'Ah, what did she call it again…?'
'Ah, yes. Mortalis Realm, was it?'
After using the Gold Spawn Card that I had picked from the glass pot, light suddenly engulfed my entire being. It covered me like a cloth and its intensity increased gradually, causing me to shudder with a bit of worry,
It was so bright, perhaps brighter than the sun itself and yet, it didn't burn my eyes nor my skin.
However, I noticed that I was alone in this light. Every other Fencer was nowhere around me anymore.
The light demarcated us from each other.
'Is it actually going to work?' I wondered. It started to dawn on me that it was becoming real but I still had my doubts.
Thinking about the possibility of a regression, I was a bag of many feelings.
Fear. Hope. Doubt et cetera.
Honestly, a part of me doubted it the most and I deeply hoped that this was not a fluke or a dream.
But there was only one to find out and that was the way I followed.
Those with the White and Golden Card began to disperse into particles of white light.
The Death God Assistant, Avante, seemed intrigued at the fact that her Lord and Master, the God of Death—Nathos—found it amusing to sneak in Golden Spawn Cards into her pot of luck.
Advance smiled as the Regressors and the Reincarnators vanished from her presence, diving into the respective worlds that they were destined for.
"Well, you unfortunate two," she said, referring to the two out of the seven who had picked a Black Card.
"...Come with me. I will be sending you to the different Deities that you will be working for."
With a snap of her fingers, they vanished as well.
With a loud sigh, Avante expressed her annoyance.
"I hope I'm not late for the movie," she murmured under her breath before vanishing from the scene to join Nathos wherever.
*********
Several years in the past, a time long before Lux's demise at the hand of the Chosen Hero, Terrence Kenton.
A long yellow and black bus, similar to a school bus, drove to a halt.
As the passengers within the vehicle looked out from their windows, they noticed that they were parked in front of the giant gate of a facility.
Soon afterwards, they started to alight per the instruction given by the driver. Stepping out of this bus were many young persons, who began making their way toward the gate.
Slap~!
The palm of a young lady landed on the back of another youth who rested his head on the seat in front of him.
"Oi, Lux! Wake up, we've arrived," she announced to the sleeping youth. "We are here already."
I felt my body shake under a soft, firm pressure after a slap on my back had jolted me awake and left him wallowing in confusion.
'Huh?' I blurted out.
Clueless and still dazzled from my slumber, I asked, 'What's going on?'
My eyes slowly came open and with every passing second, my vision cleared and I could see well enough to make it the owner of the soft tone and firm hands that shook me awake.
'What is this?'
'Where is this?'
The first set of thoughts that flashed through my mind were these two questions.
I turned my head around, taking note of where I was before settling my eyes on the female in front of me.
I carefully sized the owner of the voice up, a gesture which she certainly did not welcome as well as I'd expected her to.
Well, I presume it was a given since I was looking at her strangely.
Of course, I would look at her strangely.
Why wouldn't I?
I was confused, too confused.
Looking around me once again to confirm where I was and even pinching my cheek to make sure that I wasn't dreaming.
"Did you hit your head or something?" the soft voice came into my ears again.
'So it wasn't a dream,' I wondered. 'The Golden Spawn Card worked.'
I looked at her again, sensing the anger that was building up inside of her from the tone of her voice. She was on her last reserve of patience with me.
It was indeed Cassandra in flesh and blood.
I wasn't dreaming!
The vivid memory of her dark blue hair came rushing back to mine and it was still as slick as I remember it.
Those tender purple eyes of hers gazed upon me once again, something I had never expected would happen again in my entire life.
I recalled the event that had happened back at the Realm of Mortalis.
Surely, a part of me doubted that it was possible to return back in time and I could only express sincere gratitude in my heart to the divine being, Avante.
'She wasn't fluke,' I thought, remembering the face of the Death God Assistant. 'I truly get a second chance at my old life.'
"Ouch! Cassie!" I suddenly screamed, holding the side of my head as I tried to numb the pain there.
"What was that for?" I blurted out.
She had given me a dirty smack to snap me out of my delusion.
"What exactly is your problem today, Luxane?!" she asked, staring daggers at me.
Cassie's eyes expressed her emotions towards me at this moment and it was nothing short of utmost annoyance.
"Everyone is already out of the bus. Come let's go!" she scolded.
I neither said nor did anything afterwards but simply stared at her.
My last memory and encounter with Cassie was not a good one.
It was something that I didn't want to recall but my mind still chose to bring it up, showing me a clear picture of that day.
She had died during one of the Dungeon Breaks we had, from a fatal blow to the chest which left her with a large hole.
Recalling this moment, I was almost drawn to tears and at the same time, I was happy to see her again.
Even though I knew what was happening and understood it, it still felt surreal.
I had never undergone reincarnation or regression before.
While I still contemplated it, Cassandra whisked me away by my wrist as we departed the bus.
"Let's go, Luxane!"
Her recent behaviour had snapped me out of my daze and forced me to recall how nagging she could be.
We alighted the black and yellow bus together and like a mother would do to her child, Cassandra stuck with me through the entire walk into the facility where we were headed.
Eek!
I gave it a thought as we walked and then, a light bulb moment happened to me.
Today, which was the day I had regressed back to, was our first day in the Hunters Training Facility that was known as the Cube.
Everything looked familiar as a sense of nostalgia filled my heart and mind.
Everything that had occurred so far happened the same way it did in the past.
The only thing that changed was the fact that I knew the events that would occur and the manner with which they would before they actually did.
I had experienced these scenarios already, like deja vu.
Dazzled by the realisation that smacked me in the head, I stopped and slipped my hand out of Cassie's grip, taking a moment to look at the walls of the Cube.
The longer my gaze lingered on the walls of the Cube, the more intense the nostalgia I experienced.
The Cube was the beginning of it all for me.
My entrance into this facility marked the start of a new phase of my pitiful existence in this world back then.
That was the starting line of my journey into a world that I had cared nothing about.
I was born a bastard.
Abandoned by my biological parents, whoever they were and left to rot in the cold.
Tsk!
Sometimes I question why I was allowed to live.
Why didn't I just die as a baby?
Perhaps I may have been living a happy life in the Heavenly Domain since my Karma Score would be an easy 100.
But somehow, I survived.
Given how much I've faced death…
…Perhaps, I'm actually destined for something greater than I believe myself to be.