Arrival (Prologue)
The Coppery tang of blood pervaded the crisp forest air as an ethereal form, blanketed by the fog, stepped into the glade. She would have looked almost sacred if not for her Manic countenance, her crazed eyes coupled with her deranged expression, oozing a bloodcurdling aura that caused even the wildest of beasts to flee.
Even the very grass beneath her pale feet seemed to wither with every step she took toward her object of reverence.
Drawing closer, she broke into a frenzied run, echoing a bone-chilling shriek that seemed to make the very trees surrounding the glade cower in fear.
The very earth beneath her toes trembled as she skidded to a stop in front of perhaps, the oldest being that remained since the Great Catastrophe that marked the beginning of recorded history.
The awe-inspiring aura of the Blood Oak left Sylvaine's mouth gaping in awe as her eyes seem to voraciously devour the breathtaking wonder that lay beyond her.
Kneeling at the base of the tree whose trunk soared into the clouds, she snapped her fingers, causing a small leather sack to materialize from thin air.
Other than the undeniable throbbing that seemed to be coming from whatever was inside the vessel, the sack appeared to be an unremarkable one used for storing items that you could purchase at any local weaponaire, although it looked like it had seen a great deal of use.
Sylvaine dumped the contents of the bag onto the roots of the tree , stirring them to life.
Thousands of little roots branched off the main ones and proceeded to drain the life out of the pulsating lump of flesh which eerily resembled a human heart.
A huge rumble shook the forest a few moments later as Sylvaine lay in a pool of blood, impaled by vines protruding from the oak, her demented laughter echoing in the forest as the last drops of mortality left her whimpering body.
Meanwhile, in another corner of the world, underneath frigid winds and a cold moon, a boy was born.
ARRIVAL
I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar face, with emerald green eyes and flowing golden hair, it appeared to be the face of a woman who was in her twenties.
As she drew her face closer to mine, I reached my hands out to stop her, obviously flustered by the whole situation. What I saw next shocked me to the core. My hands... they were not my hands anymore. In place of them were the hands of a newborn infant with little fingers and a tiny palm.
And that's when it came rushing back to me, faster than the blood coursing through my formative veins, the memory of my apparent death.
It was just another monotonous Monday afternoon and I was returning home from a long day at college.
I was in between jobs and it was getting harder to put food on the table doing odd jobs and such. Spaced out, I failed to notice—?
What did I fail to notice?
How did I die?
[Implanting substitute memory]
Huh?
Crushed to death, it seemed like a fitting end for a loser like me, or so I thought, but it seemed that fate had something different in store for me.
This time around, I will lead a different life. This time, I will put in the effort. Heck, this time I might even be born with exceptional abilities like those protagonists in the novels I used to read, I thought to myself as I gazed into my newfound mother's eyes with burning resolve.
17 years later...
As I suspected, fate had something different in store for me, although it wasn't what I expected it would be, I thought to myself as I raised my axe, only to bring it down upon the trunk of a particularly large birch tree, cutting a quarter of the way into the trunk.
Yes, I was a woodcutter now. So much for my resolve to do better. As it turned out, I was useless at almost everything I tried in this world. This world was based on myth and magic, and every living creature on this planet had some kind of magical prowess.
Much to my discontent however, the remarkable thing about my aptitude for magic was that I had...none.
Yes, you heard it right folks, I had none. I tried hard day and night to no avail, and my parents took me to about every doctor in the country, but it seemed like I had adopted the skill set from my previous life here too.
Belonging to a family of nobles, this went a long way to tarnish my family's reputation of producing talented mages.
Other than that, I looked exactly the same as I did in my previous life, which made no sense whatsoever, considering the different genes imparted unto me by my new parents.
This raised questions to the legitimacy of my birth, and coupled with my failure to produce even an ember of mana , it got me kicked out of my household at the age of 7, forced to edge out a living for myself.
A total failure, that's what I was, I reminded myself as I willed the last bit of my strength into my arms to sever the trunk from the stump of the towering birch I had been taking out my frustration on.
After cutting the log into smaller pieces, I heaved my now-filled knapsack back the way home, a contented smile overtaking my dark mood as I realized that I had amassed more wood than usual today, which meant I was finally going to have a proper meal in a long time.
Returning with a full belly from the tavern I frequented, I walked towards the outskirts of the city, approaching my humble abode. My house was a simple two roomed apartment consisting of a kitchen and a bedroom with an attached bathroom.
Meagre as it was, it was my first achievement in two lives combined, and as such it was a great source of pride for me.
Counting down the coppers I had left over from today's exploits, I set aside some for tomorrow's breakfast and put the rest of them aside with my savings.
I finally had enough, I cheerily thought to myself as my thoughts roamed to the event taking place tomorrow, the once in a lifetime event where heroes would be chosen from among the masses to serve Kyria's next ruler.
Misfortunate as I may be, this would be the one chance I would get to turn my life around, however slim it may be.
"Maybe I could even get a girl or two upon becoming a hero", I chuckled at my fantasy as my eyelids began to droop and I went into a peaceful slumber, harboring high hopes for tomorrow and a better future that was supposed to come with it.
Little did I know that I was going to meet something that no man supposedly meets twice.
That is... my impending death.