Safsan was suddenly there.
He did not know where.
There was no ground.
No sky.
No walls.
No horizon.
Nothing.
Everything around him was completely dark.
Not the darkness of night.
Something deeper.
Something that seemed to swallow even the idea of light.
Silence surrounded him.
Absolute silence.
There was no wind.
No distant sound.
Nothing.
Safsan tried to move.
He couldn't.
He looked down.
His body was chained.
Black chains.
Pure, terrifying darkness wrapped around him.
They held his arms.
His legs.
His chest.
His entire body.
Safsan pulled against them.
Nothing.
He tried again.
Harder.
Still nothing.
Then his hair moved.
Safsan froze.
There was no wind.
Nothing had touched him.
Yet every strand of hair on his body seemed to rise.
Even the tiny hairs he could never see with his eyes stood up.
His body was warning him.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
The feeling spread through him.
First his skin.
Then his chest.
Then his stomach.
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Then deeper.
Into places fear normally couldn't reach.
His heart began beating faster.
His breathing became heavier.
And then—
he understood.
He was dreaming.
Safsan looked around.
“A dream...?”
His voice disappeared into the darkness.
There was no echo.
No answer.
He didn't know what the dream was about.
He didn't know why he was chained.
He didn't know what he was supposed to do.
Then he saw it.
A shape.
Far away.
Something moving inside the darkness.
Safsan stared.
It should have been impossible to see anything.
There was no light.
Nothing that should have allowed his eyes to see.
Yet he could see it perfectly.
A snake.
Black.
Its body slowly moved through the darkness.
Its eyes remained fixed on him.
Safsan's breathing stopped.
The snake came closer.
He pulled against the chains.
Nothing.
He tried again.
Harder.
Nothing.
He fought mentally.
He forced himself to think.
To wake up.
To move.
To escape.
He concentrated with everything he had.
But nothing happened.
The snake continued moving toward him.
Safsan fought harder.
He tried to force his mind awake.
Nothing.
He tried to change the dream.
Nothing.
He tried to deny it.
Nothing.
The snake was getting closer.
Safsan's fear reached every part of him.
And then...
he stopped fighting.
Not because he had won.
Because he had nothing left.
For once...
he let himself feel it.
Everything he had ignored.
Everything he had pushed away.
Everything he had kept himself busy enough not to feel.
Everything he had told himself could wait.
The fear.
The pain.
The loneliness.
The things he didn't want to think about.
The things he didn't want to remember.
The things he didn't want to admit.
He let them come.
All of them.
And the moment he stopped running from the feeling...
the darkness became completely still.
The snake stopped.
Safsan stared at it.
Neither moved.
For the first time...
Safsan wasn't running.
* * *
Meanwhile...
Saad slowly opened his eyes.
He was still on the ground.
Safsan was gone.
The people who had been approaching were still somewhere in the distance.
Saad pushed himself up.
He looked at his hands.
Something felt different.
He couldn't explain it.
There was something inside him.
Something that had always been there...
but had never answered him before.
Before that moment, Saad had known nothing about the true nature of what lived within him.
In Odania, most people lived their entire lives without ever understanding it.
They called the world ordinary.
They called themselves ordinary.
But every living being carried something deeper.
Something connected to the soul.
The Origin Realm.
It was not magic.
It was not a spell.
It was not something that could simply be learned from a book.
The Origin Realm was part of what a person was.
For some, it remained completely dormant.
For others, something could awaken within it.
And when it did...
the impossible could begin to manifest.
The Origin Realm had three parts.
The first.
The second.
And the third.
The first was already considered extremely rare.
The second was even harder to reach.
And the third...
was something most people believed could not exist at all.
Saad knew none of this.
He didn't even know that he had an Origin.
He only knew that something inside him was changing.
His breathing became heavier.
His eyes widened.
Then—
something awakened.
His Origin.
Saad froze.
A strange sensation moved through his entire body.
It wasn't coming from outside.
It was coming from within.
From somewhere deeper than thought.
Deeper than fear.
Deeper than anything he had ever understood.
Saad looked around.
“What... is happening to me?”
He felt stronger.
Not simply physically.
Something else.
Something he couldn't name.
Then he noticed a distortion in the air.
A small opening appeared.
At first, it looked like a crack.
Then it widened.
A portal.
Saad stared at it.
And someone stepped through.
Safuu.
She appeared without warning.
Saad recognized her immediately.
The old woman from the mountain.
But something about her was different now.
She wasn't looking at him with curiosity.
She wasn't there to speak with him.
She was looking at him like a person who had already made a decision.
Saad took a step back.
“Why are you here?”
Safuu didn't answer.
Her eyes remained fixed on him.
Saad suddenly felt something cold move through his body.
“What do you want?”
Safuu finally spoke.
“Your Origin.”
Saad frowned.
“My... what?”
Safuu's expression did not change.
“You don't understand what has awakened inside you.”
Saad looked at his hands.
Then back at her.
“No.”
Safuu took one step forward.
“That is exactly why you are dangerous.”
Saad's confidence returned.
He smiled.
“You think you can kill me?”
Safuu looked at him.
“I know I can.”
Saad laughed.
But the sound was nervous now.
Something about the woman standing in front of him felt wrong.
Not weak.
Not old.
Dangerous.
The portal behind her slowly disappeared.
Saad looked at it.
Then at Safuu.
For the first time, he understood something.
She had not come to save him.
She had come because of what had awakened inside him.
His Origin was dangerous.
And she had decided that he could not be allowed to keep it.
Saad attacked.
The mountain air shook.
Safuu moved.
Saad's newly awakened Origin responded instinctively.
Something manifested.
Something born from within him.
But Saad had no control over it.
He didn't understand it.
He had awakened too late.
Safuu had already known what she was facing.
The difference was enough.
Saad tried again.
Safuu avoided him.
He attacked harder.
She moved with almost no wasted motion.
Saad's confidence disappeared.
“What are you?!”
Safuu didn't answer.
Another movement.
Another strike.
Saad fell.
He tried to stand.
His body refused.
Safuu stood over him.
Saad looked up.
For the first time in his life...
he was completely powerless.
He had spent years trying to make other people afraid of him.
Now he was the one afraid.
Safuu looked into his eyes.
“You awakened something you were never ready to carry.”
Saad's breathing became weaker.
“Wait...”
Safuu remained silent.
Then she ended it.
Saad's body fell still.
The man who had spent so long trying to control others...
was dead.
Far away...
Safsan was still trapped inside his dream.
The black snake remained in front of him.
And somewhere between fear and silence...
something inside Safsan had finally begun to listen.