Chapter 2 : The Awakening Under the Sun

The darkness surrounding Aslam was not merely the absence of light. It was an oppressive presence, as if it were compressing every part of his being. Time held no meaning there; minutes became hours, and hours turned into days as he lost himself in an absolute void.

 A reflection of his past defeats. Every shadow seemed to whisper forgotten secrets, each breath of rarefied air bringing to the surface the doubts that had always lingered in his mind;

He tried to remember how he had ended up in that place, but his memories were like scattered fragments, fleeting glimpses that dissolved in his mind. One moment, he was conscious, immersed in reality; the next, he was sinking into an abyss of nothingness. His mind struggled to grasp any remnant of reality, but it was a battle without victory.

Found himself not merely a prisoner but a spectator of his own life. He pondered what it truly meant to exist, questioning whether his essence was more than just a physical body, more than a sequence of memories.

"How much time has passed?" This thought consumed him. A thousand years? Perhaps more, in an endless cycle of despair.

Without mana, Aslam felt stripped of something vital, as if a crucial part of his essence had vanished. Its absence was more devastating than the prison itself. He had always felt the mana flowing around him, a constant river that sustained him.

Now, each breath became a struggle, as if he were submerged, trying to reach the surface in an ocean of darkness. He was adrift, isolated in an endless sea, unable to find a safe harbor.

"Why was I defeated? What was that?" The memories of the entity that sealed him were a dark haze in his mind. A formless shadow, yet filled with incomprehensible power. It had stopped him with an ease that still made him question his own abilities.

The presence of that entity was not merely a terrifying memory; it was a cruel reminder that even the strongest can be subdued. The power he had once challenged now loomed over his soul like a shadow, a specter that followed him in every thought."

Suddenly, something changed. A small tremor broke the suffocating silence.

He felt a new presence. Small, yet real. A breeze. It was like a breath of life in the endless desert. And then, everything began to shift.

His consciousness, slow and heavy, was pulled back. He felt something different. Air? The touch of his body against the cold ground? The sensation was strange yet familiar.

His eyes snapped open. Above him, the sky was bright and warm, as if welcoming him. He blinked, adjusting to the sudden influx of light and the shock of being awake again.

He tried to rise, but his body felt heavy, rigid, as if he had been asleep for far more than just a few days. Every muscle resisted, refusing to obey his will.

"What happened to me?" The question escaped his lips, his voice hoarse and weak.

He looked around, seeking answers. The trees surrounding him were tall and dense, and he found himself in a forest he did not recognize.

"Am I in a forest?" He could barely remember the last time he had seen something like this after eons of darkness.

He slowly moved toward a nearby lake, the soft glow of the water reflecting.

He leaned over the surface, and what he saw left him speechless.

The image in the reflection was that of a young man. Dressed in fine white clothing with a flowing red robe.

His skin was smooth, without scars or marks of battle. The place felt familiar, yet something was off.

He walked slowly, with uncertain steps, until he reached a clearing. A lake sparkled under the light filtering through the trees. The water was crystal clear, reflecting the overcast sky. He approached and, without thinking, gazed at his reflection in the water.

For a moment, he did not recognize himself.

"What...?" His eyes widened as he stared at the young man looking back at him. His body was not the same.

He touched his face with trembling hands. His skin was younger, smoother, devoid of the battle scars he remembered. His gray hair, like strands of silver, fell gently over his forehead, giving him an air of wisdom that contradicted his new age.

His eyes, a soft green , sparkled with a depth that seemed to carry the weight of a thousand years. It was as if they had witnessed both the beauty and tragedies of the world.

The face, once marked by battle scars, was now smooth and flawless, reflecting a beauty different from that of his original form.

His fingers trailed down his neck and chest. The body was new, but the soul... the soul was still his.

"This isn't me, why does it feel so different? I've never known magic for rebirth" The feeling of strangeness was intense.

He stripped off the tattered clothes and entered the water. The cold brought him back to the present.

The water, both familiar and strange, offered a chance for renewal, a moment for his soul to be purified. It was as if the waves whispered promises of an unknown future, urging him to let himself be carried away

Felling more awake. The water washed over his body, but it did not cleanse the questions in his mind.

"This body..." He observed the scars that did not exist, the different musculature, the youthful vigor. "I have been reborn... but why, how?"

His thoughts raced in circles, seeking answers. What had happened to his original body? He remembered the sealing, the confrontation with the mysterious entity, the betrayal that had brought him here.

Now, it was clear: he had been reborn into a different body. A young man, likely dead in the forest, whose soul had departed.

As he emerged from the water, he put on the soiled clothes, still filled with questions. Even without understanding everything, he knew that time had passed.

But how much? He reached out toward the lake, trying to summon the mana.

At first, nothing happened. The emptiness of the sealing still weighed on his soul. But gradually, he began to feel something. The mana was still there, but it felt different.

It flowed more subtly, more distantly than before. The vibrant and constant flow of mana now seemed quieter, more subdued.

It was as if the world was learning to live without it. Each step he took through the forest was an attempt to comprehend what had happened.

He didn't know how long it had been since the sealing, but he knew the world around him was not the same.

There was something in the energy, something in the very earth that felt different.