Inside the tattered hall of the cursed temple, Zayn woke up with the taste of rust in his mouth.
Blurred vision. Ringing ears. Pain dragged up broken memories.
That firm grip around his neck was choking the air out of his lungs. He remembered flailing his hand in desperation when he heard a loud sound.
Bang!
Something hit his head. After a moment of confusion, fresh blood gushed from his head, painting his vision red.
The memory was blurry, though he remembered a kick that sent him rolling toward the road.
All he remembered was the blare of a horn and the screech of tires before something colossal hurled him into the air before everything went black.
'Am I dead?'
Soon, his senses sharpened, and what he saw before him sent a jolt through his body. Hundreds of dead bodies lay scattered across the floor, oozing thick, dark blood.
As he looked up, he found himself inside a massive hall.
Dark moss clung to the walls, exuding a dense, smoky haze.
The smoke lingered at the edges of the hall before settling over the surfaces.
What fascinated him more was the half-burnt, half-rotten smell wafting from the surrounding corpses.
For some reason, he did not mind it at all.
Even amid the carnage, the world around him was quiet, so quiet that he could hear each heartbeat thudding in his chest.
Among the horrors, the most unsettling sight was the giant stone statue of a hand at the center.
It radiated an eerie familiarity and suffocating pressure.
Zayn stared at the statue until a sharp pain stabbed his chest, like shards of glass needling his lungs from inside.
[Where… am I?]
In panic, he tried to sit up, but his limbs refused to obey.
He strained to look around, but his neck stayed rigid.
He couldn't even blink. His gaze drifted downward.
A pool of thick crimson spread beneath him, seeping into the cracks of the ancient stone floor.
His left arm lay atop his chest, tangled at a strange angle with a massive hole from which warm blood gushed out.
Before panic could take root, his right hand twitched.
[Wait. I didn't move that.]
His thoughts screamed, but then suddenly, another voice echoed in his mind, calm, confused, and just as lost.
Two souls, one broken body.
"What… is this?" A deep, unfamiliar voice echoed in the hollows of his mind.
[Who's there?] Zayn demanded.
"Who are you?" the voice shot back.
Suddenly, Zayn's vision lurched as his body staggered upright, controlled by someone else.
[Stop!] Zayn mentally screamed, but the stranger ignored him, flexing bloodied fingers.
"Who are you? Where am I?" The stranger muttered aloud.
Before Zayn could reply, a glowing blue screen materialized before them.
Ding!
{System Notification: You have survived the Awakening Trial.}
{Hexis Core Formation: Successful. Welcome, Initiate.}
The system's voice boomed like a gong, echoing in their minds.
[What the hell is this system?] Zayn hissed.
"Focus!" The stranger snapped as though Zayn had spoken aloud. "Where are we?"
Zayn's attention was snagged on the hall.
Now, with a clearer view, he noticed a red ritual circle etched into the floor, woven with unknown symbols.
The monstrous carcasses and the eerie setting felt faintly familiar.
[This looks like… that novel.]
Fragments of the story he'd read before his death surfaced. The cursed world of Vareth, rifts, noble houses, and treacherous rituals. [The Light of Vareth Rift. The grimdark fantasy webnovel he binged every night after studying. But that's just fiction.]
Before he could dwell on it, the system's notification returned.
[Do you want to teleport back to Zerathia? (Yes/No)]
[What the hell, Zerathia? How can I be here? Don't tell me I'm inside Vareth. Is this the trial? Shit, shit…] Zayn cursed inwardly.
At this moment, the voice asked in confusion, "Zerathia? Vareth? Care to tell me why the hell I'm here and who you are?"
Zayn noticed that whenever he spoke, he felt no movement in his lips, yet the other man could hear him.
It felt like internal dialogue, a kind of self-talk. This lack of control over the body frustrated him further.
Zayn asked irritably, [Why the hell am I inside your body?]
The voice looked down. "Don't tell me you also woke up like me?"
Zayn froze, unable to utter a word. The stranger's reply sent shivers down his spine.
After a pause, he asked, [What do you mean, woke up? Who are you?]
"I am Xane. Like I said, I just suddenly woke up in this mess with you talking inside this body's head."
Zayn was too stunned to speak.
He tried to make sense of this messed-up situation.
He glanced around one more time just to confirm.
This tattered temple, the system notification, the trial, and the Hexis core, all of this made it clear that he was inside that novel.
It was likely he'd been reincarnated into this world inside Xane's body after his death.
But wait, this body. It was only now that he noticed Xane calling it "this body," not "my body."
He asked, [Wait, Xane… So this is not your body?]
Xane nodded. "Yeah. I don't remember much, just some blurry memories, and then I woke up here. "
[Don't tell me you also died? Are you from Earth?]
Xane raised his eyebrows, but a jolt of pain in his chest snapped him out of his thoughts. He felt lightheaded as he grabbed his hand, trying to stop the blood seeping from the wound. "Yeah, I kinda remember getting shot. But what's going on here? Is there any way to get out of this mess?"
Even though Zayn had no control over the body, he was feeling the pain, as his senses were working just fine.
With Xane's confirmation, the entire picture was stitched together in his mind.
'Both of us reincarnated into the same body? Xane has control… but why him? What about me? Am I trapped here forever? And who was the true owner of this body?' Hundreds of questions flooded Zayn's mind.
Xane urged him again. "Dude, we're losing too much blood. Do you know anything that could help?"
This snapped Zayn out of his thoughts. He sighed in relief, realizing at least their thoughts were separate. Xane clearly didn't know about this world.
Not wasting more time, Zayn said, [Xane, just teleport to Zerathia and hopefully, we'll get medical help on the other side. We have to move out of the cursed world of Vareth fast.]
Xane wasted no time and tapped yes on the system prompt that had popped up in front of him. "Okay."
{Initializing teleportation… (10…8…5…)}
The moment the timer hit 0, a bright white light engulfed them.
Zap!
Thus began the journey of two lost souls, sharing one broken body in the cursed world of Zerathia.