Absolute darkness, so complete that no human eye could perceive anything within it.
No sound rang in his ears, no movement brushed against his skin, no pain lingered in Reis's body after that final moment on the field.
Only darkness stretching endlessly in every direction, as though time itself had ceased to flow within this vast void.
Then Reis heard a single faint heartbeat, pulsing somewhere far away, a new beat like the very first heartbeat of a being just born into an unknown world.
A strange light emerged, not from a single source but from every direction at once.
A dim golden glow with no clear origin, impossible to trace.
A peculiar scent reached his nose, one he had never encountered in his previous life.
The smell of wet earth after the first rain, the fragrance of jasmine blooming in the depth of night, and the metallic warmth of fresh blood still hot.
Suddenly, Reis heard a sound that did not come from Samu or from any human he knew.
A strange noise, like the rustling of massive insect legs moving slowly and heavily across solid ground.
A steady, weighty scraping that drew closer from all directions.
Reis opened his eyes within the darkness, yet he saw nothing at all.
Not merely because the place was dark, but because his entire face was covered in a thick, sticky, semi-transparent layer that obscured every detail and blocked his vision completely.
He tried to move his right arm, but he could not.
His entire body was wrapped in an impossibly tight casing, a fibrous material tinted white with a faint yellow hue, clinging to his skin from every angle without exception.
A crushing pressure bore down on his chest, his back, and his legs all at once.
He turned his head to the left, and his cheek brushed against a smooth, damp surface made of the same fibrous substance.
In that moment, he understood.
He was enclosed inside a massive cocoon, sealed from all sides.
Reis struggled to breathe, as the air reaching his nose was scarce and tainted with the stench of decay, mixed with the cold scent of his own sweat, chilled by fear.
The heavy rustling returned, closer this time.
It was above his head, to his right, and beneath where he lay all at once.
The sound stopped abruptly.
Then came something else.
A violent crunch, powerful jaws chewing something dry, followed by the brittle crack of small bones shattering between sharp teeth.
Reis's entire body trembled inside the cocoon.
He tried to scream with all his strength, but only a hoarse whisper escaped his lips, too faint even for him to hear.
He began kicking the cocoon walls with his legs.
His right foot struck one side, his left the other, yet the cocoon did not tear.
It was stronger, harder than anything he could have imagined even in his worst nightmares.
Suddenly, everything came back to him.
The dusty field. Samo shouting beside him. The massive defender's elbow striking his neck.
Then the suffocation. The fall. That strange black light.
And this place.
Where am I now, he wondered in pain and confusion. Am I still alive, or is this death itself?
The rustling returned again, surrounding him from every side.
From the right. From the left. Above his head. Beneath the cold ground where he lay.
It was not a single sound.
It was many.
Countless creatures crawling across the ground, along the walls, across the ceiling, all at once, from every direction.
Reis heard footsteps.
Not human.
Lighter than human steps, yet far more numerous.
Eight steps for each creature, moving in a single, chilling, synchronized rhythm.
Reis realized they were insects.
Not small ones like those that had crawled over his body moments ago.
These were far larger. Heavier. More terrifying.
He heard their massive bodies brushing against one another.
They moved in a precise, deliberate formation, as though surrounding the place where he lay from all sides.
One of the creatures stopped near his head.
Reis heard its breathing, heavy and damp, emerging from a mouth without lips, just a dark opening that widened and closed in a slow rhythm.
The creature brushed the cocoon with one of its long front limbs.
It pressed lightly, and Reis felt the rough touch of fine bristles dragging across the fibrous surface encasing him.
Reis froze completely, as if his entire body had turned to stone.
He held his breath, afraid that even the slightest movement would reveal him to that monstrous being.
The creature slowly moved away.
Reis heard a strange murmur, not from any human mouth.
It came from their bodies, vibrations carried through the air, a language of tremors and resonance exchanged between them.
He did not understand the meaning, but he understood the tone.
Curiosity at first.
Then, slowly, disappointment, as though they had not found what they were searching for.
One by one, the giant spiders withdrew.
Their heavy rustling faded gradually as they retreated into the far reaches of that desolate, dark place.
Reis was left completely alone inside his narrow cocoon.
He heard only the frantic pounding of his heart and his short, broken breaths that barely reached his lungs.
The fear of being devoured at any moment pressed against his chest with a force greater than any pain he had ever known.
The unknown tormented him more than the darkness itself.
He did not know where he was, how he had come here, or what those creatures truly were.
The terror that he might have died and been cast into another world filled with hungry monsters made his entire body tremble within that cursed cocoon.
His heart began to race wildly, so fast he felt his chest might burst from the sheer intensity of fear.
He tried to scream again, but no sound came this time either.
Only a sharp breath entered his lungs, then escaped slowly.
A terrible dizziness overtook him.
His vision blurred, though he could see nothing at all within the cocoon.
His heartbeat accelerated, then suddenly began to slow.
A strange numbness crept from his fingertips toward his chest.
The air reaching him grew thinner.
His lungs began to refuse any new breath.
Fear, terror, panic, hunger, thirst, exhaustion, all of them converged at once, pressing down on him with unbearable weight.
A loud ringing filled his ears.
It sharpened into a piercing whistle.
Then it vanished into nothing.
Reis felt his entire body grow cold.
His fingers trembled faintly, then fell still.
He tried to keep his eyes open, but his eyelids were heavier than anything he had ever carried.
They closed against his will.
He felt the ground beneath him vanish, as if he were falling into a bottomless well.
His consciousness began to fade, like water spilling from a shattered vessel.
Every thought, every memory, every pain dissolved, one after another.
In the final second before he lost awareness completely, Reis heard faint whispers drifting from somewhere far away.
He could not understand a single word.
His mind had already ceased to function.
Then he sank into a darkness deeper and heavier than any he had ever known.
A darkness without dreams.
Without nightmares.
Without anything at all.
A darkness like death, yet not death.
A darkness like nothingness, yet not nothingness.
A darkness that felt like waiting for something unknown.
Reis lost consciousness completely, still trapped inside his cocoon.
He did not know how long he would remain there.
He did not know whether he would return to his old world or remain in this new one forever.