The first blow shattered his jaw.
The second cracked his ribs.
By the third, he couldn't see through the blood pooling in his eyes but he still shielded the child behind him with what little strength remained.
"I said run," he gasped, voice broken and wet with pain.
The child ran. That was all that mattered now. Small footsteps echoed briefly down the alley before fading into the chaos of the city. His attackers didn't follow. They had what they came for a victim.
Alaric Tenebris, once a man of science and silence, slumped against the graffiti scarred wall. Blood spread beneath him like a halo. Cold crept into his limbs. His breath slowed.
He should have been thinking about regrets. About pain. About how stupid it had been to get involved. But instead, he thought of stars.
Of constellations he'd memorized as a child.
Of black holes that devoured light but whispered secrets in gravitational waves.
He'd spent his life chasing the secrets of the universe cosmic equations, dark matter, time dilation, quantum gravity. He understood everything except how to live. Except why a child's scream had dragged him away from all of it.
So this… this was how it ended.
But then the world shifted.
A soft sound pierced the stillness. Not a siren. Not a heartbeat. A single, echoing bell. It rang not in the air, but deep within his chest, vibrating through bone, mind, and memory.
Light bent.
Space unraveled.
And the universe answered.
He awoke on grass that glowed faintly blue beneath a sky with two suns and no stars.
Wind carried the scent of fire and ozone. Towering trees with silver leaves swayed above him, their roots pulsing with faint magical veins. In the distance, mountains floated, suspended in air as if the laws of gravity had been politely asked to wait.
Dragons circled far above the clouds. Caravans of robed figures and armored knights moved along crystalline roads that cut across the landscape like veins of starlight.
This was not Earth. This was not death. This was something in between.
He sat up slowly, staring at his hands.
They were different. Younger. Smooth. Pale. His body felt alive, but quiet like an engine that hadn't yet been started.
Then, in front of him, lines of text appeared, glowing in the air like constellations stitched across the sky.
Name: Alaric Tenebris
Class: Cosmic Mage Fragmented Soul, Tier I
Status: Reborn
Title: The One Who Died Beneath the Sky
Core Affinity: Stars, Gravity, Void
He stared in silence as knowledge poured into him not memories, not thoughts, but understanding. Formulas became spell circles. Orbital maps became casting diagrams. He felt the weight of starlight in his blood and the cold breath of a black hole in his lungs.
It wasn't just magic.
It was the language of the universe.
The system whatever it was had embedded itself into his soul.
His mana core was fractured. That much he could feel. The power was there, sleeping behind a wall of glass. Somewhere within him were the forces that shaped galaxies quasars, neutron stars, singularities but they were sealed. Distant. Waiting.
He looked toward the horizon and saw a distant castle silhouetted against the twin suns. Banners rippled along its high walls, marked by swords, dragons, and strange sigils. The land between was a patchwork of deep forests, ancient ruins, and marching armies. He saw barbarians howling atop warbeasts. Paladins in radiant armor purging undead with fire. Sorcerers summoning storms with a single word. Knights riding gryphons into battle against serpents of shadow.
This world was one of magic, conflict, and ancient pacts.
He stood.
Despite the silence in his body, the cosmos stirred beneath his skin. A soft vibration tickled his spine. When he reached out his hand, a spark of starlight curled between his fingers, drifting lazily like a fragment of a nebula.
"I don't know where I am," he said softly, "but I know what I am."
He clenched his fist, and the light vanished.
"I died to protect someone else. I don't regret it. But if this is a second life, then I'll make it count."
His voice steadied as he looked up at the twin suns. Their light burned across the sky like judgment.
"I'll master this world's magic. I'll unlock the power I've glimpsed in dreams. I'll wield the stars, command the void, and bend gravity like a string between my fingers."
He smiled, calm and determined.
"I'll become what I was always meant to be."
He took his first step forward, unaware that far away, in a golden citadel, an ancient prophecy had just rewritten itself and the stars had begun to whisper a name long forgotten.
Alaric Tenebris.
The mage who commands the cosmos