Chapter 1 - Back to the Start

A man clad in black dashed through a network of alleyways under the purple light of a moon split perfectly in two. Boxes and beggars littered the walls of the alleyways, making the already narrow paths even narrower. Any ordinary person would struggle to run through the alleyways without tripping over a box or person but, the man in black was no ordinary person. He flew through the alleyways at an inhuman speed...and he was not running. The man was gliding on darkness itself.

The darkness the man slid on filled up the alleyways as he moved through them, consuming everything they touched. The boxes that stood against the walls of the alleyway disappeared without a single clatter, and the beggars looked at the man in black approaching with fear in their eyes before disappearing without a scream. The man in black didn't look back once. He was well aware of what he was doing, but there were more pressing things on his mind.

*KRAK---THOOOOM*

The man once gilding too fast for human sight stopped in an instant. One of the 'things' that was distracting him was now right in front of him. A woman with a snow-white coat stepped over the rubble of the building she just burst through and turned left to face the man in black.

"End of the line" she spoke as she met his dark, dead eyes.

The man, still not saying a word, materialized an extremely thin black sword and, in the next moment teleported so that he was nose to nose with the woman. With his sword in his right hand, the man slashed upwards diagonally, slicing the woman in two.

Wind. That was the next feeling the man had. In his confusion, the man started looking around to see what had happened to the woman he cut, and noticed that he was high above the city. He spotted the woman, still perfectly intact, in the network of alleyways with a man of muscular stature, glowing faintly red. It seemed that the red man was the one who threw him over the city.

The man in black was on the ground again before he knew it. Despite having a few seconds before hitting the ground(or building) naturally, someone new threw him to the ground, creating a small crater in the process. The man stood up slowly and coughed up blood. He was now feeling fear for the first time in 5 years. He didn't realize that 'they' had gotten this strong and had severely underestimated them, and was now paying the consequences of doing so. The man in black lightly sighed and shut his eyes before opening them to see his three attackers standing before him. The woman in white, the muscular man glowing red, and the one who threw him to the ground; a man in a deep blue cloak.

Stepping back, and looking at his attackers, the man simply laughed.

"Who knew it would come to this...killed by my own companions" the man in black finally said.

"You knew what you were doing, Kas. You went against everything we worked for and turned to this side of 'evil'" the woman in white responded.

"Because it wasn't right. None of what you did was right!"

The red man spoke: "How ironic is it hearing you say that? You killed thousands to prevent our work and for what? Now, here you are standing in front of us, bleeding and weakened. You are at our mercy now."

As much as he didn't want to believe it, the man in black; Kas'Tel, knew those words to be true. These people, his ex-companions, trained far harder than he should have. From what he knew they spent 10 years in the 'infinite realm' training, though he knew that number could easily be a hundred times larger. For Kas'Tel, he knew this was the end. He never got close to achieving his goals and could never stand toe to toe with the people in front of him now.

"HAHAHA... This guy, he's crying" the man in red laughed hysterically at the sight.

Kas'Tel, regretful he couldn't achieve his goals and seeing his life as a waste, was crying. The tears were silent, but his head was screaming.

'If only I could go back and start again. I would do everything differently and complete my goals.'

Kas wished for a second chance. Another life. Just to do everything again once more.

"Let's end it now" the man in blue stated, the people standing beside him nodding in agreement.

Kas shut his eyes to await his fate.

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Kas opened his eyes to find himself lying in the street where he had supposedly died. He was in the exact same location where the crater was formed after his fight, but he was alive and well. Additionally, there was no crater, and the street was bustling with various people running errands, giving judging glances to Kas as they walked by his still-lying down body. They probably thought he was a drunkard.

'Did I...get another chance?'

Kas looked around to confirm his location and the time period when he went back. He ran up to a newspaper stall and snatched one of the papers on display. At the top right the paper read:

[700x, Day 89]

He did go back. He couldn't feel the powers that he developed over the years, but that could be relearned. That time spent learning magic was nothing compared to the opportunity he recieved. Kas was back to before the time he met his companions and back to a point where he could start from scratch. The once gloomy man looked up at the sun with a hand over his eyes and smiled softly for the first time in years. He got another chance. He could now live the perfect life and destroy his companion's dreams, all to fulfill his own.

Kas'Tel's second life started now.