My son is the most beautiful boy in the world.

  I can't help but wanna snug up against him, fill his soft baby cheeks with kisses, and flood him with all of my love.

  His soft blonde-ish hair, beautiful dark brown eyes, baby button nose, and round puffy cheeks perfectly represent the word "Cute."

  I can't help but show him off at family gatherings and put him in the cutest of clothes.

  Just last winter I had him running around the house in the most adorable Santa Clause costume.

  I promise I'm not obsessed. Okay, maybe I am.

  But, I just can't help it!

  I never thought I was mother material, growing up I swore I would probably never have kids.

  But when this beautiful boy came into the world, my days brightened.

  Knowing I had something to live for, to work hard at, and that was this son of mine.

  All I want is one thing for my son: To be the best man he can be.

  And I will do all I can to make sure that happens.

  But, recently...

  He's been off, every time I help clean himself up, feed him, or change his clothes, he always seems so...shy.

  I've never seen a baby act that way, especially toward their mother.

  Maybe my son is special.

  No, no.

  I can't be too prideful of my son in that way and call him "Special". That's how spoiled brats happen.

  But, in my eyes...he is truly special.

  Just last night I caught him trying to climb up onto the bathroom counter and find the mirror.

  And when I look at him, he always seems to be looking at something beyond me, weird, I know.

  Even so, he's still the most handsome, cutest, most adorable thing in the world.

  And no matter how big my boy gets, he's my baby, forever.

  ***

  'I am for sure the ugliest, least adorable baby alive!'

  I looked at myself in the small hand-held mirror, my mother singing along with the baby music as she cooked dinner for the both of us.

  I rolled my eyes, or, at least tried to.

  I hate it. I hate all of this.

  I hate it!

  I swear I do.

  Then why do I feel happy when this woman sings me to bed?

  No. It's just this baby body. And those kind eyes.

  My mother is a beautiful woman.

  She has round light brown eyes, accompanied by light brown hair, and a beautiful smile.

  My father? I don't know where he is. I've never seen him around.

  I've come to believe I have reincarnated into the future. Those tall rectangular buildings that reach into the clouds and this home I live in are like nothing that I've seen.

  I'm 3 years old, going on 4.

  And yet I have the intelligence and memories of a 500-year-old man.

  And not just any man, the demon king himself!

  How deplorable!

  How dare the gods curse me!?

  They couldn't defeat me, so they reincarnated me as a baby.

  YOU COWARDLY BASTARDS!

  Also, since I've lived here I began to sense Echo energy in this world. Even as faint as it is, I can feel it in my fingertips or...baby tips.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Echo energy is the source of all matter and energy in this world.

  Through said energy you can achieve superhuman things beyond the norm.

  It is the essence of magic essentially.

  While as the demon king, I ended up even creating my own Echo Energy.

  My hatred and evil were so severe, that the pure Echo energy I had turned into something vile and wicked, only enhancing my chaotic powers.

  I then felt a pair of soft, feminine hands reach in and touch my sides.

  "Ah.." I said.

  I felt myself being lifted into the air before my mother's soft face connected with my own.

  A weird loving warmth filled me and my soul.

  'Wh-What is this? Get off of me woman! Stop it...stop! Damn you...fine.'

  I lean into the woman—my mother, more.

  "How's my cute little Silva doing?~"

  My name is Silva, short for Silvanus Szell.

  My name is weird, I know.

  And my last name is pronounced "Zell," if that wasn't obvious.

  "Oh, I'm sorry~? Were you busy obsessing over your cute little face in the mirror? I can't blame you."

  I try to speak baby-ish, I hate it though.

  "Sorry mama...I was just using it for a little bit.."

  "Aww~ it's fine honey, you can use it! Just be careful not to drop it, glass is very dangerous, okay?"

  "Okay, mommy!"

  I hate it, I swear.

  Okay...I like it, just a bit.

  It's been a long time since I've felt so....normal.

  Like I can finally let the past, and all of that forgotten hatred go.

  I have a woman who loves me as her own, right before me.

  And I love her too.

  These weird feelings, I hate them, I promise.

  I swear I do.

  But, would it hurt to just give in? To just be the child this woman wants me to be?

  The world is cruel. No matter the era, age, or time, people will be people.

  I don't want to make unnecessary relationships for my enemies to use as a tool to get me.

  Enemies?

  What enemies?

  What am I saying?

  I get to restart, to try again, yet still, I hold onto those 500 years.

  I can't help myself.

  On that day, when I died in that explosion alongside the hero, death was not what I expected it to be.

  The reason I never wanted to die in the first place was due to fear.

  Scared of the unknown—I never wanted to reach that place.

  So I did all I could to become immortal, to never age, to never grow sick—for what? Just to die so meaningless in a harsh defeat by that idiot hero?

  What I saw was darkness, a darkness beyond imagination.

  Then a light, shining and driving out the darkness.

  Then that darkness around me became a stark pearly white.

  I had no body, no—I was a soul.

  I wandered and wandered, going wherever I could.

  Until I came to a stop—due to something I can't remember.

  It felt as if a rope latched onto me, and I woke up with memories of my past yet as a baby.

  I believe that the "Soul" I saw was the old me, wandering, while the other me, newly reincarnated, was growing as a baby.

  Where then by chance, my old soul found the new me and etched those memories into me.

  That is my theory, and I believe it so.

  Why? Because I have memories of being a baby, of growing, all up until now.

  Though they're foggy, I still remember them.

  'Oh yeah, I told the hero that I would see him in the next life. There's no way those god bastards would just let me die peacefully and live again. They've reincarnated him, I just know they did. Because he was their best candidate yet.'

  All in all, I lost.

  The hero beat me, yet I do not hate him, I couldn't care less about him.

  "Open wide~" I heard a soft-spoken voice say.

  I clamped my mouth around the baby spoon, slurping up whatever it contained.

  —And for this woman...I can't just remain so useless.

  ***

  Throughout the last few months, I did what I could to pass the time.

  Whether it was insulting other kids in perfectly spoken words in secret, or making explosion sounds with my mouth, I did all I could with this body.

  I frequently went out with my mother. She carried me around in her arms as we watched the stars, ate ice cream, colored in little handbooks, and much more.

  Human delicacies.

  They're small but mean a lot.

  Just laughing and giggling with your mom can quickly turn into a lifelong memory, and even though I've only been living like this for a few years now, I've gained many with her.

  I always wondered what having a mother was like, a father would be nice too.

  But right now, at this moment, this mother of mine is all I need.

  —

  On my off days, I found myself gathering Echo Energy.

  Though it was faint, with the memories of my old body, very man who mastered said energy, it was quite easy in reality.

  First, breathe in the oxygen in the air. Feel the energy in your body. The cells in your body. And the structure that makes you.

  Pull with your breath, and gather in your soul.

  Why in the soul?

  Soul essence is the very being of people.

  It resides in your core and grows with you.

  No matter the age, it can contain Echo Energy.

  But there is a limit and a bottleneck will be reached.

  Back then, the stages were labeled and leveled.

  Stage I: Echo Sensing

  Stage II: Echo Gathering

  Stage III: Echo Boost

  Stage IV: Echo Soul

  Stage V: Dormant Echo Soul

  Stage VI: Awakened Echo Soul

  Stage VII: Transcended Echo Soul

  Stage VIII: Echo Origins

  Stage IX: Immortal Essence

  Stage X: Supreme Echo Essence

  Ages 1-5: Capable of reaching Soul Stage I before the bottleneck.

  Ages 5-10: Capable of reaching Soul Stage III before the bottleneck.

  Ages 10-15: Capable of reaching Soul Stage V before the bottleneck.

  Ages 15-20: Capable of reaching Soul Stage VI before the bottleneck.

  Here is where most stop and are never able to go beyond.

  The final stages require Echo energy worth many years, not to mention experience and enlightenment.

  At age 56 I reached Stage VII.

  At Age 122 I reached Stage VIII.

  And at age 233 I reached stage IX. I obtained immortal age and regained a youthful appearance due to rejuvenation.

  And at age 437 I reached stage X. My power was at its peak, I was the strongest man in the lands and a scourge to all things that lived.

  Yet there was a place I wanted to reach, a power I wanted to obtain.

  And after 55 years, I reached a place no other had.

  I called it Stage Final: Heaven's Door.

  Never before or after did anybody reach such a level but me.

  And at age 512 I died.

  Now in the year 2122, I live on.

  I watched my mother work hard to clean around the house, as I played on a small carpet with my toys.

  I found myself imagining a fight between me and the hero.

  ..And just when I said I didn't care about that idiot.

  I guess he isn't an idiot, he managed to outsmart me.

  I looked up to see my mother smiling at me. It was a warm, loving smile. One full of kindness and pure motherly love.

  I couldn't help but smile back at that pretty woman, I call my mother.