"Hey! Wait! Wait for me, please!"
Yuki Utaski's voice cracked as he sprinted down the pavement, lungs burning. He reached out a desperate hand, but the taillights of the last bus flickered mockingly before disappearing into the evening haze.
"Argh... it's gone." Yuki doubled over, clutching his knees.
"That's the fourth time this week. I am way too old for this."
With a defeated sigh, he began the long trek home. His mind, seeking an escape from the exhaustion of his 7-to-7 grind, drifted toward the familiar comforts of fantasy. He imagined worlds filled with soaring dragons, intricate spell-circles, and raw power.
"If only I could just... find a world of magic," he muttered. "I'll be forty next month and what do I have? No wife, no kids, no car. Nothing."
Seeking the fastest route to his cramped apartment, Yuki took a sharp turn into a deserted shortcut. The silence of the abandoned street was heavy, broken only by the rhythm of his own footsteps.
"Maybe I'll be summoned," he joked darkly to himself. "Or get hit by a bus. Or maybe a building will just collapse on me... Nah, that's crazy. Magic isn't real."
As he passed a shadowed construction site, a tiny pebble skittered across the pavement, landing right at his toes.
"Huh? What was that?"
He stopped, peering at the stone before tilting his head back to see where it had fallen from. His eyes widened. High above, the structural silhouette of the building shifted, groaned, and then roared. The entire upper floor was hurtling toward him.
"Wait, what?! I didn't mean it literally!"
The world went black under a thunderous crash.
"Huh... where am I?"
Yuki's vision was a hazy smear of gold and white. As the blur slowly resolved into the ceiling of a lavish room, he tried to reach up to rub his eyes. He froze. Looming in his field of vision were two tiny, pudgy, pink hands.
Have I... been reborn?
His frantic internal monologue was interrupted by a warm, melodic voice. A tall woman with flowing blonde hair leaned over him, her expression radiant.
"He is six minutes late," she whispered with a gentle smile. "And that makes him the Last Prince."
Prince? I'm a prince?!
The shock paralyzed him. He realized then that the entire room was silent, every eye fixed on him in curious anticipation. The weight of their stares felt heavy until a sudden, primal realization hit him.
Oh, right... I'm a baby. I'm supposed to cry!
Yuki let out a sharp, indignant wail. The tension in the room snapped instantly; the worried silence vanished, replaced by a chorus of relieved laughter that echoed through the palace halls.
The world revealed its true colors to the soul once known as Yuki. To him, the atmosphere wasn't just air; it was a shimmering tapestry of mana. He could see it pulsing through the stones of the castle and dancing in the wind—the most beautiful sight he had ever witnessed.
"The King has sent a name," the mistress announced, her smile radiant as she looked down at the infant.
"He shall be called Leo."
"Prince Leo, the Seventh Prince," Queen Suzi added softly.
The birth had been the talk of the kingdom. The King had two wives, Queen Suzi and Queen Rika, both of whom had conceived at the same time. The King had declared these would be his final children, creating a silent race for the title of the youngest. Queen Rika had given birth first to a son named Leon, making Leo the seventh prince and the final child of the royal lineage.
Seven years flew by. The two youngest princes grew to be outstanding, though their obsessions differed wildly. At age five, their potential had terrified the court; when tested with a mana-capacity orb, the artifacts had shattered under the sheer weight of their power.
While Leo spent his days in the royal library, marveling at the reality of magic and experimenting with spells he once thought were mere myths, Leon's curiosity took a darker turn.
Leon was obsessed with the mechanics of magic—the forbidden arts and lost spells that defined the very fabric of existence.
One afternoon, while practicing a teleportation spell, Leon's calculations went awry. He materialized inside a restricted, dust-choked vault deep beneath the castle. In the center of the room sat a sealed artifact from the Blood Moon Era—the age when demons nearly extinguished humanity before the first Heroes sealed them away.
Driven by scientific zeal rather than fear, Leon tinkered with the ancient seal. With a deafening crack, the forbidden magic shattered.
A thick, suffocating dark aura flooded the room. From the shadows rose a demon with massive, curling horns, its eyes glowing with a thousand years of spite.
"Finally... I am free,"
the demon hissed, its voice like grinding stones. A maniacal laughter shook the walls. "After all these years, it is time to unleash hell upon this world once more!"
The creature paused, its predatory gaze landing on the small figure standing before it. "Now... who dares summon me?"
Leon didn't flinch. Instead, he took a step forward, his eyes gleaming with academic wonder.
"I did,"
Leon replied, a calm smile playing on his lips. Having read of the immense power of high-ranking demons, he wasn't terrified—he was fascinated. He finally had a live subject to study.
The demon's crimson eyes narrowed, his fury bubbling like molten lead. He stared at the small boy, waiting for the scent of terror or the sight of trembling knees. But Leon simply stood there, his expression as calm as a frozen lake.
Is this whelp underestimating me? the demon hissed internally. Does he think I am a mere shadow? I will tear him to shreds!
A dozen obsidian magic circles spiraled into existence around the demon, crackling with malevolent force.
He unleashed a barrage of dark energy, a storm of jagged bolts aimed directly at the boy's chest. Leon didn't flinch. A shimmering translucent shield flickered into life before him, absorbing the impact with a dull hum. There was no fear on his face—only a cold, analytical curiosity.
"He is definitely looking down on me," the demon growled, his voice dropping to a gravelly chant. "Gravity!"
The air grew heavy, the very floor groaning under an invisible weight. But Leon wasn't there. In a blur of motion, he teleported, appearing directly behind the demon's head. With a sharp, fluid motion, the boy delivered a kick that connected with the demon's jaw, sending the massive creature crashing into the stone wall.
The demon shook his head, stunned. The speed... and the force! No human child should be able to strike with the weight of a falling mountain!
"I'll show you true power, you insolent brat!" the demon roared, his aura exploding outward. The number of magical circles tripled, darkening the room with a suffocating gloom as he prepared a second, more lethal volley.
Leon watched the dark energy gather, his smile tilting into something far more sinister. I wonder... how does that energy actually feel? What is its molecular structure? He whispered to himself, "There's no harm in a little experiment, is there?"
As the torrent of dark energy reached him, Leon did the unthinkable: he dropped his shield. He shifted his body just enough for the blast to catch his left arm.
The energy was a ravenous void; it didn't just burn, it obliterated. His hand vanished into a mist of blood and shadow. Leon's smile faltered for a second, replaced by a look of genuine surprise. "More potent than the texts suggested," he mused. "And my shield was specifically tuned for dark-repulsion... fascinating."
"You truly are a fool!" the demon laughed, his voice echoing with triumph. "Your pride has cost you. Now you see the price of underestimating an A-rank demon!"
But the shock on Leon's face melted back into a grin.
"Exchange," he muttered.
Suddenly, a perfect magical clone of Leon manifested behind him. As the demon watched in horror, Leon's mangled arm began to stitch itself back together with unnatural speed, while the clone's arm withered and turned to gray ash. The clone crumbled into stone and shattered against the floor.
"Thanks for the data," Leon said, flexing his newly restored fingers. "I have what I need. You're no longer useful to me."
The demon backed away, a cold sweat breaking over his brow. Who is this child? What kind of monster did I encounter the moment I stepped into this era?
"Now, I'd like to try a little theory," Leon said softly. "It might not work, but let's see."
He raised a hand, and the demon's own dark circles—still hovering in the air—suddenly flickered. Using a complex spatial link, Leon "spammed" the demon's own spells back at him. The dark circles teleported until they were inches from the demon's chest, detonating with the creature's own power and sending him hurtling back into the fortifications.
The demon snarled, preparing to unleash his ultimate technique, but he stopped. He looked around the room. They had been trading blows capable of leveling a fortress, yet the walls weren't even cracked. Not a single stone had fallen.
"The walls..." the demon stammered. "Why aren't they breaking? What magic is this?"
"Oh, those?" Leon waved a hand dismissively. "I placed a multi-layered protective barrier on the room before we started. I didn't want the guards or my brother interrupting my research. Anyway... is that all you've got? I'm starting to get bored."
While the battle raged below, Leo remained in the grand library on the top floor, lost in a tome of ancient lore. Suddenly, a shiver ran down his spine. Even though Leon had sealed the room with a masterful barrier, Leo's senses—refined by forty years of human experience and a soul tuned to the very frequency of mana—picked up a disturbance.
What is that? Leo wondered, his brow furrowing. It's vile... cold. A presence I've never felt before. A grin slowly spread across his face. Without a second thought, he traced a sigil in the air and vanished in a flicker of light, teleporting directly toward the source of the malice.
In the subterranean vault, the demon was breathing heavily, his mind racing. Perhaps a thousand years in that seal drained more of my power than I realized. I need to escape and recover... but this brat's barrier is absolute. Nothing gets in, and nothing gets out.
He looked at Leon, who stood waiting with an expression of bored impatience. He's still just a child, the demon realized. Arrogant. I can trick him.
"Are you finished yet?" Leon asked, tapping his foot.
"Not yet," the demon wheezed, forcing a submissive tone. "Listen, boy... I can show you techniques beyond your wildest dreams. But we need more space. You want to study demons, don't you? Take me to the knights' training grounds. It's large enough for me to show you my true form."
Leon's eyes brightened with intellectual hunger. "That is true. There is so much I have yet to document. The training field should suffice."
"Excellent," the demon hissed, his heart leaping. "Now, drop the barrier so we can leave."
Leon's expression shifted instantly from curiosity to a sharp, predatory smile.
"Gravity."
The word hit like a physical blow. The demon was slammed into the stone floor with such incredible force that the ground beneath him cratered. This wasn't the gravity the demon had used earlier; this was tenfold, a crushing weight that pinned his very soul to the earth.
"Do you really think I'm that gullible?" Leon asked, walking slowly toward the pinned creature.
But just as Leon reached out to finish the experiment, a ripple appeared in the air behind the demon. A teleportation circle—bright, golden, and unauthorized—began to form. Leon gasped in genuine shock; his barrier was designed to be impenetrable. In that split second of confusion, his concentration wavered, and the crushing gravity vanished.
The demon didn't waste the moment. He kicked off the floor, retreating several feet just as the portal fully opened.
Leo stepped through the light, his eyes meeting Leon's. Both brothers froze, wearing identical looks of utter confusion.
This is it! the demon realized, his desperation turning into a wicked opportunity. The distraction I needed! If I can take this newcomer hostage, I can bargain for my life.
"This is my way out!" the demon roared.
He ignored Leon and launched himself like a dark spear toward the unsuspecting Leo, his claws outstretched and hunger in his eyes.