Chapter 1
A city was burning; people were screaming, crying, and calling for help, to the sound of metal clashing with metal and magical explosions.
The Draconic War. The siege of the capital of Dragonlance. The final battle.
At the center of it are the two most important figures of the war: the Blood Saint, an angel who chose to abandon the privileges of the divine realm to descend into the mortal world and fight against the tyranny of the Dragon King; and General Raiden, a young dragon who, to protect his sister, quickly rose through the ranks of the draconic army to become its central figure.
Here everything ends: he pierced the saint's heart with his sword and had his heart pierced by her spear.
Everything is red. His last vision. Red that covers his body, that covers the entire environment, and that obscures his vision.
Pain. His last sensation. Pain from broken bones, from shattered limbs, and from a destroyed heart.
A smile. His last memory. A joyful, kind, and innocent smile like no other. The smile for which he fought and died.
'Forgive me... Lyana...'
Then the void. Like floating in the depths of the ocean, for days, months, years, or even longer, until hearing a voice, gentle, sweet, and loving, a voice so strange and yet so familiar at the same time.
"Poor lost child."
"Rise, little Raiden, find the pure soul that protects the innocent, and fulfill your roles as #%!" & * #!."
"Gasp! Cough cough"
Placing his hands on his chest, Raiden realizes that the wound that led to his death no longer exists and that his body feels strange.
"AHHH!"
A terrible headache accompanied by memories that do not belong to him. Kayle Pendragon is a young man who has just turned 16 and belongs to a noble house in the kingdom of Stelvon. A group of six armed men ambushed him and his instructor during a training session in the forest. His instructor perished after taking two of the bandits with him.
With his life in danger, Raiden doesn't have time to revisit memories of a life he didn't live and suppresses the wave of recollections until he is safe.
Looking at the environment around him, Raiden realizes he is trapped in a kind of cell inside a cave. He finds himself on a rough wooden bed without a mattress. In one corner of the cell, there is a hole for doing one's business; near the bed, a plate and a cup with remnants of food and water; and rusty iron bars locking the place.
'My hands and legs are tied with ropes; I will need to find a way to cut them.'
While he analyzes the situation, a clearly intoxicated man begins to approach the cell.
"Why are you screaming, kid?" Just stay quiet until the boss decides what to do with you, hehe."
Says the man while barely managing to stand.
'It seems that my chance has come earlier than expected.'
"You beat me so much that now I'm going to die if you don't close my wounds, you damn drunk!"
Raiden screams while curling up in bed, pretending to be hurt.
"Shit! If that kid dies, the boss will finish us off."
The man opens the cell and starts moving toward Raiden. When he gets close to the bed, Raiden quickly turns around and kicks the drunkard's lower parts, making him fall to his knees, and seizing the opportunity, he uses the rope tied to his wrists to strangle him. The man tries to free himself or scream for help, but due to the effects of the alcohol and the pain from the kick, he doesn't have enough strength and is quickly executed.
Raiden grabs the man's short sword, cuts the ropes, and leaves the cell silently. The corridor, illuminated by torches, leads to a larger area of the cave, where a bandit is drinking with his back turned near a table with food and drink.
Silently, he approaches and, covering the man's mouth with his left hand, cuts his throat with the sword and moves on to the poorly made tent in the corner where he finds another of the bandits sleeping and eliminates him by piercing his chest.
'Now all that's left is that boss guy, and from the memories of this body, he is definitely the most dangerous among them; with this current body and without access to my aura and magic, I'll have to be careful.'
Following the cave, Raiden finally reaches the end, where a wooden wall and an old door block the passage to the outside. Upon opening the door and exiting the cave, Raiden, for the first time in a long while, breathes in the pure and fresh air of a forest where the morning has just begun and, on a nearby rock, finds a huge, bald man with scars around his arms.
The man leaning against the stone looks back and sees the figure of the boy he kidnaped a few days ago, looking at him with a blood-stained sword.
"It seems that you are not just any noble brat."
He then stands up and grabs the longsword by his side, preparing for battle.
"At least I won't have to share the reward for your head with anyone!"
The bandit advances and makes a huge vertical arc with his sword.
Raising the sword above his head, Rainden defends against the blow and uses the weight of the opponent's sword to propel himself and dodge to the side.
'Damn! This body is too weak; at this rate, I can't face this guy head-on. It's time to see if I still have my unique ability.'
Circulating the mana present in his body to his eyes, Raiden activates his unique ability [Mana Eyes], which allows its user to observe the mana present in the environment, enabling them to predict the movements and mana usage of their adversaries.
The moment Raiden activates his ability, the bandit begins to use his own mana, activating his aura, making the mana around his body turn a brownish hue.
"Try to defend yourself now, kid!"
The bandit charges and attacks again, with blows much heavier than the previous ones, but, anticipating the opponent's movements, Raiden skillfully defends himself and dodges the attacks even with the physical disadvantage.
'This guy uses the [Earth Aura], which greatly increases his physical endurance. I need to go for a fatal blow, or a war of attrition will be advantageous for him.'
He uses wide attacks to maximize his strength and leaves himself exposed, not believing that I can cause significant damage to him, which would be true if I were just a sixteen-year-old boy in training. Time to end this before the mana of this body runs out.
Again, the boss prepares a wide overhead attack, and at the moment he transfers most of his aura to the sword, Raiden quickly positions himself within personal range, making it impossible for the attack to hit correctly, piercing the opponent's chest.
"Huff huff. Who would have thought that fighting against any old thug would leave me so tired?"
Searching the corpse, Raiden finds a letter with the family crest to which his new body belongs.
