An empty white room.
That's what it looked to me.
There was nothing around, and the further I tried to look, the larger the area felt. The place was cool. Probably was a blank dimension. My mind was blank, yet the anger of seeing someone I just started getting close to pass away right in front of me was there. What I could worst recall was me going berserk right after mom's disappearance, which probably led to a malfunction of the powers I have.
My body felt light, and noticed I was floating, with no idea about the closeness of any surface beneath. I wanted to move around, even if I couldn't find anything in that blank dimension, but my body wouldn't budge an inch. Time had frozen it felt. Or rather, my body had become paralysed from the intense stress over these few days.
All I could think of was the deeds I had done since the day I came here.
There were none.
None bad, none good.
Unless trying to defeat the enemy counts.
It probably doesn't, but what has been done cannot be undone.
"Hello?" I called out. My voice was still intact even though a little weak, but it was a relief.
No answer came; unexpected.
All I could do was stay where I was, the way I woke up and go back to sleep.
I closed my eyes, ready to go off, when someone called out my name.
"Osvaldo! OSVALDO"
I half-opened my eyes, to see a blurred half-elf looking frantically at me.
"Who are you," I asked.
"Os Os there's something wrong. You aren't supposed to be here. Your mom has been trapped. You've got to get out of here. Quick, I don't have much tim-" and he disspitated.
My eyes widened. Hope came. I didn't know who that half-elf was, but if what he said was true, and mom was trapped, that means she was alive.
It was almost like a gamble, considering I could get caught if it turned out to be a lie. But the risk was worth it.
There was no time to be playing around. All my days of fun end right here.
My body was still immobilised with me floating, and all I could do was try to struggle from that position, if by any chance I could manage to wriggle myself free.
I couldn't. It was a worthless struggle.
But I at no cost would give up, given the circumstance.
My right index finger wriggled. An improvement.
It was a very time-taking process, and I had to hurry.
A sudden thought to speed up the process.
I could get hurt, but at least that might free my body.
I stopped struggling, and closing my eyes, pictured the flow of mana through my body. I could see in my head the way it went through my entire body.
My strategy was to try if I could get a major portion of my mana concentrated at my free finger, and then release fire through it so that the heat taking over my body might let it be a little more free. After all, cold freezed the body, heat released the body.
I tried to picture the flow of mana from all over my body into that one finger, and set a limit of 30%. I didn't know how much mana would be required to get out of this state so I had to try with a small quantity first, just in case.
It worked, comparatively fast but not very fast, though steadily. The rest of my body felt slightly light, and my finger heated up. I increased the limiter to 40% for a greater chance, even if I could burn myself.
That 10% change was painful, and since the shield protected my body from the outside would not come in use right now, until the fire hits my body, considering it was repaired.
*Limiter to 40%, mana tranfer successful, waiting to release*
A voice spoke in my head.
The same one that spoke some time ago.
I opened my eyes. The words came straight to my mouth.
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* Mana release — Self-Flare *
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My finger caught fire, then suddenly stopped.
An orb, dark red with green spots formed at the tip of my finger on the nail. It enlarged, and consumed my entire body. I closed my eyes in surprise, thinking it would be painful, but there was no pain. The shield was probably repaired to some level so as to not let damage get through to me. The inside of the orb was more traumatising, compared to how the outside looked. Probably because fire is meant to kill people, and this power "Flare" is then supposed to kill in a more deadly manner, which I would try to change depending on the requirement.
Despite the drawbacks of the looks, it did work. My body slowly had started to heat a little, and I could wriggle my fingers and toes. Slowly within some time, I was able to fully move my body while levitating. The orb retreated, and went inside my nail.
*Physical conditions - Normal. New technique - shield absorb - mana extend*
I did not have time to figure out what exactly that meant, but I had to get out of this place as fast as I could. However, I could not do so without any planning. If I end up in trouble again without any prior preparation, I would become the way I was then.
Taking a momentary pause from this tension, I opened my screen whilst being suspended in the air and fidgeted around for anything helpful that I could use to both get out of here, and use against the enemy, if I encounter them right off the bat.
The dimension shook.
Yes, it shook.
Quite violently for an empty dimension especially.
A disturbance in the air. Someone appeared in front of me, smiling.
"Hello Osvaldo, it's our first time meeting I believe," he said.
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A sharp pain in my head. My head in my hands. My hands clutching my head tightly. Me trying to resist the pain. I staggered back, and tried to look up at the guy. My eyes blurred, and the scene started to change.
I found myself in a different place which I knew, floating high in the air above a city near the palace, which was under attack. I zoomed in automatically, and while trying to resist it, I noticed I couldn't. All I could do was stop resisting and going wherever I was being taken to.
I was back in my previous world, though probably not physically.
Buildings around burning, people running away in fear, black dragons blowing fire, giants stepping on small houses and smashing people with just their feet - one of the horrors that I had faced in my previous world. This scene seemed way too familiar.
I looked around, and noticed some people I recognised instantly.
One was me, when I was working as the assistant general of the palace force. However, I was running around rather confusedly, as if looking for something or someone. I used to have physical enhancement powers as my one special power, through which I came out on top always, in addition to the other powers I had. This was how I got to the assistant general position and later, the top general.
I realised I didn't remember my previous family's faces, and right then, I was taken to the place where a family of three were being attacked. A man, a woman and a small girl child, of probably 4. My head lashed out in pain, and on closing in, the memory settled.
That was my family. My dad (Waylen Cron), my mom (Lennon Cron) and my younger sister (Letitia Cron). Our house (2-storeyed) looked as if it was smacked down from above. Totally destroyed.
My dad had his back entirely slashed with blood flowing out like a stream of river, my sister enclosed in his arms, shielding her from the outside violence; my sister with one foot gone, trying to heal dad with all her possible might while crying from the pain he got, my mom putting on a shield over them. From one of her eye sockets was blood trickling down, her legs and belly slashed, trying to steady her breathing while fighting off smaller demons.
I couldn't speak. My throat was choked.
Despite so much trouble, they did not call for help. Neither me, nor anyone from the other working soldiers. A beheaded body was there a little away, of a close friend of mine. We were colleagues in the army. He had tried to save them, but couldn't succeed in doing so.
The moment of eternal peace was visible. The biggest, and the strongest middle demon had arrived, and he was known to destroy cities like tearing paper.
I could see two scenes at once, yet able to differentiate them.
On one hand, me running to where then I thought my family could have run off to.
On the other hand, my family desparately trying to live.
I saw I arrived at the scene, and was a little distant from my family, when the demon started to raise his leg and step on my family.
With a surge in adrenaline, I shouted and enhanced myself to the utmost limit and ran as fast as I could, rampaging through whatever came in my way to stop me. Just a little far I was when mom saw me coming, but instead of trying to move away as much as possible, she muttered something to dad, and once all three of them looked at me, I felt unparalleled disbelief.
All three of them were smiling, with only my sister having tears in her eyes.
"It's okay, Aziel. It's okay. Forget us, and save the others, will you?", "We're proud of you, and now go," I could hear mom and dad say this, without seeing their lips move.
I somehow heard their minds.
I still didn't stop, believing that even if not me, if by any chance a miracle could happen, someone else might be able to save them. However, that did not come true.
The foot of death fell upon them.
I lost my mind, and lost control of my powers, and within a small closed radius, cleared the majority that is, nothing existed around me there except the brown soil; no demons, no humans, no building, no nature.
What I realised while seeing this was, my mom then and now had similar personalities and gave off the same vibe. I lost her then. But I couldn't this time.
The pain faded slowly, and I came back into the empty dimension, facing the man.
"How long was I out?" I asked.
"Time travels differently in different places. In here, it's slower than the real world. What you just saw, was just a little more than a second so an approximated 2 seconds," he answered.
"Do you understand now?" he asked.
I nodded in positive.
I had a second chance. Not just to save my mom, but also get rid of whatever negative lies in the way.
Playtime was over.
I couldn't let go of this chance at any cost. I had to defeat the demons, but before that came my primary objective : rescuing mom, and destroying whoever was interefering in our lives.
All this with the main aim being not losing myself. I had support that I chose by myself based on how I thought I could use them. I got to bring out more than my maximum.
Yet there was a question in my mind.
"Who are you? And how do you have my memories?" I asked.
His answer both relieved and tensioned me.
"I am Idris. One of the three fates of this world. I am the one who holds the utmost power of us three and I have not full, but half of your memory."
The dimension shook once again, but more violently this time.
"Ah, looks like we're out of time at the right moment. Well then, former Aziel. See you again sometime. I hope you succeed."
With that, he snapped his fingers, and the dimension broke. I fell down a void, which was somehow a considerable duration of time, during which I made up my mind on the way I was going to approach everything.
I saw ground beneath, and saw I was in the air. I dropped straight down, slowing down my impact to not damage the surroundings further.
I was back in the forest. But this time, it had a different glow to it, as if beckoning me somewhere. A route lit up orange, lay on the ground in wave like motions, wanting me to come along.
Seeing no other possible route and option, I went where I was being taken to.
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It was dark.
The route and the place.
There was space to walk, but I couldn't see anything, so there was the danger of tripping and falling into some unknown space.
"Ember," I thought.
My right hand caught fire, bright red without thankfully any pain. My body was finally getting used to these ridiculous intensities of powers. I wondered how concentrated my mana was, since I didn't feel any mana drain as well. The shield was probably helping as well.
Some area around me lit up, but not enough to see anything.
I could see a wall on my left a little away, so carefully I went there, and using the flames and the support, went ahead.
A little ahead, towards the right but diagonally, I could see an enclosed space, with four stands on each corner, with some leaves and stuff. I went and lit them up, just so that I could see around a little more clearly.
All four lit up, and for a moment, nothing happened.
I moved around to see if there was something worth thinking about or noticing, but due to the low light, there was not much to see. It was as if I was in another empty dimension, or rather a long corridor, with nothing near where there was light.
I couldn't waste much time around here, hence decided on moving ahead, with my ember's light.
I lit my hand again, and resumed my travel.
Soon enough, after walking for quite some time, I could see another faint light, though still quite distant from where I was.
From walking, I went over to jogging, and then running; all within a very short time. In order to increase my speed so that I could reach faster, I thought of physique enhancer and increased my speed five-fold. Gradually, the light brightened and increased in size, and once I reached, it completely blinded me.
A rubbed my eyes, but was still seeing some stars in them. Nevertheless, I opened my eyes, and they widened.
My mom was there 3 feet away from me, shackled to a post with her hands tied to it, her fully covered in blood, and a sharp axe falling on her neck.