The Transmigrator (9): The Star Within
There was no other way.
My mana output was far too high to pursue a close-combat path that infused power directly into the body. If I went that route, I’d be lucky to use even one one-hundredth—or perhaps one ten-thousandth—of my full strength. So I swallowed my tears and kept grinding through control training. Time slipped by, and before I knew it, the first signs of puberty had begun to appear in this body.
“Looks like the control training is finally on track. You worked so hard, Plea!”
“Ahaha…”
I couldn’t bring myself to nod at Dana’s praise. A bitter smile was the best I could manage.
“At first I honestly wondered if this was even human-level control… but after years of doing nothing but control training, you’ve finally reached something resembling a normal person’s standard…?”
There was a touch of madness in her voice. For some reason I felt a pang of guilt and quietly turned my head away.
On the very first day of control training, I couldn’t even feed exactly thirty units of mana into the meter. I had driven her absolutely insane. According to her, even someone with mediocre talent would only be off by three digits at worst. I, on the other hand, had been off by six whole digits. Only now, five years later, had I finally brought the error down to three digits. Just as she said, I had at last reached “human level.”
“Right then—control training ends here!”
“The error range is only down to three digits. Are we really stopping?”
In the Academy the acceptable margin was two digits at most, sometimes even one. Was it really fine to call it quits like this?
When I tilted my head in confusion, Dana looked at me with pitch-black, dead eyes.
“Hehe, Plea… are you trying to torture me?”
“Huh…?”
“Control is one of those things where the smaller the error range, the higher the difficulty becomes… Even an idiot starts at three digits. It took you years to reach three digits. How many more years do you think it would take to get down to two…?”
A chill crawled down my spine. The warmth she had shown on the first day was completely gone from her cold tone, so I instinctively shook my head.
“Good choice! Now that you’ve reached human-level control, let’s move on to the next lesson!”
Back to her usual cheerful self, Dana laughed brightly and began shoving all the training equipment into a corner storage closet. Why was she clearing everything out? What kind of class required an empty room?
“What we’re learning today is practical ability training! We really should have started two years ago, but your teacher is overjoyed that we’re finally beginning!”
“Practical ability training… Does that mean we’re finally using real powers?”
“Exactly! Looks like you’ve been watching some lecture videos on YouTube. From now on you’ll get to experience the true strength of the hero ranked third in the entire country!”
She thrust her chest out with absolute confidence. The impressive swell only emphasized how sure of herself she was, and I found myself listening with genuine anticipation.
“Unlike control or efficiency training, practical ability lessons aren’t about laying foundations. They’re about learning and mastering the combat applications of your power! So, Miss Plea, what was your ability again?”
“Nuclear Fusion.”
“Correct. With an ability like nuclear fusion, what exactly do you need to do to defeat an opponent?”
“Um… mana eruption?”
I couldn’t think of anything better, so I brought up the only attack technique I had actually tried.
“Well… mana eruption isn’t originally meant for attacking, but with your ridiculous output it could probably work.”
She shuddered, clearly remembering the time I had blasted her across the training room on the first day. After collecting herself, she corrected me.
“Your version of mana eruption is certainly powerful enough to count as an attack skill, but it isn’t your actual ability. You’re simply expelling the excess mana your power produces.”
According to her, mana eruption was meant for suppression or intimidation, not direct combat. Someone like me who mindlessly poured in absurd amounts of mana could make it work, but no normal person possessed that much power. Besides, it was far too easy to dodge.
Then what should I do?
The defining traits of my nuclear fusion were, first, that it generated an insane quantity of mana. Second… a fusion reactor had formed in my heart.
Now that I think about it, doesn’t nuclear fusion normally require temperatures of over one hundred million degrees Celsius?
The sun inside my heart might be smaller, but my gut told me it was definitely not below that threshold. If so, the answer was surprisingly simple.
“The heat from the fusion…?”
I’d suggested it because heat on the scale of hundreds of millions of degrees would obviously make for a devastating attack. Dana smiled, satisfied, and nodded.
“Correct! The alloy plates covering the floor and walls are all made of perfect heat-resistant alloy designed to withstand my flames.”
It seemed both Dana and the director had known from the very beginning how to weaponize my ability. Otherwise they wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of building the entire training room out of specialized materials.
While I was busy admiring her foresight, Dana chuckled and guided me to sit down.
“Then it’s time to draw out your power. Close your eyes and focus on the mana flowing through your body.”
She placed her hand on my forehead. A gentle, warming sacred fire bloomed from her palm—clearly meant to help me relax. My body gradually grew languid.
Following her instructions, I closed my eyes and concentrated on the mana coursing through me. After several minutes my consciousness began to blur. Every sense seemed to melt and blend into the flow of power.
The dissolved mind rode the current, circling once through my entire body. At the very end of that journey, I saw a blinding light.
Is this… my inner world?
Ability users all carried their own inner worlds. An ability was another law residing within the self. That law took form and constructed an entirely different realm inside the user. A flame user lived with a burning wasteland inside them; an ice user carried a snow-swept tundra. Each ability had an origin world that could be called its source.
And the inner world of my nuclear fusion, if I had to describe it in a single word, was—
A star.
A blue star that made the description “burning red sun” seem pitifully inadequate. Flames the size of mountain ranges surged across its surface, yet they were nothing more than tiny wisps compared to the star’s overwhelming scale. A blue sphere far larger and brighter than the sun that illuminated all creation. The burning star shone so intensely I almost reached out before catching myself.
If an ability user’s consciousness melted into their inner world, they would cease to be human and become a demon.
Dana will probably stop me if my mind starts to dissolve.
The hand she kept pressed to my forehead was surely there to shield my consciousness with her own mana. So I let myself relax and simply observed the mana my mind had merged with.
Mana was called the ultimate energy even in the real world, but it wasn’t electricity or raw physical force.
Mana is like a tide that drags the inner world into reality.
I focused the flow and brought it close to the proud flames of the star floating in that dazzling inner realm. I touched only the outermost tip of the fire—the red edge, not the blue core. The mana greedily drank the crimson flame and, instead of turning colorless, became dyed a vivid red.
That red mana swelled, spreading until every last drop of the immeasurable mana inside my body was stained bright scarlet.
Success.
Ability users imbued their mana with their own power. Mana carrying that power became a pathway capable of drawing the ability out from the inner world at any time, and it took on the ability’s unique hue. That was precisely Stage 1—the moment a person with mana was officially recognized as an ability user.
Once I confirmed every trace of mana had turned red, I lifted my consciousness and opened my eyes. Dana was staring at me from less than ten centimeters away.
“…What?”
“Aww, you’re not even startled.”
“Stop messing with me. I almost screamed for real.”
It was the honest truth. Only extreme self-control and sheer embarrassment had kept me from yelling. But since I couldn’t actually smack the top of her head no matter how much I wanted to, I simply gave up.
“So, Plea, did you manage to awaken your ability properly?”
When she asked with that playful laugh, I silently raised my hand. A faint red haze rose from my palm—the same mana emission I had used before, now lightly mixed with the heat of my nuclear fusion. Because I had reduced the emission to the absolute minimum, the room didn’t turn into an oven.
“Perfect! That’s a success. We can start learning techniques right away.”
After checking my haze, Dana nodded and produced a similar shimmering aura above her own hand.
“You already know what my ability is, right?”
“Sacred Fire, yes?”
“Then do you know what it actually does?”
I shook my head. The Dana I knew belonged to the distant future, not the present.
“Not really.”
Her eyes drooped in obvious disappointment, but she still explained her power with enthusiasm. There were two main aspects to Sacred Fire. First, once the flames were lit, they would never go out on their own as long as she still had mana. Second, they could burn away another person’s mana.
“Well, that’s the gist of it.”
“That’s incredible…”
The moment I praised her, she wiped the underside of her nose and puffed up with pride.
“My ability is pretty great, isn’t it? That’s exactly why Wilhelm invited me to be your instructor.”