Free Web NovelChapter 2: A brand new world
The infant’s tiny body trembled violently inside the cot.
No...
No, this wasn’t right.
His breathing quickened as foreign thoughts crashed against one another inside his mind.
He remembered.
His name wasn’t originally Leon Aldrich.
It had been Leon Mercer.
A twenty-seven-year-old aerospace engineer from Earth.
He remembered spending sleepless nights designing engines and machinery far beyond the understanding of this world. He remembered the endless noise of cities, the glow of electric lights, and the final moment before death swallowed him whole.
But now—
Now he was staring at a wooden ceiling illuminated by candlelight.
Tiny hands.
A tiny body.
A baby.
Panic surged through him as he tried to sit upright, only for his infant body to betray him completely. Weak arms flailed uselessly beneath the blankets.
A soft whimper escaped his mouth.
The realization hit him like a hammer.
’I’ve been reincarnated...’
Outside, thunder rumbled across the dark skies.
Leon’s tiny breathing slowly steadied as his racing thoughts began to calm. Despite the fear clawing at his mind, another realization slowly settled in.
This wasn’t just any world.
It was the world of *The Calamity Witch of the Void.*
—————————-
It was evening a few days later.
Leon rested quietly inside a small cot placed near the corner of his mother’s study. Baroness Elena Aldrich had mostly recovered from childbirth and was now buried beneath towering piles of paperwork that would have driven any ordinary person insane.
Yet somehow, she still looked graceful.
Golden candlelight illuminated the room as she calmly reviewed documents one after another, maintaining an elegant composure the entire time. Every so often, she would glance toward Leon with a gentle smile before walking over to pick him up and play with him for a few minutes.
Then she would place him back into the cot and return to work as if nothing had happened.
Little did she know, however, that countless thoughts were racing through her child’s mind.
’No way... no way... no way...’
Leon repeated the words over and over inside his head.
’I’ve read stories like this a thousand times just to pass the time, but I never thought I’d actually become one of those reincarnated protagonists.’
His tiny face twitched slightly.
’Out of all the novels I could’ve reincarnated into... why this one?’
There were many terrifying things within *The Calamity Witch of the Void*, but one stood above all the rest.
The ending.
A cold shiver ran through Leon’s small body.
The entire world had been destroyed.
Kingdoms reduced to ash. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
Millions dead.
All because of one woman.
Lilith Nightbane.
Even now, Leon still remembered the outrage across the internet after the novel’s final Chapter released. Nobody had expected the author to actually end the story with the complete annihilation of the protagonist and the collapse of the entire world.
The hero had failed. ƒreewebɳovel.com
Lilith Nightbane had won.
And the worst part...
That terrifying woman already existed somewhere within this kingdom.
He slowly began piecing together bits about his situation. He had heard of the Aldric Territory, though not much was known about it. It was considered an extremely minor faction, only occasionally mentioned during border disputes because it managed a small portion of the border of the Kingdom of Valenor. Because of this, while he did not have many resources within this small barony, his situation was still better than that of most people.
Now he had to think about how to survive the future, and that was when an idea suddenly popped into his head.
"Magic," he thought.
"Surely I must have some insanely overpowered magic or a system that lets me grow rapidly."
He tried to utter the word system, but all that came out was a weak "Pffffhh."
The sound caused his mother to look up from the pile of papers beside her. She stared at him in awe for a moment before quietly returning to her work.
’Damn it, I hate being a baby. How do they handle this so easily in novels?’
’Well, I guess until I can speak properly, I could at least try magic.’
But he knew magic would be even harder than trying to summon some mysterious system.
In this world, mana was determined primarily by a person’s mana capacity, ranked from F to S, and while genetics played a big role in your rank that could never guarantee what you got.
F-Rank — Around one in ten people were born with this level of magic. It had no real combat applications and was mostly used for daily tasks such as lighting small areas or washing clothes.
E-Rank — Around one in one hundred people were born with this level. They could conjure minor combat spells or temporarily strengthen the body of a child, allowing them to match an adult’s strength for roughly ten seconds.
D-Rank — Around one in one thousand people were born with this level. This was the point where people could realistically join the military or pursue careers involving magic, though they would remain at the lower ranks.
C-Rank — Around one in ten thousand people were born with this level. At this stage, magic became a genuine force on the battlefield. A mage could reinforce their body enough to shatter stone, conjure flames capable of consuming houses, or heal injuries that would otherwise cripple someone for life. Most kingdom knights and licensed battle mages aspired to reach this rank. Even among nobles, a C-rank child was considered valuable.
B-Rank — Around one in one hundred thousand people were born with this level. Nations treated B-rank mages as strategic assets. A single B-rank mage could alter the outcome of a war, destroy city gates alone, or defend entire battalions with barriers. Their bodies naturally adapted to mana, greatly extending their lifespans and resistance to disease. Most famous heroes, generals, and court magicians belonged to this rank.
A-Rank — Around one in several million people were born with this level. These individuals were monsters in human form. Mountainsides could be carved apart by their spells, storms could be summoned over battlefields, and entire cities feared provoking even one of them. Kingdoms granted them authority equal to royalty. Some A-ranks founded clans that ruled for centuries simply because no one could oppose them directly.
S-Rank — They existed only in books and fairy tales, said to be the equivalent of demigods. No confirmed S-rank had ever truly existed... but I knew of one.
Lilith Nightbane.
