Victor Alchemion awoke with a sharp gasp; his senses flooded with disorientation. He had been sitting at his desk, deeply focused on a new research paper, when suddenly—this. His surroundings were nothing like his research institute's sterile, familiar environment. There was no lab, no computers, no neatly organized papers. Only the quiet stillness of an unfamiliar forest, bathed in strange, flickering light. He blinked, trying to steady his racing thoughts. Where am I? The world around him was alien—towering trees, their leaves shimmering with an ethereal glow, and the air… the air hummed with something he couldn't place. It was like a force was vibrating through every particle around him, unsettling the very fabric of reality.Victor's heart began to pound as panic set in. He took a tentative step forward, but he felt something when his foot made contact with the earth. A strange, invisible force seemed to course through the ground, flowing into him. It wasn't the wind nor the air. It was something else—something alive, or at least, it felt that way. He staggered back, instinctively trying to pull away, but the force wasn't letting him go. He could feel it swirling in his veins, tugging at him. He gasped, his mind scrambling to make sense of it all. It was like the world itself was… alive with energy. But not just any energy. This was something different.
His fingers twitched almost by their own accord, and he felt the mana—there was no other word for it—coiling inside of him. It was subtle at first, barely more than a sensation, but then it grew. A surge of power. Raw. Uncontained. His hands flared with a light pulse—like an instinctive reaction, his body trying to channel the strange energy.
The light vanished almost as quickly as it came, but the effect lingered. Victor staggered, his breath ragged. What… was that? He couldn't explain it. He had read about magic in ancient texts but never believed it was real. It had always been a fantasy, a relic of stories long since debunked. And yet, here he was, feeling something beyond comprehension. The force wasn't just passive—it responded to him, pulling at his thoughts, trying to work with him. Channelling it felt almost natural, like a sixth sense he never knew he had.Victor closed his eyes, trying to focus. The sensation was alien and overwhelming, but it also felt like an unexplored frontier—a science yet to be discovered. He drew in a deep breath, reaching out with his mind to the energy, attempting to control it. Slowly, the pulsing grew steadier, and he felt the mana bend slightly to his will, the faintest sign that it could be shaped, controlled, and understood.He wasn't sure how yet, but he knew—this was no accident. This was a law of nature. If he could understand it and master it, then perhaps he could harness it like any other natural force.Victor stood tall, his gaze steady and filled with quiet resolve. He didn't know where he was or what this world truly was, but he knew one thing for certain—this was just another puzzle waiting to be solved. And Victor Alchemion was never one to shy away from a challenge.The world around him was still alien—towering trees with glowing leaves, a strange, ethereal light flickering through the air, and an unnerving hum vibrating the earth. His senses had been flooded with confusion, which was quickly replaced with something else: understanding. The mana, as he now called it—though he still didn't know what it truly was—had responded to him. It was like a new force, a material that bent to his will, alive yet unlike any force he'd ever studied. At first, it had been overwhelming. A surge of raw power was barely contained within him. But now, in the stillness of this strange forest, he realized something that filled him with both awe and determination:This was science.Victor had studied countless fields, and his research had always sought to reveal hidden truths of the universe. This new phenomenon, this mana, was no different. It could be broken down, analyzed, and understood. It was not magic—a force of nature, a material that could be manipulated.Victor clenched his fist, the mana pulse still faintly humming through his veins. The sensation had faded, but it was still there, like a distant signal calling to him, waiting to be decoded. He stepped forward cautiously, feeling the earth beneath his boots again. The mana swirled beneath the surface, seemingly alive, but he needed to understand it more fully. He had to test his theory. How could this power be used? How could it be controlled?
He had already felt it—briefly—reacting to his thoughts, almost like it were a material that could be shaped with the right calculations, like electrons moving through a conductor. Energy, not mysticism.Victor raised his hand again, the cool air swirling around him as the familiar energy pulse filled the air. He closed his eyes, imagining it—not as a mystical force but as something far more tangible. A substance. A chemical. A process.
He needed to break it down. He needed to approach this like any other element of nature.In his mind's eye, he envisioned the simplest form of magic he could think of: fire. To create fire was to create a chemical reaction, not to summon some intangible force from the void. He focused, reaching out with his thoughts, drawing the mana toward him—not just to manipulate it, but to convert it. Fuel and oxygen—were the basic components of fire. And mana was no different from any other form of energy; it simply needed the right tools to shape it.Victor took a steadying breath, using the precise mental framework he had honed over years of research. He reached into the mana, guiding it. His hands moved in steady motions, directing the energy into forms he could recognize: oxygen, fuel, heat.At first, it was nothing—just a faint hum of power in the air. Then, a spark. A flicker. Fire.The flame was small at first, no bigger than a candle's wick, but it burned. Not as some ethereal, mystical flame but a chemical reaction brought into being by mana. It was a process. He could feel the components of the fire—fuel and oxygen, both converted from the mana around him. He had ignited the reaction, and now, like any scientist working with a controlled experiment, he had to maintain it.The fire flickered as it struggled to burn. The reaction was unstable—fuel and oxygen would dissipate. He reached out again, channelling more mana, converting it into more fuel and oxygen, feeding the fire. The fireball stabilized, its heat radiating outward. Victor couldn't help but marvel at what he had done. This was not some mystical conjuration. This was science at work.He wasn't simply using the mana to make the fire—it was a reaction, constantly maintained by the flow of energy, converted from mana into chemical components that could burn. It wasn't just magic. It was understanding.
Victor's eyes gleamed as he stood over the flickering flame, his thoughts already moving toward the next stage. If he could create fire from the mana, he could shape it into more complex forms. Lightning. Wind. Earth.This world was full of mysteries, but one thing was certain: Victor Alchemion wouldn't just accept them. He was going to master them. The laws of science are applied everywhere, even in this world of magic. He just had to figure out how.Victor clenched his fists, and the fire before him flared briefly with new intensity as though responding to his resolve. The puzzle had only just begun.Victor stood still in the dimming light of the forest, his eyes locked on the small fireball that hovered before him. It was a flickering flame, no larger than a fist, but it was a monumental achievement to him. The reaction he had created—fuel and oxygen from mana, ignited into thermal energy—was proof that the forces of this world could be manipulated scientifically, just as he had hypothesized. But now, he needed to take it further. Fire was easy, simple—too simple for someone like Victor. What he craved now was understanding and mastery. What could he create? What could he control?He took a step back, eyeing the fireball critically. The fuel and oxygen were constantly being replenished by the mana he funnelled into it. But what if he could push it further? What if, instead of simply maintaining the flame, he could shape it into something new—something more complex?Victor's hand lifted again; fingers outstretched as he called upon the mana that still hummed beneath the surface of everything around him. It was a strange feeling, a subtle pull as if the air and earth were eager to answer his command. But he had no illusions. He wasn't controlling this mana—not entirely. Not yet. He was guiding it as he had once guided electrons through wires in his laboratory back home.The thought brought a pang of nostalgia. His world—the world of structured laws, of measurable principles, of science—felt so distant now. But that was not the reality he lived in anymore. His new reality was a world of mana. And if there was one thing Victor Alchemion had always known, every force and phenomenon could be understood through the right lens.
Victor focused on the flame before him, extending his senses outward. He had already understood the basics of fire—fuel, oxygen, heat. But what about lightning? A much more dangerous force, but one he felt could be just as easily understood if approached with the right mindset. Electricity, after all, was simply a movement of charged particles—electrons. And mana, as he had already theorized, was just another form of energy.He took a deep breath, exhaling slowly as his hand began to tremble. The mana pulsed around him, responding to his thoughts. He imagined it now, not as the static fuel for fire, but as a current—a flow of energy that could be directed, like an electrical charge.
He raised his palm higher, and with a sharp mental focus, he commanded the mana to gather. He felt the energy crackle beneath his skin, like the buzz of static electricity, only much stronger.
At first, nothing happened. Victor frowned, forcing himself to relax. This wasn't like the fireball—this required a different approach. Mana was not just a tool for creating flames but a material that could be shaped into various phenomena.
Victor closed his eyes and pictured it—electricity. He thought of the way electrons moved through a conductor and lightning danced across the sky. He imagined the flow of energy, a power surge, ready to be released.
His hand flared with light—a crackling surge of raw energy. Now transformed into electricity, the mana arced from his fingers in a brilliant blue flash.Victor grinned despite himself. The feeling was intoxicating. This was it. This was the force he had been searching for.But just as quickly as it came, the surge flickered and died. The power dissipated into the air, leaving only the faint crackle of residual energy. Victor's hand lowered, his mind already analyzing the event."That's… that's a start," he muttered. The surge had been brief, but it was real. He had just generated a spark of lightning, and in doing so, he had confirmed something critical: mana could be shaped into electricity.
Now, the real work began. He needed to refine his control over it and direct it with precision. One spark wouldn't be enough to show the world his capabilities. He needed more. He needed mastery.
Victor took another deep breath, eyes narrowed in concentration. He raised his hand again, feeling the mana swirl around him like a living thing, eager to answer his call. He needed to shape it again—but this time, he would use everything he had learned.His fingers flexed, and with a mental snap, the mana began to gather, this time stronger, more focused. The air around him crackled again, and just as before, a surge of energy sparked from his fingers. But this time, he held it—shaping the energy into a controlled arc that hummed like a blade of lightning ready to strike.Victor's heart raced. He wasn't just summoning lightning anymore; he was controlling it—moulding it to his will, directing the energy as he had once directed the current flow in a circuit. He could feel the tension in the air, the power that throbbed beyond his reach. But he wasn't done yet.He lowered his hand, the arc of lightning vanishing into the air. The fireball had been a first step. The electricity was the next step. And now, Victor knew what came next: understanding the true potential of mana. It was not just a raw force to be manipulated like a tool. It was a material, a substance that could be transformed into countless forms of energy. He had only scratched the surface.With a small, satisfied nod, Victor stood tall. The world around him—this strange, unknown place—was full of endless possibilities. If he could master mana like he had mastered the laws of physics back home, nothing in this world would be beyond his reach.