“The secret is this: you won’t die!” The captive felt a warm breath in his right ear as he heard a familiar voice whisper. He slowly opened his eyes, his vision still a blur, and saw a shadowy figure. A few blinks of his eyes fully restored his eyesight.

He found himself kneeling on the ground wearing a dirty old robe. His body felt sticky with dried sweat. He tried to say something, but his mouth had been fully sealed, his hands firmly bound behind his back.

The prisoner looked up to see a face that could have been his own. Hatred raged in his eyes as he stared at his twin brother whom he had absolutely detested most of his life. Both knew the feeling was mutual.

“You will be reborn as a mere mortal in some inferior world!” His twin stared deep into his eyes, sneering with disgust. “You will be completely stripped of any memory or power, a sentence so much worse than death.” He felt his twin brother’s right hand forcefully grab his face.

The assembly of nobles, all adorned in full regalia with lavishly embellished cloaks, encircled the prisoner. Around their necks hung ceremonial pieces of jewelry, with glimmering stones as bright as the stars.

With several of these aristocrats being his own kin, the captive knew their terrestrial hierarchy and ranks meant nothing within these walls. This vast secret underground chamber appeared to be a revered sanctuary from an antiquated world.

Here, with all men and women equal, heavily bound with the ancient and mystical bond of power and prestige, the congregation shared the age-old secret to eternal youth.

The captive scrutinized the intimidating conclave, disheartened to see his father leading the pack of royals gathered to witness his own son’s doom. The man he looked up to, the emperor, his own flesh and blood, had become a party to his condemnation.

“It’s time!” The emperor declared nonchalantly, his face devoid of any emotion.

“Yes, Father!” His twin brother obediently responded before taking his designated place at their father’s side. Each brother’s face mirrored the contempt one felt for the other.

The emperor then raised his staff and started chanting, summoning a mysterious dark vortex towards the center of the room above the captive’s head.

Slowly, the captive began to disappear, screaming at the top of his lungs. To his anguish, the entire process felt like an eternity. The vortex painfully tore his body, mind, and soul into shreds until he became nothing.

***

Dimitri suddenly bolted straight up, startling out of a seemingly conscious nightmare. He sat all alone in a cramped room with a mirrored wall and a single door to his left.

Everything seemed eerily silent, the room completely devoid of sound. All of his extremities must have been locked to the sturdy metal frame for quite a long time. The securely locked handcuffs and chain anklets caused the numbness in his hands and legs.

The reflection of a stranger, sitting on a metal chair, stared at him intensely. No other furniture could be found in this small cubic space. The stranger gazed at him with contempt and traces of regret, emotions he somehow knew he rarely felt.

Without a doubt, this young unfamiliar face, sans the make up and prosthetics, belonged to him. Of this, he was certain. After all, he had been staring at this exact same face for God knows how long while in detention.

“Why do I keep having the same dream over and over,” Dimitri thought, “every time I lose consciousness?” Intense numbness and pain lingered all throughout his body. Most of his waking moments had been spent trying to make sense of this recurring nightmare.

Although he could not recall the faces in the dream in vivid detail, he realized that his face in the dream looked very different from the face currently staring at him in the mirror. Also, the world in his dream seemed very different from the world he woke up to. And he felt like he didn't belong to either one of them.

“Was the recurring nightmare just a figment of my imagination?” Dimitri shivered at the mere thought of being torn into shreds. “Or did the dream stem from my own real past experience?”

“And this reality I find myself in right now,” he thought, “is this just another figment of my imagination? Just another fantasy concocted in my head?”

Dimitri inspected his clothes more closely as he further contemplated his situation. Then, he concluded that this world appeared to be more real than the world in his dream.

A tightly fit spandex bodysuit replaced the business suit he had been wearing when he arrived in Shangri-la. This uniform’s design amplified the pain from the tests he had been subjected to. He tried to remember everything that happened ever since the first test ordered by the council.

But before he could think any further, the door suddenly opened.

***

“Congratulations Dimitri! You passed the first set of tests.” The AI butler declared as he appeared out of thin air.

The hologram hovered around Dimitri's body, scanning it from head to toe with a cylindrical column of light. “And it looks like your wounds from the last test have already healed, as well.”

“Shall we move on to the next set of the tests?” The butler seemed totally oblivious to the young man’s angry glare. “Since you’re one tough cookie to crack, you should be able to handle the next set like you always have.”

“Anyway, kindly proceed to the next room!” The AI blabbered animatedly without waiting for his response.

“Test, my foot! More like torture, you mean.” Dimitri thought scornfully as he heard a clicking sound. He felt the handcuffs and chain anklets loosening. With some difficulty, he slowly freed himself from his shackles, one limb at a time, rubbing the numbness away.

He tried to ignore the numbness and pain of his muscles as he stood up, walking towards the door. But before he could even reach the door, he saw the following system prompt:

[Memory Download Complete]

He blinked, unsure of what he just saw. He could still see the system prompt even with his eyes closed, even when he turned his head.

The countdown that replaced the previous system prompt caught him by surprise. A sense of foreboding engulfed him, not knowing what would happen next.

[Rebooting in 3...2...1]

Dimitri immediately fell to the floor and lost all consciousness.