The hero awakens with a strange feeling of otherworldliness caused by a vortex floating through an open window and landing on his head. His mind is firmly stuck inside it, but his body is rooted in this world. The fears that plague him, real and imagined, are momentarily diminished, and in this pause, he is overcome with the burning desire to be free from his prison of conditioned thought. He slowly rises from his bed and begins to walk out into a deserted city. As he is pulled ever deeper into the silent city, he becomes aware of an old fear, a fear he has been carrying inside himself for as long as he can remember. He continues walking along streets lined by giant public sculptures. He wanders around them, absorbing their presence when he senses that he is no longer alone.

He turns around and sees that a tiger is following him. Fear grips his insides, and he picks up pace. When the tiger gives chase, he breaks into a to run. Eventually, out of breath, he is cornered, and he turns around to face the tiger. A wave of white panic combusts on the edge of his mind. As the panic subsides, he is filled with reckless courage. He charges the startled tiger, jumping on its back and holding on tight. The tiger sprouts wings and begins to fly.

They soar into the air until the cities rooftops disappear beneath them. The sky is filled with smoke plumes and ghosts of old warplanes. He sees flocks of slowly flying vortexes all around him.

He aligns with the tiger and is filled with a glorious emptiness. After a while , he becomes aware that a swarm of flying snakes is chasing both him and the tiger as they continue to glide through clouds. The hero bends down and runs his hand along the side of the tiger's belly. He picks up one of the tiger's black stripes and fashions a cutlass from it.

Armed, he starts to chop off the heads of the snakes swarming around him. The blood from the snakes turns into thousands of tiny flowers that sprinkle the city below, giving it new life.