Chapter 1 – The Day of the Pulse
The sky of Aethernia had always been beautiful, but that morning everything was different. The sun filtered through clouds tinted with a faint red, as if the world itself were preparing for something; everyone was holding their breath. I was too. Because that day wasn't just any day: it was the day of the Ether Pulse.
I was eight years old. According to the elders, it was the first chance in my life to awaken ether. If I failed, I would have to wait until I was sixteen, and though I wouldn't admit it out loud, I knew that those who awakened late were always a step behind. Nobody said it in the plaza, but we all thought it.
I'm screwed! Damn it, thought —Kael, our protagonist—. How could I not be?
Imagine being at home, relaxed, just a normal young man: going to college, going home, going to college; watching soap operas and discovering your new vice, fanfics —so many that even the brain-dead ones didn't faze you—. Sometimes you went out with a woman and ended up hooking up, but just as quickly as it began, it ended (and I don't mean just the sex… or maybe I do?). Everything went back to being monotonous and, suddenly, you wake up as a baby in a medieval yet modern world, but with an energy capable of lifting a damn elephant from my old world as if it were chewing gum.
My first years were tough: learning the new language was difficult; they almost thought I was slow, but my mother never doubted me. If it weren't for the fact that I looked nothing like my parents, everything would have been perfect.
I was a boy with porcelain-like skin, extremely cute; purple eyes, with faint red lines visible within them; jet-black hair… basically, I'd been handed the physical reincarnation package. Believe me, the first thing I thought was that my dad had been NTR'ed.
One day, when I was three, I went up to my mother —she was in the kitchen preparing food— and asked:
— Mother, why don't I look like you and Dad? —I said with an innocent face, hiding the fact I really wanted to know the family's dark secrets.
What I got was her anguished expression, almost crying.
—Darling… that's because sometimes children are born different due to ether. Yes, that's it —said my mother, Martha, trying to convince herself more than me with that lie.
—Johhnn, come here! Help me out —she called my father, and he came a few minutes later.
They looked into each other's eyes and then turned to me.
—Little one, there are things better left for when you're older. How about you ask me again when you're fifteen? For now, let's just play a bit, okay? —my father said.
Seeing them trying to convince me, I realized I was definitely adopted… or maybe some powerful family was hunting my parents, and they had left me at the doorstep of common villagers to be cared for. Better not wave the flag: let's save problems for when I'm older.
So I stopped bothering them about it and time went on. Years passed.
When I was five, I managed to find out some information about the world I lived in. You don't really get much in a simple village; the only thing I learned was that this world was similar to cultivation. I found out that there were ranks: Ether Foundation being the first, with walls from 1 to 9. I didn't learn more since no one took me seriously and I didn't want to get close to people who were already cultivating.
Yes, ether: apparently the energy used in this world was ether, and here I was thinking it would be mana or something more familiar.
The thing with ether is that every eight years an Ether Pulse sweeps across the world. Each person has two chances to awaken ether and their affinities: at 8 and at 16 years old, respectively.
That's all I managed to gather, since the villagers hadn't awakened, and those who did never stayed here; we were basically cannon fodder.
Oh, right, I almost forgot: I met a girl here in the village. Her name was Esme, but I never saw her again…
The Incident in the Forest
That day I was walking through the forest to fetch clean water. The path smelled of damp earth and broken leaves. Then I heard it: a soft sob. I followed the sound and saw her, sitting on a root, hugging her knees.
—Hey… —I said awkwardly—. It's okay. Are you lost?
The girl lifted her head. Her eyes were red—not from crying, actually red—and her hair was so dark it seemed to swallow the light. She was calling for her parents between sobs.
—I'm… alone —she whispered.
I don't like kids, but seeing her so out of it left me with no choice. I searched for something to calm her down and blurted the first thing that came to mind:
—You're pretty, you know? It's fine, we'll find them.
She blushed. She blushed as if I'd just confessed to her. Shit.
—Do you really think that? —she asked, staring at me.
—Yeah, of course. But right now what matters is…
I didn't finish. A shiver ran down my spine before I saw her: a woman appeared from among the trees, silent, her presence chilling me to the bone. It was her mother. She had the same eye color, the same hair. A dense aura, almost… demonic.
—Thank you for taking care of my daughter —she said with a too-calm smile.
She took the girl by the hand. The little one glanced at me over her shoulder, still blushing, and whispered:
—We'll see each other again, Kael. Don't hide from me.
That yandere tone froze me. Her mother, amused, nodded as if approving the scene, and led her deeper into the forest.
The whole thing was strange. I just hope this doesn't turn into some cliché encounter like in that vampire novel. Damn it.
Anyway, time passed and I turned eight.
In the City of Everon
The plaza was crowded. Boys and girls my age, some in embroidered clothes, others in rags; all with the same hidden fear in their eyes. The Pulse made no distinction between noble and peasant. Ether chose whomever it wanted.
My father had left me at the entrance. He looked at me once before heading to work. He didn't say anything beyond wishing me luck and hugging me. Then he simply left. I suppose he hoped I wouldn't disappoint him. My mother couldn't come; she had been sick for months. From that day on, the house felt dimmer: she had always been the one who lit up our lives, even for me, who loved my parents despite having lived another life before.
The instructor stepped onto the improvised platform in the middle of the plaza. A tall man, white-haired, with a robe that rippled in the breeze. His voice boomed like thunder:
—Silence! The moment has come! The Pulse is near! Everyone close your eyes and let the world speak through you!
I swallowed hard. I closed my eyes. The murmur of the crowd slowly faded. I felt my breathing. The pounding in my chest. The trembling in my hands.
And then I felt it.
It was as if the air had turned to liquid, thick, heavy. The ground beneath my feet vibrated with a force I couldn't comprehend. It wasn't just outside: something stirred within me, like an invisible river searching for a course. The Pulse.
Some children whimpered, others writhed. I clenched my teeth. I didn't know what to do; I only remembered what I'd heard: "Don't resist. Let yourself go. Ether knows where to flow."
But what I felt wasn't like what the books or tavern tales described. It wasn't a river of fire, nor a sea of water, nor a gust of air. It was… different.
It was a gaze.
Shit, shit… here comes the generic twist.
I have no other way to explain it. I felt something—or someone—watching me from inside my own body. As if I had opened my eyes in the dark and found another pair of eyes already there, waiting.
Finally.
The voice wasn't heard with my ears. It was a murmur in my mind, deep and distant, yet so real I opened my eyes in shock. I looked around. No one else seemed to have heard anything. The others were motionless, sweating; some were already glowing with faint lights of different colors: red, blue, gold. Elemental affinities awakening.
I wasn't glowing. No red, no blue, nothing.
—Failure? —I heard a boy behind me mutter. He was the merchant's son who never stopped bragging.
If he hadn't been a kid, I would've punched his face in. Damn it. If some brat had bothered me at his age in my previous life, I'd probably have fought him. But not here: power here wasn't just money, nor were the laws so strict. Here raw power was everything, and my family was common.
Rage rose in my face, but the voice spoke again in my mind before I could respond:
Don't fight me. Let me in.
I swallowed hard. I didn't know what it meant, but something in my instinct told me that if I rejected it, I'd lose more than just an opportunity. I closed my eyes again and let go.
The world vanished.
I found myself in a formless space. Dark, but not empty. Threads of light floated around me, like fragments of broken stars. And, in front of me, a figure.
It wasn't human, nor dragon, nor anything I could clearly describe. It was a reflection: as if I were facing a distorted mirror. My features, but taller, sharper, more… perfect.
—Are you…? —I said without thinking. I would've almost pissed myself if it weren't because it wasn't even my real body.
The figure tilted its head. It didn't speak with its mouth, but I heard it in my mind.
—I am what your subconscious has created. A guide… if you wish to call it that. Don't worry: since we are one, I am you and you are me. I will disappear once you fully understand your power. I am here because you have touched something that does not belong to this world.
I was left speechless. What kind of fanfic logic was this? I couldn't make sense of what was happening.
—What did I touch? —I asked.
—The absorption cycle. Your body is not like the others. You will be able to bring powers from other worlds into this one. But only what your cultivation rank can withstand.
I blinked. I didn't fully understand, but I got the gist, and swallowed nervously as I realized I might be broken if it was what I thought.
I wanted to ask more, but something in my chest burned, as if it were about to explode.
—Now, return —the figure said, and suddenly everything shattered.
I opened my eyes in the plaza. The ground was still vibrating, but less. The Pulse was fading. All around me, others were glowing: red flames, blue streams of water, gusts of wind. Some, the luckiest, emanated a golden aura of light. Even the merchant's son glowed with a faint green.
I was the same. Nothing. Darkness.
A murmur spread through the plaza. "Failure." "No affinity."
I wanted to say it wasn't like that, that something had happened inside me. But the words died in my throat. I don't want to be enslaved and have something happen to my beautiful body.
At that moment the instructor looked at me briefly, eyes narrowed, but said nothing. He continued with the ceremony.
The Pulse ended. Everyone celebrated or cried. I just stood still, heart racing.
And then it happened.
A spark