New start (1)

An ocean-like desert spread wide and beyond from one horizon to another. Between its reaches, there was one town. It had no name. Built-in the wilds, only the occasional runaway to visit, it was the epitome of a living ghost town.

The opaque sandy winds and dust devils, disrupting the tranquillity of the silent sand, begged to hide the town from travellers. Most wouldn't journey this far in, but for those who did, only the- you could say blessed- found it.

Entering the town you would see a stark contrast to its uncanny surroundings. The streets bustling with man and beasts: wolves, tigers and even flying fish! That was not the most striking feature about the settlement; no, a tall red building, prominently set at the centre of the town dwarfing the structures around it. The landmark had a huge nest of fire blanketing the roof and an even bigger ball of fire levitating above it, the fire suffused warmth into the streets, and was more of a beacon of hope that protected the city from the sandy winds and imposing weather

The tower was surrounded by two walls, one circling the town, made of sandstone and brick while the inner wall carved with intricate designs and dressed in fire, placed as a sign of status than a measure for safety. It had four men standing at the gate. All of them carrying a sword. Each of them had a wolf, constantly looking around sitting beside them. With yellow eyes and groomed fur, the wolves looked well tamed and friendly, but none of the people passing by dared to look them in the eyes as they knew they were only hiding their ferocity. The men wore a uniform of a red shirt with black pants with an emblem- a bird on fire reminiscent of a Phoenix- on their shirt's chest pocket.

Behind the wall, there were houses sparsely spreading from the lighthouse-like structure. In a house at the furthest corner bordering the back, you could see a boy sitting on a tree branch. He sat with his back against the trunk and laid relaxed as he stared at the floating fire between the glistening orange leaves. The boy had short black hair and black eyes. However, his youthfulness opposed his deathly pale skin.

The boy closed his eyes for a moment but when he opened them again he changed. His eyes if before were a clear pool of water, soft and pure, now had turned murky, sinister and a bright shade of red. His facial expression was that of ice, the way he carried himself changed. He looked like a new person from youthfulness to ageing in a second.

He sat upon the tree branch and inspected the surroundings in a glance. He was reminded of a place he had called home. A place he had lost and then buried away forgotten about until now.

The surroundings were that of a garden with a pond. The plants looked well kept as the yellowish grass was well trimmed and the sole tree, the same one he was sitting on, pruned and healthy. The pond water was clear with the odd ripple gliding across its surface

His small pale white hand caressed his neck to feel for any injuries. The feeling of his head ripping off was still fresh.

"I'm sure I was killed. So where is this supposed to be? afterlife? Hell?"

The boy moved his right leg over the branch he was sitting on and jumped off to the left side onto the ground. As his feet touched the ground a red vapour like aura came out from under his feet and moved up his legs as he landed. The boy bent down to ease the fall, and then stood up again, the red aura retreated back down and disappeared.

He was internally surprised. The aura was released instinctively, but he knew his body was weak, and to a pitiful state at that. It needed the assistance of the aura to safely jump off a tree.

Continuing what he was originally doing, he put his hand against the tree bark. His eyes shut to remove all distractions and concentrate on the energies of the tree.

"The tree is alive, so this can't be the place where the dead go. It has strong fire energy and that unique leaf colour, only one place has this variant of a tree - the Fire continent."

Memories flushed into the boy's mind. This place was where his life had started, where he grew up and was supposed to rise up as a legendary summoner. However, through a playful twist of destiny, all was destroyed.

The face of the boy was still blank as he opened his eyes. The memories didn't affect him. He lived for centuries, grew to be a peak level summoner and had long since stopped thinking about his life here.

"This should be the Fire continent of the Mysterious Elemental World. My body has shrunk, severely weakened and lost all elemental energy. So is this an illusion? a dream beast's dream world?"

If he was stuck in an illusion or dream, he needed to break out. The boy put his hand out, and the tip finger glowed with weak energy, his finger moved in a skilful manner and wrote something in the air. The pattern was the slight afterglow trail left the energy on his finger, this glow formed a weird hieroglyphic type symbol.

"Break." The runic symbol dispersed into the wind but nothing changed.

He silently chanted in an ancient language to activate his cultivation art. It took him around five seconds to finish but as he opened his eyes other than a few tree leaves that whisked through the wind as they fell, everything was the same.

The boy furrowed his brows, "It still didn't break? Am I not in some type of illusion? Even if this was an illusion or dream world formed using a 7th rank runic formation I would have broken out."

"This shouldn't be an illusion, the throne of truth would have shattered it, rather it should be some type of dream world. I remember reading about a beast that could put others in a dream inside a dream... an infinite number of times making it impossible to leave the dream world. This situation might be similar to that."

Other possibilities of what the situation was going through his mind.

"But what if this is reality?" This was something that popped in but sounded even more unlikely.

Thinking about the situation a bit more the boy walked up to the pond. He crouched down and looked at his reflection.

What he saw was a pale face, like it had all its life drawn away, he was sure if he slept next to a corpse people wouldn't be able to tell the difference. The cheeks were bony and his eyes dreary. His hair short and dark. He still recognised the facial features, they were his own, he saw a weak younger version of himself.

"This should be me when I was young, so did I go back to the past? Time travel is just a myth, it shouldn't be possible. Even if I did, why does my body look so lifeless? I don't think I ever looked this sickly."

Taking a few steps to the tree, the boy decided to use it to test his strength. He wanted to measure the current strength his body could muster.

His left leg pushed back and his right leg bent down a little to lowered his centre of mass. His left arm pulled back and then whipped with all his muscular strength towards the tree. The punch was fast and tore through the air. It gave a fierce crackle. The red aura appeared again as a thin twisty aura that nimbly drew around the arm as it hit and disappeared, it reinforced the arm preventing injury but was also controlled by the boy to not add to the punch. So the punch only contained pure bodily strength.

The boy had a pitiful smile as he looked at the unaffected tree. He felt a single leaf fall onto his head, the boy didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Before the boy could continue his discovery of how weak his body was an animal flew up to the body.

The being had a very small human-like body made of Fire with body-sized red butterfly wings that let off glitter as they fluttered. It looked at the boy and said something while pointing at the door that led into the house from the garden he was in.

"A Fire Pixie? This should be someone's summoned beast." The boy understood the language the Fire Pixie spoke in, it was elvish, it said: "Come your parents are waiting for you at the table for dinner."

The boy just nodded and patted the dirt off his clothes as he walked into the house with the Fire Pixie leading.

Entering the house he saw a man and a woman talking as they sat at the table. The man had black hair and black eyes similar to the boy. With a height of six feet and a well-built body, you would not be able to tell he was almost forty years old. The woman had maroon hair and eyes, something that is rarely seen on the continent.

The fire pixie flew around the room to tell them it had done its job. It then sat down next to a sleeping red wolf and started saying something to it.

Leon stopped focusing on the pixie and looked at his parents.

"They are still alive. But this is a little different from my memories. I know that around the age of five I had been taken in by the Clan head as a disciple, so I should be in isolation at the moment. Why am I here? Is this not an illusion of my past memories?"

"Leon, how was your nap on the tree..." The woman stopped speaking as she looked at the boy with baleful red eyes.

Leon blinked, this time his eyes were back to the black they were before he awakened his memories.

He smiled as he said, "It was great mother, the wind was warm and refreshing I think I'll start taking more naps outside."

"The slaughter qi was only out for a moment, I should be able to play it off as if they were imagining it." Leon internally noted. He looked at his parents and wondered what else had changed from his memories.

"They are quite different from what I remember. My mother doesn't have any elemental energy in her body, which means she hasn't cultivated and can't summon beasts. While I remember her to be a talented summoner."

Leon walked up to the table and sat down. After eating a few bites he looked at his parents and asked, "Umm... What's today's date?"

"It's the 11th, don't tell me you forgot about tomorrows summoning lecture?" Leon's mother, Sandra Flamesmith answered.

"The summoning lectures? they were these mandatory lectures on the basics of summoning. I was exempted from them as a direct disciple of the Clan head. But it looks like I have been going to them in this life."

Leon laughed and scratched his head, "No, no, I just had this weird dream, so I wanted to make sure what month and year it was."

"It's the 9th solar month of the year 238 of the Kingless Era. What kind of dream was it?"

"It was an amazing dream, mom. I dreamt of growing up to become an invincible summoner. It was so realistic so I was just a little shaken when I woke up."

Everything he just said was nonsense he came up with on the spot. He was internally thinking, "I died around year 440 of the Apocalypse Era. There still is around 200 years until the end of the Kingless Era and the start of the Apocalypse Era. So this is 600 years in the past when I was 12 years old."

Leon's mother, Sandra, and his father, David, both twitched hearing what Leon said. Their eyes filled with sorrow. Leon noticed this and felt like he said something careless. He started focusing on the conversation.

David spoke, "Leon the awakening ceremony is approaching in three months, make sure to listen to the summoning lectures properly and learn from them. The stronger the foundation the greater the height of the summoner."

"Dad I've made sure to listen to everything and even revise when I get back! Mom, the food is delicious! Dad, you better eat faster or I'll finish all of it before you can even get a second serving."

"This really is good, Sandra! Leon don't you dare finish it." David Flamesmith, Leon's father answered.

The mother, Sandra Flamesmith, smiled and said "You don't have to worry I made a lot. This is a new recipe I got from Aunt Reva, she was speaking wonders about it so I had to try it. Looks like she wasn't lying."

David then scoffed, "Boy, don't think I don't know what you're doing. So what did you learn in the last lecture?"

"Ha, ha, dad I learned a lot. Telling you everything would take a while. Why don't you ask me a question and I'll answer it?"

David shook his head in disappointment, "Fine, what is a soul book?"

"You know dad, it's the thing that all summoners form their soul seed after going through an awakening ceremony. It's the medium Summoners use to store and bring around their own contract beasts. Easily one of the most mysterious objects in existence, and is thought to be a blessing given to all humans. Each book is unique to a summoner, where the primal beast, possible blessing and overall growth rate of the book is based on the Summoners talent." Leon smiled. "Dad, how was that, I told you I was studying."

"Well done. So keep up the good work." David said, he looked impressed and surprised.

Leon laughed at his expression.

Sandra who was also on the table listened to the conversation, nodded, "Good job Leon, make sure to continue to work hard, talent isn't as important as people make it out to be, what really matters is hard work. There are many examples through history where people who were thought to be untalented rose to be the strongest in their time. Don't think they're different, we all started the same. Your dream could be a reality if you put your mind to it. And remember no matter what happens we'll be with you, right David."

David nodded to Sandra's words.

Sandra seemed to have a much deeper meaning to those words but Leon acted as if they went way over his head.

"Mom, a simple 'I love you son continue to work hard' would have done fine."

Leon got up at the same moment. "Fine, father you win, I can't eat anymore you can have the rest." He then left the room in defeat.

"Boy, don't think you can ever beat me, your a hundred years too early. I was eating ten times this amount when you were in diapers." David Flamesmith spoke and laughed with his mouth full. Food shooting out of his mouth.

"David manners," Sandra said fiercely.

"Sorry, Sandra, (cough) (cough)... (gulp)... *clears throat*, Wait, Leon, come here."

"Ya, dad? What is it?" Leon walked up to his father.

He took out a glass bottle with three round pills in it. "The pill inside is the body strengthening pill. I want you to eat one every week for the next three weeks, this should help you with your body."

Leon held the glass bottle and nodded, "Thanks dad, I'll make sure I eat them." His face had such genuine gratefulness that you wouldn't be able to tell that internally he wasn't moved at all.

He went up to his room and locked the door. The facade he was wearing fell off. His face lost the childish glimmer.

The bedroom wasn't big. The floor was wooden and the walls were white. It had a one-person bed which was put against the left wall. Completely opposite the door was a large window. Other than that there was a wardrobe and desk together on the right side of the room. It was hard to tell which gender it belonged to since it was so plain and empty.

He walked up to the desk and put the bottle on it. Then went up to the window. He quietly opened it and listened to the conversation happening downstairs.

...

"Honey do you think, that Leon was a bit different today?"

"Maybe, he was a bit more energetic than usual. That boy wouldn't normally dare challenge his father. He's probably growing up."

"No, I mean when he entered the room, I looked him in the eyes, they glowed bright red, I felt suffocated looking into them like he was grabbing my throat."

"That's strange... I think you must have been imagining it."

"Do you think he's possessed? I've heard rumours..."

"That's impossible, we kept an eye on him the whole time he slept. Those are just rumours. You might be feeling tired, have some rest and we'll continue this in the morning."

"Fine." Sandra got up and left as well.

David waited until she left after which his face turned serious. How could he not notice his son change completely?

"Hopefully we are imagining it..." David tried to stay optimistic but knew that something was wrong.