............

Al pulled up his blue makeshift scarf to cover his face.

His immunity sucked. 

And it was winter, he'd be damned if he got a cold before he even got to the first stop on his journey.

Maybe he could try to get some sleep.

He could trust Old Finn to get them to Zern City. 

And they were super close to the city, no way any bandit was stupid enough to try and attack them. 

Laying his head down on the bumpy carriage, his mind was elsewhere. 

It had been six years since Lady Nana and Al found out the true nature of Voice.

Six years since she agreed to mentor him.

Six years since the beginning.

Al learnt quite a lot during these six years. He wasn't quite the same little boy anymore.

He was 13 now. 

Snuggling up to get warm, he finally felt he would get some semblance of sleep.

[Hi there!!].

Suddenly, a voice broke Al out of his sweet, sweet slumber. 

Many would have jumped if they heard a voice in their head. 

Not Al though.

He just chose to ignore it.

At least, that's what it looked like on the outside. 

On the inside, and I mean really inside, Al was chasing around the silhouette of a man.

Screaming bloody-murder. 

"How many times do I have to say it Voice, let me sleep in peace!!" Al screeched, chasing down the being that shared a head space with him.

Lady Nana's spell all those years ago had helped widen the mental connection Al had unknowingly created during his meditation sessions.

He hadn't had a peaceful night's rest ever since. 

Any opportunity Voice got, he would torment the poor boy.

Calling it stress-training.

And Voice alone was enough to ruin his sleep. 

Factor in his new baby sister and Al's sleep schedule was promptly thrown out the window.

But if Al was anything, he was petty. 

So, he hampered down on his meditation exercises. 

And after a few years, Al gained the ability to manifest within his own psyche. 

The Inside Out. 

As such. 

He could finally dish out some well deserved punishment.

Sweet, sweet revenge. 

Though, to be honest. It was flat out one of the only forms of the mystic arts Al was exceptional at.

And one of the only 3 magics Al could perform, period.

Not for a lack of effort on his part, though. 

But you see:

Al had severely under developed Magic Pathways. 

It was actually expected as he is a commoner.

But even then, this was next level. 

He had no semblance of control over his Prana as it flowed too quickly within his body for him to shape it and transform it. 

Normally, that would not be a crippling issue.

As long as he could tap into Ambient Mana using Attribute Magic everything would be okay. 

However, Al was also, unluckily enough, one of the few people in the world with absolutely zero affinity for Attribute magic.

[None. Nada.]

And the world is filled to the brim with Elemental Magic. 

[What a shocker!!!]

As such, many ended up gaining an elemental affinity of some kind. 

Some even gained variations simply because of their unique personalities, date or year of birth due to the celestial they were born under. 

[Stupid Zodiacs!!!]

Not Al though.

And this infuriated him.

You see, Magic could be broadly divided into two categories. 

Attribute Magic and Non-Attribute Magic.

Attribute Magic itself being further divided into Elemental and Non-Elemental.

Attribute Magic, in the strictest sense, deals with the Manipulation and Transformations of Elements and Aspects of Nature.

Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Lightning, Light and Darkness. These together with their accompanying transformations make up Attribute Elemental Magic.

Non-Elemental Attribute Magic, however, dealt with concepts that existed within the Greater Laws of Nature. 

Time, Space, Cool, Burn, Pressure and Gravity to name a few. All these, while not strictly elements, are still present in the natural world.

Non Attribute Magic dealt with things that were completely out of the grasp of nature. 

Runes, Enchantments, Sympathetic Magic, Alchemy-Thaumaturgy and oh so many more. 

None of them counted as strictly natural. 

[And don't get him started on Hybrid Spells!!!?]

But you know what was even worse, though. 

One cannot have an affinity towards ANY branch of Non Attribute Magic. 

One could be talented at it, yes. 

But no one was born with a greater understanding of the inner workings of rune crafting the way one could be for water magic. 

It just doesn't work that way.

And no one knows why.

So yeah. 

Non Attribute mages do not have the exponential growth curve Attribute Magic has.

Instead, their curve is fairly linear.

Like all things, there are exceptions.

Al just wasn't lucky enough to be one of those exceptions.

And so. 

For the branch to grow. 

One had to develop the craft.

And many practitioners of Non-Attribute Magic hoarded their secrets. 

As such, many favoured Attribute Magic. 

Because, in truth, it does possess many benefits. 

And so, many dropped Non-Attribute Magic altogether. 

Leaving the branch severely underdeveloped. 

If you were not studying the craft for centuries or learning from someone who did, you were screwed. 

You with me so far? 

Good. 

Coz, guess who was screwed. With Al's luck, it wasn't even a surprise to him. 

Al has no affinity for Attribute Magic, period.

Till this day, he needs a catalyst and ritual preparation, on top of an outside fuel just to attempt the basic fire ball.

[You'd rather bring a match]

And that was already bad enough. But his talent for Non-Attribute Magic was also horrendous.

His runes exploded because he kept overloading them with prana. 

Enchantments could only get you so far if you weren't rich enough to afford the absurd materials. 

[Ehem....Commoner]

And Alchemy and Thaumaturgy were too far gone morally for him to even consider it. 

And that's if he could ever get all those complex diagrams and theses in the first place. 

Every other branch, from Charming, to Divining and even outright Astrology.

[I say it again, stupid Zodiacs!!]

It just wouldn't work out.

Al only seemed to be able to work with the basics. 

And of those, he could only consistently perform 3 of them. 

And.

For the cherry on top.

[You thought it ended there, didn't you?]

Al couldn't even properly cast magic. 

Or even activate it in some cases. 

His chants were always a bust because his Prana would always flow too quickly to heed the commands of the incantation.

Imagine finding that out after spending 2 goddamn years learning how to decipher the accursed language.

As the Old Lady used to say, it was as if Magic itself decided to cripple Al.

Castrate him.

Make meatballs out of his meat balls.

Then feed it to him as it made him watch his magical dreams burn before his very eyes. 

[Actually. She just said you were unlucky.]

'Well, she implied it.'

Anyway. 

There were no feasible routes for Al to acquire magic properly. 

He couldn't cast magic regularly.

Couldn't control his magic even if he could cast it because his output speed was too high. 

Even if he could control it, he had no affinity towards Attribute magic so that was a bust. 

And his 'talent' for Non-Attribute Magic was just slightly higher than zero. 

There were Thirty Eight Branches of Magical Theory and Al was not suited to a single one.

He should've given up.

His dream was to be a Hero.

Not to learn magic.

But if he couldn't overcome this hurdle.

This small obstacle.

How could he be a Hero? He already failed once before.

And back then, he didn't have access to anything like Magic.

But now, now he did.

He was sure it was the Key. The Key he needed to succeed this time. 

And so.

Al thought up a crazy idea.

One he had been working on for a few years now.

Project Miracle.

If he couldn't learn any of the existing forms of magic.

He would create his own form of magic.

One specifically tailored to him.

One he could use to be a Hero. 

Cause Al had something no one else had. 

The miracle that was the internet. 

Or whatever part of it he could get from Voice's memories that wasn't absolute garbage.

Because, when it's not filled with memes and cat videos, it was actually a veritable gold mine of ideas and information.

All he had to do was sort out the gold from the junk. Then polish it up a bit.

And then he'd be an unstoppable Hero. 

Look out world, Al son of Albert is coming!! 

And nothing's gonna stop him.

[Don't jinx it.]

____________________________________

Exactly eight minutes later, a half naked Al was tied to a tree with Old Finn, who was in the same condition, as a group of bandits made off with the carriage. 

Al was honestly peeved while it seemed Old Finn didn't mind it that much. 

As though this wasn't the first time this had happened to him. 

Suddenly, Al let out a huge sneeze. 

[Don't worry. I'm not gonna say I told you so. Honest.]

Voice said restraining a snort. 

And to his credit, he seemed to be holding himself together well. 

'Not a word from you, Voice!!

Not a word. ' 

Al thought.

Face burning red. 

However, much to Al's annoyance, Old Finn the merchant broke out into laughter.

Mumbling something along the lines of brats that looked like tomatoes that grew up so fast. 

And, if one listened closely, they would be able to hear a crow, crowing, in the distance.

In a way that was much too similar to a laugh.

Strange. 

After a while. 

The laughter eventually died down.

Until Al began fidgeting. Because he had to go pee. 

It came back full circle.

This time far louder.