The Ascension Of The Celestial Priest

Gasp!!!

A deep breath was heard under the clear sky. It was already sunrise, with the morning sun warming up the cold forest, waking up its sleepy denizen's one creature at a time. Its white light shone over the canopies of trees, barely able to shed its radiance onto a lonely body that seemed covered in blood and leaves under the forest floor.

He struggled to open his eyes, feeling the strange twangs of pains coursing through his body, distracting him, making him feel weak and impossible to form a coherent thought. Then the few last memories flashed in his mind which made him panic as he raised himself up, shielding his eyes immediately almost as if he was expecting something else was about to fall on him.

And to be fair, something had fallen on him which made it the last thing he could remember. He had just gone out to a grocery store, talking to his then serious boyfriend and just generally having a good laugh before he crossed a street under a construction site. Maybe he was too distracted to actually tell where he was or he didn't get to see the warning signs but the next thing he knew he heard a sharp clanging sound and looking at where the noise came from, the metal rod used in propping up large structures fell down on him in a whoosh. He didn't even get to scream before he woke up, in a desolate forest in the middle of nowhere.

"Where am I?" he asked himself after he collected his bearings. He looked around and all he could see where the threatening shadows that made the tall trees made in the morning somehow seem more sinister than usual. And the place he was laying was in a small clearing with a book and a long slender white staff beside him, with a dusty road passing by just a few meters away from him.

Suddenly he hissed as he held his head in pain. A huge boatload of information and memories jumped into his conscious brain, almost unbidden, forcefully imprinting inside his mind in such a painful fashion that by the time the whole process was done, he was left lying on his back, sweating bullets ruining his already dirty robes with a matte of grasses, mud and sweat.

"Lukas," he muttered to himself. In short he never would have guessed that instead of the afterlife he imagined after that accident he was somehow reattached to a new body with a new life in a brand new world. In his previous life, he had a good thing going on for him. He was making a decent living being an avid gamer and a streamer, following his passions and still had a lot of dreams to conquer. To boot he even found a potential partner to spend his whole life with but that was all robed away from by that freaking metal rod .

And now he was attached to a body named Lukas, same name as his except this one was a Son of one of the weakest noble families, the House of Raydore. Awakened with a Magical Element of Light; something which should have been the greatest gift turned into a constant curse for him. He was weak, branded as a less talented one as opposed to his younger sister and even on his 2nd qualifying quest to become a certified Adventurer ,he was abandoned by his team in such an insidious way that even the current Lukas had a moment of pity coursing his heart. But when it crossed his mind that it was such betrayal that led to the previous host's death, his heart went cold and warily smiled. He has obtained a new lease on life and already they were people trying to kill him.

Lukas slowly raised himself up. His whole body felt so fragile almost like it would break in pieces. He looked at the rising sun and for the first time since he has arrived in this new world of Magic he became angry. He had a good life back in Earth, a decent job online with a very good reputation and he was dating the man he loved with all his heart. If it wasn't for what happened to him he would have been home, cooked dinner for two and most probably spent a pleasant evening without a worry in the world.

"Dammit!" his hand smashed into the tree, slightly scorching it as his light element flared under his intense emotions. He looked at his hand as his heart became torn in pieces. In almost all the stories He had ever read and heard, most reincarnators were ecstatic to find a world where magic was real and they were able to fly in the air, control the elements with their will or even blessed with strange telekinetic abilities but for him, what he had lost far outweighed what he had found. His family, lover and his friends where all in his old world, making him feel vulnerable and unsafe in this new place he found himself in.

Shaking his head, he looked around at the awakening forest before he decided to take a direction he somehow felt familiar with. He was lucky that according to his previous host memories he was still in the outskirts of the Evergreen Forest and he should probably hurry up when he still able to get out of the forest alive.

Limping and half running he crossed the trees and bushes in a half a beat using the white staff as a support all until he reached the road. Feeling grateful that he had found the runic staff near him, he had the mind to also take that book which was now clutched on his free hand as well. He looked back at the trees that adorned the forest and sighed. Of course he had seen that horrifying death the previous host went through and though he had many questions on the lines of like if the previous host died by being mauled why was his current body seemingly healed, and why he was borne onto this specific body in this new world, or the fact on the reason why he was chosen. He then guessed or more like felt that this might be caused by some kind of a cosmic being (he wasn't a devout believer back on earth) and that maybe, just maybe all this happened for a reason though as he thought more about it, he had to make sure he survived long enough to get the answers to all the questions are currently plaguing his mind.