When Astor woke up, he was burning. THE Burning.

Every mortal can only be burnt once to shed his mortality. But for him, who made it a habit to break the rules, it was his second time.

Moments ago, he had just succeeded in becoming a Regressor after he managed to challenge the odds and go back in time successfully from the distant bleak future. A future where he was revered as one of the 9 Emperors, called by a name that shook the hearts of the bravest Awakened. "The Mist Demon"!

It was all for this moment. Where it all began.

The trip was very risky, but he had to do it. The other Emperors had long seen him to be a thorn in their eyes because of his crazy power that defied all logic, and they planned to kill him.

He learned of this at first when one of his most trusted spies delivered the news to him about the plan to kill him. This made him almost burst out laughing at such absurdity. Kill him? Did they lose their minds?

It was only 3 months later that he knew that it was all true when one of those arrogant guys came with a drink and confronted Astor with the truth just to see the expression on his face.

It was a curse… A curse that he was fooled to initiate himself long ago when he was young and foolish to kill his own family!

When he asked how they knew about such a secret that must have been buried centuries ago, the man didn’t hide it, as the truth hurt Astor more than anything!

He, who always thought that he was powerful, realized that all this time he was being controlled by those guys from behind the scenes.

He was just a pawn… A pawn who got too powerful for them to constrain, and they decided to get rid of him!

Hearing the truth made Astor, for the first time since his ascension, Realize how foolish he was… Yes, he was powerful, but those guys were too!

Getting angry, Astor tried to attack that man, but only managed to hit empty air as that guy left moments earlier, leaving an echo of a sinister sound of laughter after he got what he came for!

Astor didn’t get a chance to run after that guy, as moments later, the curse that had been activated hit him and then began to drain him of his energy and power. He knew that once it finished he would be either severely weakened or dead!

For a moment he considered using his power to stop the curse, but he quickly changed his mind, this was another trap! The moment the curse fails, it would create a backlash against its original creator. Him! Killing him in seconds.

He had no choice but to watch in despair as his life got sucked away, turning him into a dried mummy as he began to see his life’s events go in front of him like a movie going backward.

That’s when it occurred to him! He had a way to survive!

Without having another choice, he used every last ounce of power he had to activate his Spark for one last time to pull a crazy stunt that even those crazy ascetics who wielded the time Sparks swore was impossible.

He had to return to the past, to the time before the curse was initiated, and dodge it. Not only that, he knew that he must also investigate the past itself to figure out who was the one manipulating him and then get his revenge!

For others, it would be impossible, but for him there was hope… This was possible because of one little fact and that was that he didn’t let anyone know what his true power was! In fact, only after ascension did he discover that he was wrong all along!

Everyone, including him, thought that he had the Spark of ILLUSIONS that made him a fearful assassin. Little did they know that his real power was DREAMS! And the illusions part was an artifact of him using it wrong!

It not only let him manipulate people's thoughts to a certain extent and affect reality itself, but it also gave him the power to enter dreams!

He used his power to enter his death dream… a dream of the past…

To his surprise, it really worked as the world turned black around him and then he felt it, the searing pain of fire going through his body. He was not in a dream, but in reality, he really crossed to the past!

As the golden flames raged around him, he did not scream as the others beside him did. Their voices had long faded in the background as he was too preoccupied with his success to even care about them.

He could have returned further, to the time when he was born and that would have spared him a lot of troubles, but he would never do something that stupid. Getting the Enigma Spark moments ago was the luckiest moment in his life, he must have exhausted all his good fortune to get it...

He was not going to risk it even if he had a 99.999999% assurance!

Ahh… The flame that ate his flesh did not disturb him at all… Sure, it hurt like hell and smelled as bad… No, not quite. It was missing the unique sulphury stench of that place.

Unlike the first time he burnt, he felt no fear at all. Why would he? Sure, his cindered nerves were screaming in pain begging him to join them, but he knew that these flames would not really hurt him, they would only burn his mortal flesh and then help it regenerate into a better body, an immortal body. This was not normal flames after all! But celestial ones.

Ahh, golden flames… Burn me to dust… Devour my body and soul… Let my ashes reform… Let my blood shine and let my enemies crumble… He sang as his mouth burned in the blazing hot flames. The sounds of the screams of those who burnt around him rose higher once again as his eardrums began to reform.

Those fools should enjoy this and let it cleanse and rebuild their bodies instead of screaming. Well, it couldn’t be helped. They were mere mortals after all and the ones who ran this place lacked both the knowledge and courtesy to inform them what they should do.

Astor slowly felt it in his body, the spark that should have been planted by the flames moments ago. Hello old friend…

He carefully let his mind sink into it, softly embracing it as if it were a newborn child, then commanding it to control the wisps of flame that had been moving chaotically around his body.

As if they were children being fooled by a piper. They were forced to enter his body through every pore, burning every cell and every vein on their way to his heart. Yes… That feeling of being reborn! The more he burned now the easier his journey later would become.

Others took it passively, but he made sure that his meridians and energy veins were getting burned and reconstructed to reflect certain formulas and certain mystical shapes…

He had to make sure that there were no anomalies that would take a fortune to fix later!

For others this was impossible, and even for him, it was very hard, as his young body was too weak and feeble from years of malnourishment. But he had to do it.

Bit by bit. The flames burnt as his body reformed using the leftover energy from the burning.

And he did it, finishing his reconstruction as his song finished and as the screams around him faded into a sobbing. The once-in-a-lifetime event was over just like that.

The flames were no more. But he was reborn.

Astor slowly opened his eyes. They shone with a purple light and turned black a second later.

He looked around at the scattering ashes of the dead as they landed on the floor over smoking and smoldering embers that slowly dimmed under late afternoon sun rays that barely illuminated the awakening hall through a row of tiny barred windows that was meant to provide fresh air for the burning process.

This thing was not made of gold, but celestial copper. It acted like a lightning rod, drawing in the celestial flames storm that passed this world once every few years, changing the terrain and granting people the ability to channel the world's energy, called Mana, through their bodies.

Astor took a deep breath, expelling the smoke in his lungs as he slowly stood up while carefully inspecting the other children collapsed around him on the ground, naked and covered in soot. Some totally collapsed while some were kneeling on all fours gasping for air like newborns… They were like newborns! Their skin was smooth and their heads were bald. Their hair will take a few weeks to grow back.

Those were the lucky few who lived. Nothing had been left of the dead but cinders and ashes.

From the four hundred or so who were locked in here with him in this hall, only about 80 survived. This is the cost of using cheap materials! This was a lot though. In his past lifetime, there were only 45 survivors.

He knew that this result was because of him channeling a large portion of the flames toward himself. He was a good guy after all… Not really, but he didn’t mind doing a few good deeds this time. Karma was a thing after all.

The survivors, both girls and boys, were all young, about the same age as him… How old was he again? Yes, merely 15, seven years after that accursed incident that made him lose everything… NO… He could still get those back from that pretender!

Astor unknowingly began to gash his teeth, before regaining control of his emotions and shaking his head, it was not time for revenge yet. The list was long, and he had all the time in the world.

Returning to the children. Most of them here in this room were, like him, abandoned children, grabbed by the dozen from the slums around the cities, kidnapped from orphanages, or bought from trafficking gangs.

They were gathered here, especially for this ritual.

They were all destined to die, and most of them had already done that moments ago.

The rest had to wait until later, after getting trained like animals to be Death Warriors. Assassins who had no names or identity!

When they were ready, they were meant to execute the evil plan of the snake who ran this place, then parish silently without leaving a trail that would lead back to him.

The training was supposed to last 3 years, but in his past life, Astor only spent 6 hellish months here before this place was raided by the imperial army. The ones who ran it were all killed or committed suicide when they were captured, leaving the kids to be ‘rescued’.

As if remembering something, Astor lifted his head and began to look around… Too bad all the ash-covered kids looked the same, so it was impossible to search for that girl, the little idiot who ran from home, got captured, and then caused the ones running this place to die a very miserable death because she didn’t want to report her father’s name, fearing his punishment.

He sighed. Hopefully, she survived this time too… Using her would make things easier.

Now, If his immortal memory had not betrayed him, one sick bastard would arrive 3 2 1….

The rumble of metal rubbing against metal rang in the hall as the blackened thick metallic door was unlocked then pushed open with a screech, scattering the glistering ashes that had smeared it moments ago into the air, forcing the children to close their eyes and cough.

When they could see again, they found that a group of burly men in black uniforms had already entered the cell with their leather whips, metal batons, and electric tasers. They were standing in attention as a bald middle-aged man who had a strange braided beard peered inside the cell with a bright smile without stepping in. Although it didn’t appear like it, the rock-tiled ground inside was still hot.

“Ooh.. What a surprise! A lot had survived… Not bad. Not bad at all!” he said, adjusting a golden pair of glasses on his crooked nose to make him see better as he moved his flashlight around, inspecting the ‘goods’.

He chuckled then turned to look at one of the burly guards accompanying him. "I told you that wiping the rod with dragon urine will enhance the ritual's success rate!" He said. “I read this in an old manuscript!” he nodded to himself.

The Guard behind him shot him a weird look, then nodded. “Your eminence is always wise…” he threw a casual bootlicking line in a harsh voice.

"I know, I know… Let's get done with this now… The young master will arrive tomorrow and everything should be sorted by then!" the man said.

"Yes sir! " The guard nodded, then looked inside carefully examining the survivors who had just begun to regain their sanity after what they had just experienced.

Few of the children tried to cover their naked soot smeared bodies with their hands while others didn’t care and just stood in shock as they looked back with scared eyes at their evil captor. During the few days before the burning they had been taught their place the hard way!

Only a few of them knew what that flame was. Information about the awakening ritual, although common, was not something children had access to.

“Don’t look at me like that! This was for your own good, you are no longer the filthy bums you were before,” the bald man said with a chuckle. “Now come on, come forward one by one, or would you like to spend the night here?” he asked, gesturing to the guards.

They slowly entered the hot hall, making sure not to touch anything but the floor as they began to use their batons to push the children toward the door one by one.

There, another man in black was waiting with a hose that he used to spray the children with cold water as they passed through toward the outside, washing the soot and causing a hissing cloud of steam to rise up from their still-hot bodies.

After the quick cold shower, the kids one by one were given gray robes, which they quickly wore to cover their shivering bodies.

Few noticed as the bald man carefully inspected them and licked his lips when they passed by him. They were preoccupied by the bright view outside. They were in a huge stone-tiled training courtyard that was surrounded by many two-story gray concrete buildings. Behind them, the hall they walked out from was a huge domed stone building with a metallic spiral reaching to the sky.

Surrounding everything, the children could spot a tall metallic electrified fence that separated this place from the jungle outside. A place no child dared to wonder. Ever since the first storm. The jungles became places of death. Astor knew that firsthand when a few kids tried to escape in his past life. The trainers only had to go fetch what was left of their shredded corpses in the morning.

The place although looked like a military base of some sort… It was in fact an isolated prison and slave training camp!

Akaichi

Yay... A new novel...