William woke feeling well-rested. Pushing away the heavy blankets that covered his still immature frame, he got up and stretched, feeling free after a long time.

It was a period where war had yet to break out, making him cherish the peaceful atmosphere. It had been years since he last had such a relaxing environment, even after returning to the past.

However, he knew well that such peace wouldn’t last long, even without the demons. He had to first strengthen himself further, and the Marinus mage academy was his first step.

The emperor had already given him the letter of recommendation, but he didn’t head there immediately. Even if he did, he couldn’t enroll yet due to his young age. He needed to be at least fourteen years old to undertake the exams. Keep in mind that being fourteen was the lowest age required; this didn’t mean one could pass at such an age.

Most of the teenagers attending the academy were above the age of fifteen and rarely did one pass at the age of fourteen. In fact, the academy accepted students up to the age of twenty-two; after all, mages could live much longer due to mana and potions.

From the age of fifteen till the age of thirty, it was considered the golden age of a person, being the peak of their advancement speed. This didn’t mean that they would stop advancing afterward; rather, it meant that their speed was much faster in this time period.

William, who had only become a mage as a middle-aged man, was an example of this. Even though he was relatively old, he still became a fourth-stage mage, which signified the great amount of potential he had. Alas, he wasn’t so blessed in the previous timeline, as if his luck was directly severed when his family disappeared.

If he hadn’t possessed memories of the future, it would have been impossible for him to change his fate, which meant he would be stuck in a time loop once he returned to the past without his memories.

Thinking of this, William couldn’t help but grimace. He didn’t want to imagine himself stuck in an endless loop, being nothing but a bystander as his fate was determined by time. Even right now, he could feel that he didn’t really control anything.

Grabbing the amulet hanging from his neck, he felt helpless. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t understand how he came to possess the time crystal, nor how it had activated when he was about to die. The twelve attribute crystals signified the extremes of each element, each possessing incredible amounts of power.

William removed his amulet, making it easier for him to observe it. Bringing it closer to his face, he inspected it thoroughly.

It was then that he noticed a drastic difference from what he remembered. The crystal was far dimmer in luster and glow than it was before as if it had lost a vast amount of energy. However, with a closer look, he noticed that it was slowly regaining that luster with every second passing.

He tried to channel a small amount of mana into the crystal to notice any change, but nothing happened, and the luster didn’t increase. William didn’t know if the crystal was slowly absorbing energy or if its power just grew naturally over time, but there was one thing he knew for sure. If he were to die once more, the crystal wouldn’t have enough power to send him back in time.

For some reason, he could feel that the crystal’s current weakness was due to him returning to the past. This made him wonder what functions the other special attribute crystals had.

‘The time crystal was able to effect time, but what about the space crystal? Since time and space were connected in a harmonious yet bizarre way, didn’t that mean that the space crystal could shatter space time?’

William couldn’t help but be alarmed and, at the same time, thankful that no one had found the space crystal even in the future.

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He knew which attribute crystals were discovered and when since they were incredibly important in the battle with the demons. He was only surprised by the functions of the time crystal and speculated about the ones of the space attribute since it was the one most similar to time.

So far, six attribute crystals were owned; the time crystal was not included, and the others' whereabouts were lost in history. The six known attribute crystals are Light, Lightning, Fire, Metal, Nature and Wind.

They were all in the possession of the descendants of the six heroes. The six heroes were a myth in this world, being the ones that freed the world from the demons in the past, sealing them to the demonic domain. However, due to the passage of thousands of years, the demons slowly pried the seal open and once again returned to conquer Roia.

That being said, although the demons were sealed, from time to time, a human-demon hybrid would be able to bypass the border and become a demonic lord that would cause the descendants of the heroes to band together to either kill him or seal him with the other demons.

William knew that this wasn’t a good solution since the demons had completely removed the seal in the end, causing the world to fall into despair.

The first thing they did, after being able to escape the seal, was to hunt for attribute crystals, managing to take the Lightning, Fire, and Wind crystals and turning Roia into nothing more than a hellscape where the demons could roam around like their homes. At the same time, the races could only perish in despair.

Using the remaining crystals, they were able to survive for some time, but with countless people turning to demonic apparitions, the situation had become hopeless. The only way left was to use the Metal crystal to slowly construct the bastion, strengthening it with the Light crystal and using the Nature crystal to create an environment for life so that they could survive and grow food.

William thought hard about things for some time as he sat cross-legged to meditate. He knew that he couldn’t rush things even if he wanted to. The demons were, after all, endless due to their connection with the demon realm.

It was not the demon invasion that made him worry, but the demon realm. After doing countless amounts of research into the functions of space-time and trying to construct the dimensional device, he realized that many realms seemed to exist in parallel with Roia. Not just a different space-time, but a whole other dimension.

Doing so, he realized that the demons came from a different realm, which he called the demon realm. He was sure that Roia wasn’t the only world that the demons were invading, which meant that their enemy was far more powerful than anyone thought. It made sense why the ancient heroes could only seal them away, sacrificing a whole continent in the process.

William looked at the time crystal, feeling a sense of urgency. He knew that he had to find the other attribute crystals before the demons did, especially the space crystal. He didn't know if the crystal could shatter space-time, but he didn't want to take any chances.

He made up his mind to search for the attribute crystals after enrolling in the Marinus mage academy. He needed to become stronger, at least strong enough to rival the current demon King, but he couldn't wait too long, or things would be bad.

Thinking of this, William got up quickly, got dressed, and exited his room. His room was located on the second floor of the building, so he had to descend the stairs before he reached the gate.

The head butler, Manuel, stood patiently at the end of the stairs as he looked at William descending.

Before William could even ask what he wanted, he spoke.

“Master has ordered for you to directly head to the training grounds, he will be personally teaching you today. After you are done with your training, please make sure to eat.”

Manuel’s voice was pleasant, but to Williams's ears, it sounded like a bomb had fallen from the sky, ready to explode on him. He had completely forgotten about his father and how over the top he acted with training.

Since he had never gone through this in the previous timeline, he was slightly worried.

‘Surely my old man won’t beat me up too badly, right?’

He couldn’t help but think, but he knew that he was going to get a beating either way today, so he just clenched his teeth and decided to exit the house through the backyard door.

There, he found his father, Malcolm, along with his elder brother, Adam, training their aura.

Adam had already reached the aura-emitting stage, so now he was just polishing his movements and aura management. William knew from experience that the second stage was far more powerful than the aura forging stage, rivaling a fourth stage mage in power at its peak. Of course, this required quite the talent in aura manipulation since any minor mistake would cause one to be crippled.

Energies such as Eather, Mana, and Aura weren’t playthings. They were dangerous powers that were used to create impossible phenomena, bending the laws of the world in a weird yet scientific way. All of their functions could be easily identified, making them a stable factor of the world and, at the same time, a fundamental thing that created the earth itself.