Chapter 6 - Echoes of the Past

Elias sat in the dim glow of his workshop, the familiar scent of alchemical reagents mixing with the metallic tang of magi-tech components. His fingers absently traced the lines of an old notebook—the first one he'd ever owned. The pages were filled with messy equations, hasty notes, and drawings of experiments long forgotten. He sighed, letting the weight of nostalgia wash over him.

He'd always been like this—curious, relentless, drawn to the unknown. Even as a kid on Earth, he was the one dismantling gadgets just to see how they worked, mixing vinegar and baking soda in plastic bottles, pretending he was some great chemist. His parents, in their quiet way, encouraged him—buying him books, letting him lose himself in thoughts and experiments. But the real turning point, the real change in his life, hadn't happened on Earth.

It had happened in Elysium.

The first time he'd drifted off to sleep and found himself in that world, he was terrified. The transition was seamless—one moment he was in his bed, and the next, he was standing in an open field beneath twin moons. The air had felt different—crisper, alive, humming with something unseen. At first, he thought it was just a dream, one that he would wake up from soon. But then he stayed, night after night, waking only when his body on Earth stirred.

[Status Screen - Age 10]

Name: Elias Varian

Race: Human

Class: Apprentice Alchemist

Level: 3

Aether Capacity: Low

Attributes:

Strength: 2

Agility: 4

Intelligence: 8

Arcana: 6

Vitality: 3

Dexterity: 5

Abilities:

Basic Alchemy: Knowledge of simple potion-making and ingredient extraction.

Aether Sensitivity: Can faintly sense magical flows and properties of materials.

Beginner's Crafting: Able to create rudimentary Aether-infused mixtures.

His childhood became a balancing act between two worlds. On Earth, he was just a regular boy, buried in textbooks and school labs. In Elysium, he was an apprentice to Master Havel, a potion-maker who'd seen something in Elias and decided to take him under his wing. Havel had taught him how Aether could be distilled, refined, and transmuted. Elias soon realized that magic wasn't some ethereal force—it followed rules, principles, just like the chemistry he studied back on Earth.

By twelve, Elias had started conducting his own experiments, combining his Earthly knowledge with Elysium's alchemy. He tried extracting the essence of plants using solvents, measuring reaction times for different Aether infusions. He failed more times than he succeeded, but he never gave up.

And then came the dangers.

His first encounter with an Aether Beast had nearly killed him. While scavenging for rare ingredients on the outskirts of a ruined Elysian city, a lesser Arcane Serpent had appeared from the shadows. The creature moved like liquid night, its eyes glowing with a hungry, otherworldly light. Elias froze, unarmed, powerless. If a passing adventurer hadn't intervened, he would have died that night. The encounter shook him, but it also steeled his resolve. Knowledge wasn't enough to survive in Elysium—he needed to be stronger.

That was when he started learning self-defense—not with weapons or raw strength, but with the thing he knew best: alchemy. He crafted rudimentary Aether bombs, made potions to speed up his reflexes or dull pain. He even experimented with binding Aether to metal, laying the groundwork for the Aether Core refinement he worked on now. He wasn't a warrior, but he had become known as someone who could turn the tide of a fight with the right mix, the right tool.

But living two lives came with a price.

As he grew older, the disconnect between his two worlds became harder to bear. His Earthly studies grew more demanding, while Elysium never let go. There were moments when he'd wake up on Earth, reaching for an Aether flask that wasn't there, or when he'd forget that he was only a visitor in Elysium. Sleep had become his only passage between the two realms. As his experiments deepened, the question that had haunted him for years—Was there a way to bridge the gap between these worlds, to bring one's knowledge into the other in a lasting way?—became an obsession.

Now, here he was. The Void was consuming him, eroding his very Aether. His body, his mind—both were slipping, caught between two worlds that had shaped him. And still, despite the fear gnawing at him, his curiosity remained.

He had always sought answers.

And no matter the cost, he would find them.

[Status Screen - Present Day]

Name: Elias Varian

Race: ??? (Mutated)

Class: Alchemist / Bridger

Level: 36

Aether Capacity: Unstable

Attributes:

Strength: 10

Agility: 16

Intelligence: 29

Arcana: 34

Vitality: 12

Dexterity: 19

Abilities:

Advanced Alchemy: Mastery over potion synthesis, transmutation, and Aether Core refinement.

Void Affinity (???): Effects unknown, but Aether interactions have become erratic.

Hybrid Catalyst: Merges Earth-based chemistry with Elysium's Aether sciences.

??? (Corrupted by Void): Unknown properties developing after Void exposure.

The difference was stark. His younger self had been frail—an apprentice grasping at the secrets of Elysium. Now, his power had grown, but so had the cost. What had he become? The Void had changed him, and it was still changing him.

And soon, the world would take notice.