The Last Archmage Reborn as the Forgotten Heir

"Ngh...!"

Felix’s breath hitched violently. His chest heaved up and down as if he had just narrowly escaped death. His heartbeat thundered in his ears. His eyes widened, staring blankly into the darkness of the night.

"The Demon King..."

The name slipped past his dry lips. His memory still cruelly recorded those final moments: the magic sword blade piercing the heart of the lord of darkness, millions of sealing runes stretching out to tear the sky apart, and the wave of blinding white light devouring the world's entire existence.

He should have perished, body and soul.

Yet...

Felix slowly raised his hand. His fingers froze.

The hand was too small. Pasty pale, covered in bruises and scabs of blood that were beginning to turn black.

"...This isn't my body."

He forced himself to rise, but a wave of excruciating pain instantly stabbed through every joint in his body.

"Damn it!"

His legs wobbled, losing all strength until he collapsed back down to his knees on the damp ground. The fishy stench of blood filled his nasal cavities. A narrow alley. Dull, damp concrete walls. The remnants of rain left puddles of muddy water all around him.

Felix looked down, staring at the reflection of an unfamiliar face on the surface of the puddle beneath his feet.

Pitch-black hair. A face far too young.

No longer the body of a great Archmage who had led civilization for thousands of years.

"What on earth is happening...?"

Thud!

His head suddenly felt as if it had been struck by a sledgehammer from the inside. Felix gripped his head tightly, muffling the suppressed groan that almost escaped his throat.

"Ahh...!"

Fragments of foreign memories battered his consciousness mercilessly. The image of a sweet-faced girl flashed by, accompanied by a soft voice buzzing in his head.

“Kaelan... you’re the only one who always believes in me.”

The scene spun, then shattered. The same girl now laughed coquettishly in the arms of another man. Followed by the sound of a hard impact, the pain as his head struck the asphalt, and relentless kicks that shattered his ribs.

“Fools are really so easy to use.”

The taunt clung to the puddle of fresh blood seeping into the pores of the street. Darkness.

Felix snapped back to his consciousness, his breathing ragged and irregular.

"...Kaelan Garrison."

The name rolled off his lips naturally, as if it were the final breath of the body's previous owner. A genius college student who died a miserable death after being betrayed by his own girlfriend and stepbrother.

His jaw tightened until the muscles in his cheeks twitched.

"So this is how your life ends."

Burning anger, piercing pain, and profound despair churned deep within his chest, foreign emotions that were not his own, yet so dominant they made his blood boil hot.

Felix let out a cold snort, staring at his own reflection in the puddle.

"Foolish human. You surrendered everything for someone who never even considered you to exist."

He tried to straighten his body once more, but his steps halted midway. Something caught his attention. Deep within the core of his soul, a faint, nearly lifeless pulse was hidden.

Felix’s eyes narrowed sharply.

"Impossible..."

His consciousness dove into his inner space. There, amidst absolute darkness, a weakly glowing crystal floated fragrantly.

Full of cracks. On the verge of total collapse.

Even so, the crystal still emitted a faint purple glow that he knew by heart. The Mana Core.

Felix’s lips slowly curled upward, forming a thin arc.

"Hahaha..."

His laughter broke out in a soft whisper laden with relief.

"You really followed me."

Although in a cracked and nearly empty condition, the mana core proved it was still alive. Cracked, almost empty, yet all his runes and magical knowledge still slumbered within it—rows of ancient runes, alongside high-level combat experience that no human in this world had ever touched. He had not entirely lost everything.

Felix opened his eyes again.

"In that case..."

He raised his right hand. A thin drop of mana crawled out of his soul's core, flowing slowly along his blood vessels before gathering at the tip of his index finger.

The amount was infinitesimal. Virtually meaningless.

However, that was more than enough.

Crack!

A pebble beside his shoe suddenly cracked to pieces. Fine cracks spread across the surface of the ground a few centimeters before finally stopping.

Felix stared at the small remnant of destruction for a moment, then the corners of his lips lifted into a smile of satisfaction.

"That power is still there."

Even though the world he now stepped foot in was considered mana-poor, his magical foundations never faded. He looked back down at the unfamiliar face in the puddle, gazing at it longer than before.

"From this second on... I will live as Kaelan Garrison."

Felix clenched his fist until fresh blood dripped from his knuckles. "Everyone who made this body suffer..."

"I will pay it back tenfold."

Beneath the quiet night sky, a faint smile appeared on his face.

They killed Kaelan Garrison tonight. Their biggest mistake was letting Felix Weaver open his eyes.