Ahhhh!
A bright flash of light.
That was the only thing he remembered before it all went dark.
For the next time he regained a sense of his surroundings, the youthful demon hunter found himself in a room far too foreign for his mind to capture all of a sudden, at a time too unexpected.
Whe-where am I ? Oh, come on! Where did... where did the others go? My—
It was a very unpleasant sight. To see a demon hunter groan in both physical and mental pain as he clasped his head with a hand, too busy fighting his own confusions to be aware that his armored gloves were missing.
But it was no use crying over a ruined past; the only way forward was to sail the boat of the present timeframe in an attempt to turn away from the tides of bad fortune.
Curses upon those vile filth! Daring to play foul games with me? Don't they know who I am? Don't they know my—
He paused his train of thoughts. Something was definitely not wrong. But he didn't expect it to be too wrong such as now. The young demon hunter struggled to remember his own name, let alone his team members'.
How... What sort of magic is this? How could they use such devilry, and how was it so effective?
Whatever the reason was, now wasn't the best moment to think about it.
First things first, he had to understand where was he, and what happened to all his gear and equipment that he had clearly remembered carrying and donned upon his well-built body the last time he was engaged in a thick fog of battle against a terrible tyrant of a demonic creature who had been oppressing innocent human kingdoms for decades.
But all the more questions grew little metaphorical mushrooms in his head that spread the spores around to breed more fungi and fern to adorn the beautiful mess. The tense emotions licked at his brain in the way an elf girl had once tried to seduce him (he had beheaded her in a single strike after discovering about her true intentions from a soothsayer visit). His own self was unaware of that memory far too dissolved into the horizon now.
Focus. Focus... Focuss.....
With each word being chanted in the portable cave beneath his hair the color of dark roasted cocoa cakes, he exhaled wisps of air out of his masculine lips.
He made use of his eyes, thankfully unhurt and still working without the need of optical myopic countermeasures, breathing in the environment spread around him in the shape of a room far too clean to be inside a typical dungeon.
Four walls on all cardinal directions were shimmering with a bright light, but not exactly bright enough to determine if the photons were being sent out by the illuminating surfaces or not. The room seemed to be bare from any furniture except for a bed-like structure attached to one of the walls. The ceiling and floor were lined with silver, making him see alternate views of his own body in third person based on the reflections.
And the sight shook him down to his bones.
!!!!
This demon hunter was no body builder, but he certainly was not a weak skinny person that he now saw himself as. He began wondering how long was he asleep or unconscious. If the room were a person, he'd be a very cruel jailor who wouldn't offer a sip of water to a dying thirsty man – there were no windows nor any viable way to measure or know what time of the day it was outside. Was it night time alive with a chorus of wolves and nocturnal monsters? Was it morning, being enjoyed by a band of travelling merchants across this dungeon?
Is that me?! Huh? No way! There's no way that's a mirror. That ain't me. It cannot be possible... I spent months training up my arms, legs and shoulders. Now who's this cheap copycat here to mock me? What is this sorcery?
He stood up to aim a fist at the reflection and try to crack the glass above him, only now realizing that his hands were tied up in a sort of mystical bind.
Ugh.. Wow, this keeps getting better and better!
He chuckled, now surrendering to the sheer sarcasm of the situation.
Can't believe I lost the fight against that demon. That—
His neck muscles tightened and the demon hunter shook his head with his eyes closed in an act of grimacing. Something was not wrong. But a lot of things were not right; he couldn't bring himself to even remember the name of the powerful enemy that he was previously preoccupied with purging via defeat.
Magnetic discs were levitating near his wrists on each hand. Now that he had a closer look at them, they were inscribed with some runes in a language he wasn't literate in.
For the first time in his conscious running memory, the demon hunter didn't even know what to say.
...uh
Silence amplified itself to max volume, conquering this cell chamber as fast as it hadn't existed before.
Thinking aloud or not, he knew one thing for sure: sitting around idly and complaining would not grow him wings out of thin air to somehow save him from this sticky situation. He must find a way out, as he had always done for the last twenty years of his life – until today.
Thankfully, his cerebellum showed signs of no fault, making his muscle memories guide his active sentience forward.
Walking a few steps forward, he examined the room in the likeness of how invigilators of the academy patrolled around the maze of student desks during theory quiz sessions. He could not find any openings nor exits.
*Sigh*
How do I even get out of here?
Defeated by the lack of helpful options, he retraced his footsteps back to the bed panel. Right before taking a seat, he noticed his reflection on the ceiling seeming a bit closer than before.
Hmm... strange. I swear this mirror thing was a bit further than I remember a while ago.
Instantly, a forked lightning storm attacked his neurons, racing to send a signal from the result of a hundred simultaneous mental probability calculations about reading the room and analyzing possibilities.
The young warrior's eyes grew wide and his pupils constricted. Based on the context of the room's appearance and his shocked status, his stiff and still body would have made you think he was a statue, part of an exhibition on modern art or something.
Barely moving his other muscles, only his eyes jolted upward as the ceiling touched the top surface of his hairy head.
The room! The room is shrinking!