Fragments of...

When the minotaur began rampaging around the plaza, Adam who was barely conscious was still being carried to a safe place, but before he could be brought into a room, the shockwave created by the monster's attack made the ground quiver violently and Adam fell violently.

Thud!

Adam's head slammed on the ground but it was not the cause of his loss of consciousness.

He was still breathing but something odd happened to him without anyone noticing, so he wasn't even aware that a minotaur had appeared.

'Huh? where am I?' Adam thought, seeing the vague forms of lights dancing in his field of view but even though he wanted to move, he couldn't feel his body.

Then, his sense of sight cleared little by little, revealing a scenery that didn't make any sense at all, because if it did, then it would mean that he died for the second time.

'Is this heaven?' He thought, feeling like he was drifting in an endless space where the sense of time was vague and everything around him was painted with astonishing hues that appeared to be moving slowly, but at the same time, looked like the aftereffects of metaphysical bodies that moved faster than the speed of light.

Countless dots of lights covered this virtually mystic scenery, and near Adam, two of such spheres of light were glowing brightly while the other ones seemed to be millions of kilometers away.

'What are those? Does this mean that I have to choose one here? He wondered, looking around in the hope to find more clues, but he was already seeing his surroundings from every angle possible while not staying immobile, so there was nothing else to look at apart from an empty space.

'Well, it seems like something will happen if I don't choose one of these,' Adam thought and decided to approach one of the spheres of light because even if he waited, nothing would change.

But, when he tried to move from where he was, he always ended up in the same place. Not moving an inch.

'What the?'

However, when he reached his hand toward one of the spheres of light, he could touch it, and as he did he was sucked inside of it, the scenery that appeared in his field of vision changed into pure white.

*****

:::[Adam's POV]:::

There were too many weird things occurring. I hesitated if what I saw was real or a dream.

'What the hell is going on? Not long ago, I felt like I was invincible, and now I am suddenly looking at a scene that looks like a dream but feels too real to be one.'

It happened when I tried to touch one of the spheres of lights, causing something extremely bizarre to happen.

At first, the mystical space changed into pure white space but then realistic images appeared little by little as if someone painted over the white background. 'This has to be a dream, right?'

The scenes that flashed in front of me were extremely strange because it was as if I was watching a movie in 3D, but even that comparison was inaccurate since what I experienced was beyond that, feeling everything as if I was there myself.

Moreover, I was not looking at random things but at a particular guy.

"Eva, do you want to have lunch with me today? Just look at these, I spent three hours preparing them." A naive-looking guy said, showing the jar containing dried fruits that he held in his hand, and next to him, there was a bag full of other foods and utensils as if he was preparing to go on a picnic.

"I am busy today, and I keep telling you that I am not interested." A woman who had reddish-brown hair and wore a particular set of armor replied promptly.

I admit that she was very beautiful but her stubbornness and strong character could also be seen in her expressions because she didn't even spare a glance at the naïve-looking young man and continued to walk away after she said these words.

"I guess I failed again, hehe." The guy laughed wryly after seeing the woman's reaction and scratched the back of his head.

"What am I going to do with all of these?" He said, looking at all of the food that he prepared.

Looking at him, I felt like it was not the first time this guy tried to earn the favor of that woman called Eva but all of his attempts seemed to have failed.

I couldn't help but feel a little bad for him because I could somehow relate to what just happened.

'Why am I seeing this though?' I thought

but before I could understand what was going on, the scenery that I saw in my field of view changed into pure white again.

Then I heard the voice of numerous people shouting and cheering.

"Hail the Hero!"

"He is our savior!"

"He is a reincarnation of a God!"

Images began to appear in my field of view again.

This time, there was a huge crowd and in the middle of it, there was a man, the guy that I saw earlier, wearing silver armor and having a sword attached to his hips.

He was scratching the back of his head embarrassingly again as he made his way through the crowd.

'What happened, how did he become so popular?' I thought, looking at the guy who looked completely different from before

After he made his way past the crowd, he entered a majestic-looking building and approached Eva, the red-haired girl.

"Eva, did you see that? People are treating me differently now. It seems like my hard work paid off." He said with a smile on his face and I kind of felt bad for him. Maybe it was only my opinion, but I felt like he was bad at communicating with Eva.

"Yeah, I'm happy for you," Eva replied, still looking indifferent but her tone sounded a little bit gentler than before.

"And, you know, ah, I, I was thinking about the fact that we didn't have much time to rest lately, so, you know, if you would like to, how about the two of us go eat something later?" The guy answered. He fidgeted while saying these words and I was the one who felt embarrassed looking at him.

"…I'll think about it," Eva said, turning around and leaving without stopping.

'She is a tough one...' I thought, looking at her but she was my type. It seemed that at least the guy had good taste in women.

As soon as Eva's silhouette vanished from the scenery, the guy's face beamed with excitement and happiness.

"Finally, finally she said something she'll think about it. I am glad that I saved a lot of money for the sake of this day." He said, and I somehow understand how he felt as if I was in his place. I could tell that the guy loved Eva.

'Thought, it will hurt if she treats you as a friend, in the end, man...' I thought, recalling my experiences with women.

After that, the hero dashed somewhere and the scenery turned white again.

'Is this some kind of vision or prophecy? Or am I seeing something that is happening somewhere in a different universe? Still, I am clueless about the reason why it's happening...' I thought, deciding to look for clues.

I also felt like I was in this place for a long time but somehow it shouldn't be that long.

*****

:::[Third person POV]:::

While Adam fell unconscious, two people were watching what was happening on the plaza from the top of a certain building far from the plaza.

"Th-this is a level 6 monster?" Balista said, with a slightly trembling voice. He had never seen such a monster in his life and so he gasped at the sight of the minotaur. "But still, what are we going to do now?" Balista added and looked at the man who stood next to him.

"We are finished here. Let's move out of this planet," replied Randolph with an indifferent tone. It seemed like he regained his calm and was satisfied after the appearance of the minotaur.

With this monster, Kepalta would be destroyed before someone from the Empire arrived to take care of the portal and the minotaur, or so he thought.

Randolph turned around and thought about leaving while Balista looked like he was still confused.

'What about my recompense in all of this?' Balista thought, following Randolph from behind, because Randolph's goal was already more or less achieved but his reward was not even part of the discussion most of the time. 'Am I being sidelined by this guy?'

He had worked hard to obtain these two high-level artifacts because Randolph said that he was too involved with Empire to do so.

However, Randolph had that black stone with him which meant that he could achieve his revenge even without him, and when Balist realized that, an alarming thought crossed his mind.

Balista was stupid but he was not a complete moron so he managed to connect the dots. 'This guy, he didn't plan to let me have anything in the first place. He intended to blame everything on me after all of this ends,' he concluded.

It all made sense when he thought about what was happening from that and he understood what was going on.

"Randolph, you bastard, how dare you try to frame me?" Balista shouted.

He was a level 5 gift holder but he wasn't afraid of Randolph who appeared to be a coward and weak since he couldn't forget about a single woman.

Then, he took a battle stance and was about to use his fire elemental gift.

"Mmm? You only realize that now? As I thought, you were perfect for this job… Now you need to finish your work." Randolph said but he didn't even move an eyebrow when he saw Balista trying to intimidate him.

"You bastard!" Balista roared and dashed forward. His fists were covered by crimson flames and he was thinking about incinerating Randolph with one attack.

"Hmph! Die, you insignificant bug! Do you think that you are worth more than Julius or anyone else? You are just a dirty bug who only knows how to make annoying sounds." Randolph said then raised his right hand and slashed down vertically, creating a wind pressure that hit Ballista in the middle of his face and sliced him into two.

Thud!

Randolph was a level 7 gift holder and was as strong as Marcel so Balista didn't even stand a chance.

"Now my implications in all of this will be buried here with you," Randolph said, and he didn't even have an ounce of remorse while seeing the disgusting waste that Balista had become.

Randolph just turned around and made his way to the entrance. But then something unexpected occurred.

"I didn't expect someone from the Empire to be involved in this." A cold and yet attractive voice came from behind and Randolph quickly turned around.

"Y-you are.."