Perspective: Leland
Our family has never been very rich. We've been farmers our whole lives, and the land has provided, so there's been no reason to change when they're already good at tending crops. As Leland tills the soil, he looks up at the walls of the capital. He enjoys his work, but he can't help but slightly resent the lavish lifestyle of the nobles. Oftentimes, Leland and his little sister, Mary, would go into the capital to sell crops and buy farming supplies while their father worked and their mother cooked dinner or cleaned clothes. Richer children would spit on them as they walked through the market, and even the adults would sometimes scoff at them as they walked by.
Despite all of this, however, what Leland really wanted was to learn magic. The royal academy had told him he didn't have the capacity to manipulate mana nor the intelligence to understand spells, and so he was shunted from its ebony gates. Farming had made his lineage, and he enjoyed it, but contempt and boredom swelled in his soul.
His chance to become a great sorcerer would come: But not in the way he thought.
As he drove his till into the ground, a sort of nothingness appeared before him, following the trajectory of his till swing. He jumped back in shock, and after staring at it for a moment, started slowly backing up to get his parents. But when he saw the purple and black boot step through the impossible construct, he hesitated.
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Perspective: The Thaumaturge
As I step through the rift, I am met with a terrified-looking child stood in front of me. "Hello, little one," I say.
The boy looks startled for a moment before collecting himself. "Are you a... a sorcerer?" He asks. Interesting.
I chuckle a little bit before replying, "You could say that, but certainly no sorcerer the practitioners of your land would recognize. Tell me, is that large, walled city over there the capital of this kingdom?"
"Yes, sir, but-" The boy starts to speak, but his voice is cut off in anxiety when he sees the nearly one-hundred strong force of crimson cultists emerge from the flux rift. "...Who are you?"
"My name is not important... Leland? Did I get that right?" He yelps, and I instinctively try to smile before remembering I lack a mouth.
"You're a psychic, too!? That's insane!" I see a man approaching us from a small shack beyond the field.
"What in the- holy Yana..." The man, who I discover is his dad from media reading, runs towards us and shoves Leland behind him. "What do you want, brigands? Our harvest? Our gold? I won't let you hurt them!"
"Relax, sir. I know we appear menacing, but our intentions are pure."
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"And what are your intentions, sorcerer?" He asks skeptically.
"We are here to conquer this world." The man looks at me with a glint in his eye.
"Are you... crazy? Stupid? You think 100 men are enough to take down Krag? What about The Belfry? The Mausoleum? You're batshit insane!"
"I can't blame you for thinking so, and I know the answer is probably no, but would you be okay with your son joining us? I sense a strong ambition in him that sort of reminds me of myself." He starts to object, but I stop him. "Before you say anything, should we succeed in our conquest, nothing for you will change. The only new law I would impose would be the ban of trans-reality spells." The man thinks for a moment.
"You're definitely a sorcerer if you're using fancy terms like that. We call it summoning, but I've heard it called that a few times in relation to Yana. Sorcerers summon mighty heroes from other worlds and bind them in service, using their power to topple entire cities." Leland's father turns to face him. "I know how much you've wanted to learn magic your whole life. Do you really want to go with this man? I worry for your safety."
"Father, I'm nearly seventeen now. If not now, when? I may never get a chance like this again," says Leland.
The man closes his eyes and squeezes Leland's hand. "Very well. Go wish your mother and sister goodbye. Promise me you'll return."
"I promise."
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"So all these guys serve you?" Leland asks.
"Yes, willingly."
"What kind of magic do you do? How strong is your mana? It must be insane if you've got so many apprentices!"
I slow down a bit. "Oh, that's right." I stop walking and hold both his shoulders. "I sense that you were turned away from some sort of school of magic, correct?" He looks embarrassed but nods. "There's something you should know before joining me. I am from a different world. There's not enough time to explain it here, and beaming it into your head would leave many questions unanswered, so I will explain later. Your affinity for 'mana' has no impact on whether or not your magic is powerful when you travel with me. What's important is that you understand these two things: Firstly, if you decide to stay with me after I take over this world, you will likely never see your family again. You will travel between worlds with us on a never-ending mission. Secondly, you have a strong resolve. Willpower is the strongest thing in existence; if there's a will, there's a way. There was a time when the will of trillions was able to defeat me. I will never again underestimate resolve as a weapon. Do you understand?"
He looks at me solemnly for a moment before smiling and nodding. "My will to learn is immeasurable. I'll have to think on the 'never seeing your family again' thing, though."
"Good. Now that you understand that, there is something else you must realize. This 'mana' stuff you keep talking about isn't relevant. I call it vis. You have been taught that it can only be harnessed by the gods or by casting specific incantations and rituals; this is incorrect, although by no fault of your world's scholars. In raw form, it can be harnessed, but as far as I'm aware I am the only one in existence capable of doing it. Unfortunately, I myself cannot use vis, so I create magical artifacts to aid me in doing so, such as this." I take a gun-shaped object from my hip and hand it to him. "I call this the Victus Conductor. It shoots a bolt of Potentia (Energy) infused with a small amount of Victus (Life) into the target. Using the Victus as a conductor, it chains to other nearby creatures. The voltage is enough to kill a nearly unlimited number of people. There's a small switch on the side that limits it to a single person. For now, I've locked it in single-target mode so you don't accidentally end up killing anyone you don't intend to. Pull this trigger here to fire it."
As I show the young boy my magic, I once again instinctively try to smile as I somehow manage to make someone's life a little better after such a long time of only hurting.