“Mommy!!! Mommy, please don’t leave me alone.”

  “It’s too dark in here, please.”

  “I promise, I will behave.”

  A five-year-old child cried out in a dark room without a single window in sight, save for a door that was slightly ajar. In its narrow opening stood a cold, blonde-haired woman staring at the child who shared similar features to her with cold blue eyes.

  The child was a sobbing mess, begging his mother not to leave him alone in the room and yet her gaze remained distant and unfeeling as though she were looking at a tool rather than her own child.

  She kicked her own son mercilessly, sending the child crashing into the far wall as he coughed up blood.

  Still, the boy forced himself up with his small feet, trying to run toward the door, toward his own mother but before he could reach, the door slammed shut, accompanied by a single cold warning from the woman.

  “Stay quiet.”

  There was no trace of warmth in her voice whatsoever.

  The child cried as if his soft and innocent sobs could somehow bring his mother back but it was no use and he learned that the hard way.

  After crying for hours, his head grew light and blood stained his nose before he finally collapsed onto the floor without any energy left to cry anymore.

  ….

  When the door finally opened after a few days, the boy was a dry husk.

  Still, he was alive, preserved only by the cruelty of the one who had brought him into this world. She had made sure the child would not die from hunger or thirst by surrounding the room with a mana dome that sustained his body directly.

  The child slowly opened his eyes, which were rapidly darkening, hoping to see warmth on his mother’s face at least now but there was no trace of it even then.

  “The only reason a filth like you is alive is for the mission. Do you understand?” She muttered coldly.

  Raze, the young child, nodded weakly. “Yes, Ma’am.”

  The last thing he saw were cold blue eyes before he fell unconscious once again.

  ***

  “Tsk, that memory again.”

  Within the lavish bedroom of a massive spaceship, a boy opened his eyes, scanning his surroundings as though light itself were a luxury he had barely been allowed since childhood.

  He was Raze Ruinard, the child of the Duchess of the Starfall Dynasty. Yet his connection to that cold woman meant nothing as he was merely a tool, one that was about to be sent to the mission he had been trained for since childhood.

  He rose from his bed and the maids moved immediately, bringing footwear to his feet before they could even touch the ground.

  He quickly took care of his morning routine, getting fresh and ready. Right on cue, a man with sleek white hair and a sharp butler’s outfit entered the room.

  “Young Master, it’s time. The Duchess has called you to the cockpit.” He bowed respectfully but all Raze could see was the pity in his eyes and a worried face.

  “It’s alright, Sebastian.”

  Raze tapped the butler’s shoulder, the man who had witnessed his suffering firsthand since childhood.

  Sebastian clenched his teeth but there was simply nothing he could do to save his young master from the fate that awaited him anymore. Silently, he guided him toward the cockpit of the spaceship they were currently on.

  Once they stood before the room, Sebastian looked at his young master one last time, his gaze heavy.

  “Young Master, please reconsider.”

  His fists were clenched so tightly that blood dripped from them.

  “You know it’s not my decision to make, Sebastian and you shouldn’t try to speak about it either.” Raze simply smiled faintly towards the only person who still cared for him.

  Without further talk, they both entered the cockpit room.

  A blonde woman stood there, gazing toward a particular massive planet visible through the transparent glass of the spacecraft. The planet seemed unassuming as it circled a sun far more massive than itself, along with seven other planets.

  The spacecraft hovered just outside that solar system as if it could not move any further, blocked by an invisible wall.

  “Young Master Raze has arrived, Your Grace.” Sebastian announced, bowing his head so low it was nearly buried in the ground.

  The woman was none other than Duchess Seles Ruinard, one of the Transcendent rank of the Skyfall Dynasty and also the birth mother of Raze.

  She was the same woman who had made his life a living hell since the moment he was born and even now, as she was about to send her own son to a far-off planet, her gaze did not shift in the slightest.

  “Are you ready?” Her voice was cold.

  “Yes, Ma’am.” Raze nodded, speaking formally, just as he had been taught since childhood.

  “You know what your mission will be, correct?” She asked.

  “Yes, Ma’am.” Raze replied in the same monotonous voice as before.

  “Good.” She nodded.

  Before she could say anything else, Sebastian interrupted, unable to hold himself back any longer.

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

  “Mistress, please reconsider. Young Master is only seventeen, he hasn’t even awak—”

  Before he could finish his sentence, his head burst like an overripe watermelon under the overwhelming pressure Seles had concentrated on him. Blood sprayed onto Raze, who stood right beside him, staining his white clothes a deep crimson.

  Still, Raze showed no emotion, even as his heart shattered within. He had been trained that way since childhood.

  He clenched his fist, trying to calm the storm of emotions inside him.

  The woman, the Duchess, Raze’s mother, did not even react as if she had not just killed one of her subordinates so casually but to her, Sebastian was merely one pawn among many, easily replaceable.

  “Prepare yourself. You only have one chance.”

  “Your mission is simple. You only have to get closer to a girl named Ravelle de Obsidia.”

  “She is destined to become a catastrophe, a threat that would endanger the whole universe in the next six years after her world is destroyed. You have to get close to her and bring her back to the empire before that time.”

  Raze had been hearing the same thing since childhood. He was tasked with neutralizing a prophesied catastrophe and bringing her back to the Emperor of the Skyfall Dynasty because she would possess something he needed.

  The only reason he was chosen among many others was because he had a once-in-a-millennium special physique that made entering other worlds easy… And that same physique was also the reason behind his suffering.

  Still, Raze listened without any reaction, just as he always did.

  “From our information, that girl will appear in the Ascendant Academy in a few months and you will have to enroll there as well.”

  “We can’t provide you with any magical artifacts or other help because of the restrictions of the world’s will. You will have to adapt to their power system on your own, but your training should help.”

  She continued in the same cold voice.

  “We will pick you back up when THAT BEING prepares for its descent and the world enters the second stage as only then will the world allow outside interference.”

  “So, do not disappoint me and don’t bring shame to the Ruinard family, Raze.”

  Raze nodded.

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  Just then, a bald man seated near the glass, gazing at the stars as if searching for patterns, spoke.

  “Mistress, it’s time.” He said excitedly. “The world of Fabloth has entered the Zenith constellation. It will only stay here for a few minutes, so we need to hurry.”

  Raze didn’t even wait for instructions. He walked toward the magic circle at the center of the room. He couldn’t miss the timing because even with his special physique, he could only enter this particular world when it was in this state, which appeared only once every hundred years.

  Right on cue, a glowing light covered his entire body as his eyes fell upon the headless body of Sebastian as he whispered,

  “I am sorry, Sebastian.”

  With that, he was teleported away into a new world, far from his cold mother… but barely any farther from her shadow.

  —

  As the golden light around him faded, Raze found himself within a knee-deep clear pond, brimming with nature’s energy.

  The air around him felt clean and his vision felt clearer.

  A gentle energy seemed to caress his body for a few moments as if trying to scan him and only after a few seconds did it vanish as though confirming he was one of its own.

  A status window appeared before him almost immediately.

  [Name: ?????]

  [Core: Unawakened]

  [Physique: Zenith Physique.]

  [Skills : ????]

  This was the manifestation of the world’s will, and every world had one. Raze had a status window back in the Skyfall Dynasty as well but it didn’t have question marks as his name or skills because he had grown in that world and it knew everything about him.

  But for this world, he was still unknown… and it would evaluate him as he grew.

  “I guess this worked out as they planned.”

  He had always been a little skeptical about his so-called Zenith Physique but now… it had worked exactly as they said it would.

  It was a physique loved by the world and mana. From what he had studied, this physique made any world accept him, allowing him to use mana easily and with mastery, unlike others.

  Raze could see his face reflected in the calm pond. His blonde hair and icy blue eyes which reminded him of his mother were still the same.

  In his childhood, he had hated her and he had hated his own face because it reminded him of her but gradually, he learned to live with it… and now, even as it was covered in splatters of blood from one of the very few who had cared for him, all he felt was a hollow ache.

  “May you rest in peace, Sebastian.”

  He stood there calmly for a few moments as if offering his friend one final goodbye, before he finally moved.

  He walked out of the pond as lush greenery greeted his eyes. He was in the middle of a forest that seemed to have no end.

  “Couldn’t they have sent me near some city or something?”

  He muttered, checking his body to see if the supplies he carried were still with him. The plain steel sword was still strapped to his waist and a few pouches containing dried food and water were still there as well.

  He could only bring these things as the world did not allow any magical artifacts from outside, including storage rings.

  “Tsk. Which direction should I take now?”

  He closed his eyes for a moment, memories surfacing of the time the Duchess had left him alone in a forest of beasts. She hadn’t given him any instructions except, “Get out of the forest.”

  Back then, he had wandered for months before finally finding his way out but he didn’t have that much time now.

  He had to enroll in the academy entrance exam and complete his mission so he could finally be free from his shackles. After all, the Duchess had promised him that.

  He didn’t even consider running away or betraying the Skyfall Dynasty. There was simply nowhere to hide when most of the cosmos was ruled by them and he couldn’t remain in this world either, one that was destined to be destroyed.

  Just then, his senses picked up the sound of bushes rustling. He immediately drew his sword, holding it in front of him in one precise motion.

  A little girl, barely ten years old, jumped out of the bushes. Her black hair was tangled and wild, strands sticking to her face. One brown eye shimmered with unshed tears as she stared forward, trembling with a basket filled with what Raze could only assume were herbs clutched tightly in her hands.

  She wore a tattered robe, its once-white fabric now dulled by dust and leaves.

  Raze didn’t lower his guard.

  The girl froze for a moment upon seeing him, before suddenly running toward him, screaming something in a foreign language.

  “Aeluna noemi!!!”

  He couldn’t understand her words but when a wolf leapt out of the bushes right after her, everything became clear.

  She was asking for help.

  The wolf seemed to be ordinary beasts without mana but then again, Raze himself was no different. The Duchess had never allowed him to form a mana core, believing the world would not permit him to enter while carrying foreign mana.

  The girl hid behind him as if he would protect her.

  “Aeluna noemi!!! Lolocata.”

  She kept saying something but Raze didn’t spare her even a glance. His eyes were locked onto the wolf in front of him.

  Even unawakened, his body and swordsmanship had been refined to the absolute peak his physical limits allowed.

  He caught the tiniest twitch of muscle in the wolf’s body, the faintest signal before it lunged.

  Raze pulled his sword sideways, holding its edge toward the wolf. The moment it jumped, aiming to snap his head in half, he twisted his body and drove the blade straight into the side of the wolf’s skull without mercy.

  The wolf whimpered for a brief moment… then went still.

  A small status window appeared before him.

  [Swordsmanship (A-Rank) added to the list of skills]

  The world had recognized his pure swordsmanship ability as A-Rank but he didn’t care. In his previous world, this was only C-Rank as the ranking depends on the strongest swordsmen that existed in that world.

  He swung his sword once through the air, flicking away the blood before sliding it back into its sheath. When he turned around, the girl was staring at him, her eyes sparkling like they were filled with stars.

  He didn’t know what to say but the girl seemed to have far too many things she wanted to say. She excitedly scanned him from head to toe, her eyes shining.

  “Oowge looka, boague.”

  He still couldn’t understand the language of this world and somehow, as if realizing that, she slowed her words and began to use simple gestures, as though that would make it clearer.

  “Oowge… looka… boague.”

  But before he could say anything of his own, a presence appeared right behind him without any notice. Raze felt a cold blade resting against his neck.

  He slowly turned, only to see a woman with long, flowing black hair, dressed in a black suit, staring at him with cold brown eyes.

  An awakened—?

  Before he could even process it, she struck. Darkness swallowed his vision and his body collapsed as he fell unconscious.