《Existence》 Prologue Prologue An explosion, that is the only way to describe my birth. A sentient being that was composed of the entire universe. I do not know where I came from, only that I existed, and that I came from a fire inferno that engulfed all of space. I had no physical body, I was only somehow observing everything in this space at once. I say that, but I could only focus my attention to one particular area. I was not omniscient. After a time, a very long time. I thought that everything seemed dull to be such a storm, and before I knew it, objects started to form, stars. These stars were tiny, they were so tiny that I barely noticed them until too many had formed. These stars were attracted to one another and began to form from small clusters, to galaxies. I began to wonder about myself, about why I came to being, about why I was here, and why I was alone. Soon, something started to happen on a pale blue dot. The matter that clumped together to form planets started to move on its own. I looked at these clumps of matter and determined that they were a unique creation. Life had formed. I watched as these lifeforms flourished, they began with simplicity and rose to complexity. I this point, I wondered, what would it be like if I could interact with these creatures. As life evolved further and further, I thought about beings like myself, and before I knew it. Humans had come to being.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Humans were exactly like me in mind, but they had the benefit of others similar to themselves though, they grew and advanced. I understood that I willed them into creation, and I began to understand what had happened throughout my time. I willed all of this universe into creation. I was omnipotent. I watched the humans as they built up their civilizations, wonders and tales. I became fascinated with these tales and wonders. Stories of the mighty hero slaying the dragon, of the devil of the shadows ending at dawn, of mighty beings that controlled vast concepts that humans came up with, of ill-fated love ending in darkness. I wanted to experience it. I wanted to see all of this for myself, to see this fantasy. As I thought that, once again, my wish came to fruition. A new world would be created. Laws that govern it differently than the first, creatures that could never exist in the first, and people who wielded a shred of my own power, magic. I chose for there to be a God of this world and gave it a few ideas. The God then proceeded to create a beautiful world, a different world, a fantasy world. This new world was nothing like the first, it was nowhere near as vast, it did not need to be. Laws of the first were turned upside down in it, It was magnificent. A hollow sphere with an inverted surface. I named it Kavaas. Inside the sphere was the entirety of this worlds populace. Much like humans, they developed civilizations, kingdoms and empires. Their technology stagnated though as magic had come into play, relying on magic in place of material means. This is the world I want to experience. Chapter 1 I have been born. Have you ever been born? Of course you have. Were you aware during it? Of course not. I was. Knowing naught but darkness for an unknown amount of time. I reached a point where I finally saw light. I soon opened my eyes, blinded after having been sat in nothing but darkness. Everything was blurry. The apparent doctor seemed aghast, but soon relieved after she realized I was indeed alive. ¡°Your beautiful daughter has been born!¡± Words I could understand were said? I shouldn¡¯t be able to understand words, I wouldn¡¯t in the original universe on Earth at least. Could this be a product of the different laws of this world? ¡°Oh, she¡¯s quiet.¡± The one who must be my mother stated as such, I was handed over to what seemed to be a young woman, barely into her twenties. She was pale as snow with red eyes and long black hair. I noticed fangs within her smile, a vampire. I¡¯m a vampire? --- ¡°I never thought the day when I don¡¯t understand something would come.¡± I was being carried out when I heard a tired voice. ¡°I don¡¯t think you need to worry, she may be quiet, but her eyes are full of curiosity. Her hair being a combination of our own is quite interesting.¡± My mother answered the voice outside. From what I could see there was a women with fiery crimson hair wrapped in a black cloak with red inside. Who is she? ¡°I don¡¯t have any answers for you. This is the first time I¡¯ve seen anything like this.¡± This women was frustrated. ¡°Don¡¯t experiment on poor Kassia by the way, I know your leanings the best after all.¡± Experiment? On me? Uh oh. ¡°How rude! Even if I am a researcher I will mostly be a mother first!¡± Excuse me? Did she, my mother, just says she will act like one most of the time? Am I in danger? The crimson women let out a sigh, ¡°well don¡¯t get carried away please, I would hate for a repeat.¡± she says this in monotone, as if it will never come to pass. Don¡¯t you think you have too much trust in a women who says she will mostly be a mother? Conversely she will sometimes be a researcher in regards to me? This is what I get for going in randomly. Am I different in some way? The crimson woman walks away, and as she does so, she bursts into red and black flames. --- How does a baby act? I didn¡¯t pay too much attention to the younglings of Earth. I¡¯ll just keep failing to speak, cry for food, and point at interesting things. I could understand speech and read as well. This was surprising, seeing as it is a different world from Earth, I thought I would need to learn to speak and read and wanted to go through the ordeal, but instead I understand everything. I would continuously point at things I found interesting, odd books that were thrown about in a small house. One story with a living room and two bedrooms. She must be planning to stay here for a while then if there is already a room for me. There were bookcases everywhere, all full of different kinds of books, reading the titles, I looked at the magic books as if they would come to me if I stared hard enough. I don¡¯t seem to have a father. I could barely speak and form the words ¡®papa,¡¯ but whenever I said them she would smile reminiscently and not answer. --- By the time I could speak fluently enough to ask for books my mother, Lilith, would be reading them to me. It seems she understood I was an abnormal child when I asked for history books.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. From the books it seemed that this world¡¯s name is known as Kavaas being only a few tens of thousands years old. Humans were not new to the world, though the first human civilization was formed only 2000 years ago with the founding of the Khazhik Empire. This was not taking into account other races such as elves, dwarves, beastkin, and demi-humans. Before then, history is uncertain. Khazhik was not the only nation in Kavaas but the others were too far away or didn¡¯t matter to us aside from the Badlands, which was a must, and the area known as the southern wilds. The Badlands were the result of a catastrophe seven centuries ago. The God of Kavaas, known as the Primordial Dragon Akasha, had a daughter. Tragically however, her daughter was killed by someone in the Forlorn Kingdom. Akasha, in a fit of rage destroyed the Forlorn kingdom and cursed it¡¯s citizens. Now only demons and undead roam the wastes of the remnants of Forlorn, the Badlands. Akasha herself was a being revered, worshiped, respected, and feared. Depending on the residents of Kavaas, some races regarded Akasha as the origin of the world, while others saw her as a tyrant after the creation of the Badlands and vainly cursed her and her worshippers, forcing them out of their livelihoods. The national belief of the Khazhik Empire was that Akasha was a heretical being and was a disgrace to the one true God dubbed Alithis. Alithis did not exist, he was fake answer to those that searched for meaning, but saw Akasha as a tyrant. ¡°I might as well be an Akashic. Don¡¯t let others know though or there will be trouble.¡± Mother warned me about revealing her identity to the village. --- By the time I could walk I had found that the village me and my mother lived in was named Abdok. It was a rural village south-east of the Khazhik capital, Khazak. hidden between mountains and an elven fores, It wasn¡¯t known for anything, had a small population, and little to do with anything at all. Whenever we went outside I was always bewildered for a moment. The sky here was almost normal, but taking a gander through the clouds one could see land masses and oceans far, far up above us. The world I was in was a hollow sphere with an inverted surface. A core in the middle facilitated day and night, sun and moon, With a rotating tilt on the sphere for seasons. Kavaas was drastically different yet similar to Earth in various ways such as this. Up in the sky were also giant floating rocks that orbited the core. Mother said these were ores and minerals that were harvested to produce weapons and amour among other. Alongside the core were faint lines that extended all the way down to the surface, visible only at night, the brightest one extended down to the northwest of the village directly at the center of the capital. They were the 6 leylines of this world, forming a cross at the center. Mother told me to wait before learning more. That I will learn magic and about the leylines soon. --- Despite being a vampire, mother was able to walk in daylight known as a daywalker, a fact that contradicted her name and the stories of Earth. I¡¯ve heard her mention being sunburned easily though. By extension I was a daywalkeras well, though I never got sunburned. On days that we went to the market, people seemed to adore her, merchants gave her discounts and friends gave her gifts. ¡°Daywalkers are seen favorably due to the charm magic they carry. It attracted both men and women and made them easy to manipulate.¡± She explained one day after I could talk clearly. ¡°You don¡¯t need it to attract both though, you are special.¡± ¡°Special in what way?¡± I asked. ¡°You don¡¯t attract them, but change their orientation, whether they like men or women. You are able to change it as soon as you are fully aware, of which, well, seems to have happened far too soon. Don¡¯t change people¡¯s orientation on a whim though, such a change could ruin their life.¡± she warned me. --- Vampires drink blood, this held true for this inverted world as well, but I never drank any, or at least not yet. When I asked Mother of this, ¡°Vampire¡¯s thirst for blood is something that comes when you grow up.¡± From the books I found in the house, drinking blood is an erotic act for vampires, and it can be used as an opening to control the victim and possess their mind. Drinking blood is also a way of draining the essence of one¡¯s soul, if one were to consume enough blood of self-aware creatures, mainly humans and other races, they could increase their own power. ¡°Does Mother drink blood?¡± I asked her one day. ¡°I used to, but that stopped after I met someone special.¡± Mother had that reminiscent look on her face again, does it pertain to father? ¡°Who was that special person?¡± ¡°Someone who showed me a new way of life.¡± Mother must be referring to when she did nothing but experiment and research magic. ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°I learned of meaning.¡± She wouldn¡¯t tell me more than that. --- At age 4, Mother, having fully realized I was abnormality on top of abnormality, decided it was time for me to learn magic. Chapter 2 My first chance to learn magic. Lillith was adamant that I wait for a while and now that I am 4 years old, I can finally start learning some. We are out between our house and village wall in small play area for me and Lillith. She grows her own garden here, it''s full of flowers and other sorts along with several odd-shaped types as well. She grows some odd smelling herbs and alchemy ingredients here as well. The area is still wide enough to allow one to practice magic though. ¡°This is where everything will begin my dear.¡± Lillith handed me a book on elementary spells. ¡°I will have to supervise you, I can¡¯t have my precious daughter hurt herself.¡± Magic was divided into twelve elements and six categories. The elements start with the basic fire, wind, water, tera, and lightning. After those five come the natural element that focuses on the body. Then follows the shadows of the dark and brightness of the light elements. Then the holy divine element followed by the life and death elements. Finally, comes the world bending element known as space-time. The six categories are offensive, defensive, support, healing, summoning, and lastly the illusive complex magic. These are self-descriptive aside from complex. Complex magic is a category that encompasses all elements for magic that use multiple elements, and for magic that doesn''t seem to belong to a specific category. An example would be using wind, water, and lightning magic to manipulate the weather and cause a thunderstorm. Learning to use magic involved manipulating one¡¯s soul. One would either pour the essence of their soul into the world around them to manipulate it, or use their soul to manipulate the preexisting strings. This world is composed of strings, which are atoms with a general direction. The leylines are examples of large masses of string concentrated in one area, flowing down from the core onto the surface. My first task will be learning to ¡®see¡¯ the strings of this world. It is the most elementary spell that exists that most individuals would be able to do it if they only tried for a bit. Ironically, it is labeled as complex. I focused the essence of my soul into my eyes to see them. At first, when I did this I could barely see anything, or another way to put it, I saw too much. According to the book and Lillith, what I needed to do was control how my brain comprehends what I see. To limit the strings I saw to, perhaps, individuals to see their reserves of magical power dubbed as mana. A specific point or object to understand it¡¯s structure and maybe even fine tune it to place an enchantment of sorts. Or, finally, an area where a spell is being cast to understand what spell would be used, a task that, while it was under the most basic of spells, was one of the hardest things to understand, let alone do so in the middle of combat. It isn''t just that the strings themselves move in complex directions and change in various shapes and sizes, but that understanding the strings, the fabric of Kavaas itself, is something that requires essence of one¡¯s soul, a large amount of it. ¡°So you can do it¡­¡± Lillith muttered to herself. ¡°Yeah!¡± Wanting to make her proud I respond with glee while she flinched ever so slightly, showing she was actually talking to herself. Next comes a mystery. ¡°Why am I empty when I look for my own strings?¡± When looking at my hand I can''t see any strings, if anything, I see strings disappearing into me. ¡°It¡¯s just something that makes you special,¡± Lillith said with a look of relief on her face. She must have been worried if I could have used magic at all. Knowing that the strings simply vanish, I can conclude something from this. According to Lillith, the soul is visible in these strings. Seeing that I am a void, I either have no soul, or my soul is not in my body but still connected to this world. A soul is needed for consciousness and I am fairly certain I''m conscious, so my soul must not be in this realm, it must be outside of Kavaas. I conclude that I am really controlling this 4-year old girl''s body via a tether, in similar fashion to a puppeteer. Before I incarnated myself into this world, I was just floating formlessly outside the universes. Seeing as how I can now use magic, the essence of my soul must be out there. The Primordial Dragon Akasha must have been created using this essence.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. For the rest of the day, I spent my time learning to control my own mana and used it to manipulate the environment. This is the most commonly used form of magic, the other, using ones own soul, is rarer the closer your are to a leyline. Close to the leylines, strings are thick and easier to manipulate with less effort while further away one uses one¡¯s own soul, as the strings around them are too thin, making manipulating them en masse require more effort. Magic craftsmen that use elements such as earth, or water magic base their workshops far away from the leylines as it is actually easier to manipulate them on a smaller scale there. I think I spent half the night reading about magic. --- The next morning I was on fire, literally. Normally one would panic upon seeing their hand engulfed in flames, I only stared in wonder at seeing fire so close for the first time since I was never allowed near the fireplace. Then I panicked realizing I could burn myself, however, the fire was only pleasantly warm. ¡°Don¡¯t worry sweetie, most of your own magic can¡¯t hurt you¡± Lillith told me. What I am trying to accomplish is to mold fire into a ball above my hand. To form fire I use my soul to dye the space above my hand precisely into a sphere. I failed a couple of times but it wasn¡¯t too hard. I theorized that only foolish actions such as throwing one''s own magically created ball of dirt at oneself is what Lillith meant. Normally, it seems magic is done through incantations, something Lillith bypassed entirely as soon as I chanted my first spell. It seems words have the power to affect us in more ways than simple communication, it is something related to spiritual communication via the soul, that each word spoken is unconsciously said with traces of mana in the sound. Using this fact, one could empower their surroundings using intent and language laced with mana. Lillith told me I have very pure mana, something which is reflected in my soul, something she could only tell after I used my first spell, since I am a void. Those with purer mana are very talented at magic and languages. This must be the reason I understood language and literacy immediately. I was the indirect creator of this world, I breathed life into Akasha and in turn she breathed life, quite literally, into the world of Kavaas. The breath she used was imbued with all of the elements and reached far and wide into the void Akasha was in, as the breath dissipated, the surface of Kavaas was created. I must have created Akasha using the essence that''s outside of the universes. Therefore, my mana, must be the purest of all in existence. Normally mana is something that has been, not corrupted, but shaped and dyed from it¡¯s original pure formlessness. Mana is shaped by the container it filled, one¡¯s soul, and dyed with one¡¯s thoughts as one lives, good and evil. The mana imbued in the strings of this world are shaped and dyed as well. --- I was walking around the village alone for once. I thought of an interesting trick to seeing strings and souls. If souls are dyed by one¡¯s thoughts, couldn¡¯t I read minds through this? I practiced and found the best I could do was read someone''s intentions. A merchant swindling an outsider or a bully picking on a weaker child. Speaking of bullies, there is one right now. ¡°Go away dog!¡± a child with striking blonde hair is yelling at somebody or something in front of him, I can''t see who or what as he is in the way. ¡°You and your disgusting family shouldn¡¯t even be here!¡± This is what humans are, is it not? This is my first time seeing discrimination. I wonder how the one receiving such a lash felt. I walked over next to the blonde kid and gazed upon whom he was abusing. What I see is a small golden eyed girl with black hair, along with pointy ears above her head and a thick tail to her side. She is covered in mud and shows no signs of giving in. In fact, she seems on the verge of exploding. ¡°Kassia! Help me shoo this thing away! It¡¯s hogging up space in the park!¡± I payed no attention to the boy, nor how he knew me, and saw the wolf-kin make her move. Her teeth sprouted small fangs and her fingers shaped into claws. She attacked the blonde haired boy with a swipe. I was not a combatant and could do nothing to stop her. ¡°Aah! The dog attacked me, everyone! The dog is attacking me! Haha!¡± he shouted in fear and victory as he ran away with a scratch torn through his clothes. He was indeed victorious, beast-kin in general were prohibited from even defending themselves let alone attacking someone on provocation. ¡°And what about you?¡± she glared at me expecting a similar response. Contrary to her expectations, I looked at her ears and tail with excitement as she tried her hardest to appear threatening. ¡°Can I touch your ears?!¡± I blabbed before I could think through my actions. ¡°Err¡­ what? Wait sto-¡± I was already touching them before she could react to my tomfoolery. She let out a tiny cry before jumping back and glaring at me, this time with embarrassment on her face. ¡°Beast-kin ears are precious! Don¡¯t touch them!¡± ¡°Oh, right...¡± I lost some motivation after realizing what I had done. To beast-kin, the ears and tail of one are of precious value, one did not let them be casually touched. ¡°Um, you might want to run now.¡± I advised her as I saw some villagers running towards us. The wolf-kin girl ran in the opposite direction, probably never to be seen again.