[867th year of Eclipsis, 13th Decembriya]
" Damnit"
A middle-aged man with injuries all over his body sprinted desperately through the dimly lit pathways of the ancient ruins of Ashteron.
His ragged breaths echoed throughout the narrow paths.
Low growl echoed from behind as he ran desperately. His legs glowed with soft flickering blue light, leaving behind small trail of blue. He was using Aura.
He turned around to see a fearsome beast, resembling a hound, looking at him. It's body was adorned with razor-sharp claws and menacing spikes extending from all over it's body. Its eyes glowed ominously in the darkness,gazing right at the very core of his soul.
Shivers ran through his spine. His senses were on full alert, Telling him how dangerous that thing was .
Even while running with all his might the beast could still follow after him.Each step echoed in the eerie silence of the ruins.The beast persued relentlessly it's snarls mingled with his desperate breaths. It was obvious from his ragged appearance that he'd been running away from it for quit a while now.
"I shouldn't have come here!" He thought as he ran across the narrow paths full of debris.
"The mission felt too easy. I should have declined."
He was tired ,he couldn't keep up anymore. Suddenly his senses screamed and told him of the incoming danger.
Just as he was about to ignite his life essence,the ferocious creature closed in on him,attacking swiftly with its razor sharp claws, it severed his legs.
"Ahhhhhhhk!"He screamed with a distorted face and fell down, crashing against the cold walls of the desolate ruin.Intense pain that almost left his mind numb assaulted him yet at that moment his blurry eyes filled with tears met the burning red eyes that stared back at him.
Then he looked down at the severed legs of his not far from him, completely detached from his body covered in his own blood with hopeless eyes.
He knew it was over.
"Grrrh!"
Tap, tap, tap.
The beast slowly started getting closer and his life flashed before his eyes.
An ordinary person named Kaiser Arold, A manaless aura user of the fallen " Five crest Alliance".Not being able to create even a single mana circle. He was considered as an utter failure yet still he persisted.
He became a mercenary and through great luck obtained one of the long lost aura techniques, becoming one of the strongest aura users in history.
And now here he was drawing his last breaths,about to die in a desolate place such as this. Getting killed by an unknown, unclassified monster which even the " Five crest alliance" ,renowned for it's monsters reaserch unit, had no data on whatsover.
His vision grew hazier as he watched death slowly approach, glaring at him.
"So, this is how it ends," he muttered, closing his eyes and accepting his fate. "I'm useless till the end"
The beast inched closer, driven solely by it's instinct. It wasn't intelligent nor was it aligned with any demonic faction, it simply followed its primal urges. It kept playing with it's prey but now that it had it's fun, it couldn't wait any longer to devour its prey, it was prepared to pounce.
But in that very instant,
The tile beneath it gave way, crumbling to expose a concealed deep pit below. With a fierce growl, the beast helplessly plummeted into the depths of the pit in sheer darkness, it's growls dissipating with each passing second before a loud bone crushing sound was heard. The beast died, disappearing with a small growl.
Simultaneously, the wall behind kaiser also disintegrated, unveiling a downward slope,Kaiser slid down leaving behind streaks of blood that tainted the smooth cold surface.
Eventually, the slope came to an end and he plunged into the cold blue water below,bubbles rose from his mouth as he kept drowning.
"Atleast the water is refreshing". He chuckled .
That was the last thought before he lost consciousness.
Kaiser's body kept drowning into the pristine, luminescent water, gradually absorbing the essence of Aether energy, the purest form of energy in existence,diffused with the water. The energy that shouldn't have existed in this continent in the first place.
Several Mechanisms behind the thick walls started spinning before several titles on the wall crumbled. And more water started rushing out. As streams of water flooded the room,Kaiser's body kept absorbing it all along with the diffused aether.
---
---
Kaiser's eye slowly opened.The ceiling, made of rock and covered in thick moss, came into view. He stared at it for a few seconds, watching the water drip slowly, drop by drop.
"I'm alive?" He muttered in confusion.
He then tried feeling his legs but instead of feeling them, intense pain washed over him.
"So It wasn't a dream afterall," he muttered, realizing he didn't have his legs anymore.
He tried using his aura but couldn't use it at all.
"A poison that blocks aura," he muttered, gazing at his hand which were shaking and slowly turning green.
He closed his eyes, thinking, "Atleast i won't get eaten alive, I suppose."
As he awaited his slow yet inevitable demise, a sense of movement broke that stillness.
Reluctantly, he opened his eyes, only to find something hovering in the air directly above his pale face.Summoning his remaining strength, he pushed himself up, using his hand for support, and pressed his back against the wall.
"A Grimoire?" he muttered in surprise, his gaze fixated on the mysterious book descending towards him.
Within seconds, it descended right in front of him. He caught it and examined the intricate patterns adorning the cover, recognizing the symbol of the Ashteron Empire gracing its surface.
"An infinity knot?The relic of the empire?" He thought.
The book emitted a gentle glow as it opened slowly, revealing pages as black as night. The pages turned on their own, magically as gentle wind brushed his face, and after some time it stopped at the very first page.
Gradually, a deep crimson spell diagram began to materialize on the page. Beneath it, two lines written in a demonic language of "Eru" appeared.
Kaiser looked at the lines oddly. The lines say:.
"The true folly lies not in sacrifice, but in failing to extract the fullest potential from that sacrifice."
He frowned, confused as to whose sacrifice it wrote about. However he was given no time to ponder as the lines slowly started disappearing. The diagram started lighting up.
And from the center emerged the tip of a quill pen, followed by its actual body, hovering gracefully in the air. The quill pen was enveloped in an aura black as the night, while the infinity knots on its purple body shined dimly like stars on the dark night sky, creating a mesmerizing sight to behold.
He gulped down a mouthful of salvia. Just from the thickness of aura surrounding it he knew it was an existence far surpassing anything he'd ever seen.His aura, which was considered to be one of the strongest, simply paled in comparison. It was like an ant contesting the whole starry sky.
With an unsteady hand, he reached out and grasped the pen. As his palm made contact, the black aura surrounding the pen responded, gradually enveloping his hand. His right palm underwent a transformation, appearing as if he were wearing a glove made of flickering shadow flames.
Kaiser was once again taken aback, his voice barely audible "A soul gear."
"Soul gears, the very essence of one's soul, materializing only when one reaches a certain level of power." Despite being the strongest aura user, he had failed to attain one due to his lack of Mana.
And now, in this situation, he had obtained one. He could feel this mysterious artifact merging with his being, transforming his very own soul and changing it somehow. After merging it had become his own soul gear yet he didn't know what changes it made to his soul.
But then, a realization washed over him, extinguishing his initial excitement.He looked up at the cold rock walls and roof full of moss. He found it a laughable situation.
"This world really is cruel," he muttered.
The manaless person finally gained his soul gear. But what of it? He lost his legs and was poisoned by an unknown monster.
"A high priest won't help me, I can't afford them even if I get out somehow," he muttered, looking at his hands. He kept thinking to save his life somehow in this desperate situation yet all he could do was accept his end as all options were exhausted.
Then he saw the pen that was in his right hand , and the book in his left hand.
"If I'm dying eitherway, atleast let's die without any regrets," Grabbing the pen tightly, he started to inscribe a sigil on the page .
And he injected the little bit of mana from the pen, the sigil activated and It slowly detached from the page and hovered above it.
A smile of satisfaction crept across his face as he activated his very first spell, unleashing an earthen bolt. The projectile surged forward from the hovering sigil, striking the stone wall, making a small dent .
"So this is the power of my soul gear," he mused, a sigh escaping his lips, accompanied by a tinge of frustration. Once again, the world seemed to mock him.
" A unique soul gear, but for what?"
He felt weak. As poison had slowly circulated throughout his entire body and he would soon die.
The pen and the book disappeared from his hands, and a red tattoo appeared on his hand before disappearing.
His vision started becoming more blurry. As he gazed at the hovering sigil, Which had lost its glow and was about to disappear.
But suddenly he started feeling a warm sensation in his heart, and the once-sleeping mana circle in his heart started spinning.
His eyes opened wide and tears fell from his eyes. "M-Mana, I finally have mana," he muttered.
He repeatedly confirmed it, sensing the mana circle on his heart spinning. However his excited mood sank as this revelation changed nothing. The poison coursing through his body would still lead to his demise.
" Noo! I can't die here"
Now he didn't really want to die. He wanted to live now. He finally has mana. Now he can finally contend against those existances at the top. And those who mocked him for not having mana, as a scourge not loved by the world, he would smack their faces with some earthen bolts.
Wouldn't that be a sight to see!
So he didn't want to die. He could finally make a difference, to save so many lives, to not be so powerless.
So he tried to muster his strength which was long spent fighting that poison. Yet his veins bulged from trying and his faced turned greener. He didn't have legs anymore so he tried to crawl down the only path he could see. His eyes turned hazy and his strength gave in and he fell on the floor face down.
"Nooo, I don't want to die, not like this",he thought, as his family and friends faces appeared in his mind, he really was unwilling.
Sheer darkness covered his soul and he drew his last breath.
And Thus on that day,
Kaiser Arnold, One of the greatest and strongest aura user, drew his last breath.
Yet a peculiar change seemed to be occuring at this very moment,
TIME and SPACE, FATE and KARMA twisted around A QUIL PEN, rewriting the very essence of reality, THE LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE.
And thus reality was overwritten.
And so the eras strongest magical swordman, "Lukas ver owsdin," came into existence and the tragic history would be overwritten.
[To be continued.]