Axel's mind was in utter tatters. Fragmented visions of events that never happened flashed through his brain and left him immediately.
The only thing he knew for certain was that he was in some forest. He didn't know or care how he'd gotten there. The hot pain coursing throughout his body inhibited any sort of rationalization.
Willed by the pain, Axel rolled over to get a better look at his arm, seemingly the source, only to find it caked in blood. He ripped off his shirt on instinct and began wiping it down while barely holding back screams.
People he'd never seen stood around watching the spectacle, but none seemed willing to help. Through bouts of pain, Axel stared at them with pleading eyes, only to get looks of fear and disgust returned to him. He couldn't fathom why they looked at him so, but they did.
However, out of all the stares placed on Axel, one stood out. The man's stare didn't carry fear, confusion, or disdain. He seemed to have a look of pity.
All Axel could do was grimace as the kind man took a few steps toward him while taking off his jacket and kneeling. The kind man gently yanked away Axel's blood-soaked shirt he'd been covering his wound with, and pressed the jacket against his arm.
The kind man looked Axel in the eyes and said:
"Your cuts need to be cleaned up, but first, we must find the tools to do so. Sadly, I have no idea where we are, and it seems nobody else does either. For now, keep this over it and apply pressure."
He firmly wrapped the jacket over Axel's arm and tied it there using its sleeves, all while only glancing at Axel's eyes once.
Axel muttered while desperately holding back tears:
"Thank you."
The kind man nodded before standing up and observing this weird forest as if Axel had never existed. Seeing that was the extent of his kindness, Axel smiled that at least someone helped him at all.
He still lacked the willpower to get up, but with his nerves calming down and becoming accustomed to the pain, Axel began to study the surroundings.
There was no way this was Earth. For starters, it felt as if it were 90 degrees (Fahrenheit) and it was the start of December… But it's not like the temperature was the factor giving it away…
The freshly summoned stood in the clearing of a forest that stretched in all directions—A forest of trees as black as obsidian that stretched out as if trying to reach the sky. Their size was like that of a redwood.
A crow the size of a human flew above, and when Axel noticed it, it stared back at him with its beady eye as if sizing up a meal. Oddly, Axel wasn't as freaked out as he felt he should've been. For some reason, this felt familiar to him.
Axel then craned his head to observe the people surrounding him, who were all either screaming, crying, panicking, or vomiting. Well, most, at least. There were some outliers like the man with dark colored hair who stared at his tattoo.
A few people still gawked at Axel, but most were eventually drawn to observing the Obsidian Forest and the abnormally large creatures that sometimes darted through the trees.
Axel nor anyone else had any idea how they'd gotten there. It's not like they could've walked, and Axel could tell that the people surrounding him didn't look like they were ready to venture outdoors. In fact, half of the people surrounding Axel weren't wearing shoes. One wore pajamas with puppies on them, others wore only pants and no shirt, and there was even an unfortunate girl who'd been summoned in nothing but her underwear.
Axel lifted his arm off his wound and patted his pocket to check if he had cell service in some vain hope he was still on Earth, but when he patted his thigh, he felt nothing. His phone had vanished.
Axel thought deeply, trying to make sense of anything. He thought back to his last memories. He'd been biking home after work when…
It was odd to him. He had hyperthymesia, yet now he couldn't even picture what food he had eaten earlier that day. Axel had finally forgotten something… Normally, he would have relished the feeling; he had finally gotten his wish, but something was odd. He could remember yesterday and every day before…
He remembered the day he found his goldfish dead in grade school. The day he spilled coffee on his dog and cried while rushing him to the vet. He remembered the day he got summoned to the trials. He remembered the time he almost killed Lucas while fighting a blood wolf…
'Wait, what the hell was a blood wolf, and what the hell were the trials?'
Axel's jumbled memories threw his mind into such a mess that the pain he'd only been convincing himself he blocked out truly began to wane. He remembered some things, but he knew for a fact he'd forgotten many others.
His pure daze only grew with the appearance of a being clad in white descending from the sky. Axel's mind went blank as if put in a trance.
It was a beautiful girl with long silver hair who had two sets of gigantic white wings adorning her back. Upon her head was a shining halo emanating heat that Axel could feel from what appeared to be around thirty feet below her. The robes she wore were white as snow, save for a golden streak that lined the edges, contrasting heavily with the Obsidian Forest.
Axel thought to himself:
'A beautiful girl, flying above me? Was I seeing things? Had someone slipped me shrooms or something? That must have been the cause of all this! Hahahaha! Of course! No wonder everything was so wacky and my memory was fuzzy. This was nothing but a bad trip.'
The being spoke with a booming voice that betrayed its dainty appearance:
"Welcome."
Axel could no longer deny that this was a vision. The creeping pain in his arm, this being floating above him, this was too vivid to be considered fake.
The summoned all instantly grew sporadic and confused. They yelled at the angelic being and screamed relentlessly.
However, Axel's mind calmed down quickly. For some reason, this all felt familiar to him. As if he had experienced it before. No, not as if… he had experienced it before. Axel didn't know how he knew or how he'd forgotten, but he could tell this definitely wasn't his first time being summoned. He had knowledge he shouldn't have, and felt like he was missing knowledge of this place he should have. He knew of soul power, but had no idea what it truly was… and…
He knew there was someone he had to take revenge on, but he forgot who and why.
For now, all Axel could do was pay close attention to this angelic being and try to piece the fragments in his mind together. He must approach this situation as if he knew nothing. He needed to focus on the present, but his jumbled memories were making it hard.
The being's voice resounded through the air again.
"You have all been chosen."
The screaming and shouting of the summoned grew louder. Reacting to the outburst, the angel-like being waved its hand. It didn't look like anything happened, but everyone and everything froze, including me.
I tried to move, but my body refused to listen.
"You have all been assigned a
To say the least… Axel was confused. Not just by the message, but by the messenger's sudden disappearance. It just vanished along with the pressure it had exerted, as if it were never there.
'Surely it had more to say, right?'
Axel questioned himself. Because there was no way that was everything. That helped Axel not at all! Nothing made sense. No fragments fell into place. The least it could have done was not say something redundant.
Well, on the bright side, Axel had sn idea of how to help the pieces fall into place.
A man, the first to figure out he could move again, screeched:
"Task?! At least tell us what to do… AGGAGghhhh!"
The man fell back on his ass and frantically began pointing at the air in front of him. Axel smiled slightly at the sight. His memories were right. If a person said 'task' aloud, then the blue
One after another, the scene repeated itself. The people yelled and complained aimlessly, and each eventually said "task," leading to a domino effect. After a minute or so of watching the spectacle, Axel decided to say it himself, hoping seeing the window would spark some forgotten memories.
"Task"
__________
(Time remaining: 719:53:34 hours)
__________
This little information somewhat made what he knew clearer, but he wasn't enlightened by any new memories.
Axel then decided to check the page only he knew of. Of course, he didn't know how he knew, mind you, but the knowledge was in his head nonetheless.
Axel glanced down at his bear chest, then the jacket wrapped around his arm, then let out a slight sigh before quietly speaking:
"Status"
__________
Axel Hart
Age: 20 Gender: Male
Contractor: < - - - >
(Time remaining: 719:54:55 hours)
[Remember all events starting from the age of ~three]
[Bypass language barrier]
[Progression: 0%]
[Caused from regression. Amount of fragments needed to recover based on karma]
(Memory fragments recovered 0/10)
(Will be summoned to Earth in: 43829:54:55 hours)
__________
'Huh?'
Axel stared at the window in front of him. The fateful words were plastered in front of his face as if taunting him: 'Memory fragments recovered 0/10.'
The words Axel read sparked a moment of clarity. He remembered now. Not everything, but he remembered… It wasn't that he'd forgotten memories of the past, but he'd forgotten memories of the future.
He was right, this truly wasn't the first time he'd been here. He'd gone through this all once before and has somehow returned to this moment with his memories stripped from him.
His only hope of remembering anything was to recover a fragment. Sadly, he knew nothing about how to do that. So, for now, the minuscule knowledge he retained would have to be enough.
As for the other afflictions… Axel had nothing in his mind. The made no sense, and he couldn't tell how or why
As for the skills. The word relics popped into his head, but he didn't know the meaning. As for soul power, he knew it was going to be his main force, but that's all he knew. The only power granted to him and others at that moment was the ability to comprehend and understand each other despite the differences in language.
Axel glanced around at the people who, by appearance, appeared to be from all hail ftom different walks of life. The kind guy seemed to be Middle Easteren. The guy with jet-black hair seemed to be European.
The Summoneds' screaming and shouting just kept growing louder.
"We're all gonna die!"
"I was just about to bag a baddie before you assholes kidnapped me!"
"Somone save us!"
"D-did that man just say there's a second task?!"
"My sister! Where is she!"
While Axel was studying the screaming Summoned, he couldn't help but notice the number of faces looking directly at him, filled with awe and fear. Axel glanced down at his arm oozing blood and thought it might be the cause of this attention.
There was even a woman staring at Axel with her mouth agape. Awkwardly, Axel waved back with a confused, wry smile wrought with pain. His arm still stung a lot.
The woman shrieked:
"What the hell is that?!"
Axel curiously observed the woman frantically raising her arm, pointing at him… no, behind him!
With no time to properly react, Axel fought through the pain and launched himself away with his wounded arm, barely dodging the business end of a sword that sliced through the air inches from his head, even claiming a few strands of his golden hair.
Axel wished he could sigh with relief, but his plight was just starting. Having landed off balance, he began tumbling back toward the perpetrator. As he fell, he threw his head back and locked eyes with the green beast.
Axel couldn't help but see his assailant as the stereotypical monster seen in most MMORPGs: a goblin.