Reincarnated as The Greatest Scientist in Another World

The sun hung low, tangled behind shattered branches. Ain lay sprawled on the damp forest floor, blood seeping into the rotting leaves beneath him. Each heartbeat hammered against cracked ribs — the only proof that life hadn't yet slipped from his grasp.

In front of him stood Suha — or whatever Suha had become. A black aura coiled around her like living fog, spiraling up her spine and unfurling into ragged, shifting wings that trembled beneath the fractured moonlight.

The mage-knights, armored in silver runes and flowing cloaks, stepped back as one. Not a word left their lips — their eyes said everything: the girl they'd cornered had become something they no longer understood.

From the wreckage of a fallen trunk, the magic general rose. Half his face was smeared with blood, eyes narrowed — the eyes of a predator forced to watch its prey sprout fangs.

Suha's mouth opened. Her voice shattered the hush — echoing, layered, a chorus of ancient whispers crawling out from her bones.

Zuko knelt beside Ain, pressing a torn strip of cloth to the wound at his ribs. His eyes darted between the spreading red and the girl wreathed in the black storm.

Behind the trees, the Null hid. Fathers gripped splintered sticks, mothers clamped shaking hands over their children's eyes. Hope and horror fused into a single name on their trembling lips.

The general hissed an order. The knights shifted, forming a circle around the clearing, runes flickering cold and blue across their palms.

The ground beneath Suha's bare feet cracked open. Grass withered black. The air thickened — heavy with the stench of rot and something older than fear.

Zuko held his breath. He had seen enough magic to know: this was no spell. This felt closer to a nightmare made flesh — something born before the first incantation was ever spoken.

Ain's hand clutched Zuko's sleeve, his whisper ragged beneath the rush of blood pounding in his ears.

"Use the chaos… get them out…"

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✦

Suha stepped forward — the earth split where her feet fell. The general bared bloodied teeth, spitting contempt through the blood on his tongue.

"Null filth. You think you can stand against the throne of magic?"

Suha's eyes turned pitch black. She lunged.

Her fist slammed into the ground — a blast of rotting wind exploded outward, swallowing two mage-knights where they stood. Their screams cracked the night, cut short as armor and flesh withered to gray dust.

Zuko barked to the Nulls hidden in the trees. "Run! Deeper! Now!"

Ain's eyelids fluttered open, catching a shard of moonlight cutting through the branches. For a heartbeat, he didn't see the forest — he saw the reactor core he had once built, a tiny sun buried beneath the earth. A reckless spark flickered behind his eyes: raw, uncontrolled power.

Suha's scream ripped through the canopy. Her voice split in two — half hers, half something older that borrowed her throat to roar.

The general charged, blade raised — but his steel vanished into a curtain of black mist. Metal hissed, rusted mid-swing, and rained away in flakes.

Zuko turned, palm glowing frost-blue — a sheet of jagged ice snapped into place, catching a spell arrow that would have split a fleeing Null child in half.

On the ground, Ain's fingers scrabbled for a cracked shard of mana stone. Even half-conscious, his mind stitched together the ghost of a plan — a makeshift bomb, or at least one more distraction.

Suha staggered, black tendrils thrashing. Tiny fractures webbed across her arms, as if something monstrous inside her strained to burst free.

A Null man dropped to his knees behind the brush, mumbling a prayer to a death god he'd never dared believe in until now.

The general barked a new order — panic frayed his voice. The knights scrambled with shaking hands, carving hasty runes into the dirt.

Zuko braced himself, hoisting Ain across his shoulders. His teeth clenched against the boy's weight. "Stay awake. If you die now, this all dies with you."

Suha turned. For a heartbeat, her black eyes flickered — soft brown fighting through the abyss. She found Zuko. She found Ain.

A whisper cracked the night — raw and almost human. "Go… I'll stop them…"

Ain's gaze met hers — a promise and a curse flickering between them like sparks on dry straw.

Then the black wave surged, and the forest exploded.

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✦

The blast hurled charred branches skyward. Screams mingled with the hiss of fire and the roar of shredded wind. Somewhere inside that chaos, Suha's voice rose — a girl's broken cry trapped inside a monster's roar.

Zuko staggered toward the cliff's edge. The gorge yawned wide — swallowing the burning trees in its endless black. Far below, a river thundered, waiting to crush whatever fled.

He dropped Ain for a heartbeat, breath ragged in his throat. He stared at his own palm — frost crackled over his skin, crawling into the air in thin blue veins. The ice stretched out, forming a bridge across the void — a trembling path, fragile as glass, glowing under fractured moonlight.

The first step creaked. The second cracked. It wouldn't hold long.

He hauled Ain back onto his shoulder. Behind them, flames devoured the last unburnt tree. Far away, Suha — or the thing wearing her skin — howled at the sky like a broken god.

Zuko drew in a ragged breath. Blood, frost, and ash burned on his tongue. Just a little further. Just a little more.

On his back, Ain stirred — fingers curling weakly into Zuko's cloak.

And below them, the burning forest feasted on the kingdom's lies — feeding the first breath of rebellion with its fresh harvest of ash.