School, for all its social torment, wasn't entirely useless - all children from ages four to ten in Elyndra would attend some form of Foundational School.
The lessons, basic as they were, offered glimpses of the wider world.
Etherion, the name of this world, was vast.
They lived in the northern reaches of the continent of Valtherra - a land of frozen peaks and endless wilderness. Humanity survived here not in empires, but in pockets. Small cities stood like bastions against the wild, and the one Orion lived in, Elyndra, was known as the Northern Frontier.
Cold. Dangerous. Proud.
To the north loomed the Infinite Mountain Range, a spine of jagged peaks said to stretch across the world itself. Within Elyndra stood four great towns, each ruled by an ancient family with its own martial traditions.
House Varyn of Frostveil, his family, were the Snow Leopards. Silent hunters, masters of patience and agility.
House Solmere of Dawnhaven followed the Golden Eagle, keen-eyed scholars and seers who ruled the eastern winds.
House Dravahn of Emberfield embodied the Mighty Yak, unyielding strength, and was home to smiths and frontline warriors.
House Tharne of Ironreach bore the Mountain Bear, stout and enduring, protectors of the western mines.
All served under the City Lord, Ceren.
A name spoken with quiet reverence.
Little was known about him, only that he was the strongest in the Elyndra.
To Orion, it painted a complex picture - politics woven with power, history layered with blood.
His curiosity stirred.
Beyond Elyndra lay other cities and large academies that trained Ascendants. Places where Ether flowed dense and rich. The continent was vast, with all kinds of terrains and forces spread around it.
'One day,' he thought, sitting by his window as snow drifted past. 'I'll see the world beyond these mountains. I'll master the Eyes of Dominion.'
He glanced down at his small, pale hands.
For now, though, he was still a child in a frostbitten corner of the world.
Those stories where people were reborn and took over the world while still in diapers were far from realistic. Even after all the secret training he had been doing, he was still just a puny child with some ether he hardly knew how to use.
Any attention at this point would just be a hindrance and place a target on his back; he'd bide his time until he had enough power to... Just thinking about it caused a smile to creep up his face.
By the time Orion turned seven, he had learned that freedom, in this world, was something you took quietly.
Foundational school became less frequent, the rigid daily structure loosening into scattered lessons and shorter hours. With it came free time - precious, unmonitored stretches of the day that most children wasted on games or idle wandering.
Orion had no intention of doing either.
He used his Eyes of Dominion on Marn.
With her help, he convinced his mother to allow him to go to and return from foundational school alone. A single look was enough to make Marn believe that school still followed its old, longer schedule, stretching the hours in her mind and giving Orion free time beyond anyone's notice.
It was strange, being a child again and needing permission for the smallest things. He could bend minds, command Ether, yet still had to ask before stepping outside. Even so, he kept the mask of a dutiful son firmly in place. He'd grown used to it after all these years, and somewhere deep down, he didn't want to worry his mother.
Orion had noticed a training ground not far from his home, rarely used and poorly watched. It was intended for the guards, but they would be on duty during the day. The guards were simple - he'd examined them from a distance, and they were nothing impressive.
He was sure his Mental Dominion would work on them for something as small as he wanted. Whenever he neared its entrance, all it took was a glance from his golden eyes and a whispered thought.
"You didn't see me."
The low Ascendants would blink, turn away, and the path would open.
It was quiet and effortless, though it did heavily drain his ether.
The training ground was exactly what Orion needed.
A wide stone yard enclosed by low, weathered walls, half-buried in snow and forgotten by most. It offered cover from wandering eyes, and he doubted anyone would show up at this hour. The guards were all on duty elsewhere, and even if someone did appear, Mental Dominion should be enough to send them away.
It was the safest place he could think of, and Orion rarely acted without caution.
He briefly surveyed his surroundings with his Eyes of Dominion to be sure, before taking a deep breath.
Orion couldn't wait any longer.
He'd tested Ether in the confines of his room, careful, restrained, but walls and furniture could only tell him so much. He needed space. Distance. Room to fail without consequence.
Orion released his Internal Dominion.
The hum of Ether flooded his veins as he flexed his small hands, light flickering faintly in his eyes. He drew the flow into his limbs and leapt.
For a heartbeat, he was weightless. Wind tore past his ears, the ground falling away beneath him. He landed in a crouch, snow spraying outward.
"Around five metres… not bad," he murmured, a quiet smile forming.
By mortal standards - those who weren't ascended, like all humans back on Earth - the average jump from standing for an untrained person was around 30-50 cm. Elite athletes can exceed 70-90 cm, but he had more than quintupled even that.
'That's without even pushing it to its limits. Imagine what higher rank ascendents with training are capable of...'
His gaze shifted to a tree at the far edge of the yard, its thick trunk hardened by years of frost. Ether gathered around his fist, the air shimmering as he stepped forward and struck.
Crack!
The trunk split apart, bark exploding into icy shards. Orion stared at his small hand as wisps of Ether curled from his skin. The power behind the blow felt unreal.
In his old world, that strike would have made him a living weapon, and could have killed. Here, it was only the beginning.
The exhilaration faded fast.
Pain bloomed through his arms and shoulders, muscles trembling, bones screaming under the strain. He dropped to one knee, clutching his chest as the Ether inside him pulsed wildly, no longer under perfect control.
'It's too much,' he thought through clenched teeth. 'The body can't keep up with the core.'
Orion accumulated so much Ether throughout his childhood without wielding it that his body wasn't accustomed to it.
He exhaled slowly, steadying himself. If Ascendants were defined by strength, he would forge it. Even if his gift lay in his eyes, he wouldn't rely solely on them. To command others, one had to first master oneself.
So, he began a new routine.
Each morning before dawn, before even the manor stirred, he trained his body: push-ups, jumps, running through the snow until his lungs burned and his limbs trembled.
Each night, he drew ether inward using his Ether Dominion Cultivation Method, cycling it through his growing core.
By the time he turned eight, his core's hue had deepened from orange to a bright, molten yellow. Radiant rank. Still a child, yet already a mid-level Ascendant.
He sometimes wondered if anyone in history had grown this quickly. His father, Kael Varyn, hailed as one of Elyndra's greatest young talents, wouldn't have even felt ether at this age.
In this world, those who didn't awaken ether and form their core were called Dormants, often referred to as mortals. They lived ordinary lives, never knowing the pulse of power around them.
And Orion? He had been one of them before - a man in another life, chained by science and mortality. Now, he was something else. Something evolving.
Yet despite his progress, he had little practical combat experience. No sparring partners, no real fights. Just theory and intuition. And though he could level trees and leap rooftops, he stuck to his plan of hiding his abilities.
As such, time slipped by, and before Orion truly realised it, he was ten.
Six years since starting Foundational School passed quickly.
He'd managed to remain a ghost within the Varyn family, flying perfectly under the radar.
The "weird white-haired boy" who said little and smiled less. His classmates still dubbed him the cursed "Frost Demon" from the mountain tales because of his white hair and scary dark eyes. He didn't mind. Better fear than curiosity.
His grades were intentionally average, his answers carefully wrong when they needed to be. He lowered his head, kept to the corner, and no one suspected that beneath the quiet exterior was an Ascendant whose ether burned brighter than their teachers.
When graduation day came, the hall was filled with chatter and laughter. He watched from the side as the others clutched their certificates with shining eyes. Marn waved from the crowd, and Selene, pale and fragile, smiled softly despite the winter chill.
He smiled back - that was enough.
He had somehow survived unnoticed. And in a world where power drew eyes like fire drew moths, anonymity was victory.
His concealment technique, Internal Dominion, had held perfectly. Not a single Ascendant had sensed his true strength. He'd even refined his Mental Dominion until it became instinct. One glance, one whisper of will, and others bent without realising why.
It was intoxicating - the rush of unseen control.
But today would test that control.
For the first time since his birth, he would meet his father - and this would mark the day his second life truly began...