1 Chapter 1

Author Note: The story begins at chapter 1, but the prologue introduces the MC and explains her background. Feel free to skip it if you are not interested, but as the author I recommend reading it.

When Adair woke up, she was elated that for the first time in a perceived eternity she was no longer surrounded by complete darkness. Instead, she found herself inside a small metal crib, which felt surprisingly comfortable. It was fuzzy and radiated a presence of warmth. Baby Adair wiggled around on her stomach to look down to see that the bedding was merely an inch in height, and even with her small weight, she could somewhat feel the metal underneath her.

No matter how thoroughly Adair scanned the room, she failed to find any signs of technology whatsoever. This was quite strange for Adair since the life she had before being reincarnated had been full of technology.

Almost anything had been possible with the technology of the Galactic Empire. You wanted to become smarter? Purchase a cranial implant and get it implanted on the very same day! Unhappy with the genes of your ancestors and you want your offspring to do better? No problem, genetic boosters could fix that.

So the fact that there were no interfaces for any computers worried her a lot. Without the help of technology the amount of time it would take her to learn everything about her new world would be significantly longer than she had anticipated.

She then checked if her cranial implant was still there, only to find that there was nothing there. At that moment Adair realized how dumb she had been for even checking. Why would a piece of technology accompany her through a reincarnation process that made her inhabit a new body? It just didn't make any sense, and anyone who would have been lucky enough to start out with such an advantage must have been handpicked by the creator for no apparent reason.

The lack of that implant certainly explained why she had been unable to understand the two women that had been with her when she was born. Before the civilization test, every participant had downloaded a file containing thousands of languages. That very same program had been able to teach itself unknown languages in a matter of minutes which had allowed Adair and the other 'Gods' to communicate with their people.

After determining that there was indeed no familiar looking technology she noticed that there were many circles around the room with different types of symbols portrayed on them. Some had moons, others depicted young children, and several had one of the four elements. This made Adair question what they were used for. She considered if they might be a different form of technology that Adair had never come across before but she quickly ruled it out due to the lines appearing to be written in chalk.

'Maybe it could be a type of magic?' she wondered to herself. The Galactic Empire did have a select few powerful families that had been able to control water with their hands or breathe fire. While such skills had been uncommon in the Empire that may not be the case in Adair's new life.

Adair's thoughts were interrupted by her little stomach growling. It took her a moment to comprehend why this was the case. For the past 3,000+ years she had survived in the void without the need for any sustenance, yet as a baby she now had to eat again if she wanted to grow up strong and healthy. Adair tried to move to escape the crib, but at the moment she could only move by dragging herself on her stomach, which was ineffective and very stamina consuming.

'Well, this is awkward. It looks like I'll need to learn how to walk again.' She then decided to test out if she could at least still talk and called out, "Hello, anyone around?"

Soon after she asked this question she heard the footsteps of another person coming towards her room. The older lady who had delivered her opened the door. As soon as she did all of the circles around the room lit up simultaneously. There were even a few hidden ones that Adair had missed. The sign was universal enough for even her to understand that something was prepared to attack the lady in the doorway if she turned out to be an intruder.

However, the older lady appeared unphased by this show of power and simply cut the tip of her finger with a small knife and allowed several drops of her blood to hit the ground. Baby Adair watched this in awe. Immediately afterwards the circles turned off and the room went back to its previous state leading Adair to the conclusion that this had to be some sort of verification process. The lady picked Adair up, wrapped her up tightly in a blanket and walked out the door as she held the little bundle of joy close to her.

Luckily for Adair, her head was left uncovered, so she took in the surroundings, hoping to perhaps learn something else about her new environment. The grey brick walls held torches to light up the hallways, confusing Adair whether this era was an advanced one or not. They went down several hallways and took many right and left turns until they finally reached a well-decorated room. Behind it was the other lady that Adair had seen when she was born.

Since the older lady had passed the baby to the younger one, Adair had naturally concluded that she had to be her mother. Earlier she had been too tired to get a good look at her new parent, so only now did she notice that her new mother had rainbow-colored hair as well as two folded up crystal wings behind her back, making her appearance quite different from what Adair was used to.

The adults of the Galactic Empire ranged from five-feet to seven-feet height-wise. Their natural hair colors were either a shining gold color, as had been the case for Adair in her past life, or a midnight black. Every once in a while, there would be someone born with blood-red hair, which indicated that they were extremely gifted in some way or another.

Galactic citizens had two arms with five fingers on each hand, two legs with five toes on each foot, one head with a nose, a mouth, two eyes and two ears. In holographic games, they were the base race that could do everything fine but nothing extraordinary.

Some outliers had made their height super tall or short for artistic expression, but those had been in the clear minority. With the genetic formulas in the Empire, you could theoretically look any way you wanted. Still, there had been a few restrictions placed down by the authorities, like the prohibition on changing one's hair color. Almost anything else was ok, though.

For example, the most popular singer in Adair's lifetime in the Galactic Empire had been five feet ten inches tall, but he had been outstanding due to his three orange eyes, with the last one on his forehead, making for a triangular shape. This had then started a trend among the youth of having three eyes instead of the usual two. When this happened, the older generations had been beside themselves calling for a ban of this nonsense, but eventually they had concluded that it was just a phase that would soon come to pass.

Aside from adding eyes, many other factors about one's self could be changed as well.

If you had felt like you were too tall, it would be easy to take a couple of inches off, the same had been true vice-versa. If you hadn't liked the shape of your face, you could have minor changes done to you or a complete overhaul.

Of course, some procedures had cost more than others, but with the Galactic Empire's average income nobody had been left starving, nearly everyone could get some genetic changes if they wished to. Worst case, they might have had to wait a couple of months.

Nevertheless certain things had been impossible to add. A few examples of these would be wings, such as these her new mother had, extra arms or extra legs. In fact, the third eye had merely been a minor cosmetic addition and had not had any visual nerves connected to it whatsoever.

Fortunately, not counting the hair and the wings, Adair's new mother looked exactly like an average Galactic citizen would. This made Adair confident that perhaps she had been reincarnated into an extremely advanced time where the Galactic Empire's government had relaxed its hair color restrictions, and genetic engineers had found a way to attach wings to people.

The Reincarnation Machine had clearly said that there was a… now that she thought about it, it had given her a 95.4% chance to end up with the same race that she was before the reincarnation. Had she really been so unlucky to no longer be a human? Adair made a mental note to find a mirror at the first opportunity to determine if she had indeed become a member of another race after her reincarnation.

The two ladies were talking in their foreign language again, and as before Adair was unable to understand anything. She would have to learn the language the good old-fashioned way, so that was another goal that she set for herself.

For now she had three goals in her new life. One, learn how to walk in her baby body, two, learn what race she was, and three, master the language so she could gain more knowledge about her new life.

Her mom asked the older lady, "Brigitta, was ist los? Stimmt etwas mit dem Baby nicht?" (Brigitta, what is it? Is there something wrong with the baby?)

The lady that was carrying Adair shook her head, "Eure Majestät, die Kleine ist aufgewacht und hat geweint. Ich bin mir sicher, dass sie einfach nur hungrig ist." (Your Majesty, the little one has woken up and was crying. I'm sure she's just hungry.)

Her new mother let out a deep sigh before stretching out her arms, "Mein armes Mädchen. Schnell, Brigitta, gib mir Adair!" (My poor girl. Quick, Brigitta, give me Adair!)

When Adair heard her name, she felt a shock run through her. What was the likelihood of her receiving the same name in both lives? It had to be an infinitely small chance of that occurring naturally. Her name had been an unusual one in the Galactic Empire and throughout her life, she had only ever known two other Adair's.

As she was pondering about whether or not Adair was a common name in this era, she noticed that the older woman handed her over to her mother. Adair herself felt a bit uncomfortable to do the natural thing which came next, yet her body disagreed and instinctively started to drink the mother's milk. Unfortunately for her mother, baby Adair had yet to gain any control over her bodily functions and involuntarily began to piss all over the poor woman while being fed.

Her mom frowned, but did not interrupt the mealtime. For a second she looked up to the older woman, who immediately went to fetch her a towel. While mother and daughter were alone, Adair felt that the young woman touched her back at the exact place where her wings should be. It didn't feel any different from any other situation to Adair, but her mother became thrilled as she whispered to the baby. "Du hast meine Blutlinie!" (You have my bloodline!) Based on the tone of her mother's voice, Adair could tell something was off, but she couldn't tell what.

"Schau dir mein wunderschönes Baby an! Mit meiner Blutlinie besteht kein Zweifel daran, dass sie die mächtigste Person auf Istea werden kann!" (Look at my beautiful baby! With my bloodline, there is no doubt that she can become the most powerful person on Istea!)

The other lady who had just returned put on a tired smile as she nodded, "Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Eure Majestät." (Congratulations, your Majesty.)

Ignoring the snideness of her oldest maid, the young woman demanded, "Wir müssen so schnell wie möglich einen Gentest durchführen, um ihre Vorfahren und ihr zukünftiges Potenzial zu bestimmen. Richte meinem Gemahl aus, dass ich nach der Geburt extrem schwach bin und nicht in der Lage bin ihn zu sehen. Halte Ihn davon ab uns zu besuchen so lange es nur geht. Ich möchte nicht, dass er herausfindet dass unser Kind größeres Potenzial haben könnte als er. Ich befürchte, dass er Adair konsumieren würde, um sich selbst zu stärken!" (We need to do a genetic test as soon as possible to determine the child's ancestry and future potential. Tell my husband that I'm extremely weak after giving birth and that I'm unable to see him. Keep him from visiting us for as long as possible. I don't want him to find out that our child might have more potential than him. I fear that he would consume Adair to strengthen himself!)

The older lady had a frown on her face. The request was certainly not an easy one. "Ich werde tun was ich kann, damit Seine Majestät beschäftigt ist, sodass Sie die Prinzessin ohne Unterbrechung testen können." (I will do what I can to keep His Majesty busy so that you can test the Princess without any interruptions.)

Adair understood from their facial expressions that the two of them had to be discussing something very significant, but the language barrier, as well as their entirely different culture, made it impossible for baby Adair to get to the core of things. However, at that moment she didn't care about any of that, because she was busy with her meal.

As soon as she was done her mom appeared to follow the instructions of the older woman and placed Adair in an upright position before she gently patted her on the back. Once more Adair reacted without meaning to and let out a burp, making her add another task onto her agenda. Before learning how to walk, she would have to fully focus on learning how to use her new bodily functions!

What feels like two weeks passed in a cycle of Adair sleeping, feeding and being carried around without any major hiccups. In this time, Adair learned how to move her fingers and toes, but she still couldn't move her arms or legs at all. Also, in the last two weeks, she had never left her mom's side.

On the morning of the 15th day after her birth, Adair was woken up by her new mother. The young woman picked her up and wrapped her into more blankets than usual, before she headed out the door. Adair was wide awake at this point. She wanted to figure out as much as possible about the new world she got reincarnated into.

After thirty minutes of traveling through the castle Adair was completely lost. She had no idea where she was currently at, compared to where they had started off. With how many turns they had taken and all those different flights of stairs her mom had taken, Adair honestly would not be too surprised if it turned out they had just ended up one hallway away from their starting point. Still, eventually her mother appeared to have finally reached the destination she was looking for.

It was yet another gray stone door... Adair continued to look and eventually found a minor difference compared to the hundreds of doors they had passed on their way here. This one had a small extremely faded circle on the top right hand corner. If Adair was not explicitly looking for it, she never would have noticed. Her mom used a small dagger to prick both hers and Adair's finger, although she made sure to only graze the surface in her daughter's case.

The young woman caught her daughter's blood in a black test tube looking container, before placing both their cut fingers on the small circle. The door then became transparent to reveal a hidden stairway heading into the abyss.

The way the door changed back to its initial appearance, only strengthened Adair's belief that this world had some sort of technology, only it was a different type from the one the Galactic Empire had. When Adair focused on the stairway she detected that there were circles of light on the walls that partially lit up the stairway, yet left some dark spots, making it seem as if the stairs would go on forever.

Adair had started to develop a phobia of the dark. Her one mistake in the civilization test had led her to suffer multiple millennia in the darkness of that void and after her deal with the Reincarnation Machine had led to a similar outcome, yet far shorter. When her mom noticed that Adair was apprehensive about them going down the stairway she hugged her little baby tightly. She was also talking to her daughter while caressing her head in an attempt to calm her down.

Unfortunately for Adair, when her mom clutched her tighter, she also got moved around, preventing her from seeing the world around her, so she started struggling to change her position. Alas, it had the opposite effect, only causing her to be clutched even tighter by her mom. Eventually, Adair gave up and just rested in her mom's arms.

Once Adair had stopped squirming around, her mom took it as a sign that she had calmed down, and started to head down the stairway. They continued to go down for hours, but all of a sudden her mom released some of her grip on Adair. Her daughter immediately turned her head around to see the reason for their sudden halt.

What she saw was a huge cavern that from Adair's point of view appeared to be at least the size of an average city in the Galactic Empire. Only instead of buildings filling up the space, there was a majestic black pyramid in the middle, and it was taller than any skyscraper she had ever seen. It had to be two or three times the size of the already giant Reincarnation Machine.

The structure was lit up by an electric blue light that appeared to be coming from its base. Another identifying feature of it were the huge wings engraved onto each side of the pyramid. Adair instantly recognized those wings as the same ones that her mom had, making her even more curious about all the secrets this new world had to offer..

Adair concluded that the technology level of the people who had built this structure had to have been at least on the same level as the Galactic Empire if not more so. The stark difference between the gray castle building above them and the pyramid in front of them was so drastic that Adair assumed that this had to be a relic of a past civilization and not something that the current rulers of the planet could create. She would have loved to ask her mother all about it, but that would have to wait until she had learned how to speak the language.

Her mom slowly started walking towards the pyramid and when they got close, the blue light covered them. Afterwards the giant slabs of black stone parted to allow the two of them entry. The hallways inside were heading everywhere except downwards. Nearly every direction you looked at, there would be a hallway covered in blue light that you could travel through. More and more appeared the further inside they went.

After several more turns, with the color of the hallways changing every now and then, they eventually arrived at a room that was empty apart from the giant circle in the middle of it and a small area with a bench on the far back. At the top of the circle there was a picture of the sun, while at its bottom, there was a picture of two moons. In the exact middle of the giant circle there was a small circle that barely had enough room for a person to stand in.

In between the small inner circle and the large outer circle, there were symbols and shapes that Adair did not recognize, but theorized could be part of the language on this planet, so she tried to memorize as many as possible.

Her mom brought out the dagger once more and cut herself on her finger. Several drops of blood fell on the picture of the sun. When that happened, all of the symbols in the middle moved to the side and opened up a pathway to the small circle in the middle.

They went forward, before her mother carefully laid down baby Adair in the middle circle and then walked out. Then the words filled in the pathway that had been there a moment ago. Although she hated to admit it, Adair felt as soon as her mother had left her side. She was incapable of taking care of herself at this early stage of her development and this current scene was scary to her.

'Is this a blood ritual? Will I be sacrificed to someone? Have I been tricked by the Reincarnation Machine?'

As Adair's mind continued to question just what had led her mother to bring her down here, she watched her supposed guardian pour the sample of her blood onto one of the moons. Next she took out another vial that had contained someone else's blood which was black for some reason, and let it fall onto the second moon.