Quantum of Cinder

Zian Valerius was a chemical engineer on the verge of a breakthrough, only to be betrayed and executed by his closest allies for his 'heretical' theories. He awakens reborn into the same world twenty years later, in the body of a disgraced, mana-starved noble named Kaelen Drozdov. The magical oligarchy that stole his work now reaps its rewards, pushing the world towards a gilded catastrophe only he knows how to prevent. Haunted by the ghost of a love he lost, Kaelen must reclaim his legacy. He'll start by systematically dismantling the empire of his betrayers, using his knowledge of chemical kinetics and programming logic to transform the rigid art of elemental magic into an explosive, replicable science. But the deeper he delves into the world's mana streams, the more he realizes his enemies are not merely greedy - they are terrified. What ancient power did his original research threaten to unleash?