In the middle of the plain

Kilian opened his eyes.

He was in the middle of a vast, open plain. A bright sun cast its warm rays on the grass swaying on the winds.

But this place wasn't empty. On the contrary, it was filled with all sorts of people. There were even some folks that didn't look human at all.

There was only one thing that united everyone in this enormous crowd.

Everyone had a look of confusion on their face.

Everyone, but Kilian.

His eyes were no longer the same. They shone with a bright, blue light, hiding both his whites and his pupils. For but one instant in time, Kilian's eyes were the most beautiful things in the entire universe, like two newborn stars.

**

"Threat detected."

**

The voice from before announced. But Kilian wasn't even fully conscious to hear it. His sight was blurred, all the voices distant. As if he was in some kind of cave, deep within himself.

He couldn't tell what spun the cogs of his brain. He was unable to even know his thoughts. He could only observe.

**

"High alert enacted."

**

It was all but one singular moment in time, yet Kilian's beautiful eyes turned red.

There was no passing of the colors, no natural evolution to another hue. Kilian's eyes changed color as if he was a CGI-enhanced character instead of a human.

But no one could as much as look him in the eyes.

The entire, crowded plain was frozen in a single instant. Kilian didn't move either, but his body went through a set of rapid changes.

All at once, Kilian's sight blanked, replaced by some dark, foggy interior. It didn't feel real at all, as if it was just an illusion of sorts instead.

A set of small, round pictures appeared, all hidden behind the screen of thick, black chains. They were there all the time; Kilian just had to take his time to take notice of them.

One picture flashed up. Then the chain covering it... broke. There was no explosion, no heating up of its parts. It simply broke apart like some poorly made animation. Then, the colors of the picture exploded with intensity.

Kilian's vision returned. This time, he could see far further, as if someone or something healed the illness that he never knew he had.

And beyond the massive crowd, he was somewhere in the middle of, there were two interesting sights.

Uphill to their backs, shiny rows of knights stood their ground. Due to the perspective, Kilian couldn't see the depth of their formation. Yet, it didn't appear that this random army lacked manpower.

Their weapons reflected the sunlight, turning them into a spotlight that illuminated the plain below the hill they stood.

Sadly, on the other side of the plain, the sight was anywhere but great.

At first, Kilian couldn't recognize what he was seeing. He was still locked in a single frame, a single picture that the time had no influence over at all. Without any movements, it was hard to figure out what was going on. His body moved, even before he could actually understand what was there that made his body move.

Kilian's body leaned, his hands brought his hoodie on his head. All within a single frame of time.

With his head covered and lowered, Kilian stopped. Still frozen in a single moment, Kilian could hardly understand the physics of what was happening. After all, if his perception of time slowed down, he shouldn't be able to move either!

'Oh, that's how monsters look like,' Kilian thought. For some reason, this single thought of his managed to materialize in this time-frozen environment.

Once again, Kilian's vision blanked. He returned to the foggy place from before. He had no body there, yet his body somehow shook. This feeling of shaking became a bolt of lightning, one that jumped from one picture to another. Growing stronger with each jump, the bright flash continued to grow to infinity. Yet, before Kil could get bored of this marvelous sight, something happened.

It was as if a certain set of chains, one of the endless number of pictures… resonated with it.

Then, its chains broke, repeating the process from before.

"FIGHT OR FLEE!" Kilian didn't open his mouth at all. He simply used... Used what? It didn't matter.

He etched this message, this simple concept common to everyone, into the area where the crowd was.

Kilian was in the middle of an open field. To his back, there was a massive hill with an army of knights taking a position on its top. But in front of everyone was a horde of monsters.

In this singular frame, Kilian saw the innumerable number of monsters rushing forward, straight towards the group in the middle of the plain.

'Huh?' Another stray thought made it through the frozen time.

Then, everything started moving again.

**

"High-alert ends. Enriching the core."

**

Once again, the voice filled Kilian's ears. His vision returned.

"Suggestion Magic - Hypnosis of tonal concept" Kilian saw the title of the picture he saw opening up a moment ago. But before he could make anything out of it, the events of the world around finally broke free from the frozen time.

Everyone rushed in one of the two directions.

Some people and demi-humans with muscles and varying sorts of armors rushed ahead.

Those wearing plain clothes or frail-looking jumped to the back.

Those who preferred to fight would get their battle. Those who wished for peace were free to leave.

'Oh, it makes sense,' Kilian thought as his body rushed ahead. Somewhere deep in his consciousness, he could hear the sound of the chains snapping one by one, but this time the vision from before didn't occur.

It was a feeling incomparable to anything else Kil felt in his life. With each snap, he became fuller, more wholesome. As if each snap announced a return of a part of him that Kilian never knew to possess.

Then, everything changed once again.

While nothing happened to the world itself, Kilian's vision suddenly changed. The reality around him faded away, remaining as a sort of background. Then, an array of foggy streams, shallows, and clouds appeared throughout the background, filling it with a set of strange colors.

Kilian didn't understand this new sight at all. It was enough for his body to know how to use it.

Kil's body rushed ahead. Soon, he spearheaded the charge of those who innately would opt to fight for their life instead of fleeing for it.

Roughly upon reaching half the distance away from the incoming horde of monsters, Kilian turned his head around. With his godly-improved eyes, he looked up the hill. With no people blocking his view and a higher elevation, now he could see it.

But that wasn't all.

Back where it all started, Kilian noticed a huge array of colorful clouds. They formed some kinds of marks placed within several concentric circles. But what was more interesting was a trail of dense, violet fog that trickled up the nearby hill.

All the way to a small entourage at the very top of it. At that singular point, the fog was so dense that Kilian couldn't actually see anything that it hid.

The sound of the chains snapping apart continued to ring in Kil's ears.

Deep within the cave of his mind, Kilian could only observe how his body... Turned its head around.

The rushing monsters were only several meters away. Ever since the time started running back again, it didn't slow for Kilian's convenience at all.

Then, he crashed right into the swarm.