Chapter 5 ~New beginnings-V~

'ugh'.

That was the first thing I thought as I was assaulted by a splitting headache.

Where was I? I didn't know.

I slowly opened my eyes to see an expanse of pitch black darkness.

There was no sun, moon or even stars to illuminate the area, no heavenly body shone in the area that seemed above in the pitch black space. Yet, the space seemed to illuminate itself from within itself...... It was the best explanation that I could come up with being the human that I was.

I looked forward, or at least what seemed like it and into the vast nothingness that lay ahead of me, it was just like the <path to salvation> in terms of sheer distance but the former couldn't even be compared to the later in terms of the ominous feeling they gave off.

I started walking, towards the vast nothingness that seemed to be all around me.

I walked and walked some more. it was like I could feel on my skin each passing second but that second felt like a year, a month and a week all at the same time. The spaces' 'time' was all over the place but was was even more strange was.

' I have been walking on this path for quite a long time now, but......'

I had been treading on the path for what seemed like an eternity, my body was already exasperated but I don't seem to have covered any distance at all. Like I had just been walking on a single spot all this time.

I stopped walking for a minute to take a break before continuing. So far I had not made any progress in moving forward until.......

"I-is that......."

I sighted a living creature far ahead in front of me. I was elated by the fact that there was another creature here besides me so I ran forward.

I ran and got closer. The creature seemed to be bigger than myself

I continued running and got even closer. The creature seemed to be resting. And when I finally stood in front of it.

"H-holy shit".

The creature was several hundreds of thousand times larger than I could ever dream of being, it was a dragon.

I cautiously approached it trying not to provoke it when

It suddenly opened its eyes and let out a loud, common sense defying roar.

"RAAAAAAAAAWRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!"

The roar was so loud and powerful, the entire space trembled vigorously before it.

It focused it's gaze on me.

Imagine what it would feel like, being glared at by a being at the peak of all existences. It wasn't even focusing it's aura on me, just scattering it across the wide space, but even that was infinitely more powerful than the collective auras of all the monarchs I felt back then.

I was shaking. After all, who wouldn't get scared in the face of a being several times more powerful than even the strongest monarchs joined together.

"Hmph. To think that you actually managed to overcome your human limitations and find me". The dragon spoke.

'H-huh??'

What did it mean by that. I didn't know but i was about to find out as the dragon continued speaking.

"You see, this is an incomplete dimension and as such there is concept of distance, direction, time and many more".

".....?!"

No wonder I was getting all those weird feelings of time being all over the place. But if the space didn't have distance or direction then.......

"H-how come it took me so long to find you then?"

I selected my words carefully, doing my utmost hardest to not provoke the creature in front of me.

"That was just your human mind playing tricks on you. Truth be told, you were actually just standing here walking in one spot all this time".

"?!"

"T-then my exhaustion?" I spoke again.

"That was just your mind trying to recreate the concept of 'distance' in you".

I was shocked.

"You are not the first human to come here, and you probably won't be the last but you are definitely the first to find me here".

I couldn't see my face, but one thing was for certain. I was definitely making the stupidest expression of my life right then.

The dragon then opened its mouth again.

"If that's all you have to ask then I will be returning to my sleep". The creature turned away from me, rested it's head and actually began sleeping.

It probably wanted nothing to do with me, and I wasn't about to provoke it by asking too many annoying questions so I sat behind it and arranged my questions for another time.

.

.

.

.

It had been a long time since I came to this dimension and met the dragon. I and the creature never held an actual conversation. I just asked my questions and it answered to the best of it's abilities. After asking a series of questions, I was able to determine certain things like how I got here and many more. Until one day I asked a certain question.

"oi, dragon, is it possible to leave this dimension?"

I was getting fed up with just sitting here all this time.

There was a momentary silence before the dragon said

"And why do you want to know that?"

This was the first time that it returned my question with one of his own. I decided to not break the flow and answered.

"There are certain 'people' I need to get my revenge on". I was referring to the monarchs.

The dragon looked at me for sometime before saying

"Huh, wait....... You wouldn't happen to have competed in THAT tournament now would you".

The dragon was onto something so I answered

"If you are talking about the battle for <REGRESSION> then yes".

I coolly replied.

"Hoho, I thought your face looked familiar, tell me more". It said

Not seeing any point in lying, I decided to tell him everything from back when I was on earth to what happened between me and the monarchs.

When I was done.

"I see". It said and there was a brief silence before

"HAHAHAHAHAHA". It started laughing and I frowned.

"What's so funny?" I coldly asked.

"No need to get angry, I just thought it was funny that those kids pulled a stunt like that and couldn't even properly clean up".

I was confused

"What's that supposed to mean".

A wide grin appeared on the face of the dragon then it said

"How would you like for me to personally train you. If we worked together am sure we could find a way for you to return to your world, but in the mean time you should get stronger with me first".

I was completely dumbfounded. It was a tempting offer but there was just one problem.

"Hey, did you forget that my karma core was destroyed?"

I didn't have a core anymore. Hence I could no longer wield karma, or so I thought.

"Oh yeah, there was that".

This bastard completely forgot.

"Hmm, it's a problem but not one that this 'Great one' couldn't fix".

It enjoyed praising itself. It stretched out it's huge finger towards me and touched my forehead with it. Almost immediately afterwards, I was overcome by a powerful surge of energy and I felt something gathering within my chest area.

It was a core. This dragon possessed enough power to form a karma core this easily.

When the energy settled, I closed my eyes and looked into myself.

I was overwhelmed by what I saw next. It was a perfectly round ball of energy that shone a deep blue. It was a new karma core.

I opened my eyes and a single tear dropped. I was crying. I tried to hide it by looking down but it didn't work.

A huge palm was on my head, it was gently placed there and it belonged to the dragon. I was still tearing up when.

"My name is Asura...... But from now onwards, call me teacher".

~END~