Waking up, observing and learning the language was now taking up most of his activities... or his only activity... thankfully though, his parents often visited him, spent some nice time with him and taught him the best they could.

Spending time with his parents was officially the happiest moments in his entire life. He didn't know what could happen in this world, but he wanted to protect those smiles, his happiness; he considered himself to be strong enough for that. However, his way of thinking changed one day after witnessing something odd... twisted, as he couldn't call it differently.

An energy bending twisting and reforming to produce a special kind of effect. As the energy passed through her mother's body it produced a flame. It was a small, candle flame even, but to him? It was a new world.

It was called World Magic and apparently not everyone could awaken it. His parents had spent two decades saving up for the awakening process and finally, when he'd turned three years old they had enough money.

It was honestly a gamble where less than one in five people would awaken, but from then, their whole lives had taken a turn. From living a hard-working life to having servants prepare everything for them and a much bigger house.

His mother was a water attributed mage, and the only way you could unlock your powers was through a Life Core. It honestly was all a big gamble, with little to lose and a lot to gain, but if it paid off, it paid off with interest. His parents spend all of their fortune to acquire one Life Core, and with his mother being a water mage closely related to life, they had a lot of ways to make money, and even better a water mage could earn money reliably without the usual danger surrounding the other elemental mages.

From the money a normal citizen could make, the money a Mage earned wasn't even a comparisson.

He who had already experienced extreme wealth in his past life even if it was forgotten, he still didn't care much about it, but surprisingly it was the same for his parents. They who had grown used to doing everything by themselves couldn't help but join the servants here and there and busy themselves.

He, or Sirus as his name now was, thus developed a keen interest in the energy that moved the world. It took him ages to learn the language used here, but all of his struggles proved their worth when he could finally read a children's book without problems. The next step was a magical book, but those were hard to find and even harder to read.

In all of this he hadn't forgotten about his sword, but his feeble body could barely stand, let alone take a stance and hold a sword. His shadow swordfighting, however was a whole other matter. Even if he was slow in improving with that technique and even using it at first, with the endless eternity he had spent just focusing on it, it would have been weird if it remained a simple technique.

From visualising a simple shadow and himself performing simple movements, to an actual fight, to learning how to analyze the battlefield outside the technique, he had evolved it repeatedly.

Every night before he fell asleep he would create a world inside his mind where he would practice with his carrent body against weak opponents. Usually he would fail and die in seconds, but that was something he was quite used to. Unbeknownst to him and his parents, however, in the hour he used Shadow Swordfighting the worldly energy would move and stir around him, stimulating his body.

A year had passed since then and they had slowly gotten into a routine as things calmed down. His mother slowly grew more used to being viewed as a mage rather than a commoner, going to the church to work as a healer and living peacefully.

His father turned out to be a stone mage and unfortunately could only find work in the Shadow Forest west of the city, or in escorting missions from the guild, both of which were extremely dangerous. Then again, they didn't lack money, so there was no need to risk for his father to risk his life and worry his family... so he didn't.

As he turned four, his parents had another surprise for him... a sister.

The early days of her birth he was certain she was the Devil's spawn, and he was quite sure he wasn't that bad when he was a baby, but he mellowed out to her as soon as he saw her sleeping face. There was something about being an older sibling, a strange sense of protectiveness that made him want to work harder.

Aside from that, this strange new world awakened his adventuring spirit. His hazy memories never had anything about monsters in his previous world and he was excited to see what they were all about.

Thinking about those things, he needed a sword. Asking parents was out of the question and buying one himself was equally as hard.

Then again, he'd found out he was pretty strong even without a sword.

Thinking back to it, it had taken an event where he accidentally bent a metal bar when he kicked it to realize something was wrong. And even then it still took him an entire year to find where and why this change had happened.

He knew that it was impossible to manipulate Worldly Energy without being a mage, yet he also knew what he had seen with his monstrous perception wasn't false. From that he infered that strong intent was also able to stir the energy around them, even if one was unable to actually manipulate it.

Another year passed and he started caring about his relationships more after realizing how strange he was. He went out with other kids and played around, trying to make friends, trying his best to dispell the rumors of him being developmentally challenged.

Well, spending all of his free time reading books or 'sleeping' didn't help those rumors... and frankly without anyone to actually fight with and train he was getting pretty bored. And taking care of his sister was no longer an excuse as she had become much calmer than she used to be.

When he had finally gotten out of his house to meet other kids, his parents started tearing up. He couldn't help but roll his eyes, but still felt happy for how much his parents cared about him.

Finally going to the city square for something other than a short walk or an errand, he was getting a bit nervous.

No, that shouldn't be it. He who had fought bloodthirsty assasins and killed countless enemies in battle was feeling nervous about meeting some kids? Nope, no wasn't it!

Well, truthfully, he had forgotten about his past life almost entirely by now, so it was becoming weirder and weirder to be spending his time like an old man and training to become stronger in solitude.

Shaking his head, he saw the plaza in front of him. Wasn't it supposed to be a ten minute walk? When had ten minutes passed!

Ahh, he tried searching in his memories anything about making friends or meeting people for the first time, but came up blank.

Yeah... he was definitely nervous.

Walking up to a group of kids around his age, he saw them playing chase. Seeing no better chance, he mustered up his courage and spoke, "Hi, ermm... can I join you?"

He wasn't going to speak about last night's Shadow training, because if anyone found out that he'd used it to practice a conversation with kids, they would die before stopping to laugh.

"Sure!" a young girl replied cheerfully, the other kids nodding at that.

Letting out a relieved smile, he shook his head and went to join them.

Though he had placed restrictions on his strength with his intricate control, no kid could hope to match him in agility or endurance and thus he remained undefeated.

Sweating a bit from the exertion, he looked at the other kids gasping for air on the ground. Somewhere along the middle of the game they had made it their goal to at least catch his clothes, and they were now paying for it.

"You... are amazing..." one of the kids said while gasping for air.

One of the girls who had given up long before the others walked up to him, "You never told us your name, I'm Lisa!" The small girl extended her arm.

"I'm Sirus, glad to be friends with you all!" He took her hand and they both smiled.

The other kids waited a bit to catch their breaths before introducing themselves.

The blond cheerful girl who had replied to him at the start was Illia, the only girl who stood chasing him till the end.

The black haired boy was Lokus, and the boy next to him was his brother Nikolai who looked almost the same as Lokus. If Nikolai wasn't a bit shorter than Lokus, no one would be able to tell them apart.

Finally the brown haired kid was Erin. Erin was perhaps the only one who had managed to come close to catching him and even surprised Sirus.

After that they went to grab some sweets and Sirus decided to use some of the money his parents had given him to buy something for everyone.

As they talked and walked around, they got to know each other better.

Apparently he and Erin were recent additions to the group and they all lived near the city's center.

Erin had just come to the city with his father and they quickly settled down.

Lokus and Nikolai had lived mostly inside the city, but since both of their parents were adventurers, they enjoyed the privilege of going outside to the forest from time to time.

Finally, Illia and Lisa were both from different cities and met each other the moment they moved here and were inseparable since then.

Sirus ended up spending a lot more time than he'd expected and came home late. Half expecting his mother to murder him for being late, he tried being as stealthy as he could while coming inside.

Of course, since his mother was right in front of the entrance that didn't work, but it was worth a try.

"So..." his mother started, and he seriously expected her to yell at him for coming home so late, "how was it? Hanging out with other kids." she smiled brilliantly at him.

"Great! We had a lot of fun and... I would really like to meet them again." He was so caught up in his excitement, he didn't notice his mother standing over him menacingly.

Before he could react, she flicked his forehead and he bent down in pain, "That's good, but don't be late and worry us. The city is safe because of the Guards, but they can't protect you if they can't see you. Don't stay out till late, and I'm only letting you off this easy because you were with other kids." She told him seriously.

She didn't like how she had killed his enthusiasm, so she smiled brightly again and asked him about the other stuff they did together, all of which he was happy to answer.

That night was perhaps the most restful sleep he'd ever had, even though the amount of time he was training had increased compared to the past.

Waking up early, he saw his father up already and his mother making breakfast.

"Oh, you're up! I heard all about your nightly activities from your mother-" His father started speaking before a heavy fist knocked his head back.

"Harold, watch your tongue!" She said, clearly annoyed at the language her husband was using, even though she didn't think Sirus would get what was wrong about his father's words.

"Sera, with things like this it's better to learn young." He said, nodding his head as if agreeing with what he'd said... which earned him another hit on the head.

"Anyways, your father has some good news for you two." He said, unable to keep a big smile off his face, "I've been accepted as a city guard!" He yelled loudly, grabbing his wife and son and hugging them in his excitement.

Sera seemed to have already heard about this but didn't seem less excited about it. Sirus himself couldn't help but smile.

Cutting the merry laughs was his sister crying, which made them laugh even harder for a moment before Sera went to check up on her.

After eating breakfast Sirus was free for the most part of the day, although that wouldn't continue in the future as next year he would have to start school along with the other kids of his age and his friends.

Illia and Lisa were already going to school, as were Lokus and Erin. Thus, the only person he could meet up with was Nikolai, and they had already made such plans the night before, so he moved to meet him at the plaza.

When he reached the plaza, Nikolai was already there and waiting. Surrounding him were a few other kids, who didn't seem to be on the best terms with him.

When Nikolai saw him arrive, he hurriedly left the spot he was waiting on, ignoring the other kids and greeting him.

Sirus couldn't help but laugh at that, and seeing him Nikolai also chuckled.

The other kids didn't like their behavior much but didn't seem to care much about it either.

"So, what were they all about?" Sirus asked full of curiosity,

Nikolai hesitated for a bit before deciding it wasn't anything worth keeping a secret, "Basically, my brother is pretty famous at his school and a lot of people want to either get close to him or get an advantage." He said.

Sirus didn't really understand so he shrugged and they moved on.

He didn't really have much to say to keep the conversation going, but Nikolai on the other hand seemed to more than make up for him, and walking around the busy city they were having fun.

Thinking about it, he did have something he was very good about...

"Hey, is there any place we could train with swords?" Sirus asked suddenly.

Nikolai didn't seem too surprised by the question but hesitated to answer for a moment, "This... well, there is a place but it's not fun there." He said.

Sirus seemed a bit taken aback by his reply and quickly asked for the reason,

"The other kids you saw like to hang out there, you see. The only other place is for adults and they don't let us kids just walk right into that place."

Sirus stopped walking and stared out in the space, "Would they cause trouble for us?" finally he asked.

Nikolai thought for a moment, then shook his head, "They wouldn't dare to... but they wouldn't make the visit exactly pleasant. Especially after what happened when you met me."

Sirus started walking again, a relaxed smile forming on his face, "Wouldn't like for them to get away with annoying my friend either." he said under his breath, looking over his shoulder to see if Nikolai had heard him.

"Don't worry, I doubt they would be that petty!" He exclaimed, trying to sound convincing. Well, he didn't exactly know their personalities, but he had been wanting to get his hands on a sword for ages, plus he did have more to talk about if it was about swords.

Nikolai looked at Sirus with a sudden grin, "Well, if you're that confident... if anything happens you're the one chasing the next time."

They probably thought that he was especially good at running away from the previous night. Well, he was going to disappoint them if that was the case.

Looking at the direction of the beginner's training grounds, they started heading there. Nikolai himself didn't think much about the kids and regained his spirits after seeing how confident Sirus was.

When they arrived there, they were almost alone, with only one guard keeping watch over the area and two other kids that were sparring, throwing powerful blows at each other with the small wooden swords.

Sirus didn't know exactly how strong a ten-year-old child should be, but it definitely wasn't that strong.

Shaking his head he focused on what he wanted to show to Nikolai.

"Do you know why I wanted us to come here?" Sirus said while picking up a wooden sword.

Nikolai shook his head at that, waiting for Sirus to continue,

"It's hard for me to talk about stuff I don't know," He took a normal stance with the sword in his right hand extended, "but if there's one subject I'm good at, it is sword fighting!" He looked over his head to see if Nikolai was still paying attention and went over one of the training dummies.

Inwardly he just hoped they were sturdy, because controlling his strength in his day to day life and controlling it while practicing with a sword was different. Then again, those kids were punching above their weight classes by quite a bit, so perhaps he wouldn't be that weird.

Relaxing his body and taking a slow, yet deep breath, he reinforced the stance he was already in, but his body felt different to Nikolai like it was exuding some sort of aura.

The guard at the post was surprised for a second before sitting back at his seat, paying careful attention to the kid in the training dummies.

The two kids that were sparring stopped and stared at Sirus who so far had yet to move.

Then, before any of them could blink, a sword so slow it practically wasn't even moving hit the dummy. Because the dummies here were made with the consideration to be used against beginners they were tough, but not indistructable. Still, the loud explosion that followed made them all think it was going to be obliterated. A strength that was impossible for a kid of his age.

When the sword struck the dummy, however, there was nothing, it wasn't even dented.

Looking at that, the guard just shrugged, while the kids smirked at the apparent failure.

"I didn't really control my strength in order to impress, but was my blow really that weak?" Sirus wondered seeing the sudden disinterested looks of the guard and the other kids.

Nikolai, however, knew that this strike was not normal... he knew not because he had better senses than the guard or the other kids, but because he took a look at the back of the dummy.

Simply put, there was nothing left of its back. A blow like something exploded out of the dummy and exited out its back was what Nikolai saw before the dummy started regenerating slowly.

And time passed, slowly at times and in the blink of an eye at others...

Sirus still remembered those eyes full of amazement and wonder.

The beast that he had accidentally awakened and trained with all his might,

His best friend... Nikolai the Calamity.

A genius that surpassed him within ten years in sword techniques, and defeated him within fifty.

Even though Sirus himself didn't stop growing and was terrifying to even look at, he still didn't compare to Nikolai.

But the event that gave him that title, the Calamity... that was something no one expected, not even the omniscient Gods who lived in a different dimension, not even his closest friend, Sirus the Monster.

Because one does not end half of a planet's population on a whim,

And as Sirus stared at his best friend's corpse with his dying breath, he wished he could have done more for him.

A kid that did not deserve the fate granted to him,

A kid that was hurt and broken beyond repair...

And even though historians in the future would call them both Demons, the remaining half of the story would forever remain buried.

A tale of hatred, revenge, and love... the tale of how the world took everything from him, and the tale of him taking everything back.

Two geniuses born from ordinary families, living unordinary lives, leaving behind an unbelievable legacy.