Isolde tweaked her sword at the last minute, and slammed the hilt severely against his head. His head heated and his eyes watered. As if a switch was turned off in his head, Xander's whole consciousness offed completely.
He woke up after a while with a searing headache and a continuously throbbing pain in the area of his head she had attacked. He groaned and grunted weakly as he rose carefully from the floor, and when he was eventually fit enough to stare around, he found she was gone, disappeared without a single trace.
Xander grunted to his feet after, and moved into the forest. He walked for hours, without a definite destination. The canopy of leaves overhead did much to keep the scorching sun away, but some straying rays still slipped through the cracks, enough to beat down on him a bit as he toured the woods, walking past trees and shrubs. He kept on, keeping himself revitalized and satiating the fervent protest of his stomach with fruit from the trees around. Steadily, he watched the afternoon drag into evening.
Suddenly, he paused, rushing towards a nearby tree for cover. Noises of running feet were coming from a distance. It began as some low thumbing noises and steadily, the tempo increased. The pursuit grew hotter. The running noises became louder. Feets thumbed hard into the soft, warm soil of the forest floor. Someone was being chased. Xander discerned that much from the speed of the racing feets. Strangely, his mind began to work analytically, calculating the speed and strength of the feets from the noise, the tempo of each foot as they stumped the ground, and the rate and style at which each foot moved and ran. His mind worked them all, running like a machine, calculating and analyzing each variable like his life depended on solving the situation. Two people were being chased, a man and a woman, by approximately thirty strong and able-bodied soldiers, all fully armed. The assailants were desperate to catch their marks, they moved with such a deadly sprint.
In no time, the man and woman were running through a small field of undergrowth, feet away from him. They were in their late twenties, the man was a bit muscular, athletic and imposing. He had striking silver hair, and was dressed in what seemed a dark royal armor plate, of exquisite design and elegance, while the lady was sensationally built as a woman and as a warrior. They flashed past him, moving at an impossible speed. Xander spotted something familiar on their wrists. A thin charm bracelet he had shared with Adrian and Clara. He stared down at the one on his wrist. It was the same thing. The same simple design, and the same trinkets.
He jerked his eyes in the direction they ran, Adrian and Clara. They have also been reincarnated into this realm. Quickly, he shot off fast after them, wild with the prospect of exacting his revenge on Adrian and Clara, and aware the pursers were coming close behind him. He raced through trees, the branches clawing for his robe. In time, he caught up with Clara, then, Adrian. He grabbed Adrian by the neck from behind and threw him to crash against a nearby tree. Then he moved fast, and he pinned Adrian to the tree.
He moved his arm to drive a lethal punch for Adrian's face, but Adrian caught his fist in the air before the punch could slam home. Xander applied more pressure, yet his fist remained trapped in Adrian's palm. The latter held on with all his strength, the veins around his arm and neck strained and bulging. Both of them remained like that, they were evenly matched in strength. Adrian perused Xander's murderous face with his eyes, and gradually, realization sank in. "Xander" he yelled, aghast and shocked. His eyes went wide with dismay and disbelief.
"Yeah. The friend whose parents you poisoned to death, and who you murdered cruelly in a cave", Xander screamed in his face.
His shock drifted fast into a self-pleased grin. "It is really you, Xander. You were always one lucky chap. Rich parents, many toys, ladies man, planned life, and now reincarnated so easily to another realm after death, while I had to betray a friend to get an immortal stone that let me transcend and reincarnate into this realm. You are one lucky chap" he repeated, even though he looked like someone else, it was still Adrian's erratically confident and arrogant voice.
"Xander, is this truly you" Clara asked from behind, her soft voice now had a tougher tone to it, though, still much like before.
Xander turned his head to her, he yelled. "Yeah. I am the same man you betrayed. The same man that loved you blindly for years, but not anymore. Both you and your new boyfriend here are going to pay for what you both did to my parents and me."
Xander returned his face to Adrian, planning to withdraw from pining Adrian to the tree and use his second fist to work out a counter. "Now is the wrong time for this, Xander. You don't want those pursuing Clara and I to meet us here. In all my life, I have never seen anything like what those guys can do", Adrian said, now a bit uneasy.
"Adrian! Watch out!" Clara yelled. Xander turned, temporarily jettisoning his plans for a counter. Adrian seemed to have known what to expect, as he quickly released his hold of Xander punch. With Xander distracted, the punch sailed past his head, and he ducked, jumping away immediately. He rolled over on the sand, rising quickly to his feet and resuming his mad sprint down the woods. Xander wasn't quite lucky, he was caught inside a large bubbling void container before he could move. He tried to break free, but he couldn't, it was like fighting to break free from nothing. He just kept hitting nothing, as he continuously tried to hammer at the void container and break free. The more he struggled, the more the bubble-like void container shrank and consumed him.
The container was transparent, and he saw a large group of men armed with high-tech swords gather around him. They were dressed in the same dark armor plates as Adrian and Clara, though theirs were of an inferior quality. They studied him carefully, and curiously, and gradually, a smile of triumph stretched their lips.
"Not only have Lord Nicolas Buro and his lady, Lady Mona, been reincarnated, Grand Master Luffin Tank has also been reincarnated. The long prophesied Eternal War is about to begin once again, and the Void Phantom Sect is at the center of it all. What a lucky day for us", one of them grinned, excited and ecstatic. Then another yelled to the others. "Continue chasing after the reincarnated Lord Nicolas Buro and Lady Mona. Once we capture Lord Nicolas Buro along with Grand Master Luffin Tank, we will control the Eternal War."
Immediately, more than half of the soldiers ran after Adrian and Clara. The soldier who had spoken earlier turned towards his right. He weaved his hands in practice sequence, and slowly, a strip of black began to tear through the veil of reality. The black strip widened gradually, and eventually became a void pathway. The soldier jumped into it. Xander tried desperately to break free from the bubble-like void container, but like always, he was unsuccessful. He was still struggling when the void began to pull him in with incredible strength. Rendered defenseless by the void container, he could do nothing but watch himself slip closer and closer towards the void's hungry jaw. He knew fully well whatever awaited him on the other side of the void pathway wouldn't be good.