Inside the darkness, shiny red light illuminated the space.
A small beating sound resounded.
As if a small drum was played rhythmically.
"This is it!", exclaimed the small goblin inwardly.
After a few seconds, two small, blue eyes slowly opened.
In his line of sight was now a ceiling.
It was made out of oak wood, and although at first glance it looked fairly common, if you paid attention you could discern the fine craftsmanship of the polished planks.
Suddenly two wrinkled, green hands picked him up, and now in his field of vision was an old, green face.
His smile was radiant while looking at the baby goblin and before long, he opened his mouth to speak.
"Welcome to the world young master. May the green gods keep you company in your unlimited life.".
A few seconds later, a giant green man, with bulging muscles and plain clothes picked him up.
His face although green, had the perfect human proportions. His hair was a dark brown, cut to resemble a military haircut.
His eyes matched the colour of his hair.
With his rock-hard muscles and extremely charming face, he could be considered quite the catch.
"Welcome, little one…", he whispered while looking at the baby affectionately.
He turned his head to look at a pale woman, who was lying in the bed next to him.
"Anna, are you sure you are alright? Giving birth to a child of another race is brutal. Are you sure you're okay?", he asked.
"Do not worry Yusef, I am fine. Exhausted, but fine. Now let me hold him, I want to see that cute little face!", she replied with a smile.
The green man with the Greek god's physique handed the small goblin to the woman, who held it in her arms fondly.
She tenderly touched his tiny nose. A wide smile on her face.
"So, this was my first life…?", The goblin pondered.
"My parents are gorgeous! What the hell is this?
Whoever made me reincarnate so many times, I curse you to your third descendants for not leaving this kind of gene in my body.
In my previous life, I remember being ugly, if not repulsive, and short! My nose was the size of a goddamn potato!
To think in my first life, I was this lucky…Hehe, fathers hide your daughters!".
"What should we name him?", Yusef asked. "Hmm...
How about Iono?", Anna replied.
"Like the dragon of the east! Beautiful name honey!", Yusef replied, delighted.
"This boy's potential is enormous, my achievements will be nothing in front of his!", he added.
"I don't know what the good looking guy is saying, but I don't like the look on his face. It seems excited, but at the same time, ferocious.
I can't tell... Let's hope he is a better father than the last...
But anyways... My mom sure is pretty!", said the goblin in her arms while blushing.
His mom was a perfect beauty.
Brown hair the colour of autumn leaves, and green eyes more dazzling than emeralds.
Her hourglass figure couldn't be hidden by the plain clothes she wore, and even though she just gave birth, and was she was covered in sweat, her skin was glistering making her look even more beautiful.
Her bosom, upon which Iono was now gently resting on, was robust and perfectly proportioned.
Iono was, after all, a goblin, and so looking at it brought a lewd expression to his face. The funny thing was, his father, looking at his exhausted wife, holding their newborn son, had a similar expression on his face. Anna giggled heartily looking at both of them. "He is definitely your son!", she said.
"Well…I mean…He IS green…", Yusef retorted while blushing, embarrassed.
Both of his parents laughed while looking at the small goblin affectionately.
Iono witnessed this scene, and felt a warm feeling in his stomach. When suddenly-
He got a headache so painful, that it made the rest look pale in comparison.
His parents, seeing the small goblin making such a pained expression, became worried and called the village doctor.
"The young master is as healthy as can be. Do not worry madam, leaving the comfort of his mother's womb, appears to have made him sad. He is going to get used to it as all babies do.", the doctor announced after a brief examination.
Anna held the baby tight, rocking it while looking terrified.
After a sigh of relief,
"Thank you doctor."
She said.
Iono on the other hand was getting all his life's memories transferred.
After a couple of hours, the headache stopped and his calm baby face returned, calming his parents down.
He opened his eyes, and saw that he was inside a crib. In his line of sight, the same wooden ceiling.
The sound of rain droplets, coming from outside the window, created a calm aesthetic in the room.
"I lived quite a long life.
Made many mistakes.
Although these events already happened and cannot change, it still hurts...
It hurts so much that I forgot all about it. Mother...
Father...
Their deaths…
I swear to the god of death, that when he comes to collect my soul, I shall gift him the soul of the bastard who did this to me.".
Iono swore, his eyes full of bloodlust.
Alas, his father was a warrior and sensed it immediately, running inside the room.
Iono saw him and immediately retracted it, startled.
"What was that, that heavy bloodlust!?
No way, a demonic general?!"
Yusef thought, while applying every buff magic he knew, coating himself with a purple aura and pulling a sword out of his dimensional pouch.
"Iono!"
He rushed to the crib, only to see his baby sleeping peacefully... Well ,pretending to at least.
With a long sigh, he scanned his surroundings, looking for a presence and found nothing.
"What happened here? I am sure I sensed something...
He is either more skilled than me or...", he didn't finish his sentence and only looked at Iono.
"It can't be…", he thought.
With that, he left a part of his spiritual sense guarding the room and returned to his wife.
"That was CLOSE!"
Iono inwardly thought while sweating bullets.
His face of absolute panic was a sight to be seen.
"I forgot my father is so strong…twice now!", he said and laughed at his joke.
But he abruptly stopped laughing, since his lack of memories hurt him deeply…
"You idiot! How can you make jokes that hurts yourself!?", he reprimanded himself.
*Sigh*
"My father might be sensitive, but I don't think he would sense me creating my core; I should be fine.
I need to get stronger, the faster the better!"
The small goblin decisively started breathing slowly and steadily.
Every breath was deep and followed a pattern. He would breathe in through his nose, from the diaphragm.
He would hold his breath for a couple of seconds, and then, while flexing all of his muscles he would breathe out very slowly.
That's the pattern he followed over and over again for every waking minute of his first week alive.
After the second week, his body got used to breathing like that even in his sleep.
For three whole weeks, all he did was breathe in that weird way.
At least that was the plan.
His first three weeks in the world were filled with love and affection by his two loving parents, who were by his side, day and night.
His mother was a human and so the maternal instinct was strong.
His father was an evolved goblin, in particular an evolutionary path that no goblin in history had taken, making him the only one of his species in the world.
The Dragon of East, whom Iono was named after and to whom the couple owed way too much, named Yusef's species, Goblin Lord.
Goblins were innately, not as affectionate with their children as humans, but maybe due to his evolution, his father loved Iono extremely much.
Yusef lived the lives of both a human and a goblin, so he knew how and when to behave accordingly.
After the three weeks, one evening, Iono was laying in his crib, practising his breathing technique.
"It's been three weeks.
The mana and aura in my body are slowly stabilizing.
I knew a growing baby had the best potential but this is insane!".
During his first life, Iono lived in a universe that contained four different kinds of energy:
Mana, Aura, Ether and Prana.
Mana was the basis of magic, Aura was the manifestation of physical strength, Ether was the will of the gods and Prana was the combination of all three, and also the most difficult to manifest.
It was said, that if someone had been blessed with prana, it meant that the gods had big plans for them.
All four energies were subsequent to chaos, and prana itself was very close to the nature of chaos, or so it was believed.
Iono was currently trying to establish a prana core inside his body.
In his previous life in this universe, he had managed to have one of the most refined, Mana and Aura cores, but he never managed to draw the will of the gods.
This time, he was trying to do so.
His Mana and Aura, clashed against each other and while the same time stabilizing; creating a small ethereal sphere in his abdomen. It looked like a yin and yang symbol. But there were four sides, each side of the equilibrium split in half.
Mana, Aura, and two empty spaces, one for Ether and one for Prana.
During these last three weeks, he stabilized the Mana and Aura that entered his body, making foundation steps, so he can start training as soon as possible.
Now, it was time to call upon Ether so he can create his Prana core.
Inside the darkness of his room, two small, dark- blue eyes shone.
Iono had to make contact with a god in order to ask for the god's Ether.
The number of gods in the celestial realm was endless.
In his previous life he contacted numerous gods, not to obtain their ether, but to challenge them.
This was the first time he would ask the gods for something.
Suddenly a god came to mind; someone he had fought before and deemed the trickiest. His ether was something compatible with Iono and so he chose him.
"Randell...
Demon god of darkness...
Saviour of the wicked...
Harvester of souls...
You whose might is unrivalled and legend never-ending, heed my call!
Answer my prayer, and descent your gift upon me!...
You purple excuse for a god!", Iono "prayed" inwardly.
Suddenly-
Time came to a standstill, and a rift appeared right next to Iono's crib.
"YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO SAY YOUR SERVANT!
SE-RVANT!!
YOU IGNORANT FOOL!!"
A creature with purple, macabre skin exited the rift.
He was wearing a long black robe.
He had two, twisting horns, coming out of his forehead, and two blood-red eyes that could make any mortal shiver.
His teeth were all fangs, and his nose was missing, replaced with two slits.
Two black lines run from his horns, all the way to the bottom of his neck.
On his head, lay a harlequin hat. One that didn't exactly match his features.
He looked more like a jester than a demon god.
"I SWEAR YOU MORTALS ARE GETTING STUPIDER AND STU-...
What the hell is this....?"
He exclaimed, puzzled at the baby inside the crib, that was staring at him with contempt in its eyes.
"Well, well, well...
What do we have here??"
He asked, with a playful grin on his face.