Millions of lights flew across the starry sky. Each one of them radiating a colour of their own, each light streaked across the starry sky, shooting down towards the earth. The sun gently shone in the background.

  My eyes slowly opened to that scene. My eyes were no longer tired, and my body no longer hurt. I stood far above the earth which was slowly reversing its time. I didn’t know what I was at the moment, but I could watch all the events that had happened in the past 5 years go in reverse.

  “Ah, that skyscraper. Captain Galas…” I muttered.

  “…”

  “I know you’re there Jing.” I turned to my back. “I could spot you a mile away.”

  Jingyun, my best friend, was awkwardly scratching the back of his head. He had a fierce-looking expression on his face, though that was just how he looked. His hair rough and tumble hair was let down for the first time in a long while. And he had a long brown lizard tail coming out of his behind. The tail dragged on the non-existent floor.

  “… Thanks. For finishing me off cleanly,” Jingyun stuttered as he thanked me.

  Jingyun was the arrogant and prideful type, so it was hard for him to say sorry. Always has been, ever since we were kids.

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Ahem, I didn’t see Suka here, soooo, he’s the only one of us that survived.”

  “Yeah…” I trailed off.

  I recalled the memory of having to finish Jingyun off. He came to the rescue of a few civilians and put himself into harm’s way just to ensure none of them were hurt. His Penetration Aspect didn’t pierce all, as he had always claimed it would. Ultimately, he was left bloodied and injured on the ground, gasping for air. He begged me to finish him off, and I obliged. I couldn’t even carry his corpse out with me.

  “Hah. Sword freak’s a sword freak, it was expected. Of the 3 of us, he always was the battle maniac,” Jingyun sarcastically chuckled.

  “… If you don’t mind me asking. Since you’re and I’m… you know.”

  “The person I fought was a warrior with raging red hair. She breathed flames at me and had a long red lizard tail. Her scales were tougher than any lizard. She must be a named member. And she might even be…”

  “I’ll do my research on her when the regression is done. I’ll make sure you get your vengeance. I promise,” Machua raised a fist in Jingyun’s direction. Jingyun reciprocated the gesture.

  “While we’re at it, tell me anything else that’ll make you happy,” Machua added. “Tell me all your wishes, now!”

  “I-“ Jing’s cheeks went flush red.

  “Come on! You’re gonna forget anyway! No need to be embarrassed.”

  “I-No. I’m not doing that. I’m not embarrassing myself in front of you again. You’re going to have to find out yourself. And you have a good idea what it is anyway.”

  I folded my arms in indignation. “Fine. Be that way. Stupid.”

  “Stupi- Come here, I’ll kill you.”

  “Now, boys. Please calm yourselves, won’t you?”

  That voice. I paused myself. It came from behind me, and I recognised that voice instantly. How couldn’t I? That voice was the same voice I had been hearing for all my life. Teaching me, raising me, scolding, advising me. She… was the eternal pillar of my entire life.

  I turned and ran straight into her arms. I hugged her as tight as I could. I tried my best to hold back the tears, but they slowly dripped out. I didn’t care. My mother was here.

  “Machu, didn’t you say you weren’t a crybaby anymore?” My mother sweetly asked.

  I slowly pulled back and stared at her. “You heard that, mami?”

  “Of course I did. I’m dead after all. If I was haunting anyone, it would have to be you. At least until you’re in a safe place. Though knowing you, I’m sure that’s not gonna happen until it’s all finished. Isn’t that right?” Mami wiped away my tears gently and comforted me.

  Briefly, I remembered how our house look. Totally destroyed. The rubble had crushed her underneath, so I had only seen just one piece of her. But now, she was here, whole.

  Mami, who had long black hair in the same wavy way I had. People often said I looked like a mini-her, though just without the chest. I took pride in that statement. Her eyes were as warm as ever and her face was as comforting as they were decades ago. I almost felt like a child again.

  “It won’t. Not until everyone’s happy. That’s the promise I made to Kal.”

  “Speaking of. Since she’s the one who sent you here instead of me, you better take good care of her in the next one, okay? Her, Carmine, Mikoko and everyone else.”

  “Why’d you single those 3 out?” I asked reflexively. “I intend to take care of everyone. That counts for everyone I failed and everyone that died here too. I’ll make sure they live and that they can have another chance at a new life.”

  “That’s my boy.”

  I smiled at my mami and then at Jingyun. For now, I was happy as can be that these 2 were here. Even if they were going to forget this and past 5 years, my connection them was all the way from childhood, so there’s no way we would lose our bonds.

  “Oh yeah. Speaking of. Why are you guys here? I thought I’d be the only one.”

  “It’s a regression du-“ Jing paused to correct himself, “-dummy. Everyone who died in the past 5 years is coming back to life. So all of our souls have to make the journey back to our bodies.”

  “Then why aren’t you? Or you, mami? You two died recently,” I asked.

  “The two of us already went. Us two here are just pieces of our original souls, small pieces that could be discarded. We came here so you’d have company.”

  “Company watching the renewal of the world. That sounds nice.”

  I sat on the ‘ground’ and watched the Earth flow back in time. I didn’t know how far it had gone, but it must have been at least halfway done by now.

  Mami and Jing sat down next to me. They silently watched the world turn back with me, with streaking light shooting down as it went. I noticed a particularly big cluster shot down at one spot. A lot of people had died there.

  “That’s… Lemuel’s death,” I muttered.

  Lemuel was my captain’s comrade on Erebus Squad. He died a few years prior protecting an entire City in a monster attack. Thinking back on it, Qliphoth must have engineered his demise. With his mastery of Barriers, I had to save him this time.

  “Hmm… There’s that event and then that one too. Oh, I should see if I can solve Carmine’s family issue with her little sister too. Maybe I’ll visit…”

  Suddenly, I received a chop to my head.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Ow! Mami!” I exclaimed in pain.

  “Just watch, Machu. No need to tire yourself out. You’ve got all the time in the world to plan, don’t you? I’m here, and I’m telling you this is break time.”

  “Aahh…. fine.”

  The world continued to turn back. Volcanoes un-spewed their magma, tsunamis flowed back into the ocean, the earth reformed from their earthquakes. All the disasters that existed in this world reversed itself. The vast land I was born in reshaped itself like a mould, fixing itself up as if it was brand new.

  I wondered if the Time Angel looked on the world as I did. I wondered; did he have the same view as mine? In his time, he went through the Mana Emergence. An event that was caused by the surging of the underlying mana of the world. The mana shot into everyone and forced them to evolve or die. 90% of the world died trying to evolve. And the rest of the 10% had to adapt to a disaster-filled world and monsters no one knew how to fight. And then he regressed. He turned back the clock. Pre-Mana Emergence, a time without mana. And he went on to unite and save the world. He formed the Lancets and allowed at least 30% of humanity then to survive in Cities.

  But that was after he regressed. I wondered how he looked like when he looked upon the world like this. Tens of millions, no, billions of souls must have streaked past him. The Earth must have changed so radically it was almost unrecognisable to what it was before.

  What giant monsters he must have fought. I heard he fought dragons and giant sea serpents. I heard he fought the Moon at one point in time, but that clearly wasn’t true. Him and his Lancets must have gone on so many adventures together.

  And I was supposed to be the next regressor? Me? Just a Dimension boy grown and raised in one measly City? I wasn’t even this era’s Time holder, that was Kalina.

  “I guess… I’ll just have to ask her next time I see her. I’ll prove to her I’m a regressor even though it shouldn’t be possible,” I muttered while relaxing my back.

  “Oh! It’s time!” Mami suddenly exclaimed. “Come on, Machu you have to go!”

  “Yeah, you have to return back to your body,” Jingyun added.

  “Return back?”

  “Yeah. You’re a soul too right now, Machu. Otherwise you wouldn’t be up here. You’re the only one going to remember so it makes sense you wouldn’t be down there. Now go!”

  Mami slapped me on the back and pushed me towards the Earth. I found that my body was pulled by a strangely familiar mana. The same kind of mana that laid in Kalina’s pocket watch.

  “… Okay! Mami, I’ll be the best son ever! Jing, I’ll help you become a real dragon! Even though dragonkin don’t exist!”

  I started running. Running towards the Earth. I didn’t give a second look back. I knew they must have dissolved by now. They were just shards of a soul, not even the full thing. But that didn’t matter. I had a job to do.

  I ran and I ran and I ran. Past down the clouds. Past the Flying City. Flying monsters reversed their movement while I ran past them.

  I soon saw Erelier, but I ran past it too. That wasn’t where my body was 5 years ago. Nah, if it were 5 years ago, I would have still been on that intercity trip. So, it must be…

  “Sicuso!” I exclaimed as the City came into view.

  I ran into Sicuso, finally planting my feet on the ground. The bustling City of Sicuso, where I spent a few weeks training to be a baker. I felt my soul pull in the direction of the hospital, but I wanted to check on the old bakery first.

  I sprinted down the street of reversing people and finally skidded to a stop right next to it.

  Berry Your Bread. I almost wanted to step inside, but I realised I could just do that as soon as I got back. So, I didn’t. It was still doing good.

  Suddenly, the door opened backwards and a trio of people walked backwards out of it. The guy at the front instantly irked me.

  “Maybe I won’t visit the bakery then,” I muttered as I looked at his stupid face went backwards into the crowd.

  That stupid scarecrow haircut that covered an eye. The most garish man I had ever met. The most annoying too. What kind of gangster loves bread so much he visits the bakery every 3 days anyway? I’ll just avoid him when I get back.

  With a slight hop, I went back to sprinting. I climbed up a building and began hopping my way across town. In the distance I spotted the hospital I was staying in at the time.

  I ran up the hill it was on top of. Excitement filled my heart as I shot up the hill. It was all gonna be great. This regression was gonna go perfectly.

  I ran and ran until I finally spotted myself. My body, whose hair was shorter than what it was in the future. He was sitting on a bench, looking at the sunset. I must have been recently discharged.

  I sat down next to the past me and gazed at that same sunset. I wondered, how many times had I seen a sunset? I had seen so many in all the dimensions I created. But none of them ever compared to the real thing. Yeah, none of them ever would. So I had better get back to looking at the real thing.

  I practically lunged into my own body.

  ———————————————————————

  I opened my eyes to see that same sunset looking back at me. My hair was shorter now and I was missing all the scars I once had. To be sure, I checked the year on my phone.

  994 AR (After Regression). Though I guess it’s 0 AR now, wasn’t it? It was the right time.

  I got up from the bench and stretched my body. My body was much weaker than it used to be or will be. As I was stretching though, a mysterious object fell out of a pocket.

  “This is… Kalina’s pocket watch.”

  I bent down and picked it up. I held it up to my face and observed the clock. The hour hand was no longer spinning. I sent my mana through it, but the strangely familiar mana was no longer emanating from it. This pocket watch was broken.

  “The price to pay. That’s right. But I can use this to prove to Kalina I’m the regressor.”

  I flipped the pocket watch to confirm the inscription on the back was still the same. Yep, ‘Durante.’ So, Durante was the one thing that came back with me.

  ‘I guess this thing’s mine now. Kalina has one of her own anyway. She doesn’t need 2,’ I thought.

  I placed it back into my pocket. I flowed my mana throughout my body. It was my mana, just a bit stranger to me now.

  “Right! I didn’t have an Aspect at the time,” I exclaimed aloud.

  I closed my eyes and felt the changes in my mana. I felt the same Dimension Aspect I was used to, but I could feel something else. Dimension was still a part of me but to a lesser degree. This extra part of me, it was unfamiliar. After a few seconds of feeling it out, I figured it out.

  “Major Ephemerality and Minor Dimension? So regressing changed my Aspects too.”

  I didn’t know how I felt about this, but I realised soon that it didn’t matter. I was going to save everyone. I was going to change fate. With that hope in my heart, I looked at the sunset.

  “I’ll do it, Kal. I’ll make everyone happy.”

  ———————————————————————

  “Once again, we at Erelier Airport would like to apologise for the late arrival. Due to unforeseen complications, the next flight aboard the Errant will be delayed even further due to maintenance. Any passengers who were aboard the Errant are entitled to their next flight on the Errant free.”

  “As if I wanna ride that airship ever again,” murmured a black-haired woman.

  The woman had just left the in-airport showers and was carrying some of her dirty clothes in a very bloody plastic bag. Even after all her effort scrubbing herself off of all the monster guts, you could very clearly smell them on her.

  ‘I should probably just throw away these clothes,’ thought the woman. She grimaced at the thought. The clothes she wore when the airship was attacked were some of her favourites that she purchased abroad, so it was pretty disheartening to lose them so soon.

  If there was one thing to be thankful for, it was that the monster attack was pretty weak. Every Hunter onboard dealt with the monsters easily and there were no casualties. The only casualty was the cleanliness of everyone inside, as one of the giant bats somehow got past the Hunters. It was killed before it could do anything, but the result, well, the result was that everyone got a face full of monster guts. Which led to a bunch of yelling and then a bunch of showering and so on.

  The woman made her way towards the airport exit, dumping her dirty clothes along the way. She sighed again as she walked out. She was originally planning on heading straight home to surprise her mom, but the whole smelling like bat guts thing would make it awkward. She considered if she should stay at a hotel first, but with how her mom was, she’d press her on it and make it annoying.

  “Ah, she’ll understand,” the woman waved away the issue.

  As the woman made her way through customs, she finally headed out to the exit. There was quite a bit of people there, all waiting for loved ones. She, of course, didn’t have any. This was a surprise trip after all.

  Suddenly, the woman stopped straight in her tracks.

  In the middle of the crowd stood a person who looked exactly like her. It wasn’t a passing resemblance either, they wore the same clothes she did and even did up their hair as she did. In their hands, they held a sign that said: ‘Looking for the person who looks exactly like me!’

  The person was carrying a cheeky smile on their face. The woman grimaced at that smile. It was the same smile she made whenever she was planning on pranking her friends. Only now did she get why they hated it.

  Before the woman could avert her gaze and try to escape though, the person called her.

  “Machua! Over here!” The person wasn’t particularly loud, but Machua felt as if she could hear him even in the thickest of crowds.

  ‘Okay, okay. He can’t try anything in the middle of an airport. And if he does, just call for security and whack him with your suitcase.’

  Machua calmed herself down and slowly made eye contact with the person again. He smiled as she did so, the exact same sort of smile she’d see in the mirror all the time. If it were anyone else, they’d think the two were twins, but Machua knew for a fact she was an only child. It was undeniable that this was a stranger. Yet, despite that, she made her way closer to them.

  “Who the hell are you!?” Machua asked vehemently, her finger pointing at their… everything.

  “I’m you?” The person tilted their head in confusion.

  Machua’s hand tightened on her suitcase. At any moment, she was ready to strike. Despite that, this other ‘Machua’ still acted carefree.

  “Or to be more precise. I’m probably your summon or your clone or something like that.”

  Machua gauged whether this statement could be true. After a millisecond of it, she came to the conclusion it was total bullshit. This guy was not telling the truth, they were lying to her, this was probably a twin scam or something.

  “I don’t have an Aspect, I don’t know what you’re talking about creep. Now, stay the hell away from me or-“ Before Machua could continue, the man interjected.

  “It’s been a year since I first appeared in Sicuso, you know?”

  Machua froze. A year ago in Sicuso? If it was a year ago, then her mind instantly focused on one specific event.

  “When I was stuck in the hospital suddenly? It was one of the worst mana drainage of my life.”

  “That’s right. You were stuck there because I appeared. I think,” the other Machua added.

  “No. That still doesn’t make sense. How the hell did-“

  “Hah…” The person deeply sighed before suddenly flicking Machua on the forehead.

  For a second, Machua’s eyes glazed over, but in the next she saw a sight that couldn’t have been real. She and the man before her were now standing in the centre of a dense forest. In the next second, they were standing in a broken down city with destroyed buildings all over the place. And after that, they were standing in a vast plains. Before they could move to the next however, the person interrupted her.

  “Focus on one thing Machua. This is your Aspect, you can choose the setting, so take us back.”

  With that instruction, the world around them rapidly shifted back to the airport. Machua was still holding her luggage and the person was still holding their sign.

  “That’s my Aspect?”

  Machua wanted to ask what its name was, only to be interrupted by herself. The mana in her body roared, and after a second of calming her mana down, a singular word rose to her head.

  ‘Dimension.’

  “Who… who the hell even are you?” Machua asked, her voice no longer raised so high.

  “I told you. I’m you. Or your clone or summon or something like that. I don’t know the details,” this other Machua shrugged like it was no big deal.

  “That doesn’t explain anything, you know that.”

  “As far as I know, I’m a version of you that was born a guy. Might have something to do with our Dimension Aspect and World Trait,” Male Machua shrugged again. It seemed like he already made his peace with not knowing fully.

  “Prove it then. Tell me something only Machua would know. You could still be doing a big scam on me.”

  “You nearly burned down the house cause you couldn’t cast Fireball correctly. It was in our room, and you wanted to just make a tiny ball between your hands but it got on the curtains and-“

  “Enough, enough! I get it, okay? You don’t know how you got here. But you’re here now. There’s a whole bunch of other issues, so let’s tackle them slowly.”

  Machua turned to walk out of the airport with her suitcase. Her double followed along. She had a slight skip on her step. Her dream had just come through, after all. She finally got her Aspect.

  “Sooo, what’s your name?” Machua asked with an upbeat attitude.

  “I… I’ve been using Machua,” Machua but a guy hesitated.

  “What? So you’ve been running around for a year using my name!?” Machua exclaimed a bit louder than she wanted to.

  Male Machua raised his hands in a false surrender pose. “What else was I supposed to use?”

  “Hmm… Since you’re me but a guy…” Machua muttered.

  Her brain went into overdrive thinking up potential names. This was a really important choice. This was naming basically another human being. She couldn’t fuck this up. No way.

  “How about.. Machia? Ki-a.“

  The other Machua paused, taking his time to consider it. He looked a bit sad at the idea of renaming himself. Though, looking at her smile so innocently, so proud of herself made him accept it on the spot.

  “Machia. That’s good. But won’t it get confusing?”

  “Oh, it’s fine. If people get us confused, we just have to tell them straight. You’re here and they’re gonna have to deal with it.”

  “Oh!” Machua suddenly exclaimed. “We have got to prank Yoona and Naiya. And mami! Come on, let’s go home!”

  “Yeah, Machu. Let’s go home,” spoke Machia.