Chapter 16 – Back As Someone Else

Beep.Beep.Beep.

The rhythmic sound of monitors filled the sterile air. A high-security hospital in the heart of Ylliria, hidden beneath layers of bureaucracy and silence.Inside the hermetic chamber, bathed in pale blue light, Ezra Ashenguard floated motionless within a containment capsule.

His pale body was submerged in a greenish fluid — NeuroSol, a rare compound used exclusively for deep comas and advanced neural instability.An oxygen mask, perfectly fitted to Ezra's pallid face, maintained his vital functions while silver wires and vis-conduction tubes ran across his body like external veins.Arms, chest, neck — everything monitored.

Glass panels surrounding the capsule shimmered with soft, blinking holographic projections:

VITAL STATUS: STABLE
NEURAL ACTIVITY: LOW
EXTERNAL STIMULUS: NONE
VIS RESISTANCE: 0

Everything seemed… at peace.

"Two damned decades of arcane medicine, and I still can't tell if he's alive or just on pause," muttered a middle-aged man wearing a black lab coat threaded with glowing blue fibers.This was Dr. Elmar Veyran, one of the specialists assigned to Ezra's case. His sunken eyes betrayed sleepless nights, but his voice held a mix of exhaustion and fascination.

Behind him, a woman with a severe expression and tightly tied red hair reviewed data on a translucent tablet.Dr. Kaelis Nhora, supervisor of the Special Cases Division, frowned as she examined an unstable neural oscillation on the graph.

"Look at this. His mental frequency dropped to thirty-two, but… there are spasms. Micro-impulses that shouldn't be there. As if he's… resisting something."

"Or trying to communicate," murmured the third doctor — the youngest among them — stationed beside the capsule. His eyes remained fixed on the sensors, visibly unsettled.

"It's not the first time this has happened. Every time the external Vis levels reach a certain threshold… the system reacts."

"That's not it," Dr. Kaelis countered, without looking up from the display. "External levels are stable. These micro-impulses… they're coming from within."

Elmar frowned, stepping back from the capsule. "Then what's causing it?"

The supervisor hesitated for a moment before answering, her voice quieter: "He fell from the sky, Elmar. No history, no entry in any civil record. And with an obsidian artifact embedded in his ear — one we still can't remove without triggering violent surges.This isn't just a coma. It's containment."

Before anyone could respond, the monitor beeped again — sharper this time, almost anxious.

NEURAL ACTIVITY: 38… 40… 43…
Beep.
Beep.
BeepBeep.
BeepBeepBeep—

The light within the capsule flickered abruptly, and for an instant, glowed gold. Strange reflections danced across the surface of the NeuroSol, and Ezra's body floated slightly, as though something was stirring inside him.

STATUS: UNSTABLE
HEART RATE: IRREGULAR
ANOMALY DETECTED — ORIGIN UNKNOWN

The monitor lines began to spike erratically, pulsing violently.

Dr. Kaelis was the first to act. "Cut the auxiliary Vis supply. Now."

"Done!" the younger doctor replied, already inputting commands into the tablet. "But he's not responding — the readings are still climbing!"

Inside the capsule, Ezra trembled.

First, a slight spasm.
Then, a sharp jolt, like he'd been shocked from the inside out.

The fluid around the mask began to bubble. Small spiraling bubbles rose rapidly, swelling.

His body arched. His fingers clenched so tightly that blood surfaced beneath the nails. His chest heaved, tense, trembling — as though something inside him was trying to escape a shell no longer capable of containing it.

ALARM TRIGGERED
EMERGENCY PROTOCOL INITIATED

"Partial containment!" Elmar shouted, moving toward the capsule's interface. "Focus on isolating neural activity!"

"The system isn't responding — internal interference!" the younger doctor called out, voice rising.

VIS LEVEL DETECTED: ???
ENERGETIC IDENTITY: UNKNOWN

The room's lights shifted to emergency red, casting erratic shadows across the doctors' faces.
Ezra's heart — according to the monitors — was beating beyond human limits.

EMERGENCY RESUSCITATION? [Y/N]
FULL CONTAINMENT? [Y/N]

Ezra's eyes snapped open.

Not gently. They exploded into consciousness — first blinding white, then absolute black, as if something within him had been inverted.

Kaelis froze. "He's awake…"

And then… The eyes shut again.

Silence.

The bubbling stopped.
His body relaxed, floating gently back to its former position.

VITAL SIGNS: NULL
NEURAL ACTIVITY: NULL

The monitor gave a single, unbroken tone:
Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip—

No one spoke.
Only the flatline hum filled the room, a static beep that seemed to suck all the air from the space.

Elmar didn't move. His hands hovered above the console, frozen mid-command.
His eyes locked on Ezra's still form inside the capsule.

Dr. Kaelis stood beside him, unblinking.

The room fell into stasis.
No machine responded.
No light flickered.
For nearly thirty seconds… nothing.

No heartbeat.
No breath.
Ezra was gone.

And then—

Beep.
…
Beep.

Faint.
Almost inaudible.
But real.

The monitors blinked. Vital lines redrew themselves.

HEART RATE: RESTORED
NEURAL ACTIVITY: EMERGING
VIS: EXPANDING

The sound, once distant, now grew in strength.
Beep.
Steadier.
Stronger.

Beep.
Steadier.

Slowly, something shifted inside the capsule. The light within the NeuroSol flickered, wavering between green and gold.

Then, Ezra's eyes opened — but this time, he had eyelids.

They blinked. Once. Twice. His lungs expanded with effort, then adjusted — as if relearning how to breathe.

Inside the capsule, the fluid bubbled violently, swirling into vortices around his limbs, as if trying to restrain him. But it was too late.

Ezra had returned.

With a sudden, instinctive motion, he tore off the oxygen mask. The tubes snapped with dry cracks, lashing through the liquid. Bubbles surged upward in desperation, trying to keep the system functioning —But he didn't need it anymore.

His chest heaved, unshackled.

Then, without warning, Ezra lunged forward.

But what he met wasn't glass. It wasn't acrylic. Or medical shielding. It was like pushing through a wall of solid wind. Or living gelatin. Something resistant.

Slrrrkk—
The sound was wet.

And then, he emerged.

The fluid poured off his body, now gleaming under the red and white containment lights.
His long, disheveled hair — tangled by time — whipped around as if animated by a force of its own.

Droplets of gold and silver evaporated before even touching the ground, leaving shimmering trails in the air — like stardust dancing in hidden spirals.

Ezra fell to his knees at the center of the room.

He breathed.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.

Slowly.
Deeply.
As if living — truly living — for the very first time.

The room's sensors shrieked in chaotic unison. Lights blinked in unreadable patterns. Automatic doors groaned, threatening to open — but dared not.

Cameras shifted focus on their own. Tracking him with inhuman precision.

But Ezra didn't care.
He didn't look around.
He didn't scream.

He only raised his eyes.

And for the first time since that day — the day he led his companions to the end of the world, and was left behind — Ezra felt.

He felt everything others had always claimed to feel:
The connection.
The hum of reality.
The pulse of the invisible energy stitching everything together.

Vis.

Like a calm fire.
Like ancient warmth.
He felt it — within him.

And for one brief, pure, absolute moment… Ezra Ashenguard smiled.

Not because he was happy.
But because, at last…

He had not just returned. He Returned as a different person.