CHAPTER 7 -DECISION-

Mordain let out a powerful spell, letting the mana around me shiver again as the sun rose from behind me.

My hand was already close to the sword, what could go wrong here? My death is for sure one thing but either than that?

Not having another plan in mind but only to grab the opportunity to get the sword, I decided to make that call.

I didn’t look back to see the asuran prince’s face but I knew he had some guilt for letting such a powerful spell slip like that to a two year old boy.

The giant sphere dissipated into a huge wall of fire or lava, I couldn’t tell because I had tunnel vision on the sword specially. But what I did know was that I needed mana to coat my body with it to alleviate the damage done to me and my infant body.

I closed the palm of my dominant hand and tried to pull out the sword but it was too much for me right now. With no mana in my core, calling back the mana in my legs–that I had used as support–back into my core.

Like I had thought, only six percent of my mana was back. I was surprised with how much I needed to support my fragile legs during this time. I currently now have to face this giant wall of heat with just a sword made out of fire… wait.

A sword made out of fire… The same sword that was on my hands, stuck into the ground from a single throw.

To counter the wall I too needed a wall from the same element. Overload the fire–yet looking like a normal sword–with my six or less percent of mana. It was far stretched as well as a gamble but I had no other option in my arsenal.

If only I had a beast will to use like Sylvia’s who had the ability to stop time, though it wasn’t without paying a price.

Ahh! To hell with this!

Instead of using the mana for overloading the sword, I made the ground below the sword move so that I could get it out. When it landed free from the ground, the weight countered my sense of perception and I was on a timer.

The fire wall was already close enough for me to feel the heat, one thing that I didn’t believe at the moment was that the sword reacted to the spell in front of me. Perhaps maybe, I could use the three percent of my mana left in my core to strengthen my weak arms to later then swing the sword against the fiery wall.

Whilst having the mana strengthen my feeble arms, I still had difficulty adjusting to this sudden power of nothing.

Nevertheless, today I will end this bullshit once in for all.

The heaviness of the sword was pressing down on me when I put it on my shoulder, losing balance and equity for sense and power. I had little to no seconds left until the wall reached me.

I gritted my young teeth and took a weighted step forward to balance myself from this giant unnecessary swing I was about to do.

Being toe to toe with the powerful spell, it was finally time to make the big decision for this world and myself. To cut this fire wall like nothing while holding my pride for the future me when I fight that bastard myself.

The normal looking blade smoothly cut through the red and yellow wall like nothing before dispersing a huge barrier around me. It had countered each other, fire with fire, and then there was nothing of those two spells. Non-existing powers of perhaps my imagination towards the lack of oxygen I was going through.

The collision of the two spells made a vortex while having me in between, sending my body across the room like some ragdoll that was lifeless in this situation. I heard Mordain–the phoenix prince–yell my name in concern and guilt.

“Serves- you right-” I managed to say with a mouth full of blood before blacking out in an instant.

CAIN LAMBARD

My body began to shake.

No.

Someone was shaking my body, like they were trying to wake me up from a dream. I didn’t want to, this dream was something I had wanted ever since I knew about this novel. The Beginning After The End. But now it was feeling like a dream.

“...in–”

“Ca–”

Who calls me Cain? My name now is–

What was my name? I don’t remember it at all.

My eyes shot open when I realized that my name was something I had forgotten. As I did, I recognized the setting around me.

This was the college campus’ library!

Why?

…Why!?

Why have I returned to earth?! What was the reason for my soul to return?

Dammit!

I cursed, scaring the people who were around me as I dashed out of the college and into the park ten minutes away.

I needed time.

Time to realize that this was truly earth and not Dicathen.

Seeing these modernized people in the bus was building a sad feeling inside of me, I missed everyone.

My mother.

“Mia.”

My father.

“James.”

I had said their names without me knowing.

I had missed everything about that place, even if it was a dream I wanted to go back and be in that dream even if it meant not being able to come back to this world. I had made a promise to myself, to never make my mother sad and here I am in a different world.

Spotting a lonely seat on the hill of the park, I decided to sit on it while I looked at the city I was in. Something welded up behind my eyes, before I knew it, I was crying. Streams of tears came non-stop and my breathing became unstable, hiccups filled with nothing but sadness of not being able to go back to my Dicathien parents.

I had parents in this world as well, but they had died in a tragic accident when they both enrolled in the army after I had joined middle school. Since then I was alone, the only child without any love or concern for anything I did.

When I was born in Dicathen as–

I was distant from my parents because I was scared that they too would leave me. But instead I grew attached to them without me realizing it.

My body jolted forward into the green grass, my knees screamed in pain from the sudden jump to the soil but I ignored it. Putting both of my hands to the ground as I faced the grass, loud enough for anyone close to me in a two meter radius, I said, “Forgive me, Mia, James. I won’t be able to see you guys ever again. I’m sorry that you child has left both of you and went back to my old world. I’m sorry I won’t be able to keep my promise, mother. Father, protect mother while I’m gone, yeah?.”

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I then spent hours and hours crying in the park.

Before I knew it, it had already been evening. I had to go back to my apartment to–

To do what? Cain, you no longer have the will to live, or do you?

A ice cold voice from inside my head spoke, throwing old memories or old dreams of when I was in Dicathen as—

I tried to remember the name I had in Dicathen but it was futile. The more I tried the bigger the headache became to the point where my vision was static.

You were never meant to be successful or anything in this life, so why don’t you do us both a favor and kill yourself?

Again, the voice spoke in an awful familiar tone that was my own voice. The lights in the park were all on, except for one that was far from me but not too far for me to know someone’s features.

Someone was there, and not just a random homeless guy but an actual person. The presence of him was something I had felt before but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

The light above the person shuttered on and off multiple times like it wanted me to know who that person was. And it had succeeded in doing so, because the way that I was able to make out the person’s features had instilled fear and anxiety into me.

It was a boy with short black hair with long locks that went past his jaw. Tall enough to be around six feet while still being a teenager. His creepy and dark glowing red crimson eyes when the light came to a complete darkness made him look like an apex predator.

The way his eyes had that emotion and setting of being a superior character was like when Mordain looked at me the first time I saw him. It was the same feeling of watching an asura powerful enough like Aldir or Windsom.

His outfit was the same but different from the lances of Dicathen. The same design but different colors and styles.

“So this was the old me? The earth version that was part of me.” The world seemed to stop when he spoke. Having the same tone as the one inside my head that was telling me to kill myself, it irritated me.

With my brows down and my eyes on anger, all I could do now was to look at him with the slightest hint of displeasure.

On his right hand, a swirling of distortion of wind—or my own eyes had played games with me—summoned a sword out of thin air. On his left hand, a different looking sword was summoned as well.

Both of the weapons seemed to be the opposites of each other, yet they were unique like Regis and Dawn’s Ballad.

Being on the right hand of this bastard, the sole color that made up the whole weapon itself, dark black. While the other was based on psychedelic colors, unlike the black blade, only the hilt of the second sword was black.

Together, with a crucial amount of irritation and a hint of amusement, I spoke in an icy tone like he did before. “Who the hell are you?” I stood up and faced the boy with my fist ready for a fight–of course I would go to jail if the police found out but I would make sure that this boy wouldn’t remember who attacked him.

Additionally, this boy had two weapons but whether or not they were real swords the problem here would be that I did it in self-defense when court day came.

His facial expression changed, disgusted at my sight and actions, the boy simply stepped forward, then another one and again until he was toe-to-toe with me.

The crimson eyes were much fearsome when he was close, they had discipline and been in many battles perhaps witnessed many deaths as well. Hard dedication reflected on them like some water reflection or a mirror.

“You don’t need to know now, but…” He stopped mid sentence before stabbing me with the sword that radiated different colors. Like it wasn’t enough to insert half of the blade, he continued until the base of the guard was covered in my blood. “...You need to die here.”

It hurt more when the colorful blade slipped out my body. A handful of blood came from my mouth and I started to choke on it. My knees gave up in strength and I again ended up failing to be strong.

The oxygen to my lungs no longer entered.

Everything around me felt colder than usual. Was it because I was about to die?

Even my eyesight was different, a little blurry than normal but I was still able to tell some details in some things. Another thing was my hearing ability, it was getting worse with every second that passed on. Muffled noises and hearing nothing at all, all but my slowly dying heartbeat.

That was until heavy steps from behind me vibrated the ground. I was too weak to turn but I knew it was someone that came to help me, perhaps a bystander who saw this bastard stab me with that brilliant sword of his.

However, I am glad that I was able to die…

No.

I am scared to die here, alone in the coldness not being able to do something about this unknown boy. He might even destroy this world if possible. That was my only regret.

Once again. No.

My only giant regret is not being able to see Mia and James go into old age. Not being able to help Arthur Leywin was another regret I had when I woke up back in this world.

Random noises and whispers tried to enter my dying eardrums but not any word that I could make up while laid in my own hot and cold blood.

The bastard seemed to be in a panic when he saw whoever came to my aid, and suddenly he stood his guard with his stance. Miraculously, his surroundings started to get weird as well. Fire, Wind, Water, and Earth were floating around his body like he was the planet with atmospheric force.

A blast of literal lightning came from behind me, so I wasn't able to tell who it was. For a moment, I thought that I was hallucinating just for the fact that I was dying and my brain was playing tricks instead of my whole life flashing before my eyes.

The face that the short hair with long locks did was surprisingly satisfying knowing that he was angered by whoever is behind me.

Just you wait! If I reincarnate again, I will make sure to get my revenge for this bastard!

…and maybe, just maybe, if I really have luck on my side and go back to Dicathen. My decision will be to not live with regrets anymore.

My eyelids got heavy with pain from my chest, being where I got stabbed without remorse or guilt. That is when it finally settled, my time had finally arrived and I could do nothing about it…

LUKE HODGES

My body jolted in instinctual pain after feeling death’s hand in my old world.

When I came to, I was in a room filled with pure mana that entered my body and into my core effortlessly as it purified the mana in my core.

Wrapped around with a heavy amount of bandages that covered most of my skin—where the fire barrier didn’t properly protect my body—small little hints of blood were visible on them.

“This might take longer if I let it go.” I muttered, picking up the blanket from my legs and seeing that the damage was already more than I had thought. “Maybe some meditation for my core and my own healing abilities will hurry the process?”

Upon concentration, I let myself feel the sensation of mana around me, feeling such presence in the air. I couldn’t feel it before for some reason but now it was possible for me like a second nature.

Yet, the question that stands between that and what happened after the accident was still waiting. “Because I don’t think that sleeping would increase my core stage!”

How?! When?! Huh?!

My voice—which was loud enough for a two year old—alerted the people outside the room. Voices from the other side of the door were heard but I decided to ignore them since my main priority was to know how in the actually fu—

“Young Luke Hodges, you finally have woken up.” Said the voice that I thought that I wasn’t going to miss but I was wrong this time.

And like earlier, the prince of the phoenixes walked in the room with a plate of food better than the one from before. Seeing some familiar ingredients like chopped potatoes, a large piece of meat and bread on the side with some water.

I felt my mouth water just by imagining the taste of the food I used to eat before going to college in my old world.

However that wasn’t all, next to the sun's eye imitation, stood a tall woman around five feet with some gray hair that looked like it had been struck by lightning. Her wrinkled eyes with a strange mixture of colors, all blending, and her brows are thin and white.

The elven deviant user: Rinia Darcassan.

When her blended colorful eyes landed on me, she bowed with respect that was similar when she addressed Mordain. “We finally meet, King’s Shadow.”

“Again with that name, Mordain I thought we had talked about this.” I said, tired of this moniker.

The elder elf narrowed her eyes before turning to her master and he gave her a nod. With a less tense expression and tone, Rinia said, “I’m sorry for my imprudence towards you, Luke Hodges. Is that what you want to be called? Unless you liked your old name. Cain Lambard.”

I gritted my teeth in mention of my old name. Rinia Darcassan knew and had already seen my past, but has she seen my future?

Not knowing what to do with my anger, I instead decided to let out a sigh of anger. Though it wasn’t a great deal, it had for sure taken some irritation out of my system. Enough for me to at least talk to the elf with some calm mind.

While in between eating the meal Mordain had brought me, I spoke—after swallowing the food—“Luke Hodges is what my parents named me. Now tell me, Rinia Darcassan, why have you come for? And don’t tell me you were brought here without you using your deviant power.”

The old elven woman stared at me blankly, unknowingly as a child in a kindergarten class for the first time, not knowing what to expect.

But she also did something I didn’t expect, forming a grin of acknowledgment. She said, “Your words are true to some extent but they don’t make up to what I’ve come for, little Lu.”

The crazy haired elf then proceeded as she sat down in front of me with a conjured earthen chair made by a guard outside the door.

Rinia then continued, seriously looking up to me. “Though my powers seem to be known by you—whom I have never seen or met before—so perfectly. There is a certain problem with my visions. You, Luke Hodges, are not visible in any of my visions like any other person.”