He didn't know what he wished to discover about himself, but something had fueled each of his steps.
All he wished to know was what fueled him. It seemed so unnatural and forced once he looked at it. A mere young adult not even able to fight in a war suddenly embraced multiple responsibilities.
Each subsequent one being heavier and heavier. If someone could see how everyone around him crumbled, like he did.
Even the most jolly people around held incomparable darkness inside of them compared to his. He, on the other hand, seemed like a small black stain in the grand scheme of things.
Otherwise, wouldn't he be feeling at least a tiny bit of ambition for total Earth domination? Once he thought it was the reason for his new body, however, this stayed true even in his past life.
Until now, he didn't even question much of the reason for his reincarnation. Why was he here? These sorts of questions appeared in his mind just to vanish.
He thought about it. He truly did, and yet it was like he was procrastinating. His mind told him over and over that he was wasting his time.
There was no grand revelation, and there was certainly no evil mastermind. Not even the good kind of mastermind. Still, he couldn't let it go.
The change in his current world was just too drastic compared to the life he had led before. At first, he thought it was due to his interference.
But that thought was challenged first with the appearance of the feathered serpent and then Roc and the other gods.
It made no sense. Unless he was not under as much control as he thought he was. Like a silent battle, over and over. Did he think about these small things?
Yesterday was the breaking point though. He broke through some part of the entire system. As if the matrix had been laid bare before his very eyes.
Now the only thing he needed to do was to grasp it with his hands. He had to take the pill and see what was behind his transmigration.
Even if he was to be snuffed out or totally broken to just be a puppet of the fate, his pride was wounded.
The pride he bottled up within himself, telling to himself each and every day that he was supposed to be the guardian of Earth.
That he was the protagonist of the story and eventually he would gain everything at the end. All he had to do was to sacrifice everything in the present for the faint chance of the future.
And it was fueled by one simple and ridiculous reason. It was arrogance. Who else could travel through time whilst not worthy?
Only those chosen ones had the opportunity like that. A silent voice he never noticed was whispering to him.
That he was special, that he could be everything he wished to be. And what it took was his will.
Alas, a revelation saved him. He didn't know if it came from his subconscious or from something else. But he was beginning to question everything around him.
Not to mention the interactions with his 'porters'. Their existence alone was weird in itself. Each time he visited a new place in search of a talented 'porter', he would find one.
Didn't matter if the odds of finding world class talents were low and one or two might be born in an era. He just found them as if the very reality bent to pave a way for his dominance.
Artificial, no emotions and no imagination behind his rise. An existential crisis almost overtook his mind, and yet it vanished in an instant.
Was he so mentally mature that he would see through the reality of an existential crisis to shrug it off the very next second? Impossible.
Perhaps even the almighty gods didn't have such mental fortitude. For a crisis that could cloud your mind was something on the level of your mental fortitude.
After some more pondering, he scanned his body multiple times. Not a single thing out of place. Like always, his body was being strengthened, and that was it.
Even though he found nothing, something was screaming at him. From the depths of his soul, a lone voice made its presence known.
That voice refused to believe that everything was fine. A lock, he concluded. Something beyond his power, beyond his understanding, was behind this all.
His arrogant thoughts that he had the potential to be a player were squashed. How could he be a player when he doesn't even know how he got there in the first place?
He didn't wail in despair, though. The signs were there. Whatever took control of his psyche bit by bit was being beaten back bit by bit.
Thoughts he had before didn't even think about appeared in his mind. No longer was he the sage who could plan for the future.
He became more human. And they had emotions, be it negative or positive. The majestic presence once powerful enough to shake even S rankers had dwindled in might.
Despite of that, he felt unprecedented clarity. Perhaps this was another ploy of the superior being to control him. But if even it didn't know that his pawn broke off some of the strings, he was willing to bet everything on it.
He didn't have much to lose anyway. It wouldn't take an instant. However, his gaze was no longer on the Earth.
Not even his competitor. It was those beings who could wipe gods with just sneeze. Those were the only hegemons capable of changing time itself.
"Bring it on." Magnus said as he looked down at the settling Sun. His first goal was to attain strength.
Strength which would give him the leverage to break off the 'omnipotent' system. In most cases, the odds of beings rebelling might be unheard of. And the cases where it might happen were monitored 24/7.
He was still a speck of dust. Less than so, in the eyes of the powerful.
So, his work began. He ramped up the chaos he created through Myrkr and began his offensive.
Unbeknownst to the existences at the peak, even those who could see the future and the past. An even more powerful hand interfered with their vision...
Days passed by and the world was in turmoil, like headless chickens. Humans panicked as they always did, and the leaders were planning with all of their might.
The enemy had too begun invading the continent through the African portals. First month of the change, a bloodbath happened.
While many S rankers died, causing massive damage and even more manpower shortages, another bunch of SS rankers appeared from those who survived.
Magnus, in this time, appeared and vanished. Each time he did so, a scandal would show itself to the world. Many people believed that Magnus had truly gone insane.
Each step he took had no real direction in the eyes of others. Sometimes he provoked the Roc and sometimes an invasion into the other world would be commenced.
Besides powerhouses that had shown their dissatisfaction. His disciples had inquired a bunch of times and hinted at the fact that he went too far.
Just two of the disciples he had officially recruited showed no signs of hesitation or distrust. But it gave Magnus even more drive. The state of his disciples reinforced his thoughts.
'I am in a cage.' This very sentence played through Magnus' mind every day since he came to the revelation.
Like a rabid dog, he attacked anything and everything to see any discrepancies. Some kind of enlightening that would give him the answer he was searching.
Or the power to find that truth by himself. Alas, a month had passed with him doing nothing more than damaging the relationship of the factions and creating unnecessary casualties.
It didn't deter him. Like a tumor, his extreme thoughts took more steps. One by one, they ascended and clouded his mind.
Winter was fast approaching and soon announced its arrival with a blanket of white. This beautiful blanket was destroyed by a fight.
Magnus and the Feathered Serpent were exchanging blows. Something he did multiple times to see if he could break through the barrier the system put him through.
The battle shook the surroundings. Blood rained on the ground, covering the white parts in red. 'Another draw,' Magnus thought as he looked at his battered body and the body of the Feathered Serpent.
A long wound showed parts of its bones as it waited for Magnus to make his move. He readied one of his more powerful moves and the Feathered Serpent gathered mana, waiting for whatever he would throw at it next.
Magnus summoned a large spear as its converging power scattered anything near it. The Feathered Serpent's horns shone and lightning sparks could be seen flicking around its body.
The spear flew out, almost teleporting, and a red bolt of lightning appeared to confront it.
"Stop." said a feminine voice as the two attacks stopped in the sky. As if time itself bowed down before her, everything came to a halt.
Even Magnus had not been spared from this singular word. She soon showed herself and approached the frozen Magnus.
Once she was next to him, both of them flickered and vanished as time resumed once again.
A huge explosion forced the Feathered Serpent to wail in pain as it was blasted into a mountain. Its fate is unknown.
...
For Magnus, not even a split second happened. From the moment he was fighting with a battered to a body in a perfect condition and place he had never seen.
He gathered his mana as he looked around. It was a beautiful space he found himself in. It was so dreamy and disconnected from reality.
He found himself on a hill covered in green grass with various colorful flowers growing nearby. His mana scan didn't find anything as if he was standing in a bleak void.
As such, he had to observe what he could see. Turning around, he found someone he never expected to see in a million years in this kind of place.
"Sophia?" He asked as he looked at the girl sitting on the peak of the hill smiling with a serene smile.
She stood up and gave no response as she approached Magnus.
"Do you feel it?" She said as she looked at him. For a second, he didn't understand what she meant, but then it hit him like a truck.
He had full access to his mana. In fact, he used all of his power when scanning the surroundings and yet he found nothing.
"You aren't too stupid after all." She said as a small chuckle escaped her lips.
Magnus felt unnerved. Sophia before him was a bit too different from the foolish girl that chased after him with no regards for her own wellbeing.
"Don't worry, I am still the one who you remember me to be. The one difference is that I realised something. The very thing you realised some time ago." Sophia said and looked at him.
He looked back, and he didn't know how to react. The disciple of his was now excluding power, which was beyond his.
'Impossible,' He thought. There was no way he would be surpassed. Even his locked self kept creating more mana, as he was constantly improving.
"No, I didn't sign some kind of dubious contract with some being, if that is what you think. I simply took what was there all along. A piece of the system, if you will." She said as she smirked and looked at him.
A notification appeared before his eyes.
[Do you wish to join Sophia's party?]
[Yes] [No]
"Think carefully, this party might last till the end of times after all~." She said as she turned into flower petals.
Magnus, all alone in this plane, pondered and chose yes. He had to know the secrets Sophia figured out, if she was still the Sophia he knew, though.