Eyes stared down, a circling movement watching from above, a life to change soon, and the sound of swords clashing.
A King rules alone, one who stands above all, and is known by all, and he stays just. He held no advisors and had no vassals, not because he distrusted others, but because there were none left to trust, having ruled his kind alone for most of his life.
Even when he alone was different, a being completely untouched and unharmed, without any scars, he looked like every other new warrior. Yet he had fought hundreds of battles.
It only fooled his opponents; he was practically unstoppable, though of a dying race. Soon, he grew weak and transformed into his humanoid form, unable to sustain his draconic form. He still retained his claws and sharp nails, with his tail reaching four feet in length.
Even then, the more he moved, the dizzier he felt. In a few moments, he fell to the ground, barely able to move his legs, and he fell to his knees, dragging himself forward. Every inch felt heavier. The wind brushed his cheek — a farewell. A calm wind as his eyes slowly closed.
A species once revered as near godly has fallen so low, something darkly ironic.
[Earth 2024]
A boy, not that old, carrying his phone and his headphones in, maybe eighteen or nineteen. His eyes, a radiant blue, and his hair flows down, giving him an almost feminine appearance along with his facial features. His clothing was baggy, a black shirt and pants, and his hair was a dark brown with black tones at the ends.
Crossing the street on a crosswalk in the middle of the afternoon to get to his aunt's house. He wondered if his aunt was going to be annoyed for being late.
As Caelus was about to reach the end, he looked up, seeing a car speeding ahead. Clearly breaking speeding laws and going over a hundred and twenty in a sixty zone. Considering he was in Russia to meet his relatives.
"Sh-!"
In a sudden moment, he had been hit by a speeding car; for him, it felt excruciating. Even then, it took very little time for him to feel his spine itself disintegrate; the sheer speed and the size had done that much damage, so even if he lived.
He wouldn't be able to do anything. Along with that, he, for the moment, saw himself flying, only for him to lose consciousness.
But he refused to lose it all.
For a moment, time passed, and nothing happened; maybe believing in no god was the right option for him. He had believed in reincarnation and Karma, seeing the face of oblivion only made him regret not listening to his own friends... Even then, he found comfort in his own belief.
A ding. In the endless silence, he heard a noise. Something he assumed was cosmic, maybe what causes reincarnation, perhaps even a god.
[Welcome, Caelus. Due to your circumstances, you have been given this System! So I'll give you another body, though it'll be inconvenient :3]
The sound was mechanical, something Caelus barely recognized, since he was still learning English. He blinked, dirt pressed against his cheek.
Nausea hit as he pushed himself up, his body wrong in ways he couldn't name. He saw something behind him... A tail. It slapped against the ground, as if confused with a mind of its own.
"The hell?" He looked around, and then to his own hands, seeing sharp nails and fingers, a normal skin fading to black, in sharp claws. And around him, a coat he was still wearing reminded him of a cultivation novel.
[Hiii!! I'm the System, or Sys as you can call me or anything else! I'm here to help you, so please listen if you wanna understand what's going on :D]
"I- Okay? But uh, why was I, of all people, picked? I didn't know I won some kind of reincarnation lottery." Caelus thought to himself, assuming this System could hear him.
[Well, I picked you because your name is rarer, especially from where you're from and the time period, and because your death was unfair, again, I'm biased, so don't take my word as one hundred percent accurate!]
Caelus blinked and then let out a soft chuckle. He found it cute how it was blabbering this much. It also felt a lot better to hear that he understood if people continued speaking without stopping.
"Well, go on, I'm still very disoriented right now, though, so I'll just." As he finished his thought, he let himself fall, hitting the ground and looking ahead.
"My aunt's going to think I just disappeared..." He realized how his family, his aunts and uncles, and even his parents were going to react. For a moment, he couldn't think of anything.
Leaning back against the tree, he paused and felt significantly different. It was healthier, yes, feeling the ground; it had felt like they were suctioned to it.
He should've been screaming, panicking. But something deeper inside him. Older than him, covered that reaction before it could form, considering he did go a little into biology. He assumed this was how apex predators reacted.
His breathing stayed calm, but his thoughts didn't. Every instinct screamed this wasn't right — he should be terrified. But he wasn't.
Even then, his face showed barely any emotion, which felt uncomfortable. He had expected something like that, assuming he was given another body because he had a tail and scales.
From the corner of his eye, he could see tiny insects moving on the ground with each step, and he could hear the scrape of their legs like dry leaves. He rubbed his eyes, utterly confused. Surely this wasn't something normal, and just at the moment.
[You okay there, Caelus? You look zoned out. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that your senses and everything are different because this place doesn't have the food you ate in your original world, and they don't actively try to harm the air... As much.]
He shook his head and corrected himself, sitting up straight, almost instinctively. His tail moved slowly. Naturally, not panicked or anything, as the day turned to night, he could still see clearly now since he had time to adjust. He didn't perceive time correctly at the moment.
[Ah, yeah, the day just ended, it's probably daytime in your world and nighttime here! It's neat, like opposites!]
He took another breath, and he finally regained his senses. Literally, he could smell the warmth in the air, and what smelled acrid, and even his own sweat.
"Alright, Uh- What the hell is going on?" Even when he sounded calm, he did not like everything he was feeling. His body automatically began adjusting, and so did his brain.
[Basically, you died, and I took you to this world, not to be a hero. You need another chance- Also, I saw you were a fan of those cultivation novels, but also magic, so this has both!]
"Wh- Wait, why didn't you ask me first!? I don't know if there are rules on that, but you shouldn't just read someone's mind without permission at least!"
Caelus was less than pleased that he expected something or someone this powerful to at least have manners. He wanted to ask more, but his mind was still reeling.
Caelus got up, sighing in annoyance. He looked around and noticed he could see tiny things, like the shimmering in the air right in front of his mouth. He finally realized what he was physically.
A dragon. He felt pleased; he had something powerful as a start, and upon hearing about cultivation, he assumed he could become even stronger than usual.
[Well, do you wanna know the realms?]
"Well, of course, but should I get somewhere to hide, I have some feeling that something is going to happen now." Caelus took off, faster than he meant to. The car that killed him had been slower. He still wasn't even at his top speed.
He continued running, trying to adjust himself while also avoiding getting sick. Considering he still had his motion sickness from his old world, he felt uneasy. He finally stopped at what looked like a wall. Facing that direction, he released what looked like acid from the ground, which sizzled and practically melted.
"The hell?" He looked down in confusion.
[Ah, yeah, your biology is different in a lot of ways because you're a dragon, your vomit works like acid, and the acid in your stomach is entirely different, being a hundred times more potent than human stomach acid. Also, First quest time!]
[Introduction to Cultivation - Escape or fight Rogues]
[Your reward... You don't die~]
"...What the hell do you mean, Rogues-" Caelus didn't question it for long, moving back and getting ready, looking around, he heard bushes rustling and the steps of what looked like humans.
Keeping himself calm, he turned to the side. Everything felt clear, even before the Rogues could attack. Caelus felt a primal instinct, one like a dragon's, and lunged forward with his hands out. He could feel the spike in the heartbeat of the Rogues, like Faint Tremors.
The moment his hands grasped the Rogue's arms, holding him down. He felt the urge to go right for a kill. Though his own human self found that too much.
That single moment of Hesitation had allowed the Rogue to try and push him off. Yet... They couldn't. He had barely even budged. Giving him time to grab the head and smack it hard enough that the person was knocked out.
Getting up, he felt the warmth of his breath. A burning sensation, considering the Rogue's face covering was starting to melt from the sheer temperature. The air around him became heavier after the act.
To the Rogues, the fact that he didn't kill one of them meant he was toying with them.
One of them had already ditched them. Running off as quick as they could, and the rest followed, not wanting to die. But on the other hand, Caelus picked up a smell of energy. It felt weird that he could. But it relaxed him. It felt natural.
[Quest complete! You did well, so you'll get a reward. I was kidding that your reward was that you get to live. So let's begin cultivation.]
"You're a little too cheerful right now. But I guess I'll go with it..." He spoke, though in his mind, looking to the side, he noticed a pond. Walking over to it, he bent forward, getting a glimpse at his own face.
From that, Caelus let out a soft laugh; it wasn't because of it resembling someone he knew or his old self. It was merely that how he looked was far different from what he genuinely expected.
His face was androgynous, yet the rest of his body, considering he had nothing under his cloak, was well built. Having actually built proper muscle. And even then, his hair reached right past his neck with its dark indigo, and his eyes were maroon in color.
[Caelus!!! Why're you ignoring me!!]
Caelus jumped, startled. He didn't expect the System to shout, but he was also letting it ramble on without listening because he wanted to see himself.
"I- Sorry, I was just trying to see how I looked." Caelus was genuinely sorry because he didn't want to be rude and ignore someone like that. Unless, of course, they were already being disrespectful.
[Alright, so now, cultivation, if you wanna understand what that is, first you need to gather Mana, which is generally around you, I guess you could say it's like blood flowing through your body, except you have to do it manually! There are multiple paths, you'll pick what's best for you automatically anyway!]
Caelus took a breath, and in that he assumed a meditative stance by sitting down, believing it was needed since that's what he's seen a lot. From that, the air around him rippled like water disturbed by an unseen current. The colors began to twist—
BANG!!!
The sound of something crashing nearby, causing the ground to practically shake.