Past Lives, Future Paths

Before long, a sense of focus washed over him, "Three years, huh."

'It's going to take a while to get used to talking like that…' He accepted, returning to his thoughts.

Vin slowly stood, finding it hard to do so after sleeping for so long. He straightened his face, then exhaled, 'Then I'm 17 years old. Feels just like yesterday I was home.'

Standing, he noticed the ground was a little higher. He had been too distracted to notice before, but when he raised his arms, they were thinner and longer. Wondering what else had changed, Vin gave his body a loose inspection and tried hard not to panic about the fact that he'd not only risen from ash but had aged in his sleep.

He caressed his head, quickly realizing that his hair had only grown a couple of inches over his forehead despite the time elapsed. He realized all his hard work had been returned to ground zero, but even though he was scrawny, he didn't feel weak—like his slim figure was reforged out of rock.

A dark figure flew into the cave and landed a few paces before him as he continued examining himself. Vin's expression blanked, and he stared at the black Phoenix for a couple of seconds before commenting aloud, "Are you for real."

The mystery of why he hadn't starved to death had quickly been solved. The burning bird was empty of emotion; it just looked at him, mouth full of juicy, squirming worms.

He wondered how he was supposed to react or what he would have done years ago. Soon, he conceded he had no interest in his past, weak self. For all he was concerned, the old Gavin Dance Jr died that day with the decaying monster.

Vin couldn't run yet but limped toward the bird with a wild expression and clenched fist. "You let me lay here for three years!?"

Vin reached it and attempted to kick the creature, but the moment he tried, it swiftly flew upward and perched on his head. Enraged, he swatted at the diety again, but the bird was far too agile and dashed above him out of reach.

"Bitch," he insulted, peering daggers at the mythical animal.

The Phoenix didn't communicate; it just minded him. It became apparent that Vin needed to put his revenge on hold for the time being. Instead, he finally decided to listen to the TALKATIVE Soul in his mind.

'It's been talking this entire time?! Dammit, get out of my head already.'

"More details of the upcoming event will be revealed soon, but before that, let's cover the fundamental differences between our worlds."

"First, unlike Earth, Auroraan has a deep-rooted ancestry of magic. Many of you may already be beginning to feel its essence pooling into your core."

Vin recalled an odd feeling he had after entering the lesser bridge. However, it was subtle at the time, and he was too preoccupied to explore it.

"The ones that greeted you moments ago are my personal devotes. You may have already noticed the unusual shape of their ears. These are ____ "

'Huh?' Vin thought. The last thing that was said sounded like absolute gibberish.

"Ah, yes, there is another name for them in your world's transcripts. I believe you refer to their various depictions as Elves."

"In these past three years, I have learned much about your cultures and relayed them to my devotes so they may better instruct you on the nature of our world."

"I'm sure you're worried about how you would learn from an unfamiliar species. Well, as per procedure, when a new planet is assimilated, all that world's languages are united into one common tongue."

"Earthian, as deemed by your world leader, has already been transcribed onto your minds. It's a harmless process, and you may not have even noticed the difference."

'No shit I noticed.'

Vin traced his fingers over his lips and began to speak, "Not happy about this, but I understand. We have—well, we had thousands of languages on Earth. It'd take a lifetime to learn them all."

"Jerry, was it? He chose a terrible name for the new language."

Vin looked outside the cave, over the flames, off into an expanse of luxuriant forest, and mumbled, "This planet's Soul is the reason we're going through all this crap, but maybe it's actually trying to give us a fair chance here."

"If it's real, I wonder what the settlement looks like."

"Probably crowded with billions of people… Also doubt there's much in terms of structures yet."

Vin palmed his face, clicked his teeth, and growled, "No roads means I won't be able to skate for a while. How many years does it take to build a city from scratch anyway."

He returned to heeding the mysterious Soul, who'd become increasingly excited as it communicated to the entire human race. "Great, isn't it?"

'No, I wasn't listening.'

"I look forward to following your journeys and pray all the residents of this Planet find common ground."

A myriad of colors flashed in front of Vin unannounced. Then, a miniature lesser bridge tore a hole in space and spat out a leather notebook before disappearing.

Distrustful, Vin didn't bother to catch it but let it hit the ground before tastelessly kicking it further away.

"These are Magic Journals; they are affiliated with your individual and unique life force, so you'll never lose them. And if they are destroyed, a new one will appear on your command."

"If you open the cover, you'll see several labeled tabs."

At this point, Vin picked up the book to follow along. The exterior was tough, aged leather, and the pages inside were smooth, sepia-colored parchment. But that's not what made it magic; what impressed Vin was that the first tab he flipped to was labeled [Status] and automatically updated.

The [Status] tab was several sheets divided by a plastic-like bookmark at the end of the section. Black ink was scribed on the first page without his input, auto-filling information.

[Time:] 9:31 am

[Date:] 1/1/300 AD - (After the death of Archangel Constantine Verthry)

[Name:] Vin Dance

[Race:] Human

[Age:] 17

[Occupation:] N/A

[ ]

More tabs followed, totaling five: [Status], [Map], [Quests], [Spells], and [World Info].

Vin only followed the instructional up to the second tab, [Map]. Although it may have been insignificant to most humans then, he desperately needed it.

Like the [Status] Tab, the ink on the Map was living and flowed to form an image. It presented an exemplary illustration of the planet they'd arrived on. Unlike Earth, which had seven continents, the new world had one enormous land mass, excluding a tiny unnamed island far East.

While it was one large land, the Map had 5 boundaries drawn to separate territories like nations. What mattered was that a land poorly named Earthia was at the dead center of the Map and bordered the other 4 regions. It was unfortunate that they were smooshed in the middle like that, and most of the different territories were much larger than Earthia.

The most helpful feature of the illustration was that it painted a red dot on the Map to signify where he was. It even had an active compass that revolved based on the direction he looked.

From what it depicted, he was near the border in the Western region labeled Vulcorath. Earthia was at the center of the land, so he just needed to walk East to reach it. What was slightly concerning was the Map's scaling. If each region were large enough to fit the residents of an entire planet, then that world would be gargantuan.

The Phoenix watched Vin begin to walk to the cave exit, which took him minutes to reach from the center. That nest was too huge for just them, and the size of the feathers indicated a creature of terrifying proportions built it. He had to wonder what kind of divine terror its "true form" was.

When Vin reached the end of the cave, he wearily eyed the violet flames that blocked his exit. He inhaled, held out his hand to sample the fire, and uncovered his new body had fire resistance. He admired this feat but didn't dwindle long and walked through the flames.

Of course, that Phoenix, to which Vin owed a vow, followed.