Magic Cores.
The source of a person's power, their magic and potential, but even with all this power and variation in those small orbs, one could still fail.
Size.
Shape.
Colour.
Countless variations exist across the billions of lifeforms relying on cores.
From the small goblins with little room for growth to the celestial beings that can crush a galaxy with a wave of their hand.
Leonhardt, as a created existence, lacked a true core before this; his core was a makeshift creation built on the genius of his creator and, technically, his mother. The youngest human archmage to take the mantle.
Because of this, the more he grew, the harder it beca to maintain his existence and life.
The short lifespan was because of his cracked core.
So the mont he swallowed a core of a creature that, if known to humanity or even the demons, might stir terror in their very souls.
His existence reached a critical impasse.
***
"Leonhardt, are you awake?"
'Huh, what's going on?' He thought to himself, wrapped in a strange but cool liquid.
The voice wasn't one he recognised at first, but then mories and thoughts seeped into his mind, knowledge and magical theory beyond his current understanding.
'Mother?'
Inside a glass tube in the middle of a dirty laboratory covered in books, vials of strange creatures, and blood was a small fairy.
The fairy looked lovely and cute, with silver white hair and golden eyes. It fluttered inside the huge glass tube, swimming in a strange fluid with a green hue.
Leonhardt's eyes opened fully, his white eyelashes fluttering at the sight of the woman who sat on a chair gazing at him with both hands beneath his chin.
'Her face... it's blurry.'
Despite trying to see her face, he could only make out the colour of her eyes and hair.
She also had silver hair and sparkling gold eyes that shone through the blurry mist.
"Oh my, you're not angry today?"
A comfortable voice, calming and gentle, but filled with interest.
She rocked on her seat, wearing a lab coat and robe, while stroking the tip of the glass with her long pale finger, tapping the glass with a low hum as she humd a song that Leonhardt recognised.
Sotis he would hear it when about to sleep, or when he felt tired...
'Is this a dream, or was... everything else a dream?'
He shook his head, a curious feeling growing in his chest. Leonhardt didn't know if it was a feeling of connection. He felt the sa with Ifrit, but he wanted to stay here. The cool liquid constantly made his chest feel warm.
"Really... you're not going to bite this ti, little one?"
The woman seed shocked.
She flicked her fingertip—a magical sigil appeared, and a hole ford in the glass.
Yet the liquid didn't flood, and a spell seed to have been cast along with the first one to keep the liquid inside.
"Co to mother."
Her ears were long... pointed, sothing a human could never have.
This scene confused Leonhardt because all information pointed to this woman being human. He believed she was most likely the archmage Luris.
His creator and mother... but right now, he wasn't a chira.
'I'm just a fairy? A fae?'
That's what confused him... why was he kept in that tube if he was a normal fairy, or sothing that shared the blood of this woman.
It was the mont he left the tube that everything beca clear
The heat bubbled and made his skin feel like he was boiling, yet he endured because once she touched his body, the pain faded... But the scent of the world was disgusting, like pain and pure alcohol—it made the small fairy dizzy and confused.
"Oh my, does it still hurt... I thought that this potion might help you with the pain."
Her eyes dripped with small beads of tears as she brushed Leonhardt's cheeks, a deep sorrow in her dulling golden eyes.
Leonhardt couldn't speak.
His body felt like lead...
When he tried to speak, his tongue felt heavy and paralysed.
"I know, you're probably in pain because of your mana core... Mother is sorry... I shouldn't have wished to have you."
A mother, feelings that Leonhardt didn't understand, but for him to take the form of a fairy likely ant that Luris wasn't human or a pure elf either. She cradled his body gently in her palm, treating him like the most precious treasure in the world.
Leonhardt noticed countless clothes and small outfits in the corner... a bed his size, and clothes that increased in size... likely things that Luris bought for him.
'What is wrong with ?'
[You have no core... or at least your core is damaged...]
Ifrit's voice sounded static, but it ca through, causing Leonhardt to freeze.
His eyes widened, a reaction that caused Luris to panic.
"Baby, are you okay?! What's wrong..."
'Did she love , am I not so unwanted monster?'
Though he no longer held normal human emotions, knowing she welcod his birth seed comforting, and from the mont Ifrit appeared, he gained the chance to see the system interface.
'Is this a mory, or the past?'
[She loved you enough to sacrifice her magic and core, and this is a mory and the past. You could say it's the mories that lingered inside your makeshift core.]
Ifrit explained to him that he was currently unconscious and that these mories and thoughts were coming from his previous core that was slowly fusing with the core he had swallowed.
[Normally, no monster would abandon their core because it would destroy their existence. Unlike humans, our minds and souls linger in these cores.
Why else do you think information you couldn't possibly know appeared in your mind as you grew and adapted to that body?]
Her words made sense. Leonhardt always wondered where this information ca from because it wasn't the dungeon's information.
'I see... but what's wrong, why does she look so worried?'
The scene beca chaotic as she placed him back inside the tube and started casting spells one after the other while mixing different potions and herbs in a sudden rush.
[Because of you.
She has dread of having a child all her life.
And you were her only chance... but the world rejected your existence.]
'Did you know?'
Leonhardt didn't understand if he felt conflicted or relieved to have Ifrit here to guide him, tell him things that he couldn't know from the mont he was born. It all felt as if his mother had planned for this situation.
The great forest, which shared his mother's na, the basin that would give him ti to grow and survive long enough to mature... all of it felt convenient for Leonhardt.
[After all, you are her son.
I am the origin of fire, the mother of all flas...
The Archmage Luris was my oldest friend and only contractor.]
This information didn't feel strange, as if it was sothing he knew from the start. Leonhardt looked up at his mother, working hard as she looked weird, her face dripping with sweat. The question arose in him.
'Why would a powerful archmage look so weak. What did she do?'
His body was still tired, and he could barely lift his hand, but he could feel so of the energy flowing through him.
The energy was soft, like a bundle of cotton wrapping around his body. When he focused his eyes, attempting to see where the energy ca from, it linked to Luris, to her chest.
'...'
He didn't need Ifrit to teach him what was happening, and what lengths she went to... and finally, he recognised the room he was in.
This place was the old throne room, before he beca the dungeon master, the beautiful wall with water dripping down the wall, a kind of fixture that eventually beca a ss.
'I see, it makes sense now.'
Archmage Luris wasn't dead—he just knew.
This woman that he barely knew vanished after preparing everything for him.
She will probably appear one day. I look forward to that day.
'But what now... what will happen now that I swallowed another core?'
He felt a little panicked.
Ifrit sent him calming vibes through their bond, and he felt her flas surrounding his body inside the core.
[I will help you assimilate fully, to keep your mind...
This plan seems to be sothing Luris prepared but even I didn't hear about this.]
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