R:A - Volume 5 - Chapter 1 (edited-v1)

It's finally time.

The outlines are detailed, the plot finished, and the narrative finally in a place I like.

It took me quite a bit longer then I wanted, but that's how writing big complicated plots do be.

Volume 5 -> Now begin.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Volume 5 - Chapter 1

“Time is a fickle mistress.”

“Try to change her course, and you might find those changes reflecting themselves in the most unexpected of ways…”

“Or perhaps you won’t. I’m a Master of Time, not a Seer.”

“Only the insane seek meaning from coincidence.”

- Excerpt from page 12 of ‘Observations of Time,’ written by the Soul King Tallanoran.

.. .. .. .. .. ..

“How very peculiar.”

A dark haired man frowned as he gazed down at the endless Void, pondering the endless darkness. The lean, muscular warrior was dressed in a pair of loose, black pants and a large, airy white shirt, a stylish outfit by 3rd Layer sensibilities.

As the dark haired man spoke, five glowing blue Life Orbs spawned in his right hand and began to circle each other. The speaker’s movements were slow, almost casual, yet also precisely controlled.

“Is this… deja vu?” The dark haired human snorted before coming to a pause, calmly considering breaking down the strange sensation that had swept over him.

“Strange timing…” The man grunted before slowly getting to his feet, taking his surroundings in in one smooth glance, his deep blue eyes flickering.

All around the dark haired man floated desolate islands full of rock, stone, and occasionally the odd lichen or clump of moss. Precious little color existed in these abandoned regions, the ‘Desolate Lands’ as the natives called it.

“I’ve finally returned here… this sure brings back memories.” The dark haired man smiled as he recalled the past.

The Third Layer had a very unique shape. An endless, dark Void haunted down below, while tens of thousands of floating island hovered above. Some islands were as small as a few meters in diameter, while others were as large as several kilometers across.

These floating islands made up all of the land that existed on the 3rd Layer, and were sorted into a very distinct shape:

An enormous, circular ring.

“…not particularly pleasant memories, but memories nonetheless.” The dark haired man murmured, lost in thought.

The center of the 3rd Layer’s Great Ring contained what was known as the Empty Sea. A vast, dangerous gap of nothingness, only broken up by rare floating islands that might appear once every dozen or so kilometers if you were lucky.

The inner edge of the ring, the Inner Ringlands as they were called, housed the vast majority of the native population, spread around the edge of the Empty Sea for thousands of miles.

The outer edge of the ring, the Outer Ringlands, housed a vast wilderness populated by all manners of strange creatures, from apex hunters like Void Predators, down to small, squirrel like creatures known as Glyphers.

“I almost forgot how quiet it was out here.” As the dark haired human spoke, he casually waved his right hand, hiding his Life Orbs away as he glared at the surrounding islands.

The Desolate Lands were found in the very farthest reaches of the Outer Ringlands, long since abandoned. You were more likely to run into a Void Predator while crossing the Empty Sea than find one in the Desolate Lands.

“I suppose it’s only fitting that all new Climbers arrive here, spread across dead islands even roaches wouldn’t visit.”

The dark haired man chuckled, a small smile appearing on his face before he shrugged.

Slowly, the Life Orb Master turned his gaze towards a mid-sized floating island that bordered the very outer edge of the Desolate Lands, just a few feet away.

“The smart move would be to leave immediately… but...” A confident glint began to appear in the dark haired man’s eyes.

‘The Invincible’ Kim Jiwoon stared closely at the invisible exit that would let him leave the Third Layer and move on to the Fourth, an exit the 28-year-old Korean First Waver had spent the last 13 months and 4 days reaching… and then promptly turned around.

“I didn’t make it this far by being smart.”

.. .. .. .. .. ..

The Third Layer was a land of Knights, a land of Wizards, and…

A land of Heroes.

‘Well, that’s what Micheal said, anyway.’ Shin Hopefell thought to himself before teleporting to the edge of a large, floating island and looking off into the endless Void down below. A cool breeze brushed up against him as he landed, setting his skin to tingling.

Shin’s gaze then drew upward, staring at the empty sky above.

“It’s still weird, man.” Shin muttered as he donned a frown.

“I never liked paradoxes.”

How can there by daylight without a Sun to provide it?

A few seconds passed before a small smirk appeared on the blonde man’s face.

“Should I tempt fate- what am I, stupid?” Shin smacked himself on the forehead as he cut himself off.

While he spoke, Shin continued to politely make eye contact with the vast, black Void below.

‘You can never be too careful…’

According to his best friend, the Void was a kind of strange 'Conceptual Entity’ that also functioned as a distorted ‘quasi-Dimension.’ Shin didn’t fully grasp what that all meant, but it certainly sounded impressive.

The Void was also non-sapient, Micheal claimed, but Shin was taking no chances.

‘A little politeness never hurt no one.’

Shin gave a small bow to the Void before turning around in a grand, theatrical fashion.

“…”

‘Leaving me on read, huh? I see you, Void. I see you.’ Shin made sure to keep the rebellious thought to himself.

While Shin’s theatrics failed to elicit any response from the Void, it did at least manage to accentuate the new outfit he had prepared specifically for the 3rd Layer: a pair of stylish tight gray jeans, heavy duty black boots, and a smart looking black button down shirt that perfectly matched his lean build.

His newly-slicked-back-and-to-the-side hairstyle was a first for him, but Shin felt he pulled it off well.

The young teleporter tilted his head slightly to the side as he looked himself up and down, admiring his figure.

‘And to think my own sister said I’d never manage six pack abs.’ Shin smiled.

‘That’s the power of magic, baby.’ The Shop giveth and the Shop taketh.

‘Well, that and also drugs.’ Dragon Building Liquid was a hell of an invention.

Shin blinked as he abruptly felt his heart spasm.

‘Calm down. Empty your mind.’ Shin shut his eyes for a few brief moments as he fought down the memories that threatened to swarm over him.

His kid sister Annabel.

His hardworking father.

His ever-caring mother.

The family that adopted him, all those years ago… the family that chose him…

A family he might very well never see again.

“Breathe, Shin. Relax. ” Shin’s throbbing pulse finally began to settle as he cleared his mind, drawing on a useful mental trick he liked to call ‘lying.’

“I bet they don’t even get Chosen until the Fifteenth Wave.”

Was there even a Fifteenth Wave? Shin had no idea, but he didn’t let that lack of knowledge stop him.

“I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

Shin cut his line of thought off there.

He tried not to think of his family after he arrived on the First Layer. All it did was worsen his mood while offering no real solutions.

‘Gotta save Humanity first. Let’s focus on that.’ Shin silently reminded himself.

‘Let’s head back.’ He had teleported across seven different floating islands as he tried to adapt to changes in gravity and energy density. The 3rd Layer wasn’t a ‘High Energy World’, but it was still significantly richer in energy than the 2nd.

Shin’s body vanished as he teleported away, leaving only faint, confused echoes of himself behind.

.. .. .. .. .. ..

‘To leave the Third Layer, we’ll need to cross the Outer Ringlands, traverse both the Atlas Duchy and a dozen minor lord’s fiefs, and then sail across Empty Sea to reach the opposite side of the Great Ring.’

Micheal Care frowned as he drew up a rough map of the Ringlands, plotting the course that he would eventually need to take on a plain notebook. The brown haired human was dressed in a set of dark blue jeans, clean brown boots, and a plain, gray t-shirt.

“What are my priorities?” Micheal muttered, staving off the exhaustion that sought to overcome him.

It had not even been 15 minutes since his life-and-death battle against Orion Thunderfist ended.

Alas, time waits for no man.

‘Ah.’ A moment of realization struck.

Time waits for… one man.

‘Damn you, Prime. That was one of my favorite idioms.’ Another casualty to the second timeline.

Micheal kneaded his forehead as he let out a quite groan. The only thing worse than a normal headache was a blinding migraine, and his head felt like it was fighting off both at once.

‘Always plan for the worst case scenario.’

Micheal took a deep breath and then exhaled, focusing his mind until he could ‘ignore’ the exhaustion and pain plaguing him. Only after he achieved that state did he allow himself to continue.

‘First, I need to rouse Bastien Amiot from his stupor.’ The Sundering Swordmaster had stalled out on the 3rd Layer, unable to cope with the harsh realities of the 7 Layers.

Bastien was a genius in the truest sense, a master of the blade that, after regaining his senses, become a World Master in the final 2 years before Humanity’s Last Army met its end.

‘In the original timeline, he wasted away on the 3rd Layer for 8 years.’

“If only I… that talent…” Micheal paused for a moment before letting out a small chuckle.

‘Why focus on something I can’t change?’ Besides, no longer was he a talentless ne’er-do-well.

Michael’s eyes glowed bright blue as Mana flowed into existence around him, the formless, cool energy comforting him.

He could not express with words the joy he felt after discovering he had a talent for Magic.

Was it a world shaking talent like Bastien Amiot?

No.

But, as Micheal had discovered, his Soul was uniquely predisposed to controlling Mana.

From his effortless control of his Mana, to the almost non-existent Mana waste produced by his Spells, to the natural sense of ‘belonging’ that came with the Mana stored in his Soul, all sensations no mere 2nd Circle Wizard should possess.

It gave him an edge he never had in his first life.

“Until I find a way to progress past the basics of Grandmastery, building up Mana Circles doesn’t sound half bad.”

‘I’ll need to expand my Spell repertoire.’ Micheal’s eyes lit up as one thought led to another.

‘That reminds me - I need to contact Dark Void.’ The latter half of the Fourth Wave just so happened to be around the time the decentralized information sharing organization came into existence.

“And finally, most important of all.” Micheal muttered as he finished outlining his goals.

‘I need to save the White Knight.’

The heroic Founder of the Knights of the Round Table himself — Aaron Bartram.

A man that even Titled Deities on the 7th Layer acknowledged as ‘Humanity’s Strongest’ was an asset the human race could not afford to squander.

His loss in the first timeline was an irrevocable tragedy, worsened by the fact that even the Well of Eternity couldn’t bring him back.

‘But first… where in the world is-‘

“Heyo, Micheal. Scoutmaster Shin reporting in.” Shin appeared out of thin air with immaculate timing, teleporting atop a large, slightly titled gray boulder to Micheal’s right.

“Welcome back.” Micheal gave a distracted wave of acknowledgement.

“See anything strange out there?” Micheal continued, asking more out of habit than genuine curiosity.

“Nah, unless you count a bit of deja vu, all I saw was rocks, rocks, and…” Shin made a dramatic drumroll using his stomach.

“Our one true lord and savior, the glorious Void below.”

Micheal and Shin locked eyes for several seconds before Shin ducked his head and turned away, his ears slightly flushed.

“…never be too careful…” Micheal shook his head as he elected to ignore Shin’s half mumbled response, his eyes narrowing as he focused on what Shin said.

“Deja vu?” Micheal frowned.

It could be nothing, but when was it ever nothing in the 7 Layers?

“Mm? Yeah, you know, the feeling where you wake up to face a day you feel like you’ve already lived through.”

Micheal resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

“I am well aware of what the term means.”

Shin held up his hands in mock surrender.

“Don’t shoot the messenger, blame the French for giving us the word.”

Micheal paused.

“Is it really a French word? Why do you even know that?”

Shin stared back at Micheal, slightly aghast.

“We literally took 2 years of French together. It hasn’t even been a year since we graduated.” The blonde man shook his head in mock dismay.

“Ah. Right, sorry. My bad.” Micheal massaged his temples as he tried to call up memories that, from his perspective, took place more than a decade in the past.

Shin teleported next to Micheal and patted him reassuringly on his right shoulder.

“It’s all good. Just remember - that’s life.” Shin smiled proudly.

“That’s life?” Micheal returned, mildly confused.

“Hey, you understood it! See, look at you! You do remember.” Shin’s smile widened.

“What do you- oh, did you say that in French?” Micheal belatedly realized.

Shin stared at him quizzically.

“Obviously I- what? Of course it- oh, hold on. Did the Shop translate what I said? Damnit!”

Shin opened up the Shop to give himself something to glare at before comically freezing in place.

“…on second thought… never be too careful…”

Shin politely bowed to the Shop before closing it, wiping off a slight sheen of sweat from his forehead.

“Oi, wait a minute. Why isn’t Deja Vu also getting translated? It’s a French term.”

Micheal held out his hands to the side and shrugged.

“I don’t make the rules here. Maybe you aren’t making it French enough?”

“Déjà Vu?”

“…”

“…”

As the duo quietly locked gazes for the second time…

‘Always prepare for the worst case scenario.’

All hell broke loose.

A colossal explosion obliterated the floating island both Micheal and Shin were on in a split second, creating a massive shockwave that scattered earthen shrapnel across a dozen neighboring islands. From large spears of granite to ragged chunks of unidentifiable rock, the entire floating island had been ripped apart and torn asunder in a massive blast wave that destabilized the islands nearby, sending them into a spiraling death pattern downward.

It was an overtly lethal attack that should have triggered Micheal’s supernatural intuition… yet, it did not.

And it was here, with only 1 Life Orb left to his name, that warning bells began to go off in Micheal’s mind.

‘Wait, why am I still alive?’

Micheal’s vision blurred and caught up as he abruptly found himself seven floating islands to the left of his original, now destroyed, island.

“Nice one, Shin!” Micheal yelled out loud as he pulled out Lightshorn, his Scythe of Chains, and the Crown of the Angel King all in one smooth, practiced motion. He also swallowed a dozen Mid-Tier Healing Pills, using them to stave off fatigue, a decidedly unhealthy tactic.

‘He managed to react in time to teleport both of us out of harm’s way?’ Shin’s grasp of teleportation appeared to have made a qualitative leap far beyond Micheal’s expectations.

“What’s going on? Who’s the tango?” A small drop of blood dripped down from Shin’s nose as the blonde haired man focused, his entire body tensed up to the extreme.

“I’m not sure. Be ready to teleport at a moment’s notice.” Micheal’s mind raced as he shifted into ultra-focus, his Soul tingling as he sought out every possible piece of information he could find.

Yet, he found nothing.

No enemy in sight, no sign of hidden explosives, not even a slight change in wind indicating something invisible.

“Ouch. Damn thing is sore.” Shin frowned as he rubbed his left shoulder.

The Melding Plate Arm Artifact that had replaced his left arm usually worked flawlessly, to the point that Shin sometimes forgot he had lost his original arm on the First Layer.

“It’s strange… what is this…” Micheal’s eyes glowed with energy as his search efforts finally paid off.

“I can feel something… not physical. Intangible.” He wasn’t quite sure how to describe it as he felt his Soul pulse, the scars that had been imprinted on his Soul by his great leap backward in Time pulsating unpleasantly.

Shin didn’t interrupt Micheal as he processed the strange feeling, keeping a watchful eye on the world around him.

“I can feel an… echo.”

The two Mana Circles Micheal currently possessed had been forged using the Echoes of the Eternal Mana Breathing Method. Each Circle was implicitly connected to the Concepts of Eternity and Infinity.

For whatever strange reason, it was thanks to those unique Mana Circles that Micheal finally began to unravel the truth…

And it was here that Micheal recalled a conversation he had with Tallanoran’s remnant Soul.

“The past is always the past… except for when it’s not.”

“This is what we call a Divergence.”

“An occurrence that upsets the flow of the River of Time and causes the very fabric of our existence to… divert. To change.”

“…”

“An echo of what? Who’s attacking us? Where are they?” Shin spat out rapid fire questions as his hands began to shake, adrenaline battling exhaustion and narrowly winning.

“No… not where, Shin.” Micheal muttered, a sense of growing dread and horror fighting to overwhelm him.

“When.”

All around Micheal, a series of loud explosions began to spread out, engulfing the floating islands surrounding Micheal’s original island before rapidly beginning to spread. Bright, yellow incandescent energy shot through the air, spreading out into a vast network of criss-crossing light.

“These attacks aren’t coming from the present.”

The reason his intuition failed, the inexplicable abruptness of the attack, the lack of any possible warning, the strange pulsations and echoes his Soul felt…

“They’re coming from the future.”

.