Death... was a pitch-black silence.
Not a dream, nor a nightmare; just an absolute, overwhelming nothingness.
I don’t know how long I floated in this void. Were they seconds, or centuries?
Time had lost its meaning.
Then, like a whisper from a great distance, a sensation returned.
Cold.
An unrelenting, insistent cold that seeped into the very marrow of my bones, tearing me away from that dark sleep.
As my consciousness slowly returned, like cracks appearing on the surface of a frozen lake, a second feeling found me: Weight.
It was as if tons of a heavy load were pressing down on me. I couldn’t breathe. My lungs felt squeezed by an invisible hand.
Panic was the first spark of my consciousness. I opened my eyes, but all I saw was the pitch-black darkness that was swallowing me. The suffocating scent of earth burned my nostrils. A damp, granular mass pressed down on my face, my arms, my entire body.
I was buried.
The thought flashed through my mind like lightning. I tried to remember where I was, how I got here.
The last memories that came to me were a blinding light, a deafening explosion, and a wave of energy that consumed everything. Dr. Aris... Chimera... That apocalypse I had created with my own hands.
I should have died in that battle. Perhaps I had, and this was a graveyard where souls decayed.
But the cold was too real. My need to breathe was too real. The instinct to survive pushed aside all philosophical thoughts.
I wiggled my fingers, feeling the resistance of the earth. There was a faint ache in my left shoulder, where there should have been nothing but a charred scar. And my shattered right arm... it was there. Completely healed and whole.
My body had repaired itself, albeit with an unbelievable slowness. Even the cursed wound from that ominous purple blade had closed, leaving only a tiny scratch behind. My regenerative ability, though it had lost its once miraculous speed, had brought me back from the clutches of death.
Gathering all my strength, I started clawing my way upward. My nails broke, my fingertips bled, but I didn’t stop.
As the soil and pebbles scraped my face, I continued to dig with stubborn determination.
Finally, for a moment, my fingers met no resistance. With a glimmer of hope, I pushed harder and broke through a layer of snow, thrusting my hand out into the open.
The cold air whipped my skin. The faint light seeping through that small hole was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen. Beyond that light, I could see the moon shining in the sky and the snowflakes drifting slowly around it.
I widened the hole, pushed my head out, and took a deep, icy breath. My lungs burned, but it was proof that I was alive.
I pulled myself up and freed my naked, dirty body from the earth’s captivity.
The sight that greeted me when I stood up froze me for a moment.
Everything was white. The valley, once a lush green forest, was now covered by a thick blanket of snow. The branches of the trees were bent under the weight of the snow, and the sky had taken on a leaden, somber hue. It was winter. And the harshest kind.
I had no clothes on, only a thin layer of dirt covering my skin. Instinctively, I tried to reach for my power, my mana core.
And what I felt was an icy punch to the gut.
Nothingness.
The core of power that had once shone like a star in the middle of my chest was no longer there. It had been extinguished. All that was left was an echoing void.
But as the wave of panic subsided, I noticed something else. My core was gone, yes. But I could still feel the world around me. The mana in the air, the energy beneath the earth, the life force within the trees... It was like a weak whisper, but it was there.
I raised my hand, I focused. A tiny, almost invisible spark flickered at my fingertips and died out.
This was nothing. Yet, it was everything.
Even without my core, I was still a part of the world. I could still control mana.
Without knowing where to go or what to do, I began to walk through the forest. My feet disappeared into the snow, the cold biting my skin, but I didn’t care. My mind was empty. I was acting on a single, primal instinct: to live.
After hours of relentless walking, my strength was completely gone. The wind that pierced my bones and the encroaching darkness of the night fueled my despair. It was then that I noticed the dark cavity hidden among the steep cliffs: a cave.
It was more than just a shelter; it was a promise of salvation. As I took my weary steps inside, the ominous sound of the wind outside instantly ceased, replaced by an eerie silence.
As my eyes adjusted to the gloom, I noticed something else mixed with the cave’s damp, heavy smell: a living, animalistic scent. And then I heard it; a deep, guttural breathing.
At the very back of the cave lay a colossal creature. Its bear-like body, nearly two meters long, tensed and relaxed in its sleep, and the twisted horns emerging from its head shimmered in the dim light.
The faint mana coursing through my veins whispered that defeating such a creature was nearly impossible. The absence of my mana core made even the simplest spells a torment. But the unknown dangers waiting for me in the darkness of the night were far more terrifying than this sleeping death.
The decision was made; I had to gamble.
Gathering all my will, I concentrated the damp air in the cave within my palm. A sharp ice crystal took shape between my fingers. Then, with my last remaining strength, I summoned static electricity and trapped it in the heart of the crystal. As a final touch, I prepared a gentle current of wind around it to add speed to the throw.
I had only one shot. Everything depended on it.
As I slowly exhaled the cold air that filled my lungs, I fired the makeshift spear of death with the power of my mind. The ice crystal glided through the darkness with a whistle that tore the air, and the next moment, it pierced the creature’s thick hide.
Inside, the deadly combination of lightning and ice I had trapped exploded with violent force. Before the creature could even understand what was happening, it shuddered with a muffled sound that tore its internal organs, and its lifeless body collapsed to the ground.
The sudden and absolute silence that filled the cave brought a sense of shock more than victory.
Was it... that easy? Was this terrifying creature weaker than it looked, or had I underestimated my own power?
I would learn the answer to that question sooner or later, but a feeling inside me said this was just the beginning.
I formed an ice dagger and began to butcher the bear. After separating the meat from the fur, I prepared the hide, which I had cleaned of blood, so I could wear it. I built a fire pit and placed the meat, skewered on a stick, over the fire to cook.
For ordinary people, camping in a forest at night was a terrifying prospect, something they would never want to do.
But for Cassian, these moments were the first he had truly lived freely, and there was an indescribable sense of peace within him.
He ate his meal and covered himself with the fur. With the crackle of the fire, a melody to his ears, he gazed at the moon and fell asleep.