JOURNEY TO THE HEAVEN TO HELL

Chapter 3

When Ren first attempted magic, conjuring his initial water bubble, it was with an unforeseen, raw power. The resulting explosion was so immense it obliterated half the garden, its echoing roar shaking the very foundations of the palace. Everyone who heard or witnessed it was left in stunned disbelief.

Arisa stood frozen, her mouth agape, utterly bewildered by what had just transpired. She couldn't process the sheer force she'd witnessed, her mind struggling to comprehend the impossible.

Ren, for his part, stared at his hands, then at himself, trying to grasp what he had just done and how. He was astonished by the power that had surged through him. He had always believed he couldn't do magic, yet this spontaneous, untrained attempt had unleashed such a devastating attack.

The deafening sound of the blast drew everyone's attention. Soldiers rushed in from all directions, questioning if an attack had occurred, if an enemy had breached the palace.

The King and his ministers also hastened to the scene, fearing an enemy invasion. When the King arrived, he saw the immense devastation, the gaping crater left by the attack. He was at a loss, unable to comprehend who or what could have caused such a destructive force.

Luna soon arrived, her eyes widening in disbelief at the massive crater and the sheer scale of the destruction. She was shocked, unable to fathom what had truly happened.

The Queen, her face etched with worry, rushed to Ren's side. "Are you alright, dear? What happened? Tell me, are you hurt?" She frantically checked him for injuries, her concern overriding all else.

Ren remained in a state of profound shock.

The soldiers then reported to the King, "Your Majesty, there has been no external attack, nor do we see any sign of an enemy."

The King turned to Arisa, his voice firm. "Arisa, tell me, what happened here?"

Arisa remained silent, still too stunned to speak, her mind a whirlwind of confusion.

The King's voice boomed, "Tell me what happened here!"

Arisa, snapping back to reality, stammered, "Your Majesty, all of this... the young prince did it. This attack was caused by the young prince."

Her words sent a wave of shock through everyone present.

The King's voice rose in disbelief. "What are you saying? Ren is still so young! He has never learned magic to an extent that he could unleash such a powerful attack. How did he learn magic, and how could he possibly have done something so incredibly powerful? How is this even possible for such a small child?"

Arisa insisted, "Your Majesty, please believe me, the young prince truly did it. You can ask him yourself."

Luna immediately rushed to Ren, her eyes wide with a mix of awe and curiosity. "Ren, did you do this magic? Tell me, did you do this?"

Ren, understanding the gravity of the situation, simply nodded. "Yes, I did."

The Queen, still worried, asked, "But how did you do it? You're so small, and you didn't even know magic. How did you do it?"

Ren explained, "I saw Arisa doing magic, so I just copied her. I tried to do the same, and it just happened. I don't know how, I just did it."

The King, a thoughtful expression on his face, said, "Alright, Ren. Can you do this magic again?"

The Queen immediately interjected, "What are you saying, dear? He might get hurt! Ren is still so young!"

Ren, however, was intrigued. "I don't know if I can do it again, but I think I want to try. I just want to see how it works."

The King smiled. "Alright then, let's go to the training grounds."

Soon, everyone of importance gathered at the training grounds near the palace. The less important personnel were sent away.

Ren stood in the center of the field, facing a designated target. His task was to use magic to destroy it. He closed his eyes, concentrating deeply. He poured all his strength into it, thinking that perhaps it had happened that way the first time – by simply putting all his effort into it. He hoped that even if nothing grand happened, something would.

He closed his eyes and concentrated. The same phenomenon occurred: fierce winds began to swirl around him, and dark clouds gathered in the sky. But this time, it was different.

This time, he was consciously pouring all his power into it, hoping to at least perform some magic and prove he could do it. So, he truly unleashed all his power.

But what manifested was an even grander attack, one that spread across the entire training ground. The resulting devastation was immense, obliterating everything in front of him. It was a blast so powerful, no one could have imagined a child capable of it. Everyone present was utterly astonished that a small child could wield such immense power and unleash such a devastating attack.

Ren thought to himself: This is a strange feeling. I feel like I can control water, like it's incredibly simple. All I have to do is call the water to me, gather it, and then simply give it an order, and it obeys. Magic means how much control you have. Magic is spread everywhere. The only difference is whether you can gather it or not. You just need to collect it, bring it together, and unleash it, turning it into an attack. But how do I have this knowledge? Ah, perhaps from my previous life, where I learned so much. Maybe magic is just like science. I feel like I'm floating in the air, like I can control everything. Maybe reading magic books doesn't matter. Maybe magic is inside you, and you just need to feel it and bring it out. Perhaps this is the true essence of magic, and I'm starting to understand it. I can feel the essence flowing within me, the power inside me; I can see it.

Ren opened his eyes and saw the enormous destruction before him. He hadn't intended to create such a massive blast. He had merely closed his eyes and tried to do magic, but he never expected it to be this huge. Perhaps he could do magic, but he lacked the control to gauge its scale. Maybe all the magic that had been dormant within him for so long had burst forth, unchecked. He could wield magic, but he couldn't control its intensity.

Everyone stood in shocked silence.

Then, breaking through the stunned stillness, Luna rushed forward, tearing through the onlookers. She embraced her brother tightly, overflowing with joy. She grabbed his hands and spun him around, utterly delighted that her little brother could finally do magic, and such powerful magic at that! "You're so strong!" she exclaimed.

The King laughed, a proud glint in his eye. "Amazing, my son! You are incredibly strong, just like me!" But the Queen's face was still etched with concern.

The King then turned to his minister. "Go, make the preparations!"

Ren wondered, Preparations for what? What are they talking about?

Soon, everyone was inside the palace.

The King called out, "Come here, Ren!"

Ren approached the King and stood before him, still a little confused about what was happening.

Then the King commanded, "Bring it forth!"

A large crystal ball was placed before the main character, and he was told to place his hand on it.

The King explained, "This is our family's ancestral crystal ball."

"This crystal ball will reveal how much magic you possess."

"If the crystal turns white, it means you have magic."

"If it turns blue, it means you have more magical power than an ordinary person."

"If this ball turns yellow, it means you possess two elemental powers. You can use two elements, and you have the power of two elements within you."

"And if it turns red, it means you possess three elemental powers, like Luna. Hers also turned red; she has three elemental powers."

"If the color of this crystal ball turns silver, it means you are very rare. You possess four elemental powers. You can control four elements, but it's not that easy."

"And finally, golden color. This has never happened before, but it is said that whoever possesses this means they can control five elements. That means they are extremely, incredibly powerful and exceedingly rare. It is believed to be impossible for anyone to achieve."

Ren thought to himself, So, that's how this ball works. What will mine be? At least let it be blue or yellow.

The main character placed his hand on the crystal ball. A blinding light erupted from it, and then the crystal ball...

...turned entirely black. Everyone watched in stunned silence, utterly bewildered. They hadn't heard anything about black! Why black?

The King, too, looked completely shocked. Everyone was staring, seeing that the crystal ball had turned black.

Ren wondered, What's happening? My color didn't appear. It's black. Does that mean I don't have magic? No, that can't be right! I just did magic! So, what does this black color mean?

Then the King, explaining to everyone, said, "What the black color means..."

"Black is also very rare, but no one ever talks about it because..."

"It was only ever heard of in legends, but no one has ever truly seen it."

"The black color means that the person possesses an immense amount of elemental magical power. It means they have so much power that even the crystal ball cannot fully grasp or understand it. It is an unknown power, a power that is different from all of us. No one knows what it can do or how many elements it can control."

Hearing this, everyone was both astonished and overjoyed that their Prince was so incredibly strong.

The King was also overjoyed. "My son is a genius!" he exclaimed.

Luna rushed to embrace him. "My brother is a genius!" she cried.

Ren was still bewildered. Just moments ago, he couldn't even do magic, and now he was a genius. It had all happened so suddenly.

The King then announced, "Now, I will arrange for an excellent, grand teacher for you, who will teach you magic."

Ren quickly interjected, "No, Dad, wait! I don't need any teacher. Arisa will teach me magic. I want to learn magic from her only. Besides, I'm still very young, so I don't need such a grand teacher. I just want to learn from her, simply."

The main character thought to himself, I don't know much about my own magic yet. I want to understand myself first, to explore what I can do. I don't want to reveal how strong I am. If possible, I want to keep my power hidden as I learn.

And for that, it would be best if I learn magic from Arisa, so that not many people know how much I can truly do.

Arisa looked surprised. "What? Why are you choosing me, Prince?"

Ren looked at her, a hint of challenge in his eyes. "Why? Do you have a problem with teaching me magic?"

Arisa quickly replied, "Yes, yes, alright, Prince." And said nothing more.

Slowly, time passed, and the news began to spread among everyone, becoming widely known.

That the Third Prince, despite being so young, could already use magic and was incredibly strong. Gradually, it became famous that the Third Prince was a genius.

Far away, in a different place...

A man dressed in white robes rushed to his leader. "Leader, perhaps he has been born. He has taken birth."

The leader listened, then began to laugh. "What? He has been born? That means perhaps our Hero has also been born alongside him."

And he continued to laugh.

A few months passed, and the main character was diligently practicing magic. He had now learned to control magic quite well.

He had mastered controlling two types of magic: water and fire. He had learned both very well.

The main character stood on a training ground.

Arisa was demonstrating how to perform fire magic even more effectively.

She explained, "Look, to perform fire magic, you need even more energy. Draw energy from within yourself, and to launch a powerful attack, control the environment around you and unleash a strong blow." She demonstrated a large attack into the sky, which resulted in a massive blast.

Ren mused, "This is just like the atom bombs we had in my previous world. That makes it even simpler for me because I already know all this." He closed his eyes, gathered power, and launched an even larger attack into the sky, resulting in a blast twice the size of Arisa's. He had completely mastered controlling fire magic and launching attacks.

Arisa thought to herself, How is he able to do magic so well despite being so young? He truly is a genius! I never thought this mischievous boy could actually achieve something like this, or that he would possess so much power.

Ren said, "I know fire magic and water magic, but that's not enough. I need to learn more, but how? I don't want to tell anyone else too much, but I still need to learn."

He then asked Arisa, "Do you know anything else besides these two?"

Arisa replied, "I can only control two elements, no more, so I can only teach you that much."

Ren said, "Alright, but can't you make water magic better?"

Arisa looked puzzled. "What do you mean? I don't understand. I do it quite well, don't I?"

Ren thought to himself, Water magic... how can we make it even better? After all, we can make ice from water, so can I do ice magic?

The main character then declared, "Alright, let's end today's lesson here. I'm leaving."

Arisa asked, "That's it? You don't want to learn more?"

Ren replied, "No, we'll learn later." He then ran off.

After returning to his room, he read some books and pondered, Maybe magic can be upgraded? But how?

Then he thought about the studies he had done in his previous life, hoping they might be useful. He considered, How can I upgrade water magic?

So he tried to perform magic and simultaneously attempted to automatically upgrade it, trying to create ice magic from water. But he didn't succeed, as he couldn't understand how to turn water into ice or how to create ice magic.

He read books again but still couldn't grasp it. He thought back to his previous life's studies. He had been taught how ice forms: when water gets very cold, it turns into ice. But how to apply that here?

Then it clicked: he would also need to learn wind magic. By controlling both wind and water, he could create ice magic.

Ren thought to himself: Magic and science are perhaps similar. I can easily learn magic because I've studied so much about it. So I understand this much.

He then went to his elder sister, Luna, and asked her, "Sister, what kind of magic can you do?"

Luna teased him, "Oh, a genius asking me what kind of magic I can do? You're learning magic from Arisa, aren't you? So why are you here? Tell me."

Ren stammered, "Oh, Sister, well, it's just that..." He couldn't quite form a complete sentence.

Luna chuckled. "Oh, I was just joking! I'll tell you what kind of magic I can do."

She demonstrated, conjuring water magic, fire magic, and wind magic in her hands.

Ren's eyes lit up with excitement. He was overjoyed that his sister knew wind magic. "Sister," he pleaded, "will you teach me too? Please!"

Luna smiled. "You want to learn magic? Alright, I have a condition."