"Lance, why didn't you recognize me when we first met?" Zack asked while holding the Phoenix in his hands.
He glared at the bird as Lance glared back.
"How was I supposed to know?!" He protested. "I went through another regression and forgot almost everything since I didn't have the other part of my soul. Not only did you die and leave me alone, but you also took half of my memories and powers!"
"*cough*" Zack averted his gaze and let Lance glare at him. The two of them had formed a soul bond a few minutes after meeting each other.
Their souls were merged, allowing them to do many things others can't do. The half-half-demigod state Zack had entered was also a result of this.
"At least you remembered Eirias," Zack muttered as he turned his gaze back to Lance before affectionately petting the Phoenix's forehead. "So you lost your human form too?"
"Yeh and now, I am stuck in a level 1 body…" Lance sounded depressed as Zack tried to console him by sending all of the memories he had acquired.
The soul bond was something that linked two souls permanently. This allowed them to talk for an hour in a matter of a few seconds.
They could also exchange memories and share each other's powers when fighting.
"So, that's what happened on your end…" Lance muttered before he showed Zack the memories he currently had.
It started with Lance's rebirth in the middle of barren land. The Phoenix had been surrounded by many beasts around level 10 and had to claw his way out of there to survive.
Lance then from being a level 1 beast to reaching the ranks of a demi-god by simply fighting his way to the top.
One of the most interesting things that he saw was about Icarus and Daedalus and how Lance had managed to make the two eagles his subordinates by battling them using his wits.
"So, you were just fighting and then living a peaceful life after that?" Zack asked while raising his eyebrows as Lance nodded.
"But now, I got a trouble magnet right beside me. Nothing can be worse than that."
"So you are not happy that you met me?"
"I don't think I said that now did I?"
The two then smiled before looking around the forest. Zack rose in the air alongside the Phoenix and made his way to the beach.
Once they appeared there, he closed his eyes and chanted a few words under his breath. A pillar of light descended on their bodies and teleported them out of the beach.
Zack and Lance then appeared directly above the Pacific ocean. Zack was once again able to sense the location of the friends and was surprised to see that they were near him too.
"Lance, do you see anyone near us?" He asked aloud while looking around.
As far as they could see, they were only surrounded by water and nothing else. They decided to wait for a few minutes before going to look around.
*
"Well, that's ten minutes," Zack muttered as he and Lance then began their search.
In the ten minutes, the two of them had talked about various things and what they were going to do next.
Lance wasn't one bit surprised that Kai had secretly planned everything from the shadows.
Lance had spent his entire life with Zack so he was well acquainted with all of Zack's friends. But since he wasn't in his human form, there was a huge chance that they won't recognize him.
"Dude, they don't remember most of the things from the past. How do you think they will know who you are?" Zack asked while facepalming as Lance didn't seem to hear what he said.
"They should be able to know me once they touch me. That was the way you and Hayden remembered about your past lives."
"We will think about that after finding them."
The two of them kept talking but after a few minutes of looking around, they realized that all they saw was water and nothing else.
"Zack, do you still have that ability?" Lance suddenly asked something clicked inside his mind.
"No idea," Zack replied before raising his right hand and muttering something under his breath.
[ The chosen guild members have been summoned. ]
"Now would you look at that."
"Why do you sound so surprised?"
"I never expected it to work."
Zack and Lance then saw pillars of light appearing all around them as Emma, Hayden, and Lisa stepped on the water.
They looked distraught from their recent experience as though they had just gone through boot camp.
"What happened?" Zack asked in a polite tone as he waited for them to reply.
"I met my past self."
"The same happened to me…"
"Me too…"
Unlike Zack, the three of them looked a bit shocked. Since they had to go back so Zack decided to hold back from asking anything.
The trio was so lost that none of them paid any attention to Lance. The little Phoenix flew behind Zack's right ear as all of them rose in the air at once.
[ What do you think they saw? Getting killed or something like that? ] Lance asked curiously as they shot back towards Doogle mansions.
[ I don't think that seeing your past self dying can do anything to them. My best guess is that Kai messed something up and they ended up seeing something that will haunt them for some nights. ]
[ Well, that's nothing new. ]
If someone had heard the duo talking so casually about a god, they would probably give them a weird look. After all, religion was almost dead in the future and even the recent events did nothing to change that fact.
After thirty minutes of silent traveling, they finally reached Doogle Mansions again.
The trio didn't even bother asking what Zack found and simply locked themselves in their rooms. Zack and Lance didn't even get the chance to say a word as they decided to go and meet Eva and Mia instead.
"Zack, why do I feel as though I know Mia yet don't know anything about her?"
"Well, she is my sister or adopted one in this life. She is connected to the past too but how I have no idea."
"Then why don't we try to find it?"
Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.co(m)