Elias felt a cold breeze as the presence was getting closer to the plaza.
"What is happening, Elias?"
Mathilda had a terrified expression
Elias felt the memory fragment in his hand shaking. Almost as if its going to explode.
A pale, sickly light leaked from its edges, flickering like a dying star.
It wasnt just shaking, it was reacting.
He looked down at it. The surface of the fragment rippled like water, and for a moment, Elias saw something within.
A face.
Bloodied. Eyes hollow. Skin pale as ash.
A man, or what was left of him, lying broken in the middle of a war-torn battlefield.
The man's lip moved, a whisper, brittle as glass.
"Bastard Son Of Fate."
The voice was filled with venom and sorrow, the last words of a dying soul.
"You…. You'll suffer worse than me…"
Before Elias could react, the scene shifted.
The vision's angle turned to another figure standing amidst the carnage.
A man with long white hair.
His face, identical to Elias's, but his expression was void of life. His eyes stared into the corpse before him, devoid of light, devoid of soul.
He wore a long, black scarf and armor crafted of materials no one could name. Its surface shimmered like obsidian, drinking in the light, as if it were forged from midnight itself.
Then the man's lips parted.
"You brought shame to the Dreamwalkers."
His voice sounded exactly like the man Elias confronted when his Name of Echo was almost spoken.
The image shattered.
Elias had a conflicted expression, the fragment slipping from his palm and clattering onto the cracked stone floor. It no longer glowed.
The world suddenly felt heavier.
And Elias's heart sank with one terrible, undeniable truth:
He was not the first.
Elias's chest tightened. The fragment lay still at his feet, its light, but the weight it left behind clung to him like a chain.
Mathilda stepped closer, her voice trembling.
"Elias…. What did you see?"
He didn't answer, he couldn't. His mind reeled with images of the dying man's hollow gaze, of the pale figure in the midnight armor.
"You brought shame to the Dreamwalkers."
Those words were stuck in Elias's thoughts, the name Dreamwalkers. It gnawed at the edges of his memory like a half-remembered song.
A sound cut through the silence.
A bell. Faint, but unmistakable.
It rang once. Twice.
From the direction of the plaza, a sickly pale light began to bleed through the mist, accompanied by a slow, dragging sound something heavy being pulled across stone.
Mathilda gripped his sleeve.
"We need to go."
Elias's eyes were in horror,it looked pale, it almost matched the pale man in the image.
"No." He muttered.
"Its already here."
As if summoned by his words, a figure emerged from the fog.
It was a man, he had long black hair, it seemed it hadn't been washed for years or maybe decades.
His body was wrapped in faded ceremonial robes, their colors long since drained by time.
He looked tired but it seems he finally found what he was looking for.
In one hand, he dragged a rusted weapon behind it, a long polearm whose blade shimmered like glass under the pale light.
Elias instinctively stepped infront of Mathilda, trying so desperately to protect her.
I cant lose Mathilda again, I wont lose her even if it means I die.
The man stopped a few paces away, the polearm scraping the ground as he lifted his head.
He seemed…. Handsome and quite clean if you ignore his dirty hair, maybe identical to a protagonist in a novel.
Thought its not the same novel with the author, reader and the protagonist in it.
His mouth moved, his voice was deep but it was a proper voice.
"You carry his mark."
Elias's heartbeat thundered in his ears.
"Who…. Who are you?" Elias demanded, though his voice cracked
The man tilted his head.
"Just as you thought, I am the protagonist of this story, I am the savior of this world."
"But just like you, I was forgotten. Elias troum, you are the echo of a broken oath."
The words struck Elias like a blow.
The Protagonist raised a hand, and in an instant, the fragment disintegrated into ash.
"The Bastard Son returns to walk where his blood was spilled. The cycle begins anew."
Suddenly, a system notification appeared before Elias's eyes.
[Name: Ruven Cain]
[Name Of Echo: The Protagonist of the story]
[Alias's: Master Ruven, Failed God, The Hero Of The 2 worlds, The Hero Of The Ruined City, The forgotten hero, The Witness Of Fate, The Swordsman Of Heaven]
[Race: Human]
[Occupation: Reverend, Dreamwalker.]
[Abilities: Call Of The Excalibur.]
[More information cannot be given.]
Elias's breath hitched as the system notification faded, its words burning into his mind.
A human? No…. A Reverend. A failed god.
Ruven's eyes, a faded gray touched with the hints of ancient sorrow, locked onto Elias
"I dont even know how or why you got here Elias, I was especially protecting the dream realm."
Elias stared at Ruven, dumbfounded.
Ruven sighed,
"You don't remember it, do you?" Ruven murmured with an annoyed expression.
"The oath you swore. The blood you spilled. The world you left to burn. The gods you've killed."
Elias clenched his fists.
"I've never met you before."
Ruven gave a bitter, almost amused smile.
"Thats the cruelty of it. You never meant to."
Ruven stood there, the rusted polearms resting lazily against his shoulder, as though none of this mattered anymore.
"The cruelty of it." Ruven repeated softly.
"You never meant to remember. That was the deal you made. Each of you."
Elias's breath came ragged
"You keep calling me one of them." Elias rasped, his throat dry.
"What do you mean? Who am I to you?"
Ruven chuckled bitterly. The sound echoed to the empty mist
"To me?" He murmured, stepping closer, his pale eyes reflecting sorrow.
"You are the same man I once followed into battle. The same man I one called a brother….. a monster… and a God."
"But not this time," Ruven said.
"This cycle… this world… you were different. You lingered near warmth. You clung to people like Mathilda, like Selene. And for a moment for a moment I thought maybe… maybe you could break the wheel."
Indeed, I am different from the last life I experienced, but I didnt spend much time with Selene nor did I with Mathilda, there were really no communication behind us. So why is Ruven saying his?
Its not even true, I couldn't spend time with Selene and I was more focused on surviving than talking to Mathilda in the Ruined City, so what is your point? Ruven Cain.
Ruven grinned, it looked as if he was playing a game and things are going the way he wanted.
"I can see your fate, Elias. Even if you hadn't spent time with Mathilda and Selene I can see you will spend time with them."
Mathilda and Elias both looked at Ruven as if he is just yapping some nonsense.
"You see, the system even told you my name. This time. This cycle fate sides with you but you continue to push it aside to pursue your life as the Bastard Son."
"Which is why I thought you could finally break the wheel."
His voice cracked there.
"But he wouldn't allow it."
Elias's eyes widened, a sick chill running through his veins.
"Who?"
A soft voice spoke
"Still clinging to your little pet project, Ruven?"
It was Elias's voice, but colder. Timeless. A voice that had seen eternity and hated every moment of it.
The man had looked at Elias, with a cold stare.
"Well we can't let the rat go with this much information can we? Ruven."
Ruven stayed silent, looking at the man obediently.
The man spoke, his lips were dry, it looked as if it is going to shatter.
"Elias Troum, I had carefully watched and observed your moves in the last few days. It was entertaining but now the show ends."
Elias spoke with fear in his voice.
"Who... who are you..? What do you want from me? What do you mean by the show ending?"
The man had answered only one of his questions.
"You know how when your watching a show the first season ends? And you have to move on to the second season? It'll be just like that for you… except you wont remember this conversation."
Elias looked at the man in fear, he tried to run away but he was too slow for Ruven.
Ruven quickly caught Elias and brought him back to the man. Mathilda couldnt do anything either, she was full of fear and confusement. She couldn't speak nor she couldnt move.
"Now time for your eternal punishment."
The man looked at Elias with a smirk.
In the skies of the Ruined City rifts appeared, millions of rifts.
From the rifts spears were coming out. All pointed at the direction where Elias was standing.
Elias had tears coming out of his eyes, he doesnt want to lose his second chance in life, he looked at the man with fear and desperation.
On the other hand, the man looked at him with pity. With his last grin he raised his hands.
Ruven looked away as he didnt want to watch this happen.
"Come forth, aplistía."
As soon as the words were spoken, all the spears launched at Elias, some launced at Mathilda. It looked like a bloodbath after all the spears impaled them.
Their lifeless bodies stood still with the spears pinning them making them unable to move.
Elias's vision blurs.
I couldnt make any differences… I guess I didnt deserve the second chance after all.
Elias had many regrets in his mind, but the biggest regret was him losing mathilda again.
Darkness….
[First Dream completed]
[Speed: A+]
[Efficiency: C-]
[Information collected: SSS+]
[Difficulty of the Dream: F-]
[Punishment for death: You will lose the person you had died with forever.]
[Now advancing to the Second Dream, you will forget the last 48 hours you lived in the First Dream.]