1.Regression

Chased by the countless hounds, a man in a dark cloak was running through the streets under the brightly glimmering moonlight holding on to his dear life.

"Garuda! Surrender now! You cannot run all your life!" A man far away from the cloaked figure warned him.

Without paying heed Garuda ran with all his might knocking on every single door to find a hole to hide from these hideous men who were chasing him.

Quickly one of the hunting hounds pounced onto his back and tackled him down. Momentarily a large shadow appeared behind him slowly raising from the ground. As a coping mechanism, his hand quickly drew the dagger from the sheath.

[The Celestial Nefarious with twisted kindness laughs at your demise]

"Aren't you enjoying this?"

The cloaked man said looking at the sky while enduring the hound's bite. In a mere second, he cut its throat and continued running again.

[The Celestial Nefarious with twisted kindness asks if you are going to use the stone or not?]

'Not yet

Garuda mumbled inwardly.

Garuda was being chased by the soldiers of his world and Players that intruded into his world from the earth. Due to the countless crimes he committed. And few among them were attempting to assassinate Earth's mightiest hero, The necromance. He committed arson to the empire's fortress and created an axis of rebels and lastly, he achieved genocide.

Garuda had his own reasons but, there is nothing to justify his actions. He was one twisted lad. His life was never easy but he wasn't weak enough to be suppressed by it either. He always went against the flow of the world.

However good must win the evil that's what people like. As such Garuda was marked as an absolute threat by his world and placed a bounty akin to Earth.

"Fuck!"

Garuda cursed and kicked on one of the doors.

Soon one of the doors he knocked out of the many opened the door and Garuda entered their house. The one who opened was a handicapped woman who had no legs.

Garuda quickly grasped her mouth and silenced her as he noticed her skin wilting out slowly turning into a demon.

"Shhh! Shhh!"

Garuda silenced her and slowly slit her throat with his dagger after he noticed a magic circle on the room's wall.

[The Celestial Nefarious with twisted kindness laughs at you]

"Damned bitches!"

He cursed and immediately poured a potion of bottles around him.

Boom!

The whole house exploded and in the middle of the destroyed building was Garuda covered in wounds surrounded by some glass shards and shrapnel.

"Argh! Arghh!"

Garuda coughed lying on the floor. He knew he'd be surrounded sooner or later. After all, one cannot outrun thousands chasing after them.

[The Celestial Nefarious with twisted kindness asks why you are not using it?]

"Not yet..."

Garuda replied as one of the soldiers slowly walked towards him. Noticing it Garuda slowly slid his hand into his pocket and clutched onto a small cube.

It was a tool mentioned in myths, It was something an earthling would yearn for, a second chance is what it was. The loathed box is its name. It requires sacrifice from the possessor. They have to sacrifice something dear to them or else they cannot regress.

Yet, there was another method to achieve regression and that was to kill countless souls until the Loathed get satisfied.

Garuda has killed many until now and it had never worked if it was ready his soul and the Loathed would resonate with each other. But in the past months, whatever he tried to do didn't work.

As such he even decided to destroy it but couldn't come to do it. All he wanted to do was regress when he gained knowledge of such a possibility.

[The Celestial Nefarious with twisted kindness asks if you are going to accept it now?]

Quickly few of the men around him began to attack from every single direction that was possible.

"Keukk! Kuekk!"

Garuda coughed blood holding on to the loathed box. quickly his body rose up towards the dark sky and a voice spoke to him in an ominous tone.

[Defier of laws, Do you wish to regress back in time?]

"Yes," Garuda replied with a weak voice.

[Are you willing to sacrifice?]

"Yes," He replied.

There was none for him to sacrifice now so the loathed box would automatically absorb the souls of the people around him and absorb the souls of those he had already fed the loathed over the past years.

[The Celestial Nefarious with twisted kindness smiles at you and bids you farewell]

Zooom!

A pillar of laser shot out of Garuda and slowly grew bigger and bigger decimating every single organism within a mile.

***

A low mechanical beep sound entered his mind and when he opened his heavy eyelids he was there, in the scene he wished not to see again.

The pillage of his village has already begun. But a new scene unfolded that was unfamiliar to him. All the villagers began floating in the sky facing the loathed box as it slowly absorbed their lives in front of him.

"Help us! Help us!"

Screams of people resonated in the area. And amongst them were two kids looking down at Garuda screaming at top of their lungs.

"Father help us! Please save us!"

Slowly the green light connected to the box and their bodies deteriorated as time passed.

Garuda tried to drag his body to stop this calamity yet, he didn't have the strength to stop it. The Earthlings that pillaged his village stood there in shock observing the scene that unfolded before them.

"You accepted it."

The ominous voice of the Loathed intruded his mind.

Garuda waited without replying until it ended.

He was perplexed and confused. His heart felt heavy, why did it send him to this particular time? He wished, he was rather dead than rewatching their dead faces. Is this what sorrow is? He thought to himself.

He didn't expect to be regressed to this particular moment in the slightest.

"Your sacrifice has been taken as payment for going against the flow of destiny."

Hearing it he lay still on the rough soil like a dead man. It all felt meaningless now. For what did he regress? For what did he commit those heinous deeds? All sorts of questions cluttered his mind.

However, he understood one thing and that is, he cannot outdo fate.