Stone

Falling into darkness after embracing sleep was possibly the most rewarding feeling one could have after an exhausting day.

At least maybe except for this darkness. He knew he was not dead.

This lucid dream came around from time to time. The darkness itself around him didn't feel threatening.

There was just nothing here and time felt like it flowed slowly. He had a lot of encounters with it where he would just float around and think about nothing but mundane thoughts.

But currently, Yuri wondered if he would have the pleasure to fall asleep this soundly after having lived his second life.

At the same time, he knew he would just push himself to hell and receive the most painful death imaginable. It was his choice that shut every other path shut.

His life was not going well currently and he had this certain feeling that just felt too real. The thing is, he knew another life could possibly await him after death, and maybe therefore he didn't even fear it.

Yet at the same time, he did fear to lose the ones that were close to him.

That brought him back to the events that happened today. His mind replayed all the memories from this second life that he had until now.

And he knew that he would strive for revenge for what happened to his family.

Before he could completely be consumed by his inner hatred growing inside him a red light suddenly appeared near him and his gaze wandered over to it.

A small red stone brightened and dimmed rhythmically like a heartbeat in a crimson hue.

"You again..." Yuri remembered this stone. "Just what are you?"

He tried to touch the stone softly and it started glowing a lot stronger. The light washed away the darkness completely and with it, the scenery changed.

Now he saw two children play around in a forest. There was a small stream of water flowing down from a heightened position further up.

"This is..." Yuri now made a surprised expression and looked around.

"Heeey, look what I found!" shouted a brown-haired boy and showed a little brownish stone.

"What is that?" Asked the other kid.

"I nice looking stone. I think I will keep it.", grinned the boy back.

The other kid looked at it suspiciously. "Doesn't look like anything special. What are you going to do with it?"

"I think a necklace. Look I still got my shoelace here and with the glue...." The kid went ahead and build himself an amulet with the stone. A pretty crude one but still an amulet.

"Man, you always make weird things. Let's keep searching for a good spot for our hideout."

"Sure." nodded the kid and placed his new amulet around his neck.

Then after the two children ran away the scenery changed again.

This time a grown-up adult male was talking on his smartphone. He seemed to argue about something and after the call was ended he sat down on a couch.

What was notable was that this person had the same amulet hanging from his neck over his grey shirt. It was just much more delicate now.

It had a metal framing cage around it and the laces were replaced with a normal band.

"Why are you showing this to me?", asked Yuri while standing in front of the men and looking at him starting to drink alcohol.

He knew who this was. It was him from his past life.

Suddenly the scenery changed once more after the guy was close to taking the first sip.

Yuri frowned and looked around. Now he saw something akin to a laboratory.

In it, a huge mechanical construct stood in the middle. It looked like a system depicting the solar system. And in its center, he could again see the small red stone.

This time it was much redder in color.

"How is it going." asked a robed man from the sides and looked at the construct.

"We can't say for sure. Whatever we tried, the -dhhkdbsusvrifjsvek- didn't react to it."

Yuri was confused when he heard weird noises when the person tried to mention something.

"That is unfortunate...Then our time seems to have run out...." The other robed person let his head hanging and activated some switch.

Suddenly the roof split open and Yuri together with the two robed guys could see the sky.

What made Yuri open his mouth wide was the fact that a huge object was floating right above them.

"This meteor will be our end..."

Before anything further could happen the scene changed back to the darkness.

Only the stone beating in rhythmic light was there again.

Yuri stayed quiet for a while and thought about these events.

He knew this stone was special. It already gave him something interesting that he was not sure of how it was possible to appear at first.

That is why he asked what it was. Now he could only stare at it.

The short silence was then interrupted with a shrieking sound.

"sgued%=&!"

But Yuri did not understand. It happened again and again until suddenly the words became coherent.

"...Philosopher's Stone?" Yuri frowned after repeating the words. "I thought you were only a myth...And yet I am standing here talking with you..."

Realizing something Yuri could only sigh. Even a small smile appeared on his face.

"So you are from another world the same as me. And because I picked you up when I was a child, you also took me with you here? To tell the truth, I nearly forgot about you. It was like second nature at some point to wear you like an accessory..."

The stone glowed dimly for a second again and then charged right into Yuri's body.

That shock jolted him out of his sleep and with wide-open eyes he could now see someone tending to his head.

"Oh, you woke up? Did it sting? Please keep still for a little bit longer, young lord."

His eyes traveled to a person in a black military uniform. Her head was hidden by a balaclava.

But he could tell from the voice and eyes that it was a woman treating his wounds.

"Sure." He didn't mind and looked around more. Now he could see about 50 more such personnel walking and standing around.

And another person, the driver Maxim, was among them.

"Alright, all finished up." After having his gashing wound at the head patched up, he now sported small white bandages on his blond hair. And since it didn't impair his vision so it was alright.

Standing up and leaving the car without making much sound that could wake up his now soundly sleeping sister, he moved over to Maxim.

The soldiers seeing him saluted respectfully.

"Hey, hey. Look who had trouble and called for us. Didn't think I would ever see the day we get to have some actual action."

Yuri only sighed seeing another kid among the soldiers. He also had blond hair like himself. His facial expression was smug.

"Yeah...glad to see you too, Eli..." Then after answering him he looked around and saw another child soldier not far away. If this guy arrived then she should have as well.

It was a girl and she had the same combat uniform as the adults. Her green eyes still scanned the surroundings and when she noticed Yuri´s gaze she looked at him and black war paint around her eyes suddenly seemed to disappear.

A friendly smile coupled with a nod was given as a greeting.

"So it looks like everyone is here.", confirmed Yuri.