Lowenian Empire, Mersella County, Porint town, near Dolair highforest.

 

The evening sun shone beautifully near the horizon, seemingly unwilling to set as it released the final splendor of the day which wouldn't last more than half an hour, painting the town yellowish gold in colour.

 

The only properly paved street present in the town was crowded with people roaming about for the final working hours of the day, finishing the day's work before they returned to their houses. Both the ends of the street were occupied by six storied buildings, while the street divided the town in half.

 

Both buildings had large wooden signboard on top of them. The building on the end which was nearer to the highforest was named 'Adventure's Guild' and the building on the opposite end was named 'Treasure Trading Pavilion'. Lonely adventurers and mercenary groups kept exiting the forest as they walked towards Adventurer's Guild to report the results of the missions that they had accepted from the guild.

 

About five kilometres away from the town, there was a concentric castle built up of black stones. The castle and the town made a parallel line to the edge of the forest. Despite being so near to each other, residents of the town had never interacted with people that resided within the castle.

 

It was rumoured that the castle was occupied by a powerful mage who had gone senile due to his old age, who, along with his servants, regularly carried out heretic activities within the depths of the castle. The castle and its residents were shrouded in a mysterious veil that no one dared to lift. The moat that surrounded the castle was filled with blackish water, giving the finishing touch to the eeriness of the castle.

 

A black haired teenager about 14 years of age was asleep within one of the rooms in the keep of the castle. The room was cuboidal in shape, having an edge of about ten feet in length. The bed occupied by the teenager was simple and without decoration. The bedding and sheets as well as the curtains of the window were dark green in colour. Suddenly, the teenager opened his eyes, as a confused expression flashed across his face.

 

The teenager looked around the room, and then looked at the giant mirror situated right in front of the bed, and exclaimed, " The dream is very weird and realistic tonight! I seem to remember killing Browny the traitor, and suddenly getting struck by a meteor. And now I am in this room constructed from black stone in an unknown teenager's body."

 

The teenager got down from the bed and came near the window, lifting the curtains to see the beautiful view of the sun that was at the horizon, and a vast swathe of forest that had been painted golden by sunlight.

 

" Oh god! The view is so beautiful and the air is so fresh. It seems I am in a castle right now. I never knew that I subconsciously wanted to live as a rich young master of medieval ages. I guess such life wouldn't be bad", muttered the teenager, believing everything around him as a portrayal of his subconscious mind which was realised within his dream. Clearly, Freddie Richardson hadn't realised that he had reincarnated.

 

Freddie released the curtains as he once again took a look around his room. It seemed that he realised something, as he murmured, " There is something wrong here, the room is small and there is no extravagant decorations. There are no servants around either. Is it that I am mistaken about my identity? How is that possible? Or could it be that I am a servant? I hope I wake up soon. This dream is turning out to be a nightmare."

 

He noticed a desk and a chair near the bed. There were many books present upon it. Freddie walked near the table, and picked up a small book that resembled a diary. As he opened the first page, he saw several illegible words that strangely seemed recognisable by him. The words were translated as - Diary of Flavian Reese.

 

*AAAAAARGH* Freddie screamed as a blast went off in his head. He clenched his head tightly, as he fell down on the floor beside the desk while screaming. He felt so much pain that it had surpassed the high pain tolerance limit he had acquired in his days of being a field agent. It felt as if someone was cutting his head with a knife and stuffing it with some sharp edged object.

 

As the pain went above the limit his body could handle, he fainted. By the time he woke up, the sun had set and a blanket of night shrouded the surroundings. He still felt a dull ache in his head and his mind felt a bit groggy. There seemed to be another set of memory about a teenager named Flavian Reese in his head, who looked exactly like how Freddie looked when he saw his own reflection in the giant mirror.

 

Freddie got up slowly, as the headache subsided, and walked up to the giant mirror unsteadily, as if wanting to confirm something that he found unbelievable. There he saw the reflection of a teenager whose memories he believed he had inherited.

 

The teenager looked exceptionally handsome, with a thin physique, seemingly suffering from acute malnutrition. As Freddie took an approximate measure of his current height, he realised that he was about five feet tall, shorter than the average height of a 14 year old teen on Earth.

 

Suddenly, Freddie heard a feminine and robotic voice that originated from within his head that he previously heard right before the onslaught of pain.

 

[ Memory restoration complete. System functions activated. Scanning the host. Scan complete. Registering the host as the lastest user. *Beep* Mr. Flavian Reese, congratulations on becoming the newest user of the Almighty Ascension System.]

 

" Who are you? How did you get in my head? Get out of my head right now!" Freddie roared in his head.

 

[ User, please calm down. I am an A.I designed to help new users like you with regards to myriad functions of the Almighty Ascension System. As the system is attached directly to your soul, I can speak to you directly through soul communication. Hence, you hear my voice right inside your head.]

 

" What system? What does the almighty's ascension have anything to do with me?" Freddie snarled in his head. Any sane person would be overcome with panic if they learnt about the existence of a foreign thing inside their soul. Though, the list excluded those that had delusion about escaping to fantasy world.

 

[ The system exists to help the existing user to ascend the throne of Almighty. As you are the current user, the system will help you in your endeavours.]

 

" Is it so? Can you tell me how many so-called Almighty beings you have helped?"

 

[None]

 

"...."

 

[ User doesn't have to worry. Even if you fall short of the final mission of the system, you will still have an exciting and fulfilling life ahead of you.]

 

" Ummm... Can you send me back to

Earth?" Freddie asked, obviously knowing the answer, yet hoping to hear otherwise.

 

[ No.]

 

" YOU BASTARD! YOU WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT METEOR, WEREN'T YOU? SEND ME BACK! MY FATHER WILL BE WORRIED SICK UPON MY ABSENCE!"

 

[ There were no supernatural events behind your death. You can't blame anyone, except your bad luck and MASA scientists who didn't perform their job properly. Also, the system doesn't possess the capability to send you to a particular place without any space-time coordinates of that place.]

 

" THEN HOW DID YOU BRING ME HERE? DON'T LIE TO ME!"

 

[ The system did not bring you here.]

 

The response from the A.I was so shocking that Freddie forgot all his anger and frustration. He asked in shock, " How is that possible? Then how did I arrive here?"

 

[ You died, and you reincarnated as Flavian Reese. As reincarnation erases your past life memories, you forgot your past life.]

 

Freddie realised something as he said, "When you mentioned something about 'memory restoration', you meant....", he suddenly guessed about a possibility.

 

[ Restoration of your previous life memories. Consider it as key to your survival in near future. As the age of your previous life was higher than the age of your present life, the overwhelming amounts of memory temporarily put you into stupor, while displacing your current memories, resulting in the ensuing confusion where you thought your soul transmigrated instead of being reincarnated.]

 

Freddie sat down on the bed, closed his eyes, and asked, " Who am I? Freddie or Flavian?"

 

[ What does the user think?]

 

" I see.", replied Flavian, as two thin lines of tears flowed down the corner of his closed eyes.

 

He was Freddie. And he was Flavian. Yet he decided to bury Freddie in the depths of his mind, or else the name would perpetually prick his mind like a sharp knife, reminding him of the loss of his dear friends, trusted teammates and beloved father.

 

Flavian was going through previous life's memory one last time. He reminisced all the ups and downs of his previous life.

 

He sat there as time slowly crept by, when he heard a prompt in his head.

 

*Ding* [ New Mission: Survive the breakout planned by you and your fellow captives.]