📖 Chapter 2 – Awakening
The forest was cold.
The wind hissed through the trees, scattering dead leaves across the ground, and in the distance, the hoot of an owl echoed through the darkness. The sky was shrouded in clouds, so thick that even the stars dared not pierce this gloom.
And there, in the heart of that darkness — inside a broken, half-collapsed hut — I was waking up.
My eyelids felt heavy, my breath shallow and uneven. I lay on a wooden floor, right in the center of a circle etched with strange, intricate symbols.
These weren't random markings — they were a spell. Some formed concentric rings linked by fine lines, others were carved in languages I didn't recognize.
At first, my mind was blank.
Then reality slammed into me like a hammer.
"Academy…" I whispered, my lips dry and cracked. "Three months…"
Yes. It had been three months since I'd arrived at the Academy. Three months since my family had disowned me.
Everyone bearing the name Daskal saw my existence as nothing but shame.
The third son of the strongest ducal house in the North — fat, short, talentless, and cowardly.
And now… here I was.
In the middle of a cursed forest, lying on the floor of an abandoned shack, surrounded by runes that hummed faintly with power.
I tried to lift my head, but my body felt like stone. Every breath burned my lungs, a heavy weight pressing down on my chest.
Then I noticed something.
The symbols around me… were beginning to glow.
At first, a faint blue shimmer. Then deep violet. Then twisting lines of pure white began to dance around the circle.
And in that instant, something deep within my chest stirred.
A spark… then a storm…
"What… is happening…" I breathed, my voice trembling.
My eyes slid shut on their own.
I was walking in darkness — infinite, silent. The whisper of wind and the rumble of distant thunder echoed around me.
Then I heard a voice. It wasn't the voice of a god, nor of the Chain. It was my own voice — from somewhere deeper.
"Wind… the essence of movement. The herald of change."
"Lightning… the voice of will. The power that breaks chains."
My heartbeat quickened. Something was forming within me — small at first, spinning like a vortex.
Warm… then cold… then pulsing like a living current.
My entire being was reshaping itself.
A core.
A mana core.
It was being born deep within my soul, anchored at the center of my being.
At first, it quivered like a newborn. Then it grew, pulsing faster and faster until it became a sphere of luminous energy behind my heart.
And then… everything exploded.
My muscles burned.
My bones ached.
My skin flushed with searing heat, then turned cold as ice.
The bloated, sluggish body I had once despised began to tremble. Layers of fat melted away, muscles tightened and hardened. My legs lengthened, my shoulders broadened.
It was as if years of weakness were being erased in mere seconds.
I wanted to scream from the pain — but no sound escaped my lips.
Every drop of mana within me beat like a newborn heart.
And with every pulse, my body changed.
I lost all sense of time. Was it a minute? An hour? I couldn't tell.
All I knew was that when I finally opened my eyes again… I was no longer the same person.
I stood.
A deep, steady breath filled my lungs. My hands — they no longer trembled.
And the reflection I could almost imagine now… was someone else entirely.
Taller. Stronger. Sharper features carved by will itself.
No longer a fat, pathetic boy — but a version of myself I had always believed existed somewhere inside.
Tiny sparks crackled at my fingertips.
A thin vortex of wind swirled around me.
Magic… was no longer a distant dream. It was part of me now.
And then the truth hit me.
This wasn't random. This wasn't chance.
This was the moment I stepped off the path the Chain had prepared for me.
When the door of the shack creaked open, the pale light of dawn spilled inside.
The forest was still silent. But I was not.
I was no longer the weak, mocked, useless boy I had been.
The Daskal family had cast me aside.
The Academy had ignored me.
But now… now I was something else entirely.
I clenched my fists, the cracking of my knuckles sounding like a vow.
"This world…" I whispered. "Will never overlook me again."
The awakening was complete.
And this was only the beginning.
✨ If this story resonates with you, leave a comment — every word weakens the chain a little more.