《Kazan - The Hero No One Wanted》 Chapter 0 - 0.1 Desire. Psychology. Aristotle? A man that wrote a lot of things about a lot of stuff, one including psychology. Why do I bring it up? Well...because I am making logical conclusions based on his teachings. After all, I have just lost my state of being depraved of desire and will now begin acting upon them once again. The most I can do is draw up an explanation on why I havedone something. You have to keep it logical to the extreme is what I would like to believe, but... "Welcome hero! Welcome to this land of big trees and big people!" I spoke with gestures towards a lonesome tree surrounded by wooden graves. Honestly, I wish I was under that dirt and stabbed by a wooden marker. De Anima, Aristotles dictionary, even orexis (desire) cannot be responsible for action - nor can it explain purposive action, not completely at least. Well, at the very least I should start mimicking a wild animal and start heeding tomy utmost desires. "Farewell young blood. I shall take this marker with me as protection." I salute the ancient tree that should be older than me by at least hundred fold, then leave the surrounding with a wooden cross as my shield and sword. I wonder how many animals can hear my discussion right now; would they be savage enough to rip me apart or will a bear come round one of these trees with a cub behind it? Maybe I will be mauled by an ape, or even better! A flock of chimps with clubs trying to mimic cavemen. Taking direction and proceeding, rounding trees and following the same path forever. To the ends of the earth I go. Wishing to walk into signs of humans, but indirectly taking the most precise path to avoid everything; skyscrapers, spires piercing the skies and floating villages; miss it all like the unfortunate teenager I am. Two moons mean a lot to me right now...but maybe I aman exception in anything I do and also the teachings of Aristotle, since as he mentioned in one of his teachings that it might be inhuman nature to desire knowledge and understanding. Apractical mind everyone possesses, apractical mind I do not. Therefore,should I contemplate and plan around my findings of there suddenly being two moons? I will not; since for me, a footing on the earthly crust is all that I desire. Metaphysics and De Anima. Taking another step - I will mention in just a moment why I have narrated that, sofirst, let me try and remove this net around me. The wooden board might have come in "handy" after all, if I had it inside the net that is. I dropped it when the floor turned to the sky and a tree branch grabbed me up and flipped me like a bat. So I now nest within my cocoon, hoping to spread my wings like a butterfly.Pray to God thatI may turn into a majestic child prodigy when I hatch, and posses an IQ of around 160, oh and EQ too, make that high as well. Wouldn''t want to make the same mistake another life, would we? Well, maybe I was wrong when I said I am an exception to a lot of things, since right now I am having some of that Aristotle vibe around me. I understand my current predicament, and therefore will try to plan my way out of it. However...should I say I am a lucky boy or not? Hoo hoo ha ha. I wonder what kind of savage still uses nets to capture animals and maybe humans, most likely one of those tribes that are so far behind in technology and science that they should''ve just given up from the start. Anyway,I feel like I am becoming more of a savage as time goes by inside this net. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.Lets put some Aristotle teachingsto the test in the mean time,shall we? This will be over quick since I will be using the hylomorphic analysis of thinking, and I already know the result anyway but I might as well go ahead a try it. I think that if the net was pulled and no one heard it, I should be able to survive for around one and a half days worth of time, I won''t be bothering with the max-time a human can go on without water since I am already a weak and frail child as is. So my hopeful desire is that someone will go around inspecting their works of masterpieces that are these nets - there should be at least a couple more nets in works since they are really efficient to be able to catch someone such asme. Lets flashback to my "I took a step" - As my brand new sneakers were smeared in a grotesque red, which should be some type of blood that is used as bait for animals, also that relatively large rock atop a "very" sturdy tree seems to be a work of god. I''ll take this step to congratulate me finding sign of humans. Flashback officially over, plot-hole closed shut with a pile of manure. Life too, literally piles of dung everywhere around me. New conclusion - die by smell of poo and disease. "Well well, look who we have here!" I turned around to stare at the magnificent core of the tree that caught me. A hive of bees were sitting snugly inside a carved out hole, which musthave previously been a woodpecker''s home. The golden hue in this dual overkill moonlight made it look majestic as if it was a true queen''s home. Damn, I would love to taste some of that fresh honey that oozes of sweetness. First, let''s sign a truce. "Thou name shall not be mentioned, as thee presence is already enough. I will state thee plebeian name; Kristof Zensima Gransys Aritole, but you can call me Kazan for short." I swing towards the tree, grabbing the branch and hugging it. Then plop, the rope is uncoiled and I fall towards my long lostwooden marker. "I love the smell of manure in the night. I also coincidentally love to cover myself in the faeces of large animals." I sarcastically state to the tree that shall not be named. But in fact, one of my most hated things is getting stuff on my face, I can''t handle things on my face dude. However, I think thiswill be the only exception for the current situation, and this feels cool too, almost as if I ama foot-soldier from those modernages sneakingunder thecover of the night, and I covered myself in poo to distract the other animals from approaching. Anyway, I better get going, I wouldn''t want to keep my online friends waiting. Grabbing a snowball I launch it at the work of god inside the villainous tree, turning it golden no more. I make my descent into hell covered in manure. Maybe I am being too excessive since I now have negative cleanliness all over my body, even my pristine gamer hands are covered in brown. I''ll try to lower it down a little, my logic has been all over the place today. It''s probably because I have not witnessed the real life moonlight in countless years, and it''s affecting my mind in ways that I cannot describe even with theknowledge god Aristotle''s teachings, that I have slowly forgotten over the last few months. This leaf is green and pure no more. Hyaaa! "How long will you hunters follow this poor soul?" I stop and cease my mind''s chatter. Turning to look back the way I came, I snap off the cross so I only have two long parts. I take a stance and step back immediately as an arrow thuds the ground where my foot was previously. "Arrows? You must be barbarians to fight with these dated tools." I let the two parts of wood float at my sides as I bend over topick upthe arrow, that is coated in a presumablyfast acting poison.I mumble softly in embarrassment as mycheeks start to burn a scarlet cherry,but I only need to chant when I am increasing potential energy of an object and coating it in hardened particles, also things like mind-connected-acceleration and lesser gravitational pull. However,I still feel very embarrassed and self-consciousfor being a top class student and stillneedingto chant, it makes me feel like a rookie. "[Ultimate Kamikaze] [Ultimate Penetration] [Saten''s Curse]" I smile, my embarrassing side is over. I float the arrow and fill it with my energy,where the arrow slowly duplicates all around the environment... 3.. 2.. Thud. Thud. 1.. Galaxy collapse. Chapter 0 - 0.2 Honestly, I am joking about the last part. Some of it may have been true with the collapse part, but I don''t have enough power to affect a whole galaxy. Even then, do you have any idea on how much meditating it would take in order to recover the lost power? Probably my whole life. Plus, as Sun Tzu, a Chinese strategist, had stated: ''A wise general makes a point of foraging on the enemy''. Which I full-heartedly agree with if I had a squadron full of barbarians with me. But those olden ages must have been very fun, and so chaotic that it even goes out of hand. An example of chaos is from a history book that I have an excerpt from; to take revenge or force into submission, a country plunged another by using an atomic weapon with enough radiation to strip away atoms when in contact. Even to a certain day, the aftermath of it still gave off radioactive energy, which allowed me to skip two whole ranks. A negative is seen as a positive from a different perspective, and it just happened to be a one-way ticket to greatness for me. Lucky, fortunate boy I am. Anyway... "You are from the extinct races?" I hold up the little face and turn it to the side, getting a better look at those ears. Long, pointy and fleshy. Slightly pink behind and quite pale upfront, where the earlobe is almost non-existent, and the half-hearted resistance makes me want to bite it. More so, the overwhelming feeling of vitality circulating around this child''s body makes me want to bite even more, so that I may suck it all up and call myself Count Dracula, but then I would have to follow the teachings of Sun Tzu even more if I become a vampire king. Fortunately or unfortunately, my latent potential does not handle anything with absorption, since I only got lucky when the radiation tried to absorb me, therefore biting would only inflict pain on the opposition and not give me any benefit. Furthermore, I''ll leak a weakness of mine just for special service; since I am so gifted in storing my accumulated energy, I didn''t need to meditate, so I never learnt to absorb at a rate faster than breathing. Shit...I feel my cheeks burning up again. "Wh-" "Shut up!" I let out a banshee squeal into the child''s face in front of me, followed by a quick snap of the neck so that the child would not expose me... [Resurrect] Whew...If I stalled any longer, the other souls around me would have left for the skies. None of these poor souls managed to turn into an astral entity, therefore would have no chance to survive limbo. Really, it just shows that this race has been separated from our main colony for a very long time, and it is my job as a student to notify the authorities so that this species can be placed under strict experimentation and analysis. Even so, to come up to the act of "reporting", I thought my academy had wiped out all non-human entities on Laviana. Oh...I get it, this is that Earth, isn''t it? The home of thee Aristotle and Sun Tzu that I read about in the old archives; well, that would explain the dual-orbs shining bright in the night sky. I wonder who used a long-distance transportation skill to cast me here. Zero Leo, or was it Finix? Hexagin? Is it a plan to make me more extroverted? Anyway, it''s their loss in the end since they have forfeited a player of universal-skill. Hope they lose a lot and get traumatized, and I wish they will bet some energy cores that I had won them last week. Then they will see how bad they need me. Hmm... "Who are yo-?"This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "Wide awake lower-species?" I said to the body overflowing with the most life out of the six. "So you can un-" "I''ll have you all serve me for a year." I blush. "We wi-" "[Penultimate Contract]" I blush more. "AA-" "Don''t laugh at me!" I shout once again at the child grovelling on the floor. "Who goe-" I flash step with my newly squad to a devoid place because I can''t create a contract in an instant with forty people, and even more so after just having crafted the same formation too. I would need a thirty minute period before I could craft the same spell twice. "Anyway, I presume the territory of your home is at the centre of the forest." I state loudly for my soldiers to hear my brilliance, who lined up very nicely under their own "will". "Sun Tzu once said that one should camp with the enemies facing the sun, whilst we have our backs to it." I already reward my newly acquired squadron with gifts of knowledge. So let''s focus on logical decisions more and stop wasting time; time is money. Then, my desire right now is to find out the duration of the world''s restriction on fast travel, since if you have not questioned, I indeed have tried to jump worlds right from the get go after getting here. I tried to return to my own artificial asteroid, but it didn''t work. So maybe the grandmaster had a hand in this too, which makes this all the more troublesome. If they wanted to torture me, then they should have reincarnated me instead of doing something so round-about like this. "All six, show me your resources. Food and water first." I sink into a rock that had been "conveniently" placed, and order my fine men and women. "Wha-" "Sto-" "Let-" "Don''t talk over me. Show me your package and move on." In the end, the pointed-ear vermin gave me five jugs of water that were inside some sort of animal skin, and a couple of bread slices that had a soft and fluffy colouring to it. I had some doubts, so I fed a nibble to one of the vermin by hand. "Open your mouth and receive it graciously." I order the "biggest" person. She splits here pale pink lips of bubbly texture and bites off a nervous corner from the bread slice, where a saliva bridge connecting her lips and bread is made when she separates, hot..- "To try and seduce me!" I shove the remaining bread into my mouth, followed by a chug of water. "You ar-" "To-" "Stop speaking over me. Time for foot travel, I wish to explore this region." Honestly, these fellows are a bit too adaptive, it creeps me out. Then, did my skill fail or am I within a simulation of a newly arisen world? No, the extinct race is not something that would be publicized as having high-similarity with the human race. Ugh, Aristotle please guide me. No wait, Sun Tzu also gives some teachings too: "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." Damn dude, I know myself as much as I know how to absorb the energies of the world. Which is not that much, and I hardly know my enemy, since the most I am aware of is where the vital parts are and how to discern between high latent power and low latent power of the extinct species. From what I have witnessed, none of my soldiers have any latent power, it''s all locked up with their souls being at a rookie stage. But still, it makes no sense that I cannot feel any universal ener... ... No way. "Istan Taniran Tifan Telim Lemai Ivan Piyo Rivansi Tantira." I surge all my power into myself, whereupon I sink into the throne I sit upon and my vision starts to shake and vibrate under the pressure. I feel my body disperse as I instantly turn into a single fast-moving particle that can transcend the speed of light, that which attempts to completely bypass the [God Restrict] that this world''s stratosphere has. Which cult constructed this restriction? I will destro-..as if nothing happened, I feel my body complete once again. It sinks back into the stone throne, although this time my senses are far stronger and my body''s restriction is significantly lesser to before. I feel the cold stone transmit to my skin, a certain feeling I should have forgotten. I cannot escape, I cannot absorb, I cannot regain. These three things brought me back into realism land, and for the second time in my life, I became an existence unequal to God. I am in a predicament. Chapter 0 - 0.3 I am so stupid. Unequal to God? A predicament? It''s nothing at all, because in a single year or so this god tier restriction will wear off. It''s that I was moved to a Earth where it so happened that its restriction had been lowered for a single moment, and I perchance fall into the lowered period. Well, there is really nothing to fuss about in the end. Also, how could I be unequal to myself, it doesn''t make any sense. Even Aristotle agrees with me in his analysis of: "none of the things existing in actuality before thinking" - De Anima iii. What this means in regards to me is, that I am actually a power so almighty that I need to think of a concept that would determine how large the power is, in this case it''s the word ''God''. That''s right, if you were not capable of thought, then your own intuition or very being would recognise me as something beyond that of an ordinary human. A greater-human, is what we call them on Laviana, but on lower-planets such as these, we are naturally called gods because of the power we hold. Anyway, it seems that these extinct races, are not "extinct" precisely because of the god tier restrict. It makes sense now that I think about it; there has never been enough information about the secret races outside of humans, but that is because the races adapted and placed restrictions on their own stratospheres so that we wouldn''t be able to raid or detect them, also the fact that Earth evolved into something like this...crawling with lower species vermin, it now makes me sick to think that my Aristotle and Sun Tzu came from a place that is overrun with them. Earth has fallen to an all-time low. Then it will be my job to rejuvenate it after I return to Laviana and report this issue, then this shitty restriction will mean nothing in the face of a whole class combined. "Hey, when did I tell you to move?" The six had moved from their previous position, and were looking down on me. "N-" "Ehh-" "Don''t speak unless I tell you to." I did not order with my will, so the contract did not ingrain the command on them. It would be a stupid order should I have seriously wished for it, since if there had been something important in the surroundings and they kept their mouth shut, it would be my loss. However, I have never been so shamed in my whole life that even lower-species will start chuckling at my situation. It''s not like they will fully-understand, but their faces are telling me otherwise, especially the "biggest" person there. Her shaky little cheeks bobbing up and down, trying to resist a chuckle, and her entire face giving it all away as it starts to turn cherry red. I command for her to come and sit down next to me, obviously on the ground beneath my feet. "Pray tell, tall one, when does the event that transpired moments ago or a few days ago, happen again?" I reach out and clamp my fingers on her left ear, but she stays silent and shaking. "Answer me or I will rip it off." Indeed, I will go to such lengths if pushed. The ear of this species gives off the most life force, so it must be the "absorber" of that vitality that shrouds around her body. Therefore, should I pull one of these ears off, will her lifespan shorten by a half or will it remain unchanged? I am willing to experiment. "Y-Yes!" Her answer is...she stares at the obviously "larger" proportioned vermin as if expecting an answer. "She does not know the answ-" The ''larger" tries to speak. "Don''t talk over me!"Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Then, what is this energy flowing around this small child? The longer you live, the more life force that circulates around you, that is the one of the basic teachings in Laviana. Then...could it be that this child is actually a prodigy? A prodigy at gathering energy? No, I doubt that such a higher-trait could befall a lower-species, I will simply not believe it. She must be concealing her age. "Tell me your age." I twist her head to make eye contact, until she decides to answer. "9..4..8" So she is 948 years old, pretty old compare to myself. But there you have it, I knew she was concealing her age, or she wasn''t concealing it at all. Then why did she need someone else to answer for her? "Then tell me the answer to my previous question." I still have my hand clamped onto the back of her head, underneath the smooth long blonde hair. "I-" "I arrived here in this world because something changed here, what was it?" Her unsurety made me cough up more information, in order to clarify as to what the answer I am looking for is. Her eyes sparkled in recognition for a moment, which I had not missed. I tightened my grip. "Y-Yes! The flame of the day vanishes and the ice doubles in the sky." She talks unnaturally, as if reading from somewhere, and it doesn''t feel like her own voice. I turn my gaze towards the "big" female. "Lead to the nearest camp that is not your territory." I contemplate. Practical minds people have, practical min...I also have. Anyway, from the retarded answer I received, I conclude that one of the moons is actually a star and even looking at the two orbs a little closer, there seems to be a kind of defrosting happening to one of them as a little portion of the left moon is turning orange. So the restriction to leave and arrive at Earth is lifted when the sun frosts over and aligns with the moon, I presume this to be the case. But how does it work? Is there a spell formation that loses its power when the sun energy stops powering it? If so, where could it be? It should be somewhere on Earth since it affects the stratosphere, so then...I could shorten the time I need to wait. Hold on a moment. "Hey!" I flash towards the child and pin her to a tree with my hand gripping her neck. "You did not answer my question!" I give a valid reason to my fury. My hand felt the soft neck of this child, which had already felt the sensation of snapping it before resurrecting her. The "child" of around a thousand years old also recognises that she had died in this similar hold, and the recounted trauma makes her eye balls tremble uncontrollably along with her body that starts to spasm. My cheekbones rise along with my mood-o-meter, my spirits are rising fast due to this delicious scene in front of me. But...this life is not ended a second time by me. I felt the arrow pass through my body and impale her little chest, then a surge of blood spills out her mouth and coats me in the crimson liquid, that should slowly vanish in the next couple of seconds. To clarify, radiation had never left my body, therefore anything that comes in contact with my "true" layer will be destroyed ever so slowly. Anyway, my spirit keeps increasing...and my hand directly felt the travel of blood go up her neck and out her mouth, which means that lower body resistance is actually a positive towards the sense of touch. I let the child''s neck go, and her whole body falls down to the ground, making a larger mess then I could have thought imaginable. The arrow must have went right through her body and got stuck in the tree, so when she fell down, a lot of organs were split open along with her chest. The one holding the bow, not any more though, is on the floor in what seems to be a moment of despair. The black mist forming around her makes me feel a greater surge of adrenaline, similar to how I feel when meeting a worthy foe inside ''Elder Duels - All Races Edition'', so can this mean that if I keep the child dead, the taste will grow stronger? Or will inciting her give me the result faster? "Show me more." She leaps to her feet and pulls a blade to her neck, but stops abruptly. "Trying to take the easy way out?" I press my face up against hers to look at those delicious eyes, the eyes of regret and agony. Is this what I looked like when I had lost it all? Are these the emotions that my countless victims had before dying? Sun Tzu - ''pillage on the enemy''. I had been immature in the past, but not any more. If there is not any enemy left, how will I pillage? "You are all under a contract for a year, until then you are under my wings." I rewind time in the area encompassing the six of us. The arrow passes through my body and disappears into the abyss. The bow drops and the child falls unconscious. I order the four to carry the two bodies towards the previous objective. After a while, I coughed up a spray of blood into my hand and vaguely felt a strain on the legs. In the end, the questioning is not working out too well. Chapter 0 - 0.4 Progressingly within the area around me, there has been a lower amount of trees that I can clearly see with normal vision, and roughly two hours have went by after my questioning had failed. Needless to say, I had not exchanged words with any of the four as it would delay our travel, plus, they are reluctant to do any chatting which is evident by their over-the-top avoidance. Anyway, I am eager to witness where Earth has gone in terms of architecture, or how it compares to Laviana''s floating spires and transport clouds, but I am not expecting too much from what I have seen so far. Plu-hmm, what is this energy that I am feeling? "Stop." I flash in front of them, and the strange energy feels closer. Walking ahead, the energy weakens so I turn back and the blond vermin carrying the small hag stumbles backwards, clearly hiding something. Not using my energy, I walk directly to him and he kneels in my presence which I willed within my mind. The hag has awoken and is alternating her life-energy in a way I have not seen before; this time it is not wrapping around her body but drifting away from her in a controlled manner, does this mean she is contacting someone? "What are you doing?" I release my cloak and strangle the energy drifting about my cheeks. "Ahhhh-" Naturally. "How many years will you lose?" I cut the energy stream in half; one continues floating and the other quickly recoiled back into her body. "You are like a bug you always get in those games, long lived and slow to move, but full of cultivated energy." I float her into the sky and off the vermin''s back with my mind, as opposed to my energy as I really need to stop using it for a little while. "If you do not answer my questions then there will not be another chance after I erase you." I cloak myself once again and stare into her eyes. I can forcefully order her to tell me what I need to know, but it would be less fun since her personality and life potential would not take as much damage as would forcing out her very soul. Honestly, I am insane for doing this, however, the power I have right now is enough in case her potential is flipped due to a shattered personality or if her limiter is broken. But contrary to my expectations, it was as if a floodgate had opened when her lips parted.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. "I was in deep slumber not too long ago so I don''t know the span of whatever event you are asking me about that''s why I looked at my brethren for answers! I swear to the life of my kingdom that I have no idea about whatever you are seeking about so please do not kil-" I dove her into the ground and her body stopped moving, but she still breathed. "Heal her however you can, she is of no personal use any more." Before I had finished, the scuttling of winds were already upon the downed hag as her species tried to dig her out the ground. In a similar situation like an identical copy, the other female floated into the sky in a pose awaiting crucifixion. She is the one that the hag had looked to, for assistance. However, compared to the nine hundred year old, this one seemed much calmer after what had happened not too long ago. A hard nut to crack but she had already leaked out that sweet essence called soul emotion. Especially appetizing was her soul despair that I wish to see it again, but maybe sometime later. "I kn-" "Do not speak yet." I shut her disgusting mouth as something else had faintly caught my interest. The "faint" feeling of a very familiar energy that slowly ate my life even to this day, pulled at my heartstrings "faintly". I felt my head turn by itself towards the direction of where the energy is coming from, no, it "radiated" in every direction from the very core. My mind escaped to search for the source by itself, leaving my puppet of a body behind as it started to bleed from all orifices and the cloak was unmasked once again to reveal the true form. Feeling a tinge of regret at this sudden decision, I flew back into my body and set up my resistances to be stronger than before. Conserving my energy has failed. If only this one wave of energy caused such a disturbance within me, then what will I be like when I am much closer to the source? Will I abandon my true body and exhaust my whole reserves in a single day, or will I take my body to chance another breakthrough of both mind and soul? This Earth possesses more hidden secrets than I have imagined, even after I gave this planet a quick scan without finding anything, but now this...I am starting to wonder if this is really the place called Earth. "The time for the event to come again, and the name of this world." I lift her back into that pose and look up into the eyes of the lower-species, whilst feeling something is off. My mind suddenly clears, and I power her into the ground for me to stare down at the bug she is. "Time for the event to come again and the name of this world, creature." This feels more natural, but leaves me wondering why I had not taken the same stance with the other one, maybe I had forgotten my true-self in the moment. "Called ''Hediu'' by all races. The sacred day comes every ninety four years." She answered through her increasing pain. But even so, she answered the questions that were delayed for around four hours, so I need to reward her with a bit of power. I wipe the source of the crimson liquid dripping off my chin with my sleeve and squeeze a little into her mouth. "This drop of blood will slowly turn you into a god, but will also kill you faster than you can control it." Her eyes became despondent and my cheekbones rose in correlation to her drop. "And this..." I force my hand through her gut, and she lets out a loud grunt, "will make you rival my great self just before you die in approximately five years." If it really takes ninety-four years for the god restriction to fall, then I will take it upon my own hands to cleanse this world of these vermin. Chapter 0 - 0.5 As if in direct rebellion against my thoughts, I feel my right hand start to wither up with an orange tinge as cracks start to form on the skin with crust dispersing at the same time. The cracks travel and finally stops at my shoulder, but before anyone notices, the blond male throws his cloak over me to hide my arm. However, it must be already exposed by the pile of ash slowly forming beside my feet, as I lose sense of ever having an arm to begin with. I startle as I look in front of me, to notice the person that should be unconscious staring at me with a form of understanding. Let''s redo...but that is only a wish for now; to rewind and mask my startled emotion from a lower being. Those eyes seem to have understood a portion of my great self and for that, I am neither thankful nor disgusted, I am content - neutral, uncaring, calm. "Your name?" I ask as I witness her stomach already starting to make use of the new-found power, slowly healing the wounds by itself. Thus I can conclude that, the latent power she held was no joke, which includes the other five as they have similar dormant power, but now that her dormant power is leaking, she exudes an aura of being close to an awakening. Funny that she is probably older than me, since it is a common trait that one uses to single out children from a crowd of adults back in Laviana, but also separates the talented from untalented. I was placed in the untalented group when I first started my path, so I can only presume that the person in front of me would be placed in the talented group without being asked any questions, just her ability to utilize the power after obtaining it is more than enough. "S-Sophia..." She mutters in a quiver before my form, with a tone shockingly different from before. Without a doubt, certainly placed within the talented group. "You can see the true me?" I ask, lending her my only hand for her to stand. My inner power does not affect her any more, at least not to a certain extent. Her hand is soft yet firm, yet calloused but smooth, she seems to have cared for her hands while the work required her not to, it''s typical that a female suffers by doing something to enhance their beauty. However, I already feel the power circulating around within her as I make direct contact with her soul and she starts to shiver. "I am scared." She starts to mutter as she proceeds to take curious yet fearful looks around her, stopping at certain shadows and trees. Ugh, I seem to have rushed a little too much with my decision in giving her power, as I did so without personally examining her inner feelings and emotions. I had acted too fast and was controlled by my own emotions. There will be no point if she kills herself before I can even start to reap the benefits, and so my pride as a greater being has to be placed temporarily to the side. I move in closer to her face, lean in an- The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. "We too are scared." The voice comes from an insignificant speck I thought I had diffused, and she is already conscious, amazing. Eavesdropping on my conversations are not allowed, but given their current emotional instability, I will let this one slide. I lean back and a large crack resounds from my muscles, I move my hand and the same thing happens. So, is this what it feels like to be a mortal? Nevertheless, I was born as a mortal so I have experienced this before, though it might have only been a short seven years before I transcended. Anyway, if I continue on like this, being all emotional, then I''ll become weak somewhere and leave an opening for those around me to exploit, and I will never allow that. I never had, not to anyone, not to my friends and not to my family. "AAH!" Just before I can open my mouth, I am interrupted as Sophia falls down into a scream, completely destroying any image I had of her before. She falls to the ground pointing towards the darkest tree in the vicinity with an expression filled with fear, although I would savour such emotion and feed on it, I am not the one that caused it. I look at her eyes that beat fast and uncontrollably, obviously having witnessed something horrible. Her eyes did not look elsewhere, and her arm shook up and down as her finger stayed pointed towards the one spot. I turn and look. Under the cover of a tree, a large ghost cloaked in black with no eyes and pale skin wielding a large scythe that already found a target to execute. It''s mouth is wide open, sucking in Sophia''s soul inside the black void as colour starts to fade from her face, but the ghost keeps growing from all the soul he is obsorbin- "Return it." I state and the ghost shakes, before his form starts to shrink and the whole scene is reversed. "Are your eyes now clear to the real world?" I ask as her eyes lock onto my form, fearing to look elsewhere. However, the other five must be really confused since they wouldn''t know what had happened, they only heard Sophia screaming, but they must have deduced that were are not alone from the scene that took place. "This is the price for power." I tell her as I begin to move towards a radiating feeling. The others follow me, only daring to look at my back and nowhere else, though for Sophia, she cannot see anything right now, only my form and overwhelming pressure suffocating her throat. It is astonishing that she had seen anything through my thick energy. Although, it may not be so astonishing after all, considering that I may die before a year even passes if I do not regain my energy. That is right, I am weak and I feel faint from all the pressure that I had become numb against in the past. This planet "Hediu", it feels like a bulb for moths, except the moths are dark spirits and cursed remnants of god energy. I now regret remembering moths, since during my rising of power back then, I had been ordered along with my other "untalented" kin to wipe out the moth race. I feel nasty just recounting the aftermath of it, imagine it, around one hundred billion moths infesting a single planet, turn to fight as a single entity and take flight with their fur adorned bodies. Although, I now have another beacon of light that these entities will crowd around, though with me being here they can''t get close to me, but that doesn''t mean I am immune to it al- well, I was but not any more due to my increasing necessity to lower my power usage. Shrinking the field my power surrounds, I feel my back being pressed up against by a well proportioned woman. A lower species...dares. "I fear obtaining this power, please take it back." My thoughts of Sophia go from impressed to hated in an instant, as she has struck a nerve in my system. If I save you once then return endless benefits, but if I save you twice then you are forever useless. I do not want "useless", I only want "benefit". Even more so if I show you the entrance to becoming a higher-being. "Then leave my side! Let a dark spirit take you to a world of pleasure and lust!" I turn to her, making her sink into the ground with just my overwhelming pressure as a disfigured spirit floats into the bubble surrounding us with no resistance. I will receive endless benefits one way or another. "After you succumb to your pleasure and fall into another plane, make sure you resist the voice no matter what happens to you. If you succeed, then I will take your power and unchain your from my contract." I smile as I watch her expression sink to an ever further despair, before continuing: "If you fail, then enjoy your eternal-lover, you will be cherished for being one so talented." I might have been a little jealous of the locked up power of those around me, but not after confirming they are nothing but lower-species vermin with no willpower and discipline I had deemed them to be from the very start. It makes me wonder why I even bothered, but maybe I am rushing forwards too quickly. Chapter 0 - 0.6 Rushing...I am for a reason I cannot state. If I go ahead too much, I might not revel in the feeling of obtaining something, I will only be looking to rush forward once again. Which might not be a bad idea if you compare it with my goals; not care about whatever happens, and not get chained to anything, only worry about my depleting and non-regaining energy. After the disfigured spirit attached itself onto Sophia''s body, she started to scream and moan. I glance in the direction of my other slaves, "we are leaving her behind, follow along". But to leave a near-awakened soul defenceless, it would be fine if it this was Laviana since the only monsters on the planet are ourselves and there has never been any entity that has come close to our five-planet system from the outside-in, it''s just that this planet is too far behind every other I have come across, even the moth planet was advanced enough to have a few awakened ones. I tug at my connection with the arrows I enchanted not too long ago, and five come speeding to hover beside me. Freezing Sophia''s body, I stab five arrows in a pentagon shape around her, and activate hell''s formation after I point her limbs to every corner. The dark entity had stopped moving which was a sign of having entered Sophia''s soul world. Though, the discarded appearance of Sophia''s body after the entity found a way in, leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Hell''s formation can be activated using anywhere from five to one hundred items, and the quality of items have a direct correlation with the strength of the field, but since I have used the highest level of enchantment on the arrows then there should not be any problems unless a being of my level comes into the field and decides to interfere with the formation. The main purpose of the formation is to drive away any dark entity that touch the shield, and send them to hell, it will only deactivate if the caster cuts his connection with the formation. Which I will only do if Sophia exudes a god-aura, otherwise, I will enslave the possessed body without ever releasing it from my control.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I step out the formation and take my leave from this cursed area, behind me a ravaged body of Sophia surrounded by ghouls, banshees and specks of negative power slowly turned smaller until the scene disappeared behind a tree. The five lower-species followed with negative-burning emotions, which is slowly turning into being the default emotion for them. Honestly, for me to change a person''s brain waves without directly interfering in two days is an accomplishment in itself, so well done past-me for doing such a great job. The present-me will do all it can to make sure the future-me will look back with pride and not regret anything. "That woman, consider her dead." I stop in my tracks. "Why?" The ancient midget asks me a good question. Good, as any answer I give will make them fall further down the path of no return, allowing them to unlock their latent power by overcoming a broken emotional state. However, if one of these have any connection to me or one of the monsters back on Laviana, then once of them are are before the death-gate of power and activate a special attribute, I can use it as a stepping stone for my second awakening. But that is for the future-me to ponder about, so for the current-me, the only goal is to help future-me and reach the location I need to get t- though, I wonder if I can use the fragment of god-radiation I am heading towards as my first stepping stone to my second awakening, and then use one of my slaves to reach an evolution. Too smart for my own good right now. "The mental state she has will not be enough to complete her awakening." I walk closer to the ancient girl. "Do you also want to try and awaken?" At the cost of my arm, "you withered-being inflated with waste energy" I ask stretching out my left arm, while I could do the same with the other arm by using pure mana to recreate it, but all it would do is waste the power I need to conserve. Wait, didn''t I tell myself to set away my pride as a higher-being aside? Hmm...definitely not, especially not when I am surrounded by roaches all the time. However, these roaches are filled with a potential that could boost me to new heights, so I wonder if the people in Laviana are rolling around on their clouds filled with envy. No, that is daft thinking as such emotions are not fit for the higher-beings, especially those in Laviana. Because we are perfect in whatever we do even if we make mistakes, and no other race can equal us. Before my hand can grab her throat, she is pulled backwards by a black-haired male with venomous eyes, but it''s all they are, venomous in appearance but equal to a rock on this planet. The rocks on Laviana have more power than this guy. "I''ll take that as a no." I turn around and continue on, I start to dash through the forest making the slaves struggle to keep up with their puny bodies.