The Manaless King Of Sigma

The last thing Mateo Álvarez heard was his nephew screaming his name.

“UNCLE MATEO!”

The boy's voice tore through the ruined street, sharp with terror.

Mateo tried to turn his head, but his body refused to obey. Blood filled his mouth. His left leg was crushed beneath a fallen concrete pillar, and every breath felt like swallowing broken glass.

Above him, the city burned.

Skyscrapers that had once pierced the clouds lay broken across the streets. Smoke swallowed the moon, while the distant howls of monsters echoed between the ruins. Somewhere beyond the destroyed buildings, an alarm continued to sound, stubbornly announcing an emergency that had begun ten years ago.

Ten years.

That was how long humanity had fought to survive the First Awakening.

And this was how Mateo Álvarez was going to die.

Not as a hero.

Not as a champion.

Not even as a respectable member of the human race.

He would die as a man who had once possessed everything and lost it all.

“Gabriel, run!” Mateo shouted.

His voice came out as a wet cough.

The boy stood several meters away, his clothes torn and his face streaked with dirt. Beside him, Sofía clutched his arm, trembling so badly that she could barely remain standing.

Three men blocked their escape.

They wore scavenged armor and carried weapons strengthened by mana. Blue energy flickered along the blade of the man standing in the middle.

A hunter.

One of the people who preyed on desperate survivors in the outer districts.

“Your uncle should have minded his own business,” the man said. “We offered him a chance to walk away. He chose to be brave.”

Mateo spat blood onto the pavement.

“Three armed men against a man who can barely stand.” He forced a bitter smile. “You must be very proud of yourselves.”

The hunter's expression hardened.

“You're in no position to speak.”

He was right.

Mateo knew it.

Ten years ago, Mateo Álvarez had been called humanity's greatest gaming genius. Before the First Awakening, he had dominated Omega, the mysterious full-dive game that had changed the world. His understanding of its mechanics had earned him fame, wealth, and the admiration of millions.

When Omega's tutorial ended and mana flooded reality, his knowledge gave him an advantage few others possessed.

For a while, he had believed that advantage would be enough.

Then came the Hollow Crown Dungeon.

An abnormal surge had torn through its ancient chambers. Mateo had tried to save his teammates, only to have the mana channels throughout his body destroyed.

His power disappeared overnight.

His reputation followed.

People who had once praised him called him useless. Former allies stopped answering his messages. His wealth vanished through medical expenses and desperate attempts to recover his abilities.

Eventually, even survival became a privilege he could no longer afford.

Yet he had endured.

For Gabriel and Sofía.

His sister had died during the early years of the Awakening, leaving her children in a world that had no mercy for the weak. Mateo had promised to protect them.

It was the only promise he had managed to keep.

Until today.

The hunter raised his blade.

“Enough talking.”

Mateo's heart slammed against his ribs.

He tried to move.

Nothing happened.

His ruined mana channels responded with the familiar, unbearable emptiness that had haunted him for a decade.

Once, he could have crossed the distance between himself and the hunter before the man finished blinking.

Now, he could not even stand.

So this is it.

His gaze moved toward Gabriel and Sofía.

Gabriel was crying openly now, struggling against his sister's grip.

“Leave them alone!” Mateo roared. “Take whatever you want from me, but let them go!”

The hunter laughed.

“You still don't understand, do you? In this world, the strong take what they want. The weak beg.”

He stepped forward.

Mateo gritted his teeth and tried to drag himself toward his family.

His fingers scraped against the concrete.

A few centimeters.

That was all he managed.

The hunter brought his weapon down.

Mateo closed his eyes.

I'm sorry.

The blade struck.

And the world went dark.

Mateo woke with a violent gasp.

He shot upright, both hands clutching his chest.

For several seconds, he could not breathe properly. His heart hammered against his ribs, and his fingers trembled as he searched his body for the wound.

Nothing.

No blood.

No broken bones.

No crushed leg.

He stared at his hands.

They were clean.

Young.

Steady.

Mateo froze.

Slowly, he lifted his arms and examined them. The deep scars that had covered his forearms in his previous life were gone. His fingers no longer trembled from years of mana deprivation, and the dull ache that had settled permanently into his bones had vanished.

He touched his face.

Smooth skin.

No beard.

No sunken cheeks.

“No…”

His voice sounded different.

Stronger.

Younger.

He threw aside the blanket and stumbled out of bed.

The room was small but familiar. A desk stood beside the window, cluttered with electronic components and an old gaming headset. A jacket hung over the back of a chair. Beside the door sat a pair of worn sneakers he had not seen in years.

Mateo knew this room.

He had lived here before the Awakening, back when he still believed his future was something he could control.

He rushed toward the mirror.

A young man stared back at him.

Dark hair. Sharp brown eyes. A face untouched by the exhaustion and despair that had defined his final decade.

Mateo gripped the edge of the sink.

He was twenty-four again.

For a long moment, he could only stare.

Then he laughed.

It began as a quiet, disbelieving sound before breaking into something raw and desperate. He laughed until tears blurred his reflection.

He was alive.

Somehow, impossibly, he was alive.

But that raised a question.

When?

Mateo turned toward the desk. His phone lay beside the headset, its screen dark.

He grabbed it and pressed the power button.

The device lit up.

October 16, 2100.

Mateo stopped breathing.

He checked the date again.

Then the year.

His hands began to shake.

“No way.”

He opened the calendar, checked the news feed, and searched for the latest public announcements about Omega.

Everything was exactly as he remembered it.

The world had not yet changed.

The First Awakening had not begun.

And according to the timeline burned into his memory, it would begin tomorrow.

Mateo slowly lowered the phone.

One day.

He had returned to the day before the world ended.

He did not move for several minutes.

Ten years of memories pressed against his mind. He remembered the first monsters emerging into the streets. He remembered the panic, the collapsing governments, and the desperate struggle for resources.

He remembered the first people to awaken extraordinary abilities.

He remembered the powerful races that humanity would encounter through Sigma, the universal system that connected countless civilizations.

Most painfully, he remembered the Hollow Crown Dungeon.

He remembered the abnormal surge.

The destruction of his mana channels.

The faces of the people who had abandoned him.

And the final moments when Gabriel and Sofía had stood helplessly before armed men.

His hands curled into fists.

“Not again.”

The words came out quietly, but something inside him hardened as he spoke them.

He would not repeat the same life.

He would not lose his family.

And he would never again allow himself to become so powerless that he could do nothing while the people he loved died before his eyes.

Mateo took a deep breath and forced himself to think.

Panic would accomplish nothing.

He had less than twenty-four hours before the First Awakening began. Once it did, ordinary systems would collapse in many regions, and the safest opportunities would disappear quickly.

He needed food, water, medical supplies, equipment, and a secure location.

More importantly, he needed Gabriel and Sofía.

He grabbed his clothes and dressed quickly.

As he reached for the door, something caught his attention.

A strange sensation stirred deep inside his chest.

Mateo stopped.

It felt like a faint vibration beneath his sternum, almost too subtle to notice. He pressed a hand against his chest.

The sensation disappeared.

He frowned.

In his previous life, his mana channels had been healthy before the Hollow Crown incident. The dungeon surge had destroyed them, leaving him unable to circulate mana properly.

But now, before the Awakening, he should have had no active mana system at all.

He closed his eyes and concentrated.

Nothing.

He exhaled and reached for the door again.

A second vibration passed through his chest.

This time, it was stronger.

For a fraction of a second, Mateo saw something behind his closed eyelids.

A thin silver ring.

A fractured pattern of blue light.

Then darkness.

He opened his eyes sharply.

“What was that?”

His heart was racing again, but this time it was not fear.

It was recognition.

He had seen something similar before.

In the Hollow Crown Dungeon, just before the abnormal surge destroyed his mana channels, he had glimpsed a strange pattern beneath the chamber's floor. It had looked like a network of silver lines surrounding a dark, empty center.

He had never understood what it meant.

He had assumed it was part of the dungeon's ancient magic.

Now, ten years before that disaster, the same pattern had appeared inside him.

Mateo pressed his palm against his chest.

Whatever had happened to him in his previous life, it might not have been an ordinary accident.

But he could not afford to investigate it now.

Not with the Awakening approaching.

He had to protect his family first.

Gabriel opened the door after the third knock.

“Uncle? What are you doing here so early?”

The boy looked half asleep, his dark hair sticking up in several directions. Behind him, Sofía sat at the kitchen table, eating breakfast while watching something on a tablet.

Mateo stared at them.

Alive.

Both of them.

For a moment, the words he had prepared disappeared from his mind.

Gabriel frowned.

“Uncle Mateo?”

Mateo stepped forward and pulled him into a tight embrace.

“Hey!” Gabriel protested. “What's wrong with you?”

Mateo ignored him.

He held the boy as if the world might disappear again if he let go.

Across the room, Sofía lowered her tablet.

“Did something happen?”

Mateo released Gabriel and looked at both children.

They were so young.

In his previous life, he had spent years trying to keep them safe, but he had made mistakes. He had hidden dangers from them, made decisions without consulting them, and convinced himself that if he controlled enough variables, nothing bad could happen.

It had never worked.

This time, he would do better.

“Yes,” he said.

Gabriel's expression changed.

“What?”

Mateo looked directly at him.

“I need both of you to listen carefully. Something is going to happen tomorrow. Something that will change the world.”

Gabriel stared at him.

Then he glanced at Sofía.

“Did you stay up all night watching conspiracy videos again?”

“I'm serious,” Mateo replied.

His tone silenced them.

Sofía placed her tablet on the table.

“What kind of thing?”

Mateo hesitated.

How could he explain a future that had already happened? How could he convince them that the game millions of people played for entertainment was a tutorial for a supernatural world?

He could not tell them everything.

Not yet.

But he could start with the truth they needed most.

“Tomorrow, things are going to become dangerous. I need you to trust me, at least long enough for me to explain what we need to do.”

Gabriel crossed his arms.

“And if we don't?”

Mateo met his gaze.

“Then I'll do everything I can to make sure you both survive anyway.”

The answer seemed to unsettle Gabriel more than a warning would have.

Sofía studied Mateo's face.

“You really believe this, don't you?”

“Yes.”

She remained silent for a moment before nodding.

“Then tell us what we need to prepare.”

Mateo felt something loosen inside his chest.

It was not trust—not completely.

But it was a beginning.

And this time, a beginning was enough.

He turned toward the window.

Outside, the city continued its ordinary routine. Vehicles moved through the streets, advertisements shimmered across towering screens, and people hurried toward their daily responsibilities.

Millions of players were probably logging into Omega at that very moment, eager to improve their levels and complete their missions.

They had no idea what awaited them.

Tomorrow, the world they knew would end.

Tomorrow, humanity would awaken to mana.

Tomorrow, the first monsters would emerge, and the weak would discover what it meant to live in a world governed by power.

Mateo looked down at his hands.

He had been given a second chance.

He would use it.

Whatever had brought him back, whatever the strange pattern inside his chest meant, he would find the answers.

But first, he would keep his family alive.

His phone vibrated.

A new notification appeared on the screen.

OMEGA SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT

Congratulations, players.

The global tutorial has reached its final phase.

Mateo's blood ran cold.

He knew that announcement.

He remembered reading it in his first life.

But there was something he did not remember seeing.

A second line appeared beneath the message.

Unknown anomaly detected. Recalculating tutorial completion parameters...

Mateo stared at the screen.

The message flickered.

For an instant, a strange symbol appeared—three fractured silver rings surrounding a dark center.

The same pattern he had seen inside his chest.

Then the notification vanished.

Mateo remained motionless.

His second life had barely begun, and already something was different.

Tomorrow, the First Awakening would begin.

But this time, Mateo Álvarez would not be the same man who had lost everything.