For the first time in ages, the darkness around the young man seemed to somehow break.

Only gods knew how long he was confined to this nothingness, when no voice, no smell or any experience of other sort existed.

At first, it began with a delicate chirping of birds. Introducing this joyous sound, the source of the noise took only a few years to slowly intrigue the young man's mind. But once his bored mind finally noticed a slight change, all the other sensations came cascading down his tired brain.

"Where am I?" That was a question that the young man continuously asked ever since he appeared in this sphere of nothingness. At first, he hoped for some kind of answer. With time, he only wished for any reply of any sort. Ultimately, he gave up on everything.

There was no way to measure time inside the nothingness. Without any change, any foundation to base the rest of the system on, even time became cloudy, as if it was no longer confined to its linear structure.

"Where am I?" This question appeared in the young man's head again. Forcefully shaking the complete apathy of the man's mind, it slowly managed to reignite his thoughts. Bit by bit, the intent behind the question continued to grow.

Yet, the question itself remained unanswered.

'If it's chirping of the birds… Then am I in some kind of forest? Plain? Grassland?' Desperately striving to obtain some sort of information, the young man could feel the tentacles of fear wrapping around his soul.

Because in the nothingness, he had no body whatsoever.

"Where am I?" Recalling the right feelings, the young man forcefully opened his eyes that he didn't have. Pulling the non-existent eyelids up, he stopped right before the truth before him could be revealed.

Another hint of fear appeared in his soul.

'What if I open my eyes… And there will only be more of nothingness?' With his mind jolting to activity after millennia of slumber, the young man couldn't really think properly. But this innate fear, the deep terror of being left in a complete nothingness, managed to catch hold of the young man's soul.

"Fuck it." In the end, it was the impatient nature of the youth that made him do this last stretch. Pulling his eyelids up, the young man saw.

"Huh?" At this point, even the fact that his little shout of a surprise actually produced a sound went unnoticed. Because the endless darkness, the nothingness that trapped the young man for time unimaginable, now parted before the gentle light of a sun.

"A grassland…" Staring at a vast expanse of the peaceful sea of grass, the young man was stunned. Never in his greatest dreams did he imagine that he would be able to see such sight once again.

'Am I finally losing my mind?' Given the torture of death, he went through, that also was an option. But frankly speaking, when compared to the eternity in the nothingness, the young man no longer had anything against spending the rest of his sane days in an illusion.

The chirping of the birds once again filled the young man's ears, putting him in awe of the beauty of the world that surrounded him. Slowly recalling the right motions, the young man moved his head to the sides, finally catching a glimpse of the entire scale of the natural beauty housing him.

To one of the sides, a huge chain of mountains cut his vision. Shaped in a crescent, they would block anyone daring enough to move straight towards them. On the other side, an endless patch of fertile land stretched even further than the young man's eyes could see.

And far in the distance, a small stick. Growing directly from the ground, it had a slick figure, as if someone stabbed a giant needle into the otherwise flat plain.

"March!" A sudden order appeared in the young man's mind. It wasn't even vocal. It was a message innately pushing him towards the huge needle in the distance.

The young man made his first step.

"March." The urgency behind the order didn't lessen a bit, but it didn't grow stronger either. Making the very first step with his flesh and bones, the young man felt something hard underneath his naked feet. Something too hard for the soft-looking paradise in front of his eyes.

Looking down turned out to be quite a challenge. If not for the sun remaining completely motionless on the edge of the sky-dome, the young man could easily count several days before he finally recalled which muscles he needed to tense or contract to lean his head down.

"Thy who is lost, find yourself in the tower of ascension. "

The delicate markings made it feel as if the text was painted by some kind of gentle brush. The fact that it was carved into stone only made the young man wonder who was capable of creating it.

"Wait, isn't that something easy? Why is it so hard to recall who I was?" Unable to shed light on any of his clouded memories, the young man had no problems believing in the content of the stone tabled he accidentally stepped upon.

Raising his head, the young man looked towards the needle in the distance.

"In the tower, huh?" The young man sought answers. That was his only desire in this peaceful world. Because there was some kind of itch on his soul, an itch that he could scratch. It was as if he was forgetting about something insanely important.

But why was this tower so damn familiar? WJat was this feeling of urgency pushing his feet towards this majestic yet distant building? What even was this world? Who he even was?

"Where am I?" With this one question on his lips, the young man pushed forward, determined to find at least some answers.

The sun motionlessly observed the progress of the young man. As if a great spotlight, shone on the young man's path, slowly filling the air with more and more heat. By the time the young man reached half the distance to the tower, his skin was scalding off his muscles, while his flesh was starting to boil in the intense heat of the air.

Yet, he preserved. Pushing forward, the young man welcomed all sorts of pain and torture. After an eternity in the nothingness, even the greatest pain was an enjoyable sensation.

Because contrary to not feeling anything at all, pain, at least, was making him feel alive.

The tower loomed in the distance.