"Opportunity? To do what?" Adrian asked.
"To convince me," the man responded.
"I have seen countless numbers of souls with stories that caught my attention. They had lived lives that set them apart from the others, or like in your case, made decisions that should not have been," the man added.
There was a moment of silence as the mans words sank in. Adrian remembered all the selfless decisions he had made for the people he loved, but when he remembered that he was dead because of them, he didn know what to feel.
"Why did you do it?" The man asked in curiosity, "you were one of the most powerful in your realm. Many like you would not have cared for them as you did."
"I loved them," Adrian said with a gloomy tone.
"I always wanted to do more for my people. I don know why, but it was just this feeling of dedication and want that drove me toward my choices. When I reached the final stage as a mage, I felt the need to protect. See where that got me."
"Do you regret your decisions?" The man queried.
"I don even know."
There were many emotions in Adrians heart, but the ones he could recognize were sadness, anger, and hate.
He was sad because the people he loved did not reciprocate it. He had been an orphan who got lucky enough to have affinity with mana. He was always alone and worked harder than anyone else to get to this level. Maybe the need to have someone by his side made him give his everything to people who did not even deserve it.
His anger was towards himself. He was angry that he listened to his heart and not his head. Maybe if he had been more logical, he wouldn have bothered trying to please anyone but himself. Maybe none of this would have happened. But it already has.
The hate. Now that, was directed toward the people he had once loved. That was what they deserved; nothing but his unfiltered hate.
"Is there anything you would have done differently?" The man asked.
"I would have never become a slave to those monsters," Adrian said in anger.
The man remained silent as he contemplated a decision while Adrian kept trying to contain his anger and pain.
"Adrian," the man called out.
This time, his voice was so loud Adrian felt like his ear drums were about to burst!
"I have decided to give you one more chance, what would you do?" The man asked.
"One more chance at what?"
"Life."
Adrian raised his brow in disbelief. Having one more chance at life? Was that really a thing?
He didn want to believe it, but what if he was being given a chance? What would he do?
Well, one thing was for sure, he would not live his life as he did previously.
"I don think I have an answer for that, but I would make new choices. Thats for sure," Adrian responded.
"Thats all I needed to hear," the man said with his voice returning to its previous low volume.
A white door then appeared in front of Adrian. It released a soft glow that seemed to draw him towards it.
"If you walk through that door, youll be transported back to your realm into your old body. But first, I must warn you, time flies differently here and there so do not be surprised when the place you return to is nothing like the place you remember," the man warned.
"I shall keep that in mind," Adrian bowed in respect.
"Now go, show me what you would do with this opportunity," the man said.
Adrian walked towards the door and turned the knob. Then suddenly, once again, he was thrown back into darkness. The only difference between this darkness and the previous one was that he felt suffocated.
He felt like he was trapped and he couldn breathe. There was no space to move his limbs. It took a few seconds for Adrian to realize that he was underground.
Adrian began to move frantically as he tried to dig his way out. It was slow, but he was making progress.
He could have just used his element and blown his way out of there, but that would bring attention to him and that was something he wanted to avoid because of that mans warning. It was best he understood everything about where he was first.
Adrian used his mana to keep himself from losing consciousness due to the lack of oxygen. While it would not last long, it should be enough to keep him till he approached the surface.
After a digging for a while, his hand finally went through the layer of soil above him. He had reached the surface!
He quickly opened up a hole and climbed out. The light was blinding since he had been in darkness for a significant amount of time, but his eyes adjusted quickly.
From what he saw, he was inside a building. Around him were multiple items kept behind a glass cover.
He looked at his body and realized that he was completely naked and stained with dirt and mud.
This is a new look, Adrian thought as he smiled inwardly.
He began to walk around, trying to figure out where he was. At first, everything around him felt familiar, but as he kept walking, he found himself coming across things he had never seen before.
Weapons, large hunks of metallic objects, and human-like sculptures. He was trying to find answers but he was becoming more confused.
He made a turn and that was when he saw a painfully familiar object.
Inside a glass cube laid a weapon; a golden spear. One that he recognized too well since it was the one that killed him.
Next to the spear was a plaque with writings on it that read: "The spear of King Frestal Heriol, used to slay the demon man; Adrian."
Adrian read the plaque multiple times in confusion.
"The demon man? Is that what they call me now?" Adrian spoke with pain in his heart.
If he had been willing to be forgiving before, that feeling had died now.
"Hey! What are you doing here? The museum is closed!" Adrian heard a loud masculine voice shout.
He turned and there stood a man at the end of the passage wearing a t-shirt that simply said "security".
The man looked at Adrian and noticed that he was dirty and buck-naked. He immediately became suspicious and pulled out a round metallic device with a blue light shining in the middle. He placed the device on the middle of his chest and it stuck there.
"Who are you?" The man asked.
Adrian remained silent and began to walk towards the man.
"Halt your steps!" The man shouted, but Adrian kept on walking.
The man quickly tapped on the device on his chest and after it made a few beeping sounds, a layer of metal came out of it and wrapped around the mans body.
It formed some sort of black metal body suit with a blue glow in the chest area and at the eye slits; the only facial feature on it.
Adrian stopped in his tracks as he saw the sudden transformation. He squinted his eyes as he tried to understand what he was seeing, but to no avail.
"Surrender and state your purpose!" the man shouted, but this time, his voice was slightly altered.
Seeing that he could not find out what this transformation was, Adrian decided to find out by asking the man who had underwent the transformation, so he continued to walk towards the man in silence.
The man then stretched his hand forward and a black goo began to form in his palm. It took on a shape and it solidified into a pistol that had blue lines running across the sides.
"I will not warn you again," the man pointed the pistol at Adrian.
"Stop walking."
Novel Bin 