~So it was all a dream?~ Lucius thought to himself as he worked in the garden. His son was currently playing with his action figure right next to him, and his wife was watching him work from the porch.
Lucius just stared blankly at the plants he was working with. Everything felt so... ethereal, like a very realistic dream.
~Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised, a world filled with magic and magical creatures? Of course, the real world would feel like a dream.~
Slowly but surely he was starting to get used to being back in the real world. Several months passed, and he was deemed mentally fit to get another job. Everything was going well, his wife was happy, his son was happy, and he was happy.
Sadly, it was all a lie. Not for a single second did Lucius believe that this world was real, and that in itself was proof of his mental disease. Whatever reality he wanted to believe in, meant that he was going insane.
Was he from a magical world trapped in a dream of the real world, or had he been in the real world trapped in a dream of a magical world? The issue was, that he couldn't figure out which it was.
Certain... memories of his had been wiped, and others very clearly edited. He knew for a fact his son's name was not Pagan, not this son at least. And even though he loved his wife, he couldn't quite remember if this was the way her face really looked.
Even the details from the 'magical' world he was so sure to have been a part of were shaky.
For instance, he couldn't quite remember how he had gotten there. Had he been transported? Had he died and been reborn? And the terrain, what kind of place had it been? The only things he could remember, were the names of his... children?
~Pagan, Alpha, Ghost, Hannibal, and all the others. Were they all fake?~ Thoughts like these made him unstable. He knew that amongst these names was someone called the necromancer, though he couldn't remember whether they were friend or foe.
"Honey, are you thinking about them again?" his wife asked, wrapping her arms around his chest gently, as she moved closer to him on the bed.
"I know it's hard, but you have to fight it... for me and for Pagan," she whispered in his ears.
"I-I know," Lucius replied. ~I'm being unreasonable, how can I sacrifice my wife for people whose faces I don't even remember,~ Lucius thought to himself before caressing his wife's hand.
"Honey can I ask a question?" his wife asked, prompting him to turn around and face her.
"Sure, anything," he replied.
"You're always talking about this world you went to. How is it any different from the one we're in?" she asked.
"I-I can't really say I remember anything about it, but for one there wasn't any techn-" Just then it hit him.
"Honey? What's wrong?" his wife asked as he got up from the bed abruptly.
~Technology, there's no technology here. Wh-where's my phone?~ Lucius wondered, just now remembering what a phone was. It was like a fog had been lifted from his mind.
"What's going on? Talk to me," his wife asked, getting up to comfort him. Lucius's eyes were wild, right now he didn't want anyone to touch him.
"Should I call the doctor?" she asked, pulling out a device from the pockets of her gown.
"A-A phone?" Lucius asked in disbelief. But he was certain that he had never seen one since he woke up.
"Of course honey, here's yours," she said, passing him another device.
"But-"
"I'll call the doctor okay? Don't worry this isn't your fault," she said, smiling at him warmly as she turned to speak on the phone.
"But- But these aren't phones, these are walkie-talkies," Lucius whispered before gently wrapping his hands around his wife's neck.
"And you aren't my wife are you? She died so long ago, I can't remember her face properly," he whispered coldly, right as the creature's figure began to morph back into its true form.
"You've locked your memories tight. But this time, at least we've gotten closer," the creature said, before the entire world around them fell apart, revealing a web of undead creatures all around him.
"This process is taking longer than anticipated. But we have all the time in the world," the creature said, before attempting to place its grimy finger on Lucius's head.
~Solar burst!~ Lucius chanted, attempting to escape the creature.
"Your spells do not work in this realm. Here, only mind eaters have power, and you- you are prey," the creature said in a taunting voice, before ordering all the creatures around Lucius to attack.
"How long, have I been here?" Lucius asked himself in cold disbelief as he watched the landscape around him shift once again, his memories slowly wiped.
"You're awake!?" a woman dressed in white shouted in surprise.
"W-where am I?"
"Captain," Alpha whispered, his body collapsing under its own power.
『Surpass』 and his new title had given him an incredible power boost, but it came at a price. He had noticed that with every second that went by, his crux suffered under more and more pressure.
And that wasn't all. The visual effects on his body weren't just for show. He was not immune to the flames on his body, it was actually overheating. He knew for a fact, that already the damage that had been done might never be healed.
"Captain," he whispered again. If not for his will, for the goal of saving his master, perhaps he would've died already.
No, even then, will itself was not enough to keep him standing.
No, the forest was helping him.
"Just what is going on here?" another voice called out, prompting Alpha to swing around.
It was a massive creature, covered in shadowy armor. It stood at 8 feet tall and had a tail longer than even Lucius's.
