Chapter 1: The Regression

|PART ONE: REBORN|

Earth, United Nations, Safe Haven, Third Ring, 2037.

Elior's heart pounded as his mind rumbled in memories that had never transpired before. Images of sky-collapsing war played in his mind abruptly out of nowhere as an intense headache blazed his head. He covered his eyes and head with the pillow, wailing as if to deny what had happened.

It was distant, in some other dimension, in some other astral plane, yet it came so vivid to him.

He sat uptight as quickly as he could, and when he opened his eyes the intense light clouded his vision. Glimmers of sunlight had cast through the window lid, claiming the day has arrived. He focused his gaze by blinking a few times exactly to notice he was in his bedroom. Moreover, he was soaking in a cold sweat.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead, and cheek as a rush of intense emotion swirled inside him. He looked at his arms to find out they were thinner than he remembered, and they were trembling.

With a bit of effort, he leaned against the wall of the room and tried to calm his nerves by taking a few deep breaths. But that didn't help at all. Suddenly, a faint memory of the last talk he had with his godmother surged inside his mind with an image of a dying man with a lot of regrets.

'This is . . . Me?' his breathing got faster as the splitting migraine swept over him. He couldn't calm his nerves anymore.

He saw himself dying on the horrifying battlefield, and finally, the recollection hit him. The regression was successful, but his mind was too cloudy to interpret if he came back at the right time or not.

With a lot of effort, Elior carried his body from the bed as he staggered his way towards the washroom. He instinctively opened the door and came straight to the sink. Without a single thought, he jerked his head at the sink before unlocking the tap.

Coldwater thumped on his head, giving a faint sense of clarity of mind. He stayed like that for a couple of minutes as his mind cleared. And so came clouds of memory. It swept his mind, giving him a faint reminiscence of his failure.

"Ah . . ." He couldn't help but let out a deep sigh, raising his head.

Then he noticed a bit of an unfamiliar face reflecting in the washroom mirror. The one reflecting on the mirror was only a young man of sixteen, still a couple of years away from growing the first facial hair. His complexion was pale and the dark eyes were sunken more than usual.

Elior unconsciously touched his cheek. The exterior of the broad-shouldered man who spent over a decade in battle couldn't be seen—instead, it was a naive-looking teenager.

"So, I have returned!" He murmured as he wiped the water from his face with a towel when he heard a voice outside from the washroom door.

"Elior? What's taking you so long? Don't you remember what day it is?"

"Mom!" A surge of emotion washed over him. He opened the door as quickly as he could to find the figure of a middle-aged woman in her early forties. She had dark hair like him, while her eyes were sky blue.

Saying nothing, he lunged towards her with an embrace. Tears flowed out of his eyes as he smelled the familiar scent of his mother.

"Elior, what got into you?" His mother whispered as she found out he was crying. "Is it because of your father? About what he said yesterday?"

He remained silent, still embracing.

"Don't cry. I have talked to your father. He agreed to your admission." She pulled him from the embrace and looked at his face. "Look, Ileana is here, at least don't cry in front of her."

Elior came back to his senses as he gazed past his mother to notice a young girl of his age standing there, giving him a teasing grin.

"El is still a mama's boy."

"You want a hug as well?" Elior said. But before Ileana could answer, he already pulled her into a hug.

Ileana gave off the vibe of the next-door girl and apparently, she did live next door. She was not that tall—five feet and nothing, with a pretty oval exterior and cute nose. Her eyes were bright oceanic blue, while her hair was chestnut colour, left on her both shoulders.

She was wearing a white formal dress all the way down to her thigh, a black leather coat above it, with a similar style of black leather pants. It appeared she had someplace to be.

"Hey, what are you doing? I don't want your hug." Ileana protested.

After a couple of seconds before calming down, Elior left her from the hug.

"Why are you prepared in those clothes?" He asked Ileana. "Are you going somewhere?"

"It's not the matter of why I'm dressed, it's the question why haven't you?" Ileana said. "Don't you know today's date?"

"What's today?" Elior asked. He was totally clueless.

"Today is the 2nd of October," his mother answered. "It's the day of your admission to the Institution of Earth's Guardian."

"Ahh!" Elior searched for the memories inside his mind as he found out he had regressed exactly to the day of the Trial. He murmured, "The bus will arrive soon."

"Exactly." Ileana shot a fist at his shoulder. "Why haven't you prepared already, we have only half an hour left."

To admit into the Institution of Earth's Guardian, they have to appear in all sorts of tests. Boys and girls all over the world studied their asses off for this opportunity. He recalled he had spent months of sleepless nights to prepare for the exams before succeeding, though his name was not in the forefront, like Ileana, who succeeded in flying colours.

"Give me a couple of minutes," saying that he went straight to his room.

With little consideration, Elior put on an ash-coloured shirt and found a similar leather coat and trousers to the one Ileana was wearing in his wardrobe. Then he recalled it was the dress the UN government offered after he cleared the exams. Elior put on those thick leather outfits rather quickly before picking up a comb.

His hair was rather short, so it didn't take long to comb it. And for other accessories, he found out that his mother had already prepared for him. He only put his Hollowbook and cellphone into it before checking the clock, which was striking at 9:39 am.

"I'm ready," he announced towards the two women still in the corridor. Then he remembered something important, a mistake he made in his past regression. He looked at his mother before asking, "Mom, where's dad?"

He remembered in his previous life; he had a big argument with his dad just the day before the trial, which was yesterday. His father was not in favour of him going to the Institute of Earth's Guardian. As a doctor himself, his father decided he should be a doctor as well. Well, he had some other reasons as well, but that time he was too green to see them.

Elior hadn't agreed with his father, so he had taken the entrance exam of the institute without his father's assertion. He had contemplated this decision more than once in his previous life. His life would have been totally different if he hadn't taken the bus last time.

His mother sighed. "Your father is at work," she said. "But I talked with him yesterday. You don't need to worry. He agreed to your admission to the institute."

"But it's Sunday." So his father agrees. He hadn't known this in his previous time.

"You know your dad." his mother shook her head. "This is his way of showing . . . enough of that, you don't have much time.

"Listen carefully, we only agreed to this after much consideration of the options. You have to take care of yourself. Like you agreed before, you're forbidden from putting yourself in harm's way. You would take an auxiliary course at the institution and stay away from all the dangerous things and fighting. Promise me that."

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'Huh.' Elior took in a deep breath of air. If this was his previous life, his answers would be: 'I promise, mom, I'll pick a course in magic engineering or some other auxiliary department.'

But he couldn't say that now. And he couldn't lie either.

"I promise, mom, I'll take care of myself. I won't put myself in any unnecessary troubles," he said as he kissed his mom on the cheeks. "We're late, let's go Ileana."

He rushed off from there immediately, catching the left arm of Ileana.

"Elior?" His mother yelled from behind.

But he didn't stop, only yelled back: "Goodbye mom, I'll call you after arriving there."

"El, what happened to you?" Ileana gasped for air as she said. "You're acting weird today."

Elior didn't answer, nor he released the grip from her arm. He finally stopped when they covered a few blocks in the neighbourhood.

Elior panted. "Sorry," he said. It would take him a couple of days to get used to his younger self.

Ileana was breathing rapidly, too. "So, why haven't you agreed to your Mom?" she asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb with me," Ileana said. "I know you don't lie, and you haven't actually agreed to your mom's word."

Elior blinked at the chestnut-haired girl. It seemed he forgot about the outstanding observation skills and wits of Ileana.

"I'll tell you later." he coughed and walked forward.

"And that's what you say when you don't want to answer," Ileana said in an annoying tone.

The two of them followed side by side on the sidewalk for a quarter of an hour before sighting a bus in red colours. It was almost double the size of a normal bus. A shield with two swords in cross—the sign of the guardians was imprinted on it in black.

Elior was walking straight towards the gate when Ileana nudged his shoulder.

"Let's take a selfie first," the fair girl with chestnut hair opened her as got ready to take a photo.

"Couldn't you wait until the trial ends?" Elior complained but still showed his face in front of the camera.

After clicking a good amount of photos, Ileana let out a satisfied grin. "After the trial? What are you talking about?" she asked.

He again let out something that he was not supposed to.

Fortunately, Ileana didn't carry on with the topic, as she was still fiddling with her phone. "Let's go," she said.

Elior took a deep breath. "Everything begins here."

The two of them entered the bus, which was awfully vacant. Only about a dozen seats were filled. Boys and girls of their age were seated there in formal dresses. They all have been assessed through many tests before being given the opportunity to be here.

Few of the fellas had anxious expressions on, few were excited while few were casual. But most of them were still unsure about the thing.

Ileana and Elior took seats beside themselves. Surprisingly, Elior was not feeling any of the emotions the others were feeling. Calm was the only word to describe his state. On the other hand, Ileana was more eager than usual. Her blue eyes drifted all over the bus, searching for something supernatural.

"Looks like everyone is here," A tall man appeared in front of them. He gazed at everyone present on the bus before continuing. "I'm Roan Fraser, in charge of you all for now. Before moving to the next step, I wanted to remind all of you that you are the best of earth, creams of the crops. Soon you will be at the institution, but before that, an important test is left."

"What? what test? Did not we passed all the tests?" A fellow on the frontier seat sounded out.

"I can't say anything about the test, but remember even if you fail you are still welcome at the institute." Roan said, "Kids, don't be too surprised."

Elior smacked his lips at the last statement. Why would they not be surprised? It's not like they had been here before. Well, he had been here, if you consider the previous timeline.

But that's a special case.

Out of all the things the man could have said, he told them not to be surprised. Of course, they wouldn't be surprised to find out that they were on a dimension travelling vehicle which was hidden as a normal bus. Of course, they wouldn't be surprised after waking up in some different dimension where they have to appear in another trial to prove themselves.

'Why would we be surprised? It's like any other Sunday.' Elior said inwardly.

Ileana gripped his palm tightly to the point he felt somewhat pain, but he didn't complain. His condition was similar to hers in his first time.

The bus picked up its pace as straps appeared from the seats—they were sitting, restricting them from any movements.

"El?" Ileana whispered.

Elior exchanged a glance with her before giving a slow nod, which seemed to calm her down.

The bus, no—the dimension travelling ship, travelled at lightning speed as all the kids in it passed out, including Elior.

"Kids, I wish you success."

________________________

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For those who have skipped the prologue, please check it out in the auxiliary chapters.

This is a work of fiction. Our earth and the earth here may not be identical.

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