"What's that glow around Ethan? And why does it look like the pearl is regaining luminosity?" Lyra murmured, eyes narrowing.
The faint hum in the nursery deepened. The pearl pulsed with growing rhythm, bathing the sleeping child in soft, uneven light.
Meanwhile, Ethan was lost in wonder.
His tiny hands pressed against the glowing pearl, eyes wide with fascination. The runic lines shimmered and twisted, glimmering like thin threads of light caught in water.
"Whoa," he whispered to himself. "It's like one of those zero-watt night lights from the old dorm days."
He traced a finger across its surface. The lines shifted as if alive, moving when he tried to follow them. Every time he focused, the rhythm changed, like the runes were teasing him.
"They're moving in sync… but only when I'm not looking," he muttered. "It's like they don't want me to notice."
The more he concentrated, the heavier his mind felt.
A strange haze wrapped around his thoughts, equal parts soothing and intoxicating. like drifting between a dream and a memory.
His head felt fuzzy, his body too light.
"Man," he murmured with a lazy grin, "if I could sell this kind of high back on Earth, I'd make millions."
He chuckled softly, still tracing. His tired mind started doing what it always did: calculate. Angles, arcs, frequency of pulse. His instincts screamed there was a pattern. He wanted to solve it. Needed to.
He reached toward one of the glowing motes orbiting the pearl. They danced like fireflies in syrup, always slipping away when he tried to touch them.
"Almost got it… come on," he muttered, eyes half-closed.
He tried again. And again.
Until exhaustion hit him like a wall.
"Damn… missed by three degrees…" he mumbled, eyes falling shut.
As he slumped forward, his pinky brushed against a single, invisible particle.
And then the world erupted.
The explosion wasn't sound, or fire, it was mana.
A sudden, wild surge of raw energy ripped through the air.
The pearl shattered like glass, light bursting outward in spirals. The floor trembled. Curtains caught fire. The walls bent and screamed.
Lyra moved before thought.
She blurred across the room, faster than any human eye could follow. The floor cracked beneath her feet, mana flaring blue as she gathered water from thin air.
It flowed like silk around Ethan, cocooning him in a protective bubble just as the mana storm reached its peak.
The shockwave slammed into her full force.
She hit the door hard, pain lancing through her ribs. Blood ran down her chin, but she didn't stop moving.
"Cough… cough… probably two ribs broken," she rasped, staggering back up. "What was that? A bomb?"
Her first thought was fear. Her second, rage. Her third, Ethan.
She sprinted toward his crib through the haze.
When the smoke cleared, the sight almost broke her.
Ethan lay curled against the floor, sleeping peacefully. Not a scratch on him.
Lyra fell to her knees, relief flooding through her like light through stained glass.
Hans, the head butler, burst into the room moments later. "Madam! Are you all right? Was it an attack? Assassins?"
Lyra's expression was ice. "Yes. An attempt on the youngest. The culprits have been eliminated."
Hans blinked, confused but wise enough not to ask questions.
"Lock down the estate. Double the perimeter guard. No one leaves without my word. Send a cleanup team here immediately."
"Yes, Madam."
Lyra picked up Ethan and moved towards another wing of the mansion. After assuring the over protective guards, she closed the door and returned to Ethan.
Once the room was clear, Lyra's mask cracked. She sat on the bed beside Ethan, still trembling faintly from the aftershock.
"There's no way," she whispered, more to herself. "A one-year-old can't overcharge a luminescent pearl. That would take a C-rank mage adept, nearly all their mana."
Her mind raced. There was only one other explanation: connection to Nature's Mana Circuits.
But that was impossible. Even the Empress herself had never mastered them.
Her one year old son has done something beyond her comprehension.
She stared at Ethan, at his calm little face. "If anyone finds out, they'll come for you."
She touched his forehead gently and smiled despite her exhaustion. "You're trouble, little one. Hubby was right. I should have called you Little Doom Bringer after all."
She healed herself with a shimmer of light, then placed a hand over Ethan's chest, letting her mana wash through him to ensure he was unharmed.
When she finally drifted into sleep beside him, she whispered, "No one will take you from me."
Inside Ethan's Mind
Everything was white.
Weightless.
Ethan looked down at himself, transparent again. "What is this place? Did I die? Again?"
But unlike the void last time, the white room this time felt oddly familiar.
Like it responds to him somehow.
Suddenly, the air shimmered. A flicker appeared before Ethan.
A small orb of blue light hovered in the distance, growing brighter, pulsing in rhythm with his own heart.
Then, a voice echoed, cheerful and oddly mechanical.
"Hello, Host! I finally have enough energy to come online!"
Ethan blinked. "What the… who said that?"
The orb twirled lazily in the air, its glow softening. "That would be me! I'm… um… still configuring my vocal filters. Sorry if I sound weird."
"You sound like an old man pretending to be a child," Ethan said, frowning.
"I am learning tonal calibration," the orb replied, as if that explained everything. "Anyway, congratulations! You now have a system interface! Isn't that exciting?"
Ethan groaned. "No. Not really. Explain the energy thing first. Where did you come from?"
The orb flickered once. "Energy… came from external contact. Unknown source. Unstable at first, then compatible. I absorbed enough to awaken primary protocols."
"English, please."
"You touched something very strong. It woke me up. You should have exploded. You didn't. Lucky you."
Ethan rubbed his temple. "That's… not comforting. So what are you?"
"Designation: Adaptive Insight and Mana Interface. Temporary nickname: Aimi."
He raised an eyebrow. "You have a nickname?"
"You gave it to me. You just haven't remembered yet."
Ethan frowned. "Okay… creepy. What can you do?"
The orb brightened. "I possess vast theoretical knowledge from integrated data. Physics, chemistry, engineering. I can calculate, observe, and learn."
"Then teach me something advanced," Ethan said, crossing his arms. "Start with String Theory."
Aimi hesitated, her glow dimming. "That may not be advisable."
"Why not?"
"Your body is small. Your brain smaller. Your mind cannot handle the data. You would become… um… what is the human word? Vegetative?"
"Wow," Ethan said. "That's reassuring."
"Sorry, Host." The light dimmed again. "Also, there is a seal restricting my higher-tier archives. To unlock them, your body and soul must grow stronger."
"Fine. So what can you do right now?"
"I can measure objects precisely. Solve arithmetic instantly. Record and store everything you see and hear into long-term subconscious memory."
"So I have a baby brain with a photographic memory assistant?"
"Correct. I am… proud of that."
Ethan sighed. "So basically, you're an intelligent parasite."
"I prefer… symbiotic system."
"Fine, whatever," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Then show me a status screen or something."
"Acknowledged."
A faint panel appeared in front of Ethan, floating in the white void. Simple. Barebones.
[System Panel – Host: Ethan Vale]
Age: 1 year
Affiliation: House Val Nick Name:Tiny doom bringer
System Activation: 1%
Strength: 1 / 100 (Adult)
Agility: 1 / 100 (Adult)
Constitution: 1 / 100 (Adult)
Perception: 1 / 100 (Adult)
Intelligence: 20 / 100 (Adult)
Luck: Variable (Data Unavailable)
Cortical Strain: 34% – High
[Tasks]
Mission 1: Eat healthy and crawl around.Reward: Unlocks new features.Duration: nonePenalty: None.
Ethan stared blankly at the floating data.
"Wow. I'm basically useless."
"Incorrect. You are alive. That is statistically impressive."
Ethan glared. "I'm surrounded by comedians."
"I do not understand sarcasm yet," Aimi replied softly. "Should I learn?"
"Yeah," Ethan said, rubbing the back of his head. "You'll need it if you're staying with me."
"Acknowledged. Updating emotional learning queue."
He sighed again, feeling the void slowly fade around him. "How do I get out of here?"
"Normally, thinking about it takes you back. But you are tired. Your physical body requires rest before full synchronization. Please wait."
Ethan tilted his head. "So what do we do now?"
"We study."
"Study what?"
"Elementary physics and chemistry."
Ethan chuckled. "Fine. At least that's familiar."
"Yay." The orb glowed faintly, pulsing with quiet pride. "Beginning with Newton's first law of motion."
Ethan sighed, floating in the soft white void as lessons began to echo through his thoughts.
For the first time since his rebirth, Ethan finally has someone he could relate to. While he loved his new family, the cultural shock was just too much for his mental well being.
Somewhere deep inside his mind, the Core of Insight pulsed again.
The pearl in the real world flickered once, faintly, like a heartbeat answering another.
And Aimi's voice whispered quietly in the background.
"Don't worry, Host. I'll learn too."