As he was watching the bear’s body, Dias’s face slowly began to become pale as blood slowly gathered in his mouth. He felt like his inside were in fire and his body quickly lost all its strength making him fall on the ground unable to lift a finger. His right hand hurt even more than the rest of his body, seeming like it was on the verge of breaking.

Quickly investigating his body, Dias couldn’t help but be surprised. He was completely devoid of any mana, just using his mana to reinforce his hand had emptied all of his mana pool.

Mana was the strength of the soul, something unable to decrease unless one’s soul was damaged.

Yet, a few moment ago he didn’t feel anything amiss. How could his mana be reduced to this puny amount? This amount of mana was the same as a regular adult, spending it had left his body in a deficit which made him unable to move.

Closing his eyes, Dias began to gather the mana around him. It slowly entered his body by traveled in his six mana circuits. After a few minutes, Dias was able to stand up.

It didn’t mean that his mana had fully recharged, but just that he was able to move without any problem.

After all this Dias finally started to examine his body, only now did he realize that he was completely naked. Earlier, under the influence of his emotions he hadn’t realized it, but right now he felt a little sense of shame.

But it suddenly vanished as he noticed that his body had turned back into a child’s one. From his height and build, he could approximately affirm that his current body looked like the one of a thirteen or fourteen years old child.

His body looked a lot like his previous one, the few moles he had were at the exact same position. The only thing which differentiates his body than the one he had in his childhood was the scars.

He was covered in scars. Some old one from battles he fought in his life, earned from various battles where he was constantly on the verge of death. Others from when he was training to the point of injuring his body.

There were some new scars as well, they were at the exact position from where he had been injured before he died. The only things proving that his previous life wasn’t a dream.

Other than that, his body seemed more muscular compared to the one he had in his childhood.

When he was twelve he had of course already started to train for years, but his current body’s repartition of muscle was also very similar to his previous one. A body made not to exert excessive strength, but to provide a high burst of speed and strength. A body made to kill.

It was something forged through countless battle. Despite not having the same physical strength as his old one, it will be far easier to train than a normal child’s one.

But as he was inspecting his body, something caught his attention. It wasn’t something easy to notice unless someone closely examined it, but it was something that surprised him.

Right where his heart was located, there was a little white tattoo. A sun with the symbol of a sword at the center was drawn on his chest.

Dias was confused for a moment before recalling a certain hidden book he had read before; one talking about a dark ritual to imprison the power of the sun within a human body.

“White Sun’s Last Breath…ha...haha...ha”

Remembering this ritual, Dias couldn’t help but laugh as tears fell down from his eyes. In his life, there were only two times when he remembered having shed tears. The first time was when he was burying his comrade, and the second time was now.

Sacrificing not only one’s but the world’s life to save another. In a sense the most beautiful yet most atrocious act of love. Destroying everything to save a loved one.

Dias finally accepted it, the world he was in wasn’t the same as his. And Alseia had completely vanished, her soul probably destroyed by the ritual. He was now alone in a completely different world from his.

Nothing behind him, his past was left behind, destroyed. The only proofs of his previous existence were his memories and this tattoo.

His entire life had now vanished, but he couldn’t resolve himself to follow her into death. After her sacrifice, how could he die?

Despite being alone, he right now had to survive and live on.

“Until now, I’ve lived for the others…For the world…For Humanity... From now on, I’ll live as I desire. Unrestrained and free.”

Living as he wished, free like the wind. Unpredictable and carefree. Doing as he wishes without regret. It was the only thing he could do to repay her.

Dias suddenly opened his eyes, something inside them had changed. There were no worries, only sadness, and resolve. He quickly began to think about his course of action, if there was life, then maybe there would be humans or, at least, an intelligent race similar to them.

“Living alone in the wood might be pretty nice, the forest look pretty good… But I would probably get bored in no time. Moreover, I would probably feel lonely… I should probably set off on a journey. Travel all over the world to discover this new world, the one Alseia sent me to.”

Meeting new people, discovering new places and sceneries, trying some new dish and, of course, develop his fighting skills.

Dias didn’t know how he should really live from now on, so he only decided to be as carefree as a child. Changing his mind whenever he feel like it, living one day at a time.

In his previous life, he was an orphan trained to be a warrior. His childhood consisted of training, sparring and learning how to defeat monsters and kill. He never enjoyed the warmth of being raised by parents or being able to act selfishly.

All the time he was stolen, he would enjoy it now.

With this in mind, Dias began to think about the preparation he should make to go on a journey.

Considering the fact that he was actually naked, he made his first priority to find some clothes. But looking at the bear’s body, the corner of Dias’s mouth slightly raised.

Finding some clothes in a forest would be actually impossible, but using the fur of animals to at least cover his body until he manages to find some real ones.

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Dias turned back toward a tree and picked a small tree branch which was laying on the ground before returning to the bear’s corpse.

Closing his eyes, a small number of blue dots appeared around the top of the tree branch, gathering just at the tip.

Using mana to empower his own body would result in a backlash, his limbs were still too weak to handle being empowered. They might break under the pressure just like his right hand earlier.

Although Dias’s body was a little more developed compared to the other child’s one, his strength still wasn’t enough to skin a bear by using just his little hands.

But by using the sharpness of a tree branch furthermore enhanced by a little amount of mana; just enough of it not to break, it was more than enough to just skin the bear.

Using the tip of the branch as if it was a knife, Dias skillfully operated the bear’s corpse. His movements looked very slow, but they were incredibly sharp. Not a single useless movement, each of them was carefully calculated in order not to damage the fur.

In no more than five minutes, the bear was completely skinned, leaving behind only his meat.

Using the bear’s fur, he made himself some very crude and simple clothes. A small pants accompanied by legs warmer, two a very crude shirt followed by two armbands.

Making this whole set had taken him a full hour and was extremely crude and simple, but it was still far better than staying naked.

In this set, Dias looked like a savage from a tribe. But until he managed to find some better clothes, he had to endure it and stick with them.

However, there was one thing which displeased him. No matter what, he couldn’t endure it at all. His expression showed his disgust without hiding it.

“This fur really stink… I better wash it as soon as I can.”

The skin came from a dead animal after all, he wished he would find a river really quickly and wash those ‘clothes’ as soon as he could… Taking a bath at the same occasion after being contaminated by the fur’s delicate scent.

Looking at the sky, Dias’s face suddenly looked serious. The sun was slowly setting and after only a few hours the predators would wake up and start looking for food.

During the day, the prey went to find food while their predator were sleeping. And during the night the prey hid themselves in fear while the predators start their hunt. A vicious cycle called nature.

For Dias whose body was weakened, even if a few wolves weren’t his opponent, he was in a condition where he should preferably avoid fighting. Furthermore, with the bear’s corpse beside him, those predators with a high sense of smell will definitely come here.

Using his branch, he quickly effortlessly cut through the bear’s leg before throwing the branch away and leaving.

The next thing he needed was some ration for his journey. He would have used the bear’s meat if possible, but he would need to cook the food beforehand in order to remove the attractive scent of blood which would bait many vicious carnivores.

It would take him many hours for this… Which he didn’t have.

For this reason, he only took a bear’s leg which he would roast and eat today and search for rations tomorrow. He also needed to look for a river, albeit the bear’s smell was unbearable it would at the very least keep animals away from him this night.

Walking through the forest as he was collecting wood to make a fire camp, it didn’t take long before he managed to find a cave.

In fact, he had in no way walked randomly in the woods. He was orienting himself by staying in the area where the bear’s claw mark could be seen in trees.

The animals which claimed an area were always the strongest around it. It was dissuading other predators weaker than them from entering his territory and hunt his food. Within his area would, of course, be located the cave where he was living in.

It didn’t take him long to find a cave. Stopping for a moment, he used his senses to check if any animals or creatures were inside but as he didn’t detect anything, he simply entered the cave.

The cave wasn’t very spacious, only three meters wide and fifteen meters deep. Despite not being big, it was still more than ample for him to spent a night and make a fire camp.

Dias gathered most of the wood in a corner of the cave before piling up a few of them in the middle of the cave. Extending his hand toward the wood, a little flow of mana traversed his mana circuit, gathering at his hand in the form of a very thin blue trail.

“Flame.” He said as the mana trail suddenly became crimson and transformed into a fire spark, setting ablaze the wood.

Though he couldn’t use a large quantity of mana, something as simple as kindling some wood wouldn’t affect his body.

Using the fire, Dias started to roast the bear’s leg.

It only took a few minutes before a delicate and exquisite odor started to assail his nostrils. Remembering that he hadn’t eaten any food for at least severals months, Dias’s stomach started to leak a few screams, wanting to be filled as much as possible.

Even though the meat wasn’t fully cooked, Dias could only barely stop himself from eating it.Saying that hunger was the best ingredient was definitely true, those who said “love is the best ingredient” probably never truly starved in their whole life.

When the meat was almost cooked Dias immediately rushed on it, eating it like a savage animal. The large chunk of meat disappeared in only a few dozens of seconds, leaving behind only a few bones on which not even a single gram of meat could be seen.

They were so clean that it looked like they had been polished.

After eating a few meals within months, Dias felt himself become very sleepy. He rested beside the fire, thinking about the preparations he would have to do tomorrow and wondering if he would, at least, be able to see Alseia in his dream.