Quintessence of Arcana

Prologue

The blood-dyed ground mirrored the color of the setting sun, as it shone down upon the land filled with rubble and corpses.

“Aack!”

Blood gushed out from a man's mouth as his dazed gaze fell on the hole in his left chest. If one could witness his situation, It was a horrible sight. Traces of armor that supposed to protect him are shattered into pieces. His present state is clearly on the point of no salvation. It is already a miracle that he is still somehow alive.

The collapsed man then heaved out a dry cough. With a little strength he had left, he somehow managed to raise his upper body before spitting out his saliva mixed with blood. He leaned on a certain debris crushed on the ground. He scowled from the smell of blood and ash in the area, but his frown only lasted a moment. Furthermore, he lifted his head and surveyed his surroundings.

Blood are spilled everywhere.

“Is anybody there...?”

Only a bleak gust of wind blew by...

"Is everyone… dead?"

He looked around and noticed a burnt corpse near him and thought it looked better than some others. In another spot, a lump of meat that was once a human being floated in a pool of blood. He looked around once more and the only thing in his field of vision are corpses without a speck of life left.

“Damn it... They're dead. All dead...”

This man alongside the pile of corpses are supposed to be the last of mankind's resistance against the foreign race that invaded their planet. This intruding race wandered through cracks between dimensions and emerged from the 'spatial rifts' that suddenly appeared at different places across the world. No one manage to surmise this bizarre yet catastrophic phenomena that happened in an instant.

Remembering what happened to his squad, mixed feelings of disappointment and frustration emerged in the man's expression.

“Those damned sons of bitches.”

He spat out a curse as he blankly stared up at the night sky with his blurring sight.

The man's name is Evan Skier, a weapons engineer from an advanced metropolis before being promoted as a full-fledged soldier for the sake of humanity. He was only in his late adolescent years at the time when he witnessed the intrusion of the foreign race. Due to the lack of soldiers during the first wave, He was forced to joined the resistance army as a squadron commander to fought back against the aliens without him having any experience in a battlefield.

Despite having a cutting-edge technology and highly-advanced armaments, the foreign race still overpowered humanity in an overwhelming rate without difficulty. They conquered every city of the planet, killing every human they encounter as though they are just exterminating pests in a rice field.

It was a one-sided m******e.

“Ha.....ha......”

Recalling the horrible events that happened unexpectedly, Evan laughed feebly. He didn't imagined that the world that is once ruled by mankind had fallen in less than four years.

Pushed around this way, pushed around that way, the original inhabitants devolved to a candle flickering in the wind.

It was truly unfathomable.

“What a shame...”

Even though he's still somehow breathing, he is on the verge of dying. The only thing that drives him to stay alive at least even for a short amount of time is his will to live. Without it, he already joined the pile of corpses lying on the ground not long ago.

But it turns out that his remaining breath will not last long. When Evan felt the coldness embracing his body, his eyelids shook as he slowly loses strength. Everything should have been in pain, yet he was slowly losing feeling of his body instead. He could tell that he was on death’s doorstep. With that thought, his vision started to darkened.

“Ah... I'm tired.”

Evan closed his eyes.

But before he lose consciousness, a certain scene—to be precise, more like a fragment of memory—flashed in his mind...

A scene where a mother and child lived modestly but happily in a large mansion. The mother was a lovely and attractive woman, and her son was comparably cute in an androgynous way. It was on a fine summer day.

“Hey, mother! What do you call that glowing thing? Woah! It's beautiful!”

The little boy exclaimed in awe as he peered at the top of the table with jaws dropped and eyes full of amazement. It turns out that this boy was sneaking glances to his mother inscribing something on the table. From his point of view, it looks like strange geometric patterns. But as it starts to glow, he immediately run to his mother's grasp and asked curiously while paying attention to it. Indeed, it was truly a spectacle for those who had seen it for the first time.

His mother, entranced by the cuteness of his son, happily replied to his question.

“Son, this glowing thing right here is what you call a magic sigil.” she said, while beaming with a smile. “With this, you will be able to perform magic.”

“Magic?”

“Yes, that’s right. Magic is the one liable to all incredible things happening in our world.”

Her son, on the other hand, is looking somewhat confused—his mother couldn’t help but chuckle as she sees her child doing his best to understand. Seeing her mother smile made the boy so happy, making him beam right back at her. To the young boy who had just turned five, his mother was his everything.

“Will I be able to do magic?”

“Yes, of course,” the mother replied. “At the right time, I will teach you some basic spells. And when you're big and talented enough, I’ll take you to a place where you can learn and expand your knowledge in magic.” She smiled as she spoke.

“Really? You promise?”

“Mmhm. I promise.”

Flash!

The scene stops... But it not just ended there. Broken images of various scenes then followed one after another. It flashed in Evan's mind in an instant, like a certain someone who has recovered from memory loss. At first, he thought of it as a mere dream. But somehow, he felt something was off. He eventually opened his eyes and gasped loudly.

“What was.... that?”

After a split-second mental adjustment, Evan pondered for a moment. It looks like somehow he managed to remember something—not of his but a memory of a certain someone. But based on the location of some scenes, and with the knowledge and culture that he never heard of, he realized it was not in his present planet, but in another world.

“But... how?”

The strange thing about it is that he felt a sense of familiarity. It looks like somehow he experienced it—like those memories had happened to him just moments ago. Strange emotions then started to dwell inside him. Whether it happened in his world or not, the warm sight of some scenes—especially in those that focus on familial love left him a little bit of nostalgia. Reminiscing those moments, Evan could not help but smile as he slowly closed his eyes...

It never opened again. The skin that somehow had it's color earlier, are now pale as snow. Furthermore, his breathing came to a halt. Only one word explains his state right now.

Dead.

He is already dead.

Yet, a bizarre thing is happening on the ground where he is positioned...

.... A circular, geometric pattern started to appear, emitting a glowing light...

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

At the same time, from who knows where...

At night in a deep forest, a certain boy who looked to be in his teens was running hard nonstop. Based from his heightened energy and heavy breathing, it seemed that he was running for his life.

“Ugh!”

The young man was extremely exhausted as he heavily panted. His clothes were ripped and his face was full of bruises, showing that he had gone through a severe beating before he had escaped. But as he was about to turn his direction to a bushy area, a number of silhouettes blocked his way.

“Dammit!”

The young man spat, as he saw five masked men dressed in black, waiting to capture him. He had run so hard for the last thirty minutes, but it seemed he couldn’t get away.

“F*ck!”

The young man held on his trembling legs and glared at the masked men. Their faces were covered, but it was easy to determine that they were all smirking.

“You did well in running all the way here, Young Master Greyfel.”

“Haha... I almost fell asleep while waiting for you.”

The young man frowned. If they had been waiting for him here, then there was no point for him to continue running in this direction.

The masked men then all pulled out their swords from their backs. Their eyes were filled with the intention to kill him.

“What should I do?”

It was his life that they wanted. It didn’t seem like talking to them would work. He had used all of his energy to run here, so he had no energy left to run or fight. But even with his death waiting for him, his eyes were filled with anger rather than fear.

“Surrender and we will make this quick.”

“Damn bastards!”

If he was going to die anyway, he might as well try to fight back. He pulled out a dagger. He had never learned any dagger skills or swordsmanship, however, he knew how to cast magic—even though the only thing he knew is a simple reinforcement spell to strengthen his defenses.

“Enhance!”

At the moment, a bluish-light energy appeared and quickly proceeded to coat his body, like some sort of a transparent armor. He then positioned himself in a defensive stance.

“Oh? A reinforcement spell? I didn't expect you to learn magic even though you have broken mana veins...”

The masked man that seemed to be the leader was surprised. According to their intel, their current target supposed to had broken mana veins since birth, unabling him to channel mana and cast magic. It seemed that their intel was wrong at some point.

Even so, the leader together with his subordinates seemed to be very agitated. It was better for them to kill someone who would resist rather than someone who would beg.

“Kill him.”

The leader gave the order and the other four attacked the young man at once. The latter thought that he could hold them off for at least a bit, but that wasn’t the case.

Swoosh!

One of the masked men used his sword to s***h the boy’s wrist, making the latter's dagger dropped to the ground. The young man grimaced as he glared at the masked man, but the latter grabbed his neck.

“Ugh!”

The young man’s face turned red, but his eyes had not given up yet.

At the moment, another man shouted, “watch out!”

“What?”

“The dagger!”

The man who is holding the young man didn't expect that a concealed dagger would've stabbed his chin. It turned out that the young man had been hiding another dagger, and that sneak attack killed the masked man at once.

“What…? A mere boy without any fighting skills killed one of my fighters?”

The leader of the masked men who was watching became intrigued. It seemed like the young man was aiming for this from the beginning.

“Damn kid! Quickly kill him!”

Another man charged in and kicked the young man, slashing his sword down the latter's stomach.

“AARGH!”

The young man had never felt such pain in his life. A searing pain shot up from his stomach and blood soared up from his throat. But killing at least one of them made him feel better. He was going to die anyway.

The masked man then stepped on the young man's punctured wound and immediately stab his sword right through the young man's chest. The ground was then drenched with the latter's blood.

“Is it over?”

“Am I... really going to die?”

“Sorry... I cannot fulfill my promise... to you...”