I covered each step carefully and with caution lacing each movement as I made my way deeper through the thick swap—my body half submerged in the dark murky water—causing an awful stench to enter my noise through each breath which caused my stomach to stir and churn.

I felt something touch my thigh causing an instinctive reflex from my body in alert for any danger, as I steadied my posture, but it was repelled almost instantly from the barrier which evenly cladded my physique, causing a dim calm light to arouse around my body as I ushered forward.

In this swamp there were several leech like tiny monsters which had the shape of fish and eel which were inhabitants here, and as any leech out other they sucked the blood, whilst also injecting a paralysing poison in their target’s body which was potent enough to stop the movement of the body almost immediately, but surprisingly enough though, they died or were repelled easily just with a whisk of mana, that’s why for the past several hours I had conjured this thin barrier around myself for protection.

I looked above, as I heard the fluttering of wings gliding through the sky and soon after saw a towering figure of a hideous skeletal beast with a scaly head and its bones protruding outward, which tore through the sky. I focused mana into my eyes and my gaze followed the beast which made a harsh cry through the air, until it caught speed and disappeared from my lingering gaze, soon after several beasts similar to it following in its wake.

My eyes almost immediately focused over the weird-looking sky which should have been blue—as any normal sky should have been—, was dominated by a dark shade of red violent, making it look surreal and unnatural to the eye.

After traveling on foot for several hours on end—which was honestly more annoying than dealing with those mana beasts—, the location of the exit portal was finally in the vicinity of the area as I subtlety felt the fluctuations caused by the conjuration of the portal in the air around me. It was close by but still a bit far of in the distance.

With the tall and lean trees around me working as a good camouflage and their leaves obstructing my path it was quite hard to maneuver through this swamp on foot as the mud clung and soaked my boots making each step harder to place over the damp ground, as I used the scabbard of my sword to push the thick leaves away and make a path.

I pushed the leaves of the tall trees aside with a scowl, my brows knitted into an annoying sneer as I released a built up sigh and shrugged whilst making my way forward as the creaking noise of the bugs entered my ears in the death and desolate swamp around me, as the murky water of the swamp squelched away from my small and wary movements.

The reason I was moving on foot and not souring through the sky—as easy and convenient as it should have been for me to do now—was because of the ferocious beasts which I had encountered in my short arrival and very much awful venture through this place, which were unlike any thing I had faced before. Their ferocity and raw strength were beyond my expectations; several times stronger than any monster I had fought back on earth or in any dungeon or trial so far.

Even the cephtalurian chief couldn’t come into comparison with the beasts here.

I looked down at my left hand, with the sleeve of my battle robe ripped up to the elbow and sprinkled with the colour of my blood. I clenched my arm as I flexed my muscles to check the response of it as I felt a grimace catch up to face by the lingering pain and numbness. So far, I had enocutered with a centaur type beast, a hideuous looking mermaid and those damned skeletal avion beasts which were a pain to deal with.

And as things turned out for the worse—as they always do for me—I had to engage in a fight with a centaur beast and in my short confrontation with it, I had quite the hard time even landing a solid blow to it, due to the beast’s versatility in fighting in close-range and its raw strength; my long ranged magic based spells were effective against it, but due to almost every freaking beast here having a very keen and sensitive perception of mana it was difficult for me to unleash all of my strength without arousing the attention of all of the beasts in the vicinity of the area.

And by doing so I didn’t wanted to fight an entire horde of these damned monsters.

And in this godforsaken land I almost lost my left head for good this time. If I hadn’t consumed the elixir I had obtained in the first trial at the right moment and reattached my arm in time then I could have clearly lost my arm forever.

I'd have to be cautious, because my body might be able to fix the damage done to it, but I still wasn’t sure if it could regenerate even a cut of limb. I don’t think my body held that kind of capacity. And even if it did somehow, I wasn’t keen enough to lose a limb or two to prove my curiosity right.

It was already a miracle that I was able to regenerate from life threating injuries in mere minutes naturally.

My regenerative aspect was strong and had grown to the point that injuries such as cuts and bruises were healed instantly with deeper and nastier wounds taking a few second to a minute at most to heal on their own, with the aspects of my healing factor growing only more stronger as I progressed and levelled up.

The sky and land were both off limits with the ferocious beasts reigning there and also being thrice or five times my size, and their ferocity was something which I hadn’t seen in any monster so far, even in my criteria of strength and adaptability, this place was a pit full of astoundingly strong mana beasts which I had never seen or had any information about, plus their perception of mana was very keen and precise which made me wary of even the slightest of movements or change in the flow of the mana, so that’s why I was supressing my mana as much as I could as I travelled deeper in this swamp which no beast such as them inhabited.

It was like a free zone.

If I had to say in a more easier sense, all of the monsters here were stronger than a single ranker; which sequentially I was, but even with all of my abilities it would be me who would be in a disadvantageous position. And be it in ariel combat or the ground, they easily out matched and outnumbered me with their superior strength.

And fighting against them wouldn’t do me any better, so the more logical action was to quietly find my way out of this place by finding the exit portal as soon as I could, which I was having so little luck with so far.

‘Curse my damn luck,’ I grunted with my brows knitted into a sneer.

Seriously, these places that the portals brought me were genuinely getting worsen one after another. Like I was getting thrown from one godforsaken land to another for some fucking test, which I didn’t even know the reason and purpose behind.

I felt myself wearing a frown as I rummaged through my mind yet again— through my memories of the remnant—, my brief and confusing conversation with the basilisk—Indra of clan Arudecarus—who had left me even more confused and lost with questions and things to contemplate over rather than having provided me with so few and abstruse answers about barley anything that I had in mind.

If I could have arrived any earlier, than the chamber wouldn’t have collapsed from the basilisk’s deteriorating strength from maintaining it for who knows how long. I couldn’t even blame the ancient for my bad luck or timing, he was merely doing his final duty and at the very least he had somewhat fulfilled his task by giving me a brief prologue of what intricate mysteries surrounded my regression and why the Daemon Exciduim—the demons—race went to war with all of the other ancients as Indra had told me.

He said that they wanted to erase the past and the events which followed in their wake. But...why? I thought with a confused and contemplative frown over my face.

It couldn’t be that just one day the demons decided they wanted to go to war with all of the ancient races and then following the human race as well, without a perfectly well-thought motive in mind.

Something doesn't add up. Did the basilisk actually tell me the truth? But it didn’t make any sense as much as I thought about it. I felt like he omitted some part of information on purpose which might have led me to an answer.

But did people really need a motive or reason to start a war? Or hold animosity toward a person or a certain type of group?

Even before, when mana had not become a preeminent force inside our world, the government of different countries, political parties and the terrorist groups, they all started wars and initiated attacks on each other without a good enough or well-thought motive in mind which gave motion to their actions.

It was the same even now. With the circumstances and priorities having changed over time, the motives behind a person's or a groups’ actions was always due to some greed or self-assurance in mind. And I was the same.

But could all of this be somehow connected to that ancient war? And to those three individuals whom I saw?” I bit the inside of my cheek as a series of unanswered questions nudged at my mind like the ticking of a clock's arms.

But Indra had mentioned about this same war, which I had supposedly witnessed in some cryptic sense of vision which allowed me to see what events had unfolded in the afar past, which I had nothing to do with if I thought about it; those events happened way before—millennials ago—when I was even born so how could they be connected to me and my life... but perhaps they did, in one way or the other. I guess my regression had altered the reality of the world which shouldn’t have been trifled with at any cost. Creating anomalies which disrupted the natural flow of the time like how Laurena had told me.

But how could the past have been influenced by the future and the future than by the past? It didn’t make any sense as much as I thought about it there were just too many holes and loops in this entire idea. Then did this past also happen in my previous life when I was oblivious of all of these intricacies and subjects which I’m aware of now. This wasn’t some sci-fi movie with brainstorming and fantastical time paradoxes which made a person question the very aspect of the world and reality through a lense of fiction. This was reality.

But considering that even the basilisk remnant said I played some vital role in this whole intricate ancient war and mysteries behind these so called aspects mentioned by him which created and sustained reality. It could be plausible, but I wasn’t sure how.

I wasn't some ancient which had witnessed the war unfolding myself, neither was I a seer who could peek into the vastness of the universe to learn of the truth.

My mind focused on the words which Indra had urged most importance over as I moved forward. He said that I lacked perspective. I mentally remarked with a deep scowl.

Time, space and life...I recited inside my mind which aroused a series of confusing questions which made me realise just how oblivion of the scale of this war was I, and how much bigger the outside world was when considering I had confined myself to the scales of earth.

Time, space...and life...A breath as I bolted atop the protruding root of a tree and quietly landed back inside the water which was growing shallower.

Indra said I had access to the two aspects which constructed reality in the form of my skills, but he also mentioned that they were different from the skills we humans only had access to. Firstly in my past life, I had obtained the skill to influence the attribute of space around me to teleport to certain places which I could access by stimulating the wormholes and transmitting their information into my mind. Back then I had thought that it was just a simple skill which allowed me to teleport from place to place without anything more to it.

But in my second life, I had finally realized just how strong and intricate this skill’s abilities were, which was only confined by my own lack of insight; yet again the way I viewed the use of Leap, by my own lack of perspective.

I searched inward and felt the burning mark of the time based skill inside me which I had bought quite some time ago from the system shop, it felt like a hollow wisp which was dormant and awaiting some command or for me touch it to give it life.

The remnant had said that in my use of my space and time based abilities, I had only been able to access their strength so far which was just compared to the tip of the iceberg.

I couldn’t say otherwise. I’d also started to realize the true potential of my abilities after my regression, as if some limitation which was over me, to obscure me intentionally from making progress had been removed. And I felt like I could do so much more with these powers at my command.

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But I couldn’t seem to understand what did this aspect of life meant? Even if I did time and space—alas to the bare minimum. Did it somehow intertwine and corresponded with the concept of creation, perhaps? Like how the mana existed and provided sustenance to the living creatures? I lightly struck the leaf of a near by tree and it fell over the swamp water, clearing my path.

But it didn’t seem like a highly plausible coincidence or rather some unknown force at work through which I was able to gain these powers from. Even with Mind’s Eye, the power to see the ambient particles of mana and the demonic energy was not something which everyone could do. And to distinguish between these two elements by seeing them through the naked eye was quite helpful. And the only other person I knew who had an ability similar to mine was ‘Derek Maer’.

I had asked Derek about it and he had told me that he was able to see the ambient particles since he was a kid, while being perfectly able to read the flow of the mana around him, even the slightest of prickle. So for him it was more like a trait he was born with, I guess. Unlike the way I had obtained my ability.

Pushing a dead leaf aside with my arm, I found the portal hovering in the air in front of me with its oval shape shimmering with pure and untampered energy.

“Finally,” I rejoiced tearing my mind through the train of my thoughts as a slight sense of relief washed over me.

I quickly covered the short distance of a few meters and was only a few feet away from the portal until I felt ripples form over the surface of the swamp water as I snapped my head to my right and almost instantly activated Leap and rode the paths and appeared right in front of the portal, as I looked behind and saw a python bearing it venomous fangs at me—or where I was supposed to be—biting empty air.

I flipped my middle finger at the beast in annoyance, glaring at it with as much hostility lacing my intent which rippled and boomed through the air as the loud howls and wails of the beasts around us echoed through the swamp as I walked into the portal right next moment as I felt the energy keeping it stable enveloping me and felt the space distort open as I was taken to my next destination.

The transmission lastly less than a second as I looked around me and saw that I had now stepped foot over a dark platform which hummed and shimmered with a dull white resonance looking almost ethereal and mystifying. The sky above me was a pale shade of white mixed with a violet and golden sheen.

The platform stretched on for miles—as far as my eyes could stretch to—, looking more like a highway without any supports on either side, which was twelve feet wide, providing enough space for combat if need be.

I walked closer to the edge of the platform and looked below and the sight sent a fearful shiver to run down my spine as all I saw was an endless void which stretched indefinitely.

Would I be able to survive if I fell down there? I thought as I swallowed hard. I mean I could fly now, so that wouldn't be a problem.

After a minute of observing my surroundings for any impending danger, I decided to start moving forward on this platform. And so far all I could see was an endless platform which stretched as far as my eyes followed.

There was nothing to do here except for me to follow the path which the platform let down to; hopefully leading to the portal without any confrontation with a godforsaken monstrosity which might appear from the depths of the void below me.

I covered a comfortable strode, as I withdrew the multifaceted keystone from the inventory and started keenly observing its rough surface.

“Still no luck.” I clenched it in my hand in frustration as the keystone didn't react in any way.

Almost instantly my mind followed back on my conversation with Indra and the suddenness of it made me perplex and ground my teeth in anger on the realisation that the humans were just one of the many races which the demons had gone to war with, beside the other ancient races which they had been warring with since millennials ago.

I gnashed my teeth in annoyance as helplessness bled over my face, wrinkling my nose into a sneer as I felt a surge of rage boiling in the pit of my stomach which made these emotions to stir more rampantly inside me. Then did that mean the demons only targeted the humans because they thought that we were easy prey and we could be ruled without an resistance at all.

But I couldn’t deny that fact, considering we humans had just recently gained access to mana which these other ancient races knew about and could manipulate for as long as it had existed.

We were clearly at a disadvantage considering we were the weakest race out there as Indra had said to me—sarcasm aside we were clearly weaker than them, in the stature of strength, we didn’t have an ample amount of fighters which could go up against the highest ranked amongst the demons.

His sharp and blunt words made me angry, but it was the undeniable truth.

And could the other races have kept the demons occupied for the time being, that’s why it took them almost ten years when initiating their final attack on earth. I felt the dots connect as I pondered over the inclination and holes left by our conversation.

Even if it was something else, this theory was the most plausible.

I brought the keystone closer and tried sending a tendril of mana into it to observe if anything happens, but nothing did. It's looked and felt dead, unlike how it gave of a golden iridescent flash of light back in the chamber, and when I had prickled it’s surface with my mana, my mind had been transferred into the keystone realm.

And these keystones were supposed to give me some insight over some aspect of reality or either information over some piece or event which might help me in my endeavours.

Indra had mentioned that these edicts represented some aspect of reality and created and sustained the world. But the question of an existence such as an element or authority—if it did exist—being able to influence the very structure and laws the universe was built upon.

Then would understanding this authority or power which governed the universe finally allow me to understand the mystery of my regression and why such things were happening with me at their centre?

I mean, mana and demonic energy existed and both were a phenomenon of this world which allowed individuals to make use of them in certain ways—by giving them life and allowing them to manipulate the elements into something more. Then did the thing that Indra mentioned was similar to an abstract? I pursed my lips in thought as I twirled the keystone in my hand like a toy.

I sighed after a moment.

‘Thinking about it only makes me more confused and exasperated.’ I voiced inwardly. ‘And Indra had said that there were other remnants as well which were supposedly guides to help me on my journey. So my best shot at learning more about everything is through the remnants and somehow solving these keystones.’

I lifted of the platform and started to speed away in the direction of where the platform leaded. But just as I went a little bit ahead, I twisted my body mid-air as my battle instincts kicked in and I crashed on to the platform with a thud as I rolled over it, mana lowered amd absorbed the impact of my fall, grabbing a hold of the edge as I lifted back up to the platform, securing my stance.

My face a mask of flabbergast as I looked at a black shadow tentacle which blocked the path forward and one behind which had supposedly attacked me.

My mana surged as a hot flame conjured from the tips of my fingers and an ice spell ready in my other hand.

But the tentacles backed off of the platform and melted back into the dark shadows of the void below.

“What the fuck was that...” I said with a breath, looking dumbfounded by the shook of seeing that 'thing' emerge from out of no where.

Did that happen because I decided to fly? Like some defence mechanism which stopped me from flying my way to the end of this platform.

I tried lifting my body in the air a second time out of curiosity as I very slowly covered the distance with my mana ready. I twirled my body back as I dodged a tentacle lunged at me from the side.

I lost focus and my feet landed back on to the platform.

“Walking it is...”

After having covered some good distance and looking for any clues that I could find along the way, which I didn’t, I finally reached a dead end. The platform from in front of me just vanished and there was only an endless void which awaited.

I sat down and decided to take it easy for a while and rest.

I fiddled and experimented with the keystone in the mean time, but the results were unsatisfactory.

“Damn it, that remnant should have just given me some goddamn clue about how to operate this thing,” I grunted as I released a potent charge of my mana and tried pouring it into the keystone forcefully.

“What about learning new things to gain insight and knowledge, I didn’t even know what this useless death relic was supposed to do anyways.”

I kept pouring mana into keystone in pure frustration, but it was just getting repelled the more I tried. It felt like I was trying to pour water into a sealed cube with no entries whatsoever.

Did the mana needed to enter in a specific order or frequency for the keystone to react?

I tried doing that almost immediately, sending my mana in short and high burts and low and high outputs of it, but my attempts didn’t produce any ample results.

I took a deep breath as I went into a more comfortable position and tried again as I released my mana in a calm and gentle prickle as if barely trying to touch the keystone as I relaxed my mind and felt for any opening or ways to stimulate the dead relic to life, but just then the keystone shuddered suddenly as I sent a wave of my mana gently into it and it began to give of a dim iridescent flash of light as it hummed in a monotonous series of blinks. But then all of a sudden, the light grew more potent as I covered my eyes and it completely enveloped my body, as an unimaginable amount of pain overcame and seared away at my mind. I screamed under the surge of pain threatening to burst my mind as I felt the nerves of my temples swell as my brows contorted and I felt shivers running uncontrollably around my body.

I felt a suction force pull me towards itself as I felt like I had crashed against a hard surface of something rough and sturdy, like a wall, as I was being thrust deeper and deeper into it. My skin squashed against this wall like surface as my bones whined under the force pushing me deeper.

The transition left like hours as if I was moving at a snail’s pace, and I felt like I was trying to move through the sturdy wall, except the sensation was like trying to crack free of an egg’s shell—but it didn’t seem to budge even a little—, but one which was as hard as steel and unyielding under any action I took.

I tried stretching out my senses under the vertigo and pain, as I felt like I was still under control of my physical body, but feeling like I was stuck inside the keystone realm, but I couldn’t seem to focus on anything except for the pain and the rough surface which I was pressed against.

But what I did realise was that it was cracked and full of crevices and holes through which I able to peer to the other side. And what I saw was a pitch black darkness, darker than any black I had ever seen. But something about that place beyond this wall looked familiar for some reason.

My temples contorted and the bursts of pain increased as I tried to understand what I was witnessing. Or was this a part of the riddle for solving the keystone? The intended challenge for unlocking the keystone.

Like some puzzle I needed to understand to try to unravel the insight which this keystone was supposed to give me.

But unfortunately I didn’t have time to do anything, as I was forced to withdraw back as the pain grew unbearable to the point that it felt like each pore over my body was being thrust with thin and sharp needles over and over.

My grip loosened over the keystone, and it rolled down my thigh and slumped on to the platform with a slight thud.

Sweat trickled the sides of my face as my breathing became uneven and skin tone paled as the blinding light of the keystone settled down and I took a breath of relief, lying with my back facing the platform.

I questioned this situation, but it didn’t make any sense. Why did this happen all of a sudden? I felt the same sensation when I had entered the keystone realm for the very first time, but it was different. I was still outside, dully aware of my surroundings and what was happening to my body—akin to like having my mind split into doing two different tasks and distinguishing those two separate matters at once and understanding them by forming a single answer inside my mind—but the sensation felt like a knife was being pierced into my brain through my temples. The pain was excruciating.

Slowly, I recovered from the lingering pain and straightened.

But almost instantly I frowned as I saw that a new set of platform was floating in the air in front of me.

Now what?? I retorted with a scowl as a wary expression arched my face, my eyes peering through the area for any movement or for those tentacles from before.

I took the keystone back—it again looked dead and unresponsive—and stored it inside the inventory and decided to move.

After a long walk, my venture finally brought me to a set of dark shadowy staircase which led up to a giant door which looked like an arched entrance.

I walked up and touched the pair of doors made of the same shadowy material as the platform, which hummed slightly as they shuddered.

The doors made an old creaking noise as they grinded against the ground and opened.

Razor’s edge held firmly in my hand as I walked through the arched entrance and stepped foot on to a wide platform which was twice as wide and larger than the platform from before.

But as if someone had placed a blade on my neck, I felt an ominous feeling emerge from the depths of my being as I felt cold sweat over the back of my neck.

I positioned my body into a stance with razor’s edge withdrawn and my mana working to clad my body in a protective layer.

My eyes laid over the interior of the platform which looked more like a cage from the inside, with criss-crossed wires working as the walls and ceiling, sealing off any attempt of escape.

The gates behind me closed with a loud thud, closing the last form of escape offered by this place.

The hair at the back of my neck stood as I laid eyes on an ancient stone throne with unreadable and alien runes engraved over its armrests and sides and soon enough on to the being whom sat over it.

My chest seemed to heave heavily for breath as I made contact with an armoured golem which sat with poise over the throne with its back straight and arms crossed.

It’s shiny midnight armour dazzled in the dim light of the humming platform which looked as shiny as scales with red rimmed details which added an air of subtlety to the armour, but upon closer inspection it also showed some form of wear and damage such as old wounds and cracks from some rough battle, as I saw two dark and ancient eyes which looked more like energy than an actual person through the helmet it was wearing which had two onyx horns jutting from the side, twisting and curling upward as they looked as sharp as daggers.

I felt the same sense of dread and fear pinch at my insides when I was facing the mimic. That thing wasn’t normal.

The armoured golem stood from the enormous throne, as its entire bulk came visible to me. It was five times my size and looked extremely intimidating with it dark eyes gleaming and looking balefully at me, as each step it took caused the platform to shake and a rattling noise made from its armour to enter my ears.

It took a few steps and now stood just a few feet away from the centre of the platform.

Then out of no where, its arms shimmered and burst with a bright light as the mana in the air wheezed and seem to move in a frenzy, as if being pushed and pulled forcefully. The forearm part of the arm opened up and adjusted and a huge and long blade like weapon, purely made of otherworldly energy appeared over the armour which looked completely black and corrupted but moving in a way as if warping the fabric of space to sustain itself and exist, as a war hammer appeared in its other hand which had several runes engraved over it’s surface which gave off a slight hum.

With both of its weapons ready, the armoured golem took a step forward.

‘My fondness for statues and golems honestly died back when I had to fight a countless amount of them in the basiliskdungeon.’ I thought.

“Well, seeing one again doesn’t bring back any fond memories either.” I remarked as I steadied my posture cladded my body and the sword with mana as I warily peered at the golem cover the distance.