Vampire Reincarnation

Kai sat on the bench in the courtyard with his father, both of them looking at Elena, who gave Ray one last angry look before her lips parted.

“Mana, in our world, mana is everywhere, from the smallest blade of grass to the tallest mountain and the highest cloud. It is the energy that allows us to gain a supernatural power - magic.

What we call mana is actually a type of energy that can be found in all beings, be they living or not. Everyone has it, me, you, the birds flying by and the bugs crawling on the ground, but not everyone can use it.

In the beginning, most sentient beings weren’t able to use mana, and we only learned after conducting some… experiments. Eventually, we figured out how to use mana, and our bodies naturally evolved and adapted.”

Elena paused briefly, and her hands clenched into a fist as she recounted the history of her people with trembling pupils, seemingly remembering something.

“Anyway,” she continued “This energy has two main sources: Mortal Energy and Celestial Energy. Besides those two there is Life Energy, a very special energy that allows one to use healing magic, but very few people actually have it.

It is theorized that Death Energy also exists but so far no one has ever awakened with it. Besides that, there is Time and Space, which allows people to use Spatio Temporal Magic, but those are derivations of Dark Energy, and there are a lot more types of submagic, like Blue Fire and Metal Magic, and it is speculated that there are a lot more.

These are considered ‘Insidiarum Magics’, which also include ‘Combination Magics’.

Mortal Energy, which includes Life and Death energy, is the energy that exists on Lumenia, our planet, and they are Fire, Earth, Water, and Air. Celestial Energy is the energy that exists outside of Lumenia, such as Light and Dark. You may think that Light exists on our planet, but our Light is different from that of the Sun, and as for Dark energy… it’s everywhere else!”

His mother explained rapidly, her face covered in sweat as her chest heaved up and down. Ray pulled out a glass of water from his ring, which he then handed to Elena. “Thank you, dear.”

Kai excitedly absorbed all the new information, new theories forming in his mind as to how he can create new magics. Insidiarum Magics huh… they seem to be random but Blue Fire is a fire with a high amount of oxygen, does that mean that White Fire is possible too?

As for metal magic, are they controlling the metal itself or the earth within the metal? Did they discover magnetism yet?

Life Magic and Death Magic… this one is tricky, but… doesn’t seem impossible to learn.

“Now,” Elena said, waking Kai up from his daydreaming, and he found himself holding a small, red crystal in his hand. “This is a Fire Element Crystal, it is the refined, more expensive version of the Fire Stone. If you infuse your mana within, it will tell us whether or not you have any affinity for Fire energy.”

“Elemental Affinity?” Kai asked, bewildered at the concept, is that some kind of RPG concept the Goddess introduced?

His mother didn’t answer, however, she told him take her seat, and she sat down next to Ray.

“Go on,” his dad said, “you can close your eyes if you think it will help. Imagine the fire dancing in your palm as you infuse your mana into the crystal.”

He did as instructed and shut his eyes, visualizing his palm, he sent little amounts of mana into the crystal and a small wisp of fire appeared in his mind, swaying gently in his hand. Is this it? He wasn’t sure if what he did was right, but he enjoyed the feeling of the fire rubbing against his palm. It feels so real, it’s so warm…

Suddenly, the small wisp of fire swayed violently and it began to shrink, threatening to extinguish and disappear. No! His heart skipped a beat, but he quickly regained his composure.

Recalling Rodney’s memories, he imagined the fundamental components of fire. Fire is a chemical reaction, combustion, created from oxygen, heat, and fuel. In this case, the fuel would be mana, the heat… the spark, what can the spark be…?

Cold sweat ran down his spine as his mind worked at 110%, he frowned as his teeth scraped against each other. The spark is… mana as well, by moving the mana particles at rapid speeds I can create the heat necessary for the combustion to happen, and then…

The small wisp of fire grew quickly, from one meter to two, from two to three, from three to eight, from eight to twenty… it grew into a tall, raging inferno that he struggled to contain.

His eyes snapped open, a bright and intense red light blinding him temporarily. Elena and Ray jumped on their feet, their widened eyes focusing on the small crystal in Kai’s hand, which threatened to explode as cracks spread all over its surface.

“This is amazing… not even I had such a strong affinity with fire when I first tested…” Ray said slowly, his eyes sparkling with pride.

His mother was just as shocked and full of pride as Ray. Her shivering hands were joined together on her trembling lips. Even if he can’t use any other element, just this one is enough to give him a good life, he can join the academy despite his red core…

Her big, crimson eyes became wet as tears threatened to fall down her cheeks. She jumped as Ray hugged her from behind, calming down her nerves as he tenderly kissed her on the cheek.

She handed Kai another crystal, one of a dark, blue color. “Now try to imagine the ocean, the sea, the river, or a lake, imagine the rain falling on your skin as it sinks into your clothes and dampens your hair.

Kai closed his eyes once again, and a small puddle appeared in his mind, which, just like the wisp of fire, slowly shrank until it disappeared. He didn’t panic this time, however, as the formula for water popped into his mind.

A strong tidal wave flooded his thoughts and his eyes snapped open once again, the crystal glowing with a blue light that reflected in his parent’s sparkling eyes. Two elements! To think he’d be able to use two elements with a red core…

Elena handed Kai one crystal after the other, each time glowing with intense light. His affinity for all elements was artificially boosted by Rodney’s knowledge, and he could not help but feel disappointment in himself, even if he couldn’t control the situation.

Finally, it was time for the last crystal, the Light crystal. Kai did as usual, and imagined himself, standing in the courtyard. The world around him was black and white, and a deep darkness surrounded him like a shadow.

He stared at the dark sun, which emitted a faint light that softly bounced off his skin. He waited patiently, waited for the element to reject him before using his modern knowledge to artificially acquire it.

The light grew brighter and more intense, the scattered rays of sunlight piercing through the monochrome world, pushing away the darkness surrounding him. His widened eyes were focused on the sun, its blinding light forcing him to open them.

He blinked rapidly as his eyes adjusted to the real light, the dim glow of the crystals greeting him, along with his mother’s beaming face and his father’s proud, trembling smile behind her.

She picked him up, hugging him tightly as she jumped with excitement, Ray watching from the sides, doing his best to control his laughter. I can’t believe Kai has an affinity with all elements. Is my son a monster?

…

A few weeks had passed since then.

Kai and Kana stood opposite each other in his courtyard, each of them holding a fire crystal in their hands, in front of them were two target dummies made of stone. They murmured something under their breaths, and the crystal lit up as a small ball of fire appeared in front of them.

The flaming ball would sometimes levitate for a few seconds before fading away, and other times they would send it shooting toward the target’s general direction, either missing it by a hair’s breadth or by a mile.

Tom and Ray were watching them from the side as they chuckled and commented on their performance. “Despite his high affinity for magic, he’s no better than my Kana at casting spells, I have to say this is quite surprising,” Tom said as he took a sip from a small glass of wine.

“Not really, I’ve seen plenty of people with high affinities waste their talents. There was one guy who had better affinity than me with dark magic but I still bested him,” Ray boasted as he sipped on a small glass of wine before he continued,

“I have to say though, Kana isn’t that bad herself despite only having two affinities, and she’s smart as well, she will acquire more in due time.”

Tom let out a light laugh as he observed the two children doing their best to cast the simple spell. “I’m sure she will, she’s got good genes after all.”

“Hahaha,” Ray laughed loudly, grabbing the attention of Kai and Kana, which made them turn their heads toward the two. “You can say that again.”

The children rolled their eyes before they went back to training, Kai smirking slightly as he continuously shot fireballs, everywhere but on the target.

“You kinda suck at this,” Kana remarked as she took aim at the stone dummy in front of her, and the fireball shot straight toward its head… then missed by a few centimeters.

“You kinda suck at this too,” Kai chuckled as he cast another fireball, which faded away before he could even shoot it. His head dropped in disappointment and a sigh escaped his lips as he clenched his fist around the crystal.

Even with the perfect elemental affinity, this stuff is really difficult, besides allowing me to use the element, what’s the point of this affinity thing?

He raised his head, his eyes burning with determination as he rapidly chanted the cringe spell his father taught him.

A small fireball manifested in front of him, floating calmly as it waited for his command. Kai looked at it closely, much to the bewilderment of both Kana and their dads.

If my accuracy isn’t good enough, then a bigger projectile should hit regardless, time to put what I studied to the test…

He inhaled deeply and focused on the ball of fire, which grew in size as he fed it more and more mana, and its color changed to a slight blue hue as its temperature increased.

Ray and Tom jumped up as they saw the spell’s diameter rapidly increase, and they yelled while running toward Kai, who had a wide smile on his face despite the burning heat being so close to his face.

“Kai, stop!” his father warned as he got closer, however, it was too late. Kai’s smile froze on his face and his pupils trembled as the fireball expanded at a rapid pace, until it violently exploded.

Kai tumbled backward violently, groaning as he fell and landed on his back, his chest heaving up and down as he drifted in and out of consciousness, a faint light reflecting in his eyes before they slowly closed.