Light came first.
Not warmth. Not comfort.
Just light.
It pressed against his eyelids, sharp and unfamiliar, as if forcing him awake rather than welcoming him.
He frowned.
…Frowned?
His body felt… wrong.
Lighter.
The calluses that once lined his palms—gone. The weight that had always rested on his shoulders—absent. Even his breathing felt shallow, uneven… untrained.
He opened his eyes.
A ceiling stared back at him.
White. Unbroken.
Intact.
His gaze lingered.
The world… wasn't supposed to look like this.
He shot upright.
A sharp pain pierced through his chest—then faded just as quickly, like an echo of something that no longer existed.
His hands came into view.
Slender.
Unscarred.
Not his.
"…What…?"
His voice caught.
It wasn't his either.
Silence filled the room.
Then—
Something stirred.
Not outside.
Inside.
A faint, unnatural sensation pulsed near his heart.
Circles.
One.
Two.
Three—
He froze.
"…No."
His breath grew unsteady as the realization crept in, slow and suffocating.
He knew this feeling.
He had stood behind it countless times.
Watched it shape the battlefield.
Trusted it with his life.
"…You've got to be kidding me."
The Swordmaster clenched his trembling hand.
And felt mana respond.
However, the circles in his body reacted aggressively. It could sense that the soul was not the same.
Pain surged through his body as the circles faded away as if rejecting the man.
Shortly after, a singly knock resounds through the room.
"Is everything alright, young master?" without a reply, "Young master?" The servant knocks again.
Once again, the unconscious young master lying on the floor could not respond, and so the servant breaks open the door and rushes in to perform first aid.
...
The man opens his eyes once more.
His body weaker than before.
The mana circling around his heart is gone..
He notices a man approaching, it seems to be the patriarch of the mage's family.
"Caelum Anachronis." The man calls out. "Come with me."
The two figures walk towards the balcony of the patriarch's office. The patriarch, Chronavel Anachronis, is the most powerful mage in the kingdom. His broad shoulders carry the heaviest of burdens.
"Look, my son, this is the land I maintain. Someday in the future, this could be yours."
I look out into the horizon and witness beauty never before seen. The Sky filled with clouds, the city bustling with business, the farmland producing a plentiful harvest, the children running and laughing.. Truly beautiful.
"I've never seen anything like this" I say.
The patriarch simply looks at his son with a bittersweet smile.