ILIAS VAN PAYNE

An entire world of nothing but white.

My mind was so dazed that any thoughts I tried to form simply ceased. But soon after, I understood my situation—Gilead had been devoured by a beam of light and I along with it.

I floated in a void of white, contemplating what just happened.

“I just started to enjoy my new life too,” I said to myself. “I wasn’t expecting it to end so soon.”

“Your life ended?” a voice wondered. “I don’t think so.”

Was that the voice in my head?

“I’m not the voice in your head,” the familiar young voice corrected. “I’m right here.”

I turned around and found a bare handsome boy with dark golden hair and rosy cheeks sitting cross-legged. He had light tan skin, his eyes were made of polished jade, and there were three tiny moles at the edge of his left eye that, when connected, made a triangle with only two even sides.

He raised a hand and smiled. “What’s up?”

And that face… that face was also very familiar.

Wait! This boy is me!

“Yes,” my body said. “I’m the boy named Ilias Van Payne.”

“Wait, you said earlier that I wasn’t dead. Is that the truth?”

“Of course, why would I lie to you?”

“If that light didn’t kill me, then why am I here? And what was that light? What happened after?”

“Those questions will be answered soon enough.”

“What is this place?”

Ilias tilted his head. “This place is your soul.”

“Why is it so bare and blank? And why am I looking at my own body?”

“Your body?” he said. “This is your body?”

“I see my face at least once every single day. I know what I look like.”

“Who are you?”

At this point, I was getting irritated by all the rhetorical questions. “I’m Ilias Van Payne.”

“Is that who you really are?”

“Yes, who else can I be—”

Just then, it felt like a poisoned arrow struck me in the heart and the poison was realization.

“No, I’m…” I glanced at my arms and found that it didn’t belong to that of a boy. It was veiny and calloused. These hands belonged to a seasoned warrior.

“Here.” Ilias tapped the space in between us which transformed into a mirror. “Is that better?”

I walked up to my reflection and found a young man with short blond hair, sapphire eyes, and a lean body.

“Let’s do this again,” Ilias leaned back, relaxing his posture. “Who are you?”

Me. Who am I?

“Decan,” I answered. “Decan Lancaster.”

“I see.” Ilias smiled wide. “I think this is enough time. We’ll meet again.”

“Huh? Wait, what does that mean?”

Suddenly, my vision began to fade.

“You will find yourself here three times.” Ilias waved goodbye. “This was the first.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Wait, I want to know why I was given a second chance. I want to know why I was reincarnated. There must be a reason!

I felt my pupils dilate when I opened my eyes. The sight of the canopy of trees illuminated by the moon and stars hung above me. The branches scratching each other, the birds taunting me with sinister songs, and the howling wolves made me shrink.

I caressed my thin and underdeveloped body.

I’m back to being Ilias.

The last thing I remembered was the beam of light engulfing me. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in an unfamiliar forest in the dark. It took a moment for me to realize that I must’ve been knocked out and blasted somewhere nearby.

I held out a hand. “Inner Light!”

An orb of light hovered where I was holding out my palm, illuminating the area just enough for me to see.

I grabbed my staff and oversized hat that was lying a couple of feet and hanging off a low branch respectively.

The last thing I remembered was Jaime and I heading home on the road, so why am I in a forest? Why am I alone? Where am I?

Jaime! She should be nearby.

I cupped my hands around my mouth. “Jaime! Jaime, where are you!”

Just then, I noticed a welfin growling behind me. It was in a position ready to pounce.

“Quagmire!” I screamed, turning the ground beneath it into mud and sinking it to its torso.

Surrounding me from other angles was the rest of the pack, which I scared away with fire while flying myself to a high and stable branch. The welfin I sunk began weeping in a panic so I undid the spell to let it reunite with its family.

Welfins? There shouldn’t be any welfins this far west.

It’s night, I’m tired, and I can’t see.

I weaved my staff in between the branches and stuffed my hat in my satchel before collapsing onto the branch.

I had been passed out the entire day, but for some reason, I was still tired. It must’ve been the shock.

Jaime was close to me when everything happened and I’m fine which means she should be fine too, but Mother was close to the centre of the beam.

Thinking about the situation with an exhausted mind made everything worse, so I just shrugged it off and decided to worry about it after some rest.

The next day, I hovered above the forest to look for any landmarks and still didn’t recognize where I was. The forest where I’d been blasted to was sandwiched between two towns that were connected by a road.

I could at least rest knowing there was civilization nearby.

The town north was closer, so I set that as my destination. Levitating one’s body used up a lot of mana and I’d rather not exhaust mine just in case something bad happened.

While still in the air, I planned a safe route to the road and once I was on it, everything should become simpler. From above, the distance between the forest and the northern town wasn’t much, but it seemed as if the settlement wasn’t getting any closer while on the ground.

At least once I get there, I can get help and figure out what happened.

Stagecoaches passed by, the drivers either staring me down or waving a friendly greeting.

A beam of light just shot down from the sky. It should’ve been seen hundreds of leagues away. Why is everyone acting like nothing happened?

Travelling between nearby towns using stagecoaches was cheaper than renting horses from the Rohan Company. But if one was travelling a long distance, using stagecoaches to go from settlement to settlement would rack up a rather large bill.

Now thinking about it, I must’ve been a confusing sight—a boy with flowing robes, a satchel, a pointy hat, and a staff.

My staff!

Aurora Ventus was made of many expensive materials, so there was a chance I’d become a target if I was simply flashing it around. I wrapped the tip(which was the most expensive part) with my robe and got back to hiking.

After a long trek with many stops to boil still bodies of water to make them safe enough for drinking, I finally arrived at the northern town in the afternoon covered in dirt and grime.

I quickly cleaned up to make myself more presentable before joining the line to head inside. A couple of eyes found their way glancing at me, but they quickly broke eye contact when I stared back.

I thought I would know what town this was when I got here, but I was even more confused up close. There were no landmarks I recognized and there were significantly fewer soldiers on patrol.

The buildings looked completely different too. The ones I was familiar with were made of brick and mortar with straw-thatched rooves. The ones in this town were mainly made of wood and thin pieces of paper to act as windows while the rooves were covered in tile.

I’ve seen this type of architecture in books before. This is the eastern design of buildings.

Once I was searched and let in, I went up to the first patrolling soldier I saw. “Excuse me, Sir, could I ask you a question?”

“What is it, Little Man?”

“Uh… What town is this?”

“You’re in Shoya.”

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Did he just say this place is Shoya?

That’s in the eastern half of the country. I must’ve heard it wrong.

“I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”

“You’re in Shoya.”

I wasn’t mishearing anything. The soldier really did say Shoya.

I scratched my head. “How the hell?”

Everything suddenly made sense—the welfins, the dangerous forest, the unknown towns with unknown landmarks, foreign architecture…

I was in the opposite side of the world!