Eric had come to hate the colour white.
It was like his fears, always a sign of coming pain.
_Beep Beep Beep_
"Forceps." A surgeon's monotone voice called.
The beeping of some machine was all he focused on to distract himself.
This was just another of the countless operations he went through.
*Whoosh*
A door's hiss shattered Eric's thoughts.
"Eric, how are we doing today?" A bald elderly man with a beard entered. He was undisturbed by Eric's state on the operating table.
"It'd be a good one if they weren't slicing me open, Jackson." Eric replied.
"I suppose. But the good news is you can consider this your last ...experiment" Jackson's unnerving chuckle after he spoke made Eric sceptical.
"If this is another one of your tricks I truly, and visibly, am in no mood for it." Eric remembered all the times the man toyed with him.
"Honest to god, Your Highness." Jackson's use of Eric's title was always a foreboding. "The board has decided you've outlived your use as a living subject."
Eric's heart sunk.
He focused his sight on the people still operating on him with little care.
"The Immortal core is needed by a person of higher value." Jackson smirked before continuing.
"Unfortunately, once it's been extracted, your body wouldn't be able to survive..."
After a short pause he added.
"I'm sure you can see where this is going."
"No!" Eric bellowed, trying futilely to break free from his metal bindings. "No! No!"
He struggled against the cold restraints. Their edges pressing into his skin, threatening to draw blood.
But Eric paid no mind.
"Oh, Eric." Jackson approached. "You were always meant to die."
Then he caressed Eric's night black hair before whispering. "Just like Victoria."
A look of confusion coloured Eric's face.
"Keep my sister's name out of your mouth!" He frothed with spit.
"But how could I?" Jackson screamed back mockingly.
"Your royal line seems incredibly receptive of the core. We'd have thought it was your family's occult bloodline, but you show no signs of possessing their power."
Eric heard Jackson mutter the last parts, but his dazed mind couldn't comprehend what he said.
After a brief pause Jackson continued speaking, enunciating each word. "Without the dear Crown Princess, we could never have gone this far. A shame she died soon after you joined."
Jackson's words threatened to break the last dredges of Eric's sanity.
"Lies!" He screamed.
His movements grew more erratic. Eric pressed harder against his restraints till he felt the first sliver of blood slither from his wrists.
"Victoria died before I fell into your wretched arms!" The shackles dug deeper, threatening to burst veins.
'She never stepped foot in this cursed base.' Eric recited to himself with gritted teeth.
With a calm smile Jackson leant closer.
"Your uncle sold her to us, and we faked her death! You should be familiar with the process," Jackson almost erupted in laughter as he spoke. " We used it on you too, after all."
Silence.
Then pure blinding rage.
"ARGHHHHH!!!!"
Eric screamed as he lurched forward with all his might. The metal cut through Eric's flesh till he felt it grind against his bone.
Before Jackson could react, Eric bit down on his tormentor's nose with all his strength. A sharp jerk allowed Eric to tear it off Jackson's face completely.
In the blink of an eye, the supervisor's face was noseless.
"Arghhhhh!!!!" Jackson's screech filled the room.
He fell, writhing violently on the floor. Tears and blood mixing as they streaked down his face.
Jackson's blood filled Eric's mouth, but this did nothing to quench the fury that engulfed his mind.
Their bleeding supervisor startled the scientists to a halt.
"What are you fools doing?" A voice spoke from a darkened corner of the room.
"Finish this quickly!" The figure rushed towards Eric.
They revealed themself to be a fair woman with long white hair and tattoos around her neck. She was in an incongruous ball gown.
She lifted her hand and produced a wave of ethereal blue light that washed over Eric.
"Sleep."
He immediately became lethargic.
His rage vanishing, leaving only pain.
Jackson stood from his puddle of blood. Spite fuelled him to push through his anguish.
"Send Victoria my regards." Jackson's hate filled words were the last things Eric heard.
A single tear rolled down his cheek while he glared at Jackson.
He felt cold. Afraid. Alone.
Then the darkness consumed him.
-----
"Huhhhhh"
With a deep gasp Eric woke from sleep.
His heart hammered heavily against his ribs.
Realising he was still alive, he reflexively touched his torso.
To Eric's surprise he felt no pain. The countless stitches he'd gotten were also absent.
'How...?.' Eric wondered. 'I should be dead.'
He rubbed his head to ease his splitting headache when he noticed, he could move freely, unrestricted by the cuffs that always bound him.
Eric then realised he wasn't in one of Panacea's stale white rooms either.
'Where am I?'
Building enough sense of self to look around, Eric quickly recognised his surroundings.
'It's my old room.' He thought in shock. The same room in the royal compound, his uncle had kept him. A gilded cage.
A sudden wave of nausea and weakness washed over him. It was a recognizable weakness. Of the sickness that had supposedly killed his sister, and almost killed him too.
'But it isn't as bad as I remember.'
While in thought a holographic interface appeared in his sight, frightening him.
`[WELCOME BACK, HOST.]`
`[LEGACY SYSTEM: ONLINE]`
`[HOST: ERIC LAUT. TEMPORAL ANOMALY CONFIRMED.]`
`[REGRESSION: COMPLETE]`
`[IMMORTAL CORE: ABSENT]`
`[TEMPORAL SOUL: IMBALANCED]`
`[CRANIAL MERIDIAN PATH: CLEARED]`
`[ABILITIES UNLOCKED]`
`- [PARTIAL MEMORY RECALL: Host's past memories can be actively recalled if not suppressed.]`
`- [COGNITIVE PROCESSING: Information processing increased to peak human speeds]`
`- [SENSORY PERCEPTION: Senses are acutely sharpened. Host can passively observe the world's Qi]`
`- [ENHANCED PHYSIQUE: Host's body is marginally stronger despite illness.]`
`[WARNING: Observing Qi is limited to 15 SECONDS. Further use risks meridional damage and blindness.]`
`[WARNING: Qi Absorption LOCKED. Attempting to draw ambient Qi will result in Meridional Collapse and instant death.]
`
`[WARNING: Estimated Host Lifespan. 8 DAYS]`
`[MAIN QUEST: RECEIVE IMMORTAL CORE]`
`[REWARD: HUMAN-FORM CULTIVATION INITIATION ART]`
`[FAILURE: DEATH]`
`[SECONDARY QUEST: INFILTRATE PANACEA FACILITY]`
`[REWARD: PHYSIQUE REINFORCEMENT]`
`[SECONDARY QUEST: SECURE HEAVEN'S LOOM]`
`[NOTE: ARTIFACT CRITICAL FOR LONG-TERM HOST STABILITY.]`
`[REWARD: FIVE FOUNDATIONAL FORMATIONS SET]`
"What the—!" Eric screamed as he leapt from his bed.
As if sensing his wish for it to disappear, the message vanished without a trace.
Eric began to believe he was either hallucinating or in some kind of purgatory.
'Regression? Cultivation? That's impossible. And what even is a temporal soul?' He glanced at the little desk to his left and saw his old phone lying there.
'Although I don't think holographic messages are a thing yet, time travel is a wild throw.'
He walked over and picked up his phone to check the date.
September 6th, 2015.
Ten years...
Still sceptical, he searched for the current date on the internet.
September 6th, 2015.
Eric's eyes shrunk at the absurdity.
Deep in thought he caught a glimpse of himself in his room's mirror.
Eric was twenty-seven when they'd killed him in 2025.
Now, staring at his seventeen-year-old face, he couldn't believe how much he changed within Panacea.
Slightly tanned skin, sunken eyes the colour of storm clouds, black hair matted with sweat.
He looked like death. Yet, still a glimmer of life shone in his eyes.
Eric thought Panacea had completely snuffed that light.
'I'm really back in my old body?'
'But I definitely lived till October. How do I barely have a week left now? Did the regression actually worsen my illness?'
The more he looked, he realised the world didn't seem normal. All things, objects and he himself began to effuse some sort of aura to varying degrees.
Rapidly the world changed from that of sharp colours to clumps of blinding hues and shades of what his mind failed to grasp.
'They kind of look like colours, but not quite.'
His head throbbed with intensity the more he watched the spectacle, till he felt a sharp pain in his head. Like broken glass was dragged through his brain.
"Arghhhh!"
He shut his eyes to block the view, and fell to the floor. His breathing growing erratic before slowly calming. Nervously, he opened his eyes and saw the strange hues were gone.
'What is going on.' He became more and more worried of his circumstances and the messages in his head.
Then he heard someone rushing to his room.
He recognised those footsteps.
He didn't know how, but he did.
His door abruptly swung open, letting a face he hadn't seen in ten years of his miserable life rush in.
"Your Highness, I heard you scream. Did something happen?"
Eric was left standing motionless with his mouth agape and eyes fixated on his family's most trusted butler.
"Raz..." He muttered.
Before Raz could get his bearing, he felt a weight slam into him.
Eric's arms wrapped around the older man tightly.
Without him knowing, tears streaked down his face as he laughed and cried.
Years of sorrow condensed and poured from Eric's eyes in droves.
'It's real. It's actually real!' Eric screamed in his head. 'I'll do everything right this time! I won't let them win.'
While he was engrossed in his emotions Raz also wrapped his bulky arms around Eric.
"It's alright Your Highness. Everything's going to be fine."
After some time, Eric released Raz and wiped the tears from his reddened face, but his smile remained.
Warily, Raz asked. "Is this about your sickness?"
"No." Eric suppressed his overwhelming emotions. His eyes darted meaningfully around the room. He remembered the walls had ears. "I just need some air."
He knew the dangers that still surrounded them in hiding. "Help me to the garden please."
The slight widening of Raz's eyes showed he understood. Eric never asked for walks in the cool evening. But outdoors were one of the few places they could speak without too much fear of unwelcome ears listening.
Once outside, moving slowly along the gravel path away from the house, surrounded by the rustling of leaves and the distant sounds, Eric breathed slightly easier.
Each step gave him life.
He tilted his face to the sun. It's warmth was a blessing he had forgotten. He felt alive again. He felt free.
"Alright," Eric began, his voice barely above a murmur. "What I'm about to tell you will sound insane. But I need you to listen. Victoria is alive..."
He took a deep calm breath. "And I'm going to get her back"