I Will Not Fail This Time

Chapter 4 – I Will Not Fail This Time

Ah, what did she call it again…?

Ah, yes. Mortalis Realm, was it?

After using the Gold Spawn Card that I had picked, I was engulfed by a sudden light that intensified, causing me to shudder.

It was so bright; brighter than the sun itself and yet, it didn't burn my eyes.

However, I noticed that I was alone in this light. Every other Fencer was nowhere around me anymore.

It was as if the light demarcated me from them.

Is it actually going to work?

Thinking about the possibility of a regression, I was a bag of many feelings.

Fear. Hope. Doubt et cetera.

Honestly, a part of me doubted it the most and I deeply hoped that this was not a fluke or a dream.

But there was only one to find out and that was the way I followed.

—––

Several years before Luke's demise at Terence's hands.

A yellow and black bus, similar to a school bus, halted in front of a giant gate of a facility and many youths began to alight the bus, making their way into the facility.

"Oi, Luke! Wake up, we are here already!"

I felt my body shake under firm pressure.

Huh?

What's going on?

My eyes slowly came open and with the passing seconds, my vision cleared and I could see well enough to make it the owner of the soft tone and firm hands that shook me awake.

Huh?

What is this?

Where is this?

I carefully sized her up, a gesture that certainly was not welcomed as well as I'd expected given that I was looking at her strangely.

Of course, I would look at her strangely.

Why wouldn't I?

I was confused, too confused. Looking around me to confirm where I was and even pinching my cheek to make sure that I wasn't dreaming.

"Did you hit your head or something?" the soft voice came into my ears again.

I could sense the rage that was building in the tone of her warm voice. It was like she was on her last straw of patience with me.

I turned my eyes to her.

It truly was her.

I wasn't dreaming!

Her dark blue hair, I remember it vividly. It was still as slick as I remember.

Those tender purple eyes of hers gazed upon me once again, something I had never expected would happen again in my entire life.

'That blue-eyed girl wasn't lying?' I thought as I recalled the event that happened in Mortalis Realm.

"Ouch!" I suddenly screamed, holding the side of my head as I tried to numb the pain there.

She had given me a dirty smack to snap me out of my delusion.

"What exactly is your problem today, Luke?" she asked, staring daggers at me. "Everyone is already out of the bus. Come let's go!"

He neither said nor did anything afterwards but simply stared at her.

Was this some kind of a joke or something?

Was I dreaming?

Why was Casandra standing in front of me?

The last memory I had of Casandra was when she died from a fatal hit to the chest during one of the Dungeon Breaks.

I couldn't really understand what was happening nor did she give me the time to process it before whisking me away by my wrist as we departed the bus.

"Let's go, Luke!"

We quickly alighted the black and yellow bus together and like a mother would do to her child, Casandra stuck with me through the entire walk into the facility where we were headed.

In silence, I tried to comprehend what had happened to me in my mind.

First, the last thing that I remembered of myself was dying, dying under the pitiful gaze of the bastard Hero, Terence Kenton.

Now, presently, I'm walking with Casandra who is supposed to be dead and come to think of it, she even looked younger than my last memory of her.

Was I dead?

Was I not dead?

'Did it work?' I pondered to myself 'Did the regression work? Have I returned to the past?'

Eek!

I gave it a thought and then, a light bulb moment happened to me.

Today… the day that I had awakened into was our first day in the Hunters Training Facility that was known as the Cube.

Everything looked familiar to me and it felt like I had lived this moment before.

I shook my head in disbelief.

No way that was possible, but reality said otherwise.

Everything that happened that day happened as it occurred. The only thing that changed was the fact that I knew the events that would occur before they did.

I had experienced these scenarios already. Like deja vu.

Utterly dazzled by the realization that smacked me in the head, I stopped and slipped my hand out of Casandra's grip, taking a moment to look at the walls of the Cube.

The feeling of nostalgia washed down my whole body and the longer I stared, the more intense it was.

The Cube was the beginning of it all for me. My entrance into this facility marked the start of a new phase of my pitiful existence in this world.

That was the starting line of my journey into a world that I had cared nothing about.

A bastard child, abandoned by his own biological parents and was left to rot.

Tsk.

Sometimes I question why I was allowed to live.

Why didn't I just die as a baby? Perhaps I may have been living a happy life in the Afterworld.

I'd grown up in an orphanage and that's how I met Casandra.

Casandra, like myself, was also abandoned without a family name and thus, took the same family name as I did; the family name of our Orphanage Matron.

Casandra Enstar.

Even with all the hate in my heart toward the world, she managed to bring some form of peace to me.

A little light in my dark world.

One might think that we had three square meals per day and experienced something that would be similar to a normal childhood since we were at an orphanage.

Pfft! Jokes. Silly ones at that.

Sadly, that was far from the truth.

The orphanage that I had grown up in was one where child labour abounded. We were subjected to intense labour and training to become Freelance Hunters who worked for the Enstar Family.

Many of us died as children, adolescents and young adults. Yet, no one in the higher ranks of the Enstar Family batted an eyelid to it.

Instead, any loss was replaced by another group of children, getting from whatever slums they could kidnap them from.

A few of us survived through this hardship.

By the age of 12, I was already capable of handling any weapon effectively and efficiently. It was a necessity during my time as a member of the Hornets.

My fears were stripped from my bones and an unnatural confidence that someone at that age should not have was sewn into my heart and head.

An orphanage? Pfft, don't make me laugh.

That place was nothing but a front for a small and rising mercenary group, the Hornets or as they were commonly known to the world, the Children of Enstar.

Somehow, Casandra and I, along with some of the other children, managed to make it out alive.

After that, it was each one to his or her own fate. But Casandra still stuck with me for whatever reason.

Every time I tried to get rid of her, she stuck even tighter and finally, I gave up and learned to tolerate her brattish personality.

Of course, I will hate the world.

I have experienced nothing good from this world but pain, suffering and being forced to offer it an unmerited subservience like we were about to do in the Cube, all because we started to manifest our powers as expected at 18 years of age.

Those with powers were simply called the Awakened because it was believed that they had awakened a new power or a form of strength to help fight the dangers of this world.

From what I know about the Cube from my memories, they specialised in gathering not just any Awakened but the ones with the greatest potential; the best of the best.

They study, track and follow up their potential targets before recruiting them for their skills.

Simply put, the Cube was a foundation created to train the geniuses of the Awakened World and to prepare them for the supernatural plagues of our world.

At first, I thought it was a joke since I didn't consider myself a genius until I awakened my ability while inside the Cube.

My Awakening was going to naturally come in a few days when I turned 18, I knew that and the officials of Cube expected that too. After all, they had all of our records.

I had made an error in my past life by telling them what my true Skill was.

But I won't make that mistake again.

Mine was an ability that was sought after, powerful and considered to be a threat to both friends and foes.

Gathering all the facts that I had in my head, I now completely, and without a doubt, understood what had happened to me.

The blue-eyed girl had sent me back to the past. Those cards of hers were real. I had returned to my past, several years before I died; to my first day at the Cube.

Unknowingly, a sinister chuckle escaped my lips, causing even Casandra to wonder if a few screws had gone loose in my head.

"Seriously, dude. You really must have hit your head."

Nothing Casandra was saying or whining about at this point mattered to me.

I have been given a second chance by the Heavens and I will not fail… not this time.

I will not fail this time around!

All the mistakes that had led to me losing everything I held dear in my past life must be corrected in this life.

A face and a name flashed through my mind: Terence Kenton.

Terence Kenton, the young prodigy of the Kenton Family who would be named as the Hero of the Awakened World of my generation in a short time to come.

'It seems you failed, Hero. I lived. I am alive and back, in flesh and blood. You just wait, Terence. I will surely keep my promise to you. You will justifiably die by my hands.'

I swore again to myself, clenching my fists so tightly that my nails made impressions on my palm.

—––

Author's Note:

The Returner has indeed returned.

What lies in store for his target—the Hero?

Throw in your reviews and power stones. xD

Thanks for reading.