What was this about? I pondered loudly, and it slipped out of my mouth as audible words, piercing through the eerie silence in the dim room. I was already shaken to my core, but what shook me even more was the fact that I was back to a certain timeline, around a few days ago. Did I really travel back in time?
Gasping for air, I leaned back in my chair, my arms resting on the table as my fingers subconsciously fidgeted with a coin. I need to get out of this. I thought. After composing my thoughts, I looked around to investigate. Everything was the same, just like a reflection of my past. Except I knew what was next.
I looked at the round clock that hung high on the wall on my left. It was 4 a.m. precisely when I had run to Lord Vestiron's mansion, only to be met with Maria there. Still, I wondered. What if I didn't run away this time? What if I just stayed here? Would something happen? Is something great waiting for me?
I got up from the chair, walked up to the dressing table, and looked at my own reflection. Everything was normal. No- Something was off. My body's condition is not the same as it had been that time.
I was brought to this world with wounds that were inflicted later on the timeline, much as only I remained constant in this world of the past.
"Constant. Variable. Which one are you?" An eerie voice brought a shiver down my spine as I looked back to the bed where my brother had been sleeping. A shadowy figure stood in front of me, right beside my snorting brother, who slept without a worry. The figure's voice made the air tremble as it spoke,
"Kreg. Audel. They are all the same. All of them walk the same stained stairs of fate and ultimately meet at a singularity. But the riddle remains: Which one of you is the real regressor? Which one of you is the constant while the other, simply a variable?"
I let out a worried frown and instinctively reached out for my sword, but it wasn't there. I asked the figure, who only stared at me. "Wh-Who are you? Were you the one to bring me here?"
The figure mused in pleasure as it laughed at my futile attempt. "I know something you don't, human. Think of it as a contest. To determine which one of you is real. "
Before I could reach out my hands, the figure added, "Let the judgment begin," and the whole scene faded.
"Audel? Audel! Wake up"
I woke up, this time not with a jolt but with a warm sensation in my head. I was lying on the cold prison floor, and Maria was healing my mental wounds, a golden brilliant light radiating from her fragile hands.
"H-He's back! Call Mr. Agrievious and father." She shouted. I looked around and saw Lietenant Utah Boltaire sprinting away from the cell.
"Wh-What happened?" I asked.
"A lot. 5 hours have passed..." She stopped with a frown and then added, "The boy- Kreg. He-"
I looked into her eyes in horror as I was unable to sense his mana in this vast dungeon. This can't be-
"What happened?" I asked again, this time with a forceful urge.
Her expression darkened even more, and she spoke with a softer tone, "I-I can't explain what happened. Please forgive me, Audel."
I got up from the cold floor with a sharp pain in my neck. Maria held out her hands to stop me but I ignored her. I needed answers, and I was getting none here. Ignoring the sharp pain, I sprinted for the exit before glancing back at Maria for the last time. She was shivering, not from the cold atmosphere but from fear. She was afraid. Afraid of me...
Still, I had to leave her alone. I can't involve myself further with this woman, I said inwardly. Whoever gets close to me is bound to a cruel fate, so I was doing her a favor. I ran away. From her. From myself.
"-And rejoice that we are not evading the Band of the Rebellions." A sharp voice cut out from the light of the tunnel. I sprinted faster and finally made my way to the exit of the dungeon. Except I was met with a peculiar and dangerous sight.
A figure wearing a foreign uniform floated high in the sky and looked down on the crowd of people beneath it. Among them were my master and the Diviner of light Agrievious himself. They were apparently talking with the figure who now stared at me. Their sight followed his.
"We are simply offering you lessers salvation." The middle-aged man's voice made the pebbles dance, his demeanor ever-threatening. And then the man added with a smirk, "Do not follow us or we must take your heads to the great Monarch. This is a final warning."
It was Agrievious who replied with a solid look on his face, "Why not attack us now? Or are you afraid of losing to us? You Eukaphrotians who have thrown away your lives to the sea of fate are nothing but a pawn to the Monarch."
"O' Great Diviner. I must sincerely remind you that you cannot win against me in this current vessel, for I am a General of the Great Empire."
"Then why don't you fight us now?" Agrievious shouted this time, his voice causing a rumble in the ground as many stumbled from the mere mana outrage of the words.
The man's smile disappeared, and he turned his back on us. "I've got what I wanted. And you have got yours. I am taking back my soldier and must warn you lessers for the last time. Do not fight back."
Before I could even exhale a breath, the man disappeared from my sight. The pressure was gone, and I could breathe freely again. I realized that my master had agreed to a sort of deal with that Eukaphrotian General. But only questions lingered in my disorganized mind.
I met Lord Vestiron's wary eyes, his silence speaking more than a thousand words.
Looking back, Agrievious said to me, "It's high time we train you. For the upcoming trial."