Consciousness returned to Alex in fragments disconnected sensations that his traumatized brain struggled to assemble into coherent experience.
Warmth. Not the searing heat of his own flames, but something gentler. Organic. Like being immersed in amniotic fluid that pulsed with vitality instead of mere warmth.
His heart was beating. That realization came with genuine surprise because he clearly remembered it stopping, his cardiovascular system simply giving up after being pushed beyond all biological limits. Yet now it hammered against his ribs with steady rhythm, each pulse sending fresh blood through essence channels that should have been shattered beyond repair.
'I should be dead.'
The thought crystallized with perfect clarity. Emergency Overdrive's backlash had destroyed his essence channels, stopped his heart, initiated cascade failures across every system. He'd felt himself dying in those final seconds, consciousness fragmenting as oxygen starvation claimed his brain.