Chapter 1 – A Damn Human… Seriously?

A white-robed elf floated above a vast, emerald forest. His garments fluttered wildly in the wind, and his long, golden hair flowed like liquid sunlight. Behind him rose a tree so enormous its branches seemed to cradle the sky itself.

Then, with a thunderous gust that almost tore the trees beneath, a dragon emerged, an ancient devastation cloaked in flesh and flame. His scales glowed like slabs of cooling lava, and his wings stretched so wide that daylight dimmed beneath them.

The air turned blistering hot as the elder dragon lowered his colossal head.

Molten eyes narrowed with amusement as he studied the lone elf floating before him.

“Just give in, elf. Oh, wait, not even that, a half-blood if I remember correctly,” the dragon rumbled, his voice grinding through the sky like a storm, vibrating deep into the elf’s bones.

“Why are you doing this, Axelion? Why start this war?” the elf shouted, gripping his simple wooden staff until his knuckles whitened.

Axelion’s response came as a low, rumbling laugh filled with the confidence of one who had slaughtered civilizations for sport.

“Because I was told to break you,” the dragon whispered. “And orders such as these… are not questioned.”

He paused, enjoying the silence that followed.

After a moment, he spoke again, “Alas, it’s not something you will need to concern yourself with anyway. Goodbye, Aurelius!”

Then, Axelion inhaled.

It felt like the world was being drained of life itself, as mana gathered in a violent vortex, and the beast exhaled.

A wave of white-hot flame surged forth, a heat so intense that the treetops below instantly ignited, and the sky rippled under the oppressive mana.

Aurelius raised his staff with a small, calm smile.

“Zephyr!” he said casually, a single word, and a storm of wind erupted around him in a spiraling tempest, cold and perfect, meeting Axelion’s divine flame head‑on.

For a breathless moment, the world became a battleground of the elements until Aurelius unleashed his limitless mana, and Zephyr carved a path through the inferno, blowing it apart like smoke.

Axelion’s grin widened, revealing rows of obsidian fangs dripping lava. “Impressive… Old monster.”

He spread his wings wide.

With the casual flick of one colossal claw, the sky warped.

A miniature sun ignited above his talons, dense enough to bend the space inward, casting a terrible new gravity across the sky.

As the sun spun, it started to grow, doubling in size each second.

Spears of plasma erupted around it.

Dozens.

Then hundreds.

Each one gleaming with lethal purpose.

“Planetary magic…?” Aurelius murmured, and for the first time in centuries, he sounded genuinely interested.

Above them, the miniature sun expanded again.

The forest below began to wither.

Trees folded inward under the growing gravity. Rivers rose into the air in shimmering streams. Even the clouds distorted around the burning sphere.

Then the spears began to fall.

Plasma spears shrieked through the sky, forcing Aurelius to teleport from point to point, weaving through death while chanting with unshakable precision.

The dragon gasped as, suddenly, above him, a black hole tore into existence, devouring the ever-growing sun whole, its gravitational waves rolling through the air.

Then gravity struck Axelion like a collapsing mountain, crushing him from the sky and driving him deep into the earth. Ruptures spread for leagues as trees snapped and soil erupted.

Aurelius hovered above the smoke-filled crater, eyes cold. “You picked the wrong mage to test, old lizard.”

He didn’t like wasting his energy on senseless battles, but once he committed, he fought to win. And if there was one constant truth about Aurelius, he never left those who threatened him alive for long.

“You know, I could use a beast like you as a pet. My days have been very boring for the last few centuries.”

Then he extended his hands, before Axelion could overreact.

“Eternal Chains!”

“Spatial Prison!”

“Origin Magic: Flame of Creation!”

Chains woven of pure, shimmering temporal energy erupted from shifting portals, latching onto Axelion’s limbs and pulling tight until centuries of decay wrapped around his flesh, swallowing his vitality.

Space froze solid, locking the dragon in absolute stillness, and then the tiny ember, unimpressive and insignificant, drifted down, glowing like a firefly.

It touched Axelion’s skull, and with a simple burst of blinding flames, the temporal chains ignited, and the dragon was gone, its body nothing but ashes, erased in an instant, a being of eternal flames, obliterated just like that and with fire at that.

Silence followed, the heavy, hollow silence of a god slain.

Aurelius allowed himself a single contained breath, “What an irony. Really.” He allowed a faint chuckle, then sharpened his gaze.

“Oh, don’t think we’re done yet, lizard.” The elf smirked coldly. “Soul Magic: Bound Eternal!”

A portal tore open before him, revealing the River of Souls in all its eternal, swirling sorrow. An ethereal hand thrust through, dragging a screaming, thrashing red dragon’s soul back into the world.

“You monster!” Axelion shrieked. “This is why THEY want you erased! How is a freak like you still a mortal!?”

Aurelius’s expression remained cold. “Who are you talking about? Who wants me gone? I’ve harmed no one capable of moving you against me. All I’ve ever done is try to understand this damn world of ours.”

“You touched things forbidden. Do you think they want someone like you loose in this realm? Hahaha, complacent fool!” The dragon’s soul roared.

“I can always search through your memories, but that is painful, horribly so. I am giving you a way out, speak, and cut the insults. It doesn’t suit you.” Aurelius gazed into his shaking eyes.

But before even the flames of the battle could die down and Aurelius could interrogate the dragon’s soul, the world froze, not time, no space, but creation itself.

Everything froze in an instant: the air, the falling ash, even the particles of light, all held captive by a force that existed beyond the laws Aurelius had spent a lifetime understanding.

Then a silhouette materialized from the stillness.

Humanoid.

Faceless.

Its body was made entirely of living mana that hummed with authority.

It moved almost instantly.

Aurelius teleported backwards as his barrier of layered space-time energy activated, keeping him conscious long enough to react.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

The faceless being seized Axelion’s soul and reformed his body with a snap of its fingers.

“See, wasted effort, Aurelius. That should’ve been your nickname.” The dragon bellowed in joy, then turned towards the godly figure, “Took you damn long, we were supposed to work together, you pale bastard!”

The being sighed and instantly appeared before the dragon, tapping its forehead and freezing it mid-sentence before attacking Aurelius with a wave of cosmic energy.

The ripple crumbled all Aurelius’s barriers. Ribs and skin cracked, blood sprayed into frozen air, and Aurelius hit the ground like a falling star.

He landed next to the enormous tree, body trembling, as he barely stood up, grabbing onto the thick bark, yet a grin split his bloodied face. “Finally… I might learn something new!”

He pushed himself to stay calm, pressing one hand deeper into the World Tree’s bark, and spoke slowly, his voice reverberating through the very bones of the realm.

“Realm Magic: Nifelheim… Helheim… Muspelheim.”

Suddenly, the skies darkened, the world turned grey, and ice and mist descended, freezing everything in a torrent of frost and snow; even space and time.

Then the souls of the dead marched through countless portals, an army vast enough to drown the world.

And finally, an ancient elemental of fire emerged taller than the tree that held the skies.

The spells struck simultaneously.

Ice shackled the being in place, feeding on its mana.

The dead swarmed it next, tearing into its endless vitality, their wails echoing across the frozen world.

Then the elemental’s burning blade fell from the heavens, space shattering as it did.

Aurelius staggered, drained. “Let me see you survive that, faceless one…” he muttered, trying to heal himself. Though if he does, things will really get interesting.

He stood amid the crushing silence that followed his overwhelming spell, his breath shallow and uneven as he tried to steady himself against the enormous trunk of the World Tree, hoping that the catastrophic convergence of frost, death, and primordial fire had finally erased the faceless intruder.

Suddenly, a piercing, stabbing agony tore through his chest, sharp and cold as winter steel, and he found himself staring down at a root the thickness of an arm protruding from his body, its bark pulsing faintly with mana.

For a long moment, he stared in stunned silence as the root split into thinner tendrils that crawled and wriggled into his flesh like serpents, crushing bone and flesh, winding mercilessly around his magic circles.