Other POV

The hazy blur distorting his vision finally cleared, and slowly the boy was beginning to make sense of his newfound strange and somewhat foreign surroundings. His head felt incredibly sore at this point, so he naturally reached towards his left temple, massaging his skull tenderly waiting for the gradual pain to subside.

'Where am I?' He wondered, still very much disoriented as though a foggy mist writhed around his thoughts. Flashes of things that made no sense continually appeared and fractured into pieces over and over again. A swell of pain throbbed against the middle of his forehead.

'w-what the hell is going on?' He thought drearily.

The last memory he could recall was a hazy mess, in truth, his entire mind felt like a series of broken dreams scattered across a blanket of darkness. Fragments of a past that felt somewhat too absurd to be real, muddled with a distant pool of memories from a somewhat different time. Whilst the visions he did know, were bizarrely fading away so fast he was scared he would soon forget them.

"Mom...R-ringo...f-father?" He wondered why he had forgotten those faces; he could hear their names, but he was missing something important about them.

"Who was I before all of this...who...who am I now?" he mouthed these verses to himself. Whilst soft echoes sounded around him, clarity slowly bloomed forth as he slowly realized his world had changed. Twisting towards one side, the boy faintly gathered soft murmurs. Towards one particular side of the hall, he saw a group of people gawking at him with indifferent looks plastered against their faces.

'Who the hell are they?'

Not only that, but this entire place seemed strange as if he was inside some kind of grand cathedral. Nervously, he tilted his gaze towards the heavens to inspect things further; the ceiling dwelt far away from him. The roof was covered in polished tiles, crafted into stained glass mosaics.

Observing the pretty view he held faint memories of the Victorian-styled churches for some reason, he remembered seeing pictures of them, and faintly he could recall such styled churches were popular around a place he knew was Europe at the time.

'But this certainly wasn't Europe...was it?' He wondered aimlessly

This temple was filled with tall brass cedar pillars, lined with gold embroidery patterns carved against the walls, with various ivory stone statues dwelling around the spacious hall. As the boy took in his surroundings, the true scale of the space around him slowly became apparent the more he observed.

'This place reeks of upper class, although it gives off the feeling of some kind of cult. It is quite...beautiful' The boy only hoped he hadn't died and somehow ended up in the afterlife where angels and ferocious Gods existed. Trailing his gaze slightly downwards, he noticed the floor underneath him consisted of a stone tile mosaic of white and black checkered tiles that stretched across the expanse of the entire floor.

Directly beneath him was a grand 7-pointed golden star. At its core, he noticed an intricate design of an azure eye embedded within an open palm.

'I guess my next question is a no-brainer...why on earth am I kneeling against the Gr-' Before he could pass that thought, a sudden voice belched loud enough to startle his body.

"Tsk! And here I thought you'd finally rid us all of your useless existence." A voice filled with disdain filled his ears.

He trailed the origin of the voice to the rather unpleasant-sounding fellow a little ahead of him, where he met a slenderly tall and slightly elderly gent standing not so far away from where he was. Observing the fellow's very strange dress sense, forced the boy to arch one of his brows up curiously.

The fellow donned a slicked-back full head of silken silvery strands. He was dressed in clean pale and grey robes, covered in cross-shaped patterns colored violet. What bothered him slightly was the feeling he felt staring into those half-opened eyelids. He could almost feel the disdain radiating behind those strikingly clear pupils of his.

' Why's he looking at me like that? Matter of fact, aren't all of these faces strange? ' Now that he thought about it, wasn't their many faces beholding him in the same distasteful manner

'I cant for the life of me make sense out of anything right now.' While he still tried to piece together the basic things, like who he was for example, he took a careful look around again, this time ignoring the grandeur decor, and focusing more on the many faces around him.

The entire place was filled with people clothed in long colorful silk robes or very rural-styled clothing, somewhat reminding him of role-playing games, if he had to coin a name he'd perhaps call their style, adventurers clothing. Their faces ranged from shock to ridicule, to pity. and some even deep anger. There wasn't a single clue as to what was going on.

But one thing was certain: he, who had very little idea about who he was, had suddenly found himself in an unknown place, surrounded by strange and unknown people.

'A combination for disaster...tsk!' He inwardly thought trying to massage the bridge between his nose in hopes of somehow having a eureka moment and remembering everything he had lost.

"RAITO SUTA!" A voice almost thundered around him.

"I won't say this again. Regardless of whatever ailments of disaster you might be carrying, get your ass onto that altar and finish the damn awakening-"

"Wait! Diseases? Who is this old-timer talking about – me, diseases? No chance...maybe there's someone else here?' The boy could barely contain his deep look of bewilderment as he twisted his neck from side to side, wondering if this was a classic case of mistaken identity.

His actions seemed to rile the ire of the elder even more. A cold wind swept through the elder mind, and more wrinkles seemed to crease against his pale leathery face. Thankfully the elder seemed to deplore some form of calmness suddenly. Exhaling a few breaths before speaking again.

"By the order of the benevolent Queen. Every able child at the age of 15 must submit themselves to the church! You are under the grace of the most benevolent sovereign. As such, you will participate in the ranking ceremony to determine your rank as an adventurer."

The boys eyes widened with life, sparkling almost with a sense of intrigue and slight understanding. 'so I was right! this place...maybe I've...transmigrated?' The harrowing thought sent a horrible chill racing through his bones.

"Failure to do so, will result in punishment of the highest order. So enough of your theatrics step onto the altar or I'll break every last bone and force you on there myself"

The boy frowned at what was obviously a threat, but upon noticing what dwelt behind the silver fox-faced fellow once he stepped aside, the boy could barely hide his widening eyes filled with shock. He needed to rub his eyes a few times, just to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

Sat behind the grey-haired elder, a golden fountain with strange dancing dust orbiting around it.

'Whoa! Now what is that thing.'

His eyes sparkled with wanderlust, forcing him to instinctively rise to his staggering feet. He could tell by the hostile gazes that he was supposed to take this "test.

Only, what in the world was this test for? None of this made any sense, but he was obliged to follow through it seemed, seeing as somehow and someway, he was now wrapped up in a completely foreign custom.

'I mean, how bad could this so-called ceremony be?' He asked himself, trying to figure out if he was always this short before. He took another look at the crowd of people aligned against the side of the cathedral walls. Narrowing his brows in observation,

'But I still stand by my earlier thought, this feels quite cultish...'

The boy gingerly began to move his body with reluctance. While he unfolded his slightly aching joints, it suddenly dawned on him how awkward he felt trying to move around.

He narrowed his brows slightly and decided to take a careful look at his body. He was young...younger than he remembered being. It was a strange feeling knowing that; he knew something was wrong at this point, but how wrong that something was...he guessed he would find out.

Under the scrutinizing gazes of the onlookers. He measured his steps towards this slightly ancient-styled golden fountain just up ahead. There was a strange calmness to his actions, he thought this was strange in itself, considering he had almost certainly lost his memories. But panic wasn't at the forefront of his response.

Up close, he could see deep carvings of four winged creatures wrapped around the basin. He lazily took a glance at one of them and felt a bizarre cold shiver running down the nape of his neck. 'Never seen animals like that before, could they be...monsters?'

The altar was propped a little higher than what he had first thought, which made sense as to why there were two beige-colored footsteps placed just below it.

Once he neared the fountain, he peered inside it and was surprised to see an odd small pool of shimmering liquid gathered. It wasn't exactly clear and looked rather milky with a very peculiar sparkling dust floating just above the water Other than his initial surprise as to what this heavenly-looking water could be, he saw a foreign face staring back at him in the reflection of the silvery liquid.

A round and very youthful face.

Brown skin, with large wide brown eyes and a bizarre fall of bright pink braided locks. He had this unconscious feeling that his foggy memories, his new surroundings, as well as this unknown boy staring back at him in the reflection, were all part of something rather sinister that he had yet to fully understand.

He gave the shrewd-faced fellow a second glance. But he received a cold glare, eyes narrowed as he was hell-bent on making him do this, it seemed.

"Place your hand inside," the silver-haired gent urged in a stiff tone.

The boy gulped down nervously before he complied and slowly hovered his right hand over the strange waters.

'I'm guessing I wont be getting any answers from that old fox. Sigh...well, here goes.'

Passing his fingers through a glittering smokey haze gathered just on top of the water. A cold sensation brushed against his skin, so he lowered his hands deeper until his fingers were beginning to submerge. Seconds later, his entire right hand was resting inside this lukewarm strange inky pool.

'Ok...here goes...please don't be demonic-please don't be demonic-please-please.' He was kind of expecting something dramatic to take place. But for the first few minutes, nothing happened.

The boy turned towards the man with silver hair again, his eyes almost pleading towards him expectantly.

"So what now?" He asked the silver fox

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The man started to massage his labella in response.

"Sigh …your mana…transfer your mana… you idiot."

The boy stood there momentarily dazed for a while, he wasn't expecting that response, and what was this transferring of mana business? Mana? Mana? He resigned to not having a single clue how to do that and shrugged his shoulders, deciding maybe if he closed his two eyes and focused intently on the word, perhaps something might happen.

Five minutes of silence passed by,

Ten minutes passed,

25 minutes,

40 minutes passed by,

And still, the boy stood idly over the luminous pool of water, with his hand submerged in this strange lukewarm solution feeling like an idiot. He could still hear the disgruntled groans and murmurs from the crowd. The heckling unsurprisingly festered into rambunctious boos and chants by now. Equally just as annoying as the screaming old fox, bellowing instructions and curses about this thing called mana. The boy in turn narrowed his brows and scanned the spacious hall, trying to imprint all their cruel faces to memory

'Pfft, as if all that screaming was going to solve anything, he should be using all that energy to help me .' The boy thought to himself

"Hey get off the alter you loser!"

"Save yourself some time and walk away...IDIOT!"

"Everyone knows you'll only mount to shit anyway hahaha walk away!"

'Those rude little...sigh...let me calm down. It's not like I want to be standing here, but somehow I'm supposed to do something. Mana? what in the world is that?

The atmosphere grew tense with every passing second, and with his hand completely wrinkled from the prolonged time he had it submerged in this pool of water. He resigned to waving the white flag in defeat, suddenly, he felt a wind move past him.

The boy blinked once and the old fox standing idly to one side moments ago vanished. He could've sworn he saw a shadow blur in his direction.

Before he had a second to process anything, the man reappeared behind him, placing a firm hand against his left shoulder. Frightened was an understatement. He felt his body go completely numb as though ice ran through his very bones. But a few moments later, he realized something was off. He couldn't move a single inch of his body.

"Boy, you've wasted enough of everyone's time. Now what I'm about to do is considered somewhat…iniquitous. But…on this occasion, you've left me with no choice." The boy swallowed his spit harshly, casting a frantic gaze towards the old fox who towered above him, he caught the dastardly smug smirk and felt his blood turn cold.

" Now...try not to move too much." He said,

Once those words left the silver-haired fellow's mouth, the boy felt a sharp pain shooting through his shoulders. It felt like a knife being dug between his shoulder blades, twisted and plunged deeper. Then arrived a burning sensation like no other, and he felt his entire back scorching with fire as though a piece of the sun had been dropped on top of him.

Just when the boy was almost assured he would be losing consciousness fairly quickly, he heard an echo in his thoughts.

At first, it sounded like a whisper, but it changed into a slightly audible voice.

Then it flowed through his mind like a gentle song.

"As it was, and so it shall always be…my dearest one,

For all things end the same way they started.

Foretold to us by the ones who both saw and knew the beginning and the end.

Just in case we are shrouded in doubt, let this lament breathe life into your bones.

May your second song be the very first one.

A life filled with an abundance of adventures and love.

As for this one? Let it fade into a distant memory. Forevermore."

Suddenly a plethora of memories cascaded into his mind

Her sweet-tasting words were like a thorny rose coiled around the boy's heart, squeezing the fleshy heart with each passing breath.

Darkness invaded from the corners of his eyes.

The white lights softly faded, breathless and waiting.

Fragile he was, tucked beneath her warm and familiar bosom.

But still fading into a hazy black smoke.

Her soft brown hands wrapped tightly around his little neck.

He couldn't see her entire face, for the world was too bright to see.

But her smile was loving, distorted but filled with a motherly love.

Her bountiful wild hair, a cascading tuff of electric pink with shades of violet. The darkness arrived forcefully, her hands still wrapped around his little neck, tightening. Her cherry-rose smile creased into a cruel smirk.

The mask of a deranged clown.

Crowned in madness.

Beneath her forceful stranglehold, the boy made no sounds whilst he sunk into a cold, painless silence.

The darkness settled and silence swept through his thoughts.

***

"Hellooo?"

His voice echoed through the thick darkness

"Where is this place, and why can't I see a single thing?" Outside of his voice, the boy suddenly captured a unique sound stirring his attention. He heard the sounds of a matchstick being struck, and much to his horror, he saw a series of eerie green flames igniting down a dark aisle.

His mind recalled an altar, but he was wrong. At the end of the green fires, he saw a throne made of stones and bones, with vacant golden chains wrapped over the armrests.

His heart trembled once he noticed that, something stirred in his gut, and the great need to flee was at the forefront of his thoughts.

'Damn it! Did I die? Is this... gulp ...H-hell?' He thought darkly

A violet carpet unfurled down the aisle between the crackling emerald fires, with strange golden symbols slowly appearing like dust over the dark material. Seeing this, he wasted no time, he felt his feet unconsciously taking hurried steps back,

'Yep, you don't have to ask me twice. Time to get out of here.'

"Hey-Mister! Have you come to wake up the sleeping princess too?"

A childlike voice startled him from his rear, the boy almost jumped out of his skin, twisting around in a stumbling heap to meet the sudden arrival of the gentle voice.

His gaze trailed down suspiciously, observing this mysterious tiny pale-skinned girl standing in his clear view. Their eyes met and the boy flinched upon instinct, noticing her bright round scarlet eyes, innocently beholding him with a strange riveting glow to them.

Her round childlike face matched her tiny frame. She was dressed in a modest gothic black dress with knee-high socks, but strangely enough, she wore no shoes.

"Where are your shoes?" He asked without really thinking,

The little girl blinked at him aimlessly for a few moments before pointing her little finger at her feet in question.

"Shoes? errr...I...I'm not sure."

'Wh-who the hell is this, and where did she...no more importantly, where the hell am I right now?'

The boy scanned the strange place and met nothing but fogs of darkness, the little girl blinked innocently, staring at him with those hard-to-read yet remarkable glittering scarlet pair of eyes. After minutes of awkward silence, she finally parted her little mouth again.

"Mr., you don't seem like a bad man. But little Cel can't let you stay here yet…she…she will be angry at me if she finds out I spoke to a stwaynejer." Her cute face turned crestfallen.

' Is she trying to say stranger? And Cel? What kind of name is Cel? A strange name for a strange kid I guess. But more concerningly, Am I dead or not? And if I am dead what the hell is this child doing here?

"Who is this 'she' that will be angry at you?" the boy asked, slightly concerned about her sudden appearance but realizing angering her might be a big mistake if he was dead and this was a manifestation of some monster.

"Au? W-we-well, Cel must not say. B-but she-she is in charge. She's sleeping right now because of the bad men, she-she wasted a lot of her power to defeat them, so she's been sleeping Mister, she's been asleep for a very very very very very long time." The girl said twisting her toes against the formless ground shyly.

'Yeah, that is a lot of very's, also...why am I getting this strange feeling I'm missing something here.'

"But soon she'll wake up, and sometimes she's…mean to Cel…ah- Mrister! Sorry! C-cel has said too much. I have...I have to go now! B-bye for now mister… I hope we can meet again someday"

"Hey-hey, wait, what do you mean? What is this place, Cel, right? Listen, I need your help. My name is ... well you can call me Mister, and I have to find a way back- also am I dead? Is this hell? Who do I talk to about a second chance?"

"I'm sorry, Mister! Cel has to go now…Bye for now a-and good lucks!"

The boy expected her to scurry off back into the depths she appeared from, but instead, he stood aimlessly where she was and watched her slowly dissipate into nothing. He was completely left in horror, taking a few steps back unconsciously but then felt something weird happening to him.

He heard a voice again, one that filled his heart with a surprising joyous song this time.

"My dear, it isn't safe for you to be here.

For now, allow the sweet dreams of illusions to sink deep again.

In time…you will remember again.

Seek my resting place.

On the hill beneath the oldest Oak tree.

There, the veil shall fall.

But be prepared for what you will discover might break your heart all over again.

Let thy peace be with you dear child...forevermore"

'T-that voice, why do I know that voice?'

"H-hey strange ghost...where are you? What's going on, what am I doing here? and where's that weird kid gone? Hey! Answer me...Heyyy!"

He looked at his body and realized he too, was going through the same thing.

'Damnit! This is getting ridiculous,'

But he was powerless to stop it. He felt that familiar feeling of darkness quickly invading his vision again. Before he fell into that familiar state of emptiness again he hoped this wasn't what death felt like, as the whole process felt very…deathly if you asked him.