Chapter 1: Ryan

I am Ryan. Born in a world known as Earth. Currently, I am aged 18 and am a rocking and normal, perverted teenager.

As a normal teenager, I have all the fetishes they would have. Like watching, reading, and other 'normal watching' things.

If you ask me what is the aim of my life, it's to be the partner of the strongest Mech. Yeah, you heard it right. The partner and pilot of the strongest Mech.

When I was 10 years old, Earth had a drastic change. The temperature became so hot that so many people died due to it. The water source went dry and even the rocks started melting.

Of the billions of population that were alive on earth, only a hundred or so million survived. No one knew why were we the chosen ones to stay alive or how did we stay alive.

That day came to be known as the REBIRTH DAY. It was the day when a drastic change happened on Earth.

What changed that day?

One might think it may be the day when cultivation became possible or magic came. Well, you can say that it is true that magic came and about cultivation, well no. Cultivation didn't happen and it was only possible in novels and comics or so we believe. We can never be sure of things we haven't seen, na?

What was the magic that came on Earth?

Just like that in novels and comics of the 'old Earth', spells and arrays came. Numerous buildings came up on Earth that had books on how to use magic spells and descriptions of them. A new energy called Mana also came on Earth and from what we learned from the 'books', it was the fuel that magic spells needed.

Just like fire needed petroleum fuels, coal, etc., the magical spells needed Mana. But after the coming of Mana, the petroleum and coal on Earth disappeared. The ores of such minerals dried up within a month of the 'change.'

Thankfully, some of the people who were alive learned how to control Mana and fire. They learned how to make flames and maintain them without any fuel. Or so we thought. When they maintained it for a longer time, they would feel exhausted. Then we concluded that there is Mana in our body and it is needed to keep the fire burning and we learned about Mana Core

After the uses of Mana were made public, there was a rush for everyone to study. They spent all their savings to buy the books found in that 'special places' and spent all their time learning them.

Most of the people were able to study while some weren't. That day we also concluded that everyone couldn't learn magic and use spells. Some people had an affinity for it while others did not.

Since I talked about affinity, I will tell what are the affinities known to humans.

Fire.

Water.

Earth(Ground).

Space.

Time.

Lightning.

Wind.

Darkness.

Light.

The above affinities were awakened by different humans. Of them, the rarest was time and space. The number of people who had an affinity to either time or space can be counted with one's hands. Oh! I forgot to tell you that one person can have more than one affinity. But, most had only one.

Those who has two of them were held in great regard while three were regarded as Kings or Queens. If I were to give a figure, 80% of humans had only one affinity, 8% had two affinities, 2% had three affinities and the remaining 10% had no affinity that is, they cannot use magic.

All these things were interesting, right? You might think what is this to do with my aim. As I said, I aim to be a partner and pilot of the strongest Mech. So, in a magic world of a 'new Earth', what is modern technology doing?

Its answer is simple. Mech isn't the modern tech of 'old Earth.' The Mech I mentioned came after the REBIRTH DAY. It was drastically different from the mechanical Mech that was in the minds of the denizens of 'old Earth.' This Mech is completely made of Mana. It may look like a mechanical one, but, Mana is needed to operate and control them.

When I talk about Mech, you may think why do I wanna 'partner' with a non-living object? The answer is that it isn't a non-living object without emotions nor it is with an AI. It is just like humans with their own consciousness and emotions.

If I were to compare it, it would be like the magical beasts that also came on the 'new Earth' and had the power to transform. Some magical beasts can indeed change their shape and size. So, Mech is just like that. It can look like a human and when we are in a fight, it can change into its true form aka Mech.

Mech only came into existence when I was 15. One person accidentally awakened it from slumber and became its partner and pilot of it. He is still alive and with the arrival of Mana, our life expectancy was also raised.

Where is Mech? How can we get it?

Mech is in our own body. When we are at the age of 18, we will enter the 'sacred place.' There, we will meditate and try to converse with our Mech which is in our own body. Those who were successful in conversing with it and the Mech were ready to partner, will get Mech as their partner and friend. If they fail, they can retry again in 6 months up to 3 times. If they fail all the time, then they can never awaken their Mech.

Now you may have got why I wanna awaken a Mech. The Mech will be my friend and partner. I will surely treat it well.

And oh! Before I forget, I will also tell you that a Mech can indeed leave its partner if it thinks they are worthless. If a Mech leaves them, they will experience tremendous pain along with crippling their Mana Core, the place where Mana is stored in our body. So, they can never practice magic again.