Volume 1 — Chapter 3
Birth in a World That Should Not Accept Him
The void did not shatter.
It thinned.
Rafi felt it first as pressure—then as direction.
Not a pull.
An invitation.
"…You finally decided," he said quietly.
The nothingness offered no reply.
Instead, something else arrived.
Weight.
Heat.
Density beyond imagination.
Rafi's awareness plunged into a torrent of energy so vast that it drowned thought itself.
If he had still possessed a body, it would have been annihilated.
If he had still been human, his soul would have scattered.
But he was neither.
---
Magicules.
The word surfaced instinctively.
Rafi did not know how he knew it.
He simply did.
"They're everywhere," he muttered.
They pressed against him from all sides—wild, violent, divine.
A newborn soul would have dissolved.
A summoned hero would have been protected.
Rafi was neither protected nor destroyed.
He endured.
No—
He adapted.
---
Something began to take shape.
A core.
Not flesh.
Not bone.
A nucleus of will, condensing chaos into form.
Rafi felt sensation return in fragments.
Touch.
Balance.
Orientation.
"…So this is a body," he murmured.
The thought carried sound.
The sound traveled.
The air answered.
Rafi opened his eyes.
They burned crimson in the darkness.
---
He stood.
Not floated.
Not drifted.
Stood—on ground saturated with magicules so dense that reality itself shimmered.
His body was tall.
Lean.
Horns curved back from his temples, obsidian-black and ridged.
Claws flexed as he moved his hands.
A tail of condensed chaos swayed slowly behind him.
"…Yeah," Rafi said after a moment. "Definitely not human."
The air bent toward him.
Not in worship.
In recognition.
---
He inhaled.
For the first time since dying, breath filled his lungs.
The sensation was intoxicating.
"Feels… good," he admitted.
The world responded.
Magicules surged.
Not attacking.
Listening.
Rafi frowned.
"That's unsettling."
---
Something stirred within him.
A presence.
Cold.
Clear.
Impossibly vast.
> "Initialization complete."
Rafi stiffened.
"…Alright," he said slowly. "Now you I was expecting."
The presence aligned itself with his thoughts.
Not above him.
Not below.
Alongside.
> "Designation: Wisdom God — Athena."
Rafi let out a short laugh.
"Straight to godhood, huh?"
> "Clarification: I am an Ultimate Skill."
"That's worse."
---
Information flooded in.
Not forced.
Filtered.
World structure.
Magicule theory.
Skill hierarchy.
Souls.
Demons.
Dragons.
And a familiar name.
"…Cardinal World," Rafi said aloud.
> "Confirmed."
He pinched the bridge of his nose.
"So I really did end up here."
> "This world operates on systemic authority."
Rafi smiled faintly.
"Of course it does."
---
Another sensation bloomed.
Power—unrestricted, undefined.
> "Ultimate Skill acquired: Skill Creation."
Rafi froze.
"…Say that again."
> "You possess the authority to conceptualize, construct, and manifest Skills."
Silence.
Then laughter.
Rafi laughed until the air shook.
"That's not a skill," he said. "That's cheating."
> "Agreed."
---
The world noticed him then.
A pressure descended from above.
Classification.
Measurement.
Judgment.
Rafi felt invisible eyes attempt to slot him into place.
Demon.
Monster.
Anomaly.
He scowled.
"No."
The pressure cracked instantly.
Athena reacted.
> "Evolution detected."
The skill within him transformed.
Refined.
Sharpened.
> "Ultimate Skill confirmed: Wisdom God — Athena."
The world recoiled.
Not in fear.
In error.
---
Rafi exhaled.
"So," he said, looking at his hands, "I'm alive again."
> "Reincarnated."
"Yeah. That."
He paused.
"…Do I get a species?"
Athena answered without hesitation.
> "Demon. Irregular."
Rafi shrugged.
"I've been called worse."
---
He took a step forward.
Reality parted to accommodate him.
Rafi smiled.
"Alright, Cardinal World," he said calmly.
"I didn't ask to be here."
Magicules swirled.
The world listened.
"But since I am," Rafi continued, eyes gleaming crimson,
"let's see what happens when I stop following your rules."
Somewhere far away—
Something ancient stirred.
---
End of Chapter 3
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