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Prologue – The Birth of Agust
The smell of ozone hung heavy in the air.
Inside the laboratory, rows of monitors flickered with cascading data streams. A tall man in a white lab coat stood before a humming containment chamber, eyes locked on the pulsating sphere of light suspended within.
Dr. Luke Arvens — one of Earth's youngest and most brilliant scientists — was about to rewrite the laws of reality.
"Stabilizing quantum-mana interface… initiating final phase," he murmured into his recorder. His voice was calm, but his fingers trembled slightly.
This was Project Agust. His life's work. His dream. A perfect bridge between science and the arcane — a magic born not from nature, but from logic.
The chamber pulsed brighter. Warning alarms blared.
> CRITICAL ERROR – POWER SURGE DETECTED
Luke's heart skipped a beat.
"No… no, no, no…! Reroute the energy to—"
The sphere erupted. A blinding flash swallowed the room, shattering glass, twisting metal, and hurling Luke backward. In that instant, pain flared — sharp, searing — then vanished into cold nothingness.
Silence.
When Luke opened his eyes, he was lying beneath a carved wooden ceiling, draped in silk sheets. A faint floral scent filled the room.
"Luke… my son… you're awake."
A beautiful woman in regal robes leaned over him, her eyes wet with relief. Behind her stood a tall man in noble attire, his arms crossed.
Luke blinked. His voice was hoarse. "Where… am I?"
The man frowned. "In the House of Valcrest, boy. Your family's estate. And you'd better recover quickly — your magic evaluation is in three days."
Magic?
Luke sat up slowly, the memories of the lab, the explosion, the pain — all swirling into a single, terrifying realization.
He had died.
And now… he was someone else.
But when he reached for the strange, shimmering energy that seemed to flow in the air around him, he felt — nothing.
No mana. No power.
A world built on magic… and he had none.
His fists clenched. His mind sharpened.
If this world wouldn't give him magic…
He'd build it himself.
And thus, in the heart of a strange land, the seeds of Agust — the magic of a scientist — began to grow once more.
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