Prologue: Second chance (Revamped)

"I hope you'll understand one day" Those words were the last before I met my end, before everything went dark. People said dying was warm, yet all I could feel was this bitter cold, as the cold consumed me I tried thinking about the people I was with, were they dead as well? Did they make it out? My thoughts were interrupted by a sharp pain in my head

"Hey, you awake yet?" A voice rang through my ears, I thought I died, regardless I attempted to open my eyes and surprisingly it worked, a man who looked like he was in his 20's with a brown coat was standing over me "Well, you can at least respond to me, here follow this" he took out a lighter and started moving it slowly side to side, I followed it with my eyes trying to respond yet instead felt a pain in my throat "Hold it kid, it may have worked but you're still messed up bad, here, you should at least be able to stand and walk" He extended his hand and although it was painful I grabbed onto it

"W..who are you?"I managed to say, he stood for a moment putting my arm around his shoulder

"I'm Raymond, the Ruler of DTs" Ruler? What he said sounded like somewhat of a joke yet his face was serious "Come on, don't wanna keep them waiting"

"Keep who waiting?" Most people who knew me died during that hell, it felt like yesterday, but from the looks of it, everything looked clean, until I realized, I wasn't where I died, instead it seemed more like an infirmary of sorts "Where even am I?" The man continued to help me reach the exit to the room

"You'll see, just give me a minute" When we left the room I felt a wave of pain leave me and walking wasn't as difficult as it was just a second ago "There we go, I see it's working now, come now, just down the hall" I got off his shoulder and walking alongside him

"So, where am I?" I asked after a long uncomfortable silence

"It'll be better to wait until we meet up with the others, but I'll say you're in a place called Eaxura" He put his hand against the wall next to a door "here we are, now don't be too surprised when you see this" He pressed his hand against a panel next to the door causing it to open. Inside the room however were faces I thought i'd never see again, the friends i'd made during high school were standing right before me enjoying a meal while chatting, yet..I thou..no I know for a fact they died, at least, I know some died

"What the hell" I muttered to myself, yet the others heard and looked over my way, they held a welcoming, warm face

"Hi Lee!" One waved over, an old friend of mine named Sam, someone I knew since elementary she stood out with pink hair and the fact she never had any other hairstyle than a ponytail, yet I noticed a bandage wrapped around her head nearly covering an eye

"Mornin, gravewalker" Kenneth, someone Sam Introduced to me when we were younger, he had orange-tinted hair and was always working on something whenever he could

"Wait, Gravewalker? Does that mean..."I felt like I knew the answer and Kenneth said the exact thing I was thinking

"Yep, We died! And we're back"

"ahem, not all of you died, Sam and Nicholai are still human after" Raymond corrected

"Still human? Came back? The hell is going on, wait, I remember one other person being here" I looked around for someone until I looked to one of the corners, he was there sleeping

"Your cousin hasn't woken up yet, but he's fine" He motioned me to take a seat and I did. I looked over at Nicholai, she hadn't changed much from what I could recall, Orange tinted hair liked Kenneth...the two were twins after all

"You alright? The pain for me and Sam was bad enough, can only imagine what being brought back feels like" Nicholai said drinking coffee

"I..still don't understand all of this, I mean resurrection? I remember everyone dying, and those things, I remember getting bit and it burned, then those men on the rooftop, I remember yet it feels like I'm missing things" I was confused I tried putting the pieces together yet I didn't wanna believe them

"Sorry kiddo, I know it's hard to believe but, just last week you were shot in the head, alongside Kenneth and Matt getting killed as well, I was able to save Sam and Nicholai though" He was standing with a sympathetic stare "Now, explaining what this is, this world you're in is called Eaxura, it's a dimension secluded from any other dimension so nothing can get in or out unless you're a DT"

"And what's a DT?" Kenneth asked as the rest of us sat up except for Sam, as she was focusing on not hurting herself

"Yeah, I'll explain, a DT is a Dimensional Traveler, someone who is capable of traveling through Dimensions, an additional thing is that they're able of magic, stuff like healing or elemental stuff like ice or fire or even a mix of the two" Sam held her head probably from a headache from the apparent head trauma, yet she talked anyways

"Wait, so that means me and Nicholai are still human?"

"Not exactly, I still had to use magic on you two, so I guess you're like Lee, half and half"

"Huh? I got shot through the head, I'd be dead" I said even more confused

"Not exactly, you somehow managed to live, I mean, not all headshots are fatal, yet you're still under recovery, do me a favor, look at your hair and feel your right eye" I did exactly that, my right eye was covered by some bandage

"Here" Sam faced a mirror towards me so I could see myself, like I mentioned before the bandage covered my eye, but the most notable thing was the color of my hair, back when I was human I had dyed my hair green, yet now it was a mix of pink and white

"I mean, not bad, it's not like it doesn't fit me" I said grabbing the tip of my hair

"It'll take awhile getting used to it though" Raymond looked at us a bit worried, Kenneth noticed "Something wrong?"

"Something wrong!? I mean, you guys are taking this well, way too well, everyone tends to panic"

"Well, I mean these three have wanted to be hero's since they were young, so I doubt they'd really mind" Raymond stared at Nicholai with a concerned expression

"O..k then not the weirdest thing I've heard, more adorable if anything, regardless you all still need to understand, training with weapons is one thing but using magic and fighting with others is another" He says that but we don't even know how to fight with normal weapons, well, most of us don't

"We can handle it, we'll be fine, we can do it if we all work together, although there may be some mistakes in training" Sam looked over to Nicholai after saying that

"Yeah, after all, fighting those things doesn't mean we fought people" Nicholai looked back at her, Kenneth could only sigh in disappointment

"Why can't you all get along for once, at least try and make an effort" Kenneth stood beside Raymond as the guy showed him something

"Watcha looking at there" I stood next to Raymond, moving away from Sam and Nicholai's bickering, then again I'm no better. Raymond extended his arm so all three of us can see

"Here, it'll take a while, but I estimated your guy's weapons based on many things like who'll be training you, your personalities, and previous skill" Raymond scrolled through many weapons that he thinks we'll have

"How is it an estimate? Shouldn't you know how the weapon will look like" Kenneth said something that made me question it as well

"Well, thing is I can't really decide your guy's weapons, since you're meant to summon it, what your weapon can do or looks like is determined based on your soul, so past memories and personality like I mentioned before, and I'll say being able to summon them is gonna take practice, a lot of practice" Kenneth looked like he began to understand as did I, I looked over to Sam and Nicholai who stopped arguing, they went back to what they were doing beforehand

"So, what is the whole purpose of our weapons, you mentioned fighting others before, so there's clearly some sort of threat right?" I took a seat and leaned on the table, the two also sitting were also now paying attention again

"I won't lie, of course, there is, they're ex-DTs and humans too, their whole goal is to kill us, they name themselves the Reunion"

"Why do they wanna kill us exactly" Sam asked

"Probably since they consider us a threat, after all, most of the ex-DTs in the Reunion are there because they failed training due to impatience"

"Hmm, I've been thinking, why revive a bunch of high schoolers instead of soldiers?" Nicholai shot another question at Raymond

"Honestly, we need all the help we can get, most people in Eaxura don't fight because they have families and such, and I can't really force people to fight, it'd hurt my heart to do that, even you five. If none of you want to risk your second chance at life I won't blame you, but I won't say fighting them is gonna be easy"

"Nope, I'd say we're all in right Lee and Kenneth!?" Sam as usual was enthusiastic

"Well, we all can't really decide until Matt wakes up, yet it won't take much longer from the looks of it" Nicholai said looking over at Matt, who looked ready to wake up

"I'll handle explaining again, you four decide what you want"Raymond walked over to Matt and woke him up, presumably explaining the situation to him as well

"Sooooo" Sam looked at us hyped to be a hero in a sense

"I mean, I don't reject it, yet i should ask more questions first, I wanna know more about what I'm getting into" Kenneth as usual was cautious, well most of the time he is, he has his moments of insane ideas

"Oh, if we're doing this we should have a team, like a squad or something"Sam sounded like she was gonna rant on for ages until Raymond jumped in

"Actually I was gonna mention that soon, a Squad is actually a good thing, due to our current era training we managed a way for squad members to share abilities yet, squad member have to be linked together, there's also partner links but that's for when you are all trained and have worked together long enough"

"I mean if we do say yes, it would be nice to be addressed as our team name instead of you four or five" or at least it was my opinion, Sam pointed at me and smiled

"Exactly and it makes our group official, it makes us more cool doesn't it?"

I don't think that being cool affects us in combat....does it?" After Kenneth said that I felt a hand on my shoulder, it was Matt

"Well I'm all in for it!"Matt stated

"That's three outta five"Sam tracked

"Hold on, I never agreed to it, I just said stuff about the name" I argued yet Sam wasn't having it

"Don't lie, I know you wanna do this. After all we dreamed about this when we were kids"

"Welp got me there. Yeah, I'm all for it" I said. Nicholai sighed

"Kenneth?" After a short pause, he responded

"Yeah, why not, after all, someone needs to watch Lee and Sam so they don't do stupid stuff" Kenneth grabbed one of the cups on the table and began drinking the contents

"Hey!" Sam slammed her hands on the table "I don't always do stupid things, i'd say, I'm mature for my age" Everyone excluding Raymond looked at her in major doubt "ok, maybe not that mature, regardless, I don't make stupid decisions left and right"

"ahem, know that we got that settles, we should start your fives training, since Lee, Sam, and Matt already know some fighting strategies someone else will take them, you two follow me" Raymond led Kenneth and Nicholai out the room. I looked in the opposite direction from where they went and saw someone calling us over by waving their hand. We all walked over and the man introduced himself

"My name's Neal, normally I deal with the ships but every now and then I help train others, no worries I don't need and introduction from you guys, Raymond already briefed me way before any of you were awake, although saying that out loud makes it sound weird, anyways, follow me" Neal led us out of the building and when we got out I saw just how massive this place was, not only that but how beautiful the night in this place was "Looks amazing right, we have a lot of different cultures here so we decided to have them all, we also have festivals here as well, that's what the lights are"

"This seems like it'd cost a fortune" I said in a pessimistic tone

"Ohh trust me, it was, we went through a lot of worlds and raised enough money to even build the foundation of Eaxura" Everyone was looking around yet I sped up a little to stand side by side to Neal "Yes?" I didn't want to dull the mood but my curiosity got the better of me

"I mean, I haven't fought them at all but, have you ever felt like you're fighting the wrong people?" As I suspected Neal's mood became worse

"Yes, after all they used to be on our side but, they were misguided. Luckily they aren't the only things we fight so we don't have to see them every time" Neal must have seen me looking confused because he continued rambling "Raymond hasn't told you about corruptors or anything of the sort huh?" I shook my head confirming his suspicion. After a short while Neal sighed, well there aren't many of them, so you shouldn't worry about it too much, but if you encounter one just run, you have a better chance living if you do that, by the way, Raymond never said what your training was, did he?"

"No, why?" Sam caught up and we all stood side by side

"Think of it as a trial, it may be unbelievable but you can't exactly die in Eaxura, as long as that is up" He pointed to a giant tower, it had shields, guards on towers, and many other defenses "Of course, every now and then it needs repairs so we instruct DT's to not train or do stuff that can hurt them" Neal kept rambling to the point where even Sam was getting annoyed

"Hey, Neal, can we get back on track?" Neal was startled by Matt's interjection

"Sorry, i just ramble everyone and then, but yeah, the trial, think of it...hmm..ahh, you know those games where you have to be the last one or last group alive?" Sam and I both nodded "Yeah, it's like those, and the tower even allows you not to die, so just like those games if you want you can come back and spectate the remaining people"

"Neal, how does the tower exactly work, I mean, it's not like we can just respawn where ever right?" Sam asked

"No, it's slightly painful, but it's either places that Raymond, me, or other people trained in magic place them or in places like your personal rooms, you'll have to cut yourself and have a magic-user do it, then it becomes a personal one only you can use" We were closing in on the "Trial area" it was this massive stadium with the top closed, i couldn't even see the end of this thing "Now, the drastic news, how long do you think this would take?"

"A day at most?" Sam thought, I thought of a more realistic date

"A we-

"About 4 weeks"Neal Interrupted, the three of us just stopped walking and stood there "It's meant to teach you to get your own food and water, not to mention if it only lasted a day or a few days, strategies can't be made" He turned over to us "You may have survived in an apocalypse for months but this is different, you'll go into worlds where you have no clue what's going on, no worries though after Raymond trains Nicholai and Kenneth, they'll be sent your way, hell maybe you will have to fight them or find them yourselves" I gave a smirk

"Alright, i get it then, so only the winner gets to graduate training, right?"

"Spot on Lee"

"Alright, in that case, we can handle this right Sam? It's like back then"

"Yep, we got this" Sam was hyped, either for being able to accomplish our childhood dream or for being allowed to let out the anger she's built upon others. After the last walk to the stadium, we arrived at a door

"This leads into the stadium, remember, you start with no weapons, you hunt for your own food and water, Nicholai and Kenneth are allowed to go against you just like how you three are allowed to turn against each other, you can make teams with others you meet and if at the end you all agree to stay on the same team, you'll all win but teams in the stadium aren't allowed to exceed 5, do you understand?"

"Yeah, I do" I said ready for whatever waited

"Yep!" and although Sam said she was ready, i could tell she'd have issues, but it didn't matter, if Raymond and Neal are bringing us here immediately then they must believe in the skill we built up back during the hell we were in as humans. We started in a forest-like area, Neal also gave us a map just like everyone else had, this...this place was truly massive, there's a dessert-like area, an ice and snow ridden area, we would really have to give this our all

"You ready guys?" I put the map in my pocket

"Hell yeah" Matt was prepared

"Ready as I'll ever be" Sam was hyped

"Alright let's do this everyone" We fist-bumped as an announcer came on

"Everyone, get ready for the monthly graduation trial, where new DTs battle to prove and better themselves, we have many contestants today with a few of them coming from the same world" The man on the intercom continued talking but all we were focused on, was the timer ticking down, after it hit the five mark we heard an entire crowd start counting

"5...4...3...2...1, Let the games, BEGIN!"