The Manaless King Of Sigma

Chapter 3: When the Sky Turned Blue

At 11:47 a.m., Mateo Álvarez stood in the middle of his living room, watching the countdown on his phone.

Thirteen minutes.

That was all the time left before the First Awakening.

The apartment was quiet except for the low hum of the refrigerator and the occasional sound of traffic outside. Gabriel sat on the sofa, checking the straps on his new boots for the third time. Sofía stood beside the dining table, her tablet connected to a portable power bank, several windows of Omega data open on the screen.

They had barely slept.

Neither had Mateo.

He had spent most of the night reviewing everything he could remember about the First Awakening. The initial monster appearances. The first system notifications. The panic that had spread through cities when people discovered that injuries sustained inside Omega could follow them into the real world.

He had also tried to understand the strange messages that appeared on his phone.

Unregistered system irregularity detected.

Priority: Observe. Do not interfere.

And the words he had somehow understood without hearing them.

Connection incomplete.

Every time he remembered those messages, the pressure in his chest returned.

But he had no time to investigate them now.

The First Awakening came first.

"How much longer?" Gabriel asked.

Mateo checked the countdown.

"Twelve minutes."

Gabriel groaned. "You know, when you said something dangerous would happen today, I expected at least a little more explanation."

"I've told you everything I can."

"No, you've told us enough to make us nervous and not enough to make us feel prepared."

Sofía glanced up from her tablet. "He's right about that."

Mateo looked at her.

She raised both hands. "I'm not saying you should tell us everything. I'm saying we need to know what to do when something happens."

Mateo considered her words.

In his first life, he had been the sort of person who acted first and explained later. It had made him effective in emergencies, but it had also made it difficult for people to trust him.

He had promised himself he would do better.

"All right," he said. "If the system gives us instructions, don't assume they're safe just because they appear on a screen. If you see a creature, don't approach it. If someone is injured, check whether the area is secure before trying to help. And if I tell you to run, you run."

Gabriel frowned. "Even if you're still there?"

Mateo met his eyes.

"Especially if I'm still there."

His nephew looked as though he wanted to argue, but Sofía spoke first.

"We stay together. We don't take unnecessary risks. And we don't assume Uncle Mateo knows everything just because he predicted this."

Mateo almost smiled.

"That's a good rule."

"Good," Sofía replied. "Because I have at least twenty questions."

"Save them for later."

The countdown reached eleven minutes.

Mateo walked to the window and looked outside.

The streets were busy. People were leaving offices for lunch, delivery drones moved between buildings, and a group of schoolchildren crossed the road under the supervision of an automated traffic system.

Nothing seemed unusual.

That was how it had begun before.

The world had not ended with an explosion or a warning from the heavens. It had continued with ordinary routines until the rules governing reality suddenly changed.

Mateo pressed his fingers against the window frame.

He could still remember the smell of smoke from that first afternoon. The terrified faces of strangers. The feeling of uselessness when he tried to help an injured man and realized that he had no idea what was happening.

He would not let himself become that helpless again.

"Mateo."

Sofía's voice pulled him from his memories.

"Look at this."

He turned.

Her tablet displayed the Omega interface. The global tutorial completion rate had climbed to 99.99 percent.

Beneath it, a new message was forming.

FINAL TRANSITION IN PROGRESS.

Mateo's heart began to pound.

"Everyone away from the windows," he ordered.

Gabriel stood immediately. Sofía grabbed her tablet and moved toward the center of the room.

The lights flickered.

Once.

Twice.

Then every electronic device in the apartment went silent.

The refrigerator stopped humming. The wall display went black. The air-conditioning system shut down.

Outside, the traffic noise faded as vehicles slowed and stopped.

For three seconds, the entire city seemed to hold its breath.

Then the sky turned blue.

Not the pale blue of a clear afternoon.

This was a deep, luminous color that spread from horizon to horizon, as though an enormous ocean had appeared above the clouds. Thin lines of light crossed the sky, forming patterns too precise to be natural.

People poured out of buildings.

Some pointed upward. Others raised their phones, trying to record what they were seeing. A few laughed nervously, convinced that the spectacle was part of Omega's final event.

Mateo knew better.

A notification appeared before his eyes.

Not on his phone.

In the air.

A translucent window floated directly in front of him.

OMEGA GLOBAL TUTORIAL: COMPLETE

PREPARING REALITY INTEGRATION...

Mateo's breath caught.

The words blurred for a moment before another message replaced them.

WELCOME, HUMANITY.

THE FIRST AWAKENING HAS BEGUN.

Gabriel stared at the window.

"Uncle..."

"I see it."

"That's not coming from my phone."

"I know."

Sofía raised a trembling hand and waved it through the floating message.

Her fingers passed through the light.

"It's real," she whispered.

Mateo looked at the message, and for the first time since his regression, the full weight of what he had done settled over him.

He had returned to the past.

He had warned his family.

He had gathered supplies.

But he had not stopped the First Awakening.

It had begun exactly as he remembered.

A deep vibration rolled through the building.

Outside, the blue sky brightened.

Then came the scream.

It rose from the street below, sharp and terrified, followed by the sound of breaking glass.

Mateo ran to the window despite his earlier warning.

A man stood in the middle of the road, staring at his own hands. Blue light streamed between his fingers. His body shook as if he were suffering from a violent fever.

Several people backed away from him.

A second later, the man's knees buckled.

He fell hard onto the pavement.

The light disappeared.

For one brief moment, nobody moved.

Then someone rushed forward to help him.

Mateo watched the crowd gather.

He remembered this too.

The first visible manifestation of mana.

In his previous life, the man had survived, but the panic surrounding his collapse had caused a traffic accident that injured several people. The incident had appeared in the news as an unexplained medical emergency.

Only later had anyone understood what had happened.

Mateo stepped away from the window.

"We need to leave this building."

Gabriel stared at him. "Now?"

"Yes. We need somewhere with open space, multiple exits, and fewer people."

"Where?"

Mateo already knew.

"An underground parking structure near the old municipal sports center. The entrance is reinforced, and there are several ways out. We can use it as a temporary shelter."

Sofía gathered the emergency supplies.

"How do you know it's safe?"

"I don't know that it's safe. I know it has better options than this apartment."

That answer seemed to satisfy her.

Gabriel slung a bag over his shoulder.

"Then let's go."

Mateo opened the apartment door.

The corridor was full of people.

Several neighbors stood outside their homes, shouting questions and trying to contact relatives. An elderly woman was crying beside the elevator. A young man repeatedly tapped the dead screen of his phone.

"The network is down!" someone shouted. "Does anyone know what's happening?"

Another voice answered, "It's an Omega event! The system is testing us!"

Mateo kept moving.

He wanted to help. Every instinct told him to stop, explain what he knew, and organize the frightened residents.

But he remembered the next stage.

The first wave of monsters would appear in places where mana accumulated rapidly. The apartment building was not one of those locations, but it was close enough to a major transit station that the surrounding streets would soon become dangerous.

He could not protect everyone.

Not yet.

At the stairwell, the elderly woman caught his sleeve.

"Young man, please. My husband is downstairs. He collapsed, and I can't reach him."

Mateo stopped.

The woman looked terrified.

Behind her, Gabriel shifted impatiently, but he did not speak.

"Where is he?" Mateo asked.

"On the ground floor. Near the entrance."

Mateo glanced toward the stairwell.

His first instinct was to tell her to stay inside. But if her husband was injured, leaving him alone could be fatal.

"Gabriel, stay with Sofía."

His nephew's expression changed.

"You're going down there?"

"Just to check."

"I'm coming with you."

"No."

"Uncle—"

"Gabriel, I need you to keep Sofía safe. That's your job."

Gabriel looked angry, but the words seemed to reach him.

He glanced at Sofía, then back at Mateo.

"Don't do anything stupid."

"I'll try."

Mateo followed the woman downstairs.

The ground-floor entrance was crowded. Several residents had gathered around an older man lying on his side near the reception desk. His breathing was shallow, but he was conscious.

Mateo knelt beside him.

"Can you hear me?"

The man nodded weakly.

"What's your name?"

"Rafael."

"Rafael, don't try to stand yet. Take slow breaths."

Mateo checked for obvious injuries. There was no blood, and the man's breathing began to steady after a few moments.

A translucent notification appeared in Mateo's vision.

MANA EXPOSURE DETECTED.

SUBJECT: RAFAEL MORALES

STATUS: UNSTABLE CIRCULATION

RECOMMENDATION: REST AND MINIMIZE EXERTION.

Mateo froze.

The notification was different from the earlier messages. It appeared to be describing the man's condition.

He blinked, and the window vanished.

Had he imagined it?

No.

The words had been too clear.

Another wave of pressure passed through his chest. For an instant, the familiar pattern of three silver rings appeared behind his eyes.

This time, the rings seemed to rotate.

A thin blue line connected them.

Then they disappeared.

Mateo's fingers tightened against his knee.

Whatever was happening inside him, it was changing.

"Is he going to be all right?" the elderly woman asked.

Mateo looked at Rafael.

"He's conscious, and his breathing is improving. Keep him resting, and get medical help as soon as communications return."

It was the best answer he could offer.

He helped the woman move Rafael away from the entrance, then hurried back upstairs.

The entire trip had taken less than five minutes.

But when he reached the apartment, the city had changed again.

A low rumble shook the building.

Mateo pushed through the apartment door and found Gabriel standing beside the window, staring at the street. Sofía was crouched near the table, holding her tablet against her chest.

"What happened?" Mateo asked.

Gabriel pointed outside.

"Look."

The blue sky had darkened.

Large, circular distortions were forming above the city. They resembled transparent bubbles, each one bending the buildings behind it. Within the largest distortion, something moved.

Mateo felt the blood drain from his face.

He knew that shape.

He had seen it in the first hours of the Awakening.

A tear in space.

The first rift.

"Get away from the windows," he said.

This time, neither of them argued.

A brilliant flash erupted above the distant transit station.

The distortion split open.

Something fell through.

It struck the street with enough force to crack the pavement.

People scattered in every direction.

For a moment, the creature remained motionless.

Then it rose.

Its body was covered in dark, uneven plates. Four limbs supported a hunched torso, and its elongated head turned slowly as if searching for movement. Pale blue lines glowed beneath its armor.

A system window appeared in Mateo's vision.

ENTITY IDENTIFIED: LESSER RIFT STALKER

THREAT CLASSIFICATION: LOW

RECOMMENDED ACTION: AVOID ENGAGEMENT

Mateo stared at the words.

Low threat.

That was what the system called a creature that could kill an unprepared human in seconds.

The Stalker lowered its head.

A man stumbled in the street.

The creature moved.

It crossed the distance so quickly that Mateo barely followed it with his eyes. The man was thrown against a parked vehicle, and the crowd erupted into screams.

Gabriel took a step toward the window.

"We have to help him!"

Mateo grabbed his shoulder.

"No."

"But it's attacking people!"

"And if you go out there without knowing what you're capable of, you'll become another victim."

Gabriel struggled against his grip.

"Then what are we supposed to do? Just watch?"

The question struck Mateo harder than he expected.

He remembered asking himself the same thing in his first life.

He had spent years regretting the people he could not save. That regret had eventually turned into anger, and the anger had made him reckless.

He would not allow Gabriel to learn that lesson through a pointless death.

"We survive first," Mateo said. "Then we help the people we can actually reach."

Gabriel's breathing was heavy.

For a moment, Mateo thought he would refuse.

Then Sofía spoke.

"Gabriel, look at the street."

Her voice was quiet but steady.

The Stalker had turned away from its first victim. It was now moving toward a group of people trapped between two abandoned vehicles.

One man had fallen. Another was trying to pull him up.

Gabriel watched helplessly.

Sofía lowered her eyes.

"If we run out there now, we'll only give it more targets."

Gabriel slowly stepped back.

Mateo released his shoulder.

It was not a victory. It was a painful decision made in the face of danger.

Sometimes that was the only kind available.

"Come on," Mateo said. "We need to move."

He led them away from the apartment and down the stairs.

They carried the supplies between them, moving quickly but carefully. The building's residents were still gathered in the corridors, and several people called after Mateo, demanding to know what was happening.

He could not explain everything.

Instead, he gave them the most useful warning he could.

"Stay away from the windows. Don't approach the creatures outside. If you see strange lights or distortions, move away from them. Find a secure place and stay together."

Some listened.

Others dismissed him.

One man laughed bitterly.

"Who made you the expert?"

Mateo did not stop.

He had learned long ago that people did not always accept warnings before the danger became undeniable.

They reached the street through a side exit.

The air felt different.

It was heavier, almost electric. The hairs on Mateo's arms stood upright, and he could feel a strange pressure beneath his skin.

Mana.

In his previous life, it had taken him months to learn to recognize it without the system's assistance.

Now he could sense it everywhere.

The feeling was faint, but it grew stronger whenever he looked toward the rift.

His chest tightened.

The three silver rings flashed through his mind.

For a fraction of a second, the world seemed to slow.

He saw the blue lines beneath the Stalker's armor. He noticed how the creature shifted its weight before changing direction. He saw a brighter concentration of light near its left shoulder.

Then the vision disappeared.

Mateo stumbled.

A sharp pain spread from his chest into his arms.

He caught himself against the wall, breathing hard.

"Uncle?" Sofía hurried toward him.

"I'm fine."

"You're clearly not."

"I said I'm fine."

He heard the harshness in his own voice and immediately regretted it.

Mateo closed his eyes for a moment.

"I'm sorry. I just need a second."

Sofía watched him carefully.

"What happened?"

He could not explain the strange vision without sounding irrational.

"I felt dizzy."

"Then we should stop."

"No. We need to keep moving."

She looked unconvinced, but she did not argue.

Mateo straightened and took another breath.

Whatever had happened inside his chest had shown him something useful.

The Stalker's left shoulder might be vulnerable.

But he had no weapon capable of exploiting that weakness, no reliable understanding of his own abilities, and no desire to test whether his strange vision was correct.

He would not confuse information with power.

Not again.

The underground parking structure was less than a kilometer away.

Reaching it should have been easy.

But the streets were filling with people, and the sudden appearance of the Stalker had turned ordinary traffic into chaos. Vehicles stood abandoned at intersections. A delivery drone lay shattered on the pavement. Somewhere nearby, an alarm sounded continuously.

Mateo led Gabriel and Sofía through a narrow service lane, avoiding the main road.

They had almost reached the sports center when a cry came from behind a parked transport vehicle.

"Help me!"

Mateo stopped.

A young woman was kneeling beside an injured man. Blood stained the man's trousers, and he was struggling to drag himself away from the street.

The woman looked up as Mateo approached.

"Please! His leg is broken. I can't move him alone."

Mateo glanced toward the intersection.

The Stalker was still nearby.

They had seconds, perhaps less, before it noticed the movement.

"We need to get him behind cover," Mateo said.

Gabriel dropped his bag.

"I'll help."

Mateo nodded. "Sofía, watch the street. Tell us if anything moves toward us."

Sofía immediately took position behind the vehicle, keeping low.

Mateo and Gabriel grabbed the injured man beneath his arms and dragged him behind a concrete barrier. The man cried out in pain, but they kept moving until he was out of sight from the street.

The woman followed.

"Thank you," she whispered. "I thought he was going to die."

Mateo examined the man's leg.

The injury looked serious, but he was conscious and breathing. The emergency supplies they carried were limited, and there was no time for a proper examination.

"What's your name?" Mateo asked.

"Daniel," the man replied through clenched teeth.

"I'm Mateo. This is Gabriel. We need to get you somewhere secure."

The woman wiped her eyes.

"I'm Elena."

Before Mateo could respond, Sofía called from behind the vehicle.

"Something's coming!"

Everyone went still.

A heavy scraping sound echoed through the service lane.

Mateo slowly turned.

At the far end of the road, the Stalker had stopped.

Its head tilted toward them.

The pale blue lines beneath its armor brightened.

Mateo's heart hammered against his ribs.

The creature had noticed them.

"Move," he whispered.

Gabriel grabbed Daniel's arm. Elena took the other side.

They had barely lifted the injured man when the Stalker lunged.

Mateo shoved Sofía behind the concrete barrier.

"Down!"

The creature struck the parked vehicle.

Metal screamed.

The transport van slid sideways, crushing a nearby streetlight. The impact threw dust and fragments across the lane.

Mateo shielded his face with his arm.

When he looked up, the Stalker was already recovering.

Its head turned toward Gabriel and the injured man.

They were too slow.

Mateo saw the creature's weight shift toward its front limbs.

The blue lines along its left shoulder flashed.

His vision changed.

The world seemed to separate into layers. The creature's armored body became a web of faint lines and moving patterns. One point beneath its left shoulder glowed brighter than the rest.

A message flickered across his sight.

STRUCTURAL IRREGULARITY DETECTED.

ANALYSIS INCOMPLETE.

Pain exploded behind his eyes.

Mateo staggered, but the message remained long enough for him to understand one thing.

The creature was not invulnerable.

The glowing point might be a weakness.

Might.

He had no weapon, and the pain was making it difficult to think.

The Stalker lowered its body, preparing to strike again.

Mateo looked around desperately.

A broken metal sign lay beside the crushed streetlight. Its narrow support had snapped, leaving a jagged length of steel exposed.

He ran toward it.

"Mateo!" Gabriel shouted.

Mateo seized the metal bar with both hands.

The weight nearly pulled him off balance.

He had no cultivation, no awakened strength, and no combat enhancement. He was an ordinary human facing a creature that could tear through a vehicle.

If he tried to fight it directly, he would die.

He needed to create an opening.

The Stalker lunged toward Gabriel.

Mateo shouted and struck the pavement with the metal bar, producing a sharp clang.

The creature's head snapped toward him.

For one terrible moment, its attention settled on Mateo.

Then it charged.

Mateo waited until the last possible second before throwing himself sideways.

The Stalker crashed into the concrete barrier.

The impact shook the ground.

Mateo rolled across the pavement, pain shooting through his shoulder. The metal bar slipped from his hands, but he scrambled toward it.

The creature turned.

Its left shoulder struck the edge of the barrier, and the glowing lines beneath its armor flickered.

There.

Mateo had seen the irregularity correctly.

He did not know why it mattered, but the impact had disrupted the flow of light beneath the creature's armor.

He grabbed the bar and drove its jagged end toward the exposed point.

The strike was clumsy.

It lacked strength and precision.

But the metal penetrated a narrow gap between the creature's plates.

A shrill sound tore through the service lane.

The Stalker recoiled.

Blue light burst from its shoulder, and Mateo was thrown backward as if struck by an invisible force.

He hit the pavement hard.

For several seconds, he could not breathe.

The metal bar lay several meters away.

The Stalker staggered, its left side trembling. The glow beneath its armor dimmed, then returned in uneven pulses.

Mateo tried to stand.

His arms shook.

He was not strong enough to finish the creature.

He had barely injured it.

The Stalker raised its head and fixed its attention on him.

Mateo forced himself upright.

If it charged again, he had no guarantee he could dodge.

Then a loud crash came from the main road.

Another creature had emerged from the rift.

The Stalker turned toward the sound.

For a moment, it seemed torn between its injured prey and the new arrival.

Then it bounded away, disappearing around the corner.

Mateo stood frozen, unable to believe he was still alive.

He had survived his first encounter with a real monster.

Not because he was powerful.

Not because he had mastered some extraordinary technique.

He had survived because he had noticed a weakness, used the environment, and been fortunate enough to escape the consequences of his mistake.

That was all.

His knees buckled.

Gabriel caught him before he fell.

"You're insane!" his nephew shouted, his voice shaking. "You could have been killed!"

Mateo struggled to breathe.

"Probably."

"That's not funny!"

"I wasn't joking."

Gabriel stared at him, anger and fear fighting across his face.

Then he pulled Mateo into a brief, awkward embrace.

Mateo froze.

In his first life, Gabriel had rarely hugged him. Years of hardship had made affection difficult for both of them.

This time, Mateo returned the embrace.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

Gabriel pulled away.

"For what?"

"For making you watch that."

His nephew looked as though he wanted to say something, but no words came.

Sofía approached slowly, her face pale.

"Your eyes," she said.

Mateo blinked.

"What about them?"

"They were glowing."

He stared at her.

"Blue?"

She nodded.

"For a few seconds. Just before you attacked the creature."

Mateo touched his face.

The pain behind his eyes had begun to fade, but the pressure in his chest remained.

He looked toward the street where the Stalker had disappeared.

The system had called the creature a low threat.

Yet even a low-threat monster had nearly killed him.

He needed to become stronger.

But first, he needed to understand what had happened.

They reached the underground parking structure shortly after two in the afternoon.

The entrance was crowded with people who had fled the streets. Some were crying, others were arguing, and several had already begun organizing supplies and assigning places to rest.

A group of volunteers had set up a makeshift medical station near the far wall. Mateo helped Daniel reach them, then explained the nature of his injuries to a woman wearing a red emergency vest.

She thanked him and immediately began treating the injured man.

Elena remained beside Daniel.

"I don't know how to repay you," she said.

"Stay with him. Make sure he gets help when communications return."

She nodded.

Mateo turned toward his family.

Gabriel was exhausted. Sofía looked pale, but her eyes were alert. Both had seen how close they had come to dying.

He wanted to tell them everything would be all right.

He could not.

Instead, he helped them choose a place near a support pillar, away from the main entrance and the larger groups.

They placed their bags on the ground.

For the first time since the Awakening began, Mateo allowed himself to sit.

His body ached. His shoulder throbbed, and the pain behind his eyes had returned as a dull pressure.

He closed his eyes and tried to focus on his breathing.

A translucent window appeared.

PERSONAL STATUS

Name: Mateo Álvarez

Species: Human

Cultivation Rank: Unawakened

Mana Circulation: Unstable

System Standing: Unregistered

Anomalous Trait: Unclassified

Mateo opened his eyes.

The window remained.

He focused on the final line.

ANOMALOUS TRAIT: UNCLASSIFIED

A second message appeared beneath it.

Warning: Repeated analysis attempts may cause neurological strain.

Then the entire window vanished.

Mateo stared into the dim parking structure.

So he had not imagined the earlier messages.

Something inside him was interacting with the system.

But the system did not understand what it was.

Neither did he.

He pressed a hand against his chest.

For a moment, the faint pattern of three silver rings returned.

This time, he saw something different.

A thin crack ran through the dark center.

Beyond it, there seemed to be a vast space filled with distant points of light.

Then the image disappeared.

Mateo leaned back against the pillar, his breathing unsteady.

He had spent years believing that the destruction of his mana channels had been the worst thing that could happen to him.

Now he wondered whether it had been the beginning of something he had never understood.

He did not know what the strange trait could do.

He did not know why he had regressed.

And he did not know what the system meant by an unclassified anomaly.

But he had learned one important lesson.

The future was no longer following the path he remembered.

The First Awakening had begun on schedule, yet the system had already detected something unusual.

And that something was connected to him.

Across the parking structure, Gabriel was helping distribute bottled water to frightened survivors. Sofía had opened her tablet again, trying to recover any available system records.

They were scared.

They were exhausted.

But they were alive.

For now, that was enough.

Mateo closed his eyes and rested his head against the pillar.

He would need to train. He would need allies. He would need to understand the power that had begun stirring inside him.

Most importantly, he would need to stop treating his memories as a perfect map of the future.

The old timeline had given him a second chance.

It had not promised him an easy one.

Above the city, the blue sky remained visible through the gaps between buildings.

And somewhere beyond the first rift, something watched the world awaken.