Anton was lying on his bed, his tears stopped falling, and he sat himself up on the bed. Many things were going through his head. The first thing was that this might all be a dream again, but why can't he just wake up? The second thing was what would happen if he woke up again? And lastly what would happen if he never wakes up again?
He didn't know an answer to any of those questions, and he tried to sleep but couldn't. He felt that something was wrong with him staying here, that he would lose something. Anton stayed up the whole night thinking about what he should do now when it became morning he had made a decision.
"Hey Anton, you aren't late today"
"Hey Ben, I wasn't late yesterday"
"Oh yes you were"
Anton went to school with Ben and Luca, they were again in the same class. Anton enjoyed it, to be together like this with his friends, to have his parents back. He even made plans with his parents to go to the cinema on Saturday.
And just like that days went by, weeks, and months. Anton was there now for around two months and there was not much left from the soul of the other world, but who could blame him, where he could live the life that he always wanted, he could do silly things with his friends, make trips with his parents and he even got a girl he liked very much.
But it all had to come to an end and it was on his birthday, November the 12th. When he woke up in the morning he could feel something weird inside him, like something important he had forgotten. This emotion was washed away when his parents came into his room and sang happy birthday to him, he got to blow out the candles on the cake and walked down the stairs to the kitchen. His friends were sitting there and congratulated him.
In school, the class sang for him and he go a present from the girl, it was a kiss. But even though this was Anton's best day in his life, he felt sad right now he couldn't understand why, this whole day was nothing but perfect, a day nothing can top in your life. But he still felt sad, he was trying to remember what he had forgotten, it felt like it was something really important.
"Hello Anton"
A voice was heard, but he was alone in his room, so who could it be?
"Who are you?"
"Don't you recognize my voice?"
Now that he paid more attention to the voice, he felt that it was very similar to his voice.
"You? Are you me?"
"Yes I am, to be precise I am you of this world"
"Huh? What do you mean, I am in this world"
Anton was confused, was he hallucinating? There was only one world and he was living in that so what was this voice talking about?
"You don't understand it, and neither do I, but one thing is clear you have different memories than me, memories that are not from here."
"What do you mean different memories? I have lived my whole life here:"
As Anton said that memories, that he had forgotten started to flow into his mind and the binding of the souls stopped. Anton cried when he got the memories back, it was painful and hate started to form in his heart, hate for himself. Hate that he forgot his friends and his world, that he robbed himself in another world and that he was living a happy life here.
"You don't need to cry or think that you robbed me, from the moment you came here till now we both lived together and made the decisions, we together made them"
Anton got a little comforted by those words, but it didn't help him much.
"Ok, even if you say that I still feel bad, but that is beside the point, we need to find out how I can go back"
It took a time till the other Anton answered back.
"Do you need to go that fast?"
Anton was shocked by his other self, why would he say such a thing? But the other wasn't finished with his sentence and continued speaking.
"I have grown attached to you"
Now that Anton thought about it he in this world must have the same problems as himself, back when his world was normal.
Anton didn't answer his other self and just stood up from the bed, left the room and walked over to his parent's room. While thinking, that what he was about to do now, he should have done it a long time ago. It seems his other self caught onto what he was doing.
"Hey stoop don't go there"
"Stoooooopppp"
They fought over the control of the body, but Anton was stronger than his other self, and they now stood before the door to the room. Anton knocked three times and his mother opened the door.
"Huh, Anton what are you doing here?"
Without answering Anton hugged her and whispered something to his mother.
"Mum, I need help, can you please help me"
Anton's mother answered with a trembling voice because it was the first time that Anton asked them for help.
"What do you need help with?"
Anton was now looking at them, his parents and his other self were sitting on the bed and his other self was talking about his problems to them. Anton was smiling and crying at the same time, he wished he had done the same thing in his world when his parents were still alive. When he saw the sight before him he knew he needed to protect this world and protect himself in the other world, but he had no idea how he should do that.
Suddenly the world before his eyes got blurry and the last thing he could see was his other self looking at him and mouthing something.
"Thank you"
It was only two words, but Anton knew the weight of those words because he never really said thank you to anyone in his life.
When Anton woke up again he was in an unfamiliar room or to be precise a cave. He was alone in this 'room' when he looked around it reminded him of the Goblin Kings hall, but only smaller. He stood up from the stone bed and walked through the hole in the wall, when he went through the hole he could see a familiar sight, the graveyard.
"So you finally woke up"
"Ah you are the one who sent me there"
The silhouette was talking to Anton as soon as he entered the graveyard, but this time his voice didn't hold any pressure.
"Oh no boy, I wasn't the one who sent you there. You sent yourself"
Anton was confused, did he get a new skill? Or was this silhouette lying to him?
"How can I believe you, I don't possess such a skill. I even checked my status window"
A slight smile formed on the silhouette, it was weird for Anton to see because the silhouette had no eyes this time.
"No you don't possess such a grand skill, but I do"
"Hah, so I was right. You did send me there"
The silhouette sighted out and explained to Anton what happened. Anton was a little bit shocked but it made sense to him, so he believed the silhouette for now. After the explanation, Anton noticed something on his body.
"Huh? Did you heal me?"
"Oh, yes I did that, I mean what was I supposed to do else? You were asleep for a whole two weeks. If I didn't heal you, you would have died"
Anton was stunned, some mythic being helped him out of boredom. No, there had to be a flaw.
"Thank you for that, but what do you want in return"
"Oh, you are quick-witted, I see now. I just want to speak to your sponsor."
Anton didn't know what the silhouette meant. But he could tell it one thing.
"I am sorry, but you can't"
The silhouette was a bit shocked, it didn't expect to be denied.
"Aha, and why can't I?"
"Because he is dead."
There was a long silence the silhouette was trying to find out if he was lying or not, before asking a question.
"Ok, then explain to me, if he is dead, why can I feel him inside you?"
Anton was a bit shocked by that, he thought that only sponsors and apostles could feel each other presence.
"I too thought that it was my sponsor, but it is only his powers that I feel not him"
The silhouette walked over to Anton, around him and sniffed, touched him throughout. At the end of his inspection, the silhouette came to the same conclusion as Anton. Then a few questions popped up in the head of the silhouette.
"Ok if he is dead, how do you know this place"
"As his last message, he told me to come here"
"Aha, and he just told you the place and how you can get in?"
"No, he just told me where it was, not how to get in"
The silhouette looked a bit dazed at Anton and asked him another question.
"Ok, then how did you get in?"
Anton was a bit confused, he came through the front door, where else should he have entered?
"I just pushed the door open, the one at the beginning of the cave."
The silhouette was a bit shocked by Anton's casual answer.
"Mhm, so you just entered through the door. If you know the way you can get out on your own, I don't need to bring you"
Anton wanted to ask something, but the pressure had risen again and he quickly left the cave.
When Anton was away the silhouette collected his thoughts and looked at the top of the cave.
"So you have died old friend, and have given me the duties of a parent."
"Yes I have, but don't be too sad Maitreya he will be the next me"
"Huh? The next you, I thought there would be no next you? And I will forgive you, for calling me by my real name"
"Hah, I appreciate that, but yes you are right, he will be the next me but also the first me"
Maitreya was a bit shocked by that, the first 'I roll down the hill' was the most powerful of all the 'I roll down the hills'. But right now he was far, far away from that being, so would it even be possible for him to reach it? Maitreya thought about that for a long time.
"He just needs a little bit of your help 'Ever turning clock' with that he will be able to achieve it"
"Mhm"
Maitreya was lost in thoughts and the soul of 'I roll down the hill' started to fade away to somewhere unknown.
Meanwhile, Anton was glad that he could make it out of the cave alive and that his body was healed. He started running at his full speed and started to laugh happily, now all he had to do was to get stronger and for that, he had to go to the north of this vast abandoned land. He had enough food and water with him for a five-day trip.
While running in the hot sun, and fighting against monsters he thought about his friends, and wondered if everything was going well for them and if they are still a group. He was almost completely sure about the latter thing, but the first thing worried him a bit. He was also curious about, how the second level looked and what you had to do.
He fantasised about it, that you had to fight a really big Org or maybe even a small dragon. But he soon stopped with these thoughts because the sand started to turn into snow and the snow into ice. He was now one day away from his target location and had to make preparations. Because he was about to fight a really strong and dangerous monster.
He stopped in an abandoned Iglu and soon made a fire, to keep him warm. While the fire was warming his body he took out a few mythic power stones he stole from the silhouette. The stones were a bit different in colour, the ones he got from the system were light blue and the ones he had stolen were dark blue and one even was a little purple. He guessed that it meant, that the ones he had now were better than the ones from the system.
And out of caution, he took the one that resembled the ones from the system the most and started to cultivate the mythic power.