The Smallest Thing That Almost Doesn’t Exist

The rain started before anyone could say “this is a bad idea.”

It wasn’t a kind rain. It wasn’t a poetic drizzle. It was the kind that turns the ground into treacherous mud and snuffs out torches with professional cruelty. The forest in the distance thrashed as if something enormous were pushing it from the inside.

“—Ten!” one of the scouts shouted. “Ten giant lizards, charging in a stampede!”

That was enough to throw the village into survival mode.

Men with spears. Guards with swords. Minor mages trying to light fires that the rain was determined to kill. The ground vibrated—not like an earthquake, but like synchronized footsteps. Too many.

I was under the eaves of a house, soaked to the bone, with Iris standing in front of me like a human wall.

“Don’t move,” she ordered. “No matter what happens.”

I nodded.

I lied.

The lizards burst out of the forest like a scaly nightmare: huge, muscular, with tails that split bushes as if they were paper. They weren’t intelligent, but they weren’t stupid either. They were strength, panic, and hunger in motion.

The first impact was brutal.

One lizard slammed into an improvised barricade and shattered it. Another flung a man into the air with a tail swipe. Fire wouldn’t catch properly. Spears slipped. The rain ruined everything.

[SYSTEM]

Situation: Critical

Recommendation: Organized retreat

Note: “Warning frequently ignored in villages.”

“We can’t stop them!” the captain shouted. “Just slow them down!”

Slow them down.

That meant deaths.

I felt something strange in my chest. Not pure fear. Something colder. An idea.

A week ago I had been secretly practicing fire magic. No explosions. No firestorms. Just a tiny sphere. Ridiculous. A mockery of a spell.

A ball the size of a golf ball.

“No,” I whispered.

[SYSTEM]

Known Magic: Basic Fire — Unstable

Probability of Success: Low

System Comment: “But never zero.”

Iris turned around.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing important.”

Before I could stop myself, I broke free.

I ran.

“Lyran!” she shouted.

I didn’t look back.

The mud made me slip. The noise was deafening. One of the lizards broke away from the group, charging straight toward a fallen guard. I opened my hand. Focused everything I had learned… and everything I hadn’t.

The mana burned.

The ball appeared.

Small. Unstable. Pathetic.

“Is that it?” someone nearby muttered.

I threw it.

It flew… and as it traveled, it grew smaller.

Not because of the rain.

Not because of the wind.

As if it were going out.

“…Huh?”

The sphere shrank. From golf ball to marble. From marble to dot. From dot to almost nothing.

The lizard saw it.

It stopped.

Tilted its head.

And I swear by everything I still don’t understand about this world—it laughed.

A low, raspy sound. The other lizards hesitated. Some of the humans did too.

The particle touched its chest.

Nothing happened.

One second.

Two.

“Run!” someone shouted, convinced I had failed.

Then the lizard was thrown backward.

It didn’t fall.

It didn’t stumble.

It was expelled as if something invisible had struck it from the inside. Its body spun through the air, its scales turned black, and the smell of burned flesh cut through the rain.

It hit the ground… and didn’t move.

Silence.

The other lizards shrieked.

Not one. All of them.

Pure instinct.

They turned and fled, tearing through the forest as they retreated.

No one spoke.

The rain kept falling.

I stared at my hand.

I didn’t feel triumph.

I felt horror.

“I…” I tried to say something.

Nothing came out.

Iris ran to me and grabbed my shoulders.

“What did you do?” she whispered.

I had no answer.

[SYSTEM]

Spell Registered: Fire — Anomalous Compression

Result: Extreme Delayed Damage

System Comment: “Fascinating. Even to me.”

The adults approached the charred corpse slowly. No one dared touch it. The captain looked at me as if he didn’t know whether to bow… or turn his back.

“That child…” someone murmured—“That wasn’t normal fire.”“Did you see how the flame disappeared?”

The word began to spread without anyone saying it out loud:

Monster.Prodigy.Danger.

I could only think one thing:

> My fireball was tiny.It shouldn’t have done that.

[SYSTEM]

New Reputation: “The child who burned a lizard with nothing”

Dignity: +2

Warning: “Fear from others is not always good.”

Iris hugged me tightly.

“…You’re still Lyran, right?”

I nodded.

But for the first time since I reincarnated, I wasn’t sure what that meant.

And somewhere deep inside me, something burned… compressed, waiting.