Otherworldly

We followed Liu Fen as he led us to the maze of paths. His hand was on the hilt of his sword ready to draw it from its sheath at the sign of danger. Artemis brandished her twin daggers which were hidden in her backpack. Seven decided to go with a sword that Liu Fen lent him. I opted for a gun that Artemis gave me.

"Are we there yet?" Seven asked.

"No. We still have a long way to go." Fen answered. "Don't worry. I will lead you directly to the main chamber. You can wait for your friends there."

"That's not exactly what I'm worried about."

Liu Fen suddenly stopped. I noticed Artemis and Seven tense up too and got into a defensive stance. I readied my gun as well.

We were enveloped in silence for a whole minute and then I heard heavy footsteps.

"It's coming." Fen warned. "There are three of it. Be careful."

The next minute, creatures I thought to have only existed in my previous world, in fantasy novels and in RPGs emerged from the darkness.

One looked like a Minotaur. It had a man's torso, and a bull's head and lower body. It was carrying a bloody club. The other two looked like orcs. Its heads were pig-like and its bodies were too over-sized.

"Were these creatures created by Hauria?" asked Seven in which Fen agreed and even commented about how his older brother made some inputs as well. "She was probably a gamer. These creatures appear in RPGs!"

"Yeah. I noticed." Artemis retorted.

"Trust me. They exist somewhere in this world. I've seen some myself." Fen commented.

"How do we kill it?" I asked.

"Either you stab its heart or you cut off his head." Fen charged at the Minotaur.

Artemis charged at one of the orcs with Seven just behind her.

"Which leaves the last one mine." I muttered. "Wish I had a sword or something."

All of a sudden, a sword fell in front of me. It was a katana with a black blade and hilt. It looked a lot like the sword I used to wield in my past life.

Without hesitation, I held the katana and charged at the remaining orc.

I evaded its axe by rolling to the side. Using my speed to the advantage since orcs were slow, I went behind it, leaped and cut off its head. Just as the head fell off, it turned into ash.

"That was… awesome!" I heard Artemis yell.

I glanced at the katana and immersed myself with the familiar sensation of a sword in my hand. It was a bit strange though, I could feel pulsating energy from the sword.

"Would you look at that, Advos likes you." commented Liu Fen.

"Advos?" asked Seven.

"The name of that sword, it belonged to my brother. He said the name meant –"

"The Healer." I interrupted.

"Yeah. The Healer. How did you know that?"

"Err…"

"Never mind. Anyway it's from a dead language. Or maybe not."

"Not dead. Just otherworldly." I said which earned me confused looks from them.

I just did not mind it and studied the sword in my hand. It was a very lucky coincidence. Back in Agymista, my sword was also called Advos. I had another weapon though, a bow called Arcus.

The sword suddenly glowed and its weight vanished from my hands. The glow slowly seeped inside my left hand and then vanished.

"Yep. Advos likes you. It has chosen you as its next owner." Fen commented. "Strange. Nobody else could wield it except Qing-ge."

"It's an enchanted weapon. They choose their wielders rather than the other way around." I said.

"True. Come on we should move."

We trudged on rocky and swampy paths. We also met different monsters along the way. I asked Fen about the chances of the monsters getting out of the tomb and wreak havoc in the world. It was a very dangerous idea but I couldn't help but ask it.

"Oh, don't worry about that. We bound it to this place. Once they step out of here, they will automatically turn to ash. So you can relax about that now."

I was satisfied with his answer and we continued moving. After a few more hours of moving, Artemis asked if we were actually getting closer or were we even headed to the main chamber in the first place but Fen answered that even though the main chamber was next to the path we were taking, we couldn't head there directly. It was protected with barriers and enchantments to keep out the monsters so we had to take the long way.

A few more hours later, we reached a room. A very familiar room… no a very familiar chamber.

"Oh my gods." I muttered.

"This place is amazing!" Seven exclaimed.

"But how come it looks more Western-like rather than ancient Chinese?" asked Artemis.

"My brother was strange." Fen answered. "He claimed to have memories of a past life in another world and that all these came from there."

"""Past life?"""

"Yes. A world named Agymista."

I choked at his words. I was right! Liu Qing really was from Agymista! Just like me! But, who was he back there? I could only guess that he was close to the champions or was one of us considering the crests in the last chamber.

"Be careful where you step. This place has a lot of traps."

I observed the chamber once again. I noted its resemblance to a chamber the champions and I visited in Agymista. It had tall walls in a circular formation with thirteen niches and statues of warriors and other beings carved inside it. On the walls were paintings of people which looked like adventures of the people or rather the statues inside the niches. As I studied the paintings, I realized how much it resembled my past life.

"Qing-ge said this was his life and how much he misses it."

"Liu Fen, do you know his name in his past life?" I asked.

"Hmm? Yeah I do. Let's see… what was it again? Ah! Lei Zhang! It was Lei Zhang! Eh? You're also Lei Zhang right now. What's going on?"

All their eyes were on me while I was frozen in shock. Did I hear him correctly? Emperor Yue just claimed he was Lei Zhang in his past life!

"Mind blowing." I heard Artemis comment.

"But… I was Lei Zhang as well." I reasoned.

"You're what?" Seven asked in a very surprised tone.

A moment of silence enveloped us before Liu Fen decided to break it with his statement.

"I see… so that's why you two are very alike."

"You have to tell us everything." Seven insisted.

"Once we get out of here, I will."

"When were you planning to tell us about it?" Artemis asked. "Were you even planning on telling us in the first place?"

"I was planning to, okay? I was planning to tell you guys during our vacation but as you can see our trip got hijacked."

"Fine. You better come clean once we're all together again." Seven ordered.

"Yeah… I will."

We crossed the big chamber but I suddenly heard a click and blue gas started to fill up the room. One by one we got knocked out, with me the last one to fall.

I found myself in a dream, but it felt very realistic. In it I was in yet again a familiar place. I could never forget that place because it was where I first met her. The place was my family's garden pavilion in Siena, a town west of Rexo Empire.

I could see myself, well the past me, bring wilted flowers back to bloom with a swish of my hand and even heal an injured bird.

"You had superpowers?"

I looked behind me and saw Artemis, Seven and Fen just peering at me. It was Seven that just asked me.

"Liu Fen, what is this?" I asked.

"It's Qing-ge's memories. Memories of his past life that he stored here."

"Is somebody going to answer my question?" Seven asked again.

"You'll see. And trust me the you in this life and world has one too."

He looked at me confusedly.

The scene changed and I saw the past me rush an injured and unconscious girl inside the mansion.

"That's me!" Artemis exclaimed.

"Not exactly." she gave me a look that said 'explain'. "Ever watched The Flash? The concept's like that. This world, Agymista, is a parallel world, or at least one of the many and endless parallel worlds out there. That girl carried by the guy who looks like me is also Artemis Hunter, but she is an entirely different person."

"But you just said you were Lei Zhang too."

"I am. This was my life before I became the Lei Zhang you know now. I don't know how and why I am reincarnated in a parallel world. There has to be some sort of reason, everything does, but I haven't found that reason yet."

The scene changed again. It showed the past me, Tim and the other Artemis on a journey. I remembered that it was our journey to the capital.

"Tim?" Seven questioned.

"Actually, my friends in this life and everyone in our group in my current life has the same appearance. Even the names are the same… well the nicknames."

The scenes changed often and it showed the significant moments of my past life; the fight with Seven, my confrontation with Kyle, my kiss with Artemis, the incident with Coby and Calvin and lastly, my sacrifice, my death.

"You died protecting the me of that world." Artemis said after a long time of silence. "And that demon lord, he was the father of the me in Agymista?"

"Yeah. Crazy plot twists I know."

"But the curse…"Seven tapped my shoulder. His face was filled with a worried and a sorry look.

Right. The curse. The demon lord's words before my death echoed in my mind. It was the last thing I heard from him as we both approached death.

"You chose to die yourself for a woman? Well then, you will always get into trouble because of one. You will never escape it!" the demon lord sneered. "You love your friends so much? Well then, starting on your next life, you shall meet them again. You will remember them you will have your memories of them, but they will never have their memories of you. I curse you to relive your memories and suffer from it yourself while the people that bear the same faces as them will never have it! This is my curse to you!"

"But how come you can't remember your life as Emperor Yue?" asked Artemis.

"I don't know. After my death Xiena, the goddess of light, life, creation and transmigration in Agymista, informed me that the demon lord's resentment was very strong so his curse had a strong hold me. On my soul. She could not change my fate. As for why I don't remember my life as Liu Qing, I don't know."

We were all silent.

"By the way don't you think we should wake up now?" Seven asked.

"Seven's correct." Fen answered and snapped his finger.

"I suddenly got dizzy and felt like getting pulled then put in a blender. Afterwards everything just stopped and I found myself awake and back to the chamber.

"I want to throw up." Seven complained.

"Don't do that here!" Fen exclaimed. He snapped his fingers and a bucket suddenly appeared where Seven emptied the contents of his stomach unto.

***

The door slowly opened and an intricately designed coffin greeted us. It was placed at the very center of the chamber where we just arrived. It was made with the same glowing crystals like those littered all over the tomb. Its surface was designed with dragons, the phoenix of wisdom, and the different crests we encountered in the third chamber. The writings on it were written in both ancient Han characters and Rexon letters.

"'Here lies the Red Dragon, child of the Red Phoenix and the White Dragon.'" I read.

"Even though people called him as such, he used to insist that he was a unicorn." Fen said.

The statement made me chuckle. After all, my crest back in Agymista was a unicorn. Plus the coat-of-arms of my family back there, the Zhang family, was a unicorn with two swords forming an X behind it.

"So that's why. Feel free to snoop around. Just don't destroy anything." Fen said.

Before Seven and Artemis could even venture, I stopped them. There was a rule among grave-robbers. I wasn't sure when it started but professional grave-robbers follow it. Before a tomb-raider opens a coffin inside a tomb, one must light a candle at the southeast side of the room. It was some sort of symbol that one had asked for permission. If the candle continued to be lit, it meant the owner of the tomb had given them permission and they must finish their job before the candle dies. Once the candle is dead, no one must touch or take anything inside the tomb. Such was the tradition.

After lighting the candle and placing it in the southeast corner, I dove straight to the coffin. I had Seven help me lift the lid but it wouldn't budge. Then a memory from my past life suddenly popped up in my head. Back then, we discovered a coffin at the lowest level of a dungeon. Just like the coffin before me, it also had many symbols drawn on it. The one who discovered it was Blake's counterpart. He pressed the symbols like a possessed person and it turned out that the coffin belonged to his ancestor.

I was about to ask Fen about it, but he was on the far side of the room and was busying himself with the drawings on the walls. He had no intention of helping us.

"I think we should follow the pattern from last time." I suggested.

"The crests of the champions?" Artemis asked.

"Yeah."

The two followed my lead and we pressed the crests of the champions in the same order as last time. I heard and click and we were finally able to lift the cover.

As Seven and I settled the lid on the floor, I heard Artemis gasp.

I wondered why so I immediately took a peek at the coffin as well. It made me gasp and almost made me lose my footing, but I managed to grab on the coffin.

Inside the coffin were the intact remains of a middle-aged man who looked a lot like me. If I aged twenty-years, I would look like the man but considering how Asians tend to look younger than their real age, it was a little hard to tell.

"Qing-ge" Fen muttered.

Fen just confirmed my thoughts. The man had the same black hair, pointed nose, thin but kissable lips, fair skin and even height, as me!

"He looks like you," Artemis commented. "But older and hotter."

I gave her a glare and she just chuckled.

"But don't worry, I like you more."

I felt my cheeks heat up and I was speechless as well.

"He's so red!" Seven laughed.

"Shut up!" I replied with gritted teeth. I then turned to Fen to change the topic. "Hey Fen how about the remains of Empress Hong and their daughter? Are they here as well?"

"Nope. Sister-in-law died earlier than him. Her tomb is somewhere else. As for their daughter, Hong Yi, it's somewhere else as well. And I hope no one would discover it."

I could hear the sadness on his voice. It was understandable. His entire family and the people he cherished had died while he was still around and will always watch his friends grow up and die.

"Uh guys why is he holding a book? And why is it glowing?" Artemis asked.

Indeed Liu Qing (calling him this name was getting awkward since there was a possibility that he was technically me) was holding a book that looked like made of good quality green jadeite.

It glowed brighter and slowly rose in the air. Once it reached the height of about my chest some sort of spotlight was shown to go upwards and the image of a woman who resembled Artemis appeared.

"Err… Hello? Is this thing on? Is it recording already?"

The woman looked to be our age with straight black hair and grey eyes. He looked like the one in my dreams.

"Right. My name's Hauria Celestine, the Witch of the Void. Sometimes I'm also called as the Maiden of the Moon, whichever you prefer, I don't care. I have too many titles. If you're watching this holographic video, magic version, it means you successfully opened Qiqi's, I mean, Liu Qing's coffin." she said, in English nonetheless. "You might be wondering why I speak English and this tomb dates back all the way to the early years of the Han Dynasty, so let me clear this first; I am from the future.

"I time-traveled from my era to the past in search of my knight, the Knight of Void, and to help a certain someone ascend to the throne of Han Emperors. Anyway, this book holds my story, or at least some of them; who I was, where I was from, how I became such an important figure in the society of magic and how I got into trouble in ancient times.

"This book also serves as a grimiore for my successor. It contains a few spells here and there to begin her path into becoming the Maiden of the Moon and the Witch of the Void of her generation. So it should be a good beginner's guide yes? Ah, P.S. I have many enemies and there's a chance that you will inherit them as well… Artemis Hunter."

We all gasped.

"How do I know you? I just do. Well… a certain Zhang can see the future and told me about it. Anyway good luck! This Book of Jade is just the beginning. I have created four books in total, including this one, with the help of two other powerful mages. They bore the titles of Maidens of the Stars and Sun. Watch out for them.

"And Lei Zhang and the rest of your friends; always be by her side especially you Lei Zhang. That is your destiny as her Knight of Void. I'm serious. Tata!"

It got cut off.

"What the hell was that?!" Artemis exclaimed.

We were then all startled when her image came back.

"Before I forgot, Fenfen, the person who can save you from the curse… err I mean… the one that can cancel out your gift won't be born until my era so hang in there okay? If you are with Lei, Artemis and Shin Woo right now watching this that means you will have to wait for at least three hundred years. Bye bye!"

I watched as Liu Fen's expression turn crestfallen.

"Three hundred years? Are you kidding me?!" he sounded like he was about to cry. "Hauria-jie!"

The Book of Jade slowly descended and entered Artemis as a sphere of light. Just then a door opened and our friends spilled inside.