As he lay there the pain was still unbearable, but his consciousness was slowly coming back to him.
'What... was that?'
Ash's mind was still scattered, not fully functional, with his eyes still seemingly unable to open from the pain.
'I'll fucking kill him. I'll kill him. Not just for myself, but for everyone in Blackheart, for Father Adam and for Granny too.'
Ash's personal vendetta was obvious by this point, and it was rather justifiable.
'In the end, I barely got any answers. Other than the fact that I'm important to him or something.'
The pain was getting more and more bearable with each passing moment.
Slowly Ash could feel life returning to himself.
This was when he felt he could open his eyes, so he slowly did.
What welcomed him was a sight all too familiar.
A rocky "ceiling", a sandy "floor". It's the place he had called home for the last seven hundred "lives" of his.
He was back in his cave.
Still before getting to act shocked by this fact, he was quick to check the wound on his chest.
And to his surprise it was completely gone.
He was left with the pain being the only reminder of his injury ever being there.
'Augh, so I'm back in the cave again.'
His first guess was that it was Floch's doing. He was probably the one that "healed" him and returned him to his cave. Or maybe he just died again.
Trying to understand things better, he looked out from his cave.
There a familiar sight welcomed him, not the sight of the town, but of the sandy and rocky wasteland he had wondered in cycles prior.
'So I'm at this point in time.'
This time there was a lot for Ash to think through.
The most important thing was the value of his life.
He knew that Floch wanted him to stay alive, but considering the fact that he had finished the "training ground" he wasn't exactly sure he would still get revived.
As such since he couldn't know for certain he had to move with the idea that the revives and loops have ended.
But then came another question.
Knowing that Floch wanted him to stay alive, there was no way he would throw Ash into an impossible situation, right?
For now he had to move with the idea that there was hope.
He has progressed a lot since he was here last time, maybe he wouldn't get killed instantly by the giant worms, now that he was a Rank two.
With these two ideas in mind he got ready for his journey through the wasteland.
He picked up his sword and looked around for anything usefull he could find.
Then remembering something even looked through his pockets, and there it was.
The ticket to Icarus Academy was still in his pocket.
'So I still have this thing, huh?'
He knew that it was Floch's plan for him to go to the academy, but what could he do? He wanted to cling to the only thing remaining from his hometown.
Will and the other first batch kids.
With all his things sorted, he got up and set off for his long journey to the megacity of Primus.
Primus, the megacity run by the Hero King Reinhardt was place of great magnitude and splendor.
Calling it a normal city would definitely not do it service, as this ginormous megacity encompassed most of what was in the first era called "Europe".
The entire megacity was surrounded by a giant wall, from which the giant dome of a barrier extended from.
Ash's destination was this very wall.
Of course Ash knew little about the specifics of the wall, it just wasn't something he had learned about during his days of studying. Things there focused more on history, corporations and basic education more than anything.
Ash didn't even know how many entry points this wall had, but he simply had to hope said entry point would be there when he got there.
Looking up at the sky, Ash was left clueless as to where he should go.
The last time he was here he walked directionlessly trying to search for a town nearby, but this time he atleast had a concrete destination.
Looking up at the sky he could see the sun that had just recently risen and was quickly able to pinpoint where it roughly came from.
'So that should be east.'
Then he drew a circle around himself in the sand and marked roughly where east was.
Then proceeded to mark the opposite side aswell so he would know where west was.
Now that he knew two of the directions he was quickly able to deduce the remaining two aswell.
Thinking back on what he knew he quickly remembered that Primus was straight north from Blackheart. This meant that he would have to head north, or did he?
While Primus was indeed to the north of Blackheart he had no way to tell if he was still in the same place as before. Floch easily could have just moved the cave to a different place rather than just deleting the town from existence.
He couldn't be as reckless as before he had to be sure, that if he were to head in a direction it would lead him to where he wanted to go.
So he tried to think back to anything that he could use as a way to identify where he was.
While looking around, his eyes stopped on a mountain in the distance.
It was a mountain he had seen before, it was something that used to directly face the town's entrance.
When he went out to check on the "warding stone" this mountain was what stood before him.
There it was the answer he needed, he was indeed where Blackheart once stood, he just has to go towards that mountain range and soon enough he would arrive at Primus.
Without thinking a moment more, he started walking towards the mountains in the distance.
...
Each step was tiring, the summer heat of the wasteland certainly didn't help either.
Ash had been walking for the better part of twelve hours.
As he had no food or water on him, he simply had to endure and keep going.
The only good thing he could see was that even if not by a lot, it did seem like the mountain had gotten closer.
He had certainly made some progress.
After walking for a few more hours the sun was nearing the horizon, ready to set for the day.
Ash knew that this meant that the darkness of the night would soon arrive.
He had no idea how he'd be able to get through it, afterall the last time he'd been here, he died before he could even process it.
The night came, and an instantaneous darkness swallowed the whole world.
Ash could one again see nothing.
He was just there standing with his sword in hand.
He wasn't sure it would matter much, but he still gripped it hard.
Then seconds passed, and soon minutes.
Nothing happened.
The giant monster or monsters Ash had expected to face were nowhere to be "seen".
The night was surprisingly peaceful.
Ash carefully lowered himself into the sand and layed down, with his sword by his side.
He wasn't fully convinced that things were safe, but he was already tired, and nothing has happened.
Seeing this Ash felt it would be better to rest, maybe not sleep, but atleast rest in some form.
He didn't have much time anyways, without water he'll die in a few days anyways.
It was incremental that he rests. He couldn't afford having tomorrow be a day where he wasn't able to make progress because of his tiredness.
So he just layed there with his eyes closed, still somewhat awake.
But slowly even that passed and he fully let himself fall asleep.
...
Ash was woken up by the light of the sun shinning in his face.
Morning has come, and he was still alive.
It seemed the night was truly peaceful this time.
Coming to his senses Ash didn't waste much time and started heading towards the mountain in the distance.
...
Time had passed and it was once again closing in on sun down.
Looking up at the mountain, that was now towering before him, Ash knew.
He would react the mountain tomorrow.
But at the same time he also knew that his time was running out.
'Tomorrow may very well be my last day.'
The thrist was getting to him. Even today he was only able to pull through with sheer willpower.
The sun once again disappeared, leaving the world to be swallowed by the darkness.
Ash just like yesterday stood there with his sword in hand.
But just like yesterday, nothing happened.
This time Ash didn't wait for so long and hurriedly felt around for the floor, and went to sleep.
...
Morning arrived once again, with the sun shinning down on Ash, but he didn't move.
Ash didn't have the strength to get up.
He could barely open his eyes.
'Haha... in the end... is this how I die?'
His brain was slow, but even with that slowness, there was only one thing on his mind.
'How can I survive this?'
Just two days ago he had deemed that this journey had to be possible, since Floch wouldn't just let him die.
'Could I have been wrong? Maybe Floch already got what he wanted out of me?'
Thinking back, there was only one thing he could think of.
The "warding stone".
That ominous looking stone, the very thing that Floch plunged into his chest.
The very thing that had reacted with his core, delivering such pain.
'Ha... why didn't I check it before?'
Maybe it was because he was preoccupied with getting to the mountains, but Ash had realised something.
Since waking up in the cave he hasn't once checked his Interface.
Maybe it was because he didn't think anything had changed or he could have just forgotten.
But now Ash knew that he had to check it.
'Interface.'