A sore body, swelling face, and a burning ear made for an uncomfortable way to wake up in the morning.

My eyes were partially blocked from sight due to the swelling from all the cuts and tears on my face.

I tried to get up from my uncomfortable bed, the floor. But a sharp pain in the back brought my knees back to the ground.

It hurts a lot worse than yesterday.

I tried to lift myself from my kneeling position with my hands to not stress my back, but another sharp pain erupted from my right arm covered in tape.

Ow. Forgot about that one. I got up with obvious effort and went to the sink to wash my face from the dried blood and sweat.

My face looked a lot worse than yesterday if that was even possible. Covered with countless deep gashes and minor scratches. One particularly bad one went just below my eyes to my chin. The skin and flesh were torn out, giving it a gruesome appearance. And another which tore through my nose, which would have torn my nose in half if it was any deeper.

Even if these healed, it would leave many deep scars on my face. Not like I cared about scars at this point. I was thankful that I was still alive from last night’s ordeal.

I noticed the tape looped around my forehead, made by falling face-first into the hard road.

“Gods,” I dreaded, “I have more injuries than I could recall.”

I needed to remove the tape as well, which is definitely going to open the wound again, but it needed air to breathe and heal. So, I had no choice in the matter.

I psyched myself up. This one’s going to hurt.

Before my mind had time to hesitate and reconsider, I pulled the tape from my forehead, opening it painfully as I bit down the pain, along with the blood pouring through my face. Then did the same with the tape wound over my punctured arms.

That was much more tolerable.

After washing my face of all the fresh new blood, I proceeded to plunge onto the floor with my back against the wall.

My body was trashed. Exhausted as well. Not the shallow kind, but the deep one, the kind that came from the bones. The kind that smelled close to death.

I took out the phone I forgot until now from my pocket; it had its screen broken but it was still working. I dialed my parents’ number, which didn’t connect unsurprisingly.

I didn’t have hope for that, anyway.

I tried the internet for news about anything; it didn’t work as well.

My hands dropped onto the floor along with my gaze. The future looked grim.

I was most likely going to die.

The next thing that finds me was going to kill me, if It didn't then surely the one after that would, which, based on my track record, was in about a day or so.

I had no hope that help was coming, either. Something as crazy as this was definitely not a localized event. If this was happening everywhere or in multiple places, or worse globally then I’m on my own for a long time.

A tugging sensation brought me back from my trepidation. The words from yesterday. It was pulling my attention, to call it forth, to pay attention to it, like a clingy girlfriend.

The words greeted my vision just as I thought of reading it again.

Sentience Confirmed

Would you like to receive a Directive?.

I left the message be yesterday because I was not in any state to attend to any unexpected situation if it crops up, and that didn’t change, I still wasn’t in any condition to tackle anything unexpected it would throw at me, which it would most likely do when I accept this ‘directive’.

But honestly, I was fucked anyway. And If this “directive” provides me with anything at all or helps me understand what the hell was going on, then it was worth it in my book.

My curiosity may also be playing a role in my decision, along with the lack of hope, but I was too tired to resist. I paused for a moment, thinking about how exactly to accept it.

Should I say yes? Or do anything specific?

But the message blinked out from my vision as soon as I thought of accepting it, which made me panic thinking that I wasted it.

But in the next moment, I was covered in darkness.

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No, not darkness. It was as if I could see nothing, literally. Not darkness, not any lack of light, but it was as if I did not have eyes in the first place. I couldn’t hear anything either, nor could I feel the hard floor that I was on moments ago. It was a state of a complete void of sensory stimuli.

But I didn’t panic, because I was in awe and overwhelmed, not by any lack of sensation but by what I was ‘seeing’.

It was overwhelming, like given a new sense, a new way to see. But it was much more than that.

It was seeing the reality of things, not through my eyes or my senses, clouded by my perception, but seeing the true nature of being.

I saw myself, not my physical self, but what constituted my being, it was like thousand specks of stars, occupying every point in my body.

I could feel it in my blood flowing through me, in my beating heart, and my dense and rigid bones. Augmenting their nature, enhancing it, giving the substances life. Being something more than its physical properties.

In my euphoric enlightenment, I could somehow comprehend and make sense of the jarring view.

It was me. These uncountable dim and subdued motes of energy altogether were my entire being, my soul.

This answer resonated with me. Like fitting the last piece of the puzzle, I could tell that it was true.

The true nature of my being, of matter and life, became so obvious, so right in front of me, so much so that I question why I couldn’t see it before. Diving deeper, I saw each mote permeated an ‘aura’ for a lack of a better word from it.

And all the specks together created an aura that filled my entire body, like chicken broth being made from the chicken. It flowed freely unlike the innumerous dim lights which it flowed from.

This aura filled my entire body and even extended a few breadths away from my body as well, projecting my being, my essence towards the outside reality.

But before I could dive deeper into this ‘aura’ I was ejected from my zone, my senses suddenly returning to me at the expense of losing my new ‘sight’.

The sudden arrival of new sensations felt like a punch to the face. I fell back from the light which flowed through my working eyes.

The jarring arrival of all the senses threw me off, and I stayed on the floor, covering my eyes with my hands until the overflowing load of information acclimated, and sensations felt like normal again.

I got up slowly, my mind completely stupefied.

“Ok, wow. That was something all right”

Affinity Found: Light and Vitality

Soul Strength: Lower Level 1

More words I couldn’t understand, but this time I didn’t even try to think about it, instead focused on grasping the new understanding I felt, which was quickly slipping away from me.

Ignoring the sense of pain and the other uncomfortable sensations which were slowly coming back, I closed my eyes. Trying to see the same sight again, trying to feel my soul again.

After a minute of focusing, I could barely perceive the aura that filled and flowed through my body, but I couldn’t sense the source of the aura- the motes of lights.

I tried again and again, focusing more, and looking more closely, but even the aura itself was barely felt, the laser clarity that I had in the dark before lost to me. I was dejected for a moment but remembered the similar feeling I experienced when I killed that light monster.

Though it felt different, it also felt similar in ways I couldn't explain.

I closed my eyes again, remembering the invigorating feeling. The feeling of energy being rushed into my body, and I could immediately feel the effect.

My aura, which I barely felt before could be felt more clearly, it felt like it was 'flaring' itself.

Before, the aura felt like trying to see a transparent river that could only be barely seen from the gentle flow, but now it was like the river that was raging and thrashing around. This 'flaring' was also coupled with the same invigorating feeling I felt yesterday, but it felt even stronger now.

My eyes, when I opened it was crystal clear as if it was covered with tainted glasses all my life. I could see things with more clarity than ever before. Not physically see better but I could discern every single object and every minute detail that hits my eye.

My mind felt focused as well, like a sponge that could absorb anything, coupled with a sudden emergence of confidence I did not feel up till now, like I could do anything. I felt the exhaustion I had till now fading like it was never there, instead replaced with a feeling of animateness.

I wanted to test the difference, to see if it only had a psychological effect or an actual one.

I moved towards the hammer before I even conceptualized of using the hammer, like a barrier of will that separated my actions and thoughts were removed, which made my body move with the speed of thought. Moving also felt weird, like when walking after running on a treadmill. I walked faster than my mind thought it was going to.

I took the sledgehammer lying on the ground after I discarded it yesterday.

When I tried the hammer out before when looking for any improvised weapons, I found it unwieldy; my balance was off, it was slightly heavy for me, and had to take a second to regain my posture after swinging it, but this time my body moved perfectly, just the way I wanted it to, the hammer swung once and twice horizontally and vertically, my body adjusting itself perfectly to maintain my balance.

This was frankly amazing, I felt like I could move any way I want and my body would comply. If I could have done this against the mindless horde, I wouldn't have ended up in this sorry state.

Not only did I feel stronger than ever, with perfect hand-eye coordination, but even my mind was clearer and more focused than ever.

It was rejuvenating, it was...

Vitality, I remembered the words from before. Is this what it was?

so, the words are not just some random stuff. It did have some meaning to it. Then the risk was well worth accepting that message. What was flowing through my body was a game-changer and would increase my chances of surviving this predicament much, much better.

This also meant that there were more things to uncover, things that the words might have hinted at.

Understanding it would be the key to my survival.

I felt a limit closing in while I was thinking this, like breathing out too much and wanting to stop and breathe in. The urge got stronger and stronger every second, to breathe back in, to stop.

I let go of the feeling, and my body relaxed, the invigorating sensation lost along with the addictive feeling of complete control of my body.

My hammer fell through my fingers, my fingers shaking and out of strength along with my whole body. I was hit by an even stronger weariness than I felt in the morning. The injuries in my body seemed to hurt even more. My eyes teared up, getting hotter as I panted heavily.

I thought of the aura I felt when it flared up as I invoked the feeling. This was not simple strengthening or power-up. I thought between the deep, labored breath.

This must be something closer to overclocking a computer. Where you burn yourself to work much better.

I moved towards the door, opened it, and walked outside the shop for some fresh air. The light of the dawn invoking a fake sense of security within me, like it was a normal morning.

My ears picked up a crunching sound to my right. I looked towards the sound and saw a big fleshy tail along with a crunching sound echoing in the hallway. The hallway where I left the unconscious people.

Along with the dead bodies.....

In... a place where monsters were roaming in the street and could smell the bodies.

“Fuck.”