19 Ch 18: Awakening (III)

On a battlefield that had littered with bodies, stood a man. He had just fought the fallen king of a lost civilisation. Pity and empathy was filling his mind as he was remembering their battle.

"Your grace, the casualties during this crusade had been astronomical. We fear that hunting down the rest would greatly weaken our forces more than we presumed." A man in robes reported. His expression was deathly pale while the hands holding his staff were shaking.

"There is no need to rush. Well purge all of them in due time. For now, lets focus on recovering. I fear you would die of exhaustion rather than a weapon. Report to the pontiff, the 'Ruler of Bones' is no more." The 'Sword Saint' had an easing smile. Their victory was hard earned during this battle. Many of the believers and templars had sacrificed themselves to distract the undying hordes of skeletons just for the 'Sword Saint' to finally exterminate the 'Ruler of Bones' once and for all.

"Immortality... A king needs not an eternal rule for we are all man. Eternal rest is a gift to us, and therefore i shall deliver you to peace and salvation. Sleep now, o great king of the faithful." Those were the final words that Gladius spoke to Rex, a farewell to the fallen king.

Lucius woke up and held his head from a severe headache. After minutes of writhing in pain, the headache had finally began to disappear.

He sat up and found himself in a very familiar room. The room in which he had lived back on earth. It didn't have anything else besides a bed, a table, a cabinet, and a drawer.

"What times is it?" Taking his phone and checking the time, Lucius found that it was 6:46. He yawned and stretched his arms when a sudden realization came into his mind.

"Damnit! Im gonna be late to school!" He hurriedly washed himself, took anything edible from the kitchen downstairs, and set off in his bike.

Luckily he managed to enter in 4 minutes before the class started. He sighed and parked his bike. It wasn't everyday that he got on school in time. He checked his phone and checked the date and time, it was 7:21 of february 14.

'I forgot that today was valentines day. Hopefully my classmates can coax the teachers today to not give us any exams or assignments.' Valentines day was the time where Lucius would give the teachers gifts like roses and chocolate. And it wasn't just him. Plenty of other students do these even to those that had high grades.

It was this time that Lucius felt someone tapping his left shoulder. He turned to see and was surprised to find the person he wanted to confess to.

"Valerie!" Lucius flinched and stepped back. "You surprised me. I thought it was the student council again." It was not a lie that he was afraid of the student council. He had been caught by them sneaking in after he was late and had been punished severely. And this happened more than once which resulted in Lucius fearing the student council. Especially against the vice president, they had a strong hatred for one another.

"Calm down. Why would they be after you? You're not even late. Surprisingly, you're early today." She let out a soft giggle while checking her wrist watch.

"Maybe they found out what i did to the boys bathroo- wait? What do you mean by early?" Lucius squinted his eyed. It wasn't possible that 7 in the morning was early to his school.

"Here, take a look. It's currently 6:55." She showed him her watch.

"Wha-.. But i-... " Lucius was genuinely confused. His phone and her watch had two different times. He grabbed his phone and checked again. They were both different.

"Hahaha!" A laughter escape from her mouth after seeing Lucius fiddling with his phone.

"Is this a prank? Are you playing with me?" He started to become skeptical yet it only made her laugh harder. She held her stomach and tried to cover her mouth.

"You idiot. Didn't you say 'I'll set my phone 30 minutes advance. This way i'll never be late again.'. Seeing you struggle to remember your own idea never fails to make me laugh." It was yesterday that she heard Lucius boast about his genius idea. Yet in the end, he forgot that he had such a plan. She found Lucius' forgetfulness hilarious.

"Of course i remember. Hahaha, totally according to plan." Lucius laughed awkwardly while scratching his head.

"Alright then, I'll see you later. I have things to do for now." As one of the top students of the school and as the class president, she had her schedule filled during the morning.

"There's one more thing!" Lucius had his heart pumping. Perhaps it was today that he finally say three simple words in front of her.

She stopped and turned to look at Lucius.

Lucius wanted to say 'Meet me later' but couldn't. His lips slightly moved and twitched but no words came out. "M-... Me-... *sigh* Forget i ever said anything. It's nothing important." A feeling of dejection filled Lucius' heart.

"Are you sure? If you're having any problems, tell me. Don't hide something that you might regret." She furrowed her brows. Thet had been friends for three years and she knew full well that when Lucius had a problem, he would solve or fail it by himself.

"It's nothing... honest. Something that's not worth anyone's time. Cya!" Lucius stuffed his hands inside his pockets and casually walked away.

A sharp pain was left in his heart but he couldn't do anything about it. He had always ran away from Valerie.

"What was that saying again? Cha cha real smooth. Or does it not fit with the current situation." A voice came from behind Lucius.

"Look, buddy, mind your own goddamn busine-" His eyes widen.

The skeleton that guarded the pantheon was leaning against a wall with his spear resting on shoulders.

"Took me quite a lot of effort to get the language down but here i am, fresh from the flesh. Wait, no. Here i am, in the flesh. Oh yeah, i got that hip doubly bop pop." While Lucius was remembering that this was all a dream, the skeleton was enjoying its time in the dream.

"Anyway, how long." The skeleton's carefree attitude vanished and pointed its spear towards Lucius making him step back.

"What do you mean?" Lucius was confused but this was certainly the first time that he had a conversation with the skeleton.

"How long till you finally stop running away from everything." Its voice had a hind of anger. "You have told yourself that you would accomplish this and that yet they were all empty promises!" It slashed off Lucius' left arm.

This made Lucius grunt in pain. He was hurt both physically and mentally.

"You had several chances on confessing to that woman yet you kept running!" The blade of the spear grazed Lucius' left cheek. "Blaming your own misfortune without even trying to fix yourselves!" A sharp cut had appeared on Lucius' right thigh. "Have ever considered anyone else besides yourself!" Lucius left shin had been vertically cut.

Lucius tried to defend himself yet the skeleton's flurry of attacks kept hitting him. "What was i suppose to do! I had nothing!" Lucius snapped back. The onslaught of attacks was hard to defend against but the accusations dealt more damage to him.

"You have an arm!" The skeleton screamed as he sliced off his right arm. "You have legs!" The spear stabbed Lucius' right leg but was ripped of after the skeleton twisted the blade and pulled it out with force. "You have sight!" The butt of the spear slammed against Lucius right eye while the skeleton sliced his left eye off. "You have a voice!" The spear pierced his throat. "You have more than everything to succeed! There are thousand or even millions of less fortunate souls than you yet they face their problem!" The skeleton's onslaught of attacks stopped.

Lucius could feel every single injury he has. It was strange how he could not die. Although the pain of his wounds was drowning his brain, the pain of his heart was crushing him from the inside. "What... am i... suppose to... do then.. !" Even with a gaping hole on his throat, Lucius still managed to talk. Everything the skeleton said and did had given him a wound. Not just the body but also his heart and pride.

"Grow. Become better than what you are now." the skeleton squatted besides Lucius and tapped his chest. All his wounds began to disappear. "Im not asking you to grow and become powerful. Im asking you to grow and become someone commendable. Growth is a slow process, just like those before you, they too had grown up. Stop running, complete your promises, and finally become someone who you wanted to be." This wasn't jist about Lucius running away from confessing his love. This was about him running from his problems. He had stopped caring and tried to forget earth, he did not prepare himself in every problem he's faced. Because of his habit of running from his problems that he could not stick his promises.

The skeleton could not bare to see Lucius in such a state. He was not openly running away from his problems but he was slowly doing so. Even to the point of using death as an escape. He had a hard time in highschool yet he escape reality with anime and games, turning away from his familial problems, and even running away from accepting the loss of his grandmother back on earth.

It was time for him to finally become a new person. Someone who will not inherit the mindset of paul. It was time for him to awaken anew.