The sky split open.
It wasn't poetic. It was literal.
One moment, Kael was walking home from school—standard gray uniform, earbuds in, humming some half-remembered tune.
The next?
The clouds burned.
Light—wrong light—bathed the Earth. Blue at first. Then white. Then something else, something his eyes couldn't comprehend. Buildings trembled. Birds screamed. Every electronic device in a hundred-mile radius died in unison, as if silenced by a god's breath.
And then… Earth expanded.
Not metaphorically. Not tectonically. Literally.
Streets stretched for miles. Trees grew into forests in seconds. Oceans widened beyond comprehension. The planet itself ballooned outward as if it were shedding skin—becoming something more. Something vast and infinite.
That was the day they later called the Awakening.
Kael survived it.
Barely.
Some people disintegrated on the spot—unable to handle the surge. Others mutated into nightmares: spines twisting, eyes melting, flesh giving way to glowing cores. They became the Veyriths.
Kael… changed.
The mana entered him. Violently. Without permission. It shattered every bone, every nerve, every cell—and rebuilt him. It didn't ask what he wanted.
It only asked if he could endure.
And Kael did. Gasping. Screaming. Alive.
From that day on, he ran.
Fought.
Killed.
Survived.
He learned to bend fire to his will. Learned to listen to stone, command wind, and siphon raw energy. While others strained to control a single mana element, he could touch them all. None fully. None perfectly. But enough—to survive.
"Omnimana."You're either cursed by it… or chosen.
But even that wasn't enough.
Not when the Veyriths evolved. Not when they swarmed the outer walls in waves.
Kael stood at the breach.
Bloodied. Burned. Breath ragged.
His body was cracking from overuse—veins glowing with unstable light. He stood between Elderborn and Mythborne, a miracle in itself… but time was never on his side.
Not then.
"Hold the line!" someone shouted behind him.
He didn't answer.
He knew what was coming.
He knew this was it.
He released everything.All his mana.All his strength.All the chaos within.
And he burned.
The sky split once more.
A thousand years passed.
Where... am I?
Kael opened his eyes.
Ceiling above. Warm light. Soft blankets. A quiet hum in the walls—like mana, but refined, distant.
He raised his hands. Small. Fragile. Childlike.
Reincarnation?Another world?
No... not quite. The feeling in his core was unmistakable. Familiar—but calmer now. Controlled.
His thoughts raced.
The future. I've been reborn in the future.
But how long? Ten years? A hundred? A thousand?
He sat up slowly. A breeze flowed in from a high window. Trees swayed outside, but they were different—larger, glowing faintly at their roots. The mana in the air was richer than anything he remembered. Not wild and furious, but cultivated.
Tamed.
His fists clenched over the blanket.
He should be grateful. He was grateful. A second chance. A breath beyond death.
But...
Why me?