Chapter 146 - Calm Days - I
Sounds.
Strange, cacophonous noises rippled through the air as if the world were stitched together from mismatched scraps of reality. Rushed footsteps pounded against the floor, muffled by heavy fabric that sliced through the air. The sound of bandages being unwrapped, potions being shaken, muffled groans... all tangled together in an auditory nightmare.
’Where... where am I?’
It felt like he had just been trampled by a horse-drawn convoy, crushed by boulders, and thrown off a cliff—only to then remember he was still alive.
His mind: disoriented.
His body: broken.
Then, his eyes opened.
Everything was blurry, doubled... like the world was blinking in slow motion and high definition at the same time. A white domed ceiling stared back at him. The curved lines trembled, and for a moment he couldn’t tell if it was real or just a final delusion before death.
His mouth was dry—desert dry. His throat scratched with each breath, and his lungs wheezed like broken bellows trying to inflate something that no longer wanted to expand.
’Am I... breathing?’
His head throbbed with brutal pulses—not ordinary pain, but the kind that felt like someone had driven a hammer into his skull and left it there to vibrate with every heartbeat. His arms... his arms burned. His legs, too. As if his veins had been filled with embers.