The loud sounds of commentary filled the air. Two people were having an argument over something. It was loud enough to wake anyone, and it did.
Aiden woke up kicking and screaming with a pain in his head.
“Whoa!” someone exclaimed, rushing to Aiden’s side. “Deep breaths now. Deep breaths.”
Aiden obeyed instinctively, sucking the air in like a man who’d just survived being drowned. It was full, unfamiliar, and putrid. Yet it was air. And he needed it.
“Must’ve been one hell of a dream,” the person said, a hand firmly on Aiden’s back to give him support.
Aiden didn’t have any response to that. His mind ran through other things as he inhaled and exhaled deeply.
Frost mountain. Giants. His mind went through the motions.
But where would he start? He knew of the giants. They were an old race that existed on Nastild. But nobody had seen them before. According to the stories, they lived in the frost mountain.
But the frost mountain was where the problem was. Nastild had eight frost mountains.
“Are you good now?” the voice asked.
Now that his initial panic was gone, Aiden could think. The first thing he noted was that he knew the voice. It wasn’t a deeply familiar voice, but he knew it.
“He good?” another voice asked.
Aiden raised his head, looked at the second person instead of the first. He frowned at the face that was looking at him. It was clean shaven with a squared jaw. It had no scar nor significant blemish save a pimple here or there, and green eyes looked at him.
It had been seven years since he’d last spoken to the person and a year since he’d last seen the person’s face. The last time he’d seen it, it was scarred and bearded.
“Drax?” he muttered.
Drax cocked an eyebrow, and Aiden was reminded of why the girls always flocked to him. But Drax wasn’t some handsome boy who used his handsomeness to get everything he wanted. He was upright, civilized, and more respectful than anyone Aiden knew.
A fitting hero, Aiden thought, sarcastic.
But that wasn’t important right now. What was important was different. The last thing he could remember was the Sage doing something to him before Ted successfully teleported him out of the palace cells.
Wait. His mind rummaged around. That wasn’t the last thing he remembered. Something else had happened before he’d teleported…
He couldn’t remember what it was.
Aiden's mind was having too much trouble focusing. There were too many questions. When the problem was too much, he’d learned to focus on the ones with quicker and more immediate answers.
He looked up at Drax.
“What the hell happened to your beard?” he blurted before he could stop himself.
Drax touched his face experimentally, a confused look on his face. “I never had a beard. Why? You think I should grow one?”
“I don’t think so,” the person with Aiden replied. “I think he saw you in his dream and you had a beard. That’s probably what scared him awake.”
Aiden remembered the voice now and he put his head back down on the desk in front of him. They were in a classroom in…
Aiden struggled to remember for a moment before the answer came to him. College?
He knew the room. It was a large hall. Drax and Letto had stayed behind because they’d been watching a football match on Drax’s phone and just hadn’t been bothered to get up when everyone had.
It was the only time the three of them had spent together, alone, in a room.
The information Aiden was gathering made sense and didn’t make sense at the same time. Something was wrong with his mind. Memories were melding so that he couldn’t tell left from right or up from inside.
Down, he corrected himself. Up from down.
He hated teleportation magic.
Why the hell was he in a college in Nastild? It didn’t make sense. What was worse was that he was sure Nastild had a college but he couldn’t remember them going to college in Nastild.
Aiden raised his head back up and stared at the high ceiling with a sigh. He didn’t have the brain power for this.
“Good day to you too, Letto,” he said, focusing on problems with immediate solutions.
“Can’t say it’s a good day,” Letto replied, getting back up. “My team’s losing horribly.”
Aiden wasn’t sure what to say to that so he settled for something conversational, even though his mind was still telling him that something was wrong. “Your team’s always losing.”
Even as he spoke, he was sure his brain was trying to process something, to figure something out. But it was just so hazy, unable to look past the fact that finding the giants was going to be a very heavy task.
Maybe that’s why Ted wanted you to give the information to the head, he thought. He probably knows which mountain the giants are on.
The head of the Order was a man of too much knowledge. So much so that Aiden doubted there was an enchantment or spell the man didn’t know.
What he needed to do now was get to the Order.
No, he chided himself even as he rose to his feet. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed since his teleportation. The Order might already be aware of what he had done. What he needed to do first was confirm that Ted was still alive.
He staggered, his body heavier than he remembered. He half-expected to catch himself and was surprised when he didn’t. Instead, Letto grabbed him to stop his fall.
“I think you got up too fast,” Letto said, still holding him up. “Vertigo can be a bitch.”
Aiden shook his head in confusion. “That’s not right. My Agility’s too high for that.”
He extricated himself from Letto’s hold, his mind still trying to figure out what was going on. It still told him that everything was wrong, seriously wrong. Yet, Aiden couldn’t focus enough on it to figure it out.
Was he under some kind of status effect? He’d heard of people falling under status effects after long distance teleportation but hadn’t ever been one of them. But considering he’d been hit with something from the Sage at the same time, he wouldn’t be surprised if there was an after effect.
He called his system interface up with a thought and waited for it to show him what was happening to him. To his surprise, it ignored him.
“That’s new,” he muttered to himself.
“What’s new?” Drax asked. He had ignored the phone with the football match and was walking up to Aiden now. “You sure you’re alright?”
“I’m fine.” Aiden shook his head, trying to dispel his haze. “My interface just won’t come up. I’m trying to call up my status. I think I’m having an…”
His words trailed off at the look of worry on Drax’s face.
Aiden’s mind continued to scream at him. Something was wrong. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
That wasn’t surprising. Ted was the Demon King locked up under the palace and he was in a room with the Hero just after trying to rescue his brother. Of course he was in the wrong place at the wrong…
Aiden’s face fell.
No.
Drax looked at Letto. “I think he needs to sit down.”
“Yea,” Letto nodded. “How about we take a sit and just give it some time.”
Aiden’s brain was already piecing things together. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. His brain had already deciphered that. But his thoughts were a mess despite it.
He recognized everything in the room.
Letto placed a hand on Aiden’s shoulder and tried to ease him back to the chair but Aiden refused. His mind was trying to figure something out and he couldn’t afford to be distracted.
Too many distractions.
“You’ve got to take a seat, Aiden,” Letto advised, adding a little more pressure to Aiden’s shoulder.
Aiden realized he was being pushed back despite his refusal and acted on instinct. He moved his shoulder back, allowing Letto’s force work against him. Letto stumbled off balance and Aiden grabbed hold of his arm, then shifted him into a spin that ended up with Letto on the chair.
Aiden frowned down at Letto as his mind ran through the problems. Right now he was trying to figure out how Letto was stronger than him. Letto’s class was [Thief], and the class wasn’t known for its physical strength.
And with all the enchanted items Aiden had on him, Letto shouldn’t have been able to push him back in anyway.
“How did you do that?”
Aiden looked up at Drax. “What do you mean?”
“That.” Drax gestured at Letto seated on the chair.
Aiden’s mind backpedaled. Realization came to him in small bursts. The first was why a simple separation technique was surprising the Hero. Everyone knew what kind of special training the kingdom had given Drax simply because of the necessity of his title when he'd gained it. The next was how the hell Drax had fixed his scars.
No, Aiden thought, dislodging the second thought.
If Brandis' Sage was now an active part of whatever it was Ted had gotten him into, he wouldn’t be surprised if the Sage had begun intervening directly. He wouldn’t put it past the Sage to use a healing spell powerful enough to heal the scar Ted had given him.
Aiden shook his head as he stepped back and towards the door. Too many things weren’t right. He looked at the door, found it open with the slow bustle of people outside, and everything came crashing down.
There were no phones in Nastild.
Drax didn’t just have no beard and no scar, he was quite literally younger, and his face still had the blemishes that came with never having leveled up. People with classes also didn’t have pimples.
Drax hadn’t shaved his beards because Drax hadn’t started keeping beards yet.
Aiden looked at a still surprised Letto seated on the lecturer’s chair. And Letto was stronger than him because Letto was stronger than him.
Lastly, Aiden had no enchantments on him.
What the hell happened to me?
Worry filled Aiden, dislodged the part of his mind that was still focused on getting back to the Order to solve the issue of the giants and the key.
“Aiden.”
Drax’s voice was filled with worry.
“This isn’t possible,” Aiden stuttered.
Dimensional magic was one thing. It was simply teleportation magic at a higher realm—moving from one place to another. Ted had literally said he’d figured out how to do it across worlds but could only send one person.
It wasn’t impossible to believe. Ted never lied to him, and he was over level 400, encroaching on the 500s. That was the level of myths.
But this? This was insane. This was impossible.
Aiden shook his head, taking another step closer to the exit. His mind couldn’t make sense of it.
Then he remembered.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
It wasn’t much, not by a long shot. But it was enough. Three simple pieces of information.
System reset, he recalled. What does that even mean? And why did the system call me a prisoner?
He couldn’t even remember his prisoner number. He was still moving towards the exit, but his steps were slower now as the last bit of information hit him.
“I died,” he realized, freezing in his tracks. “I... I died.”
Drax’s worry was quick to double.
“No, Aiden. You didn’t die,” he said in a worried yet calming tone, as one would with a child who’d survived something they shouldn’t. “It was all a dream. You’re fine. You’re right here, and I’m right here.” He pointed at Letto. “And Letto’s good. See?”
Letto nodded vigorously, giving his widest smile.
Aiden couldn’t bring himself to care about all that. Other things were on his mind. If he had died, then woken up here, in this classroom, on this day, then what did that mean?
The first thought that came to him was to ask what day it was. He pointed at Letto. “What day…”
The question died on his lips. What exactly was he supposed to do with that piece of information. What day is it? Like you remember the date it happened. It was eleven fucking years ago.
He shook his head. Eleven years ago by Nastild’s calendar.
But that didn’t matter. Aiden didn’t need to know the date. All he needed to know was that it was today. Today was when it happened, marked by the fact that his last day on Earth was the only day he, Drax and Letto were ever the only ones in an empty classroom.
The question now was how it happened.
Teddy wasn’t in the same building as me, heck he didn’t even come to school today, he thought, going through his thoughts.
The conclusion was that whatever had happened to transport them, it wasn’t a geographical phenomenon. If it was, more than fifteen people would’ve appeared on Nastild. But how specific was it?
Think! He forced himself. Was I in the same room with Letto and Drax when it happened?
Yes?
Aiden shook his head. That wasn’t right. He doubted he would’ve stayed very long with them. It wasn’t like they were close friends or anything. They just knew each other. It was most likely that he had left them.
No, he shook his mind from that line of reasoning, realizing something else.
If he was here, on earth and back in the past, what of Ted?
He shoved his hand in his pocket and brought out his phone. He looked down at it reflexively and the facial recognition kicked in. It was too fast so he hadn’t gotten to see his reflection on the screen, so he opened the front camera.
The face that stared back at him didn’t surprise him as much as it should've.
He was also young again, he had his hair cut short and styled, and he had no beard. So I’m in my old body.
Whatever the Sage and Ted’s magic had done to him, it had transported him back in time, but not his body.
So what? My soul? My mind?
Another question was if Ted had managed to send himself back as well. He’d said he could only transport one person, but how much of that was still trustworthy right now.
From what Aiden could remember, Ted had said nothing about time travel and he’d said he couldn’t send them back home. But here he was.
“Aiden, I think we should take you to see the nurse,” Drax said.
Aiden shook his head. “Nah, I’m good.”
He wasn’t, but no nurse was going to be able to help him.
He didn’t even consider the possibility that he was dreaming or that the years he’d spent in Nastild could be the dream. Nobody dreamt hard enough to wake up just to have everything feel like it happened years ago.
No one slept and woke up only to forget what the girl he liked looked like. No, this was not a dream.
He scrolled to his contacts on his phone and dialed his brother’s line quickly. He was glad when Ted picked on the first ring.
“What’s up, Aiden?” Ted asked, his voice was jovial and carefree.
Aiden couldn’t remember what he had skipped school today for, but that was unimportant.
“What happened to us?” he asked quickly. “Any idea how long before the system summoning happens?”
Ted’s response was a dumbfounded, “What?”
That answered one of Aiden’s questions. He was the only one who’d come back.
Wait, what are the chances the Sage came back with me?
It was a scary thought having someone with that level of power on earth. There would be no power alive capable of stopping the Sage.
Unless he’s also classless and without an interface.
That would be their only saving grace.
“I’m coming to you, Teddy,” Aiden said hurriedly. “Where are you?”
“Not far from campus,” Ted answered. There was still confusion in his voice but Aiden didn’t care. He was already storming out of the classroom.
“Where exactly is not far from campus?”
Drax and Letto moved to go after him but stopped as Aiden left the room.
…………..
Aiden couldn’t shake his worry as he hurried out of campus. He couldn’t remember what time they’d been transported. He remembered the sun was still up and that he was outside. But that was all.
His mind paused as he jogged. If he remembered that, then he hadn’t been in the lecture hall.
So I didn’t remain in the classroom with Drax. Good to know.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to stay with Drax or anything along those lines, and it wasn’t that he was trying not to do anything too differently that it would affect the future. He couldn’t bring himself to care much for things like that. He was just glad to remember something he couldn’t remember.
There was also the confused haze he’d woken up in, seeing the room and everything around him. A young Drax, a mobile phone, and still being unable to separate the world of Niltad from earth.
What was that about? He asked himself, running across the road, uncaring of whether the light was green or not. Judging by the shouts he received, it most likely was.
Had the magic messed with his mind somehow? He knew long distance teleportation through gates somehow addled the mind but the effects never lasted long.
Aiden came to a stop in front of what was a gaming center. He looked up at the signboard with no name and shook his head. Ted had missed lectures to go play video games with his friends.
What is he; twelve?
Aiden pushed the door open and walked in very consciously aware of the fact that he didn’t know how much time they had before the teleportation. The sun had been up when it had happened and that was all he could remember… and the sun was still up. Any step could be his last. Any word could be his last.
What if it doesn’t happen? He thought as he hurried down the aisles. What if Ted’s magic somehow undid everything and we’re all good now?
He almost laughed at himself and the thought. That was being unreasonably too optimistic.
Or maybe I’m just being unreasonably too pessimistic.
Pessimism felt like the better possibility. God knew his time in Nastild had done nothing for his optimism. It was better to assume that things were going to go bad and plan for them than the opposite.
“Aiden! over here!”
Aiden came to a stop at the sound of Ted’s voice. He turned to look, and right there, down the aisle, was his brother sitting with four other kids Aiden didn’t recognize.
Ted got up from his own seat, excusing himself.
Aiden didn’t give him any time, he didn’t wait for Ted to cross the distance to meet him. He barreled down the aisle, ignoring the few gamers enjoying one video game or the other.
As he approached his brother, he wasn’t sure what to do or say. Why exactly had he even been looking for Ted? To warn him? To tell him to prepare for the teleportation?
None of the possibilities made sense. It wasn’t like warning him would make a difference, and there was no way to prepare. The only things they'd taken with them when they had been teleported were the clothes on their backs, not even their cellphones or toothpicks or anything. Just their clothes.
So it wasn’t like there was any preparation to be made.
When he reached Ted, his body answered for him.
Ted met Aiden with a confused look. “You look like you’ve seen a gho—”
Aiden barreled into his brother with a hug. It was tight and it was strong. It was also not planned at all.
Seven years.
He’d spent seven years not knowing the state of his brother, his only family in another world. Keeping tabs on the status of his life had been through news of the war and nothing else. Every time he'd heard the demon king was still a threat to the world, he'd gotten a bittersweet feeling.
There was good because his brother still lived, and there was bad because of how many lives his brother had continued to take in the war. He couldn’t count how many times he’d tried to justify his inability to view his brother as evil even if he was the demon king to himself.
They’d tried to kill him first. They weren’t going to keep him alive. It wasn’t his fault that they wouldn’t listen to him. He had to raise an army to protect himself from the rest of the world. These were the thoughts Aiden had used to try and justify himself every time he was happy that Ted was still alive.
He hadn’t known just how much he had missed his brother until this moment. Not even when he’d been trying to save him and failed.
Ted stood in Aiden’s embrace, stiff and confused. “Uhh… good to see you, too?”
Aiden said nothing, simple held his brother. Ted was athletic where he was not, so Ted was larger.
“Yes, yes, I know you love me,” Ted continued, going for joviality to conceal how awkward he felt. “But I’ve told you before, I’m still not going to give you any money.”
Aiden chuckled. He had no idea if he had asked Ted for money or not during this period. And he didn’t care.
Ted patted him awkwardly on the back. “We’re beginning to draw a crowd, Aiden. And I know how you hate people seeing us together. Am I safe?”
Aiden pulled back from the hug, mentally scolding himself for using up precious time for it.
Ted frowned down at him. “Are you crying?”
Aiden almost laughed. With everything he’d been through, he didn’t cry. In fact, he didn’t think he even knew how to anymore.
Then Ted’s frown deepened to a scowl.
“Did someone do something to you?” he asked, suddenly livid. “Tell me who and I’ll rip them to shreds.”
“Nothing like that.” Aiden shook his head, then wiped at his face with the back of his hand. It came away wet.
I guess I still know how to cry, he thought. That’s a little embarrassing.
“Are you sure?” Ted asked, his voice still angry.
“A hundred percent,” Aiden assured him.
Ted shoved him away playfully. “Then why the fuck are you hugging me like I’m mum or something? You scared the hell out of me.”
Aiden was happy to have his brother back, even if for only a moment. But there were more important things to do.
“We don’t have much time,” he said to Ted, his voice dropping to a whisper. “What do you know about spatial magic and time travel?”
Ted paused, thinking about it. “Star Wars and Back to the Future?”
Yea, don’t know what I was expecting, Aiden thought. To his brother, he said, “That’s spatial tech and time tech, Ted.”
Ted shrugged. “I’ve got no idea what you were expecting from me, Aiden. But that’s what I’ve got.”
Ted was looking at him differently, and it took Aiden a moment to remember why. He almost smacked himself for it. While they hadn’t hated each other, before Nastild they hadn’t really been that close.
In fact, it had been the trials of Nastild that had brought them together.
Aiden nodded to himself. Definitely can’t tell him about Nastild then. He’ll think I’m saying rubbish.
“How’s mum and dad?” he asked instead.
“Don’t know, man. You talked to them this morning. I guess they’re going steady and all that. I’m sorry but you sounded worried on the phone.” Ted looked back at his friends, frowned, ran a tired hand through his short hair. “Is there anything else or did you just come for the hug?”
Aiden didn’t have an answer for that. In truth, his mind was elsewhere, contemplating if he still had enough time for one more trip. Maybe he could see his parents if he hurried, before…
[Error Detected!]
“What the hell?!” he stumbled back as the words appeared between him and Ted.
That didn’t make sense. He didn’t remember seeing a system notification on earth. They’d all just been teleported. The notifications didn’t come until they were on Nastild.
[Dimensional transportation Imminent.]
Brace for impact [Prisoner #234502385739].
“Aiden?” Ted asked, panicked. “What’s happening to your body?”
Ted was grabbing at Aiden, but Aiden was worried about other things. There was a timer above Ted’s head, and it was counting down.
[08.]
[07.]
Aiden grabbed Ted by his shoulders. “Don’t panic.”
“The fuck you mean don’t panic?” Ted turned to his friends. “I NEED HELP OVER HERE!”
Well there goes that, Aiden thought with a smile. Don’t panic and the first thing you do is panic.
Then he looked at his hands and saw himself slowly dissipating, like sand in the wind.
Hold up! that’s not how it’s supposed to happen.
He wasn’t supposed to evaporate like sand being blown in the wind. There were supposed to be geometric signs, circles and triangles and squares with lines running through them. That kind of thing.
As if in mockery, the exact thing appeared above Ted’s head. His friends that had been coming to their aid came to a quick stop.
“Ted,” one of them muttered, scared. “Something’s happening.”
It was odd how they weren't just looking at Ted but looking around as well.
At this point all of Aiden’s arms were gone. Not knowing what else to do, Aiden stepped up to Ted, got in his face as the world around them shook and quaked.
It startled Ted and he stepped back.
“Whatever you do,” Aiden told him. “Don’t panic. You will fall asleep. When you wake up, you won’t recognize where you are, but it doesn’t matter. All you have to do is remain quiet and listen attentively. Got it?”
“What the fuck is happening, Aiden?”
“Nothing as terrifying as it seems. Just remain quiet and listen to what they will tell you. It’s very important that you do.”
Aiden saw the decision warring on his brother’s face before Ted nodded.
He was glad for it.
Then he burst into smoke.
[Error fixed.]
[Transference successful.]
[For the seamless achievement of your purpose, you have been granted one exclusive skill.]
Aiden knew the skill before it even appeared. It had been the first skill all of them had been granted when they’d been teleported to Nastild.
You have received [Tongue of the Visitor (Mastery 100%)]
[Effect: 900% increase in language mastery.]
It was designed to help them learn the languages in Nastild faster. But it didn’t hinder their training much in the earlier days because the palace had possessed people with communication and interpretation skills.
Aiden was suspended in nothingness for a while. Everything was nothing and nothing was everything. His sense of direction played games with him and he pushed aside the feeling of helplessness that often came with teleportation.
He remembered how he had panicked the first time he’d experienced it, but couldn’t remember if it had felt this disorienting or not.
The sensation lasted but a moment before he felt a tug, like being pulled by a lasso. Then he came crashing down… or maybe it was up.
Aiden came to an abrupt stop with an annoyed frown and a groan. As he came to, there was a new notification in front of him.
Apologies for the inconvenience [Prisoner #234502385739].
[Errors detected have been fixed.]
…
Welcome to Nastild [Aiden Lacheart].
[Fate has found you. Live to fulfill your calling.]
Yea, right.
Aiden could remember the last line. All of them got it each time they successfully completed a quest, be it a group quest or a personal one.
For now, he didn’t open his eyes. He knew where he was, what he would see. Despite having already gone through this before, Aiden was unwilling to be the first person to be addressed in this world. He was more than happy to leave that responsibility to anyone else.
Last time it had been Drax and he intended on keeping it that way.
Unfortunately, Nastild had other plans.
“You are a strange one,” a voice said a little too close to him, and a chill ran up Aiden’s spine at the sound of it.
No, no, no, no, he panicked. It can’t be.
He knew the voice, and the voice knew him.
I just need to keep pretending. I’m asleep, I haven’t woken up yet.
His mind ran in circles, trying to figure out what was happening or what to do. There’s no way he came back in time, too, right?
It shouldn’t be possible.
“I know you are awake,” the voice said. “Let us dispense with these games, Lord Aiden Lacheart.”
It was the way the voice said his name. The recognition yet complete emptiness of any welcoming or dismissive tone.
“I will not repeat myself, Lord Lacheart.”
Fear seized Aiden by the spine. There was no other option, nothing else he could do. At this point, he was considering the fact that he hadn’t appeared where he’d been expecting to. His transference had experienced an error, after all. Maybe he wasn't in the throne room in front of the king.
What if it was hijacked?
Unwilling to waste any more time that could get him killed, Aiden complied and opened his eyes.
He was met with the head of a large wooden staff pointing at his face. At the end of it was a man with grey braided beards. Brandis' Sage, also known as the king's Sage, watched him with an intrigued smile on his face. The soft crackle of green magic danced between the fingers of the man’s free hand.
“There we go,” the Sage said with a wide smile. “Nice and easy.”
At his strongest, Aiden hadn’t been able to lift a finger in the man’s presence. Here, in the beginning, with nothing but the skill of language at his disposal, being at a disadvantage was an understatement.
The Sage could kill him with a look.
Despite that, Aiden’s mind tensed itself for combat. He might not have any magic to his name at this moment, all his achievements and titles from his old life may be gone, but he still remembered how to fight. Years of combat had honed it in him.
He met the Sage’s blue eyes with defiance in his own as his mind sought out any and all openings for an attack.
He saw five.
Five was more than enough. So he returned the Sage’s smile with one of his own.
Aiden would not go down without a fight.
The Sage’s fingers twitched and Aiden took his chance at the openings he saw.
He attacked.