When Worlds Clash: Reincarnated with the Arcane Register

Kai Drayken could not understand where he was. Why he was here and why on earth did he feel so weak? He pulled himself to his feet and looked around the dark room in surprise.

What was happening?

How did he even get here?

Then the last memories came to him in a rush. The force of the bullets striking his mid-section. Andy Cooper's sneering face. The blood!

He looked down at his stomach area. There was no blood but something else was wrong. The ground was much closer than it should be. He shuffled to the closest spot where cracks of light peeked their way through the roof and held his hands out. Yeah, they were much smaller than they should be.

No, it couldn't be. He shook his head. He had to be going mad. He jerked his shirt up and felt around for his ripped body that gave him so much joy and reputation among the ladies. None of that was to be found though. All he could feel was a scrawny surface that just couldn't be.

"Am I going crazy?" He asked himself. What he was thinking could not be. It just wasn't possible. He put it out of his mind and considered more pertinent issues. Like where was he and what was he doing here.

Andy Cooper had shot him. That was the last thing he remembered. He had died? At least he thought he had. So what was he doing here?

Was it a prank?

"Cooper!" He called out loud.

He was not dead. He knew that much. Or had Cooper kidnapped him and dumped him somewhere until the board appointed him in his place? That seemed probable. But that did not explain why he had suddenly become shorter, or why his hands seemed to have shrunk, or why for all intents and purposes, he was in a body that was not how own. He could not even feel the bullet wound. There was no hole, no wound, nothing.

"No, this cannot be." Kai muttered to himself. Maybe he had dreamed up the whole thing from the start. Maybe he had fallen asleep on the couch while watching the football game and the whole thing Andy thing was just one big, bad nightmare. He could still be in the dream right now for all he knew.

He turned and shuffled to the door. If Cooper had shot and him and locked him up here, he should better start running. Fully expecting the door to be locked, Kai kicked it viciously. But to his surprise, it opened easily outwardly. The effort however was too much for Kai who collapsed to the floor breathing heavily.

He could not believe what was going on. He had just kicked a door open. Why was he breathing like he had just run a marathon? Damn!

Why did he feel so weak?

At last when he had gathered a bit of his strength back, he looked up and out. The world he was staring at was nothing like his city. Matter of fact, it was nothing like he had ever seen.

He pulled himself to his feet and staggered out the door. He was staring at a barren world. Nothing more than a jagged scar on the earth's surface. Crumbling huts like the one he had just emerged from were scattered haphazardly across the landscape, their roofs caved in and walls leaning precariously as though the land itself had grown tired of holding them up.

The ground was a patchwork of cracked earth, smeared with streaks of dark sludge that smelled faintly of rot and metal. Here and there, pools of stagnant water gleamed like glassy eyes, their surfaces rippling unnaturally, as if something beneath them was alive and waiting.

"No, no." Kai whispered to him. If this was a bad dream then he had better wake up right about now. The whole setting felt real. Too real. He took another step forward into the dreary place. He was standing in a street. Or what looked like a street but everywhere was dark. Now that he was outside, he could see the little light that came in did not come from the moon. At least there was no moon that he could see. It was just an eerie light that shone in the atmosphere from nowhere.

The shacks around him were just as dark as the one he had awoken in. There was no sign of life anywhere.

Kai shivered in the bitter cold. This threadbare clothes he was putting on would not do. He considered going back into the hut to rummage around and get warmer garments. But what was the point? He told himself. He was going to wake up soon, anyway. Perhaps, he might be better off returning to the hut and just sit there until the dream ended.

Boy! Would he have a tale to tell everyone when he woke up? Never had a dream felt so real. But he would have to watch out for Andy Cooper. Perhaps, this was a warning for him. Maybe the people that he thought were his friends weren't after all. He turned back to the hut again but tripped over something in the way and found himself toppling head first to the ground.

A searing pain shot through him as he felt something crack in his left knee. Kai remained on the ground drawing deep breaths as the pain rocked through his entire body. Again, that weakness washed over him.

"No." That single word escaped from his lips in a silent whisper.

He was not supposed to feel pain. What had he heard? People in dreams were not supposed to feel pain. That was how it was in books and movies. Anytime the main character wanted to confirm that he was not dreaming. He would pinch himself. When he felt the pain, then he would know that he was not dreaming for real.

"No," Kai whispered again. He tried to drag himself up but found that he could not move his knee. He subsided back to the ground.

He was not this weak. This was not him. It was just a tweak in his knee, not the end of the world besides he couldn't just lie there.

But he could not have been prepared for what happened next.

A shrill scream that suddenly pierced the stillness. A scream that sent him hurtling on his chest back into the shack. It was not the cry of an animal or a person. It was something else. Something he could not describe. Something, he feared his very mind could not even fathom.

Even as he lay back on the damp floor, his chest beating like a drum and crazy pain shooting through his body, he became increasingly aware of a fact, his guts twisting as the weight of his situation finally settled over him.

This was no dream. He did not fully understand what this place was. He did not have any idea how he got there. But he was damn sure of one thing. This was hell. And somehow, he had been thrown right into the centre of it.