Fifteen broken ribs. Both hands shattered. Dislocated shoulder. Fractured skull. A concussed brain. Left leg gone. Right leg in surprisingly good condition. Destroyed vertebrae. Herniated discs. Painful ligaments. Aching joints. Torn muscles. A punctured lung.

I was doing well, all things considered. I should have expected this outcome. A one-sided fight against a damn demon. Both in the figurative and literal sense. Sure, I was a genius in magic and swordsmanship, but I was 13, for God's sake.

Daemons have the natural capacity to live at least 200 years. I'd fought someone way out of my league. If I was maybe ten years older, I might have stood a chance, but not in my current situation.

I was, and still am, the best magician and fighter my age, but plenty were older and better than me. Being able to control mana innately at the age of 1, I recognized my uniqueness. People called me hardworking, talented, and innovative, among other things.

By the time I was 12, I had become a fifth-circle mage, a feat that even the best of geniuses could only reach in their 20s. I can use all eight elements at an advanced level. I can also manipulate mana in ways never seen before—a bona fide magical genius.

I was also an upcoming swordsman and had already reached the third tempering stage. Tempering was the magic fighters used to reinforce their bodies. The public knew this as the fantastic feats of Alexander Bellmont, the heir to the Bellmont Duchy.

Yet that was all the public knew. Not only did I achieve all those remarkable feats, but I was unique in another way. I had memories of my past life. A secret I would keep to the grave.

I didn't remember who I was or even what I did in my past life, but I had all the knowledge. I remembered a world of technology, math, art, and electricity. It was a sharp contrast to this world of magic and monsters.

I always had these memories from the moment I was born. I was fully conscious by the time I was 6 months old. To think with clarity and perceive with the vividness of an adult brain. I have no memories of my past name, family, or friends, but all I had learned and thought about the world carried on.

One of the reasons I was so good at magic was my innate curiosity. My curiosity drove me to explore magic and this world, and it was this blind curiosity that led me to where I am.

In all the novels I'd read, the protagonists hid their power. They did so to avoid ending up like me, targeted for my anomaly, and almost killed for it.

It started on New Year's. Returning from the imperial ball with my family, we saw that our duchy was under attack by monsters. There had been no preparation, no warning. After securing my siblings and me, our parents left to defend the duchy.

They were the duchy's most potent forces. My mother is a fantastic ninth-circle mage and my father is a seventh-rank warrior. They are among the empire's top ten powers.

I was left to defend my younger siblings, two twin sisters, ages three and three. The family butler also helped me reassure them, which I greatly appreciated. As the best fighting force among them, it was up to me to keep them safe from the monster tide.

I went out, and the butler took care of my siblings in a little cave we found for shelter. There were already some low-level monsters sniffing around outside. I rushed to take care of them before securing the cave. They would be safe here. The duchy needed reinforcements, and I was planning on going.

Conjuring up an earth barrier and laying down some array formations, I left without delay. It would already be too much for the butler or me if anything could get past my barriers. After all, barriers were my specialty. I went toward town, cleaning up monsters and helping whatever people I could along the way.

When I finally came out of the forest, I saw the city below, destroyed beyond recognition. At its source was a large man—or rather, upon closer inspection, a daemon. Daemons are a humanoid race of magical beings that once were at war with humans.

Yet, the last of the daemons moved to the western continent almost 200 years ago. They shouldn't have been here now. I continued observing the daemon, a giant beast of a man with hair covering every part of his body and a piggish face.

I was amazed because I had never seen an actual daemon in real life. But that amazement didn't last as I saw my parents approaching him in battle. My face turned pale as I realized one thing—my parents would never defeat him.

While strong, among the top ten in the empire, my parents were still young. Daemons could live twice as long as humans, the oldest known being 243 years old before they died. Judging by the aura of the daemon, he was at least 100.

That meant he had trained way longer than my parents. His mana core was blue, one level above my mom's, and his aura suggested a tempering level of at least eight. All the tiers were exponential. My parents wouldn't be able to beat him with even twice their current power.

I had to do something. And so I did, using my most potent magic, space magic. I had only recently started dabbling in the space element, so I couldn't summon a black hole or tear space apart. With enough time and energy, however, I could make a blade. It would be my most risky and powerful attack if I pulled it off. But I didn't know how effective it would be.

It would kill him at best or do nothing at worst, but it was better than seeing my parents die. It is clear that it didn't work; I am lying here, half-dead. My parents fought with great determination and valor as I prepared the magic.

They bought me enough time to finish my magic and come in with a surprise attack. The blade managed to take the guy's arm off, but to him, it might as well have pricked. While I managed to injure him far worse than my parents had, I paid the price.

He was pretty pissed off and beat me half to death. None of my other attacks got me out of the stun combo he gave me. I resigned myself to death, but not before a final trick. The daemon had already flung and chased me out of town, so we were in the middle of nowhere.

As such, I didn't have to worry about any casualties. I started my trick as the daemon loomed over me. The guy was talking, giving his villain monologue as he stood over my body. He thought he had won.

"You must be Alex." He started. "The prodigal genius. The once-in-a-generation talent."

"And who are you?" I asked with a challenging tone.

"You'll be dead before long, so I can tell you. My name is Zulran, and I am from the House of Tennak. Remember my name as your executioner. You won't have to remember it for long, though."

As the daemon raised his weapon, a giant executioner's axe that appeared out of nowhere, I bid for more time.

"Before you kill me, at least tell me why," I asked.

"It's useless to try and buy time. You're not leaving alive. But I guess I can answer your question." The daemon lowered his axe and planted it on the ground. "I originally wasn't planning to, but you forced my hand.

I'm a general in the Daemon King's army—the mightiest of the mighty. Usually, I wouldn't even be on this continent.

But there was a prophecy—a child of destruction born to humans, destined to lead the world to ruin. Now, you aren't it, but you are close." The daemon lowered his head and looked me in the eyes.

"I can see your soul, anomalous as the night is dark—a wrench in our plans. You had to go. You might not be the one of prophecy, but we cannot ignore anomalies." The daemon's tone turned grave. He moved his head back, standing straight and looking down at me.

"You know what the funny thing is?" he continued. "I'm a simple advance guard, not to act without reason. I didn't even know you were an anomaly at first.

I was here to scout the humans and gauge their power. The prophesied child isn't even to be born for another 15 years. I stumbled upon you, not by chance, but by your hubris.

You might not be aware, but your fame has spread far: 'The mythical child,' 'The greatest genius of the era.' That made me think: what if the prophecy came early?

I had to check it out. The prophecy concerns not my interest but the world's safety. Of course, I know now you aren't the one.

Still, it is your hubris that wrought this destruction. This wouldn't have happened if you had kept your power a secret. You revealed information that was essentially national secrets." The daemon shook his head, almost in pity.

"A prodigy like you should have been protected, not revealed until the best possible moment. The Empire must have gotten soft after all these years. You should have kept quiet."

Those were the last words from the daemon's mouth as he lowered his axe onto my neck.

It was then I ignited my ace: a mini-nuclear reaction. But instead of uranium or plutonium, it was with mana. It was a theoretical plan I had come up with. I exploded dense enough mana to cause a chain reaction with all the ambient mana. I had experimented with this on a smaller scale but had never scaled it up.

This time, it wasn't some slim mana crystal. I exploded my whole mana core—a solid four-inch-diameter sphere of mana. I didn't know what had happened, but I woke up here after the explosion.