“The fuck are you talking about?” Terren’s grating voice filled Valentine’s ears.
“What?” The words stammered out of Valentine’s mouth as his eyes opened, strained and hurting from the sudden brightness.
“I said what the fuck are you talking about weirdo? And another question, why are you here, how do you know about this library?” Terran again berated Valentine with a rude and unapologetic attitude, reminding Valentine of when they first met.
Looking around Valentine was back in the library. Though it was different, it was still in pristine condition. Looking around Valentine realized that this was a correct assessment of the library, it looked exactly like it was when he first arrived, before it crossed over. Suddenly the ground began to shake and a violent crashing noise was heard from outside the library, the same combination of events that preceded the crossover.
“What was that?” Terran jumped up, rushing past Valentine to the front entrance of the library.
Valentine, however, stayed exactly where he was before, still processing what was happening. Not even a minute ago he was dying after fighting some unknown creature, now he was back to several months before that. It didn’t make any sense to Valentine, thinking it might be like his out of body experience after the creature attacked. But this thought was thrown away as Valentine realized this felt far too real and vivid to be the imagination of a dying body. In any case Valentine felt like this might be his second chance, the chance to make things right, to survive.
Rushing over to the front door Valentine found the same situation that had greeted him last time around, everyone huddled around scared about the foreign land in front of them. Valentine decided that the best course of action in order to survive would be to meet with the Elves much earlier than previously. Quinzel had the longest fight with the pitch-black monster so if there was someone stronger than him then he would know.
The first step to speeding things would be to get rid of the threat of the goblins before they kidnapped Lily and attacked Professor Roxanne. Though it would be hard to do so by himself, Valentine needed to convince everyone to cooperate.
“Everyone, we need to organize ourselves, please gather up and we will take a headcount.” Professor Roxanne had already begun taking charge of the situation, like the first round she started by assessing those she had to protect and those she could plan with. Valentine was again glad that she had been taken with them in the crossover.
After a moment of organization and discussion, the situation progressed the same way as the first time through, Valentine following the same steps he took when he had first gone through this, until Professor Roxanne began planning the search party and the defense party.
“Listen up, I want us to split into two groups, group one is going to be me, Taylor, and Jesse, and group two will be Valentine, Michael, Kaedric, and Terran. I want group two to stay here and investigate the surrounding area of the library, not go too far, and make sure none of the first-year students get lost. Michael you are going to be in charge.” Again, Professor Roxanne suggested the arrangement.
“Professor, I know you want to survey and potentially find a way out or something to suggest why were are here, but I think it would be best if we stayed in the protection of the library, fortifying ourselves here and exploring later.” Valentine intervened in the progressing scenario, changing it from the situation he knew.
“Interesting, why do you think we should all stay here to fortify rather than searching the surrounding area?” Professor Roxanne was slightly taken aback, not expecting resistance to the plan she made on the spot.
“Think about it Professor, were in a foreign land, no way to know what might be out there. There could be magical beasts waiting in the area, who just heard us arrive here and want to see if were edible. I think it would be best to build a strong defense first and foremost.” Valentine had thought up what he would say if she questioned his idea, though he was not sure if she would agree.
“Hmm, understandable. While I had thought there might be some sort of trouble, I didn’t think of there being big threats, but it might be best to assume so. Ok so then we all stay here, build a strong defense, and later we will survey the surrounding area.” Professor Roxanne agreed with Valentine, easier than he thought it would be.
After everyone agreed with the plan they began to fortify the library. With suggestions from Valentine, the defenses were similar to what was present before his death, though rushed. Only 1 large wall was present, the exit was a small underground tunnel that had one bulkhead and a straight-line hallway. The defensive spell was set up by Terran again, again strengthened to be as strong as possible.
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After setting up the wall it had already grown to be nighttime. The long afternoon of fortifying defenses had left everyone tired, and with the organization of night watch everyone slowly began to go to sleep. Leaving Valentine and Terran the only ones awake as they were first duty for night watch.
“You seem unusually calm, like you’re hiding something.” The first words that left Terran’s mouth were that of an accusation, though an accurate one.
“Well, I am used to surviving in desperate situations, I picked up a few things here and there.” Valentine found a reasonable excuse for his planning and forethought. Though it was an excuse he did have the experience to back it up.
“Huh, well whatever.” Terran put up no resistance to the excuse, though it was obvious he was unconvinced.
Valentine felt slightly weird at Terran’s curt speech to him, in the time they had survived together he had gotten used to being friendly, forgetting his original behavior. In the time it took to build the wall and set up base Valentine had fully accepted that he was back and that his second chance at life was real, but even with that he still found it hard to look at Terran knowing he had died to him hours ago. It was the same with everyone else, looking at Professor Roxanne and Kaedric especially gave him a pit in his stomach.
Suddenly a fire lit up the sky, the other side of the fortress like wall lighting up in flames, though not traveling over the wall. “Were under attack, guess you were right about defending!” Terran got up and shouted towards Valentine.
“Yeah, I guess I was.” Valentine was not surprised about being attacked this time, what he was surprised about however was the manner of attack. In the 3 months since he had survived last time, there was not a single enemy that used magic. The only thing that had used magic besides them were the Elves, but they were not supposed to appear for another 3 months.
After another moment another flame burst into the sky, crashing against the wall and magic shield defending the library, this time however it did enough damage to destroy the magic shield. The moment the flame became visible Valentine felt a small amount of relief, the spell before him was something he recognized, the same flame magic Quinzel used against the pitch black creature that killed him previously.
“We might be in trouble, whatever did that is incredibly powerful.” Terran had a small amount of fear in his voice, his face did not show it however, only showing resolute determination.
“Don’t worry, I don’t think we’ll have much trouble against this opponent.” Valentine was confident that if he went to the other side of the wall, he would see the same kind Quinzel as before. Walking towards the tunnel and stopping at the bulkhead, Valentine looked back at Terran. “I got it, don’t follow me, don’t let anyone else follow me.” Valentine spoke briefly before opening the bulkhead, walking through, and closing it behind him.
Walking out of the tunnel Valentine was greeted with the sight of a battle as expected, a littering of goblin corpses were scattered around the area, and in the center stood Quinzel.
“Hello!” Valentine only spoke one word at Quinzel, who turned around to focus his attention on him rather than the dead goblins around him.
“Walz al ‘ver turk een fex xand” Quinzel spoke the odd sounding spell that had previously nauseated Valentine, this time however it felt much more manageable.
“Who are you!” Quinzel yelled at Valentine, who suddenly realized Quinzel still had a hand raised and pointed at him.
“Woah! Calm down, I’m not going to attack you. I am Valentine.” Valentine felt a little mad at himself for almost dying without keeping a single promise he told himself to keep this time.
“Valentine, you say? What are you doing on my land, and why were these goblins surrounding your building?” Quinzel’s guard still did not lower, though his questions seemed rather odd to Valentine who was used to the calm Quinzel.
“I was transported here along with the rest of my group without our will. We don’t know how we got here or why. And those Goblins I assume were here to attack us.” Looking down again at the goblins Valentine recognized the group composition as that of the group that attacked them on their first day.
“Transported, well then I guess you don’t have anything to do with our issue. Go back inside your wall and I will be back.” Quinzel looked slightly disparaged at the discovery of the group of transported humans and turned to walk away.
“Wait! Why are you leaving, what problem are you having?” Valentine was slightly desperate, unwilling to let Quinzel leave without a guarantee he would return.
“I am looking for a group of kidnappers who took some of my people. Unless you have any information then go back to your wall.” Quinzel turned around to face Valentine as he spoke.
“Kidnappers?” Valentine was confused at the unexpected development. Suddenly he remembered the first night his last time here and Lily’s disappearance, along with the discovery of several other bodies. “I know where they might be. I saw a goblin earlier and followed it to a cave nearby, I’ll show you the way.
“Alright, but don’t try anything funny.” Quinzel followed behind Valentine still cautious of him, though interested in the lead.
Valentine quickly led Quinzel through the forest on the route he had memorized in his first time alive. After the first big battle the group went back to look for survivors inside the goblin’s cave, however they only found corpses they later buried. Upon reaching the cave Valentine felt slightly hopeful for survivors, while it was a similar time in the day as when he first arrived here, there was also more time to look for survivors.
Upon finding the sleeping Goblin Quinzel quickly dispatched it, searching the sack next to it he found the same person that had left Valentine, though they were now breathing. Quinzel fully removed the little girl from the sack and placed her unconscious body on the floor. Silently he continued down the path and reached the room both Zylphia and Valentine had died in previously. The room was again filled with sacks, however this time they were noticeably less bloody and some even showed signs of movement. Quinzel began to open all the bags one after another, each revealing a different girl, all similar in age to Lily, and all alive. Noticeably they were all also Elves, blonde hair a common theme among them, Lily fit the goblin’s preferred victim description in everything but ear shape.
“Thank you, they all survived because of you” Quinzel looked at Valentine with sincere eyes as he laid the final unconscious girl onto the floor. Valentine felt slightly proud that he was able to save the lives of people who had died in his previous life.
“I wouldn’t say they survived because of me, if you hadn’t been here, I wouldn’t have known to come here to save them.” Valentine tried to deflect the appreciation, not one to take compliments.
“In any case, I thank you for the help. If you follow me I will send word to my party to take these girls back to their families and then we can discuss your predicament."