"AARGHHH!!!!" Anthony let out a sharp cry of pain. His chest felt like it was struck by a heavy hammer. This kind of pain was something he had seldom felt in his life. The last time Anthony experienced something like this was when he was young and almost died in a fierce battle against a powerful Devil.
This kind of pain was something felt when one was in the threshold between life and death. Anyone would have lost control and succumbed to it, but Anthony used all his willpower to stop his head from going numb and losing control over his body.
He tried to circulate his mana but doing so only made the pain increase. Anthony felt like he was being torn from the inside, and his heart immediately grew cold. This was a common symptom experienced when the Core was heavily damaged.
The Core was placed to the heart's right and was in charge of storing the mana that mages used to train and cast spells. This could explain the pain he was experiencing; his Core was close to exploding!
Anthony immediately shifted his focus to it. Once he managed to get a clear picture of its state, his expression grew heavy. His Core was covered in cracks, giving the feeling that it would collapse at any moment.
"Uhgg..." Anthony bit his tongue to stay awake and not lose consciousness. An exploding Core not only put massive pressure into his body, but also did towards his mental state. Most people would have gone insane because of it, just before it exploded.
Anthony anxiously rummaged through his brain to find a way to fix this life-threatening issue. He was lucky to remember an old technique from the royal family that was able to temporally stop his Core from exploding.
Not wasting anytime to avoid further damage, Anthony manipulated his mana to draw small seal around his Core. He was thankful towards his ancestors, as they did not cheat him.
Anthony sighed in relief. His Core was covered in cracks, just like an egg that was trashed and dropped to the ground, but he managed to save it. Although this old technique was only a temporary solution, it was enough for now. He would go to the treasury and get the required materials to fix his Core. While this would be the end for most mages, it was not much of an issue for someone with his status.
While Anthony was thinking about this, realization hit him.
'What the hell? What is happening? Was not I at the Sky Mountain Range? Why am I alive?' Anthony was completely taken aback by such a development. Everyone inside the Chaos Formation would die because of the massive mana drainage. It was impossible to come out alive from it.
Had it all been a dream? Were the Devils a creation of his mind? How could a dream be so vivid? Anthony clearly remembered everything he had experienced while fighting against the Devils for many years. There was no way a dream could feel so real.
Confusion filled his head. Anthony simply could not find any reasonable answer to what was happening. It was clear the fight against the Devils was something that happened.
Then, Anthony opened his eyes and carefully examined his surrounding trying to find an answer for what was going on.
He was in a room that reckoned of cheap liquor and burnt food. He likely was in a restaurant or bar, a cheap one for his standards. Although the Hope Empire had been in war with the Devils since forever and there was not a lot of money that could be freely spent, the palaces from previous empires were still there and nobles were able to live in luxury.
Anthony had only gone to such cheap places in his youth when he was still rebellious. Opposite to his brothers and sisters, he liked to mix with the commoners. Early on, Anthony was not someone considered talented, so the royal family just let him do as he pleased.
It was not until a Hope Empire's ancestor came out of his seclusion to give some pointers about the Chaos Formation to the royal family's young generation that Anthony earned his reputation. He had managed to get insights from it and was able to create his own style. The famous and feared Shadow Flames.
The rest was history. Anthony showed a talent never seen before in Blackfire Continent's history and quickly rose to fame. However, this did not matter as Devils still won the war. Taking all of this into account, it was not possible for him to be in such a place.
Anthony started to panic and felt his world collapsing. This did not make any sense. He should not be trying to repair his Core; he should be dead!
Trying to find an answer to the many questions in his mind, Anthony quickly approached a mirror he saw in the wall. The reflection on it left him completely speechless.
The face he saw in the mirror did not belong to him. Anthony did not consider himself handsome, but girls loved him thanks to his heroic aura. However, he was seeing the face of a pretty man that could captivate girls hearts with just a glance.
This was not a face that belonged to war hero like himself, it belonged to a playboy! His black hair and brown eyes were no longer there. Instead, he now had blond hair, purple eyes, a sharp nose, and defined jaw. This was someone else body!
'How can this be happening? Why am I in someone else body? What happened? Think Anthony, think. There should be a reasonable explanation for this!' He was feeling overwhelmed by this sudden development. Not only was he in someone else body, but he also did not have any memories about it!
Making his brain work at maximum speed, Anthony remembered some books he had read in his childhood and his lips started to twitch. Hope Empire's library was the biggest in the world and he enjoyed spending hours in it. Anthony had read many books about reincarnation when he was young, but his parents always told him that such a thing did not exist. They said those books were merely written for children's entertainment.
Reincarnation. This was the only possible explanation for what he was experiencing. His memories from the war were still fresh, but he did not have any memories about this playboy's body,
Anthony fell into an old chair and tried to remember those books content. He had to find some clues about who this body's original owner was. He would be a fool if he left without knowing at least something about this world. Everyone would think he was a lunatic and will be suspicious of him.
He was thankful towards his younger self for spending so much time reading those books. Anthony managed to find a lot of answers to his predicament.
Most of them were too unrealistic or required a large amount of resources. However, he remembered a method that could unlock the memories of this body's original owner. It consisted of manipulating mana to create a sharp needle that will then be inserted in the middle of his brain. It was the place where all memories were stored.
This required an insane knowledge about how mana worked, but Anthony was confident in pulling it off. Researching the Chaos Formation had given him a deep understanding about mana, but it was still extremely dangerous to do it. Anthony would be putting his life in the line, but he did not manage to remember a better method.
'Huh, my Core is still damaged, and I can only use the mana that is hovering around it. I only have one chance to do it, but I will be screwed otherwise.' Anthony's Core could not store mana in its current state, so he had to use the mana that leaked from it when it almost exploded.
Anthony fell into an extreme focused state. He created a small needle with his mana and moved it close to his brain. He had to be prepared for what will happen next and try to not lose control of himself. Anthony had seen other mages attacking their opponents with mental spells, so he had a notion about what he would feel when the needle pierces his brain.
'Okay, here we go.' Anthony took a large breath of air and made the needle move.
His eyes became bloodshot, and his body began trembling without control, followed by him vomiting blood. His brain felt like a bomb ready to explode. Anthony had not felt such pain even when his Core was close to being destroyed.
He remained in that state for close to a minute, until it finally ended. His body collapsed into the floor, and he started to desperately gasp for air.
"Ahhh, ahhh, ahh, that was really close…" Anthony was still trembling but had managed to survive. "Haha, let me see what surprises this body has. It is time to explore these new memories."
Once Anthony went through this body's original owner memories, a bittersweet feeling rose in his heart.
Right now, it had been 8314 years since Blackfire Continent's creation. This body's original owner was called Anthony Maxwell, a talentless mage from a large noble family in the Vitalis Kingdom who was sent to Arkpus City, one of its many secondary cities.
'Why am I so unlucky? All those books said reincarnation was an excellent opportunity to rule the world, but this clearly is not one of them! Why could I not take over the body of another prince or something like that?' Anthony could not help thinking about this. He was a happy to have a second chance to defeat the Devils, but it would be difficult to do so in the body of a talentless playboy!