A glaring light pierced Ray's soul as he opened his eyes for what felt like the first time in his life. A musty smell hit his nose only a second later, leaving him in a slight daze from the sudden sensory overload.

He blinked his eyes a few times, then slowly looked around his surroundings, his eyes soaking in every single little detail he could catch.

The unrecognizable terrain in front of him seemed to spark nothing in his mind, his memory staying completely blank. Why was he in this large cave? Why was he holding a pickaxe? And what was that strange glowing light coming off the rocks in front of him?

His body froze as he tried to think of an answer to these questions. Even a clue of his situation would have been fine, but nothing resurfaced, only a blank gaze remaining on his face.

The panic inside of him increased as he came to another terrifying revelation— he had no clue who he was! When he looked down at his pointy and scaly hands, he couldn't even recognize his own body; an uncomfortable feeling started rising within his heart.

His time to think about his existence didn't last long, since a whip came lashing toward him at a speed surpassing the limits of the naked eye. The jagged edges of the whip dug into his skin and ripped apart the flesh on his back, leaving him bleeding onto the cave's floor.

"What do you think you're doing, standing still like that? You think the ki crystals will mine themselves?" A shrill voice echoed from a humanoid figure behind him.

Ray's blank expression didn't change as he turned to stare at the figure that lashed him, the pain not affecting him in the slightest.

Ray's blank expression surprised the human since he was sure he hit the tiefling with a good amount of force, yet it was standing there, unfazed. The surprise quickly disappeared as it was replaced with a building of anger the human couldn't resist. His expression contorted and he ran towards Ray in a fury, ready to beat him with all his might.

"You lowly slave dare to resist a superior human being?" The human yelled while swinging his fist toward Ray.

A confused expression arose on Ray's face as the human attacked him again. All he did was look at him after he whipped him, and now he was running at him ready to fight?

The punch came at high speed— fast enough to rival a champion boxer, but this didn't seem to faze Ray as he ducked down in a reflexive motion.

The human didn't seem to sense anything wrong, his anger only increasing as a humiliated look appeared on his face.

After seeing the human's clear mal intentions towards himself were not stopping, Ray made up his mind to eliminate the threat. His mental state was not in the best condition after he appeared in an unfamiliar cave with no memories, then was ruthlessly whipped a few seconds later.

He lifted his pickaxe over his head and smashed it down onto the human's figure. The human had no time to react since he didn't expect in the slightest for Ray to fight back against himself.

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The human's expression turned from anger to shock, before his skull was crushed into pieces as the pickaxe obliterated his head.

The whip in his hands dropped on the floor, leaving an echo through the massive cave before it turned into a stale silence, the only noise being faint mining noises from far away.

Ray turned his attention away from the dead human to the shining light that was radiating from a shiny green stone. Now that the creature that was attacking him was dead, he didn't think anything more of it.

While he was distracted by the human, he felt a strange aura coming from the stone which made him feel an attraction to it. He wasn't sure what it was, but with no memories or information in his head, he had no hesitation in following his instincts toward the stone just like he had no hesitation in killing the human.

He slowly walked over to the stone, after which he lay on the ground with his head pointed toward the stone, his piercing gaze examining every detail about it.

He lay down for another few minutes before changing position to see another angle, but no matter what he did, he couldn't figure out the strange aura coming from it.

After staring at the stone for another couple of minutes, he impatiently stuck out his hand to touch the glowing green light.

His hand seemed to move in slow motion as it came closer and closer to the stone. Once his pointer finger finally made direct contact with the stone, Ray yelped in surprise as a sharp pain surfaced inside his head, making him quickly retract his arm.

The pain in his head grew worse and worse, until a few seconds later he couldn't hold on anymore and he fell to the floor with a thud.

…

Ray opened his eyes in unfamiliar terrain for the second time, in complete confusion just as before. Luckily he clearly remembered his brief encounter in the musty cave with that strange human being. His gaze was much calmer than before since he wasn't waking up a blank slate like before, but he was still wary and on edge.

This time he seemed to be standing at the peak of a mountain that stretched further down than his eyes could see. When he realized he appeared at the very edge of the mountain, he jerked backward to not die a needless death so quickly.

Once he turned away from the edge of the mountain, he noticed an old man sitting cross-legged on the ground beneath a withered tree. The old man was staring at the pitch-black sky, his eyes consumed by the darkness and mystery within. He didn't seem to take notice of Ray's appearance on the mountaintop as he continued staring into the unknown.

Ray stared at the old man for a few seconds before hesitantly saying, "Hello."

'Hello', a completely foreign word that he had no memory of ever using, yet it felt so familiar and casual at the same time. When he stared at the old man sitting below the dead tree, he felt a strange sense of familiarity, or even kinship— the complete opposite feeling he had from the human in the cave.

The old man turned towards him, his serene eyes searching staring deep into his soul, which strangely felt comfortable toward Ray.

"Do you remember anything?" He said in a light whisper.

Even though he whispered the words, they were clear in Ray's mind, as if the old man was right next to him, talking into his ear.

Ray didn't feel compelled to lie to the old man, so he responded, "No, I don't. Where is this, and who am I?"

"Where is this? This is your inner consciousness of course." The old man replied as if it was common knowledge.

"My inner consciousness?" Ray asked again in confusion.

"You don't believe me? Check your back."

He suddenly realized the aching pain coming from his back had disappeared completely, which led him to bend his arm to check the skin on his back. A surprised expression arose on his face as he realized his body seemed to be completely healed, only bloodless smooth scales lining his wound.

"As for who you are, you will find this out soon enough. Have patience, and follow your heart," he said in a mysterious voice.

Ray's expression grew worse after hearing the old man's reply. He only answered his questions with confusing answers, leaving him just as clueless as when he first arrived.

"Who are you?" He asked in a now suspicious tone.

The old man's expression changed for the first time, stiffening slightly before returning to normal. He ignored Ray's question and took out a black book with golden inscriptions on its cover.

"You will probably wake up any second now. Take it and use it well, for countless sacrifices have been made to create this."

Without waiting for Ray's response, the book flew from the old man's hands toward Ray's body and merged into his chest in an instant.

Ray quickly started touching his chest in surprise.

"What did you just do?" Ray asked, a serious expression on his face.

The old man laughed in response. "Don't be in such a panic, I simply gave you what you always wanted."

Ray raised his eyebrows with a questioning look on his face.

"What I always wanted?" Ray repeated.

Suddenly, his vision started to shake, and the world started to get blurry. Before his vision became complete darkness, he heard the old man say one last thing.

"The ability to escape the horizon"