by Katiccee
At the tender age of four, Itsuki is accidentally transported to a high-mana fantasy world where so-called Otherworlders appear due to rare natural phenomena. Unlike summoned heroes, these children are unprepared, fragile, and often die young from mana overload. Taken in by a powerful nation and kept alive within the royal palace, Itsuki grows up surrounded by others like him—lost, fragile, and slowly fading. It is there that he discovers his strange ability, Soul Reader: the power to see the colors of mana surrounding every living being, revealing their personalities and intentions. Then everything burns. When an ancient dragon descends upon his new home, chaos erupts. In the destruction, Itsuki is torn away, believing the only place he ever belonged has been annihilated. Lost, injured, and alone, he stumbles into a desperate encounter with the very dragon responsible. Thinking he might die anyway, Itsuki tries to save his friends by forming a pact with the dragon—offering to take away the black aura he sees consuming it. Unaware of the consequences and forced to flee before he can even understand what he’s become, Itsuki takes refuge deep within a monster-filled forest. There, his overwhelming mana reshapes the land itself. Tribes kneel. Monsters evolve. Now marked as the master of an ancient dragon, Itsuki must decide what kind of ruler he will become… in a world that may never forgive him for surviving.
