-Asher Frostblade's point of view.
The first thing Asher saw was a roof.
A white ceiling and nothing else. He turned his head to the side and realized he was lying on a hospital-like bed, like the ones commonly seen.
On either side were curtains for privacy.
However, Asher wondered one thing:
What was it that happened?
The only thing he remembered was a fight with Oriana, but his mind was confused.
He felt strange, his emotions... they were deeper and more relevant, as if he understood them much better than before.
Although his whole body was numb, and his muscles tired, he could barely look around. Other than that, everything seemed normal, though his memories, strangely enough, were hazy.
Like his emotions, these were coming on much stronger.
For a moment, a thought came over him:
"It's as if I've gained greater control of my emotions."
Although he wasn't sure, it was different from before.
He couldn't explain it in simple words, but it was like a better understanding of emotions and how they really felt, something more natural.
Asher looked at his hand.
It was shaking quite a bit, though not too much to think he was that exhausted. This was the result of his tired muscles after using all his mana.
Using all his mana had cost him quite a bit, mostly because he used it on his body in a much more intense way than he usually did.
Though, in reality, it wasn't bad at all.
He remembered the fight, and although it was quite difficult, he also remembered Professor Lucas Well's words about his victory in the duel with Oriana.
Other than that, his eyes had closed. Perhaps he had reached his limit, or perhaps the combat had gone on longer than the professors had planned.
Still, a smile appeared on his face.
Asher nodded and let out a deep chuckle.
Seeing Oriana's defeated face gave him a rather satisfied chuckle.
He would have liked to see Oriana's defeat, but her body had fallen and he could no longer.
Despite that, Asher was more than fine. A little sore from his muscles, but pretty good.
"Ahem."
"..."
He looked up and there was Elizabeth.
For a moment, he had forgotten that she was with him now and followed him everywhere.
He looked into Elizabeth's deep dark eyes as she held both hands clasped together, staring unblinkingly at him.
After a few seconds, the atmosphere grew even tenser.
"What is this?" wondered Asher. She kept looking at him, but said nothing.
Despite that, he didn't mind, but seeing Elizabeth's serious face, Asher felt confused.
"You won't say anything?"
Her voice echoed like an echo in the empty room where he was lying.
Although Asher had heard her words, he didn't understand what Elizabeth was referring to.
Not knowing anything, Asher asked, but first he looked at his hands and then at the rest of his body, noticing that he couldn't move it, he could only move his hands and his head.
He then spoke and asked what Elizabeth was referring to.
"I don't understand."
"Who are you?"
Those words left Asher confused. He was his usual self, of course.
Who else could he be if not himself? So what was Elizabeth referring to? Though Asher became more confused and frowned slightly at Elizabeth's strange and sudden words, he remained calm as he watched the fairy in front of him, who was floating freely with a more serious face than usual.
Asher, though he didn't know, asked again.
"I said I don't understand you."
She did not answer immediately, however, and silence enveloped them both in the empty room.
But Asher felt uncomfortable. One of his emotions suddenly began to surge, and this time he was not willfully controlling it, but the emotion itself came out of him.
However, even though it surged suddenly, his face and attitude remained the same on the outside, and Elizabeth didn't notice.
Although she continued to stare at Asher without looking away, this left him frowning, not understanding Elizabeth's actions, who still did not respond to him.
Seconds passed, but she continued to stare at him. Although she didn't move or do anything, it was really strange to see such an unusual attitude from Elizabeth. Although Asher didn't know her very well, he couldn't tell exactly what or what Elizabeth's sudden intentions were and why she was acting so strangely.
Asher was still frowning, not understanding why Elizabeth wasn't speaking.
She had only said one word, then his mouth immediately dropped open.
"Is something wrong, why do you look so different today?"
"..."
No answer.
Elizabeth was still watching him, as if calculating every thought, gesture, and action Asher made. Even though he couldn't move, he could think and look around from time to time, as his head was still moving freely, as it used to.
Although Asher was already confused and could not read or know what Elizabeth was thinking, he decided to stop looking at her.
After all, she hadn't spoken at that moment and seemed to be thinking something about him.
Although, of course, Asher had no idea what the hell she was doing with that different attitude today, he decided to ignore it and closed his eyes, not paying any more attention to Elizabeth, who was still hovering about three feet in the air, just above his head, staring at him.
Asher then closed his eyes and immersed himself in his world of consciousness.
"This place never changes," he thought.
It was always a dark, empty space, with nothing but shadows and an endless expanse that was lost in the distance. The ground was like water, though it seemed to be standing on a solid surface. Looking at it, it gave the impression of walking on the surface of a lake.
Soon, his gaze wandered into the distance, where the thread of manna from that day still remained.
"Nothing interesting," he muttered disdainfully. Even though in this place he had found answers to control and shape the mana, it was still a vast, bleak void, with nothing but endless darkness.
Tap.
Every step echoed with an echo, as if he were walking in a deserted cave. But something was different.
"Encrid... Isabella."
In the distance, he could make out the figures of Encrid and Isabella, sitting on what appeared to be a couch, facing in one direction.
Tap.
Asher started walking towards them, but for some reason, his mind seemed to play tricks on him. Every time he tried to get closer, he got farther away, as if he could never reach them.
"How strange," he thought, puzzled.
Everything had been strange from the beginning: Elizabeth's attitude toward him, and now this. What else was missing? That his mind was falling apart, or that he had lost his rationality, and everything he was seeing was nothing more than an illusion created by his mental exhaustion?
No matter what it was, Asher had no idea how to describe what was happening. However, he had no choice but to keep going.
"Huff... I should have thought calmly," he said to himself. "It's obvious that something weird is going on since I woke up."
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't come to a clear conclusion. Although it seemed that something was manipulating his mind, he hadn't come up with any answers that would explain what was happening. He tried to think hard....
Nothing.
He simply could not come up with any solution to this strange situation.
In spite of this, he kept on thinking without stopping, looking for an explanation for everything that had happened. Maybe someone had cast an illusion on him, or maybe it was just a strange dream.
Although he still had many questions, none of his theories seemed to work. He had found nothing.
Suddenly, he woke up. All he saw was the medical room of the academy and, soon after, Elizabeth appeared out of nowhere, asking him who he was. However, he was him, nothing else.
Then, he entered his consciousness, where Encrid and Isabella were, looking in one direction. But, no matter how hard he tried to get closer, he only managed to get farther away.
Asher gathered all his thoughts and tried to find an answer. His body was not moving at that moment, and he could not leave the place where he was. He could only wander inside his mind, looking for an explanation for what had happened.
He knew that, sooner or later, he would find an answer.
Although he felt that everything was normal, in reality it was not. Then he stood up and looked around.
"They disappeared," he muttered.
Where Encrid and Isabella were before, now there was nothing.
Asher closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead, trying to calm his mind. However, when he opened them...
"..."
"This is..."
Before him unfolded a blue sky, with the sun in the center, tall buildings and paved streets. All around him, pedestrians walked, dressed in clothes Asher remembered well, while holding small devices that they looked at without blinking.
They were cell phones. He looked around and saw several vehicles circling everywhere.
"What the hell is going on?"
This was definitely a strange illusion his mind was playing on him. It didn't matter how or why it was happening; for Asher, it was hard to comprehend.
He was back on "Earth," his previous world.
***
-Scene change.
"Haa... Haa... Haa..."
Asher wandered the paved streets, taking in his surroundings.
His body, strangely, was tiring faster than it normally would. He was quite hot due to the blazing sun in the sky, and slowly, everything was starting to get darker out of nowhere.
Even though he was trying to think his situation through, he didn't understand how he had ended up in this place.
"It's definitely an illusion or something," he thought.
This was all a game of his mind.
His mental exhaustion was getting worse, and now, it was no longer just memories of his past life; he was physically in his former world.
However, as he saw himself reflected in the windows of a building, he could tell that he looked the same as he had always looked, not his past life. So, it was definitely an illusion of his mind, but he simply could not explain how he ended up here or at what point he became trapped in this illusion.
Everything was confusing to Asher, all from the beginning.
His memories were suddenly starting to blur, his emotions were coming up unexpectedly and were much more intense. Even his memories of his past life and his strange pleasure in watching a living being die with his own hands were becoming clearer.
Everything was beginning to make sense.
"Since the beginning, since I reincarnated.... My mind has been very weak," he said to himself.
From the beginning, Asher had such a fragile mentality that he barely understood his situation, but now he understood it better.
Although, of course, he could not explain how he became trapped in an illusion of his own mind, something was wrong from Asher's perspective.
"I missed seeing these places," he muttered.
In a strange way, he was in the same city where he had lived most of his life.
He knew all the places: bars, restaurants, casinos, and so on.
Every part he observed was recognizable to Asher, after all, he remembered all his surroundings perfectly.
But he wasn't used to it.
It didn't feel right to be back in this city, least of all because he knew it was all just an illusion. So what was all this he was seeing?
Sure, it was a city, the city he had lived in, but it didn't feel like his old home, like he remembered it being every day in this place. Something was different somehow.
He rubbed his eyes again, trying to think more clearly than before and understand his situation better. Despite knowing it was all a strange illusion, he was still there, no matter what he did or what actions he took.
Soon he finished rubbing his eyes and opened them again. However, something happened again.
"Where am I?" he asked himself.
Again, he was somewhere else. It was no city, neither was it the academy, let alone the medical section where he had woken up earlier. It was like a battlefield, with hundreds and thousands of dead people on the ground....