Inverse System

"Is this… the chief's house?" Rein muttered as they appeared in a familiar, dimly lit pitch black room.

"That's right. Anyway, we've no time to waste. Nobody seems to be home so let's look arou—" suddenly, Core felt a cold blade touch his neck as he felt a threatening aura appear behind him.

"You're not going anywhere until you've explained yourself," Rein threatened, Core laughing playfully as he turned around.

"Hahaha, what's gotten into you? We're inside the house, so who cares about my explanation. Let's just go al—"

"I don't give a shit about how we got in here. I know damn well you didn't isolate both of us together just so we could 'look around'. You know just as well as I do what I mean by 'explain'. Nobody can hear us here. Nobody can reach us here. So talk," Rein hurried him as he narrowed the gap between his sword and Core's neck.

"You're talking about everything then?" Core's voice turned serious as his light hearted expression also faded away.

"Didn't you say you forgave me? Why should I have to explain myself?"

"Don't play dumb. As if I actually fuckin' forgave you, and you know that. I told you back then, in the Elven Forest. I'd get rid of your curse. Well, now I can. With one touch, I can send you to the afterlife for good. So you'd better explain yourself. Explain your actions from back then, up until now. Why'd you target my sister? Why'd you save Emria and I after? And everything else. You're going to tell me everything," he threatened as his eyes turned red, piercing into Core's consciousness.

"Man, I knew deep down that you were lying to me, but it still made me happy when you said you did. I assume Emria was also lying then? Well, that is to be expected for filth like me," Core wallowed in self hatred, inducing no feeling of pity in Rein's heart.

"You're right though, I did have the intention of telling you, even if you didn't threaten me right now. So, I'll tell you everything, though, you probably won't believe it. First things first, I lied to you about my date of birth," Core revealed, Rein raising an eyebrow at his claim.

"What? You said you were 20 years old back then, which would make you 26 now… so you were born in the year 1180, were you not?" Rein concluded, Core closing his eyes as he shook his head.

"Wrong. Right now, it's the year 1206. I was born in the year 1216, 10 years from now," he revealed, Rein's eyes widening, his pupils shrinking as he heaved a breath of shock, the arm he was holding the sword beginning to shake.

"Wh-what? Do you think this is a fuckin' joke? Don't lie to me…"

"I'm not lying. I was sent to the year 1198 from the year 1232, 34 years back. I was 16 years old at the time, the same age as you when we first met," Core claimed.

"You think I'll believe that? Time travel? Like hell I'll believe something like that.. it's impossible…" As Rein uttered those words, his eyes widened in realization.

"You know it's not. And if you don't believe me, I've got proof," Core pointed to a device in the corner of the room, the one that he'd previously set up so that he could teleport from the outside to inside.

"Huh? What's so special about it? That's just a regular Spring powered teleporter. I've seen you make one before."

"Wrong. That's the teleporter that brought us in here. It doesn't use any Springs, thus able to teleport us in the barrier. And look what it's being powered by," Core motioned as Rein approached the device while keeping his sword to Core's neck, picking it up to see a familiar looking device lodged in the center of the teleporter.

It was a refined, metal, egg shaped figure with a spiraling ball on the inside, Rein instantly recognizing it to be the perpetual motion device that was just recently invented by Saphrilla.

"No way…" He uttered as he flipped the device around, seeing a company logo on the bottom.

"SX Corp."

Suddenly, Rein became light headed as he began connecting the dots, starting to believe what Core said.

"What do you think SX stands for? That's right. Voron's daughter is a renowned inventor and engineer in the future. She gave me that teleporter, along with some other gadgets for my journey to the past," Core claimed as Rein lowered his hand, releasing Core from the sword that was in his face.

"She did, huh?" Rein finally spoke in acceptance, feeling a sense of pride and happiness, along with a feeling of fleeting sadness.

"Did she invent the time machine too then? If so, then where is it right now," Rein asked with his head down as he continued staring at the device in his hand.

"No. There was never a machine. If there was, I'd have already returned to the future, though I probably wouldn't fit into the timeline anymore," Core informed as a melancholy gaze invaded his eyes.

"No machine..? So how'd you come back?"

"That was… all thanks to your sister."

When Core uttered those words, Rein's heart dropped, speechless as he continued listening quietly.

"First, let me clear something up. I lied when I told you about your father's death. Or at least that it was my father that attacked him. It was the previous leader of checkmate, but I had no relation to him. I didn't even know the guy. By the time I had come back, the guy was already dead, and the group checkmate was in shambles. I knew what it would take to become the leader using some advice from a friend from the future, and I took over the group for my own good. I never saw your father do the technique your sister used that day. However, I've seen your sister do it twice now."

"T… twice?"

"…" Core shuddered as he recalled his past, or his future rather.

"Tell me what you mean by that… what do you mean..? What… do you mean?"

"Do I have to spell it out for you? She used it in the future as well. And I was the only one to survive, again…"

"My sister… was alive in your future..? And she sacrificed herself again… trying to kill you..?" Tears began forming in Rein's eyes as anger welled up in Core's trying his hardest to keep it under control.

"No…" he growled in a raspy voice, holding back the rage building up in his throat.

"She wasn't trying to kill me, it was actually the opposite. Let me start from the beginning of their operation. 'Operation: Reset' is what they called it.

It all started in the very beginning, when I was born. The circumstances of my birth are actually unknown, but the farthest thing I could remember was the feeling of drowning, being unable to breath. I said my birth circumstances were unknown, but that's actually a lie. I know what my parents did. They threw a baby into the Hasbin Gulf to escape their responsibilities.

I drowned and was eaten by sea creatures countless times, for 4 years straight I was stuck at the bottom of the sea. The pressure of the water on top of me crushed my infant bones constantly. I don't know how many times I wished it would be the final time. That one time, it would just magically end, and I would simply stay dead. But it never happened.

Eventually, when I turned 4 years old under the water, I began trying to swim upwards. It was no use of course, my underdeveloped bones and my non-existent strength, combined with the pressure of the water didn't allow me to go up. So I just pushed myself along the floor of the gulf.

Eventually, I took my first breath of air in 4 long years, when I drifted into a tube of open air in the middle of the gulf. I dropped straight through and with tears of happiness forming in my eyes, my lungs filled with this refreshing substance, I fell to my death.

Of course, I didn't actually die. I splattered across the floor, people beginning to surround me with worried expressions. Of course they would, a 4 year old child just dropped from the ceiling and splattered across the ground. But I didn't stay dead. I regenerated shortly after, and I sat there in the middle of the crowd, no clothes on, wearing a bewildered expression.

That's when they took me in. I was found by the grand mistress of the Ranger guild, along with her best friend. A brown haired old woman along with a white haired old woman.

I moved in with the white haired woman, she introduced herself to me as Leona Alister. She taught me how to read, write, speak, and I very quickly became friends with her son. His name was the same as yours, Rein Alister.

Several years passed, and I continued living with Leona and Rein, and met many different Rangers along the way. Some of them you know, and some of them you don't.

One day, on my 16th birthday, on my way back home from the academy, I was suddenly kidnapped by a strange man. He brought me to the surface, above the Hasnin Gulf, and he flew high into the sky and held me by my neck.

He crushed my throat over and over again, relentlessly, as I felt him beginning to get frustrated. I can't remember anything about that man, it was almost like my memory was wiped of him.

Regardless, the man eventually gave up on trying to kill me and brought me to the Orthlys territory above Silwin, into that large facility we concluded was their base of operations. 

That was when I met her for the first time…"