Nascent Edge

When I was first reincarnated, I didn't suddenly gain all of my memories at infancy.

It was a slow process - a steady stream of silhouettes of people I never met and foreign bi-lingual information that I never learned, occasionally popping up in my head or when I remembered something memorable. All of which culminated into my 3 year old self going "Woah, I'm still me." because what else was a toddler supposed to draw from that? Child brains weren't known for their mind boggling philosophy and critical thinking, even with another life to my name.

I didn't expect anything after getting struck by a thunderbolt. Not enough time to think of anything other than "Oh shi-" followed by an indeterminate time in nothingness. And then with a click of epiphany I had little child hands, little child feet, magic glasses that stopped me from getting blinded by any magic inside my magic home, and a magically gifted sister with paraplegia caused by a magical mutation in her soul, that I had to take care of.

Right. Magic was real in this world, and it was connected to many things. Some mythology actually happened, and thus weren't myths; conspiracies were made and used to divert public attention from the fact that magic was real; and the way I Breathed and Walked made me more magically powerful than the usual mage. That was too many times I thought of the word magic.

The worst thing about it was definitely the loss.

I didn't expect to die, to not have time to say goodbye, to lose everything in the blink of an eye.

So what else was I supposed to do, other than to vow not to let it happen again? I've had years to cry out my grief, and the only thing left after my tired mind could rationalize the life ahead of me was to make a promise to myself. That was the determination that pushed me through those years of pain.

So I died, entered the ephemeral slumber of nothingness, and lived again.

I think the best part, in this new life, was the wonder of the supernatural. At least, at first.

Magic was real. Did I mention that yet? It was unfortunately dying and getting weaker as the ages pass, but it was real and it was wonderful.

I was reborn as Caules Forvedge of the Yggdmillennia clan of Magi, and it had its ups and downs with several theses worth of jargon that would be a chore to parse through. So the cliff notes version was such:

As a Magus, it was familial tradition to pursue the Akashic Records, the Root of Existence, the Truth of All(and whatever other title it was called by), through researching Magecraft, the artificial reenactment of any possible phenomena through supernatural methods. This goal was attempted by any means necessary to the Magi in question, for power, prestige, bragging rights, or any other reason for having virtually unlimited power in an urban fantasy world.

Magic circuits were the spiritual organ stored in the soul that allowed Magecraft to happen. Their most basic purpose was to convert life force into magical energy(prana or arcana for some colloquial abbreviations), with that energy being left to the discretion of the caster. From the old ages of humanity, they were a mutation in the soul that were made of excess spiritual substance formed during gestation. And, discovering that they were both inheritable AND provided means for supernatural power, were used by the first spellcasters of the Age of Gods, for communion with nature and the divine.

A long term solution for reaching the Root was created by those spellcasters sometime in those old ages, in the form of a Magic Crest - a collection of a Magus family's magic circuits that catalogued spells and magical knowledge, and could be passed onto blood relatives with varying degrees of success.

As the second child of the Forvedge family, I was only the backup heir in case my older sister died. The family Crest would go to me if that happened. She had extremely powerful circuits, but an unwanted mutation in their composition resulted in her paraplegia, with frequent and consistent bouts of pain in her legs whenever she exerts her circuits.

...yeah right. As if I'd want to carry on a lineage of immoral magic with a less than reasonable price, if Fiore died.

And so, I was the caretaker and younger sibling of a crippled prodigy, one that loved Magecraft as much I did, if not more. One that, by virtue of her talent, was expected to lead a clan of moderately amoral magic researchers. One that I watched and grow into a young woman of ambition despite all that this life threw at her. One that put her faith and trust in me. There was no way I was leaving the only family I loved and respected in this second life. There was also no way I would be content with being a burden that lacked skill and power, ending up a simple target to be eliminated...or a side character.

The Nasuverse was a scary, scary place after all.

So where did that leave the present me?

Why, working part time with a company of assassins, of course.

-0-0-0-

{Germany. 2004}

The early morning sunlight shone upon the neighborhood subdivision, the cool 6 AM breeze pairing comfortably with the soft warmth of light that hit me.

I guess calling it a subdivision was a bit too generous. It was one of those gated neighborhoods that only rich people could afford to live in. Wide and clean asphalt roads. The houses were large, with front and backyards, and about half of the residences had their own personal swimming pools. Each home was separated by at least 50 meters of space between them. Nice open areas of grass and sidewalk, perfect to place a Bounded Field in.

My palm was outstretched, particularly pointing to the large house(a small mansion, more like) in front of me. It was more secluded than the rest, victorian in design, constructed with tall barred fences and this weird rotten smell if you get too close to the place.

Resting on my hand was a jewel pendant, an aquamarine shaped like a dolphin. It glowed with an ethereal light of Prana as it emanated shiny mist - mist which flowed out of it, circling around and inside the creepy Magus house, and eventually flowing back into the pendant. All of this happened in a cycle, another symbolism to link with water elemental Magecraft.

Frustratingly, this cycle has been going on for the past 20 minutes. Me and my current coworkers haven't even eaten breafast yet.

"When will it be done?" A man, just a few years my senior, pointedly asked. He had sharp features, black hair mixed in with dry flecks of colorless white, and glaring silver eyes. His shoes clicked on the ground, tapping away with impatience.

"Gimme 5 more minutes to break some of the house traps. After that, we'll be good to go." I responded, just as I felt a piece of the 2nd floor floorboard crumble to dust. Yet another curse floating into the glowing mist made from my little Mystic Code.

Dear Root, I think that was the 40th I've dismantled. Why did paranoid magic psychos have to be so thorough and secure?

"Yes, and you said the same thing 5 minutes ago, but with the excuse of "triple checking for traps". I thought you were supposed to be competent in taking down Boundary Lines."

"Hey, don't blame the home wrecker; blame the home. I'm just as miffed as you are." As I said that, I purposely set off the 42nd trap my mist sensed in the house - a barrage of needles shooting out from the walls. They were coated in a familiar neurotoxin that physiogically disabled a spellcaster from accessing their circuits. A bit useless against me, but not for my coworkers. Yet another crisis averted.

Darnic was paying a decent price for this assignment, but I mostly wanted whatever stuff that this Sulfrum Magus had in his workshop. The Sulfrum dealt in Spiritual Evocation, the same department as Forvedge, so he was bound to have reagents that I could claim as spoils. He was pretty much considered "dead" after no contact with anyone for 7 months, and the Second Owner of the town - the magical landlord - already declared the evoker as AWOL. The Second Owner mentioned something about undue rent for the past year and a half, which was more than enough reason for our little branch of Zugzwang to invade/investigate. Invadestigate.

Sure, we were branded as "assassins" for those that knew of Zugzwang's reputation, but on paper we were more like a mercenary group that worked for cheaper prices than the Mage's Association offered. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of groups like us all around the world who cared little about pursuing the Root. It was slightly frowned upon in the higher echelons of Magus society, but not actually illegal by the MA's laws.

"-all I'm saying is that we shouldn't let him dictate the situation we're heading into. The Second Owner was already scarce on the details, we don't need Baby-Blue-Eyes to use this to set us up." Jerkass said. Their conversation fading into my focus.

"Heinz, he is literally the reason you didn't lose an arm and an eye last summer. Stop antagonising the damn medic already. Then again, how much longer is this going to take, Caules?" In contrast to her older brother, the young woman had a softer but similar shaped face, fully black hair tied into a bun, and the silver eyes of the Einskaya family. Like us two, she wore the usual Zugzwang uniform of a black suit.

"I can hear you two just fine, y'know? Also don't worry, I just got done with the trap breaking, Weiss. This guy doesn't mess around considering there were 56 of them. Honestly, the Bounded Fields were the easy part." I called out.

"And how "hard" could those traps even be?" Heinz asked.

The gem in my hand shook, streaks of black and red lights cracking through its shape as the glowing mist it produced had dissipated.

I quickly chucked it onto the grass next to the house, where it exploded into a blaze of curses.

The dying moans of apparitions quickly faded, but the plants within its immediate area had wilted and died by the next second.

It was also on fire. Very on fire, of the mystical kind. It took me a solid minute of using water Magecraft to put it out before unwanted attention came along.

"Believe me now?"

My colleague had a more subdued expression after that, which was a bit hard to tell with his natural resting bitch face.

"To answer your question, dismantling them wasn't hard but spotting the worst of them were. Even at both your best, my natural magic resistance is a lot higher than your own. Too many things could've went wrong."

"Point noted. Anything more on site info we need to know?" Weiss asked, still throwing glances at the ruined spot of grass.

"Good news: no more traps in the house except for the Workshop, which I can't see into. Bad news: I couldn't find Baldimor Sulfrum anywhere, and I can't see into his Workshop."

And that was considered the worst situation to fight any decent Magecraft practitioner. A Magus' Workshop was their most defended place, their sanctuary of mystical progress in which they always kept to themselves, with little to no exception.

The Fields around Sulfrum's Workshop were already taken care of; inside of it was another matter. The flowing mist which tried to penetrate into the place would always evaporate before it got close, and I knew for a fact that very few things had enough mystical weight to do that. Spiritual evocation was this man's known forte, so that narrowed down some possible scenarios.

"The usual then...?" Weiss said with more trepidation than confusion.

Her brother cut in harshly, "No. Not the usual. Sulfrum isn't one of those third rates on the run, and he's one of the few contacts Yggdmillennia has that provides quality phantasmal reagents. If we compare his craft and resources to Forvedge's, there would be no contest in terms of potential lethality. Who knows what kind of magical beasts he has in there?"

I ignored the (accurate)jab and chipped in, "Other than the stated details - according to a credible source, he could have jackalopes, wargs, weak djinns, and a shit ton of low level animal familiars. Not much different from any spirit evoker."

"Your source being?"

"My sister, mostly. She was somewhat of a regular for his products. Our family had a...decent relationship with him since he was pretty reliable when it came to delivering stored apparitions en masse." I adjusted my glasses, the peripheral glimpse of a permeating haze of heat now suffused the house's image. "Right now though, the major unknown with breaking into his Workshop is a Mystery related to fire. It's...strong but simple. Its Foundation in the World has more weight than anything we have at the moment, but it feels limited and...I think flighty? It feels the need to be free and soar and- okay, it's definitely a Phoenix."

Heinz grunted at that, "So we're most likely to encounter a Phoenix related Mystery? Good to know. So are we going in or not?"

"Wait, already? What happened to not underestimating the target?" Weiss asked.

"We've done enough estimating. We had the prep time; we have the tools; and now we have the opportunity. If Heinz and I are right about what we're about to face, my Mystic Code is specifcally made for dealing with evocative Magecraft within reasonable strength, which our target falls into. Ergo, we're heading for the Workshop, confirming a death, and then we'll ransack the place." I said.

Weiss looked to her brother, who curtly replied, "What he said. I detest how he's our only medic in this scenario, but he's our best bet against whatever Sulfrum could have."

He turned to us with a more professional posture, like the leader he was supposed to act as, "Forvedge, I'll take the front while you watch my back. If the opportunity for a pincer maneuver against the Magus presents itself, take it. Weiss, you're backline. Shoot any visible openings and apply liberal use of rune stones when necessary. Understood?"

Weiss and I nodded.

"Good. Let's move."

The short trek that followed was an unevenful one. There were no more traps to stumble on and no hidden enemy to fight that had not been exorcised a while ago.

The heat, however, became more apparent the closer we got to the basement, right where the door to the Workshop was. By the time we were at the doorstep, we were sweaty and breathing heavy from the hot air. The rest of my team's circuits were active with light strain to resist the surrounding magic, showing through their exposed skin as glowing blue circuit-like patterns.

With a moment to rest, I sunk into a state of concentration, my breath became unnaturally even and my gait was hypnotically coordinated. Mana started to draw into my body more than it already was, mixing even smoother with my Od, and I could feel my body getting lighter, tougher, and stronger.

Training this talent - to Breathe and Walk - was a strange thing at first. I'd been doing it naturally, wondering why practicing magic was so easy, until Alder Forvedge, my father, pointed it out to my 6 year old self.

Obviously, I grinded the absolute hell out of it - a rare talent that Chinese Magecraft practitioners would sacrifice their children for. Cultivating it every single day, until my progress plateaud to what it was now.

At a passive state just a second ago, I slightly breached the "peak" of human physicality. I could deadlift a metric ton, sprint at highway speeds, and dexterous enough to catch a mosquito in the air with chopsticks and not kill it. Mystically, my power output would make me a below average mage in practice, able to use simple spells, with only my Prana generation outstripping most Magi due to my consistent Mana intake. The only reason to use my natural circuits in the first place was a small increase in Prana output and a large increase in control.

And right now, with my "Flow State" letting me Breathe and Walk to my best capability? While my capacity and power were barely above average, my casting speed exceeded most combat ready Enforcers in the Mage's Association. And as far as I knew, my physicality was a level above the Church's Executors. Y'know, agents of the Church physically and magically trained to terminate unholy beings like vampires?

That was a neat thing to discover when our team went on a mission to kill a turncoat Yggdmillennia necromancer, only to find out that he was also on the Church's kill list for doing unspeakable things. Although their CQC was magnitudes more polished than mine, my fully strengthened state let me win that battle with easily healed bruises and scrapes, while the executor pair left with broken bones and a grudge.

The enchanted steel door in front of me wouldn't last a serious hit. I just left that to my colleague though. I was saving my role as the perceived "medic" in case the Magus used certain tactics on us.

While all our uniforms were Reinforced to their realistic maximum, we each had our own Mystic Codes at hand. Weiss had a revolver with curse bullets. Heinz had a pair of leather gloves and combat boots laced with runic script. I had a butterfly knife that I used for exorcistic and spiritual healing Magecraft, and a left pocket full of animal spirits stored in marbles.

I pocketed my glasses, and my sight was overlayed with the ethereal blaze in front of me, bright enough for me to squint on reflex.

"Your move." I nodded to the brother, who moved into a stance in front, fist pulled back.

He breathed deep and pulled from his, admittedly, small prana capacity.

"Advent of chaos, herald your requiem."

Yellow sparks flitted off his arm, while runic letters glowed through the glove.

"Misfortunes of the harbinger, bless our weary limbs."

Light coalesced and lightning crackled.

I forgot how magic practitioners could be chuuni as hell with their Aria. Thank Root I practice most spells until I could do them with a single line, if not silently.

"Deliver us from evil, prayer of the damned."

The spell focused into his fist, and he threw a wild haymaker.

"Einstürzen!"

The door broke with a loud boom, turning into mere rubble that flew into the Workshop.

As the smoke almost cleared, and the heat started to rise with the door's breakdown, I spoke up.

"We've been trying to reach you about your house's piling rent. Please do not resi-"

An ear piercing screech hit us without fanfare, and I looked at the abominable chimera of magus and phantasmal beast charging at us.

The first thing to come to mind when seeing it was that Heinz and I were right.

It was distinctly male and was, by logic, Baldimor himself, even if the face was a deformed shape of melting tissue and scarred skin. He was a half charred, half scarred man in obvious pain. His left leg was a talon from the knee down, and a pair of torn wings with ugly red feathers protruded from his shoulder blades.

Even with my sight being bombarded with his aura of blaze/flight/r̴e̵b̴i̸r̸t̵h̸, I refused to even blink.

"Β̸̡͙͊͝ο̷͎͛͆ή̵̜̂θ̸̩͗̓ὴ̶̫̚σ̵̢͇͋͗έ̴̛̥̔ ̸̘͊μ̸̛̬̼͒ὲ̶̦̫̚!"

Luckily, so did my teammates.

3 shots were fired from Weiss, hitting the target's wing, abdomen, and grazing a shoulder in quick succession. A smoke of green and black rose from the already healing wounds, the curse of decay failing to take hold.

His screech was like scratching a plate with a fork turned up to eleven, and I moved out of the way as a blast of fire came toward me.

I ran across the charred ground of the Workshop, balisong in one hand and wolf marble in another. Heinz seemed to notice and followed suit, almost matching my speed and coming from the chimera's other side.

Sulfrum's head twitched between the two of us, before he made the split second decision of aiming his sights at my teammate. I squinted as he exuded a wave of heat, before his arms burst into flames.

He turned his back on me.

Sulfrum's target was my teammate, and I didn't feel confident in his ability to block phantasmal flames. My knife wasn't strong enough to exorcise him fully at his current state, and I didn't bet if he would flinch at my attack, for Heinz to reposition.

I had to move the Magus out of the way.

"Wolf Fang-" I crushed the marble under my step while sprinting, enveloping my left leg in a ferocious and heavy essence, taking the transparent shape of the animal's head and maw.

Despite more pained screeching coming from him, Sulfrum directed a wide stream of fire at Heinz.

His shout of "Eihwaz!" quickly covered his upper body in a gold aura before getting hit with flame.

A split second - I was behind him.

"-Impact!" I swung my leg in a roundhouse kick. I felt the wing's bones crack, following through until I hit his neck, which was sturdy enough to not simply rip apart from my attack.

He was flung to the center of the room like a ragdoll. And while he was on the ground, surprisingly still writhing with a snapped neck, 2 more gunshots went through his neck and his temple.

We became more cautious than baffled when he screeched even louder, stumbling onto his feet like a man possessed.

"μ̵̠̑̏έ̵͎̞͆ ̴͖͖͐͝κ̵̹͎̚α̵̲͓̃͆ί̸̪̗̐ε̸̘̥͂ι̴̜͌͜!" His body bursted into a mass of flames, screeching all the while, enveloped in a thick bright layer of mystical fire.

Weiss fired her last shot but the bullet never penetrated. Thankfully, it didn't matter at this point. While the room would be scorching for a mundane human, we were just panting and sweating buckets, waiting for the heat to die down.

Strangely but fortunately, the flame never reached out for us, staying as a concentrated ball around the magus. But as the seconds passed, his flames weakened and thinned to embers.

We stood back as a long minute passed, his voice petering into a whimper as he fell back to the ground.

I nodded to my team. He wasn't faking it. My eyes saw the very Mystery fraying and dissipating from his body.

"σ̴ε̵ ̷ι̷κ̸ε̶τ̸ε̸ύ̴ω̸..."

"Don't waste your bullet on him, Weiss. I'll take care of it." I said before my teammate could cock her aimed gun.

I stepped towards the immobile Magus, glancing across the Workshop in disappointment.

While the unusual situation ended up to our advantage, the only things that weren't soot and ash were the walls and the more sturdy resources Sulfrum had in store. While there were some things of value outside the Workshop, this was the only place where my team could discreetly appropriate some materials for personal use.

"I'll entertain last words if you have any."

The only response I got was the light raspy breath of a man on death's door. I pitied the man. He was yet another example of magic gone wrong, someone that made an error grave enough to lead into imminent death.

"Fool. Just kill him before he has a chance for a post mortem curse." Weiss gave her brother a judgemental stare as he said that.

I didn't dignify him with a response since I knew with just a look that Sulfrum wasn't getting up after this. His very essence looked like it was crumbling to ash; his circuit activity was nonexistent; and the last embers of Mystery were only keeping his torso and head intact, his limbs turned to ash just moments ago.

Both my hands clasped my knife of silver, holding it as if in prayer.

"I will kill. I will let live.

I will harm and I will heal.

None will escape my grasp.

None will escape my sight."

The blade glowed in holy white light.

If the Church knew I stole one of their strongest exorcism spells without permission AND was able to shorten it to a mere 5 line chant? My ass was holy grass. Luckily, my team put each other in a magic NDA for that sort of thing.

"Kyrie Eleison." I stabbed at the heart.

Sulfrum's wings crumbled to ash, leaving him a melted human torso before that too crumbled.

All that was left of him was a pile of ash and dust. That, and a Workshop to take care of.

"This...felt too easy." Weiss said.

"Hm, it did, didn't it? I'm more surprised that he lasted so long with a botched invocation."

"Which means Sulfrum succeeded in some things but failed in too many others." Heinz looked across the room. "Unfortunately, we don't have any record to know what he exactly did. Now, Forvedge."

"Yeah? Oh damn." I looked to see his arms raised in front me, and the glare he was giving.

"Stop wasting time and heal my fucking arms." He said with a clipped tone and third degree burns.

"Yup! Getting right on that, boss."

As I healed his nerves, muscles, and skin, I looked past his worriedly scolding sister to see a handful of feathers in a corner. To my naked Pure Eyes, they glowed with a mystical heat. It was a jackpot that I called dibs on later, knowing that this trip was worth it despite the reduced paycheck.

What a great start for my spring break.

-0-0-0-

AN: Well, it hasn't been 9 months, but here I give you a chonky chapter. Huzzah! Here we see a magic mercenary in his natural habitat, showcasing his current abilities for when the War rolls by soon. Honestly, this was more exposition than action, and idk how I did with both.

anyway, see you in a few months lmao