He remembered dying.
Not the details—just the feeling. That slow, sinking weight, the creeping numbness. And then… heat.
Unbearable heat.
His first breath in this world was choked with ash. He hadn't been born into warmth or love; his earliest memory was of being left in the snow, swaddled in half-burnt cloth, blood still fresh on his skin, eyes barely opening. Whoever had abandoned him never looked back. They hadn't even named him.
He named himself later. Kai Toshiki. A name he remembered from before, though the reason was lost to him. The memories were like smoke—fleeting and insubstantial. Only the name remained, a ghost of a past he couldn't grasp.
At three years old, Kai knew hunger better than he knew language. He wandered from ruin to ruin, scavenging what scraps he could from the charred remnants of villages torn apart by dragons and soldiers alike. There were no gods here—only fire, death, and the whispers of old magic clinging to the burned stones like scars.
His right eye was covered in cloth, stitched from rags and tied behind his head. He couldn't remember when he started doing it—perhaps even as a baby. All he knew was that when it was uncovered… he saw things he shouldn't.
Not ghosts. Not monsters. Magic.
Every living thing glowed faintly through that eye. Some pulsed with vibrant power; others flickered like dying candles. Once, he watched a man coughing blood, his life force leaking out like spilled ink. He died an hour later. Kai didn't understand it, but he learned to use it. When he was hungry, he followed trails of magic to injured animals, easier to catch. When danger lurked, his eye revealed the flickering auras of beasts or soldiers before they could strike. It didn't save him every time, but it saved him enough. And so, he survived.
Around three years old, his life changed irrevocably. While searching for food, he wandered near a mountain once vibrant with life. Now, it lay scorched—a graveyard of charcoal trees and broken earth, echoing with distant roars that split the sky. The ground was warm beneath his bare feet, not sun-warmed but lava-warmed; he had unknowingly entered an old volcanic valley, a battlefield turned tomb.
Half of a dragon's skeleton lay collapsed over a cliff edge, its ribcage melded to stone. The cracked skull leaked hardened magma from centuries past.
Kai sat beneath it, wrapping himself in his own arms, shivering despite the heat.
"What the hell is this?" he whispered, his voice hoarse and small.
He didn't know how or why he was here, but he'd long since stopped believing this was Earth. Magic was real. Dragons were real. Every time he opened his cursed right eye, the world burned with strange lights. Maybe it was a dream. Maybe it was Hell. He didn't cry anymore.
He felt it before he heard it. The air trembled, as if the sky itself was afraid. A distant thump shook the earth—slow, rhythmic. Footsteps. Heavy ones. Kai crawled into the ribcage of the dead dragon, curling beneath a stone spine, heart racing.
Then the voice came—not loud, but so deep it rattled inside his bones.
"I see you, little one."
Kai turned. The figure descending from the cliffs above was a dragon, but not like the corpses he had seen; this one glowed from within. Its obsidian-black body was crisscrossed with molten red veins pulsating like a heartbeat. Every step it took melted the stone beneath it, and awe rooted Kai to the spot.
"You've been watching the dead," the dragon said, approaching. "Smelling like ash. Moving like prey. But your eye tells me otherwise."
Kai didn't run. He couldn't—his legs felt frozen. He met the beast's gaze, not with defiance, but with the quiet acceptance of someone who had already faced death once before.
"...I don't know who I am," he whispered.
The dragon lowered its massive head, studying him.
Then, softly—almost kindly—it spoke. "No one does at first."
"My name is Ignarax," it said, its voice rumbling like distant thunder. "Brother to Igneel, the Fire Dragon King. Son of Pyrragor, the Primordial Blaze. My mother, born in magma is Volcanis."
Kai didn't understand all the words, but the name—Ignarax—brandished itself in his mind like a scar of fire and memory. The dragon's molten eyes studied him with an intensity that felt like a furnace.
"I had heard my half-brother had taken a child to raise," Ignarax continued. "You don't seem like a bad choice. You have a high amount of ethernano within you. Perhaps I can try something similar to what my brother is attempting."
Ignarax leaned closer, exhaling a plume of smoke and heat. Kai didn't flinch.
"Let us see what burns within you."
And so, the Magma Dragon made his choice.
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Current Magic:Eye of True Sight
Kai Toshiki possesses a unique magical ability known as Eye of True Sight. This innate power allows him to perceive and assess the magical energy within individuals. Through this ability, Kai can:
See Magical Auras: Each type of magic manifests in distinct colors, enabling him to identify its nature. For example:Fire Magic appears as a bright orange.Water Magic is depicted by soothing blues.Earth Magic glows in deep greens.Assess Ethernano Reserves: Kai can gauge how much Ethernano (the fundamental energy used for magic) a person has remaining. He can discern whether someone is low on magical power or if they possess hidden reserves, allowing him to strategize in battle.Identify Curses and Blessings: Beyond merely assessing magic, he can also detect curses and blessings that may affect an individual, giving him a clearer perspective on the dangers they may face.