Chapter 1 : The childhood of the Worthless Prince

"I'm afraid this child has no aptitude for any sort of elemental magic."

After a moment of deafening silence, the crowd of spectators began whispering, surprised at this unforeseen turn of events.

Flavius Aemilius, the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Lucidia, had been publicly declared to be effectively incapable of using magic. Whispers turned to widespread laughter as they shamelessly began to ridicule the young Flavius, who was merely 7 years old at that time.

"What did the Priest say? He can't use elemental magic?"

"Doesn't that essentially mean he can't use magic at all?"

"No way, the son of King Scipio, who is such a powerful mage, can't use any magic."

"Oh, the irony! This kid is worthless! The Kingdom is doomed!"

"Flavius the Worthless Prince! Flavius the Worthless Prince!"

His father, King Scipio Aemilius, is renowned as a very powerful mage with immense mana reserves throughout Lucidia. Due to some urgent issues, he could not attend his son's Magic ceremony, a rite of passage that determines the element for which an individual has the greatest affinity. Flavius was accompanied only by his mother, Queen Marcia Aemilius, and his childhood friend, Lucius, who were spectating from afar.

It was a terrible experience for Flavius. The crowd began chanting "Flavius the Worthless Prince" in unison, which became the manner in which he was widely ridiculed. Flavius was on the verge of tears but gave it all to maintain a façade of indifference, displaying mental fortitude beyond what was expected from one so young.

Still, this did not change the fact that Flavius felt deeply hurt due to the constant harassment he was subjected to. He secretly wept for hours in his room, all alone, reminiscing about the many times other children of nobility mocked him in public meetings as the "Worthless Prince".

Due to his unfavorable reputation, he also did not have many friends of his age, nor was anyone willing to be friends with him for fear of antagonizing the powerful nobility. His only source of relief was his mother, who consoled him when he was crying in sorrow, and his best friend Lucius, with whom he would often play games and talk wholeheartedly.

Lucius Titus was a commoner but possessed a humongous physique, excellent endurance, and unparalleled swordsmanship skills for his age. He too, like Flavius, was deemed incapable of using elemental magic, but it wasn't as if he couldn't use magic at all. It was mere human ignorance in the study of mana that had deemed Lucius unable to use magic.

Lucius had only told Flavius his secret ability: he had the ability to cast protective barriers. Most magicians widely use barriers affiliated with a certain element, thus making them vulnerable to opposite elemental magic. But Lucius' barrier had no such weakness and was immune to all elemental magic.

This ability was not invincible, though; it took some time and concentration to cast the barrier, leaving Lucius defenseless until it was complete. It also has a finite time limit, and the greater the area and number of barriers, the more mana it consumes. It could also be penetrated if the mana concentration of an incoming attack is greater than that of the barrier itself.

"I promise to protect you from all harm, Prince Flavius. I shall be the shield that protects you!" said Lucius as he took an oath of loyalty in front of the young Prince, kneeling in front of him.

"I am grateful to have a friend like you", replied Flavius, as he urged him to stand up and hug him dearly.

Regardless of his bad reputation, Flavius received an extensive education due to the efforts of his father. Under the tutelage of Marcus Fabius, the Magister Militum of Lucidia and a talented and trusted confidant of the King, his combat power and swordsmanship skills grew rapidly, and he began to learn the fundamentals of warfare and military strategy.

One fine day, as Flavius was heading to his room after finishing his training, he saw a bunch of shadowy figures approaching him from behind. The moment he entered the room, an assassin arrived from the shadows, aiming straight for Flavius' head. He barely managed to dodge but was now cornered in his room, three to one. The assassins entering his room locked it from inside, sealing all hopes of outside help.

Flavius was nervous but maintained his composure, owing to his mental fortitude and calm nature. He waited in a defensive stance for the enemies to make the first move. Flavius skillfully dodged two daggers thrown at him but was unable to defend himself directly from the second assassin right in front of him. As he goes for Flavius' neck, Flavius ducks in time, grabs his arm, and throws him outside the room with such power that the windows shatter.

But during this time, the third assassin swiftly and stealthily closed the gap between him and Flavius and was about to deal the decisive blow. Flavius had seen his moves but could not counter or dodge. He knew he had far too little time to react as he watched helplessly.

As Flavius closed his eyes in desperation, bracing for the deadly attack, his mind naively wished he was somewhere else, far beyond the reach of these assassins. He thinks that if he were still with Marcus, sparring on the training grounds, he could have avoided them altogether.

"What am I even thinking right now? This assassin is going to kill me the very next moment, while here I am, daydreaming about impossible situations. How impractical"

As he braced for the impact, he felt befuddled when it never arrived. Flavius felt just fine; it didn't hurt anywhere at all. Realizing how strange this was, he opened his eyes in panic.

When he opened his eyes, he could not believe what he saw. He found himself on the very same training grounds he had returned to minutes earlier. For a moment, he was absolutely silent, still processing what exactly had happened. But due to his brilliant intellect, he soon realized he possessed the ability to teleport!

Just as he was overjoyed by this sudden revelation, he turned behind to see an old man, dressed in long white robes, calmly seated beneath a tree, having witnessed the entirety of what had just happened.

Oh, it turns out the rumors were totally wrong, weren't they, kid?"

Flavius turns behind, bewildered. He instantly recognized who the old man was—he was none other than Aetherius the White Sage, renowned across the Celestrian Realm as one of the strongest human mages, whose magical proficiency and mana reserves rivaled those of experienced elves. He was also a loyal vassal of King Scipio.

"Well, what led you to teleport in such a hurry?"

"There were assassins after me, White Sage. I thought I would be fatally wounded, but then my mind desperately drifted, thinking of being here, in the Training Grounds—and here I was!"

"Truly fascinating. This is the first time I have seen a human teleport with my own eyes. Brilliant! I must tell the King immediately; he'll be overjoyed to learn about your ability!"

"Oh, about that. Could you please keep it a secret between us? I would really appreciate that. I don't want others to know that I can teleport for some personal reasons."

"Is that so, young kid? Alright, then. I shall not tell a soul. Well then, I shall take my leave" said Aetherius, as he silently began to walk away, heading towards the palace.

"I am most grateful for your understanding", said Flavius, as he felt relieved that no one else would know about his secret ability. He himself needed more time to grasp the extent, limitations, and potential of his newfound powers and thus felt that revealing them too soon would not be ideal.

The assassins were befuddled by the sudden turn of events. They could not comprehend how Flavius disappeared into thin air. This caused them to urgently retreat, fearing that someone else might be involved. But just as they opened the door of the Prince's room, eager to escape, they found their path blocked by none other than Aetherius himself.

"And where exactly were you planning to go, now?" asked an infuriated Aetherius, holding his wand in hand, ready to attack at any moment.

The assassins were soon arrested by the Imperial Guard and thrown into captivity. The impending punishment that awaited was, needless to say, capital execution. The Spymaster successfully forced them into revealing their client, who was Dux Decimus Longinus - a very influential figure in the aristocratic faction opposing the King. 

Flavius rushed to his room to try testing his newfound ability. He wished to teleport to the outskirts of the capital, and he succeeded. But he soon realized that he could not teleport to places he had never been before.

He also succeeded in teleporting anything that was in direct physical contact with his body, but realized that the greater the size of the object and the greater the distance of the destination, the more strain it produced in his body since it consumed a greater amount of mana.

"This is truly a wonderful ability. Imagine how useful this could be!", an elated Flavius thought to himself, his mind eager to test the limits of his ability.

An unfortunate drawback of this ability was that he had far more difficulty teleporting humans, as was evident when he tried to teleport both himself and Lucius to the Training Grounds. It creates far more exhaustion in a small amount of time for the more people to be transported. Nevertheless, due to Flavius' immense raw mana reserves, he can teleport a handful of people in an emergency.

Despite the drawbacks, Flavius was jubilant and confident in the vast potential of his magical ability. But he knew he needed a guide to realize its maximum power. So he and Lucius decided to secretly become apprentices of Aetherius—a seemingly improbable request at first, given that neither of them were capable of wielding elemental magic.

Nevertheless, both of them gather their courage and request that Aetherius mentor them.

"So, you both want me to hone your abilities further?"

"Yes, sir! We wish to get stronger and prove our strength to those who believe that we are weak!"

"That's a fine goal, but the path will be difficult. Do you still wish to proceed?"

"Certainly!"

"Alright then. Training begins tomorrow. Meet me in the evening the next day, at this very place. Don't be late!"

Thus, Flavius and Lucius succeeded in becoming the pupils of Aetherius and continued to train hard, honing their abilities further and reducing the side effects of their abilities. The "Worthless Prince" was now rather well-built and powerful for a 14-year-old; with black hair and brown eyes, he was blessed with good looks and astute intellect, while his best friend, Lucius, could easily be mistaken for someone far older due to his humongous physique and rapid improvement in prowess.

Nevertheless, the nobility still looked down on Flavius; after all, they themselves had given and propagated the undeserving nickname of the Crown Prince. The populace, on the other hand, had just begun to improve their opinion of Flavius, especially those who could not wield any magic at all, since they sympathized with the Prince.

Just as things were appearing to normalize, a devastating calamity that loomed silently over the Kingdom of Lucidia would take the entire nation by surprise and destroy the apparent illusion of peace. Its fortunes that were amassed by decades of prosperity would be reversed instantaneously on a single night, in what could be rightly described as the most catastrophic event the Kingdom and its people have ever faced....