"Urgh... What happened?" Was the first thing the scholarly young man asked after waking up.

He snapped out of his trance quite quick…

Rather than being burdened, Alex felt more complete now. The events of his 'past life' had practically expanded his already large amount of memories from living like a scholar on Gaia.

There was no pain involved with the process.

Oddly enough, he found that the only person with him in his personal room of his was the helmeted spearman. The crazy son-of-a-gun who'd previously beat the living hell out of him...

I guess we can all agree that waking up just really sucks, especially when in this kind of situation.

Alex's expression was like this: (눈_눈)

He was doubtful on the man's identity. One who was able to heal a soul even an 'Imperial' couldn't.

It just didn't make sense...!

"You were unconscious for a whole hour. The rest of them are sitting in personal rooms I gave them."

"...Why are you acting like the owner of my house?"

"Never mind such a trivial thing. Did you figure out why I consider everything to be your fault?" The helmeted spearman impolitely answered with a question, not caring about Alex's inquiries.

Though for some odd reason, the man seemed to have prepared fruits for him... He even cut them into interesting shapes. It was as if he'd been bored from waiting for the young man to wake up.

'Interesting...' Alex thought.

He reorganised his memories.

It was strange how they seemed to fit right in like they were lost memories, rather than 'new' ones.

His eyes took a glance at him right arm. It now seemed different from before. Even though he couldn't understand 'what' was different, he was extremely sure that SOMETHING had changed.

"I'm not sure how... but yeah, I know now that I've regained my memories. However, why are you still wearing that mask…? You already know I'd be able to see through your act once I remembered everything." The youth narrowed his eyes calmly.

"Heh~ As expected..." The helmeted spearman responded gleefully. Then, it all clicked for me.

A specific portion of his memories opened up. It allowed me to gain context of who he was.

Surprisingly, we already knew each other…..

….

….

…

..

.

Ahem, getting back to the point:

He finally revealed his true identity by taking off his metallic. headgear. Usually, this would be time for someone to gasp in shock, but since no one else in the room but them: I'll try acting it instead.

{Woah! Who would have thought that Alex's long lost twin brother would be the identity of the helmeted spearman. Wow... I, the Narrator, also named Mr Wallkin, am shocked that they actually had the same features… with only their eyes being the main point of dissimilarity! No, even their hair colour was different… The spearman was blonde!}

Nah~ I'm just messing with ya~!

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

But it IS the truth that they looked almost like the same person. Though the spearman DID look a little more muscular compared to the scholarly young man before him, they were nearly identical.

"So you really ARE me..." Alex spoke in mild surprise. His eyebrow raised just slightly.

This despite figuring out something was off about the whole situation once his memories returned.

It's not like the spearman gave himself away, just that the way he acted seemed very familiar…

The assailant acted similar to himself… before he regained a portion of his memories from Earth.

This guess was mostly instinctual without any concrete basis for it. Which was unlike him…

I guess he'd 'grown' with the revelations…

"Who else? It seems you're still as much a fool as you were before." Scratch that, this once 'non-helmeted' spearman was a little more twisted than the 'Alex Stuman' before he regained his memories.

Alex's eyes rolled like this: (¬_¬)

There was a sense of disgust in those eyes. He didn't like the way 'this version' of him acted.

It was way too immature…

He couldn't understand the thoughts of this 'twin' of his… no matter how much experience he had regained from regaining his memories. All he could sense was a chaotic temperament and attitude.

The 'young freak' was sure even HE wasn't this much of a jerk before regaining his memories.

Alex wasn't like this, was he...?

He'd rather believe he was a good guy than... 'this'!

"Shut up and explain." The now youthful freak of martial arts, who could now be described by you readers as a 'scholarly freak', spoke icily. He could never understand what made the blondie this way.

Despite some of his innate values changing for better or worse, there really wasn't much of a difference to him personality wise. He was still the laid back type who went with the flow… like earlier.

"You'll figure it 'how' I came here later. For now, I need you to know exactly 'why' I'm here. And guess what? It has a lot to do with you!" He pointed out as if… it WASN'T something Alex thought of.

"I didn't need to be Sherlock to figure it out. Think I'd believe YOU came here for anyone else?"

"Ahem... I guess so..." This response caused both of them to sigh unconsciously at the same time.

After that, an awkward silence enveloped the whole room oppressively. The scholarly freak didn't really know what to ask first. The doppelgänger of a spearman didn't know where to start first despite having narrowed down what his answer would be...

"Want something to eat?" The scholarly freak decided to put things to the side while getting up.

Alex's whole attitude was like this: _へ__(‾◡◝ )>

Lax, passive, lazy, mild... There were many ways to describe him, but none could capture his essence.

He wasn't the old freak who had experienced so much strange things on Earth… that he wouldn't be surprised is God 'Himself' reached out to him, nor was he the plucky and youthful scholar… teething with curiosity about the unknown of this world.

He was just like water. Adaptive, and could shift between elusiveness or firmness quite easily.

Truly, he was a combatant of two lifetimes...

"...Sure." The spearman looked stunned for a second… before going with the flow of scents.

It was then the scholarly reincarnator got up, went to the kitchen, came back, served tea, before acting like their previous scuffle hadn't even happened... Even pouring it into the cup himself!

He was mature enough to not prettily cling onto small things like getting punched in the face.

...I'm not sure if this made him a pushover or not.

'I guess I really WAS different in the past, huh? I never knew seeing it with my own eyes would give such a peculiar feelings...' The doppelgänger spearman thought without showing his thoughts.

He nonchalantly drank the tea without even checking it for poison or not beforehand.

From what the Dragoon remembered about his 'current self', poisoning a 'guest' wasn't something he'd originally do before he became... twisted. It was too ignoble and inglorious of an action.

"We started off at the wrong foot. Let's introduce ourselves again." The scholarly freak jumped.

Alex once again made the man speechless…

He was technically talking to 'himself', so is it necessary for them to introduce themselves?

What for?

"I'm-"

"Hold it! I'M 'Alex Stuman'!

You have to pick another name so I don't have to say 'you' all the time. Pick another except mine!

Don't you dare copy me...!" The Dragoon had a lot of complaints with this line of thinking (like why did HE have to have a name change?), but in the end made a face that seem to say 'whatever...'.

He thought about a new name to use from now on.

His self-mocking face was like this:（'∀｀）

It was kind of scary in contrast with Alex's regular attitude. His eyes looked loco for a moment.

There wasn't much he didn't know after living a life so much more longer than his 'young' counterpart.

It was so long that even 'I' couldn't shorten it into a synopsis. There were many things that occurred.

Anyway, the spearman spoke first:

"You know, I already figured out our ancestry. I know the names of both our parents now."

"So what?"

"What I'm saying is: I will use the name you were actually meant to use as a resident of this world."

"..." Alex didn't bother to respond, but stared at him blankly. It didn't occur to him he had such a name.

"Our father's name is Goldsun, and since our mother died before giving us a name, I think I'll go by the name of Samuel Goldsun. Call me 'Sam' from now on." The scholarly freak silently narrowed his cold eyes at the similarity his name had towards Samantha Turner (Sam). That angelic girl he'd never meet again- No, who he grew apart from...

"..." The Arcanist decided to say nothing.

"You still remember your teenage sweetheart?" A brow was lifted in response to the freak's silence.

The spearman, who now named himself Samuel, was unlike Alex, who remembered even the smallest details of his extremely dangerous and thrilling past life. To Samuel, even the girl called Samantha was someone he barely remembered.

"What 'sweetheart'?

We never came to be lovers in the end...

To think the most depressing part about it is because I didn't have the courage to tell her my feelings... If I was just a bit more mature back then and had guts, would the only girl I loved throughout my life… I mean, would she have moved on...?

Even now, it still hurts to remember how we drifted apart..." Alex reminisced about his past life openly.

It was a mundane story anyone could have, but he still felt sentimental about 'losing a good friend'...

At least, that's how he wanted it to seem like…

"Don't blame yourself over it. You know our family matters weren't exactly fit for a normal girl like her."

"...You're right. Though it seems like you hadn't forgotten her as well... Don't tell me I still like her?"

"Trust me, you do... You obsessed stalker-loner hybrid." The Dragoon unconsciously cursed him.

"Samuel, show some self-control."

"Sorry (even though I'm not).

...I've lived too long on the edge. It's rather rare for me to sit and talk like this without having to fight someone straight after. I'm not used to life devoid of conflict anymore... like you are right now, after gaining the respect of many through your studies."

"Is that so...? Well, let's get the main subject.

I think it would benefit both of us if you added 'how' you came back in time into your explanation.

After all, I don't remember being the type of person who would feign mysteriousness for no reason.

Just give it to me straight, and I'm sure I'll be able to handle it." Alex patted his chest in confidence about his abilities. The Dragoon had a doubtful expression on his face… as if he heard a joke.

"For a guy who wouldn't have even been able to unlock his potential without my help, you sure are full of yourself...! No matter, it's not important information anyway. Hah... Let's just say that I have a Spell Slot that is able to 'create paradoxes'."

"Not travel through time?"

"That's different. Time travel would make me abide by particular 'Rules' of time-travel…

…such as not meeting myself in the past, or not messing with the timelines too extensively.

My Spell: 'Paradoxical Return', is different.

It breaks the rules of time..." Samuel dropped a bomb, but the Arcanist still comply responded:

"You sound like a certain idiot in a time-travelling police telephone box I vaguely remember."

"This is no time for references! Time isn't as wibbly-wobbly or as timey-whimy as you think!"

Samual's exuded a coolness a bit like this: (▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿)

Give this man some sunglasses!

…As someone who lived way longer than anyone could imagine, his eccentricities were a little weird.

"Right right, now how about you tell me about the future? It won't matter if you're whimsically creating paradoxes, right? Though it kinda confuses me why you're like this despite having such a cheat power." Alex lifted an eyebrow.

Why the hell would he go back in time to beat the crap out of himself? Was he a total 'M'?

"No power is omnipotent. Even if you ignore a concept of Gaia like 'Lady Clockwork', she'll eventually come back to you and 'punish' you depending on how much of a mess you made...

Although I've created many paradoxes before, I've never been able to truly change the fated course of events by much.... For example: If it's 'destined' for someone to die, then my efforts would be in vain.

That person will continuously be hunted by a swift death. Each waking moment they pass their 'deadline' making it easier and easier for their death." The spearman spoke with a dark tone.

He wasn't joking at all. As there were times when even a meteor would drop to kill someone by fate.

That was just how absurd destiny was…

"...Why are you bringing this up now?" The Arcanist, of course, now started feeling a sense of foreboding from his other self's words. He decided to bite the bullet to ask just what brought him here.

..,And stopped himself from showing his terrified heart on the outside. He was feigning tranquillity.

"...One of the many reasons I came back… is to 'fix' the death of an independently formed Anomaly."

"..." The scholarly freak waited for him to continue.

Samuel then started his explanation:

"As you have already heard from Lily, Anomalies don't form by themselves… They are all 'created'.

There has to be a reason for an Anomaly to exist or else it wouldn't be created in Gaia's 'hardware'.

You became the First Anomaly.

This was due to you having a soul from the so-called 'Lower World' reincarnate into a Dark Human body, while Lily became the second after you. She was the result of yours and Simian's actions.

Her soul had absorbed the 'broken mech' Simian formed using the Mechanical Aeon Reincarnation Art, but you could be considered siblings in a way… After all, her soul is now similar to 'our' own.

Our destinies were similar…

However, besides you and three others (Lily Included) who can all be considered 'First Generation: Natural Anomalies', there have been other types that arose thanks to your actions.

It you hadn't used that Art, chaos wouldn't have formed in destiny; Leaving room for more 'bugs' to arise in your wake." The time traveller spoke down to him. He was emphasising that Alex was at fault.

"I never heard of the other Anomalies besides myself and Lily. To think there were more..."

"I suggest you don't think about them for now since they won't be relevant to the plot anytime soon." Samual rationally sp- Wait! Why are you suddenly acting crazy at a time like this?!

Don't you know Alex can't sense the 4th Wall?!

(ﾉꐦ ⊙曲ఠ)ﾉ彡┻━┻

"Err... Okay?" The scholarly freak responded to the statement only I, Mr Wallkin, could understand.

This son of a- Did he have to do this now...?!

Well, I'm glad Samuel cleared things up. We wouldn't want the readers to get the wrong impression. The 4th Wall isn't so weak that anyone could break it just because they wanted to...

"Moving on: The 'Second Generation: Artificial Anomalies', are basically those who had been artificially born into this world through experimentation. They are unfortunate kids…

Remember, since this for it's going to be important in the Arc after this, don't think I'll hold your hand through this." The Arcanist nodded while filtering out the nonsense. Pretending he didn't hear…

Alex wasn't that surprised by the existence of a 'second generation'. He'd already saw it coming.

The freak felt nothing can move him… now that he met HIMSELF from the future as a time-traveller.

"And the 'third generation' is what I call 'Weirdo Anomalies'! They are basically the freaks that accidentally manifested due to the existence of 'Ascenders', who are Master fighters or above from Earth. Those who crossed over to this world…."

"I won't call you out on your naming sense, but explain to me about these 'Ascenders' a little more depth." The scholarly freak's eyes sparkled in interest. Especially from finding out there were others who came from Earth beside himself.

He really wanted to meet them!

What if his 'Dragon Family' came here too?

"Later! They won't be relevant until an even later Arc, so I'll just tease them a little until giving a solid explanation later. Just know that there ARE a lot of people from Earth on Gaia at this very moment.

They came here the same year you were born."

Samual, stop screwing with the 4th Wall...!

Do you want me to narrate a ten page rant about you? I'll definitely do it. DO NOT underestimate me!

(⋋_⋌)

Stop it! I KNOW you can seriously hear me!!

"It's fine..." Although he was disappointed, Alex's heart was inwardly jumping with joy at this news.

"You must be happy."

"Of course! Now I won't feel lonely anymore if I meet them~!" Although the scholarly freak spoke in an upbeat tone, his heart skipped a beat when he saw the self-derision hidden within Samuel's eyes.

Was he being too optimistic right now?

"Don't get too ahead of yourself there. Coming here to World of Gaia isn't exactly a good thing.

Do you even know how hard it is for Ascenders to find a place to live around here? Let's leave this be for now. In fact, do you know why I call the 'third generation' of Anomalies all weirdos?" The blondie decided to move the subject along personally.

"Isn't because of your poor naming sense?"

"Ahem, that too... and the fact that you practically HAVE to be some sort of weirdo to become a third generation Anomaly. These people are similar, but different from Ascenders in some very deep ways.

Both types 'defy' the Will of Gaia… despite not having the advantages the First and Second Generation have at birth. Those of the Third Generation had work way harder to become Anomalies before they defied the Will of Gaia."

"You've been saying 'Will of Gaia' for some time now, but... what's that supposed to be?"

"Didn't you get punched in the face by her before getting reincarnated here? …Gaia, I mean?

Now you know why she was so pissed off when you first met. Though it was technically her fault as well. She ALLOWED you to live... I don't understand why she let you off after what had happened."

"...Huh?!!!"

Alex's shock registered like this: Σ(･口･)

His eyes widened, and realised that not everything was as it seemed. Also, that he didn't know a lot...

"That face of yours is hilarious~!" Samuel laughed after seeing the look of bewilderment on his face.

The spearman then continued;

"Okay. I'll stop teasing you now. The first 'mission' I have for you is to save a third generation Anomaly you know well. A foolish idiot who risked dying in order to obtain a technique the defies the laws of Gaia, the 'rules' set down by the Game Master.

You can even think of him as a 'player' cheating on a game using cheat codes. He isn't a 'Defier' like those Classless Beasts, but sometimes achieving more than what you are supposed to isn't really appreciated." The time-traveller smiled devilishly.

Samual's demonic attitude was like this: Ψ(｀∀'#)ﾉ

He didn't care about anything other than Alex's reasoning, as all that matters with his decisions.

The whole reason he 'returned' was due to this..

"You can't be serious!" The freak was finally unable to keep his cool after realising who the spearman was referring to. It looked like the only difference between Defiers and Anomalies was that the former was well-known compared to the latter...

No, there was something more important than that!

"That's right, you have ten days to save Arthur Rainglow. Or else destiny will repeat once again!"

The race to fight against fate began…