The capital city did not greet him gently.
It pressed against him the moment he stepped through the archway — the weight of it, the Anym-thick air sitting heavy on his shoulders like a hand reminding him he was no longer the strongest thing in the room. Horse-drawn carriages rumbled past on ancient cobblestones. Citizens moved in practical clothing, their collective auras drawn inward, tight and defensive the way people become when they spend their lives living next to monsters. The sun burned overhead, but the cold radiating from the school at the city's center swallowed its warmth before it could reach him.
He had read about this place. He had imagined it a hundred times on a hundred different roads.
It was bigger than he expected. And it felt alive — humming with a quiet, dangerous patience, the way a blade hums when it hasn't been drawn in a long time.
Good, he thought. That means there's something worth finding here.
His boots clicked forward. He didn't slow down.
The young boy, fifteen years old, wore simple, well-worn leather training gear, his boots clicking purposefully on the ancient cobblestones. His red hair, streaked with touches of gray, was an immediate flag that drew intense, fearful glances. He looked "cute," but the oppressive strength radiating from him seemed normal to the city's seasoned passersby, though they recognized it was on a different level from most other students applying to enter the school. He was a source of attention, a walking anomaly.
He rushed toward the center of the city, where the school was located. The rest of the city felt old, but the school itself stood out dramatically. It was the only thing that came close to his past life building structure massive, beautiful structure built from deep blue obsidian, its surface humming faintly with harnessed Anym. It looked completely different from the surrounding architecture, appearing almost as if it had been dropped in from another dimension—a fortress of absolute power.
When he finally reached the registration hall, the elderly registrar—a man hardened by almost a decade of dealing with prodigies looked weary.
"Name," the registrar mumbled, avoiding eye contact.
One from All flashed his famous, unsettling smile—only teeth. "One from All," he replied.
The registrar froze. He finally lifted his gaze, searching the boy's Anym. The moment his focus met the terrifying energy field, he felt a crushing sensation, as if his very soul was about to be dragged out of his body. It was a pure, predatory instinct radiating from the child. After a terrifying second, the pressure suddenly stopped. The registrar sagged in his chair, a bead of sweat tracing a path down his temple.
"The name is accurate, then," the registrar whispered, his voice shaky. He quickly stamped the card. He then looked at the boy with profound fear and respect. "Boy, I have been working here for almost a decade. In all that time, you are only the third set of students whose Anym has a name attached to it some student who came before you also had terrifying Anym. That power… it's not a magic; it's a commandment. Welcome, boy. Try not to break anything before orientation."
As One from All took his registration card, a sudden, powerful tremor shook the hall. It wasn't the kind of shake caused by a physical blow, but a rhythmic, magnetic pulse—like a heartbeat made of pure Anym.
Every student in the hall—and there were many, each bearing some mark of rare magic—fell silent.
One from All's "One from All" aura, which naturally pulled in and collected the abandoned Anym around him, suddenly reacted. It didn't absorb the new pulse; it violently collided with it, almost consumed, creating a silent, localized pressure wave that knocked the papers off the registrar's desk.
For the first time since his rebirth, One from All felt true shock. He had never encountered a force that could resist his core magic.
"What was that? Why was that? I couldn't absorb it at all! My Anym control is supposed to devour all loose Anym, but that pressure… it felt like it was consuming me! I was almost pulled in—my very consciousness felt like it was being stretched thin. What is going on here? I couldn't even use magic to resist, only instinct. My defenses were useless. This is a level I didn't know existed. I need to be on guard."
With a flash of internal resolve, his latent energy shifted. "King's Magic: Battle Armor!" His Anym tightened around his body like an invisible, hardened shell (though it wasn't obvious to an untrained eye).
As One from All entered the main building with his defense mode now engaged, he saw seats for the participants, and a level above those seats were the instructors. But at the very top, bathed in the afternoon sun, were five figures.
They were varied in appearance, but the destructive density of their presence was absolute. They were the Five Emperors—monstrous beings known across the continent for having the strength to take over the world, only choosing the path of the "good guys".
The First Emperor (Kageyama – Emperor of Complete Annihilation): A tall, slightly muscular guy with his hair covered. His body was visibly humming with stored energy. Magic: Unknow, but said to have terrifying abilities. He was the leader of the five Emperors, carrying a silent, terrifying gravity around him.
The Second Emperor (Gōki – Emperor of Anym Control): A guy with unnaturally large Anym reserves. Magic: Also unknow, but known to be the second strongest. His movements were perfectly optimized for destruction.
The Third Emperor (Hana – Emperor of Knowledge): A silent figure draped in thick robes, whispering an unintelligible language. Magic: Demon King and King's Magic. A walking disaster.
The Fourth Emperor (Ren – Emperor of Creation and Destruction): A slender, deceptively calm girl. Magic: Saint's Magic and King's Magic. She was known for her "WORLD"—a reality created using pure Anym, which, since she had two types of Legendary Magic, meant she had two "WORLDs," making her terrifying.
The Fifth Emperor (Hayato – The Void Walker): Absent, but his stand-in was a Demon King Magic user. Hayato's magic was also unknown, as he only used pure martial arts to 1v1 continental-level threats or even higher without magic. People started to think he didn't have magic, but he did.
All emperors were known to have at least one Legendary and one Rare Magic, but none had ever seen them in combat before, and none wanted to.
Kageyama, the First Emperor, was a true monster. It was said that even if the Fifth Emperor were to have awakened magic, he couldn't beat the Fourth, and the same applied to the Fourth against the Third. If those three took on the Second Emperor without awakened magic, he would defeat them, but if they all awakened, the three of them at once could take him on and probably defeat him—unless he also awakened.
But the Number One Emperor, Kageyama, couldn't be defeated, even if all the other Emperors awakened and challenged him; he would beat them without awakened magic.
And now, the same monstrous being seemed to be looking directly at One from All, and One from All, despite his new defense, couldn't even move.
End of Chapter 2