Another Death. (Author’s POV)

Eve was most certainly dead. She had, in fact, died three times. This was the second one in thirty minutes.

So this time she would stay dead.

I guess this is where we see Rayne break. Let me stop commenting and just dictate.

Rayne held her. Tears streamed down his face, his eyes hollow and devoid of any coherent thought. His mana swirled around him in lazy streams, twisting and turning like threads of spider silk in the wind.

He had long since realized that she was not coming back. It had already been an hour. So he cried silently, cradling her to his chest and rocking slightly back and forth. His brain, always working overtime to try and make a full plan of his life, had stilled.

All that was left was the empty husk of what used to be Rayne. A small, sad husk.

The demon who had killed her was nowhere to be seen, not even heard. He was certainly watching over them even now, just observing the carnage he had wrought.

From here, so many things could happen. When you take away the one last thing a person with power loves, there is little one can do to stop the results.

Rayne could go on to forgo his curse, seeking out the demon that killed Eve.

He could just lay down next to her body and spend an eternity there, his body constantly dying and reviving.

He could entomb her in diamond, as he had done to Thea.

He could lay waste to the entire planet.

He could attempt to move on, forever looking for something to fill his heart.

He could drink his troubles away as best he could.

He could commit suicide, twice, in a futile attempt to join her in the afterlife.

He could continue through life as a husk, never opening to anything or anyone.

He could tear through space, trying to leave as fast as possible.

He could do so much more, but I’ll relieve you of the suspense and just tell you what he ended up doing.

Rayne reached to his mana. His knowledge of his skill. He grasped time.

And he pulled it back.

A portal opened in front of him. A window appeared, explaining the dangers of ripping a hole in Time, but he swiped it away without even reading it. With a single step, he was swallowed by the hole, teleporting him not to another place, but another time, another universe.

Motives (Rayne’s POV)

I knew normal methods wouldn’t work. Flying through the wormhole, I thought over what I was doing. I was going back in time to try and save Eve. I would do things better this time around. Nobody would get hurt. Nobody would die.

No matter what.

Restart (Rayne’s POV)

I awoke with a start. I hadn’t seen this ceiling in a very long time. I smiled to myself, nothing in it but the muscle movements. I knew what was going to happen. I waited for that pair of green eyes as I checked over what I could. I couldn’t move, just like last time, but I could think.

My situation was much better this time around. I would be able to protect them this time.

It was the same as before, except this time around I stared at the lamp on the wall instead of Elliot’s eyes. That ended well for me, as the maid no longer took any interest in me.

When my parents came in, I turned to my mother. She picked me up and twirled me through the air, tears in her eyes. I tried not to remember Eve. I failed.

Another 365 days of waiting. But this time I would be training at 9 times the intensity. I couldn’t protect her before, so I would have to get stronger. I would fight the entire kingdom at once if I had too.

So I needed the strength to do so.

I’ll get it, no matter what I must do.

Training (Author Here)

Of course, he did so as soon as he could control his body. The whirlwind happened again, with Rayne’s permission, so that he could explain everything to his mother. Without all the explanations he got the first time, he had a lot of time to attempt to talk her out of thinking him as a monster. He eventually managed, after which he woke up in sync with her.

Now she avoided him slightly, not sure how to think of her twice reincarnated vampire of a child. I don’t blame her.

He immediately meditated, leaving the world behind. His mana pulled into a single block, turning it a light gray almost instantly. After another few minutes, it was pure black. But Rayne continued putting mana in it.

He already had a headache, most of his wandering thoughts focused instead on keeping the volatile mana in one place and in one piece. If he was distracted for even a second, the mana would expand outwards in a rush so large, it would reach all the way to the city.

His [Mana Construction] leveled up once or twice, his [Mana Condensation] never changing, and his [Advanced Meditation] leveling once.

And yet he still continued. His consciousness was swimming through molasses. He had to stop sometime soon, or else he would most likely destroy everything in a few hundred mile radius.

4 hours had passed. The mana brick that was being created was torn apart, space around it warping and shooting a pressurized bolt into the ground.

This was due to Rayne’s influence. He had surrounded the incoming blast in solidified space, with a single opening that leads to a downwards-facing portal, so the blast was redirected straight down. It burrowed nearly three miles straight down, through bedrock and all.

At least nobody was hurt this time around…

“Rayne, are you alright?” Avalina asked, laying a hand on his shoulder.

“No.” Is what he responded. However, something interesting to note would be that he used his mana letters again. He seemed to be unable to speak.

“What’s wrong?” Avalina wouldn’t be giving up. Even if he had been reincarnated twice, having memories and skills from both times, she could tell he was still mostly human.

And humans have emotions.

Rayne showed no hint of answering her question. He either wasn’t sure what he should answer with, or he didn’t know what was wrong. I’d bet on the first one.

He continued training. Tirelessly. He didn’t eat unless he had to. He didn’t sleep until he passed out from exhaustion. He didn’t speak. Well, technically he couldn’t speak, but you get my point.

Of course, his training gave him many things:

Status Update:

PER +5782

WIS +5402

INT +4326

FTH +27

LCK +2

WPR +92

END +9297

STR +7284

DEX +7922

AGL +8324

VIT +253

LDS +104

[Mana Construction] has leveled up! (x177)

[Mana Sense] has leveled up! (x31)

[Advanced Meditation] has leveled up! (x14)

[Mana Eye] has become [Mana Construction] subskill, {Mana Eye}

[Mana Condensation] has become [Mana Construction] subskill, {Mana Gather}

[Mana Sense] has become [Mana Construction] subskill, {Mana Sense} as well as [Vampiric Lineage] subskill, {Blood Sense}

[Persuasion] has become [Vampiric Lineage] subskill, {Vampiric Voice} as well as [Mana Construction] subskill, {Infused Words}

[Enticing Gaze] has become [Vampiric Lineage] subskill, {Vampiric Eyes}

[Blood Drain] has become [Vampiric Lineage] subskill, {Blood Drain}

The effect (Repaired Body) has increased from (7x, 109x) to (13x, 199x).

The effect (Overcharged) has increased from (24,323) to (31,893)

The effects: (Sunlight Weakness), (Blood Drinker), (Disease Immunity), and (Vampiric Body) have been combined into (Vampiric Constitution)

Skills and Effects are now ordered in columns, instead of rows.

But before I go too far, I should go back a bit. Back to the day where Rayne saved Rose. This time, with the knowledge of how it ended last time, was a bit different.

He didn’t rush. He went there before she even arrived and waited. The boys brought her, unconscious, right into his reach. They were instantly KO’ed with a mana ball to the head. Rose fell to the ground, unmoving.

With a swipe of his hand, her body was reformed. The legs were fixed, the cuts were filled in, and her arm was regrown.

With empty eyes to the person who, in another time, tried to kill his family, he left a bottle next to her. It was filled with his saliva, enough to make sure each and every one of her injuries was fully healed. But that was it.

He left without turning back, sure she would find some way back home. This time, he wouldn’t be getting involved with her.

Back to the ‘Present’, it’s the first day of school. Rayne already knew that he would be assigned to the 400th floor, and decided to play his hand differently this time. His teacher was the fairy queen. He could make use of that.

He walked slowly to school. No fox accompanied him this time, Rayne keeping true to his resolution even with that on the line. He made it earlier than anybody else and started playing around with solid mana. That should keep most people away.

But he would be mistaken with those thoughts. It drew attention to him. The second person to arrive was a girl, very similar in appearance to Rose. It took Rayne a few seconds to recognize her.

It was Rose. But she looked so… different.

Every time Rayne had seen her in the past life, she had a smile on her face, always looking forward to time with him. But now she looked like she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Her eyes were harder than before, a swirling mix of dark emotions. Her posture gave off a sense of uncaring as if she had given up on everything already.

She… she looked like him.

It was terrifying and terrible.

She bent down. She seemed curious about his mana.

At the moment, it was forming and unforming from a few hundred types of flowers. From a sane perspective, it would be beautiful. But to Rose and Rayne, it would probably just look depressing.

A flower, so full of life, created and destroyed by the same hand, the same mind.

‘So, what’s going on with you?’ Rayne asked with mana, infusing it with one of his subskills, {Vampiric Tongue}.

“Have you ever heard of a person captured by the Little Three that ended up living?” She asked, her eyes darkening.

‘I haven’t heard of the Little Three. Are they some sort of gang?’

“Sort of. I was… captured by them about a month ago. It’s haunted me since.”

‘But you seem fine…’ Rayne had an idea of where this was going.

“That’s the thing. I remember my wounds. I was awake the whole time while they were… doing it to me.” She trailed off.

‘So… what happened…?’ Rayne was still now, his mana no longer creating flowers. It swam through the air in a formless blob.

“I don’t know… I don’t know. I woke up, looking mostly whole. There was a bottle next to me, filled with some clear liquid. I drank it, thinking it was there for that reason, but I don’t know what happened.”

‘...’ Rayne stopped his mana completely.

“Why was I taken? Why did my wounds heal? What happened to them? What was that liquid?” She was rambling, not paying attention to what she was saying.

Rayne smiled slightly, realizing how simple she was. For a second, he thought about hinting towards him knowing about it, but he stopped himself. He didn’t really want to get involved too strongly with the yandere.

So, instead, he commented a few words,

‘You don’t need to dwell on the past. Everything happens for a reason. And it’s all that much better since this little incident ended with you being okay. For all it matters, a mage could have passed by and saved you.’

Rose stopped. She looked to him, noting his small wry smile. It didn’t stay long, but it was there.

“Were… Were you-”

A bell sounded, signaling the beginning of school. The guard opened the gates and took his position.

Rayne stood, dusting himself off, and warped the mana he was playing with to spell out his name for the guard. He walked off before Rose could question him anymore.

After a few seconds, she realized the bell had rung and rushed off to not be late. There were hundreds of students behind her, after all.

Rayne walked into his classroom, waiting for the teacher. Last time, he fell asleep once he got into the classroom since the people didn’t come for a very long time.

But this time, he went straight to the library. He grabbed any random book and flipped it to a page somewhere near the beginning.

It was a book about the specialties and ranks of mages, and the page began in the middle of a sentence. Not liking that, Rayne flipped back to the very first page and began reading from there. It wasn’t that he was a slow reader, he just had some difficulties staying focused.

Having a mind that thinks of every choice can be a bad thing sometimes.

The door opened, a thoroughly exhausted teacher walking in. She waved her hand, a chair forming out of thin air. Not even a fluctuation in magic.

Rayne was interested, but not quite as much as he was interested in his goal. With a thought out set of movements, the book in his hand slammed shut, clapping loudly in the mostly empty room. The teacher leaped up, squeaking adorably.

‘Fairy Queen, you might want to get your magic reapplied.’ Rayne’s words were sharp and clear.

“Uwah?! Oh, there’s a student here… Wait, who are you calling Fairy Queen?!” She hid her reaction quite well.

‘You, Fairy Queen Efreet Loli. You don’t know me, but I know that. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. I just thought I’d give you that piece of advice.’ Rayne wrote it in passing as if he didn’t care.

But this was the important part. If she reacted correctly, everything would end well. But if she reacted in any other way, Rayne would have difficulty saving Eve this time around, too.

“What do you want from me?” Her voice had an edge to it. Rayne opened his book back up, flipping to the page he was on last, before responding.

‘I suppose I could say I want something from you. But I suppose I could also say that I want nothing from you.’

“Stop speaking in riddles.”

‘Well then, Ms. Efreet. What I want from you is one simple thing. Five days from now, there should be a girl with golden eyes that comes in.’ He paused, the mana he was using to speak threading into incoherent symbols.

‘I exist to protect her, no matter the cost. I want you to assist me in this matter.’

There was a pause. No words were spoken from either side of the room, both simply sitting down in their chairs silently. The only noise was Rayne turning the page to his book occasionally.

“Hello? Anybody in here?” A female voice called out, from the other side of the door. It surprised Rayne so much that he tore a small piece of the page. At least it was still in one piece. He fixed it with mana before tuning back into the scene.

“Come in…” Efreet called back, slowly looking up to the door while collapsing the chair she was sitting on. It disappeared into nothingness.

The door opened. A girl came in. With a few seconds of uncomfortable staring, Rayne recognized her as the foxnapper. He wondered how she would act, now that the fox was gone.

She sat in the first row, as far from him as possible.

…

Isn’t that… a bit rude?

But anyway, she sat in the front row. Rayne gave off a small single syllable chuckle before going back to his book. He would have to check with her later, as she obviously didn’t want to talk to him now.

The next student was two minutes later, the silver-haired Lilia. Her gaze lingered on Rayne, seeming to recognize him this time.

“Yo, Lilia. Sit here, why don’t you?” He pointed to the seat in front of him. She froze in her tracks, glaring daggers at him.

He returned them with a smile. Eventually, she ended up sitting there.

“You know, I’m pretty sure I said something to you the first time we met… You’re really bad at following instructions, aren’t you?”

Alright, pissing off the goddess of Death cannot be a good idea. But then again, Rayne is chock full of ideas, I suppose most of them would be bad ones.

“No, I’m not good at following instructions from a person I didn’t think I would see again.” She responded, calm for the circumstances. Meeting the person you killed isn’t exactly an everyday occurance, is it?

I guess I’ll never know.

An Old Skill Anew (Eve’s POV)

Today I am one month old. 360 days without Rayne, is actually how I view it, but I can’t help it. I miss him so much.

Nothing is special about today. Or, well, something should be special today, but I fixed it. School starts today, but I don’t want to go. The only thing that could make me go was if Rayne was there.

New Skill gained: Clairvoyance!

Well, that’s a first. What the hell? Clairvoyance… I feel like I’ve heard that word somewhere before...

But I guess I can just inspect the skill.

Clairvoyance

See into the future.

Why is it such a bland description? Most of the ones I’ve seen so far have been really detailed, with lots of statistics and whatnot.

Is this skill really all that great? I mean, my perception stat is over 150… Should I level it up even more?

How do I do that?

It was a long time before I realized that I gained the skill because I had already guessed the future.

The Gala (Rayne’s POV)

Today was the day. Exactly one Earth year since my second… third birth. The day I would meet Eve again.

It had been so long. I wanted to see her, show her how powerful I had become. Show her that nobody could touch her.

“What, overstimulated with thoughts of your sister?”

‘Agh, shut up. You know me well enough by now, Lilia.’ I taunted her with her real name, making sure to watch her flinch.

“Alright, alright, stop being so obvious… I know how much you miss her, and I’m sorry, for the thousandth time.” She had, indeed, said sorry about that particular topic four hundred and eighty-three times.

‘Nope, only 484. I’ve counted.’ I smirked at her, smiling wider today than ever before.

The door opened, and my neck swiveled. I heard something crack, but that wasn’t important. The girl that had walked into the room was… just the foxnapper, who was named Ralia.

“Get your eyes off me, you conceited pervert. If you really want to be close to me, get over here and bow down like the dog you are.”

A very pretty name for somebody so sadistic.

We weren’t exactly friends, but I knew how to deal with her.

‘Yes, yes, I’m sorry. I’ll be there in a second to polish your shoes, princess.’

Just go with it. She gets embarrassed and eventually tells me to sit down. It’s even better if you smile while doing it, and insist. I actually bowed to her once, and she left me alone for an entire day.

“Eww, stop looking so happy when you say that, it’s creepy.”

‘Thank you.’

“And stop being so happy when I degrade you!”

‘Nope.’

She sat down, making an effort not to look at me. It took me a second to realize she was done, so I turned back to Lilia.

‘So, how have things been going on your end?’ The words held a secret meaning, one that only Lilia and I knew about.

“Pretty alright, nothing too bad has happened so far. There aren’t that many deaths around here since you took out the Little Three. Such a stupid name for a gang.”

‘True. Thanks again.’

“No problem. You’ve been… entertaining these past five days.”

‘I’ll extend my offer once again, then.’

There was a pause. I looked Lilia in the eye, making sure she couldn’t run or avert her eyes. My skill no longer kicked in unless I wanted it to, so this was mostly safe.

“You know, I think I’ll take it this time. When you leave, take me with you. It’ll certainly be more entertaining than living an ordinary life.”

I smiled at her, not a fake one for once. She took a half step back, seeming surprised. She put a hand up to her chest, making me tilt my head in confusion.

‘Is something wrong?’

She laughed a little. “No, I don’t think so. I’m just a bit more excited to meet this ‘Eve’ that you talk about so often.”

I nodded and went back to watching the door as Lilia made her way to the seat in front of me.

She was the last person in the room. Just as nice as I remember. Her first day of school, her blond hair flowing behind her beautifully. I nearly leaped out of my seat to rush towards her and hug her, but I thought it would be more fun to let her find me on her own.

She stood in the front of the room, scanning over 9 faces. Her eyes lay on the empty seat next to me, before flicking back to me.

Seeing that she noticed who I was, I stood up. My chair grate against the floor behind me, but that was fine. Eve was finally here.

She smiled at me, tears leaking out of her eyes. I couldn’t even hope to contain my own. Just like before, I rushed towards her. Just like before, I spoke her name as my first words.

Unlike before, I fast forwarded Time. I warped it a bit, the knowledge from the Max leveled skill comforting the flow as I gave her the memories from my last reincarnation. I gave her her memories. Including the times she died.

So I wasn’t surprised when she gripped me tighter, finally realizing exactly how we parted. But there was something she did that surprised me.

“I love you…” She whispered into my ear. I had heard the same voice so many times, whispering different things into my ears. In fact, I had probably heard the same three words before.

But when she said it this time, my heart jumped up to my throat. My stomach felt like it was twisting into a knot. I smiled, happier than I had ever been before.

After all, I realized there was only one answer I could give her here, to make sure that I wouldn’t lie to her or myself anymore.

“I love you too…”