(1) Ascension?

[Notice: Mana heart density has reached the necessary threshold!]

Addy glanced at the text in her mind’s eye, her consciousness barely registering the words. What a strange dream she was having.

[Notice: Mana heart density has ignited ethereal fusion!]

[Containing prismatic coronas…]

[Warning: Coronal ejection containment likely to cause pain!]

“Hah…” Addy moaned, the pain something akin to her heart being squeezed. She vacillated between consciousness and unconsciousness, never fully awakening, but never sleeping deeply enough to ignore the fire that burned in her center, just above her gut.

She was vaguely aware of electric sparks shooting up and down the rest of her body, as if her heart had been plugged directly into a wall socket, but it was drowned out by the intense discomfort in her chest. The burning steadily intensified until it was no longer flame. A plasma burned, melted, and shocked her core, racking her mind with agony.

Lashes of suffering struck her chest cavity, as though an angry god was attempting to burst out. Though her sensations were scant, she could feel the contractions in her muscles that sent her arching off her bed, the pain twisting her back into a bridge. Sweat was undoubtedly soaking her sheets.

[Containment successful!]

[Beginning second-stage compression…]

The lashings of lava ceased, and her body collapsed back onto her bed, yet the ordeal was not over.

“Mmm!” she whimpered, her cries small, like one having a nightmare, as her chest collapsed on itself.

The fire was extinguished, and in its place, a void grew. An insatiable hunger gnawed at her body, draining the energy from every fiber of her being. She felt herself eroding away, every second leaving less of who she was. She worried that it would take only a few moments to erase herself entirely.

Addy had no perception of time. She felt she had been lying there, suffering, for days. Perhaps it had been a second, or perhaps months had passed. Each seemed equally as likely to her pain-addled mind, still never fully surfacing to lucidity.

[Notice: Collapse complete. Mana horizon stabilizing.]

The hunger receded, its absence revealing an abyss within her. Without the pain and suffering flooding her senses, she felt the void thoroughly, its crushing depths threatening, yet also comforting. It was a dichotomous feeling, perhaps like a knife that could be threatening when held by an enemy and comforting when she held it.

[Notice: Mana singularity created!]

[Finalizing…]

Suddenly, a titanic presence settled over her mind. It clearly did not aim to harm her, but having her innermost world invaded without her consent set her body to shivering, her teeth chattering. The discomfort was visceral and violent, all personal boundaries shattered.

It drew threads from her mind like a seamstress, skillfully weaving them around the void. As she watched, unable to do anything but bear with it, Addy was shocked to see the threads of her mind twist and spin, forming bright blue lights that swirled around the void like an accretion disk around a black hole.

Her mind-threads roiled and ignited where they clashed, sparking small stars with every brief connection. It was beautiful.

[Notice: Tesseract formed successfully!]

[Race change complete.]

Race change? Addy wondered, her mind improving now that the ordeal seemed complete. A text box appeared before her, unbidden.

[Name: Nephthys

Race: Celestial Djinn

Class: Nova {Unique}

Level: 999+]

Strange. Nephthys is her in-game name in Prelude. Why would it be showing up now? Was she actually dreaming about Prelude? Why did this dream have to include such pain when it could have been fun?!

Her race was unusual. There were no races in Prelude—or none that were playable, at least. All players started as humans. True, there were rituals and skills that could alter one’s body such that they might as well be a different species altogether, but there was no classification for them.

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