The Greatest Celestial Summoner

Ain's concentration was destroyed, forcing him out of his Inner World and back into reality.

'What?! What the heck was that?' He questioned as he breathed heavily.

The shock from being dragged out of his Innerworld so suddenly winded him. It sounded like a small desk or drawer had fallen onto the floor.

Using the railing to get up, Ain couldn't react appropriately to the spectacle before him.

The infant girl, Annalise, was on her back outside of her crib. When Ain turned over to see how she had escaped, her holding cell was shaking as if it was about to tip over and trying to regain its balance.

"Guwaw?" Ain vocalized.

Without thinking, he questioned whether Annalise had vaulted over the crib's walls, but such a complex thought failed to escape his baby's body.

The sound that came out of his mouth, whatever it was, caught Annalise's attention.

She stopped laughing, oriented herself correctly, looked Ain in the eyes, crawled up to him, and then continued giggling.

Ain couldn't believe his eyes. This little girl, who was no older than a couple of months, vaulted over a wall that was taller than her and proceeded to crawl like it was nothing.

The impact from falling had to hurt a little, at least, but she was laughing!

'How… A human infant shouldn't have enough muscle mass for that to be physically possible.'

The crawling could be excused. Although rare, he's seen human children crawl as young as a month old, but the strength needed to support her entire body was another matter entirely!

'Is she not human? If she's a Vampire, it's plausible since their wings don't become visible until about 2 years old, if I recall.'

As if she was taunting Ain, she shook his crib a bit before turning and crawling away.

'What the fuck?'

"Wawh."

All Ain could do in response was blink repeatedly as he processed what had just happened.

Seeing as Core left the door open, Annalise crawled like lightning to escape the confines of this devilish prison!

'I… I want to follow her. But how… What a Monstrous Baby...'

The thought of using Mana to reinforce his body enough for him to vault the crib appeared in his mind for a little bit, but there was no way he had enough mana for that. 

Regarding reinforcement, Mana was nearly the least efficient power in the myriad universes regarding reinforcement and the creation of Auras.

He considered all the techniques he had mastered in his previous life, but none seemed useful in this situation.

'There has to be some technique I have that doesn't require much Mana, right? Thinking about it now… I only really tried to master techniques that seemed immediately useful or interesting. If I took more time to master other techniques, I might've been more useful to Pollux in the battle against Leviathan.'

Leviathan…

His eyes widened.

'IS THAT KID LEVIATHAN'S REINCARNATION?!'

His mind wandered to various places, which he stopped by shaking his head furiously. When he did, however, an idea came to mind.

'No, no, no. That'd be too much of a coincidence on top of the miracle I even reincarnated…'

But that minuscule chance made him even more curious.

'It doesn't have to be a technique that I've mastered. As long as its baseline mana consumption is low, I'll probably be able to make it work.'

That thought broadened his potential magicks by a large margin, but picking one that fit the criteria was still tricky.

Movement techniques involved an initial burst of Mana, making them unfit. Reinforcement was also out of the picture.

'A combustion spell? If I created a localized explosion, I might be able to blast myself out of the crib!' He thought… Before immediately rescinding it.

Just because he didn't fear death didn't mean he was suicidal, especially after already dying once…

As long as nobody considers that he's trying to see if that girl is the reincarnation of the primordial deity that he killed…

Not suicidal at all.

'Maybe I could change it to a softer material? Or If I start absorbing mana, I could probably conjure termites to eat away at the wood… No, that'd probably take too long.' He sighed, reaching dead end after dead end.

And then it hit him! He didn't need to destroy the wood or get rid of it. He just needed to warp or move it enough to fit through!

He stuck his arm through the wooden banister to get an idea of how wide it was. Much to his delight, the answer was quite.

If he squeezed tightly, he could almost fit half his body through.

'Alchemy! That's it!'

Ain had thought it weird for him to take this long to think of it. It wasn't like Alchemy was some rare or unused type of magic.

On the contrary, it was so common that nearly every world developed its own version. Better still, it lacked a required attribute, meaning anybody could use it if they were willing to learn the art!

It's just that… Alchemy was the punching bag of magical science. Unlike Thaumaturgy, which fueled the advance into the spars for almost every civilization, and Astrology, which Ain's entire Celestial Clan was founded upon, Alchemy was just… Kind of okay.

Recovery Potions and Buffing Pills were of great use, naturally, and their initial Mana cost was nearly 0! Not to mention that theoretically, the Philosopher's Stone could lead to potentially unlimited energy, but… That was it.

Theories of grandeur and stimulants. While creating the Philosopher's Stone was theoretically sound, no one in the vast universe has succeeded, deeming it impossible.

And as much as Ain would hate to say it, he was part of the problem. He needed to know Thaumaturgy to use his spaceship, and it was more than once that he arrogantly paraded that his expertise was better…

The sarcastic asshole he was aside, he was thrilled that none of those masters alchemists saw his current predicament.