Where did it all go wrong? At what point did they betray me? Was our revolution all a deceit? Were they even on my side from the beginning? As all these questions flooded my mind, I could feel my consciousness slipping away as I fell through the Pit of the Dishonored One, the punishment for the expatriated gods.
"Our baby has the loveliest eyes. He totally takes after you my dear." I opened my eyes to the sound of a man who was in my face. For some reason I seemed to have been reborn as a human. "Our dear James. James Astra".
For some reason, looking at my parents hover above me ended with me bawling my eyes out without even being aware as to what led me to do so.
I knew that I was not a human before this birth, but for some reason, the specifics of my past were veiled from me. The more I tried to recollect who I was, the further those memories seemed to get away. "I will have my revenge."The only words that kept flashing in my mind that had any connection whatsoever to my past.
Two years had passed ever since I entered this body. I had learnt a lot about my family as well as the realm itself. My father, Remulus Astra was the Duke of Skugga, the southernmost territory of the banished Kingdom of Oscuridad. He was a five star as well as the leader of the Empire's forces against the dark territory in the northernmost edge of the world. My mother, Helena Astra was a beautiful lady, wise beyond her years and a sixth circle mage herself who was also one of the elder mages of the magic tower of Oscuridad.
"And that is how the five great families fought against the demons alongside the gods and brought peace to the entire realm" narrated my mom. The War of the Heavens was my mother's all time favourite book, however everytime i heard the story of how the five families pushed back the forces of the demon king, it brought a vast multitude of questions in my mind. Why was King Sterne, founder of the region of Oscuridad banished beyond the Northern Mountains if he was their ally in the war? Why have the gods abandoned humanity for the last 300 years? Why did this story have a feeling of familiarity in my mind?
I was now three years old and could finally understand the writing of this world. This unlocked for me an entirely new realm of possibilities as I could now read the books with regards to magic and ancient history in order to understand the world better. One fine afternoon, as my parents thought they put me to sleep and took a nap themselves, I sneaked into the library and tried my best to pull out any book i could with my build. Twenty minutes and six books later, I finally managed to pull out a book. that looked older than time itself. Its front cover was missing, but that did not matter as all I really cared about was beginning my journey from somewhere and might as well be this book. Although there were words i could not understand, what i did figure out was that the entire world functioned on mana, the essence of life. It was this very mana that humans used in order to perform magic as well as in order to perform various martial arts. Mana could be stored in a mana core and then circulated to either enhance the internal energy to perform martial arts, or it could be released externally in order to perform magic.
As I turned the pages to aquire more knowledge I found myself in the air. "Looks like our little child is quite the reader" Helena said. "Was it the effect of the stories I read you to bed? But this is too much for you. How about some picture books instead?" and she pulled my treasure trove away and kept it away in the back of her dress as she gave me a picture book more suitable for my age according to her.
After that day, despite the efforts i put in in order to find that book, I failed at doing so. As the years passed by, I secretly trained myself in mana circulation using the books from the library while I had strength training and conditioning with my father in the evenings. Remulus was a terror to train with, his expectations of his son being sky high. My tiny body struggled to keep up with him. The day I turned seven, we began sword training. This was when I realised that I would not last a day in the wild without my parents. This was also when I succesfully cast my first spell, a water canon. Although it lacked in terms of power and direction, it was still the very first magic that I successfully casted.
I kept tinkering around with the various elemental forces till I finally acquired my first mana circle on my eighth birthday. Being the only child to my parents, they pampered me quiet a lot. We usually had a huge celebration every year, However this year, The current King of Oscuridad, His Highness Noir Oscuridad was also invited along with his entire family. He had two children; a son who was my age, Qasar Oscuridad and his younger sister Nebula Oscuridad. Their mother had passed away two years ago due to causes unknown to the public. There were always speculations but no concrete evidence of the actual cause of her demise.
Ever since then, His Majesty rarely showed himself to the public so it was highly unlikely that the sole reason for his arrival would be the birthday celebrations of an eight year old whom he had never met before. Little did I know that I would end up being the best of friends with Qasar, and I certainly did not know how much I would regret our meeting with time to come.