"Domain Release."
Time stopped for a second.
One heartbeat I was staring at the Wyrm barreling toward me, every scale rippling with murderous intent.
The next…
everything froze.
Not like the pulse the Wyrm released.
No.
This was different.
This was mine.
The world dimmed around the edges, colors bleeding into muted shapes, as sound flattened into a muffled hum.
The Wyrm hung mid-charge, its jaws stretched wide, venom bead frozen at the tip of a fang.
My mind fired like a machine.
Thoughts aligned, clean and sharp.
Every possible move the Wyrm could take in the next ten seconds played out like frames on a screen.
It was all so clear.
So perfectly, terrifyingly clear.
Mana Domain.
It had to be the zenith of a Mage's journey, the step beyond merely wielding magic and into the sacred ground of becoming the magic itself.
Something like this could only be born through complete enlightenment, the precise moment when a mage's subjective consciousness perfectly integrated with the universe's objective law.
Then, in a shimmer of sphere, all the mana that permeates a specific radius, with me at the epicenter, fell completely under my control.
Now achieved, my domain manifested as a shimmering, invisible sphere surrounding me. Within that boundary, I— the Domain Master— was sovereign.
Sovereign over every wisp of mana within my sphere, as it was now filtered through my will, obedient to the laws I established.
And my law was simple, singular, and absolute: Gravity.
I turned my attention to the behemoth before me. The Wyrm, a creature whose natural, gargantuan weight was its primary weapon, was the perfect test subject.
I flicked my wrist, a movement so casual it felt almost disrespectful.
The immense, crushing weight that typically held the Wyrm's tons of muscle and scale to the earth vanished. The ambient gravity acting upon the beast reduced to near zero, and the gigantic serpent, defying every law it knew, began to float, drifting upward.
Then, I pulled my hand back toward my chest.
A colossal, unseen pull force instantly manifested between my palm and the Wyrm's floating body. The creature roared in panic as the gravitational force I engineered grabbed it and violently hauled it across the air, closing the distance between us in a sickening blur.
Finally, I closed my palm into a tight fist. The gravity acting on the Wyrm didn't just return; it increased by a terrifying, exponential factor.
The Wyrm's body slammed down, not with the dull thud of a massive object, but with the wet, explosive sound of something collapsing under impossible pressure. It hit the ground like a hammer blow driving a spike.
A hideous, drawn-out screech erupted from its throat—a sound instantly choked off as the pressure intensified. The creature's massive scales cracked, its bones powdered, and the thin skin of its belly, unable to contain the suddenly immense internal pressure, busted in a spray of sickening gore.
The great serpent was immediately and messily squashed into the soil, reduced to a trembling, ruined mess of muscle and fluid beneath my invisible, absolute will.
I opened my hand. The pressure ceased. The Wyrm was now a vast, oozing stain on the earth.
My Domain was absolute.
With a low laugh, the victory felt so satisfying. An exciting rush coursed through me, one I didn't want to end.
But Then—
thump.
My heart lurched.
Once.
Hard.
Like something slammed a fist into my chest from the inside.
Then it stopped.
A final, hollow beat…
and nothing.
Air fled my lungs.
The world tilted.
I staggered, the edges of my eyes flickering like, as my vision tunneling into a narrow smear of light.
Then the pain hit, like a detonation inside my skull.
"—ghh!"
The sound tore out of me as I dropped to my knees, a violent cough ripping up my throat.
A mouthful of warm blood spilled past my lips and splattered across the soil.
My chest tightened, my nerves screamed, my bones began to shake as if every one of them wanted to crack open.
And my head—
My head felt like someone had taken a hammer to the inside of my skull, beating in a slow, merciless beat.
THUMP.
A spike of hot agony.
THUMP.
Another.
Harder.
My hands clawed into the dirt, fingers trembling uncontrollably.
I wanted to scream but my breath broke apart.
Still, the sound forced its way out anyway—a raw, guttural cry ripped from somewhere deep inside me.
"AAAAAAAA—!"
Then memories poured in like a tidal wave.
White hair, dozens of heads, soft silver strands glowing under a sun I had never seen.
A peaceful grassland stretching endlessly, wind brushing against children laughing, elders weaving baskets, families sitting in circles.
It was a memory of warmth, community, belonging.
Then—
I heard Cries, followed by screams and the silver glow began to turn red.
Bodies falling.
Mothers clutching children that didn't move.
Fathers collapsing over them.
Blood soaking the grass until it turned black beneath the setting sun.
Burning tents.
Shattered carvings.
Pieces of a culture, of a history, trampled under armored boots.
Valorian banners rising behind smoke.
And in the middle of it all—
The Haldrins.
His people.
My people.
A clan filled with heritage. A nation hidden in one village, holding a trait too ancient to fake:
The true meaning of the Haldrins wasn't their white hair.
It was the quality of the soul they carried.
A soul not meant to bow.
A soul not meant to break.
A soul that wasn't supposed to die quietly in a cage or under a stranger's sword.
My throat tightened as the memories kept forcing themselves inside me, burying into the deepest parts of my mind until there was no separation between past and present, me and them.
A child's laughter that felt familiar.
A mother's voice I had never heard yet instantly recognized.
A father's calloused hand resting on my head.
A home that no longer existed.
And behind the warmth, there was horror.
My nails dug into the earth, as the pain in my chest sharpened.
It was ours.
All three.
Three lifetimes colliding in my skull until my vision blurred and my own name dissolved into static.
Three voices, three identities, three pasts, slamming together until—
I am all of them.
The pain increased, tearing a roar from my throat.
"AAAHHHH—!"
My heart suddenly kicked back into motion with a violent snap that shook my whole torso.
A jolt shot through me like lightning grounding itself in my bones.
Then another pulse.
And another.
Each beat syncing with the crash of memories until they blended into one rhythm.
One identity.
One existence.
Then, my mind blurred as I fell unconscious, my body slamming into the damp soil.