The pain woke me up….

Such nice dream. It would have been a better setting then mine….

It had been twelve years since I arrived in this world. When the angel first appeared in front of me I was overjoyed. He told me about reincarnation and everything I would need to know.

I learned about this new world I would reincarnate in and how magic and legendary beast lived here. He taught me the basic and when he finished sent me.

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was the faces of a woman and a man. The woman was crying while speaking to me while the man just looked happy. They were obviously my new parents. The woman was good looking and the man awesome, even with my poor eyesight I could tell it.

It took me only a few weeks to learn to walk and talk again. The fact that I still had my past knowledge helped a lot. I kept it hidden from my new parent for safety reason. Just imagine if your new-born child could suddenly speak and walk. You would only be scared.

Listening to them I understood better how this village worked. Apparently my father was the village hunter and my mother the town healer. When they took me out, the villagers were friendly and looking at them with respect. I grew up in peace. While the food and lifestyle were different I somehow adapted and began to find it rather nice.

At my first birthday my father had my magic tested. Apparently, even if magic existed, only a few people on the world could use it to fight, five with all the country taken in account. If one had even a bit of mana and managed to use it, he would be considered as a noble and would be treated like a king.

Thanks to the angel I already knew how to gather mana and use it but this world people didn’t understand the concept. Some did but kept it for themselves, fearing to lose everything they had.

When the man that had to test it arrived, I made it look like I had no mana. He gave them the result and while they were a bit sad, they were also relieved. I would be “normal”.

Years passed and I reached my fifth birthday. My mother learned my secret. How? I don’t know. She just came to me one day and told me she knew about my “secret”. I thought she was buffing but she explained about my hidden magic power and my knowledge. I simply nodded and she went away.

I kept on my daily life. Learning hunting with my father, housework with my mother and farm work with the other villager.

One day a man came to the village, he was dressed with good looking clothes and a lot of jewel. At first he only talked with the village chief but when he caught sight of my mother everything went bad.

At first he only talked to her but he kept on coming and began to ask her for favour. She refused every time but he kept on insisting. At my seventh birthday, He began to use violence. Luckily I could use magic and sent him flying before he could do anything. I thought it would be enough but it didn’t stop him. Meanwhile I told it to my father and he confronted the man. They yelled at each other and after hours of yelling the count left while yelling threat.

Weeks passed without sign of him so we thought he forgot or got over it. At my seventh birthday I lost my magic. I don’t know how and why but I couldn’t use it anymore. Luckily I still had my regenerative power. I could heal injury in no time.

First day of spring, the count came back…. But he wasn’t alone. Behind him stood mercenary with swords and axes. He stared at the villager that came to see what he wanted and ordered his men to slaughter us.

The women ran away while the men tried to fight back. It was useless. The mercenaries were trained and their stuffs were better. They slashed down every man. My father fought as best as he could but the sword wasn’t his favourite weapon. They ran after the women and killed them with the children and elders. Blood spurted every time they used their weapons. Scream filled the air and the count simply smiled on the back. I ran with my mother, faster and faster. Suddenly, she stopped and fell on her knees. I looked at her and saw an arrow on her head. She throws a last glance at me and smiled, telling me to run.

Crying, I tried to ran but something hit my legs. I fell on the ground and lost consciousness.

When I finally opened my eyes, I was chained in some kind of jail. I looked around but there was nothing but strange tools. After a few hours, the count appeared with a vicious grin and that’s when I knew my hell just began.

Every day, he would come and torture me. He would use a different way to inflict me pain every time and when he finished, a man in white dress came to heal me so I wouldn’t die.

At first I cried, again and again. Then rage kept me awake, I would insult him spit on him but he only smiled and became even more vicious. Then I gave up. The rage was still here but I couldn’t do anything. He kept doing it for days, weeks, years. My power coupled with the healer power prevented me from dying. While he didn’t torture me, I thought. I thought a lot.

Why am I here? Did I do something wrong? Why did my power disappear? Did the angel lie to me?

So much question…. Then I remembered from my previous life the Greek god. They loved to see the human suffer. Sometime they would present them great gift only to take them back when they needed them the most. I came to the conclusion they were the same. I then thought of humanity. Even without the gods interventions, they were bestial, they would hurt each other for ore or stupid idea like honour.

This years of pain and suffering made me realise how stupide I was. My rage became sorrow and finally hatred. A hatred so deep that I couldn’t sense the pain anymore.

I don’t know how much time I passed in this place but my body changed a lot. I grew up to be taller than the count. It enraged him and his torture became more violent. I was still thin because of the lack of food and my skin was covered with scars and I had my left arm cut. He teared it off one day when I refused to scream. The healer stopped him when he was about to end my life, telling him it would only end my suffering.

And here we are. I’m still in this hell, waiting for the day he get bored from this “game” as he call it.

“What a tragic story.”

Ha… it had been a long time…

“Not enough strength to talk?”

….

“Not that I mind.”

Again with this condescending voice…

“Hey, what about my way of speaking.”

Hum? It’s a first, the voice never rebutted before.

“Well I’m not a “voice” as you put it”

So, what are you?

“Let’s just say I’m here to make a deal with you.”

Ho…. The devil then?

“NO! … excuse me, I just hate to be called that way. Well it’s not wrong but I’m not the devil like you imagine it.”

I’m listening.Not that I can do anything else.

“You see, gods love to play with the humans and humans love the games of the gods. I on another hand hate humanity and gods. I’m what you call a rebel god. I’m the god of the demi-humans and dragons.”

How noble of you…

“Hmpf… Aren’t you interested in the deal I want to propose you?”

If it involves me being free from those chain, then I’m listening.

“Good, good… I want you to be the first of a new species I want to “create”, the Nephilim.”

As in geant or fallen angel.

“Fallen angle. Truth be told, I want you to become a high Nephilim. A race akin to the god.”

I can’t help but think you’re not telling me everything.

“Ha ha ha… You won’t have all the power of the Nephilim but one over an element of your choice and since I don’t really trust you I will take a part of your soul.”

Will you free me if I accept?

“No, I’ll give you the power to free yourself then you’ll have to help me in my project and….”

I accept.

“not even thinking about it?”

Hell or partial freedom…. Do I need to think about it?

“… Be it then.”

The voice disappeared and when I thought I was definitely going crazy; my body began to hurt. I never felt something so painful. Even within those years of torture. My whole body felt like it was burning from inside. I lost consciousness from the excessive pain. When I woke up, I felt… good…. I felt fine. My body was still covered with scar but where I had only skin before, muscle appeared. My missing left arm was here again and my hair grew black.

When I thought about what kind of power the voice talked about, my head hurt for a moment. Everything… I knew everything about my power. Control over water and ice. I looked at the puddle of water and it flashed to my chain, cutting them. It was still strange. Even with the few memories I had from when I was a kid, I remembered how hard it was to manipulate the flow of mana. But here… it was natural… as if I was born with this capacity.

I cut the remaining chain and stood up. I moved my left arm and in a simple movement sent everything flying around me. For someone from this world the way I used this power would seem impossible but with my past knowledge it was natural.

I waited for the count and when I finally opened the door, I used my new power to extract every bit of water from his body, slowly…. Painfully…. Just like all those years… He tried to fight back but it was useless. After hours of struggling, he fell on the floor, dead. Surprisingly, the healer wasn’t here. I looked at the door and sent a bomb of compressed water on it, destroying everything around it, the wall, the ceiling, even creating a crater beneath me.

I looked around and finally, saw the sky, after all those years. The bomb I made was too strong and destroyed everything in a radius of 500 meter. I felt tired from the magic used and looked around. I saw a river nearby and went to it. I plunged inside and let the water bring me to the sea.