'Agghh!!!'
The pain struck deep into my chest the moment I disconnected the Aether.
My lungs and heart burned as if molten metal was being poured inside me.
It wasn't just pain, it was the kind of agony that made my vision white and my mind empty.
I bit into the pillow, muffling my scream. My nose bled, my ears rang, and my eyes burned as though the light itself rejected me.
But I endured.
Ten minutes.
Ten minutes of sheer hell.
Finally, I gasped, the first full breath after what felt like drowning in fire.
"Breathe… inhale… exhale… repeat…"
I pressed a trembling hand against my chest.
I had to move.
I had to save my father.
But how?
I was just a boy, a child who barely awakened his Power.
An idea that crossed my mind for a moment while I was silent in thought.
"If I can hear through Aether… then maybe I can speak through it too."
"I can use it as a tool to call for reinforcements!."
My voice.
That was the key.
I closed my eyes and sat cross-legged, letting my body sink into stillness. My breathing slowed, my heart synced with the hum of my Mana. The world around me blurred into silence.
Now, I needed to replicate a radio.
Not a mechanical one… but one born from thought, soul, and mana.
I recalled how radios worked back on Earth.
A radio works by converting sound waves into electrical signals, which are then transmitted as electromagnetic radio waves and received by another radio, which converts the waves back into sound.
Simple in theory…
impossible in practice.
Unless...
Aether could replace electricity.
And Mana… could act as the wave itself.
'Yes… that's it.'
Mana wasn't just energy. It was the carrier of resonance, the same invisible thread that connected every soul and every spell.
If I could encode my voice, my Soul Note, into aetheric vibration, then project it through Mana frequencies, someone attuned to it could receive it like hearing through fog.
I began forming the construct in my mind.
1. 'I need to encode my voice into aetheric vibration.'
I gathered my mana into my throat, shaping it to follow the same rhythm as my speech. Each syllable became a vibration of Aether, purified and condensed.
2. 'Then with the aetheric vibration, i need to transform it into a Pulse'
I forced the Aether to compress and oscillate, mimicking the behavior of electric current. The sound became a hum, soft but constant.
3. 'Now i can make it into a Mana field resonance'
I visualized the Mana around me as a vast ocean. Then I dropped my "signal" into it, a ripple that would carry my voice across the currents.
Aether crackled faintly. The air hummed like a tuning fork struck against glass.
Blue veins of light traced my arms, connecting to my temples, the pattern pulsed like breathing light, synchronizing with my heartbeat.
"Okay… let's test this,"
I whispered.
I inhaled, letting the world still, then projected my thought into the ether.
"To any Knight Guards stationed near the Northern Wall… This is—"
I froze.
No.
If I said my real name, if anyone traced this… my life would be over before it even began.
The empire, the nobles, the magisters, even the Tower's cult.
They'd hunt me down...
I needed to disappear behind another identity.
After a brief pause, I continued.
"This is 'Cicero Winston'.There's a group of Mercenaries and Knight Guards under attack beneath the sewer canal. They need reinforcements, immediately."
The sound didn't leave my lips, it resonated through my chest like a second heartbeat.
The Aether rippled outward, merging with the flow of mana that connected every life in the city.
For a moment, there was silence.
Then, the mana field answered.
A faint echo entered my consciousness, distant yet clear.
"...who's there? Identify yourself…"
It worked.
I almost smiled, but before I could respond, a violent pulse surged back through the connection.
The Aether destabilized, a backlash of energy tore through me like lightning in reverse.
"AGHHH!!"
The floor cracked beneath me. Papers and dust swirled in the air as the feedback wave blasted through the room, extinguishing every candle.
My limbs convulsed. My body was screaming to stop, but I didn't.
The signal was sent.
I lay collapsed on the floor, my breath shallow and ragged. The faint blue glow still pulsed around me, fading slowly.
"Hah… hah…"
A weak laugh escaped my throat.
"It works…"
The first Aether–Mana Transceiver, born from desperation.
But just as I began to lose consciousness…
another presence brushed my mind.
It wasn't like the faint mana echoes from before, it was sharp, radiant, and aware.
"An untraceable telepathy magic? Fascinating…"
The voice was deep, composed, carrying authority like sunlight piercing through fog.
I froze.
"Who are you, Cicero Winston?",
the voice asked.
"I have never sensed a mana flow shaped like yours. Your signal defies every known resonance structure."
My throat tightened. Whoever this was, he wasn't an ordinary man.
I swallowed my fear and responded carefully, my tone analytical and restrained.
"I'm no one of importance. Just… someone who wanted to understand the world, I am 'A Man Who Thirsts For Knowledge'."
"Thirst for Knowledge, you say? Interesting choice of words."
He chuckled softly, not mockingly, but in genuine intrigue.
"You've done something extraordinary, Cicero Winston. Even the 'Magisters of the capital' failed to achieve this."
I said nothing, only focusing on keeping the link stable.
Every second was agony, my Aether was barely holding together.
"Tell me,"
he continued,
"why hide behind a false name?"
My mind raced. My lungs burned.
"Because I'm not the one that matters,"
I replied quietly.
"The people in the sewers do."
For a moment, silence fell again. Then, a small, approving hum.
"You're clever, Cicero Winston."
There was a brief pause, then his tone changed, commanding yet warm.
"Very well. I Regalus Winston Cael Bellator, will heed your call. The reinforcements will move now. Until we meet again, Cicero Winston."
And then, the connection began to fade.
My heart skipped a beat.
'Regalus'.
He responded to me.
Before I could say another word, the connection collapsed completely. The aether line snapped, and my body gave out.
I fell back, the world spinning into darkness.
But even as I drifted away, I could faintly sense the sudden surge of mana in the distance, hundreds of knights mobilizing, led by the light of a single man.
And with that thought, the light around me dimmed, and I fell unconscious.