Rudy opened his eyes and saw a beautiful starry sky. He was lying somewhere on the ground, but he couldn’t feel anything.
He tried to move his body and sat up, but his body didn’t respond. He could hear the wind gushing through the forest, hitting the branches and leaves.
He glanced around with his eyes and realized he was in a forest. But something seemed strange. His body felt hollow to him, as though he didn’t have a body.
Regardless. he could see his body with his eyes.
The scenery was unfamiliar to him, but the feeling wasn’t.
‘Have I been here before?’ he asked himself.
He tried to remember what had happened after his battle with Asura.
‘I manifested a human body for myself, but my powers leaked again and then… then I… lost consciousness. But why am I here? I was in space, far away from any life in existence.
Did I crash on a newborn planet? Yeah, that’s the only explanation I think of. But why can’t I move my body? What are the side effects of using too much power? I don’t feel pain, but this numb and sore feeling is all over my body.’
Rudy used his powers to fly but couldn’t even move his fingers.
‘What the…’
Rudy tried to use his other powers, but none of them worked.
‘Did I run out of powers? Or worse… did I lose my powers?’
For once, Rudy didn’t care even if he had lost his powers, but he didn’t want the power to be passed down to someone else who might use it for evil purposes. One way or another, it could come back to bite him.
‘Maybe if I wait for a while, my powers will recharge? I don’t know what exactly happened after I passed out, but it seems that I used up all my powers.’
Rudy decided to stare at the starry guy, but his already pale face turned even more pale when he saw an airplane in the sky.
“…!”
‘What the… why is there an airplane in the sky if I am on a random newborn planet? Don’t tell me I fell back on earth! Don’t tell me…’
After a few seconds of panic, Rudy finally realized what was happening.
He was at the same place he had died in his past life.
‘I was blind at that time, but I could still listen. And the sound of the airplane flying by sounded exactly the same as that time.
I may be overthinking, but I remember every single second of my past life before I died… and I don’t like where this is going.’
Was Rudy back in his past life? Or was he in a parallel universe? If he was in the parallel universe, which timeline was he on? 1990 or 2008?
Rudy felt a feeling he had long forgotten.
Hopelessness.
‘What if everything that happened so far was a dream? What if my mind showed me all that? A fantasy before I died? It is said that time passes slowly when your brain is dying, and it shows your most important and precious memories.
But all that was… not memories. Did I dream all that? And why am I not blind anymore? Wait… is all this real, or it’s yet another dream?
What if I am already dead? How can I confirm that all this is real?
If everything that happened before I opened my eyes— was a fantasy dream… then how can I confirm that this is not another dream?’
Rudy’s mind was filled with many unanswered questions, which he would never learn.
Rudy noticed his vision was getting blurry, as if his soul was being sucked out of his body.
‘Am I… dying?’
Rudy didn’t want to close his eyes and see his death with open eyes, but his vision darkened from the sides and slowly turned black.
….
[Arise, my Child.]
—
–
.
“…fr… one… get…”
Rudy’s ears twitched as he heard a voice. However, he didn’t open his eyes.
‘What is this feeling of deja vu?! Don’t tell me I have to relive through the same dream again and again?!’
“Rudy? Are you sleeping in class?” the male teacher asked.
‘Oh shit, it’s fucking Andrew! I don’t want to open my eyes, but if I don’t, he will make a big deal out of it for no reason!’
Rudy opened his eyes and said, “….”
‘Wait.. what? Why can’t I open my mouth?’
“Say something, you poor rat! Are you deaf or mute?” Andrew asked in anger.
Rudy struggled to open his mouth, let alone speak something.
He glanced to his right and left and saw Alice and Eric look at him with a concerned looks on their faces.
Suddenly, Rudy felt as if something was pulling him from behind. He jolted and turned around but ended up falling with the chair.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself lying in a familiar place.
He was in the cemetery.
‘What the fuck is going on?’
Rudy took a deep breath and slowly opened his mouth to check if he could speak, and sure enough, he was able to utter a word.
?r???eb??vel.c??
“Fucking… hell…”
He moved his fingers and sat up instantly.
“Okay, great. I can speak and move my body.”
He brought his hand in front of him and conjured fire.
‘My powers are working too.’
He glanced around and nodded while sighing in relief.
“I was back in 2008… and everything is… fine.” He grabbed his head and wondered, “But what was all that? Why was I back in my world and then in the class… did my memory malfunction?
Regardless, I am sure of one thing, and that is that I died… in space. I died in 1990. So it could be that my soul simply traveled back to my body again?
In other words… I officially died two times so far. I remember everything I did for a year, from 1989 to 1990. It feels like I was there five minutes ago.”
He got up and muttered, “Well, let’s go meet the girls first. And then… to find some answers.”
