In the midst of a battlefield that had become nothing more than a graveyard, surrounded by the mangled corpses of monstrous wolves and humans alike, lay a young man struggling to stay on his feet. The air was thick with the stench of burnt flesh and blood. All around him, a macabre chaos unfolded charred bodies, shards of ice, and pools of blood formed a landscape that could only be described as hellish. The boy, having lost his left arm, was trying to maintain his balance as life quickly slipped away, leaving a trail of blood behind him.
He had not yet reached adulthood, but there was no trace of fear in his eyes. The only thing they reflected was a deep determination, an unbreakable resolve that shone like a dying star in the middle of the darkness. Before him stood a giant wolf, more monstrous and terrifying than any other on the battlefield, watching him with a mix of disdain and curiosity. It was a being that radiated power, with a presence so overwhelming that it seemed impossible to defeat. Its fur, dark as the night, absorbed the light, and its eyes, filled with arrogance, glowed with a menacing glint.
To the wolf, the young man was nothing more than an insect that could be crushed with a single bite, an insignificant being who had either the luck or misfortune of surviving all those who had dared to invade its territory. Yet, there was something about that human that sparked a slight unease and curiosity.
How could someone so weak still be standing before it? Compared to some of the corpses lying on the ground, exuding a far more powerful aura than the human before him, even they had faltered and feared when it had shown a mere glimpse of its presence during the battle.
The boy, despite the wounds covering his body, never took his eyes off the wolf. He gripped tightly onto the staff he had crafted with his own hands, using the best materials he had acquired over years of effort.
That staff had been his companion in countless battles and had been perfected time and time again, becoming an extension of his own will, adorned with gems of various colors that embellished the magnificent silver staff shaped like a spear. With an almost imperceptible tremble, he lifted the staff and pointed it at the creature. His legs wobbled, but his spirit remained unyielding.
Words began to flow from his lips, a whisper that rose into a desperate chant "Elements that emerge from the void, hear my voice and grant me the power to destroy my enemy. Devour all my strength, my energy, my blood, my flesh, and my bones to erase everything from this world... [Genesis Sacrifice]."
This was a spell that no one but him could use, a forbidden incantation that invoked harmony and chaos in their purest forms. The Genesis Sacrifice not only gathered an immense amount of elemental power but fused and repelled them in a constant cycle, creating a contradiction so powerful that it could destroy anything in its path, including the caster himself.
As the young man's words resonated in the air, the wolf began to feel something it hadn't experienced in years fear. A primordial fear, buried deep within its being, urged it to flee, to escape from what was coming. But its instincts, as powerful as they were, were not fast enough.
A myriad of colored orbs began to materialize around the boy, spiraling and intensifying, drawing in particles that seemed to come from many different places. Each orb was a pure manifestation of an element, and they all converged at a single point the boy's staff.
The giant wolf, with its tyrannical aura, barely had time to comprehend what was happening before a blast of light engulfed everything. In an instant, the battlefield vanished, replaced by a crater of pure void about a kilometer in diameter.
The very air was sucked into the void, leaving behind an absolute silence that resonated with total destruction. Nothing remained. There was no trace of life in that place, now nothing more than a scar on the world.
Despite what had happened, the young man, who had expected death, suddenly found himself in a place of complete darkness, an absolute void without light, sound, or anything.
'How strange... I should be dead by now,' he thought as he tried to observe the place he was in, attempting to understand his situation. A feeling of confusion washed over him, but there was no fear in his heart. He had accepted his fate the moment he decided to use the Genesis Sacrifice.
Seeing that nothing was happening, he muttered, "System," breaking the silence that surrounded him. Before his eyes, a blue screen appeared out of nowhere, floating in the darkness. White letters began to form on the screen, revealing familiar information.
This was the system that Earth's Awakened had received during the Great Catastrophe. He had been only eleven years old when he was forced to study and train, later venturing into dungeons infested with monsters, having obtained the profession of Elementalist of the Ten Elements when he became an elemental master, a profession that later evolved into Genesis Elementalist.
With that evolution, he had gained access to one of the three Cataclysm-grade spells, at the cost of his own life and that of every living being around him. The Genesis Sacrifice, a spell that guaranteed total destruction by gathering an immense amount of elemental energy from many different places, left no room for the survival of any living being within its reach.
As his eyes scanned the screen, he carefully read the only thing that appeared.
[Reincarnation Orb]
[Type: Consumable Artifact]
[Rank: Divine]
[Condition of Use: Death of the user]
[Effect: Allows the user to reincarnate in another universe and random location while retaining memories and discarding all original power and talents, or reincarnate on the same planet with superior talent and body at the cost of losing all memories forever.]
The young man, still somewhat confused, immediately remembered the artifact that the system was displaying and how he had obtained it. It was during a particularly brutal raid, a dungeon that had turned into a battle royale between the two hundred invaders.
He had only survived thanks to a consumable artifact that hid his existence in a subspace for a limited time, a mythical-ranked artifact that saved him from certain death when the battle royale timer ran out and the other survivors were annihilated.
In the end, he was rewarded with a divine-ranked item, a level so high that its existence was merely a rumor among the most powerful. He had ignored it, thinking he wouldn't die so young, considering it only as a lifeline in case of death.
"Reincarnate...?" he murmured, pondering the options the system presented. The thought of losing his memories made him shudder. 'Without my memories, I would no longer be myself. My parents, my younger brother... they would vanish from my memory forever. I can't allow that.'
The boy immersed himself in his thoughts, recalling every moment, every laugh, and every tear shared with his family. They had been his reason for surviving, his motive for fighting in a world ravaged by the Great Catastrophe. He couldn't lose them, he couldn't forget them.
"I want to reincarnate in another universe."
The system issued one final warning.
[The system cannot remain with the host. As compensation, you may select one item from your inventory. Do you wish to proceed with reincarnation in another universe?]
He looked once more at the system screen, his resolve firm, and even without the system, he believed he could manage somehow. Moreover, the system allowed him to take one item from his inventory, and almost without hesitation, he was going to choose his staff until he realized something.
"Will I be reincarnated as a human? Or at least be able to use elemental energy?" He at least hoped to reincarnate as a humanoid species, he didn't want to imagine being reincarnated as some animal with no humans around. He also needed to consider whether he could still use elemental energy or if the ways of gaining power would be different, though he hoped to reincarnate in a world like Earth before the Great Catastrophe.
[Unknown]
He hadn't expected anything from the system, yet he still felt disappointed. With a slightly bitter expression, he bid farewell to his favorite weapon and selected the most versatile artifact he had.
"I want to take the Researcher's Transcendence Library."
Immediately, an indescribable pain coursed through his body, a suffering that eclipsed any torment he had ever experienced before. Every fiber of his being screamed in agony as if he were being dismantled and reassembled in real-time. But he did not scream, he accepted the pain with the same resolve with which he had accepted his fate on the battlefield.
And when the pain finally ceased, he was enveloped in a soft light that covered him entirely, and feeling a great warmth, he began to drift into a deep sleep.