Chapter Six

I slowly gained consciousness, I tried to open my eyes slowly, it felt very heavy. The memories of what happened to me moments ago came rushing in. I subconsciously touched the place I got hit in the head, took it to my eyes and saw nothing, no blood at all. I swept my eyes around, it was all dull, empty, and in short it was like white luminous space or call it void.

'What's going on?' I asked myself in utter puzzlement.

"Hello, young one." A calm, ancient voice entered my ears. I turned my neck sharply to the direction of the voice.

"Please come with me."

An old man with long beards, dressed in a gold-coloured robe gestured for me to follow him.

With a little hesitation, I stood to my feet and moved towards him. By taking a few steps forward, the scenery abruptly changed. We were now in garden-like environment, it was a perfect definition for heaven, it was serene, beautiful, name it.

Taking my eyes back to old man, a big red juicy apple came to my view, my tummy rumbled in response. I gladly took it and bit it hungrily.

On taking a big bite, an overwhelming surge of energy ran rapidly throughout every part of me, I was filled with strange energy.

The old man chuckled oddly. "Good, isn't it?"

I nodded in agreement. "Sure. It is. What is it called?"

"Heaven's Apple. That's what I named it. It contains pure Mana which strengthens the body and soul, aids speedy recovery and lots more."

We walked in silence for a while, then I got fed up and pulled him back with a question.

"Old man, who are you and what is this place and why am I even here?"

The old man took a deep breath and spoke gently.

"That is quite a lot of question but it is a long story, Matthew."

"Make it short." I piped in rudely, crossing my arms over chest, waiting earnestly.

"You can call it my personal area."

"Your personal area? Okay. Why am I here?"

"I know you won't forgive me for what happened." His face turned strangely grave. He raised his head to meet my eyes.

"For?"

"You always wished to grow, get a good wife, make children, grow old and die a sweet painless death…" He trailed off at that point, in a single thought, I bitterly understood what he meant by those words.

"So, it was you." Pure anger built from deep within me.

I got killed for nothing?

"No offense, son." He spread his arms wide. "It was necessary. We had to act fast."

The anger that was cooking inside me didn't cool down one bit. "Necessary? We? Who are these 'we' you are referring to? You folks took my life for nothing?" my inquisitive attitude had better of me.

"'We' are a special group of gods specialized in the management of planes."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Matthew raised a brow at him in confusion.

"We also manage purpose and destiny, your destiny was never to be in that world, you are a great flame phoenix rider." He chuckled a little. "We had to correct that error before it caused chaos."

"Purpose? Destiny? Chaos? How do I even relate to all this?"

"You are from the Sun Flame Phoenix Rider Clan. You were not supposed to be Plane 679 that is earth as you call it."

"I was living my life peacefully and smoothly on earth."

"And you think you are human because you lived on earth?"

"Of course, I am human for heaven's sake."

The old man stopped to laugh for a while, then frowned at Matthew.

"You can't deny your origin, Matt."

"As you can see, I am already denying it."

"If you were still on Earth, you will never see peace, you will always be hunted by the forces of darkness. Even your very existence began causing a flaw in the Timeline, because everything that wanted your clan eradicated came after you."

"That's bullshit. I just don't care. I would have lived peacefully on earth, but you killed me!" Matthew screamed out his frustration. His eyes were already getting cloudy.

"I am sorry but I had no other option."

Matthew wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "Is that your own way of apologizing?"

The old man pinched the middle of his forehead. "Your time here is almost up. You won't like it if the other gods come to meet you here."

"…."

The old man simply waved his hands and two chairs appeared out of nowhere, Matthew's eyes widened in surprise.

"How did you do that!?"

"Just sit." The old man's voice was a cold command and Matthew promptly sat.

"As I earlier said, you were not supposed to be on earth. It was my mistake actually so I had to correct it immediately.

Your perfect soul core and pure Mana began attracting demons and devils alike into earth, violating the restrictions placed on unwanted plane travel and transfer. Those in crazy thirst for power and unparalleled control over the planes of existence knew the immense power a flame phoenix rider wields, and the only way of getting it is by extracting his soul core, which is almost impossible. But recently, they learnt one of them in a weaker form, and that is you. So killing you and extracting your soul core will help them achieve their goal."

"Oh."

Seeing that Matthew was deeply listening, he smiled and continued. "The bully who killed you was possessed by one of the devils but fortunately I quickly acted when I saw this, taking you before he did. I had been looking for an opportunity, I took it when it came."

"So what am I supposed to do now?" Matthew gulped. The pain of losing everything weighed heavily on his mind.

"Where am I going to? Besides, it is a new world, no friends, no basic info about what is in it, just nothing. How am I even going to cope at all?"

"You will cope, no doubt. I will send the basic information you will need to start off, your new system will do the rest." The old man explained. "But you have to grow stronger before they find you again."

"System?"

"Yes, a system."

"What's a system? Is it a virtual assistant?"

"Exactly."

"So, what you are trying to say is, everything I have ever done, everyone I have ever known is all gone?" Matthew asked with tears trickling down his cheek once again.

"Painfully, yes." The old man bitterly smiled. "They are now shadows of your past life. Everything had been erased from existence right from the moment you died. They were only there to give you purpose in that world." The old man stood up. "It is time to go. We will see some other time."

"Don't worry, in this new plane you are going to, you begin as a young man not as a child."

Those words consoled Matthew a bit.

Matthew's body began to disintegrate slowly. Still with a fading consciousness, he yelled out." What's your name, old man?"

"Aries!" The old man answered with a yell too.

'What a weird name for a weird god.' was Matthew's last inward thought before passing out.

***********

A young looking man materialized behind Aries shortly after when Matthew had disappeared and was sent to a new plane.

"Are you sure he is really the Flame rider reincarnation?"

"Still unsure?" Aries turned to face him with a scowl on his face. "It is written all over him. His soul power is so petrifying. Use your abilities to sense it, Billy boy."

"I have tried to peek into him a little but it is always like something powerful is shielding him from further probing." Billy resigned with a sullen face. "And I am no longer Billy. I was done with that name during the last mission."

"He still knows you as Billy." Aries gave him a sly smile. "Wait until he discovers you weren't who he thought you were."

Billy snorted, looking away. "Does it matter? I think I should follow him."

"Oh. You really want to do that?"

"Yes." Billy said with an air of finality. "Although we met for a short period, I still see him as a decent friend. I could still sort out things with him."

Aries decided not to argue further, Klaus knew what was right for himself.

"Do as you wish, Klaus. Do what you have to do, I give you blessings."

"Much appreciated, Senior Aries." With a slight bow, he vanished.