Chapter Nineteen: The Dimension of Bound Minds
Ryan wasn't prepared for what awaited him beyond the portal.
As he crossed through, he didn't feel his feet touch the ground.
Instead, it was as if his mind was leading him, his body just a passive vessel… following thought alone.
He opened his eyes to find himself in a vast, strange space resembling a massive library. But the walls weren't made of bricks or wood — they were composed of thoughts.
Yes, actual thoughts, floating in the air, whispering, sentences fluttering like migrating birds between the shelves.
A large sign above him read:
"Welcome to the Dimension of Bound Minds: where your ability to think freely is put to the test."
Ryan chuckled.
"Freedom? I can barely understand where I am."
A voice answered from behind him — feminine and calm:
"That's because you haven't silenced your mental noise yet."
He turned around and saw a young woman with flowing blue hair, wearing a coat covered in pens, pencils, and erasers. She walked as trails of written thoughts followed behind her like smoke.
"I'm Muneera, Guardian of the Gateway of Thought. I'm here to show you how many of your thoughts… were never really yours."
Ryan glanced around and noticed others walking nearby, but they weren't free.
They were tied to enormous floating books by nearly invisible strings.
Each time one tried to move forward, the strings yanked them back — to the same idea, the same belief, the same fear.
He approached one of them and asked:
"Why can't you move forward?"
The person replied weakly:
"Because I'm afraid of being wrong… and everyone around me said this is the only right path."
⸻
Muneera led Ryan to a giant mirror in the center of the hall.
"Look into it," she said. "It will show you a thought you never dared to think."
Ryan stared into the mirror… and saw himself as a child, yelling at his old school principal:
"I don't want to be a doctor! I love to draw!"
He froze.
That thought had been buried deep inside, guarded by walls of "what should be" and "what's right."
Muneera gave him a mischievous smile:
"Don't worry. In this realm, thoughts don't punish you… they free you."
⸻
As Ryan wandered through the dimension, stray thoughts began to creep into his mind:
– "You're not good enough."
– "People think you're a failure."
– "Don't try, you'll mess up like always."
"Where are these voices coming from?!" he cried.
"From you," Muneera replied. "Only you give them a voice."
She handed him a strange-looking device that resembled a pair of headphones.
"This is called the Perception Filter. With it, you'll be able to separate your true thoughts from the ones planted in you subconsciously."
Ryan put it on, and the negative voices turned into tiny floating bubbles — popping with a soft plink the moment they touched the air.
For the first time in a long while, Ryan laughed:
"That was Mr. Fadi's voice saying I was stupid! I thought I was the one telling myself that!"
Muneera smiled:
"Most of the time, we don't actually hate ourselves… we're just repeating the voices of those who hated us."
⸻
They reached a wall where a single sentence glowed:
"The one who frees himself from his first idea… is just beginning to think."
Ryan stared at it, and something inside his mind opened like a window after a long storm.
A loud humming echoed throughout the realm, and the walls began to tremble.
"You've done it," Muneera said softly. **"You've broken your first chain."
"But be warned… the next realm won't test your thoughts — it will test your intention."
A new portal appeared before him — not made of stone or energy, but floating questions.
"Are you ready to know why you're walking this path?"
"Why you're still continuing?"
Ryan smiled, his voice calm and honest:
"I think I'm starting to understand… I wasn't looking for power. I was looking for myself."
He gave Muneera one last look, and then stepped through the question-filled portal… ready to face a new part of himself.
⸻
End of Chapter Nineteen.