The wind was blowing, the insects were screeching, on a mountain in the grey ash continent a young kid kneeled down surrounded by a devastated scene, there was blood dripping from his violet colored eyes as if he was shedding blood tears, the rain made his silver hair to cover his face and his hands were shivering while he was processing what just happened, he remembered all the things that led to the current situation.

After he was born, his father the head of the Naktis family Victor Naktis had high expectations of him but all went to hell when he turned five and participated on the talent evaluation, needless to say that his result was horrible, his body was weaker than the average vampire and his magic core was filled with impurities and so he was thrown aside.

In fact, he would have been "disposed of" if his mother hadn't taken him and leave the Naktis mansion, while fighting with Victor and some of the elders of the family she suffered inner wounds and cracks on her magic core due to the use of a forbidden spell to escape.

But the nightmare had only started, he and his now almost crippled mother appeared midair on a mountain on who knows where, luckily his mother still had some conscious left and she hugged her son and received the impact instead of him, Daimon only reacted after they have landed and seeing his mother current status he felt his blood boiling, he hated his father for the way he discarded them as if they were trash, he hated himself for being useless but he had no time to think in things like that.

One's magic core is a part of the body like a second heart which function is to regulate the magic flow, without it a person will be poisoned by the mana in the air and turn into a mindless beast like the monsters that prey on the forests and seas of this world before dying, his mother was now suffering something like that, luckily her body was stronger due to her vampire inheritance or she would have died immediately.

At the very least he had the things his mother had in her storage ring, since his mother couldn't move anymore as she had fainted from protecting him from the fall, he wiped his tears off and started collecting wood in the nearby area to build a small log cabin to shelter them from the rain, how would a five years old child would have the nerve to think in building a shelter instead of falling prey to the panic you might ask.

Well, although his body was that of a child he had a secret, he used to be a 17 years old human that lived on a planet called earth where even if there wasn't magic nor aura, they were able to flourish thanks to knowledge and something called science, and as a university student he had somewhat knowledge about what to do on emergency situations.

The weather was quite cold on the mountain so the first thing he did was light a fire to prevent his mother to suffer hypothermia, next he looked for a big tree, luckily the plants on this world were super developed thanks to absorbing mana from the air so he found some oak looking like tree with a huge trunk space. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝘯𝘰𝘷ℯ𝘭.𝑐𝘰𝑚

He cut the bark and dug the inside of the tree just enough for him and his mother to fit in, he also made some holes to avoid suffocation, the timing seemed to be almost calculated because it started raining not too long after he finished, he placed the "door" he made with the bark and sealed the entrance to his improvised shelter.

After some time, he felt his mother moving a bit and he turned to see her, although there was almost to no light inside the tree, they were vampires so they could normally see in the dark, his usually lively mother asked.

"Sweetie where are we, are you okay?", Daimon almost lost it listening to her worried voice but he managed to calm down before answering.

"I don't know, we landed on a mountain and I found a place to stay because it was getting cloudy… how do you feel mom?", Aisha heard her son's words and she inspected her own body "well it is not that bad considering what happened" she thought but on the outside she smiled.

"I'm fine, can you look in my storage ring for a blue bottle with a white label and help me drink its content please?", Daimon nodded, he took out what she asked but before giving it to her he asked.

"What does this potion do?", he was internally worried that this liquid could be some kind of suicide potion, Aisha saw her son concerned face and she felt warm, "don't worry it's just a recovery potion".

Daimon believed her but just to be safe he took some drops of the liquid and drank it, after confirming the positive effect of the potion he helped his mother drink it, a couple of minutes later Aisha was able to move again although she still had a pained expression due to the cracks on her magic core.

"It's okay now honey, I don't hear any rain outside so let's go out to see if I can recognize where we are", Daimon removed the door of the shelter and they left, Aisha started looking at the surrounding terrain and vegetation but she didn't recognize where they were, after a moment of contemplation she took a decision.

"I don't know where we are but it doesn't matter, we can't go back anyway so let's build a house for the time being and we will decide what to do later, ok?", Daimon noticed that his mother was restraining her pain reactions to not worry him and he gritted his teeth but when he was about to suggest hier to rest on the tree some more, he felt his body going rigid, he slowly turned to the left and his eyes widened.

A dozen of meters away there was a horrible looking beast, its body and head were that of a lion with the exception that it had a pair of wings that resembled the ones of a bat and its tail looked like the one of a scorpion, its fur was black and there were some bone plates covering its back.

"A dark manticore!!!" exclaimed Aisha, she hurriedly moved her fatigued body in front of her son while trying to find a way out of this situation, a manticore is a beast that normally would be at the same level as her if she was in her peak, but a dark manticore is a variant that is known to be at least twice as strong as the normal one and not only that but her current state was horrible.

After a moment Daimon bit his lips to make his body react and it worked, although he was barely able to, he could move again, when one is in front of a predator that outpowers you in all sense, the intimidatory suppression you experience is no joke, normally even adult men would freeze in the spot but although Daimon was weak, he was not a coward.

After taking a deep breath he saw his mother expression and he knew it was probably a terrible situation but he still asked.

"Mom… is there a way to scare that thing away?", Aisha came out of his daze and seeing her son's determined expression she seemed to take some kind of decision, she smiled and kissed Daimon's forehead.

"Of course, I might be wounded but I'm quite strong you know but I need you to distance a bit from me because the magic I'm about to use will cause a strong blowback, okay?", Daimon nodded but when he was about to move the manticore rushed towards them.

Aisha didn't seem surprised, her expression turned sad, she used the magic she prepared beforehand to send her son flying and then turned to face the manticore face to face.

*Booooom*

In daimon's eyes it was as if things moved really slow for a moment, he saw his mother mumbling something and then a huge explosion followed by a gigantic wave of fire and lighting consumed almost one kilometer of the mountain and the surrounding forest.

"Nooooo mother" he screamed and then everything turned dark as his consciousness faded away.