Silence filled the room with only the occasional tapping of fingers on a terminal echoed throughout the inscription lit area, in the centre a figure sat in an almost meditative position with his legs cross and arms resting on his thighs, although his eyes were covered by black wrapping so you couldn't tell, his normally blue glimmer filled eye sockets lacked such a feature, he had shifted in to an almost sleep like state while waiting for the calibrations to be finished.
This, of course, was Seth; he decided to take the time to think since he had nothing else to do, the images that flashed in his mind were the things that happened the past few days, experiencing the fall of such a majestic capital had left a deep impact on him, it's not something you would think about day to day as a normal human, you take everything for granted and never think about the possibility that it will be gone the next day, of the countless lives that rest at the bottom of the ravine many of them probably never lived the day before thinking the next would be their last, they died in reluctance and despair.
Then, the figure of the only other person he has met since reviving, the King of the former Alora kingdom, Lloyd Reverie; Back when he was a young child and managed to glance upon their return that day his only thoughts about Lloyd were things like how 'amazing' the prince was, how 'proud' he looked, simple hollow praises pinned to the face of a prince.
Yet through a cruel twist of fate he ended up meeting the very same person at the end of his life, yet now he had learned more about him, the previous image was shattered and what was left behind was a mere person swept up by their life, yet this person had aspirations suitable for a 'king'; He recalled the short conversations he had when he learned Lloyds intentions, his reason for 'living' and he couldn't help but ask himself.
'Do I have that?'
A goal, a will, a burning fire that lights the road forward, filled with an almost insane desire that fuels the very steps that moves one's feet; He was profoundly affected by the unstoppable desire that was reflected in the kings' eyes at that very moment, it made him feel hollow as if everything he's done wasn't for himself but for the world around him, or maybe it was for nothing at all.
Before the knew it, the reel that showed his life began rolling in his mind.
If he had to sum it his first life in a single word, it would probably be 'pitiful', not interesting yet not a failure, he was born in to a middle class family in England and had no siblings, his mother worked as your bog-standard office lady in a supervisor position for a sales company, while his father worked as a sub-contractor for building sites, they worked full time shifts from morning to night so the only time he'd really see them was in the morning for a little while as they rushed to prepare for work and drop him off at a childminder and later pre-school and such, when they came home at night while he was young he essentially never saw them as he was already put to bed, even later in his life as he grew up they were usually too tired to interact with him when they got back, his Dad usually spent his free time watching TV while drinking albeit not excessively, while his mother shut herself in her bedroom usually either asleep or having alone-time, while there wasn't really any conflict within the household it was rather static which made him develop in to a kid who would rather be alone than with others.
Of course seeing his parents work so much made him have an innate dislike for work, he didn't understand why they would tire themselves out so much and never have fun and laugh, being a kid his cognitive development was weak so he couldn't grasp the full picture, this led to him never putting his all in to school work because he had the impressions of his overworked parents burned in to his mind, despite the scales being entirely different, at most he was average at best in his classes and occasionally got in to scuffles and trouble yet nothing too major happened as he grew up.
The biggest change that happened in his life was high school, he was called home one day by his mom and was told that his dad had an accident on site and a load had fallen on to him, putting him in a coma, at this news the reaction the young Seth gave was lukewarm at most, when seeing this his mom cried and hugged him tight, she knew they hadn't spent too much time with their child yet seeing such a lack of reaction from her husbands death stung her hard.
Of course, changes happened soon after, with half of the household income gone, the savings they had left were their lifeline; The houses mortgage still wasn't paid off and there was the usual monthly costs that flew out of the door easily, the pressure on his mother increased drastically, compared to her husband her job never paid as much, and they never had life insurance so there was no pay out from that, at most she tried to sue the construction company he was working for at the time for having poor safety practices leading to his death but it was put down as own negligence, she couldn't afford a better lawyer so they had one given to them yet he seemed to side with the company to her dismay.
Seth watched this all on the side-lines and as he watched and listened to his mom complaining day in and day out, seeing her figure lose weight and her hair turn white he realised he didn't know anything, his parents had hidden a lot from him, but this wasn't unusual, a parents problems shouldn't burden the child, yet when he heard everything stacking up, the mortgage, monthly bills, car payments, previous debts and more stacking up together something struck him deep in his mind.
He was scared.
At this point he was in the latter half of high school, he felt he had played around too much and lost too much time, he felt like the world was collapsing in on him, even though it was more of his mothers problem to him the sudden realisation put him in panic mode, in his head he thought that if he didn't get his act together he would lose everything and become a homeless bum or worse, his teenage mind went in to overdrive with exaggeration.
Though he struggled, he forced himself to change the way he acted, he no longer fooled around with school and worked as hard as he could to get the best grades he could push, unfortunately he was no genius, so he ended up with barely above standard grades after passing his GCSE's, during this time he spent even less time with his mother from his almost crazed closed door revising sessions and sleep schedules.
Before long he graduated high-school and took on a college course for general business, time went on and he passed that as well, but the second change happened at almost the same time, his mother passed away in her sleep.
He was the one to discover her body after he woke up in the morning and saw she wasn't preparing for work, seeing her still body lying in bed with pale skin and a cold stiffness he felt something inside him break, without realising it he had lost something else.
With help from his remaining close relatives he prepared the funeral, as her son he was to give a speech about her there yet when it came to it he froze, he had written a decent amount about her, about how she was a great mother, and it wasn't wrong yet he couldn't speak, he realised he never really knew his parents, he was too self-interested when he was younger and when his father passed away he moved on to a sole focus on getting better grades, at no point did he make a proper attempt to get to know them and it struck him like a knife in the heart, he broke down on the podium and cried.
After everything was said and done, he still had to move on; He couldn't afford to go to university so he went straight to working, he couldn't pay the mortgage of his childhood home, so he had to move to a smaller place, luckily the debts left weren't inherited which at least took some pressure off of him.
He started working at a convenience store, working his way up to being a manager and then moved on to bigger jobs, he gained plenty of experience for running retail stores and such so he followed that pathway and eventually he came to 'that' job position.
It was only a stepping stone position for him, he worked in a place that dealt with sales transactions in bulk for larger companies, he couldn't believe his eyes when on his first day he discovered signs of fraud and embezzlement, even after confronting his new co-workers they openly admitted it and tried to coerce him in to joining them, but to Seth such a thing wasn't even considered, he had always done stuff by the book and didn't even want to think getting caught red handed doing such a thing, he didn't care if he earned the ire of his newly joined party after all he wasn't planning on staying here for long, of course when it was found out they were all severely punished not just by the company but by the law, he thought he had made the right decision as he was granted a better position and praise by doing this, he never considered any form of repercussion.
He never watched crime dramas or anything of the sort, even news stories he felt were over-dramatized for sensationalism, so what he never expected was to be run down, he was a normal person who always acted within the law; He had the usual sense of safety that nothing like this could ever happen to him and anyone who said otherwise was merely over-reacting.
But unfortunately, it did, and as he laid in the road with rain lightly patting his rapidly cooling body, he could only ask himself as he thought about where he was:
'What have I even lived for?'
He didn't have a happy childhood, even after achieving decent grades and passive college he never stopped working, he kept moving up for some reason as if something was compelling him yet he never gave it much thought, he felt the idea of 'to live is to work' has been ingrained in his body and mind subconsciously, even if he tried to get in to a relationship or tried to find a hobby all he felt was a shallow response from himself so it never worked out, at most he read some novels or watched some shows in his free time but even then he never considered them his actual hobbies.
Needless to say, when he was reborn into a baby's body, he didn't know what to think; As if a dam had burst, he felt a myriad of emotions fill his mind, a seal had broken and they flowed throughout him like rapids, slamming and twisting inside his mind as he wailed for days on end, even after he initially finished, he couldn't help but continue whenever he thought about his previous life.
It wasn't until he was around two years old his urge to burst out in tears receded, and what replaced was a sense of refreshment as if all those years of sadness and stress were washed away, he finally started paying attention to the world around him in full, his 'parents' were farmers on the outskirts of some sort of kingdom and he had five siblings, three brother and two sisters, he truly felt this second life was both forgiveness and a chance to start fresh.
He knew this world wasn't the same one as his previous life so he easily left everything behind after his two years of lament, he enjoyed his life as a child unlike last time, he wasn't entirely bratty and put in a decent amount of effort to learn about everything around him yet playing with his siblings and the other kids in the small outskirts town truly felt like a godsend for him, even his mind seemed to revert to that of a child's as he played in bliss.
Soon came the awakening ceremony and he realised the world had a system similar to that of the old games he played back when he was younger in his old life, it excited him as he reinforced in his mind that his world seemed like a dream come true where he could live to the fullest.
Even after going through basic training, learning how to read and write the worlds letters and words and other vital lessons that light carelessness never dimmed even a little, as he set out to journey as an adventurer he experience a freshness he never felt before, travelling the world (Even if restricted to the Alora country) and experiencing new things constantly filled him with joy, he quickly blazed through the ranks of an adventurer eventually reaching a silver rank, one of the first 'most respected' ranks in the system.
When he heard about a new dungeon being found, he couldn't help but jump on the first expedition in joy, even though he found some of the people shady he put it in the back of his mind because of the excitement he felt, after all this life was a dream for him.
But of course, that was quickly shattered soon after, one might think a human will easily learn their lesson from previous problems however that isn't entirely true, people aren't computers, they can easily make the same mistake twice, being overconfident and being filled with a strong type of denial can affect doing so quite easily and that's exactly what happened here.
He was caught, bound and used as a test subject, as it happened, he truly realised.
'This isn't a dream; this wasn't a blessing given to me as an apology for my first life; This was merely a second chance, and I took it for granted'
His life dimmed once more in the reel as the lights in his eye sockets lit up as his body sat crossed legged.
He was given a third life, whether he should laugh or cry at his circumstances it didn't matter, the only fact he needed to know was that he still had a chance.
'I will live as I want!'
A fire lit up in his soul.
'I will do as I desire!'
'I will move where I please!'
'I will kill or save who I want!'
'I will be and live for myself!'
He recited as if a scripture to his very being.
"Okay, it's set up, I'll drop you outside the outskirts of my former capital, are you ready?"
A voice resounded and acted like a fire starter; the strong flame became a blaze.
Seth looked at Lloyd and nodded resolutely
Inside of him, the fragments hummed and resonated.
A white light engulfed him.
From now on, he would truly live.