The Remnants Of Your Past (1)

'So warm.' As Zel awoke from his sleep, the first thing that came to mind was how hot he felt. It wasn't warm like how laying under the sun feels, but rather, it was as if he was in a loving embrace. It was so comfortable that Zel instinctively embraced whatever it was in front of him.

"Ehh... It's nice to meet you too." A gentle feminine voice sounded out from in front of Zel, but he didn't shift his head to see who it was. Only feeling that the pleasant voice was familiar. He eagerly pressed his head against her body. It was as if he was back home with Emilia as they laid in bed and embraced each other all day. Then he woke up and finally processed the words he just heard.

"I'm sorry!" Zel didn't fathom why but he could voluntarily speak again, and before he fathomed it, his face was already held in between a pair of soft mounds. He couldn't help but try to shift his head away, but her arms were locking him in place. All he could do was stay still, thinking about how even her scent was familiar.

"You really did it! You've got a time-related ability now!" An adolescent woman, who had seized Zel's familiar head and embraced it against her ample chest, was enthusiastically jumping in joy at the welcome sight of the recognizable man before her. It was done, the goal they had been trying to achieve all this time was finally met.

"Mmpf!" Zel, however, had no idea what was happening. The extraordinary journey to the past should have left him with no body to speak of. He should have undoubtedly passed through anything thrown at him, and yet what was the situation right now?

"Oops, sorry about that." The young woman finally came to her senses when she accurately perceived the man in her arms struggling fiercely to extricate himself from her embrace. She looked down to behold his expressive eyes, and shock was evident in them. Something she didn't expect would be what she'd see.

"Gasp. Who the heck are you?! How are you in here?!" Zel staggered back when he felt her mighty grip gently loosen, promptly losing his balance and falling gloriously on the unfamiliar ground.

He wasn't in the time stream anymore, and the floor wasn't the same glass floor he walked on. The walls surrounding him were pristinely white, and soon, his face was too. If he was right in his assumption, then he's pretty much screwed.

'I went down the wrong, damn portal!' Zel hurriedly stood up and looked around. The altar behind him was exactly the same as what he saw when he was running a while ago, even the chest on top of it was present. The only thing that changed was that when he looked behind him, there was no portal leading to the time stream.

"Uh, are you ok? I didn't mean to startle you or anything like that." Zel looked at the only other person here and showed a broken smile when he saw no familiar face in front of him. Though he could hear her voice, the alluring woman he was just holding on to him a while ago didn't have any mouth. In fact, she didn't have a face. Though when he tried to look again, he saw that something wasn't right.

Her long raven hair was untied, contacting the ground as she swayed gracefully. She wore an elegant white dress that hugged her ideal body, revealing the hidden curves underneath. What was bothering Zel about her was that her face was veiled by a fleeting mist, concealing it from any wandering eye. But her figure, her voice, her scent, they were all familiar.

"I take it you're confused? I know that I haven't really prepared myself to meet you, but is my face really that bad?" The young woman's voice sounded so pitiful as she spoke. Her voice was even shaky while her body language gave off a meek lamb vibe. The years she had spent alone made it easy for her to drown in her own thoughts.

She had been waiting eagerly for him to come back and pick her up. But it seems that she wasn't even in his mind, seeing as his face was nothing but what she would consider as 'a disappointed smile'. She was quite lonely from being here for such a long time, but as soon as she saw him, he acts like this.

'Does he not want me anymore? Is that it?' Estophelia cried while placing her hands over her face. The fact that tears were running along her arms meant that there was certainly a face behind the mist, it merely hid itself from Zel.

"Oh, ah. I'm sorry, really, please don't cry. I just, you know, haven't really met people who have mists over their faces, so I was curious. Sorry about that, really." Zel was now aware that his expression wasn't the most welcoming, though it can be blamed on the fact that he was still out of place.

The violet mana crystal and Emilia's book that he was holding tightly in his hand before he woke up went missing. He was certain this woman in front of him didn't have anything to do with it, as he had a certain scenario that occurred in his head.

"Mist? Oh! I forgot!" It was then that Estophelia removed the concealment ability she had been using for a long time. She didn't even know why she used it in the first place, but it made her confidence rise up now that she knew it was a misunderstanding. Though her expectations were betrayed once again when she saw that Zel's face was once again showing a broken smile.

"I, uh... I thought you were someone else." Zel looked at Estophelia's face and was disappointed. He thought that she was Emilia, but though they looked alike, they weren't the same people. The nose was smaller while her eyes were golden instead of Emilia's blue. Having his hopes dashed for an early reunion didn't help the situation either.

"Zel, what's wrong?" Estophelia placed her hands on Zel's face with a pained expression. Her eyes were already tearing up once again while Zel felt the hands on his face gently trembling. But when Zel was thinking of how to explain what was happening, Estophelia removed her hands and walked backwards.

"What? I die? No, wait..." Estophelia who had unintentionally used her ability embarrassingly scratched her temple. His memories showed her that this wasn't the same person she thought he was. In fact, she saw a different her in his memories that shook her to her core.

"You have it, don't you? Give it to me, please!" Estophelia who was under a lot of stress from the sudden revelation looked at Zel with a terrified gaze. The mere thought of her dying without even seeing him again made her heart ache. It was even worse when she thought of how she failed both of their expectations.

When Zel backed off from the hysterical Estophelia, he inadvertently thought of protecting himself. Before he realized it, a suction feeling came from his right hand and a barrier appeared that shielded him from a few centimeters around his body. It was strange to suddenly see a golden hue appear in line with your eyesight and Zel almost attacked Estophelia because he thought it was her doing.

The same time Zel conjured a barrier, Estophelia's eyes focused on his hand. A simple golden band was on his right ring finger, looking as if it was there the whole time. Though its appearance was simple, Estophelia was more than aware of what it was. It was a big part of her life after all, the loss of that ring was what lead them to leave home.

"It's you! You're the one wh- You've met him! No, he is you! Oh, my, days! It's a paradox!" Combining the parts of her memories with what she had just seen in Zel's memories made her connect the dots. Her husband didn't lose the ring in the war, he wasn't lying when he said he used it to help his savior. No one believed him because only a chosen could even use the artifact. Why would he gift it to someone who can't use it?

"What's this?" Zel then inspected the ring when he saw that Estophelia's attention was focused on it. Looking at it from afar, it would seem like it was a plain ring, with not a single sophistication on its design. But when Zel looked at it closely, that wasn't the case at all.

Thousands of engravings covered the ring, with a few even somewhat recognizable to Zel. That was because he had seen the same lines written on paper before. It was similar to the set of formations that they used to create the teleportation portals. A set of formations he got from the system, which made Zel think of Estophelia.

After all, Estophelia was the one who created the system.