Hell

I opened my eyes to a beautiful sight. 

I was sitting down on a hill that overlooked a vast valley of plains of Cyan grass that flowed like flames. And down in the middle of the valley was an unnaturally massive white tree. The leaves on it were a sparkling golden color. In the valley and plains of white grass, there were also white mountains with black peaks, and from those peaks, a stream of glowing light blue cracks that ran down to the bottom. 

"Beautiful." 

I said as tears unknowingly began flowing down my cheeks.

"It is, isn't it?"

An unknown, yet calming and warm voice responded.

Suprised, I turned to see who it was, and as soon as my eyes met the person sitting beside me, I remembered.

"I died!"

I said, quickly feeling the spot where my stomach wound was, but there was nothing.

"Wait, then is this heaven? Heaven is real? Are you God then? Then is -"

A hand appeared in front of my face, cutting me off. After the hand was removed, I could see the man beside me. He had stone white skin and hair, with beautiful deep red ruby eyes. Whoever was sitting next to me was no man. His very presence made my heart race as emotions filled up within me. It was like I was looking at an incomprehensible being.

Shaking his head, the man stretched out his palm in front of me, and on it, I saw a symbol of wings intersecting each other. After showing me the symbol, he lay his palm on my back, and with it, a searing pain ensued, I screamed out as I felt the burning pain, and when it subsided, I became unconscious.

***

Cold,

It's cold.

I thought to myself as I wrapped the blanket around me tighter. 

Wait, blanket?

I quickly opened my eyes and sat up in a bed, except it was my bed, and I was in my room. My old room from my past life. Across from my bed, I was a mirror, and I saw that I had my old body back as well, blue eyes and white hair.

Was it all a dream? Was everything just in my head? Does that mean-

"No, everything was not a dream, and your family is still dead." 

An echoing and overlapping voice that sounded like myself said in a low and frustrated tone. I looked towards a dark corner of the room and saw a figure sitting down there. It was me, or rather it was me as Cain, not Ron.

"They're dead, and they're not coming back. In fact, everyone is dead. Our world, our friends, family, future, and life are all gone. It was forcefully ripped out while we helplessly let it happen."

I could feel an immense anger and hatred coming from Cain, but for some reason I didn't feel that way, it was if I was talking with the personification of all my negative emotions that have been building up since my death as Ron.

"Is this some kind of conversation with my deep subconscious after death cliche? So what, are you some kind of figment of my imagination?" 

I asked.

"Perhaps, if that is what makes the most sense to you, I could be a dream, your subconscious, whatever you want to call it." 

Cain seemingly just appeared in front of me without having to get up, and he grabbed my collar.

"What did you say when you died!"

He shouted at me, I could feel so much anger and hatred. It was too much. Being near him made me want to throw up.

"Why are you so -"

"Why? Why what? What I am so frustrated?!"

He continued to yell as he interrupted me.

"What you said as you sank to your death at the ocean's floor. "I really hope that I don't come back." What the fuck was that?!" 

He yelled as he punched me across my face.

"What, You're mad that I gave up?! What is the point, like you said everyone is dead, and they're not coming back. Even after reincarnating I still couldn't-" 

He swung a kick at my side.

"You've become mentally weak. I think there was a misunderstanding from the beginning of your reincarnation. These past ten years weren't supposed to be a grieving process. What, did you think? That you could stuff the past and move on, "I'll just focus on training for revenge". How can you get revenge if you're trying to cast aside and heal the very reason you were trying to get revenge for!?"

He pulled me up from the floor and continued beating me with his fists. I got up and tried to fight back but every time I landed a punch it felt slow and light. It was like trying to run in a dream.

"You can't hurt me, anyone, or anything because you've decided to live and forget! But that's okay, that's why I'm here to guide you. To make you remember."

Just then he grabbed my face and the scene before me changed.

For however long it was, I was forced to relive that day, the day Aasimar took everything from me. It was like I was dreaming it, only I knew what was already going to happen and I couldn't speak differently or act differently, all I could do was re-live the events as they had occurred. It did not stop until I was bleeding out from Aasimar stabbing me.

*On the ocean floor off the beach of a now destroyed Gilya Tribe Island*

I woke up screaming underwater as bubbles came out. My own voice rang inside my head,

"We came into this world looking to kill every last dragon, and we won't leave it until we're done."

I turned on my stomach on the ocean floor. I could feel the wet sand, and I looked down to see that the hole was still there. But I didn't care about that, Cain- no, I was right, my resolve became too weak, I may have physically grown stronger but I didn't progress mentally.

I grabbed at the sand and began crawling myself back towards what I believed to be the shore. It was still storming, so the water was completely dark, but the occasional flashes of lightning in the sky gave me a faint idea of where I needed to crawl.

My ears are bleeding because of the water pressure, and I won't be able to hold my breath the whole way, dammit!

Just then I remembered my first death, I remembered the void.

"NO! I CAN'T DIE AGAIN, I WONT!"

I shouted inside my mind as I steeled my resolve, and kept crawling. A quarter of the way there I could no longer hold my breath, but I kept crawling. I could feel the air leaving my head as I got dizzier, but no matter what I could not lose consciousness. The pain of not being able to breathe, coupled with the distance that I still had to crawl terrified me, but I kept going. I began screaming out in pain underwater, but only I could hear myself through the bubbles. 

I kept crawling, my eyes where completely blurred, all I could see was the shadow of the shore whenever lightning would flash above me. My eyes became red at some point as the blood vessels popped, and my brain might as well have been bleeding because there was an immense pulsating pain coming from it and I heard ringing. But no matter what, no matter the fact that I couldn't breathe and was literally drowning right now, I kept going.

After a long time I reached the shore, and as soon as I did, a puddle of blood threw up from my throat as I coughed it out. I saw the spot where Riken had destroyed my sword, and I crawled towards it. Kneeling I was staring down at it, no longer in as much pain, as if I was being healed I began to calm down.

"Throughout the entire time of our mission to get revenge, we have been missing one important key to even begin to achieve our goal. Do you know what that is Cain?"

My voice echoed as I picked up the shattered sword pieces. I could feel a burning sensation on my spine that I had ignored up until now, but since I was no longer drowning I could notice it more. It was the spot where that white and red eyed being had placed his hand on me.

I looked down and saw as the flesh around the hole through my stomach slowly closed back up, and all that was left was a star shaped scar. 

Did that being give me some sort of regeneration power? If so why haven't my other wounds healed? 

After a while I came to the conclusion that whatever this newfound ability is, it was some kind of extremely healing factor. But that is only a theory, I still don't even know what that white grass valley was, or who that man was.

I stood there in the rain and storm as I confronted everything that had happened, both during the time I was unconscious in the ocean and before.

"Magic. That is what I've been missing, that is the important key."