The beginning of a magical legacy

Kai opened his eyes with the stony-gray color of notification flashing within them.

[

Reincarnation successful

An allowance of 3 hrs is now being granted to the Contestant for him to get used to the host's body and memories. In this period, no in-world character will interfere or approach the Contestant.

The Contestant can freely transfigure between his original appearance and the host's appearance in this period. After 3 hrs, the Crisis Timer will activate, and the appearance will be forcefully changed to the host, and the access of Identity Period will be locked for the subsequent 48 hours.

Allowance Time: 03:00:00

]

Then it dropped by a second.

Kai sat up, closed his eyes again, and let his mind dive into the strange but fascinating memories of a 6-year-old girl. A witch, he corrected.

He saw, felt, and lived those memories one by one, her every emotion echoing inside his heart and mind, but it was her feelings that left a deep impression on him.

Indignation and greatness. Knowledge, respect, and power. Control.

Words became a song of a saga, and Kai sang them freely. When he opened his eyes, the hazel hue within the greens had receded.

He felt it, then. A supreme surge of cool and comfortable sensation in his surroundings and within him. It was in the tiniest particle of the space, and it was within his flesh, bones, his blood, and his cells. It was in his genes.

Mana must have never presented much clearer to any Contestant before like this, Kai thought.

'Her personality and temperament are almost in line with what I wanted,' Kai reflected. 'I wouldn't have to bring drastic changes in them for her to contrast me. This couldn't have been any more perfect.'

Kai adjusted his head, and under the vanishing moonlight found a candelabra on the table opposite him a few feet away from the bed's feet.

Know the flame, Kai told himself. Know the braided cotton acting as a wick and know the wax as well. Now comes Belief. With heart and mind as one, believe. And, at last, add the spark with Intention.

Magic followed the bidding of his thoughts, and all the candles lit up, tiny flames flickering for a moment before calming down.

Kai smiled.

The smile became a grin, and then a demonic laugh. His hands outstretched, Kai laughed like a maniac until his tiny throat felt dry.

Kai calmed himself, took a deep breath, and jumped out of the bed. He lifted his hands and looked at them. They were pale white and smooth. The tiny nails had a green polish on them, sparkling in silver.

He looked at the timer. An hour had passed by for him to digest Darcie's past, it seemed. Time was running out, but Kai wasn't in haste. Not yet. There were a few things he needed to do before transfiguring into his true self.

In the last month, Kai and Item-M had done extensive study and planning for this moment.

The first of those things was leaving Item-M and Item-S in the Primordial Tower. If he wanted to, Kai could give himself a Side Mission and ask the assistance of his Party members from the System, making both Item-M and Item-S teleport into this world. Yes. He had already added Item-S to his Party.

But Item-M rejected the idea bluntly. The reasons for this refusal were simple. By calling them in the Harry Potter World, it would hamper their future growth prospects by an unimaginable degree.

At this point, they both needed to go to their Core Random Worlds and get the Elementary Chakra Manipulation from the Naruto World. It would never happen if Kai kept calling them in his World for their next missions, and at last, he had to agree with this reasoning.

So, they all decided to complete their missions and get help from each other using Kai's minor-epithets.

One month had been enough for them to translate Kai's epithets into Old Tongue using Item-M's experience on the 4th floor.

The second thing had been more of a struggle for him. But it was the most important one in a way. To learn the ways of a girl, he had called it. His teachers had been Item-M and Cersei. The young Cersei had taught him everything he needed to learn about a girl from a wealthy and influential family. And both of them had told him the subtle things about the girls, their bodies, and their behavior that books could never hope to cover.

Even when he had decided to leave for the Harry Potter World, Kai wasn't sure that he had learned enough.

'And you never will,' Cersei had jested, smiling. 'You don't need to, master. Not all of us are the same. Don't worry.'

The third and last thing was the nature of the in-world character into which Kai would reincarnate. The idea had come from none other than Petyr Baelish.

'Two times you have been cuckolded from getting Elementary Magical Aptitude, master,' Petyr had quipped. 'Do you remember what is the requirement for getting this Ability?'

Kai had then repeated Arlen's words from his Initiation Mission.

'Magic requires an acknowledgment from a true wizard or true witch from the random world,' Arlen had once told him contemptuously. 'They must acknowledge that you have the destiny to be a wizard, that if not now, then one day you can become one.'

Petyr had only smiled then, and it dawned on Kai and Item-M soon enough. A fact that they had ignorantly forgotten, like two simpletons.

Wouldn't the candidate for Kai's reincarnation be a true witch from the random world?

Now that he was here, what better time than this to find out?

"I, Darcie Malfoy," Kai said, squinting his eyes at the voice, "acknowledge that Contestants Blood Demon, Morning Mist, and Item-S have the destiny to become wizards and witches and that if not now, then one day they will become one."

The excitement was bubbling within him. Kai undressed, ignored his new body parts, and willed to return to his original self. Instantly, he felt himself going through a magical change.

His flesh squirmed and bones expanded with a popping sound. In a matter of seconds, he had returned to his original self.

The notification welcomed him like an old friend.

[

Congratulations Kai Stormborn

You have gained Elementary Magical Aptitude

You are now eligible for all Magic related Skills, Items, and Spells across the Multiverse

]

Kai beamed. Not only because Petyr was right about all this but also because of what Petyr had said later.

'If it works,' Petyr had said slyly, 'then there is another matter that you can take care of, my lord. It won't be as easy as gaining the Ability and might take a lot of investment in time and effort. But the fruits will be worth it. Do you remember the condition of unlocking the tales of the Book?'

Kai didn't need Petyr to remind him of this suggestion. The moment he had heard about the Magical Aptitude loophole, he had already figured it out.

— 'To access this story, the Contestant must take the help of a main-storyline character who can translate the runes' — Such was the condition to access all the five tales.

What if he were to take the help of the main-storyline character he would reincarnate into? Yes. This notification had just confirmed the answer to this question.

It all came down to how to stir Darcie towards the fields of linguistics, epigraphy, paleography, runology, and, in general, the philosophy of languages. Even the World of Harry Potter had all these fields with their own magical twists and turns.

Then Kai had remembered something from his moments spent with the white-skinned man, the user of the Rinnegan and the wielder of the Elder Wand.

— 'It is the origin of all languages, written or spoken, in all Universes, and it is much more than that as well' — Such had been his words about the Yellow Sign.

A heinous and outlandish plan had formed in Kai's mind, recalling the fate that the monster had bestowed upon him by cursing him.

'Transcending legacies,' Kai thought, taking out the Tales of Beedle the Bard. 'Let her become the master of the Yellow Sign as well, then. With my mind and her resources, the things I can accomplish in this World are nigh uncountable. Wandlore is must, but why stop at that?'

Kai neared the table, feeling the chill of night on his naked body, and took out many scrolls of blank parchments from the cupboard under the table. He dressed in the bed sheet and sat down on the chair, opening the Book in front of him. He had almost two more hours, plenty for the things that were dancing in his mind.

Kai then meticulously copied the entire five tales into their runic forms onto the parchments, taking his sweet time. When he was done and had revised them for any error of even a single stroke, he unrolled another parchment.

Kai took a deep breath, flicked his hand, and a box appeared in his hand containing small bottles of colors and brushes.

He took out the yellow color, dipped the fine brush in it, and then drew the Yellow Sign on it. By the time Kai was finished, he had some 60 minutes left.

He still didn't remember how he drew the Sign itself, as all memories related to it felt hazy to him. He shook off the oddness and scratched under the painted sign using the quill in legible English with an antique cursive touch to it.

— The Yellow Sign - a path to unparalleled greatness —

Now began the procedure of aging the papers. Kai had already practiced these steps so many times in the last month that they had become a part of his muscle memories.

He used a mixture of heat treatment and hot coffee for this process, all materials already stored beforehand in his Inventory, of course. In the end, all the parchments looked like a collection of archaic and mysterious documents from hundreds of years ago.

Kai noticed the timer. 20 minutes to go.

Kai did not know about this 3 hours allowance before coming here, so he had prepared himself to spend a few days as Darcie without separating himself from her. Now that he had the allowance and could take care of all the preparations, he must not delay a single day. He threw the bed sheet off him and ran out of the room. No one would approach him, according to the System. No matter how magical one could be.

Down the winding stairs, following Darcie's memories, he went to the north wing of the house on the ground floor through the Great Hall where the Buttery was.

Inside the Buttery, a staircase was running down to the beer cellar. In the darkness, Kai stepped down, pushed the unlocked oaken doors, and went through them.

He ran to the end where a brick-layered wall was concaving out.

Ignoring the smell, Kai made a fist and punched. The stone crumbled under his power like sand and a dark, fist-sized hole with the depth of half a hand opened up. Kai threw the crumpled and rolled documents into the hole, loosely covered them up with the stone pieces, and ran back to the room.

Afterimages appeared behind him wherever he slithered, and in less than 30 seconds, Kai was back in Darcie's room, sweating from head to toe.

He had to do this. There was no other sensible way to make Darcie know of the Yellow Sign and be curious about it.

If he was to Act, then Kai would do it thoroughly, cutting not a single corner.

He looked at the timer. Only 5 minutes left.

Kai turned himself back into Darcie, dressed in her clothes lying on the bed, and returned to the bed after extinguishing the candle and making sure he had left no stain somewhere.

'Sigh!' He let out a breath as his back pressed against the soft bed.

Suddenly, he felt a bizarre sensation in his hands. He lifted them and realized that they were shivering.

'What? Afraid, Blood Demon?' A demonic voice inside him asked, snickering.

Kai had learned many things in these last few months, had undergone earth-shattering changes, and had also survived the events that were devastating enough to erase any other Contestant's existence. But one thing Kai had never learned was arrogance. Yes, sometimes he had overestimated himself because of the lack of knowledge and experience, but it wasn't a sin that had reached the boundaries of being arrogant. Too many people had died under his sabers for being careless because of it, and he would never repeat their mistakes.

So when he saw clear signs, Kai didn't hesitate to accept them.

'Yes,' Kai told his inner voice. 'I think I am afraid. Nervous and anxious as well. But mostly, I am excited.'

He knew there was no turning back now. The moment he went to sleep, he must Act as Darcie Malfoy until he learns the essence of Facelessness and becomes a Faceless man. If not, maybe getting his existence obliterated by the System was better.

As Kai forced himself to sleep, he abruptly remembered the Clue. He had bought it in the auction and even Item-M had rebuked him for spending so many Mission Credits on this pointless thing.

But there was an instinct within him that kept roaring against all open criticisms. He was dead sure that this Clue meant something other than some bastard playing tricks on Contestants. And this Clue had some relation to the Harry Potter World as well.

"I lie beyond the end," Kai said, wording out the Clue aloud.

At one glance, it felt similar to the popular phrase "I open at the close", but there were subtle as well as obvious differences between these phrases.

Beyond the end, Kai repeated and kept chanting the words until the dreamland engulfed his senses once more.

The shiver in his hands vanished as determination and defiance took over, and as the old nightmares returned, the corners of his lips arched up.

******************

AN: Points to be noted by readers --

1. Remember, from now on, Kai has completely and thoroughly taken over Darcie, including her memories, way of thinking, and emotions. As Kai can't think of reasons while Acting as Darcie Malfoy, readers must wait for the Identity Period for him to explain why he did something and how. Meanwhile, readers are welcome to guess and excercise their brain cells.

2. Crisis Timer - 7 days (It keeps going on in the back of Kai's mind and he doesn't have to focus on it too much. If Kai don't change himself into his true form within this time period, then he will be forcefully transfigured into Kai Stormborn)

3. Identity Period - 3 hrs [Coolddown - 48 hours]. Let's say at time shown by Crisis Timer - 12 hours, i.e. 12 hours to the end of 7 days, Kai used Identity Period, then he can remain in his original form for 3 hours. Just after three hours, he would return into Darcie's figure, and the Crisis Timer will reset to 7 days. Now, he can not use Identity Period for another 48 hours.

Note: Kai must remain in his original form for 3 hours.

Note 2: Elementary Ninja Ability is hereby changed to Elementary Chakra Manipulation