself, he found he couldn’t move his head. He couldn’t move anything, actually. He was frozen in place, able only to observe in the singular direction he could see.

A figure emerged from behind one of the towering bookcases, and Renan’s breath caught. He was entirely unsure how he could even feel his breath, given that he didn’t seem to have a body.

Merath looked enormous. From a rough perspective-based estimate, he was easily thirty feet tall, his robes flowing around him like heavy infrastructure blown about in the wind. When the mage spoke, Renan only heard his voice come in fragmented bursts.

"If it’s... soul... begins to... sense."

What is he saying?

Renan tried to speak, tried to move, tried to do anything to indicate his presence, but his body, if he even had one here, refused to respond.

Merath’s massive form moved closer, and Renan could see concern etched deep into the mage’s features. The man’s lips were moving, but only fragments of words reached Renan’s consciousness.

"Damage... fundamental... dangerous than... physical death... research... new... understanding."

He’s trying to help me. He knows something is wrong.

Renan managed to make the connection. With that thought, he began focusing his mind once more. But before he could process any more of what Merath was saying, reality twisted again. The library dissolved into swirling darkness, and Renan found himself falling through an endless void. Pain lanced through every fiber of his being. He felt his soul scream out in agony.

Soul! Soul, don’t fragment!

Condense!

Condense, please!

Every fragment, back to me! Stabilize!

Yet regardless of his thoughts, or his efforts, nothing changed. He was in a void, unable to see or hear. Time became meaningless in the darkness. He might have been falling for seconds or centuries.

The pain was constant, a burning ache that consumed him from the inside out. Only after an unknown amount of agony, did occasionally, fragments of sensation reach him.

He felt something soft rub against his skin, and faintly perceived a high-pitched beep sounding out rhythmically. There was a strong scent once in a while. Alcohol?

Hospital?

The thought drifted through his mind.

Sheets, heart monitor, and disinfectant? How did I get to a hospital? Wasn’t I at Merath’s Library? Wait, I was in a void. No, what void, I wa-

But before he could pursue that line of thinking, the darkness claimed him again.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The next time awareness returned, it came with an insistent beeping, fully audible and clear.

Renan felt his body this time, and he opened his eyes. When he managed to do so, he found himself in a sterile white room with tubes and wires connected to various parts of his body. An IV drip fed clear fluid into his arm, and monitors displayed readouts he couldn’t quite focus on.

Definitely a hospital. But how? Why?

He tried to remember how he’d gotten here, yet he couldn’t. He held no memory of ever talking to everyone, of ever being found, of ever being taken.