Chapter One New World, New Life, New Name.

“Get up boy! Now is not the time to rest.”

A child that appeared no older than six glared at the man in what could be considered a mix of rage and a strong dislike. Slowly getting back up he spit the bloody tooth that had been knocked loose out of his mouth. A savage grin spread from his lips as he hosted what people on Earth would compare to a viking axe.

Glaring he ran towards the target of his dislike swinging the axe low hoping to hit his calf. He had done this move previously only to receive a kick to the face but this time he didn’t put his full force into the swing pulling back and aiming for the crotch of his opponent. Another kick sent him stumbling and this time he lost his grip on the ax. When he finally recovered from the blow to the face a sword was placed at his neck.

“You're not looking to have any siblings huh?” The man said with a chuckle.

The man let out a savage grin similar to the one the boy made, and a swift kick sent the boy into unconsciousness.

*

When I came to the only thing, I could feel was hunger. The wounds I suffered previously were all gone. Most likely healed by one of the many mages under my father’s command. My name was Terrence Brown. Keyword was. It's been roughly 3 years since I've been born into what could be known as my greatest blessing or curse. 3 years since the being known as [Beyond] came to my world and killed one hundred thousand people. Honestly, I don’t know what to feel or how to react. If this was an isekai I would say I’ve been dealt one of the best hands. My father is Duke Vasu Kan. Lord of the Wall. That didn’t mean anything to me, yet, and it still is hard to accept. Riches, women, resources, as an isekai protagonist I would have it all. Unfortunately, my father is Vasu Kan. Lord of the Wall and in the world of Gaia in the Empire that means he is the first line of defense in case of an orc invasion.

“Young Master, Lady Keala request you dine with her for lunch.”

Startled out of my thoughts I looked at the young girl who interrupted me. She was my personal maid recently assigned to me after an accident that took place in the streets of Ashburn, the duchy capital. Her name was Murnia a brown skin girl with piercing red eyes. She stood around 5’7 and had a petite build with long dreadlocks that went to her waist.

“Young Master?” She said, giving me a nervous stare.

“Tell mother I will be there momentarily.”

I watch as she gave a bow of acknowledgment and proceeded to leave. From what I’ve seen most of the population of Ashburn had brown or black skin with African features. I wasn’t out for long, but I had rarely come across people with European or Asian features. Sighing, I got out of bed and surveyed my room. It was massive and not just a room what was considered my ‘room’ was the size of a two-story house. Grand windows decorated the left side with my bed facing them a study and bathroom where all connected as well.

Moving quickly, I changed out of my sleeping attire and into an all-black tunic with intricate white swirling patterns woven within. With a dragon’s claw clutching a shield covering the back of the tunic my family’s crest. Originally a maid would help me get dress, but I quickly put a stop to it only allowing them to check my outfit afterwards. The Earthling in me was just uncomfortable with the idea of someone helping me put my clothes on especially if I wasn’t disabled or maybe it was just the American in me. It didn’t help that my every need was catered to as the first son of a duke and the most likely one to inherit the dukedom as I had no siblings to challenge me, yet.

Yet that didn’t put a stop to my father from whooping my ass the moment I was strong enough to hold onto the axe. Leaving my room, I was escorted to my mother’s quarters by Murnia who was clearly nervous the entire way. My mother was probably the best thing that happen to me out of this whole situation. I honestly didn’t know what to make of the whole matter but if there was one person that helped me without even knowing it, it was my mother.

Entering her quarters, a smile instantly blossomed on my face. If there was anything I noticed about the people of Gaia it was that they were significantly better looking than most people from Earth and my mother was even better looking, celestial looking even. I would even say her beauty was inhuman. She was tall nearing 8ft, if not a bit taller as most Magi Humans tended to be. Magi Humans were another thing I needed to study as I was a three-year-old child who looked six, and from what I learned so far this had to do with me being a Magi Human like my parents. She had sharp cheekbones with an oval shaped face and an hourglass figure with wide hips and a well-endowed chest. My mother had near obsidian skin and eyes like starlight. The same eyes I inherited from her and when I say starlight, I mean exactly that. We had no pupils, and our eyes appear like the night sky with white dots spread throughout the inky darkness.

It was weird when I first saw it, but I quickly grew used to it as the woman took care of my every need and showed nothing but love.

She smiled when she saw me, a brilliant bright smile that I found hard to look at. The same smile she gave me when I was first born. The same smile she gave anytime she saw me. That was the thing that kept me going. It kept me from screaming out in rage at the life I once had now gone, however it was the same smile I couldn’t bring myself to look at sometimes. I hadn’t told anyone I'm from another world let alone about my mission as a Harbinger and most importantly the System. I mean I’ve had bad days like the time I found out my ‘best friend’ was spreading rumors about me and stole the girl I liked but being killed and sent into another world on a mission for a god bad? Yeah, I could do without. I hadn’t even really gotten the chance to explore the System as it’s been updating since the moment I arrived.

Loading 97%…

Fuck…

In the corner of my vision just out of the way to not be a distraction was the loading percentage.

“Aegis my little shield.” Keala Kan said with a smile.

“I hope to the gods that your father was not being harsh with your training or else he’ll be hearing from me.”

Keala rushed over to me and proceeded to check me everywhere from head to toe before wrapping me in a tight hug.

“Mother I'm fine!” I said with a slight blush. Once again, my mother was the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my lives.

“Good, good, because once we start your magic training you will need all the rest you can get.”

My eyes lit up and my heartbeat in excitement at the mention of magic training.

Magic!

Magic!

Magic!

I could feel it in my very heart as all Magi Humans were born with a magic core embedded directly into their heart to one day replace the organ.

“Your Imperial is improving leaps and bounds I’m so proud of you.”

I couldn’t help but break out into a grin. I didn’t even need to act like a child stumbling over words because learning the language was just that hard. I had been working extremely hard to get the language of the Empire down and had slowly been revealing my mastery of the language. It also helps how Magi Humans had their growth accelerated with a bunch of other perks as well. Also, the fact that I had three years to observe the people around me speaking the language helped. In my daily lessons with my quirky tutor Rue, I also studied the several languages of the continent and various other things such as the history of Kan and history of the surrounding races. An overall general study on various subjects that I was expected to know as the next duke.

If anything got me ecstatic, it was learning that I’d finally be learning magic from my mother today.

“Come, come my little shield I’ve had a feast prepared for you today.”

Smiling I followed my mother to the table.

*

After our lunch my mother took me outside the castle and to our training fields where the personal force of the duke was trained. It was here where our magic lessons would start as the personal forces of my father physically trained.

Coming to a stop my mother turns and smiled at me.

“Before we get started. Tell me Aegis in your own words what you think magic is.”

I looked at my mother while I pondered on her question. What is magic? Well in the fairy tales magic would be a force in the world used to alert and bring changes. I had seen magic performed here. Almost every maid, guard, or butler used magic daily.

“I think magic is something that is used to alter and change the natural state of things.”

“Very good but not quite. Magic is first and foremost an expression. It is said when our ancestors first appeared on this land, they had no magic. That is how we were captured and enslaved by the orcs and other races. It took thousands of years for humanity to break the shackles placed upon it and magic is the root cause of our freedom. That’s why every citizen is required to learn about the fundamentals of spell crafting. Magic is your physical expression placed upon Gaia and the use of spell constructs enhances that expression. It has taken humanity thousands of years to build upon our knowledge and arsenal of magic. With this build up we have conquered lesser worlds and planes.”

My breath caught and my eyes widen as I heard my mother mention conquering lesser worlds and planes. This… I didn’t expect this. What type of opportunities would this build for me?

*

Keala’s heart grew warm at the sight of her son taking in all the information she gave him. Reaching down she pinched his chubby cheeks to get his attention. The boy was an exact mix of her and her Vasu. With curly black hair tinged with red like most of the Kan family and eyes of starlight just like her clan. He wasn’t as dark as she was nor brown like his father just a shade or two darker in fact. He slapped at her hand, and she let out a chuckle as she regained his attention.

“Mommy what are lesser worlds and planes?”

“Exactly as they sound my child lesser worlds and planes are worlds where the magical essence is in a much lower quantity and quality than Gaia. Our family itself controls three of these lesser worlds and several minor worlds. Most houses at the level of a count will have at least one lesser world under its banner. However, we will discuss more of this topic later. Right now, let's talk about how the people on the continent of Nia use magic.

Magic in Nia will have two main ways of being used by mages. Direct and indirect. Direct is when a spell construct is formed and directed at the target. For example: |Fireball|.”

*

I watch as my mother turned and directed her attention at one of the stationary targets in the distance. She raised her hand and a spell construct formed in front of her and fired almost instantly. I watched what she did, but I was definitely at a loss on how she did it. My heart sped up in excitement as I watched the fire ball spell strike the distance target and it burst not even leaving anything behind.

“That was a tier two fire ball I cast.”

Hearing the new term, I instantly perked up and questioned my mother on it.

“Tiers? How many tiers are there?”

Reaching down once again Keala ruffled her son’s hair.

“Quite the curious one, aren’t we? There are technically 10 tiers of magic however we'll discuss more on that later. Did you see how I directly formed the spell construct. Usually, they will not be that big as when you are in combat alerting the enemy of what spell you’re preparing is a sure way to die a quick death. For our training however I will be using large constructs to demonstrate to you. That was just a small example of direct magic.

Now the second type of magic is indirect magic this is what more of the muscle heads use or the spirits and elementals. Indirect magic is using your will or expression to make changes to the world. Basically, it is taking raw mana, slapping an element to it, and calling it a day.”

This time there was no chanting or spell construct. I watched as a similar fireball formed and raced off into the distance at another target instantly burning it to a crisp as it structs. Both seem to hold the same amount of power. I turned to my mother and gave her a confused look. She smiled at me and reached down and picked me up smothering me with a hug and kisses.

“You’re so precious my little shield.”

Still hold me in her arms she proceeded to explain as she started moving in the direction of the targets.

“Are you wondering why there are still two forms of magic even though both seem to hold the same power?” Keala asked her son as they passed training guards and arrived at the location of the targets.

“Before I explain farther tell me in your experience what you believe happened.”

I took a few moments to collect my thoughts before speaking. On the walk over I had contemplated what could be the difference between direct and indirect magic. There wouldn’t be two versions if they produced the same thing however, I was stumped. As I surveyed the blast sight Both areas darken with ash and charcoal and both areas appeared to have equal amount of damage. I was stumped and honestly didn’t know but the excitement in my chest increasingly built higher and higher.

“Mommy I honestly don’t know.”

Keala smiled at her son in her arms.

“Good I didn’t expect you to know or even be able to figure it out. Very smart boy.” She said as she looked at her son with warmth.

“The explanation is quite simple, however. One used more magic to get the same result as the other.”

In a moment it all clicked for Aegis. When his mother cast direct magic, she chanted Fireball and built a spell construct but when she cast indirect magic there was no chant or spell construct.

“The direct magic used less magic and produced the same results as the indirect magic!”

“I’m so proud of you. That’s exactly right my little shield.”

“By forming a spell construct and chanting the spell we decrease the mana used from our bodies and increase the ambient mana used in the environment. This is allowing us to get the same power and results as someone who willed the fireball into existence. By using direct magic, we can increase the number of spells cast and outlast any indirect opponent.

Now that we covered a bit of how magic works it’s time for you to form your first spell construct. First I am going to send a pulse of mana into your body to help you feel and awaken your own mana.”

Saying so I watch as my mother placed me down and sat cross legged facing me. She reached over and placed her hand upon my chest and a moment later my world would change for the better.

Loading 98%…

*

Amaya waited patiently for her cousin to return. She already finished her daily lessons and wasn’t yet of age to practice any magical or physical combat arts, so she had nothing to do. On any occasion she did try to sneak away and join Aegis their tutor Rue would always find her hiding away. It had been 2 months since Aegis started training his combat arts and Amaya would be joining him in another 2 after she became 3. As she sat in the main garden surrounded by lilacs and lilies a tingling sensation appeared in the back of her neck. Amaya let out a toothy grin and stopped swinging her legs.

Together with Aegis they had discovered and explored all the components on their body that made them different from regular humans and this sensation she was getting was one of the many skills they developed. Aegis called it danger sense and that’s how Amaya dodge as Aegis went to tackle her to the ground. Giggling she went forward to help him stand up and brush the grass and dirt from these clothes.

“Nice try big brother Aegis” Amaya said while sticking out her tongue.

*

I had been practicing the magical and physical combat arts as my tutor Rue like to call them for over two months now. Using this opportunity, I discovered so much more about Magi Humans. Before we get started let me start off by saying there are multiple races on the continent Nia such as elves, dwarfs, orcs, goblins, ogres, gnomes, and of course humans. It is said that when humanity was pulled to the continent by Gaia that they had no previous knowledge of magic or how it works. That was the reason why we were enslaved by the orcs and a few of the other races took part but nothing could compare to what the orcs did. During the years of the Eradication War when humanity was on the brick of eradication our greatest minds came together and basically created a super soldier program. Thus, a new human was born named the Magi humans. I still know little of how this process came about as my tutor informed me that it’s one of the Empires most guarded secrets.

This new form of humanity came with several benefits, however. One of those was the danger sense that my little cousin Amaya unlocked. Although I’ve unlocked it as well it’s not as strong as hers. Where, even if I mean her no harm, and sneak up on her the ability will activate. So far, I’ve managed to spot several differences between the humans of Nia, Earth, and the Magi humans. Let me just say the Nia humans and Earth humans are very similar if not the same. Even the physical features and traits on the humans of Nia are the same only enhanced. Everyone on Nia looks better no matter their height, weight, or other factors. It's like a filter was placed over humanity. Even the base humans have similar strengths to the humans of Earth. It’s not until people start cultivating a path that their body is enhanced no matter if they choose to pursue magic or physical cultivation.

That’s where the similarities end, however. Magi humans are Captain America on steroids. I’ve seen what the guards of my father can do with just their physical bodies whether its moving tons of weight by themselves or running for miles on end without stopping or tiring. I watched an entire platoon run from sunup to sundown. Not jog but run full speed from sunrise to sunset. No human on Earth could compare. Magi humans also hold more mana than the average person. This was taught to me by my teacher Rue who is a regular human. Not only the physical benefits but the magical ones as well. The final and most important thing I’ve learned so far is that Magi humans grow at an accelerated rate. I’ve only been in this world for a bit over 3 years and I already look like a 6- to 7-year-old child. From what I’ve learn Magi humans have 4 accelerated growth phases. The first is from ages 0-3 Magi humans will grow until they appear around the age of a 6/7-year-old human child. Then there is a year break between the growth phases. The Next phase starts at 4-7. Magi humans would appear to be 12/13 years of age by the end of the growth phase. From 8-11 Magi humans appear to be 16/17 and the final growth phase is from 12-16 coinciding when most humans are considered an adult here and are in their apprenticeships for their fields. Magi humans would appear to be at least 21 years of age if not slightly older.

The sole reason Magi humans grow faster even though humans mostly come of age faster than any other race on the continent is for war. Any Magi Human citizen of the Empire comes directly from a first-generation warrior. The entire Magi human project was to build super soldiers to stop the orcs from completing Eradication. It’s a scary thought now that I think about it and…

“BIG BROTHER AEGIS!”

A yell suddenly interrupted my thoughts and I looked over at my cousin Amaya who was clearly pouting at my lack of attention. Smiling I fully focused on the girl. She appeared to be 5 maybe 6 years old and had caramel skin tone with freckles covering her nose bridge and cheeks. She had massive curly 3c hair with more red than black being featured. She had a cute bulbous nose and golden iris regarded me with amusement.

“I’m sorry Amaya you know how I get when I’m left alone with my thoughts.”

“Now is not the time to think now is the time to PLAY!”

Laughing she grabbed my hand and led us deeper into the family's garden.

Loading 99%…

*

Vasu and Keala Kan watched the projection from a scrying orb of their eldest son playing with his cousin Amaya. First daughter of Ahana Kan, Protectorate of the Kan Dukedom, and sister to Vasu Kan.

“He has taken well to your lessons?”

Keala looked at her husband and a maddening grin overtook her face for a moment.

“He must be blessed by the Star God the way our child absorbs magic.”

Vasu put a hand on his wife’s shoulder until she calmed a bit.

‘Fanatics’ he thought and gave an eye role which didn’t escape the attention of the love of his life.

“Owe!”

Looking down a heel had landed harshly on his boot. He grimaced and turned to placate his wife.

“It could be the Star God’s blessing, or it could be caused from our two superior bloodlines joining.”

Now it was Keala’s turn to role her eyes.

“Regardless he is well off into becoming a 6th tier mage before he hits the age of 12. Not only has our child mastered the fireball spell he is working on removing his need to chant for it already. Our boy is beyond a genius.”

Vasu’s eyes widen in astonishment. It's been a little more than 2 months since his firstborn started training with him and he was already developing his own style with the axe. When Vasu would finally teach him the physical combat arts of the Kan the boy was certain to become a deadly warrior. Now that Vasu learn that his sons magic was just as good as his physical combat, ideas and plans started to develop in his mind. Returning his gaze to the projection from the scrying orb a glint that hadn’t been there previously appeared as he watched the 2 children play tag.

“By the way I’m pregnant with child.”

A casual comment came from his wife, but Vasu’s focus remained on the children playing for several more moments before he slowly turned to look at his wife.

“Keala? What was that you said?”

“I’m with child.”

Vasu’s eyes widen and a huge smile broke out on his face. Grabbing his wife, he spun her around all but forgetting his plots and plans that had been in the early stages of development.

“We must call for Priestess Stella again.” Was all that Vasu managed to get out before his lips where sealed by his wife’s.

*

Late evening set in, and I retired to my room, my duties for the day fulfilled. This was one of the most painful times for me. Every night I’d think of the family I left behind. My mother, my father, aunts, uncles, cousins, and my siblings. How were they? What did [Beyond] do to them to Earth even. At least now I knew where my dreams came from. Something in my future was coming, the Nox, and I had no idea what they were, but I’d do anything within my power to prevent that dream from coming true. Where the forces surrounding me where slaughtered in droves.

Loading 100%…

Welcome to the System Aegis Kan.