"Where… am I?"
The words left his mouth before he even fully realized he'd spoken. The voice sounded like his—but deeper, clearer, edged with something… dangerous.
The young man, no older than 18, slowly sat up inside a massive crater. Earth cracked all around him in spiderweb lines, as if something had fallen from the sky and slammed into the ground hard enough to leave the world scarred.
He blinked.
The sky above wasn't familiar. The clouds swirled in shades of violet and dark blue. The air tasted different too—richer, heavier, charged. His fingers dug into the dirt, and the strength behind just that small motion made his eyes widen.
"What the hell…"
He looked down at himself.
His chest was sculpted like a warrior's. Veins glowed faintly with golden light beneath pale skin. His heartbeat was steady, but each thud carried weight, like thunder in a sealed chamber. He moved one arm—too easily. There was no stiffness. Just raw, fluid strength. He clenched his fist, and the wind around him stirred.
This wasn't his body.
He remembered yesterday clearly.
He had been reading in bed—some cultivation novel he found online. It wasn't even that good, but he had been so into it. Then… the blood. He coughed, choked, hit the floor. That was the last thing he remembered.
And now—
A sudden pulse hit his brain.
"Ugh…!"
He clutched his skull as pain slammed into him like a bolt of lightning. His eyes rolled back, and his body convulsed. Then—
Flashes.
Images.
Memories.
A world far above this one.
Vast skies of molten gold. Rivers of lightning. Mountains that floated, held aloft by runes older than time.
A massive palace, carved from the bones of skybeasts and the heart of a fallen sun.
He saw himself standing at the peak of the Central Sky Summit, body radiating power—scales etched across his back like armor, silver hair trailing behind him like a comet tail. A majestic robe fluttered in the storm winds, embroidered with a nine-headed dragon swallowing the stars.
He was not human.
He was Rykarion.
Third prince of the Heavenly Draconic Clan. A Royal Dragon born from the bloodline of the Ancients. A prodigy. A monster among monsters.
He had broken into the Core Formation Realm at just 90 years old. While others were still toying with Qi sensing, he was swallowing celestial cores and taming spirit beasts.
And today—in the memory—he was at the edge of breaking into the Nascent Soul Realm.
He sat cross-legged in the center of a floating arena carved from crystalized Void Jade. Rings of golden fire swirled around him. Qi surged into his body like rivers into an ocean. His veins lit up, his eyes turned gold, his horns lengthened.
His soul was beginning to condense.
Until—
"RYKARION!"
Three shadows burst through the clouds above him.
His siblings.
They descended like meteors—one wielding a saber that screamed with thunder, another cloaked in wind so sharp it cut the clouds, and the last, eyes like dying stars, already radiating the aura of a False Nascent.
Jealousy.
Fear.
Rage.
They couldn't let him ascend.
Not before them.
Not ever.
And then—the battle began.
Boom!
Rykarion's roar shattered the sky. Dragon wings unfurled from his back, burning with solar flames. His tail whipped out from his spine and struck the incoming saber, creating a shockwave that split a mountain in half.
The air combusted.
He blinked forward in a blur of lightning, his clawed hand slamming into the chest of his wind-wrapped brother, sending him crashing into the sea of stars below.
"Traitors!"
He twisted, dodging a barrage of spectral chains, and fired a spiral of soul fire from his palm. It arced like a serpent and swallowed the youngest sibling whole in a burst of white-hot energy.
But they were strong.
Each had cultivated longer than him. Each had artifacts.
And they came with a plan.
The one with eyes like dying stars grinned coldly and whispered an incantation—Forbidden Seal of Draconic Suppression.
Runes exploded around Rykarion. His body slowed. His Qi jammed.
"Cowards!" he spat, blood dripping from his lip.
They surrounded him, blades of heaven and talons of wind slashing from all sides. His body burned, bled, but refused to fall.
His golden wings tore through one sibling's barrier. His fangs pierced another's shoulder.
But even monsters get tired.
Even gods can bleed.
He lost.
Eventually.
He lost.
The memory shifted.
A ruined skyship.
A cracked core.
Rykarion, bleeding, broken, torn, escaping through the gaps of realms, crashing through dimensions until—
This one.
This realm.
A lower world.
His injuries were too much. His soul couldn't hold. His final breath was a whisper.
"…someone… take my will…"
And then—
Darkness.
And now—
Him.
A boy from Earth in a body that wasn't his.
The young man gasped and fell forward, clutching his chest.
Sweat rolled down his back.
His pupils flickered gold.
The wind stopped.
He was still in the crater, but the ground around him started to vibrate again. Tiny stones rose into the air. The sky rumbled softly.
Power stirred beneath his skin.
Something ancient.
Something royal.
"…Rykarion…"
He said the name. Not just as a memory.
But as if it lived inside him.
And it did.
He stood. Slowly. Calmly.
A faint glow radiated from his chest. His spine cracked as if remembering its true form. Gold scales shimmered just below the surface of his skin, fading just as quickly.
And somewhere in the distance, far beyond the sky…
A pair of slitted eyes opened.
Eyes that once knew Rykarion.
Eyes that now felt him return.
"Core Formation, huh…" he muttered, cracking his neck as he glanced at the faint golden light still flickering beneath his skin. "That was before, I guess."
He rolled his shoulder once, and a soft pulse of Qi rippled out from him, bending the grass around his feet.
"His cultivation must've regressed after the injuries. Makes sense… falling through realms and all that. But with a talent like his—" he smirked a little, "—my talent now, I can climb back up. Stronger than before."
He looked to the sky. A faint breeze brushed past him, carrying the scent of wild herbs and burning stone.
"And who knows… maybe I'll take revenge on his behalf. A little thank you for letting me borrow the body."
Then he paused.
Brows lifted.
"…Wait."
He pointed at himself.
"Hold up. I transmigrated, right? There's gotta be a gift pack or something. Don't I get that OP protagonist bonus thing? Like, a cheat or a system…?"
He stood still.
Raised a hand to the sky.
"System?"
Nothing.
"System!" he said louder.
DING!