Tyler

I wake to a pain in my head, only to realize I am chained against a table, and my vision is back. Looking around, I am in a stone room filled with various medical equipment, all of which is covered in blood and guts.

The worst part was looking at myself only to see that I am cut open with my entrails hanging out and bones covered in blood.

The mage appears behind me, most likely noticing that I am awake. The mage leans over and pulls out a needle filled with a translucent glowing liquid before injecting it into my heart. Word to the wise, don’t let anyone inject a random substance into your heart.

My vision goes dark again, and with it, the pain returns tenfold. It feels like a rush of acid-forming new veins only to burn them farther than they should go, then it fades and repeats itself as he continues to stick me. Again and again, he sticks me with needles, And I continue to blackout. After a few blackouts, I don’t even try to count how many times he has stabbed me.

What feels like days of torture, the mage finally stops and looks at me; a large grin is plastered on his face. The sick fuck is enjoying this.

I really want to go home. It is not like I would be the same. Already I can feel the strain on my brain of repressing what is happening until a later time. And how could I tell anyone what happened and be taken seriously? Because all of my scars are gone because of the magic.

My hope finally shatters of going home; in its place is a cold ember. Begging to be let free to wreak destruction and kill those in my way, tempting me with its power.

The mage was moving towards my head while I was thinking; he picks up a bloody saw that makes me wince just looking at it. Very slowly, he proceeds to cut open the top of my head. After the first second, I am in too much pain to notice anything else. Not being able to fall unconscious, I have to bear the full brunt of the pain.

Minutes later, he takes off the cut portion revealing what I would guess to be my brain. I can hear the sound of metal being picked up, but before I can see what he is doing, an immense pain floods my nerves. Then I blackout again.

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

Why is it so loud in here? I ask myself while I wake up. "What happened?" I mumble to myself before trying to look around. Opening my eyes to darkness, I feel something rubbing against my eyelashes.

I try to move my arms but find them restrained as well. A cold surface beneath me and the sound of dripping water are the only things I can notice.

So what do I know? First, I am on what feels like a stone table. Two that the person who did it was most likely the man who knocked me out. But that still doesn't answer my question of what happened.

Then it hits me. I was tortured by that sick fuck.

I close my eyes and try to hear someone else. I can only hear the methodical dripping of water. As time passes, the sound of dripping water slowly wears down on my already fragile mental state.

I am not sure how much time passes. Maybe it's an hour or maybe days. But after waiting, I hear footsteps. The rhythmic clicking of a metal shoe hitting the ground.

Will someone save me? Is it a knight in shining armor? I pray to whatever being that is out there that I will be saved.

My optimistic mindset is quickly ruined when the door opens, and a rough hand rips the blind from my eyes. Staring into my eyes is the elderly man; his eyes are bloodshot, and scars litter his face.

He smiles, and I see his dark yellow teeth; a chill runs down my spine as he moves around me. I feel like a piece of meat at a butcher shop waiting to be cut into.

After he walks around the table a few times, he claps. More footsteps come from the hall, and another man enters the room, pushing a cart. The clinking of metal from the cart makes me shiver.

The man leaves the cart beside the table before running out of the room.

As the door closes, the old man picks up a book. The cover is ratted and torn. A sinister aura surrounds it, and the little light that is in the room gravitates towards it.

The man chants in a foreign language before reaching towards me. I wiggle and try to avoid his touch, but it is futile. His bony finger stabs into my chest and draws blood.

I scream and buckle against the restraints. The man removes his finger and uses the blood to draw a pentagram on my chest. Before I can stop him, he slams my head against the table, and everything goes fuzzy.

The chanting continues and starts to grow louder as the man draws more symbols. As the room grows darker, the pentagrams begin to glow an eerie red.

For a moment, the chanting stops, and the glow disappears. Only for it to come back tenfold and destroy my body. I hear my bones cracking and feel my muscles tear.

All I know is pain. There is nothing else as my body breaks before being healed and broken again. I thrash against the restraints as the man continues to watch.

I close my eyes and continue to scream until I pass out.

I float in the void, where there is no pain or torture. Why would I go back when I can be here? No evil man or cursed book. I like it here.

But before I get a respite, I am thrown back into hell.

Pain, pain, and more pain, that is all my life is. Somewhere along the line, my vision went out. I think that it was after my hearing, but I am not sure. At least I can't hear my screams or see that stupid bastard.

The sensation of feeling your bones shattering into millions of pieces and being rebuilt is not something I ever wanted to experience. The muscle tearing isn't as bad, but still enough to make the average person pass out. Why haven't I? I mean, a certain amount of pain knocks you out, right?

I closed my eyes and let the pain keep coming. Maybe if I take too much pain, then my body will shut down. Dark, I know, but what other options do I have?

After my nerves became fire, I felt something in my chest. I don't know what it is, but it feels nice.

Something is flowing out of the area in my chest. When it started, I had a massive energy boost that resulted in going into a pain trance. That wasn't very fun. But now I feel strong like I could crush a mountain.

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The man stabbed something into me. There is a difference in pain compared to what that book did. I think he is messing with the powerful area in my chest. Maybe that's why he did this, to get the power?

He can't get it; at least I don't think he can. After a while, he stopped stabbing me and left, but the powerful area is still there. That makes me wonder, where could it be in my chest? I was in anatomy and physiology, and I don't think something could be added like that.

The feeling of power is rising. My body is having seizures, and I don't think it will last much longer. Hopefully, I explode, like a balloon, blood flying everywhere. I feel like laughing at that. Am I going insane?

I laughed until the pain made me stop. Why was there more pain? I don't know, but the man is stabbing me again. I don't think he knows what he is doing.

I start laughing again. Yep, insane. Wait, am I an insane person or a crazy person? I don't need an answer for that.

The area in my chest is building up power. I don't know what for, but it feels like holding up the world.

Something clicked, and I think I died. One minute I was under extreme pain, then the built-up power exploded. Hopefully, it was in a bloody mess, like from a shitty slasher.

Now I don't feel anything except for the lingering mental trauma. But who cares about that when I am finally free.

The void around me is soothing. The pitch-black really helps me get my mind right. I don't know how long I float before light appears. Time doesn't really matter here.

But the light descends on me way too quickly. It covers the darkness and tries to pull me away. I don't want to leave, Or do I? I really don't know anymore.

I lash out with my mind as I am pulled away. My mind is struggling against the cosmic force, but it is futile. It takes a minute to get my head around that I am in a void and pulled away by celestial light. After that, I stop resisting. Maybe it was because I am not all there in the head?

Hopefully, it is like a light novel, and I will have super OP powers and have a harem. Actually, no harem, that shit is disgusting. Ok, how about a nice girlfriend who becomes my wife. That sounds better.

As the light gets brighter, I start to feel with my body. Fuzzy shapes move around, and I hear someone crying. I try to move but find that my body is too weak. So I did get isekiaed. Damn, that's an odd way to be reborn. I wasn't into religious stuff.

Ok, focus Tyler, find out as much as possible, then go home. But I need a crazy man to get me back. Fuck fuck fuck fucking fuck. Why does this have to be so hard?

God damn it, I went on a tangent again.

The people around me continue to talk in their language while handing me around. Baby vision is terrible. In shows and books, they have perfect eyesight, but that's not true. I can't see shit.

I think there are three women and what looks to be one guy. Please tell me this isn't a harem. Please, whatever being sent me here, strike me down before I have to deal with this.

A lighting bolt doesn't kill me, so I am hoping that it isn't a harem. Or maybe I am a little narcissistic, thinking a divine being would be listening to me.

The people talk to each other in loud voices. I groan; I have to learn a new language. I hate different languages, it could be any other subject, and I would be fine, but foreign languages just don't make sense.

I am hungry. Wait, that's not what I was talking about. Food, I need food. Stupid baby brain, changing my thoughts. How can I get anything done with a child's mind?

While I try to find a solution to my internal dilemma. Two of the women walk out of the room, and the one who is laid down on the table, who I assume is my mother, starts talking to the man.

Both smile at me and talk in whispers. Yes, whisper because I, the baby, will understand you. Have I always been this sarcastic? And since when have I spoken to myself? As long as another voice doesn't show up, I don't really care.

Eh, doesn't matter. Now I need to learn the language and magic, then find that stupid bastard and go home. I think I already said that. Fucking baby mind.

My eyes slowly start to drift shut. I have a feeling the next few years are going to be hell. Does time flow the same way here? Do they even have years, or is it something else? Mmmh, the darkness is soothing.

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

"Waaaaaaaaaa!"

God, this body is terrible. I can't even sleep in peace without it screaming. I continue to cry until my mother runs into the room. Her nightdress is hanging on her shoulder by a thread, and her hair a mess. I don't need another sibling so soon.

She starts to whisper in my ear as she lifts me to her chest. The baby portion of my brain leans forward and starts to suck on her nipple. Ew, I know that I don't really have a choice, but I don't like it. As someone who knows how sexualized this is in the current era, it is very uncomfortable to do to my new mother.

I close my eyes and shut down my senses. After a few minutes, my mother pulls away, and I open my eyes. She has a smile on her face, and her eyes are filled with love. A warm feeling stirs in my heart, and I can't help but smile back.

Holding me close, she walks out of the room and goes through the house. Every time we reach a door or window, light bursts from her palm and covers the entrance. My first time seeing magic, and it isn't killing someone, this is good, very, very good.

While my eyes aren't clear, my brain still is fine for the most part. I counted the rooms as mom walked through. In total, she carried me into six different rooms, and she used magic on two doors and seven windows.

From the sizes of the blurry shapes, I can take a guess at what the rooms are. There are three bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room/meeting room, kitchen, and dining room. Two doors weren't opened, and my guess is their room and an office.

I smile. At least my family seems to be decently wealthy. My body yawns and my mother whispers something before laying me back down. Before I can do anything else, my eyelids close shut.

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

How long has it been since I was reborn? In earth years, it has been four years, but here I still don't really know. Time is a bitch, by the way. Instead of years, they say winters since some significant event. I don't know how or why it changes, but it has once since I have been here.

So far, I have learned a few things about this world.

The first thing I learned is that it is the standard fantasy world. Magic and monsters everywhere. The current technology is magic-based and is close to what I was used to on earth convenience-wise. The local language is very confusing. It is a mixture of English, Russian, and Latin. God was hard to learn. But I did.

I was born as Tyrelius Blood-born, son of Dakaths Blood-born and Celeste Dark-Water. My father is the man I saw when I was born. He is a good 6 foot 8 inches of pure muscle. But he looks a lot like my father from the real world. His job as a guard keeps him away most days, and my body is too tired to spend time with him when he gets back.

My mother, on the other hand, is an exact look-alike of my real mother. Wait, if I was born from both, which is the real mom? Fuck not going down another rabbit hole. Anyways, my mother is a retired mage. I don't see how getting pregnant at 19 makes her eligible for retirement, maybe an extended vacation, and that is a maybe.

Overall my life has been easy so far. We live on the outskirts of the capital, and I don't have any mandatory schooling. It is pretty nice.

I did discover what the power-filled area in my chest is, a mana pool. It is what allows for mages to cast spells and warriors to enhance their bodies. And mine is astonishingly large, but the strain it puts on my body is too much for me to use it.

During the night, I sneak around and read books. After a year and a half, I was able to learn to read. Right after I did, my mother decided that it was time for her to teach me. That was a painful few months of pretending to be dumb.

But, I was able to ask her questions I wouldn't have been able to before. Such as the state of the world and what magic is. She says that it is common, but only people who have a large mana pool can use it offensively.

She never told me anything about the world other than what was in the stories she read to me. Being ignorant is horrible; I don't know how people can live without the internet.

The books say that there are elves and fairies in the dark forests and dragons in the mountains. I knew that was bull shit. Why would humans let dragons live and not steal their stuff? It is in our nature.

But I finally got my hands on Mother's magic book. After years of slowly going insane from the boredom, I can work towards my goal.

I silently walked down the hall, avoiding all of the creaky planks as I passed by. The moon is the only light around, and I can hear father sleeping. It may not sound like much, but I think my parents are part rabbit. They never stop fucking. How I don't have more siblings is a mystery.

Entering my mother's study, I slowly drag a stool across the ground. At this point, I am short of four feet tall and can't reach the magic book. The women just had to put it at the very top. Nothing can be easy.

Standing on the stool, I reach up, and with the tips of my fingers, grab the book. I sigh in relief; that could have gone so much worse.

Quietly stepping down, I sit down on the stool and open the book. Even in the darkroom, I can see. I am not sure why. Probably something to do with my new body. There are a few things I have noticed about this body. Such as growing faster than I should and my eyes being pitch black instead of the dull gray they once were. It allows me to see in the dark as long as there is even a little bit of light. I haven't figured out how or why it works.

I flip through the opening few pages and arrive at the first chapter.

The different types of mana.

Sucking in my breath, I start to read.

In the beginning, there was nothing, only the void. But one day, the goddess of creation decided to give purpose to the nothingness. She first created the fundamental elements; fire, earth, water, air, life, death, light, darkness. Using these eight elements, she designed a universe filled with life. As she finished her masterpiece, her life force faded, and she died watching her creation thrive.

A millennia later, life populated our planet. Tribes came together, and mana was first used. The age of magic had begun, colleges formed, and mages worked together to find the truth with magic.

Soon, new types of mana were discovered. These were known as advanced magics, ice, nature, lightning, magma. These four combined the four central elements into more powerful forms. The other four are incredibly rare and hard to master. They are time, space, holy, necromancy.

"Boring," I say before flipping through more pages. I was reborn into a fantasy world. I can read the lore later. Right now, I just want to play with magic.

Ahh, here we are, mana usage.

To first use mana, connect to your mana pool centered in your chest. Next, let the mana flow through your body. (Note: This may be painful due to mana entering your channels for the first time.)

Fuck me. All this time and I never tried to find channels. I am really a brute by the standards of this world.

After a few seconds of concentrating, the mana starts to flow out of my core and into the veins. Pain like that of when I was tortured fills my body. I open my mouth to scream, but no sound comes out. Mana begins to build up and rampages inside my body.

The last thing I see before losing awareness is my mother running over to me while a golden glow surrounds her.