What... what was that...?
Ray's head was ringing, an endless, high-pitched buzzing that seemed to drill into his skull without pause. His thoughts scattered in all directions, blurred and unsteady, as if each one slipped through his grasp before he could hold onto it. He tried to open his eyes, to move his hands, to hear something—anything—but nothing happened. There was no sound, no light, no response from his body.
{wa-- wa-- p -- --- -- -- - -y -- -- g-t--urs---}
Aetheris's voice echoed inside his mind, broken and fragmented like a signal struggling through heavy interference, the syllables bending and twisting until even the meaning was half-lost. Yet even those disjointed words could not drown out the constant buzzing that rattled through his consciousness.
His skull throbbed with every heartbeat, each pulse sending sharp tremors through his head. His body felt hot... no, not just hot—burning, far beyond what any human should be able to endure.
W-what... is happening...?
