"If I went back in time I could've done so much differently."
"I wish I had done well in making the people around me more proud. I wish I had talked to them more before my parents passed away. I wish to have eaten that freshly made curry before I left my home. I wish to have talked to her more and made myself a memory instead of a throwaway single sentence liner in her story."
"And I wish I had trained to be strong enough to protect those I loved."
Liet Nartiel himself in a dire situation within a rain-soaked village ablaze with destruction. As the flames voraciously consume what was once a thriving community, Liet is forced onto his knees amidst the muddied waters. The relentless rain mingles with the acrid smoke, creating a haunting and otherworldly ambiance.
All he can hear is the mixture of screaming from his once friends, family and neighbors followed by the laughter of the nameless bandits who ravaged his home and mangled his arm.
He looked at them with his bloodshot eyes and all he could ask is, "Why?"
The bandits could only laugh at his question, as if the answer wasn't obvious enough. Glory and riches, survival of the fittest. The world was uncontrollable and those who had power were the rulers.
Yet his question wasn't directed at them, but himself.
The feeling of helplessness, powerless, and being born not to be alive, but to survive.
"Why has god forsaken us?" He angrily cursed his god in his mind as his vision started to slowly disappear as his soul slowly seeps away from his body.
"Our bodies, our riches, our food, the sacrifices we made, the things we did all in His name. To praise the lord, to do things according to His will. Our village, our souls offered to Him and yet in our time of need He closes His eyes and covers His ear as his loyal followers have their lives taken away from them and as their pleading, their screams to not be heard by Him."
"I curse Him. May my soul be dragged deep into the deepest bowels of the underworld for I have used His name in vain, but I curse His name for no amount of torture in the eternity that I will spend in the Underworld will ever be enough to match the pain that I feel now."
Liet Nartiel died on that day.
He should have died on that day, yet Liet finds himself atop a grassy knoll, overlooking a vast, idyllic expanse of green plains. In his hands, he holds a rough wooden sword. Confusion clouded his thoughts as he pondered how he had arrived here, at this tranquil scene. The village below, untouched by the chaos of his past, bustled with life. Smoke curled from chimneys, and villagers went about their daily routines.
"What is this sick joke?" He thought to himself. As he looked at the gleeful happy and bustling village he overlooked, his anger slowly turned into sadness followed by a stream of tears. "Is this my punishment in the Underworld? To see the place that I love, the place I failed to protect to fall over and over again?"
As he lamented over his situation, something out of this world, something that was beyond any creatures could conjure, a translucent box appeared in front of him with the words-
[1st Regression]
"What..?" Confusion befall him. He reached out his hand onto the message box and saw his hands pass through it. "Regression, that means, I time travelled back to a certain point in time..?"
Liet looked around his body and found his hands to be smaller, his eye level lower and his hair shorter than what he was used to. "This view..." He recognizes this view and the time. But to confirm it he turned around and saw him-
His friend, Altaeir Niflie. He's a 15 year old male who stands out for his striking dark red hair, which adds a touch of fiery intensity to his appearance. Despite his relatively young age, his physique is impressive, with a toned and muscled body that suggests a life of physical discipline and training, which corresponds with the greatsword made of wood wrapped around him as he sleeps.
Liet couldn't help but nearly tear up at the sight of his friend, but he couldn't dawdle so he wiped his tears as there's too many questions that needed answers.
"What is my objective here..? I was given a second chance but for what?" Liet felt skeptical as such powers that seemed out of this world or godly was given to him.
As he pondered, a message suddenly appeared in front of him just like the last time.
[Your mission is to prevent the impending catastrophe threatening to engulf this realm. You must unravel the mysteries, unite the scattered factions, and harness the dormant power hidden within the ancient "???" to avert the impending doom or fight the impending doom itself.]
[In this critical moment, your destiny intertwines with the survival of this realm. May your courage, wit, and the power of regression prevent the impending catastrophe and usher in a new era of peace and harmony.]
[I bring you this -System- as a gift to help you in your travels.]
***
In another place, out of bounds from the realm of the living, an entity that seemed to be faceless, filled with the swirling magic that seems to come from the universe, an entity that's boundless. This godly entity felt something that shouldn't have happen.
"Time and space has been broken." The entity spoke.
This entity reached out what looked like to be its hands and pointed his finger at a seemingly empty space.
The entity slowly dragged his finger downwards and the space around it cracked as if cutting through time and space itself. This entity cut through reality itself to open up a small hole to oversee where the anomaly has happened.
There it saw Liet looking at the so called -System- reading the messages that were sent to him.
As soon as this entity saw the anomaly, it was faceless yet it looked like it smiled. "A gift from me from the future." It let out a single laugh before his amusement turned into anger, "To be all powerful yet so powerless to the point where I needed help from a human."
Curiosity got to the entity. Its index finger pointed at Liet and a line that seemed to go on forever linked the boundless realm to the realm of the living, tethering.
The tether glowed in gold as the magic of the entity flowed through the line, "I see." It spoke as the memories slowly replicated itself into the entity's mind reading Liet's entire life in just several seconds.
"To curse me for the transgressions from the free will I granted humans." The entity laughed at the irony of humanity. This entity was Him, the god of everything. "Well then, let's give you a warm welcome shall we?"