In the vast expanse of a field of space debris, Arthur was in the middle of fighting his archrival, Queen Victoria. She was the leader of an alien race, a being who had brought ruin to his world and killed his entire family just to prove a point. All the years he had spent growing stronger and chasing her down had led to this moment.
CLANG!
Victoria’s sword flew from her hands as Arthur’s blade swept toward her, drawing an arc across her eyes and blinding her. She tried to counterattack, but it was too late. His sword was already resting against her neck.
She mumbled something that he couldn’t hear. But just as he was about to finish what he had started, a shadowy blade pierced his heart from behind.
Arthur gasped and sliced Victoria’s throat.
The injury he had suffered was fatal. He would bleed out soon. But in his final moments, Arthur mustered up every last bit of energy he had, erasing the remaining traces of Victoria’s existence before turning into dust himself.
***
"..."
What a weird fucking dream.
Arthur rubbed his forehead. He had been having that dream for almost two years now. Ever since he turned twenty, it had replayed in his head every single week. And each time, there were more and more details.
Today, he had finally learned the names of the people fighting in his dream. One was named Arthur, coincidentally. The other was Veronica.
He didn’t think too much about what the dream meant. He had been staying up late working, after all. It was probably just insomnia.
He got out of bed and freshened up. According to the news, there was going to be an eclipse today. It didn’t match any of the previous predictions, either. The scientists had only noticed recently that it was going to happen.
Hopefully, he could watch it from his office building.
He might even be able to sneak in an extra hour of sleep while everyone else was busy staring at the eclipse. Hehe.
After freshening up, Arthur made his way downstairs, got onto public transportation, and took it all the way to the train station. The wait was painfully long, but since he had a few games to play on his phone, it wasn’t all that bad.
The train finally arrived, and just as Arthur stepped inside, he saw the sky darken momentarily.
He thought he had imagined it, but when he glanced up, he noticed that a small chunk of the sun was already covered by the moon.
The eclipse was starting.
Ooh. Let me take a picture.
Arthur pointed his camera toward the sky through the window, only to frown.
Tsk. This piece-of-shit camera is too blurry. I can’t see anything.
He kept trying for a little while longer before giving up and taking a seat.
The train began to move.
Arthur closed his eyes and rested, knowing that an annoyingly long ride was ahead of him.
An hour passed.
Then two.
He subconsciously opened his eyes, expecting to be close to the train station.
Instead, all he saw was darkness beyond the windows.
The people in his train car, as well as those in the other cars in the distance, were equally confused. They stared through the windows, trying to make sense of what was happening. Some even pulled out their phones, attempting to call someone or take a picture.
Arthur tried to do the same.
He tried turning his phone on over and over again, but it wouldn’t work. He was sure he hadn’t forgotten to charge it, so what was going on?
Suddenly, the train rattled violently, almost as though it had been derailed.
Arthur nearly fell out of his seat.
Alright. I’ve had enough of this.
Arthur stood up and walked from car to car until he eventually reached the conductor’s cabin. He wanted to scold whoever was in charge of driving the train.
Yet the moment he opened the door to the cabin, he realized it was empty.
No one was actually driving the train.
Once that realization settled in, Arthur stepped inside and closed the door behind him.
"A-Alright. I’ve played enough train simulator to know how this works. First, you press this button, then you flick the lever, and lastly... Oh, a big red button."
Press.
SCREEEEEEECH!
CRASHHHHHHHH!
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
***
"Ugh..."
Arthur opened his eyes.
His forehead was bleeding, and all the windows were smashed. He was lucky to be alive. Mere inches from his head was a metal rod that could have easily pierced his skull.
"Phew."
He glanced around and noticed that the train had stopped.
More importantly, the darkness from before was gone.
What replaced it was... well, something unexpected.
There were towering skyscrapers in the distance, as well as a bunch of dragons flying through the sky.
There were flying cars and an impressive number of people teleporting from one area to another.
For a moment, Arthur thought he had actually died and ended up in heaven or something.
Except the pain was far too real for him to have actually died, which also ruled out the possibility that this was a dream.
He crawled out of the cabin bit by bit, careful not to cut himself on any of the fallen glass. He eventually made it outside and realized that he had crashed the train into a grassy field in the middle of a mountain range.
There were other people who had managed to crawl their way out as well. They were now looking around, desperately trying to find some clue as to what had happened.
And clues were exactly what Arthur got.
The moment he took a deep breath, a strange, floating blue interface appeared in his vision.
It was still there even after he closed his eyes.
[Congratulations!]
[You have survived the Eclipse Trial and found your way into one of the Higher Worlds!]
[You’ve obtained the Eclipse Blessing!]
[Eclipse Blessing: Fated Connection.]
[Description: Many do not believe in fate, but whether it is in this life, the previous one, or even the next, the same strings connect everyone. Find the person who is tied to you by fate, and your Eclipse Blessing will evolve.]
[Distance: 7.3 kilometers.]
[Condition: Critical.]
"..."
Is that right?
Fate seemed like something straight out of a fairytale, but hey, who was he to call this place a fairytale?
There were dragons and teleportation. Evidently, magic existed here, too.
If this wasn’t a fairytale, then what was it?
Still, since he was curious to find out what this place really was, he wanted to first find the person who was apparently tied to him by fate.
It said 7.3 kilometers, but it didn’t indicate which direction.
He did a bit of testing, walking 100 meters in each direction, and eventually figured out that the person in question was somewhere on the mountain.
The same mountain he had crashed the train into.
Hey, he might have a good physique, but he wasn’t some mountain climber.
Even so, the mountain wasn’t particularly steep, so he passed by the other survivors and climbed to the best of his ability.
[Distance: 6.9 kilometers.]
[Distance: 6.4 kilometers.]
[Distance: 5.8 kilometers.]
***
[Distance: 0.1 kilometers.]
100 meters.
The person he was looking for was close.
Arthur could barely feel his arms anymore. He was also freezing cold.
No wonder that person was in critical condition.
With his balls freezing and his expectations high, Arthur walked toward the canyon ahead.
There was a strange-looking structure there, carved entirely out of ice. It resembled a goddess statue with her wings clipped off.
But beneath the statue was a woman.
Her hair was black, and her clothes were casual, almost as if she had gotten caught up in something while on her way to a date.
She was... beautiful.
Like a supermodel, the kind he would see on the front page of some magazine.
Despite that, she was clutching her stomach as blood pooled beneath her. She shivered from both the cold and the pain.
Arthur approached her, and when he was only a meter away, the blue interface appeared again.
[You have found your Fated Bond!]
[Fated Connection has evolved!]
[Eclipse Blessing: Fated Pair]
[Your fate has once again intertwined with another.]
[1. When within 1km of each other, stat growth is increased by x100. (Locked)]
[2. You can sense the location and condition of your Fated Bond regardless of distance. (Locked)]
[3. You can communicate telepathically with your Fated Bond. (Locked)]
[4. ??? (Locked)]
[5. ??? (Locked)]
[6. ??? (Locked)]
[Bond Status: Incomplete]
[Your Fated Partner is dying.]
[Time Remaining: 00:14:57]
[Save her to complete the bond.]
"Ah?"
There were so many stats, blessings, and other things that he couldn’t understand.
Thankfully, Arthur worked well under pressure.
If he wanted all of those stats, he had to save her.
No.
He needed to save her.
But... they were so high up.
How was he supposed to drag her down, much less get her to a hospital? That city was at least five hours away.
Yet just as he was beginning to see no way out of this situation, something unexpected happened.
[Your pleas have been answered.]
[The Eclipse has granted you a System.]
[The Eclipse has automatically assigned a class to you.]
[Class: Mystic Healer (Lv.1)]
[New Skill Granted: Healing Touch (Lv.1)]
[Healing Touch (Lv.1)]
—Heal 25 HP when making contact with someone.
Cost: 25 MP
"Ah..."
That works.