The cold breeze brushing against his skin felt far too real for a dream.
He reached out to the mirror, and the boy mirrored his every breath. There was no more room for doubt the boy in the reflection was him.
The boy staring back was skinny, almost fragile looking. His fiery red hair moved in unruly waves, caused by the wind,frameing a sharp, handsome face, drippy cold eyes staring back at him.
Though he looked no older than fourteen, there was something in his gaze that felt far beyond for a kid.
He stared at his trembling hands, his heart hammering inside his chest. He could almost feel his heart beating within him.
He had regressed not just in time, but into an entirely different body.
It was unheard of. No artifact, no miracle, no ancient spell was ever known to bend the flow of time like this.
As he struggled to calm his racing breath, a voice the one he had heard just before death echoed again in his mind.
"Asfer, Authority over Infinity chooses you. You have been given a new opportunity."
There was no doubt now this had to be connected to that strange voice. A second chance.
But why him?
Why not the Emperor, with all his power?
Why not the Sword Saint, who had never lost a battle?
Why... someone like him?
The more he started to think, the more stiff his expression started to become
He knew his limits. He couldn't even wield mana. He wasn't smart either..nor he had a speciality.
But at that pure moment, as if the world as if fate itself was listening to his despair, it answered with a tide of warmth.
A warm sensation started to bloom in his heart, spreading across his body. Gradually, his eyes widened.
This!
Thinking of a possibility, but he still didn't dare to think further what if the world becomes cruel and takes it from him?.
He sat down in a meditation position right away.
For the first time in both lifetimes, he felt something respond to his will. That he always hoped for, yearned for.
The sensation grew stronger, sharper with every passing moment. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. He was nervous, but he couldn't afford to lose focus now.
The very thing that responded to him, the very warmth, was in fact the height he couldn't reach in his last life. It was the energy that governs the world. It was Mana!
The mana on its own was responding to him. As he concentrated, he could feel it. No, almost like he could see it...
It vaguely. There was something within him. And it was the source of the sudden change happening throughout the body. As he focused, the sensation started becoming more violent. The mana didn't seep in gently it crashed into him all at once, like a dam bursting apart.
Torrents of raw mana flooded his body, his veins igniting beneath his skin like threads of living lightning, casting flashes of pale blue light across the room.
A gust of wind burst outward, stirring the air around him. The winds grew violent, whipping through the room.
Books flew from their shelves, a sharp crack also split the mirror. Yet, somehow, all of it unfolded in utter silence.
He gritted his teeth. The mana was too much for this young body.
There were no shards of Aura within the body too to alter the flow, making it harder for him to control.
And then... his eyes started glowing. Something had changed, The atmosphere became more clear. His body hovered an inch off the ground.
A circle of light formed beneath him, with a mix of known and unknown sigils. His heart shuddered and started going up and down with each breath. This was it. The world had acknowledged him.
It was a sign that he was now a wielder of mana.
Swallowing his emotions, he locked his gaze onto the glowing patterns.
It was his Mana signature. Or to say, the sigils he's most suited with. Such mana signature only appears before one ,only a few times in one lifetime.
His gaze darted from line to line to comprehend as much as he could.
Mana signatures are the lifeline of a mage and also the guidance that is bestowed by the world that differs one from another.
Below him were strange patterns. These were Sigils,the core component of magic that alters the flow of the world itself.
Time slipped away, unnoticed, as he remained locked in focus.
Gradually, like a dream dissolving at dawn, the Mana signature beneath him began to fade.
His body, once suspended in still air, slowly fell down to the ground. The gust of wind slowly dispersed along with the blue glow within his eyes.
The moment he touched the ground, he sprang up. There was no time to hesitate. He needed something to write with. He had to draw down everything before the images in his mind fades away.
His eyes darted across the room until they landed on the shelf. He rushed over, knocking aside the books until his fingers wrapped around a scrap of parchment and a dried quill. He dipped it quickly into a half-filled inkpot and dropped to the floor, pressing the paper flat.
"Sigil of Burst… Sigil of Nullification…" he muttered, the names spilling from his lips as he scratched them onto the page. These were the ones he recognized ones he'd seen before.
Then he paused, eyes narrowing as he recalled the rest. "Those are the ones I know… now for the unknown ones."
Sigils weren't simple marks. They were complex structures some formed of intertwining lines, others built from layered symbols with precise angles and curves.
He couldn't hope to remember them all, not in this state, not with this body. But he had to try. He focused on the simplest ones the symbols that had stood out and were simple.
Time slipped by as he struggled to recall every detail he could. He drew them out across two pages.
One for the sigils he clearly remembered about three in total. And draw them without any error.
The second page held rough sketches,fragmented images of symbols he only vaguely recalled.
They were incomplete, useless for now. But if luck favored him, and he could tweak them just right, they might still be usable.
His breaths were ragged. He wiped out the accumulated sweat from his forehead, looking at two separate pages.
Results? Three complete sigils and three incomplete sigils.
He calmed down his beating heart. His body still felt tense and weak, hands shuddering.It was the aftermath of Mana awakening.
He raised his hand. He had done it. The simple, ordinary gift almost everyone had, yet he had been denied in his last life. He could wield mana now. He would be able to awaken his elements!
Before he could even savor the moment, hurried footsteps echoed. He looked at the door.
With a loud thud, it burst open. A figure of a woman in a black gown rushed in. Her hair was thick red ,worry could be seen on her face. Behind her were a couple of maids.
Her eyes focused onto him and rushed in without any care, taking him in her embrace.
"My son... what happened?"
Kairos finally understood why his heart stirred the moment he saw her. She was the mother of this body's original owner.
A thought struck him, one he hadn't had time to consider until now.
What had happened to the original owner of this body? Did he die, leaving an empty vessel for him to claim?
"T-Those sigils!..."
The woman spoke without lifting her gaze from the paper.
Kairos sighed inwardly. For now, he had to focus.
"My mana awakened," he said quietly.
Her red eyes snapped wide open, shock flashing across her face before she forced herself to focus.
"Charles!" she barked. "Bring Master Kaelen immediately and the recovery potions! Guards, stay outside!"
"Yes, my lord."
"Yes, my lady."
With that, she quickly turned her attention back to her son. A surge of mana rushed from her hand, flooding into his body, stabilizing the chaotic flow within him.
Kairos instinctively tried to resist, but the force behind it was overwhelming. There was no way he could stop such raw power.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, analyzing her strength. She had to be at least a third Circle mage maybe even higher, to have such force.
A moment later, she let out a soft sigh of relief.
"No internal injuries. Your veins are intact," she said, her voice relaxing slightly. Then she smiled gently.
"You'll be fine. It's just exhaustion."
Once again, Kairo's heart trembled. No, it wasn't his heart reacting. It was the body's emotions, responding instinctively to the warmth.
And it made him feel worse.
He still didn't know what had happened to the original owner of this body. But the way it responded to her touch... it was clear. He had been a loving son. And she had cared for him deeply.
Kairos closed his eyes briefly, guilt gnawing at him.
Only now did he realize this wasn't some commoner's home. The ornate room, the grand windows...
Whoever this family was, they held no small status.
Soon, a figure hurriedly stepped in. "Baroness Valarie. Did Youngmaster Kairos really awaken Mana?"
Making Kairos sure, his hunch was right this is a noble house. A Baron at top of that. And strangely his name is Kairos too.
The voice belonged to an old man with a long white beard, holding a blue glass orb carefully in his hand.
"Yes," she replied, a rare warmth in her voice. "My son awakened on his own."
The old man's eyes widened and quickly hurried. His mother stood up and some maids helped him and lay him down on the bed.
The old man quickly checked his vitality before opening a bottle of blue potion that glowed with dim light. It was a medium-rank recovery potion.
"Youngmaster, take this. It will stabilize your body."
Kairos leaned back against the pillows and quickly drank the potion. Almost immediately, the color began to return to his face.
He could feel it his stamina recovering, and for a brief moment, even the flow of mana within him grew stronger for a split second.
"Youngmaster, congratulations on awakening Mana."
"Youngmaster, if you may please, inject some mana here."
Kairos glanced down at the blue orb in the old man's hands, recognizing it immediately.
An Elemental Awakening Orb.
Inside it swirled countless strands of elemental and non-elemental essence. When the orb made contact with a person's mana, it would reveal the element they were most attuned to. He will awaken his elements today!.
It was a big step. That would decide the course of the future.
Elemental affinity wasn't just important for a noble it was everything.
And if he truly carried noble blood... he might awaken something rare. He slowly reached out his hand, feeling it's smoothness.
The orb suddenly began to glow, bathing the room in brilliant light...