Warrior of Light

mrsquishr

Chapter 1: Jumpstart

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This was, unfortunately for him, not an entirely unfamiliar scenario; and he feels a great wave of dread wash over his prone form.

The familiar burn of Light in his veins is distressingly absent, and his movements are lethargic as he struggles to raise even his head.

'Where…' his thought cut off as he spots the baby mobile hanging a few feet above his face. 'No...'

'No, no, no, not again!' Panic overtakes him, and he lets out a cry. Quickly, a door opens and a worried looking woman peers down at his wriggling form.

She scoops him up, and coos gently to him, rocking him in her arms. "Hey, it's okay honey, mommy's here."

Slowly, his breath calms, and his cries fade away. Smiling up at the unfamiliar face, the dots start to connect in his mind, and he recognizes who she must be.

'Mommy? But then…'

The woman, who must be his new mother, lets out a sigh and tuts fondly at him. "You gave me a little scare, what do you need?" When no response comes, she just rocks him back and forth a bit more, and then sets him in his crib.

Laying there, hearing the door click shut behind her, the pieces start to fall together in his mind. 'It really happened again. I'm somewhere new, and as a newborn this time.'

'Fuck.'

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It took a few days to really come to terms with his new situation. At least as a baby he had all the time in the world to think, so he had a basic plan hammered out by the end of his first week.

His new parents spoke a language familiar to him, though one he hadn't heard for a lifetime. One never quite forgets their mother tongue, and so he was able to understand most of what they spoke about. Mainly names, times, places, and events.

He was looking for anything he could use to ascertain the current situation of the world but had not overheard anything particularly noteworthy, except for three names. His, his father's, and his mother's.

They had named him Lucian, after his father, and his mother was named Alice. Lucian had started to refer to himself by the new name, trying to get used to it. Besides trying to eavesdrop in his parent's conversations, he had one other focus that absorbed most of his time.

His connection to the Light. His core was, as expected, nowhere to be seen; and that might have been for the best. If his core was still inside him, even just a shard, he would probable just explode from the power. This small body of his was unaccustomed to enduring the Light's burning energy and wouldn't be able to handle more than a fraction of his previous might.

One thing he did still have, and in spades at that, was knowledge. It was what he had used to jump ahead in his previous world and would be even more potent of an edge in this one. Before he could put any of this to use, though, he had to make sure he could still call upon the Light.

He would have to start small, and make sure he was completely alone. The Light was anything but subtle outside of the body, and it would not be smart to draw his parent's suspicion.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

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It was midnight, several days later, when he had finally decided on the method to forge his connection. For hours he stared out at the full moon in the window and, though just a pale reflection of sunlight, it would still do to jumpstart his core formation.

He controlled his breathing and began to draw on the faint shafts of moonlight that fell onto his face. Closing his eyes to better focus, he could smell the flowery scent of the moon, masking the faintest spicy burn of sunlight. Gathering his willpower, he slowly gathered it, shaping the light into a small needle, then guiding it over his chest until it hovered above his slowly beating heart.

Without showing even a hint of pain, his concentration did not waver as the needle slowly slid through his chest, slipping between his ribs and coming to rest against his heart. Slowly, carefully, he guided it in the smallest of circles and traced out an unbroken line onto the surface of his organ.

Allowing the needle to fade away once he had carved the circle, a small drop of blood beaded onto his chest before being absorbed by his blanket. The hard part was done, and now all that was left was to channel just a tiny bit of sunlight into the groove.

Steeling himself for the pain, he took one last deep breath, and centered his focus on the circle. He could see it through his closed eyelids, the light slowly getting brighter, and then his heart stuttered in its rhythm and fire entered his veins.

The prick of the needle was incomparable to the agony of burning from the inside, but it was a pain that he had borne many times before. Scrunching his face, and clenching his fists, he let out no more than a slight grunt. Sweat began dripping from his form, and he could feel the ambient temperature start to raise through the haze of pain.

He had wrest control of the rampaging Light, and use it, before he turned into a ball of fire. Drawing the heat back into himself the temperature dropped back to normal before continuing to plummet, and frost began to creep across his window. Focusing inside of himself, he pushed the Light along in his veins, and forced it to cycle back around to his heart.

Every beat pushed it further along until, after what felt like a small eternity, the first cycle was completed. With a gasp of relief, he let himself fall limp on the bed, and felt the next cycle start to follow that trail that he had burned into his flesh.

The small circle on his heart was glowing now, filling with Light as it circulated it through his body, and he knew that it would one day turn into his core.

For now, he was content. His connection was reestablished without too much difficulty, and he hadn't spontaneously combusted while trying.

'I wasn't sure this small body could take the Light, and such a small amount almost overwhelmed me.' He knew he had a long way to go until he was back at his peak but, for now at least, he was satisfied with his progress.

With that, Lucien closed his eyes, and drifted into unconsciousness, exhausted beyond even thought.