《Pacifist - Champion of the Death    [ON HIATUS]》


 Prologue: Reincarnation [1]

    Returning back to consciousness, I am disappointed again. I am still here, still in this miserable state. Why can''t I just die? Well, maybe because I''m already dead... Yeah, that''s possibly it.  At least I remember, that I''m already dead.


    I don''t remember my name. I was 21, when  I died from heart disease. (Yeah, I shouldn''t spend my whole life sitting in front of the computer and eating unhealthy food didn''t help either. But dyeing in 21 because of the heart disease really sucks). My parents names were Eric and Joann. I was still studying in the physics university. I didn''t have a girlfriend. I had two good friends in the university: Marc and Dale. I loved reading novels and mangas, I loved watching anime, and of course I loved playing games. Especially strategic games. I am -who knows where- and I keep forgetting things in here.


    Ok, let me clear the things a bit for you. I don''t know where is it here, it''s just emptiness, void, nothingness. No light, no floor, no ceiling, no walls, just nothing... I don''t feel or see anything and can''t even move. I tried, I tried to somehow move, crawl, to find something here, but I can''t.  For me there are only two things here, being asleep, and thinking. I don''t remember how long have I been here. Every time after waking up I lose part of my memories. I first noticed it when I couldn''t remember my own name. Actually I can remember a lot of names: my parents, friends, my first love... But I forgot my own name, I actually thought it''d be the last thing someone would forget. I have memories of being called by my name, but it always slips away from me when I try to remember.


    And my memories of doing the only thing I can here, thinking, slips away even more. There are really few things I can remember thinking about, probably because I keep thinking about them over and over again. Like how much I''d like to die and escape this misery. This boredom.


    But even how much I want to die already, the thought of losing myself, losing all my memories is scary. I need to keep repeating the most important things.


    I don''t remember my name. I was 21, when  I died from heart disease. My parents names were Eric and Joann. I was still studying in the physics university. I didn''t have a girlfriend. I had two good friends in the university: Marc and Dale. I loved reading novels and mangas, I loved watching anime, and of course I loved playing games. Especially strategic games. I am -who knows where- and I keep forgetti...


    *Sigh*, the exhaustion again. I close my imaginary eyes and sleep envelops me again. I wonder what will I forget this time, I won''t even notice it.


    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Returning back to consciousness, I am disappointed again. I am still here, still in this miserable state. Why can''t I just die? Well, maybe because I''m already dead... Yeah, that''s possibly it.  At least I remember, that I''m already dead.


    I don''t remember my name. I was 21, when  I died from heart disease. My parents names were Eric and Joann. I was still studying in the physics university. I didn''t have a girlfriend. I loved reading novels and mangas, I loved watching anime, and of course I loved playing games. Especially strategic games. I am -who...


    *muffled voice* (?)


    Huh? This is something new, at least I don''t remember something like this before. I never heard anyone here besides my own voice in my head.


    "Hello?" (me)


    *muffled voice* (?)


    This time the voice is more distinct. But I still can''t understand anything, it''s like some background sounds, that you would never pay attention to, well, if you weren''t in complete silence like me.


    "Hello? Can someone hear me?" (me)


    Am I going insane after all this time alone?


    I feel my consciousness drift away again. But this time there is no exhaustion. This is something new, something different. Am I going to finally leave this place? Closing my imaginary eyes I lose consciousness again, but this time with some hope.


    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    The first thing I notice is light. There is a lot of light, it feels like years from the last time I''ve seen light. There is sky, earth, air, everything there should be in living world. Have I been reincarnated or something? I can''t control my body, am I an infant? Then why am in the top of the small mountain looking down on the city from above. It''s around a kilometer distance from here to the city. Was I reincarnated as a freaking bird? Well, it would be awesome if I were a dragon though. Interrupting my train of thought I inhale panicking, as my body dives down to the city after a huge leap. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? Am I going to die right after being reborn?


    Taking a second look, and pondering for a brief second after the initial shock, I can officially conclude, that it''s not -my- body. It looks more like I''m a passenger or more precisely a spectator in someone''s body. I can see only the things -the owner- looks to, I can''t even look around freely.


    As I was getting my head around all of this (while still falling, with increasing velocity), the city keeps getting bigger and bigger, and I can make out, a lot of people, in the size of ants from this point of view, surrounding it. How big of a freaking leap was it to carry us all the way here? Are we gliding? Can -the owner- fly or something?


    Even with the limited view I get, I can tell that the body I''m in right now is humanoid. I can''t see the face after all. And what are all those people doing so orderly packed around city, it doesn''t look like they are waiting for great concert or something, it''s more like an army with what looks like in separated rectangular forms. If I had to guess, I''d say there are at least couple of hundred people in every rectangle. In total of 10 rectangular formations, which means around 8000-10000 soldiers. I should describe the city a bit too. Calling it a city is a bit forceful though. It looks more like a bigger than average village, with wooden walls of 4 meter in height. Village is really close to the mountain, it should be used as a natural barrier, I guess. The defenders of the siege, are standing behind the walls and are numbering less than thousand. And if the numbers alone didn''t mean anything, only by the looks of the weapons, armors and the way they are standing it''s obvious that defenders are no soldiers.


    After some nimble movements, -the owner- glides towards the rear of the village, where the tallest building is standing, almost leaning against the steep mountain. It is the farthest from all of the walls too, the safest place in the village by the looks of it. I probably should stop calling him -the owner-, though, it''s like he''s my master or something. I''ll call him Glider for now. So closing with huge velocity towards the ground in the rear of the village, I''m not as worried as I was at the start. Obviously this is some kind of magic-medieval world, judging by structures and the army near the village. And seeing how nimble and practiced are Glider''s flying, there is no reason to worry about the landing. Well, even if I wasn''t wrong, the landing wasn''t as smooth and showy as I hoped. Glider used the mountain, clinging to it and probably some magic, to drop the momentum. I''m really curious what he did there, all I could feel is some strange streams around his body and inside as well. Did he use air magic to slow his fall or something? I hope the army didn''t notice us, although the landing wasn''t flashy and didn''t cause too much noise, we were falling quite a while, and as good as I was able to see them, they could as easily see the object falling from the top of the mountain with such a huge speed.


    Dusting off the clothes, Glider walks out of the little dent in the ground, which can barely called a crater. Then he closes his eyes, and my vision darkens. After a second my vision switches to the point right above the village gates, where a soldier from the attackers with flashy armor, which I assume to be the general, comes riding on the horse. I surely haven''t seen a lot of horses, but this huge muscular animal which is a head taller than any normal horse should be don''t strike me as a ride, more like a monster, it''s really imposing, even more than the flashy armor and the huge pole arm the general carries with him.


    Now that I''m looking at them from 10 meters distance above them, I can see, that the general is human. But what shocked me and excited at the same time are the villagers. I can see animal ears on some of them, and even some tails here and there. Demihumans, it''s so cool. I really am in a magical world. I can even see some elves, although they are rare. It''s worth mentioning, that villagers have humans too. So it''s not just a human vs demihuman war.


    I''m still surprised of how am I hanging here in midair, right above their heads and none of them react to it. We were at the rear of the village, the farthest point to here a moment ago, and now after Glider closed his eyes, we are hovering here, and no one can see us. He should''ve used some kind of magic again. Probably to gather some information. I still don''t know his intentions though, is he infiltrating the village, to sneak attack them from behind, while soldier occupy them from the gates? Soldiers shouldn''t have that much problems with those frail walls though, so I don''t see a point in that. So it''s safe to assume, that Glider is here to help the villagers.


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    While I was occupied in my own thoughts, trying to make sense of the situation, the flashy general starts talking, still riding on the huge horse and pole arm in hand. He really can make an impression, but what impresses me more is the fact that he - a general, openly comes to speak himself, not afraid of an arrow or even some magic, which will kill him, while he is in the front of the whole army. Even if he came with the 10 times greater army against the villagers, who doesn''t even have a decent equipment, he is not a coward. Or he is just a fool to expose himself like this.


    "I am Alkeides Alberich, the general of the 5th imperial army. I was send by his imperial Majesty, to investigate the village''s involvement of aiding the corruptor. If you are innocent, open the gates immediately and  let the investigation prove it, or else we will be forced to take action." Alkeides''s voice beams through the whole territory. He has some lungs there, it should be some kind of a magic too. Is Alklodis his first name? I''ll just call him Al, and problem solved. Al looks like righteous knight, who is after some kind of criminal. I have a bad feeling about this criminal though.


    After a 5 second of silence and some hushed murmurs from the side of the villagers, a burly man, with a lot of thick hair all over his body, which can be called fur, and bear-ears steps atop the wall and answers.


    "I''m Uthyr, the village chief. I assure you we know nothing about the corruptor and have never seen him, not to mention aiding." (Uthyr)


    Frowning, Al''s voice beams once more, a bit higher this time, and carrying threat with it "I already gave you my orders, why are the gates still closed? I won''t repeat myself" (Al)


    Sweating profusely and after a bit of hesitation, the village chief orders to open the gates. Al, in turn, gives an order to his people, after which a 1000 man division splits in groups and starts entering the village for the investigation I assume. Uthyr looks concerned and I can see villagers glaring at the imperial army and some looking pale in fear. But I''m surprised of how few are scared, considering they are villagers, they should have a lot less spirit in such an odds against them. What''s worrying me is why do they look so guilty? All the glaring and fear. Are they secretly some kind of criminal village, aiding the super-criminal, the corruptor? And what did he do, to get such a name? It sure sounds cool. It''s not always the weak, who is in the right after all, the cliche scenario of injustice and stuff...


    The soldiers keep searching in orderly fashion. Aside from a few cases, when villagers were unwilling to let them in, and got punched by soldiers and dragged away by other villagers, still glaring, the search continued unhindered. I can feel Glider''s teeth clenching, every time, he sees a not so friendly behavior from soldiers, while still using his magical skills to maintain the look over the whole situations from above. I mean, the soldiers obviously are trying to do their job. Why even resist if they are innocent?


    After one of soldiers exited a little wooden house, while dragging a woman from her hair, some of the villagers try to pounce on him, to end up getting knocked back by the more experienced and better armed soldiers. In total of 3 women are dragged towards the gate and thrown at the general''s feet. Soldier makes a report after a salute. "Sir, we found these women hiding inside the houses. They still have the lifetime slave mark on their skin" Says the soldier, pointing and their arms, where I can see some black runes in circular pattern around their arms. One of the women is human, while the two others have rat and dog ears, unfortunately, without tails. Dog eared woman''s ears are hanging down, submissively, I can tell that she is scared. Soldier continues "I''m sure we can find a lot more if we keep searching, they are hiding in some crafty places, but we will be able to find them all with given time, but this three are already enough, to be sure that they were freed by the corruptor".


    If the villagers were restless and concerned before this, now they look, like they are ready to fight at any moment. Ignoring their glares and the atmosphere, general orders smirking "Take those slaves, and the village chief for interrogation. Kill anyone who will try to resist." After giving the brutal order, it looks like chaos is near the eruption. Which will be followed by a lot of deaths and destruction. Although I said this village is probably full of criminals, if their infringement is seeking freedom for themselves, it looks like imperial army and Al are bad guys here. As I thought to this point, my vision  jumps back to the place Glider''s body was all this time, and he springs to action. Jumping on the building''s roofs, he runs at astonishing speed towards the gates, ignoring startled looks of villagers and soldiers alike standing on the streets. At this point I''m 90% certain, that Glider is the corruptor, who freed slaves and helped them find a better live for themselves.


    I can feel emotions boiling inside of him, and it''s more like I feel how he moves instead of seeing it. Light and practiced steps, carrying him with a huge speed towards his destination. It looks like he is a lot stronger than average soldier, but even if he is stronger than that general - Al, will he be able to defeat 10000 men strong army. It looks more like suicide to me. In a span of a few short seconds he already appeared near the gates and it looks like everyone noticed him, looking at him with surprised looks. Making the final and biggest leap, right from the top of the walls, he descends in front of slave-women, clashing against Al''s pole arm with his long sword, which he took out lightning fast out of nowhere, that even I, who can feel everything he can, couldn''t register the action. Collision of those weapons knocked near standing soldiers. Al got knocked back by the sword''s strike, out of his horse, landing on the ground. If he can so effortlessly jump around the 10000 man army, he can kill Al or take him hostage and escape without problems, and if villagers close the gates and hide behind them, maybe they will have a chance.


    But Al gets up without a problem, pole arm still in hand and it looks like he didn''t even get a scratch from their exchange, and I have the feeling it was just the surprise attack that managed to throw Al out of balance, the fight won''t go so easily now. Glider, or should I start calling him corruptor, scans Al''s equipment, and locks his gaze right on the bracelet. Al smirks, noticing his gaze. "Do you protective barrier bestowed upon me by his imperial Majesty?".


    Not answering him, and without even a change in his face, anyone would believe that he isn''t concerned about that bracelet and that he is sure of his win anyway, but I can feel his emotions, and it looks like he is troubled by that particular bracelet. Al continues "You guessed it correctly, his Majesty know about you magic powers and he gave me this bracelet, to assure my victory, Corruptor. Today I shall punish you for your sins against the empire and his Majesty." After getting the confirmation worry in the Corruptor''s heart intensifies. I''m still not sure is that bracelet the reason why Al is without a scratch after the exchange, or did it supposedly defend him against some kind of magical attack, which Corruptor used with his sword attack earlier?


    Now that I look at them closer, why does everyone has some color shades to them? Some of them are light green, some darker, some orange and those three women are red. It''s really hard to distinguish, I have to concentrate to actually see their colors, which is why I haven''t noticed it yet with all the action and stuff. I''ll ignore it for now.


    Around three dozen soldiers charge at Corrupter, their weapons drown, but Corrupter, don''t even spare a glance for them, keeping his eyes on Al. Some kind of invisible wave washes over those soldiers, who are still 10 meter away from Corrupter, and after a slight pause, they fall to the ground, dropping their weapons, unconscious. I don''t know what he did there, but it sure as hell was cool. Al don''t stop though, ordering other soldiers to keep attacking, probably knowing, that their fallen comrades are not dead, they charge ahead unfazed. I''m guessing, that Al tries to exhaust Corrupter. But if he has the cool and awesome super-mega-antimagic-bracelet, why would he use such a tactic. Probably that bracelet has it''s charge, and he is afraid, that it will end sooner than Corrupter''s stamina in direct fight. Getting the confirmation from Corrupter''s emotions, I feel proud of my own deduction skills. I don''t even know anything about magic, I doubt novels and games count here.


    After sending second batch to the dreamland, Corrupter tries to leap to Al, just to end up being surrounded by even more soldiers. It seems that those soldiers, that keep jumping on him have some kind of defense as well, although nowhere near as good as Al''s, it still keeps draining Corrupter. I can feel his impatience and frustration. I also can feel, that he is holding back, afraid of killing those soldiers, who are all green by the way. Only Al and rarely some random soldiers are orange, and Al have the darkest shade too, just a bit away from red. It doesn''t look like some kind of power indication, those slave women can''t be stronger than Al can they? I''ll still keep ignoring it then, no helping it.


    Imperial army have come prepared, and the odds aren''t in Corrupter''s side right now, I wonder what will he do in this situation.

 Prologue: Reincarnation [2]

    Leaping and chasing after Al, Corrupter is around a 50 meter away from the gates right now, and behind him, right after pile of sleeping soldiers, villagers can be seen trying to close the gates, carrying three women. It doesn''t look like soldiers were too rough with them, probably they still have some mental damage after being a slave and all this situation with an army and taking them away made them remember the past again. There are some soldiers, who are trying to hinder villagers efforts.


    After sparing a glance behind, to see the situation around the gates, Corrupter finally steels himself and decisively waves his sword with a huge vertical swing from overhead. Although there is no one in sword''s immediate path, I see the results before I can doubt Corrupter''s actions. A wave of 3-4 meters in height and a meter in length washes right through the soldiers and hits Al, who were standing behind the rows of the soldiers protecting him. But this time it''s different, instead of just an invisible wave, that sends everyone unconscious in contact, it has an frightening black color to it. Just by a looking at it, even I, who have no knowledge of magic can tell that whoever gets hit by it won''t go off lightly. The wave after washing through the couple of unfortunate soldiers in its path, engulfs Al''s whole body, and without even a shriek all the soldiers and Al himself, who were hit by the black wave fell to the ground at the same time with one *thud*. I can see, that bracelet is still intact in Al''s wrist. After sending one more invisible wave with his sword,  this time horizontal, a dozen more soldiers hit the ground unconscious, frightening already shocked soldiers, who just lost their commander even more.


    "Take your fallen comrades and leave this place, or follow your commander to his demise". Corrupter''s deep, powerful voice resounds from everywhere. I can''t help but feel chill running down my spine, after the brutal demonstration of power. He is done playing around.


    And the effect must felt even more frightening for the soldiers themselves, because before he even could finish his short speech, some of the soldier already fled. Some of them dropping their weapons to run as fast as they can. And after more and more wake up from their shock, seeing their fallen commander, and their comrades running behind them, they start to flee too. Corrupter doesn''t wait, to see them leave, instead turning around and walking towards the gates. And before the stunned villagers can open it, he leaps high from the ground, jumping right above the wall and landing behind it. Some of the villagers starts cheering, realizing their victory. But before more of the villagers can join the celebration, Corrupter''s serious voice sounds again.


    "No time for Celebrations, now that they know about us, they will send someone stronger, and I can''t guarantee your safety, while I will be fighting them, you have to pack your possession and leave the village as soon as possible." (Corrupter)


    Villagers look like a bucket of cold water were poured on them, everyone starts to hastily make their ways to their homes, making preparations. Only village chief, leaving of his own orders, makes his way towards Corrupter. Being sure, that no one can hear them, he starts the conversation after a quick bow.


    "Thank you for saving our lives again." After a slight hesitation, he continues "Sir, I find the timing of their investigation too coincidental, right after you left the village, I fear to imagine what could have happened if you haven''t returned Sir." Says the head taller bear-man bowing towards Corrupter.


    After a nod of acknowledgement, Corrupter answers "Most likely someone from the village told them,  but right now we don''t have the time to find out who. It will have to wait. And I''m sure after my arrival, imperials already sent a reinforcements. You will leave as soon as possible, go through the mountains to the east. It should be saver in Nikephoros."


    "Does that mean that you are not coming with us Sir?" (Uthyr)


    "No, I have the unfinished business in the empire, and I''ll have to take care of whatever they send for reinforcement, or they will catch up to you before you can make your way out of the empire." (Corrupter)


    "Thank you sir, I''ll make sure that everyone make it out of the empire safely, and I''ll catch the rat before we leave the empire."(Uthyr)


    "Mhm, leave as soon as possible." (Corrupter)


    Finishing their conversation, Corrupter makes his way towards now empty walls, sitting atop of them, gazing to the horizon. It looks like unconscious soldiers were left behind, some of them are waking up and after seeing the pile of bodies laying and Corrupter sitting on the wall, calmly watching their every move, they manage to put 2 and 2 together, and flee as fast as they can.


    While waiting there on the top of the wall I keep pondering about the things I''ve just witnessed. I was sure that Corrupter is a strong mage, but to kill their general so effortlessly. And it seems like Al believed, that he had more than enough chances to kill Corrupter. It''s impressive in how he actually managed to defeat an army with so little blood. Technically speaking there were literally no blood on Corrupter''s victims, only some on the little clash that took place around the gates, when villagers were trying to close it. I don''t think it was possible to make it with less deaths. But although seeing all this, and feeling Corrupter''s emotions, I still can''t help but feel about this world like a game. Especially right now, that the world seemed to enter a fast-forward mode, the villagers are moving so fast I can''t even see all of them, and sun is setting a lot faster than it should. In what should be a minute, around couple of hours went by. At some point villagers exited from the north-east gates, and made their way to the east. Now it''s only me and Corrupter, sitting inside of the desolate village.


    ¡±Oh, sir Kastor, you were waiting for me, so kind of you, freeing me from the headache of finding you. My apologies for keeping you waiting so long, I was a bit busy with all those criminals running around the village" Appearing out of nowhere with a sudden  gush of wind, what looks like a middle-aged man, clad in a golden armor. I don''t see anything resembling a weapon on him. And I didn''t even notice his sudden appearance. But Corrupter, or is Kastor his name, seems unimpressed by it. But it seems like he didn''t like the tone and meaning of middle-aged man''s words. I can feel a frown creeping up on his face. It seems that he is cautious towards this man. The man has a white aura, all the villagers and the soldiers so far had only 3 colors: Green, Orange and Red, but this man has white aura, but if I concentrate more on his aura, I can feel my head spinning, and in the depths of the white I can see the darkest shade of red I can imagine. It''s so dark that can be called black.


    "You mean your imperial army''s soldiers, Zenon?" (Kastor?)


    "Oh so you recognized me? I shouldn''t expect less from Kastor the corrupter, after all" Oh, so it was his title. "And those criminals don''t deserve to be called soldiers after fleeing from the battle, abandoning their duty". (Zenon)


    "What did you do to them?" Asks Kastor with clenched teetch.


    "I just delivered the divine punishment for their crimes" (Zenon)


    Rage and hatred swelling inside Kastor''s chest he no longer holding back jumps straight from the top of the 4 meter high walls towards golden armored middle aged man.


    A deafening sound of clashing weapons sounds out, after they both pull their weapons out of nowhere. Trading a blow after blow, utilizing swordsmanship on a level I have never seen before, they keep fighting with a speed I can''t keep up with. It seems, that Kastor is holding an upper hand, he manages to  inflict and injury after injury, a cut after cut, but as soon as they appear, they close and disappear like their very existence was an illusion. I am trying to comprehend as much from their intense battle as possible. Their movements, the unfathomable invisible waves washing in the air, trying to overwhelm one another. And it seems, that Kastor is holding an upper hand in those invisible wave crushes as well. So far the battle seems to flow in his favor, but that smug look and that arrogant grin on Zenon''s face is unnerving. It looks like he doesn''t care about his own injuries and his only objective is to inflict some injuries to Kastor.


    Kastor in turn, seems angrier and angrier, and it''s not only because of how frustrating is the fight, when you are fighting against immortal lunatic.


    *Swish*


    Zenon''s grin widens, when he trades a pierce into his heart against a cut into Kaster''s shoulder. It looks like his left arm isn''t functioning anymore and Kaster''s shoulder isn''t regenerating like Zenon did with his heart. Kaster jumps back waving the other hand and 5 bodies rise from the ground, encircling Zenon within. So that''s what he was trying to do with the trade of blows, he was trying to bait Zenon into his trap. And his title''s makes a lot more sense now. So he is a necromancer. Those 4 bodies are the soldiers that were killed by him when he killed Al, and 5-th is Al himself. Still wearing that bracelet on his wrist.


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    Zenon don''t look impressed at all, giving a cold snort, he waves his hand, and after the wave of invisible energy washes through them 4 of the soldiers stop in their tracks, and fall back to the ground. Before Zenon could open his mouth to make an arrogant remark, he notices that one of the bodies haven''t fallen, and is still making his way towards him. From the very start the bodies were lying very close to him, because of how Kaster baited him in the best position, sacrificing his left arm. After the initial surprise he doesn''t have any time to react, and all he can do is twist his body, to face the last zombie, emitting a stronger, but still invisible wave again. After all he didn''t have to realize why the last zombie is still standing, how could he have guessed, that Kaster is using their own tricks against them.


    It seems bracelet''s charge finally diminished and it shattered with a *crack*,  and zombie hits the ground before being able to do anything to Zenon, but the moment of distraction was all Kaster needed. Already on the hand''s reach distance, Kaster  swings with his fully enveloped in black shadows sword towards his opponent''s neck. Zenon in turn tries to defend himself frantically creating a white barrier around his head. But half-created barrier proves to be weaker, and sword losing tiny bit of its power punctures into his neck. I have a feeling, that whatever Kaster used, must be something ignoring his enemy''s regeneration, because he seems relieved, that his plan worked.


    Suddenly a huge amount of white energy bursts forth from Zenon''s whole body, slowly concentrating into his hands. Kaster, still his sword inside Zenon''s neck, pales, as realization strikes him. Zenon grabs Kaster with both of his hands and channels the whole white energy into him through his hands, which intensity in dark night is like a sun, illuminating all the surroundings. Then they both hit the ground, light dimming , as Kaster''s scream echoes in the desolate place. I can feel his unwillingness, his sadness and his despair.


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    POV change: Kaster the corrupter.


    Is this it? Am I going to die because of this carelessness? Pain engulfs all my body as I feel slowly losing consciousness. After all this years, fighting, protecting, this is how it all ends? Being known as the corrupter? The number one criminal of the empire? After what my family gave to this world, we will forever be known to the whole world as the family of demons?


    My grandfather was born with a innate talent, a mutated soul. It took him some time until he realized what that talent was for. He could see people''s karma. The purest soul, when baby is just born has the most pure, white color. And after our every action, it changes. There is no adult with a white color, the purest, most honest and kind people have the lightest green color. Those who have done some intentional harm to others, either scheming or sometimes even just harboring bad thoughts have orange color. And the worst criminals, murderers, rapists and even some thieves have the red color. But no matter how dark or evil a man is, there is no pure evil, even that lunatic Zenon with his royal family is only a very dark shade of red, they aren''t black. My grandfather, was a great man, he was trying to establish a peace in the whole world. In his time there were always wars between demihumans, elves and humans. He was trying to share his vision with everyone, to create a better world. And he succeeded, after long years of research and adventures he managed to find friends from dwarven kingdom, and he even managed to befriend a Spirit. With their help and knowledge on their respective fields, he created an artifact, and spread it throughout the whole world. At first it was really tough, especially considering that the kings and nobles were all red themselves. After a long war, which took years, the church of truth was established. Rulers were chosen only from the green people. And here is where everyone should live long and happy, but they came.


    Pankratius family, all of them had white statuses, and although they are most evil man I ever knew, they somehow seems to be the only ones being able to hide their real status color from my grandpa''s artifacts. But although they managed to deceive everyone, only my family, who were original wielders of the soul mutation, were able to see their true face. After the war which took years, my grandpa''s status were orange as well, he killed a lot of people after all, and when he tried to convince people, that their newfound angels with white wings are imposters, no one believed him, saying, that he was trying to use his own artifacts to become a king himself. Well, of course everything wasn''t as easy as that, I''m sure there were a lot of fights and schemes behind the scenes, but the results were that we lost.


    I would never lose to these lunatic Zenon Pankratius in the fare fight, in the way to the village he executed and absorbed all of the soldiers life energy. He is a life mage after all.


    Life and death magic are the rarest and most powerful of magic, in the Spirit category. The mages who practice in them, have incomparably strong souls, compared to the other mages. I was practicing death magic all my life, researching the way to get resurrect a death''s soul, my grandpa''s and my family''s souls, trying to clear my family''s name in the process. But after years of research, my results weren''t as successful as my grandpa''s. Although I managed to succeed in my research, there were restrictions. I found out, that every soul, after dying goes to the soul-abyss, the place where nothing exists, they are deemed to stay there as long as it takes to erase their all memories, and be reborn anew. And depending on the soul''s strength or the amount of memories, the time can vary, which at first gave me hope, hope, that even if my grandpa would lose a lot of his memories, considering how much time has passed, I still had a chance, I don''t know anyone else who had stronger soul than him after all, except spirits and Gods themselves.  But it turns out, that the flow of time in the soul-abyss, is different. There time flows a lot faster, and the second my grandfather have died, even with his powerful soul, in the next second he was already lost, his soul already reincarnated.


    Now, I myself am dying, the last of my family. Without being able to clean my name.


    Then, it hit me, the realization, that I still have a chance, no matter how miniscule, but there still is a chance. Even if I can''t reincarnate souls that were killed years ago, I can still bring someone, who died recently, the very second I died. I only need to find someone and convince him to help me, I refuse to believe that in the whole soul-abyss, where million souls appears every second I won''t be able to find someone suitable.


    Still inside my dying body, I used every ounce of mana left inside my mana pool, to cast my final and greatest spell. The final restriction, which is why I still haven''t resurrected anyone till this day, was to create a soul-container, a core, which any living being with soul posses. But only Gods can create cores, so the only solution for this problem that I could find is to use existing core. But if someone doesn''t give their core willingly, there is no way to take it forceful, if you are not a God. But now that I''m dying, there is no problem in finding a willing subject. My consciousness leaves my body, entering the soul-abyss. Using the last drops of mana left, I try to find a suitable soul.


    My first tries were futile, I tried to talk to them, but they either wished to die, or were trying to deceive, just to get reincarnated. Then I tried to show them my memories, my life, my final battle, to see their reactions, to see their emotions, to judge their character. Most of were easy to judge from the very start, their thoughts showed their intentions immediately. The longest someone managed to last was a guy from some weird world, with good morals, but I found out that their species seems to be all cowards. In my, which was that again? 57-th?, whatever... In my 60-th attempt I stumbled into a soul, which was repeating the same words in what seems to be a futile attempt to not forget his life.


    "I didn''t have a girlfriend. I loved reading novels and mangas, I loved watching anime and of course I loved playing games. Especially strategic games. I am -who..." (60th soul)


    "Oh? You noticed my presence? It seems you have quite powerful soul." (me)


    "Hello?" (60th soul)


    "It seems, like you can''t hear me, well, maybe not as powerful as I thought" (me)


    "Hello? Can someone hear me?" (60th soul)


    Ok, let''s start then, I hope you won''t disappoint me. I willed him to be engulfed inside my memories, while I can watch his every emotion. I am death mage after all, and the death God''s champion at that, my soul power is a lot more powerful, I can make him see and feel whatever I want to, while watching his reaction. Although time here flows differently, my mana still gets consumed in astonishing speed, I have to find someone fast, or my mana pool will end faster and the spell will be interrupted.

 Prologue: Reincarnation [3]

    Last chapter of the prologue, finally MC starts his adventures. I hope I was able to express all my thoughts clear enough, it''s difficult to judge your own story and how understandable it is, so I would appreciate some constructive criticism.


    And please, leave reviews if you liked the story so far. Enjoy.


    <hr />


    I''m still trying to process what happened. So they killed each other? Why didn''t Zenon die from that attack? And what''s happening to me now? Oh not this again, darkness... The all too familiar place. I''m still back here.


    "Do you hear me this time?" (?)


    "What? Who is it?" (me)


    "I''m Kaster Merlin, but everyone in my world knows me as the corrupter. But I believe you called me the glider" Said Kaster? chuckling amused  by the name.


    "Was that your voice I was hearing before? And what was all that I saw? Was it even real? Can you get me out of here?" (me)


    "Wow, wow easier. Keep a question at a time. To answer your first question, yes, it was my voice. It seems your soul isn''t strong enough to hear me on its own, so I''m projecting my voice directly into your consciousness this time. About all the things I''ve shown you, it should be obvious at this point, those were all my memories just before I died, so yes, they were more than real." (Kaster)


    "Mmmm, so... Can you get me out of this place." (me)


    "And aren''t you curious as to why was I showing all those memories to you?" (Kaster)


    "Well, honestly I would be cautious of a guy, that came and granted me the only thing I can whish for, and especially when I don''t have much choice, but after seeing all your memories, even though I''ve never seen a real magic in my world, it''s still obvious to me that no matter how good a mage you are, you wouldn''t be able to fake all those emotions I was feeling from you. You chose to stay and fight for the villagers, instead of fleeing, knowing, that it can be a strong enemy, so yeah, even if it''s stupid to trust someone who I''m talking to for the first time, I trust you." (me)


    "Hahahaha, it seems I wasn''t the only one, who was watching emotions and judging the character, good. Now then, to answer your question, yes, I do indeed have the power to take you out of this place, but before that, let me tell you a bit about my family and my past" (Kaster)


    Then he told me about his grandfather, their family gift, which is apparently called a soul-mutation, his objectives and what he was trying to accomplish all this time. He really was through a lot, and I can understand why would he like to resurrect his family, instead of living alone in the world, where everyone hates you and thinks of you as the number one enemy of humanity. And demihumanity? ...Enemy of all the people. It looks like he is actually relived to leave all of that behind and reincarnate anew, but still refuses for his family name to remain tainted.


    "So those women that you freed from slavery, are criminals then, their statuses were all although a lighter shade, but still red" (me).


    "There is a lot of ways to misuse a power, and make people do what they wouldn''t in normal circumstances. They were framed, and judged as dangerous, even though they had the most common orange karma. There are a lot of shady organizations in the cities, framing and using their power, to enslave innocents and force them to work for free. Those three women were forced to work in the brothel when I freed them, then in the way out of the city, while we were trying to save others, they were forced to kill some soldiers for self-defense, and became red."


    "I see... Yeah, there are always people, who will find a way to misuse most noble things for their own interests." *Sigh*, after a moment of consideration I continued "I understand and sympathies with you, I really do, and the whole empire seem rotten and fucked up, but are you asking me to go against the whole empire with their armies and immortal regenerating lunatics, who everyone think as the purest and kindest people alive? Don''t you think it''s too much to ask for?" (me)


    "I''m not asking you to go ahead of your way and risk your live to accomplish all of this. I''m just making a gamble. You will be a reincarnated soul, a soul with memories of another world. I was impressed by your ability to analyze the situation while you were watching my memories. I''m just asking, that if one day you are strong enough to fight against the imperials, it will be not so hard for you to clean our name, after all knowing your character, soon or later you will have your own reasons to fight against them.


    And there is also the fact, that you will need to practice and research to create a suitable body for you." (Kaster)


    "Wait, do you mean, Will I be some kind of a ghost without a body?" (me)


    "Of course not, only spirits can survive without a body, all other living beings need a core, like I mentioned before, it''s only that I''m not able to create a good enough body, all I''ll manage to create is a shell with a core using my death magic" (Kaster)


    "So I''ll be undead? What the hell... How am I supposed to get stronger and even survive in the world of living as undead? I mean knowing your title as necromancer, if I''m an undead everyone will try to hunt me down." (me)


    "I''ll give you strongest body I''m capable of creating, and you won''t necessarily be hunted down, although I would advise you to keep your distance from people as long as possible, until you are strong enough to protect yourself, but you will have a clean soul, and although not a newborn - white, your soul is still green, and as long as you show it in the city, they won''t kill you, probably. But if you stumble upon adventurers on the way, they can attack without a warning, karma artifacts are used only in cities after all, and can''t be carried around." (Kaster)


    "Yeah, that''s REALLY reassuring... And how am I supposed to create a body for myself?" (me)


    "Although at the time my grandfather was disappointed in people. He still couldn''t bear to isolate all his accumulated knowledge from them, hoping that someday someone would use it in for a right cause. After creating the great library with centuries of accumulated knowledge about the world, crafting, and magic theories, he put 4 conditions for those, who wants to enter it.


    1) One has to have a pure heart. He used a level advanced artifact than those, that the church of truth uses,  which is able to tell not only the karma, but also the intentions. It was the only way he could find to block Pankratius from entering his great library.


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.                2) One has to be at least a master level mage in one of the spirit magic.


    3) One has to be at least a master level mage in one of the material magic.


    4) One has to be at least a master level mage in runic magic.


    For the 2nd, 3rd and 4th conditions, if someone isn''t at least at that level, they won''t be able to understand anything inside the library


    You''ll have to reach a master level in all 3 of those fields and enter the library, which is in the Great Forest if you want to create a new body for yourself" (Kaster)


    "And what the master level is supposed to mean?" (me)


    "Ah, right you can''t know about it can you. There are ranks for every mages and magic spells. When the mage is able to comprehend and use the magic of a certain rank, he becomes a mage of that rank. Ranks go like this


    Beginner -> Intermediate -> Advanced -> Expert -> Master -> Grandmaster -> Sage.


    The first three is quite easy to comprehend, and pretty much anyone with at least an ounce of talent and hard work can make their way to Advanced. But after that is bottleneck, which not anyone can pass. It all depends on natural talent and comprehension. Being an Expert is enough to get a high status in army and live a relaxed life, if you decide to join one of the empires.


    And Masters are even rarer. They are so few, that any of empires are ready to give a Master a noble status with a castle and some land. You can imagine how hard it is to reach a Master lvl.


    I and Zenon, whose fight you were watching were both Grandmasters, and although our power is more obvious in large scale battles, when any Grandmaster can turn the flow of the battle, you still should already have some kind of understanding of the power this level." (Kaster)


    "And what about Sages?" I was getting quite excited at this point with all the magic and being able to live in such a world.


    "In all of the known history, there were quite a large number of Grandmasters, but a lot less Sages, they were so few you can count them in two hands. The only living sage is the current human Emperor, and also the first of the Pankratius. And the other in the last century was my grandfather." (Kaster)


    "I already guessed that the lifespan of people in your world is quite long, but how old is that emperor guy." (me)


    "We don''t have much time to idle talk, I have a limited amount of mana and I still need to create a body for you. Oh, I nearly forgot, the reason i even came to these village was mainly because I was searching for the great spirit, my grandfather''s friend, who helped him quite a bit in his artifact creation. Maybe you will want to see him, Spirits are most ancient and knowledgeable createres after the Gods. But they don''t concern themselves with mortal matters, if they want to you will be able to find them, and if they don''t wish to see you, you will be circling around their place for a hundreds of years without being able to meet them. Go to the north from the village, and hope that you will pique his interest. I think that''s all, so if you don''t have any important thing to ask..." (Kaster)


    "Ok, I''ll defenetly remember it. One last question. I''m really curious, if you can come to this void place, and resurrect a chosen soul, why can''t you just resurrect yourself?" (me)


    Shooking his head Kaster answers with a regretful sigh "For a spell to work, it needs a constant flow of mana from the start to finish. I''m dying, it means my soul is leaving my core. There is no way to stop the process when it is already started, and once my soul leaves my core, I will lose the control over my mana pool, and my spell will be interrupted before I can put my soul back into a core and create a body. Although there is a way to do it using runic magic, I''m not as adept in it as my grandfather was, and I stopped researching resurrecting once I knew that I won''t be able to get back my family." (Kaster)


    "Even though I know I''m being too unreasonable, I have to know, is there a way to resurrect me in my previous world?" (me) Honestly speaking I wasn''t very fond of my previous life, and I was always dreaming about getting into a magic world, becoming a hero, but after the time spent inside the void, in loneliness, I started to appreciate my loved ones more, so I have to know.


    "No, I am actually confident, that even grandfather with all of his knowledge wouldn''t be able to get you back to your world, as I said, soul needs a core, and the only way I am able to resurrect you is to melt my own core into a liquid and attach your soul into it, unfortunately at that point I won''t be able to assist you, so you''ll have to manage it on your own." (Kaster)


    Then, with a concerned voice he continued "I''ll have to warn you, I don''t know how Zenon managed to survive my attack, he should be dead, but he managed to kill me after that. I''m not even entirely sure is he dead himself, he can still be laying there. Fortunately for us, as I said before in this place time flows differently, so after you will be resurrected, it will be only a couple of second after our last exchange, so you should have a lot of time to do something. But if he is still alive, don''t even try to kill him, you won''t be able to with your powers. The only thing you can do is run as fast as you can and hope, that he didn''t notice you." (Kaster)


    "Yeah, that''s even more reassuring" (me)


    "Well then, we don''t have much time. Farewell... Now that I think about it I don''t even know your name" (Kaster)


    "My name was one of my first memories I lost here. So I don''t know it either" (me)


    "If you are ready to bear the most shameful name from my world, then you can pick Merlin as your last name, you have to figure something with your first name yourself." (Kaster)


    "Thank you Kaster, it''s an honor to have such a noble name, I really mean it. In my world there..." (me)


    I even wanted to tell him about a legendary mage from my world with the same name, but before I could finish, I felt darkness enveloping my consciousness once again. Once more that familiar sensation. His mana must have depleted already, than it means...


    Farewell Kaster Merlin. One of the most noble people world even knew.


    And with those last thoughts, I lost my consciousness.

 The world map

    The world''s map. I intentionally made only the parts, that were touched by the story, or will be in near chapters. That''s why the map is so empty. To prevent spoilers. It''s defenetly not because I''m lazy or anything...


    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.The map will be updated as the story progress.

 Entering the forest

    When I came back to consciousness I couldn''t see anything, but I could tell, that I wasn''t in the void anymore. I could feel, which was more than enough of a proof. I didn''t feel my body, but I felt, like I was inside some kind of a liquid. Very hard and consistent liquid, which was hard to shape, hard, but possible. So I started to shape the liquid into the most comfortable bubble using my feeling to guide me. It wasn''t easy, I had to concentrate pretty hard to be able to change its shape. After what seems like straining and exhausting minutes or even hours of willing it to take desirable shape, not too big, where my awareness couldn''t reach and not too small, just the right size, I noticed, that liquid seem to become even harder to move. Like it''s mass suddenly increased. It was starting to crystallize. When I had it in the perfect shape, the bubble was trying to sometimes get smaller, and sometimes getting bigger. It was even harder to concentrate now, than it was in the start. Using all my awareness and will, I tried to hold the bubble in place, not letting it change in the slightest. I could imagine myself all drained in sweat, although I didn''t have a body.


    Finally the bubble settled, and at the very moment a flood of information entered my mind, like a huge wave, overwhelming me. It took me some time, but the sensations were all too familiar. I was actually sensing my body. Although nerves and sense of touch wasn''t as accute as I remember, it was still there. Then I started hearing some dull noises, it started with a dull sounds, like my ears were full of water, then cleared up bit by bit. After which followed the vision. I could finally see. And even the fact, the all the images were black-and-white couldn''t make me less happy. I guess the side effects of being an undead.


    I don''t have the time to familiarize myself with my new body, I''ll have to check on Zenon. Is he still alive? Did he notice me?


    I was standing right on top of what seems like Kaster''s body. It''s actually first time I see his face. The stern and serious face. A couple of seconds ago in the void I was mourning his death, but now it somehow doesn''t concern me. Right in front of his body is laying Zenon, a pool of blood under his head, his neck still punctured, although the wound is still there, I can''t see neither of their swords, both of their weapons disappeared. And I can see a shattered necklace on his chest. It''s in 4 pieces now, but even soaked in blood and shattered it still holds its expensive and pretty looks. Remembering the scene of shattering bracelet on Al''s wrist, I am making a really far-fetched assumption, that it''s an artifact, that helped him survive Kaster''s blow and retaliate. If it''s not, than I don''t have any clue on what did he use.


    Now, how am I supposed to tell is he alive or dead? He is not regenerating like he was before, that I''m sure of. Well, let''s think about what options do I have. I would like to take the dead soldier''s weapons and search the village for the things I''ll need in my travel. They won''t be back to their homes anyway right? Will it still be considered a thievery? They abandoned their possession after all. It also seems appropriate to bury Kaster''s body, but if imperials later come and discover that his body is buried it can raise questions, it should be better to leave everything as is, Kaster is already dead anyway, he wouldn''t mind would he? Besides, if Zenon is still alive, I''d better not risk it and get out of here as fast as I can.


    Deciding that it''s not worth the risk, I take the two swords each from the fallen soldiers, with their belts, a dagger and Kaster''s black robe. Also there is an expensive looking ring in Kaster''s finger, after picking it up I can see strange runes engraved inside of it. Is this an artifact as well? How do you even use those? Also I would like to take soldier''s armor, but I don''t want to risk staying too long here. Even if Zenon is dead, I don''t know how fast will more imperials arrive. It will be quite awkward to explain what is a skeleton doing here, near the corpse of the number one criminal and one of empire''s royal family''s body, I''m not sure yet is he dead or not. Even if he is dead it wouldn''t change much, I''d better not take his artifacts and gear, I''m sure any soldier can recognize those.


    I equipped everything I took and made my way to the north, where the forest lays. Equipping the belts were more than awkward when you are just a skeleton. Oh right, being so panicked about the Zenon''s possible regenerating and considering my options, I didn''t have the time to check on my new body. It looks like I''m just sack of bones, literally. No flesh at all, just thick, black bones. I''m a skeleton with black bones. Great.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Walking to the forest and casting occasional glances back, to check on Zenon. It''s really tempting to go back and loot all his possesion, but I don''t want to risk it. Entering the forest, I make my way deeper into it. I remember being in the forest when I was a kid in my world, but at the time it seemed so much more fun, and beautiful, the birds chirping, the sun shining through the leaves, I remember marveling those scenes. Those were one of my most peaceful and happy memories, in our family trip. But now it''s all just annoying black-and-white trees, that stand in my way. Maybe it''s because it''s night right now?


    It''s useful to know, that I don''t actually feel exhausted after walking for what seems more than an hour, I think I''m quite deep in the forest at this point. One of the useful traits for being an undead I guess.


    Now, how should I know if I''m closing in towards the Spirit, I should ask more about it, no point in regretting it now, all I can do is keep walking forward. Maybe while I roam inside the forest in utter boredom I should try to think a name for myself. It seems to be a pretty good idea, and I have to find out what is the ring I picked up used for.


    <hr />


    POV change: Uthyr, the village chief


    A calamity has befallen onto us again, and I''m still too weak to protect what I swear to protect. I am still useless, like I was at the time city, when milord saved those very citizens I couldn''t. I was a soldier in imperial army at the time. Although, it''s not my parents homeland, they moved to the previously known human empire as the century of piece came, I was born here, I was raised here. I loved the empire, I loved it''s people, I went to serve it and protect its citizens. When I came to protect one of the ''honorable'' nobles from the evil corrupter at the time, I was sure in my believe. Then I saw them, with my own eyes I saw what they were doing to the innocent citizens I was supposed to protect. And I was fighting the one, who was truly protecting them. That was when I left the army and moved to the village to protect those unfortunate people. It was easy at first, just some monster attacks from the forest, we were managing without casualties.


    Then the imperials came, to ''investigate'' and ''bring justice'' to the criminals. I wasn''t sure what to do, our savior have left a day ago and said that he won''t return for weeks. Villagers couldn''t fight such a large army, and our pitiful walls wouldn''t help us either. I was forced to open the walls and hope for a miracle to occur. And it did. Our savor returned, when we needed him again. He came back and took care of the whole army himself. And then ordered us to leave the village. I wanted to stay, to fight alongside him, but I knew that I would be only a burden, and I knew that I would be a lot more useful staying and protecting villagers. So I gritted my teeth and left our savor alone, to risk his live again, protecting us.


    We left the village when sun was just starting to set. We had to move through forest to flee unnoticed, and I arranged for everyone to walk in a thin and very long line. Around a thousand villagers were moving like a snake coiling around trees, only 10 people in a single line, following each other.


    Such a big group should be enough to scare away any monsters in the forest, but I still wasn''t taking any risks, I ordered some of experienced hunters to scout around the group. I was concerned about moving in the forest at night, even with a large group like ours, I wanted to make a camp and rest for the night, but I was afraid of being too close from the village. So we kept walking for around two hours even after nightfall. It was getting really dangerous, people could go missing in such a dark place, so I judged it save, when we stumbled upon a little clearing. Everyone started to get themselves comfortable. I arranged for the night watch around the whole area with shifts and a huge fire to scare away any beast who was stupid enough to attack such a large group. This was one of the safest forests after all, here only regular beasts lived and occasionally some small monster packs. They feed on mana-creatures, although any creature technically has mana, those with souls or some stronger animals have more of it. And in this forest they don''t have enough food, so they don''t breed too much and when their population grows too big, they eat each other to not die from hunger. That''s why I was sure, that we were pretty safe here.


    But I was wrong.

 Ambush

    POV Change: Nina (elf), one of the villagers.


    I woke up from the noise of battle and saw our warriors either half asleep or still sleeping being slaughtered by humans. They had dark red armor and were moving in orderly fashion, their numbers weren''t more than 100, but still, they had an advantage of an ambush and were clearly more experienced in fighting than any of our villagers. Looking at their inhuman expressions, it looks more like they were experienced more in slaughtering and killing than fighting.


    All I could think about is taking my daughter and running deeper into the forest, hoping that they won''t notice. Dragging my 11 year old daughter by hand, and closing her mouth with the other, while hugging close to me so she won''t see all the slaughter around us I move as silently as possible into the woods, away from the camp. We were quite deep inside the camp, and considering how much people we had, in it the camp was really big. I dragged my daughter closer to the edge, and noticed our village chief with some of the warriors making their way to the attackers.


    Chief has done a lot of things for me and my daughter, so I wanted to warn them, that they don''t have the chance, that they have to flee, but knowing him, he wouldn''t listen to me.


    "It''s okay honey, just close your eyes shot, and follow me, everything will be okay." Whispering reassuring words to my daughter, while dragging her along, I can already see the forest on the other side of the camp, people here although already realized what is going on, they are unwilling to run from the safety of our camp, they don''t understand in how much of a danger we are.


    Imperial army shouldn''t be here so soon, at least we hoped they shouldn''t. But they would definitely number more than thousand, they should already encircle us. Why are their numbers so few? Remembering those savage looks on their faces, they should be the infamous red bandits.


    I have the experience to judge the situation, because before settling with my husband and having our daughter, we were adventurers. Although I was just a C rank adventurer, my husband was B rank. It''s actually quite high for a commoner. I don''t know who''s path he crossed, and at this point I don''t even care, but they kidnapped me and our daughter when we still were in the city. He charged in heroically to save us, and he succeeded, but died in the process, leaving the two of us alone, with no choice but to flee the city, if we didn''t want to be enslaved for being a murderers family. There is a rule, that if red''s family have orange statuses, then they can harbor ill intentions, so they are guilty in aiding the criminal. And although my daughter had and still has the green status, she wouldn''t be able to survive without both of her parents.


    I joined the group, that were fleeing the city, led by the so called savor. I didn''t care who he was or what motives he had, all I knew was, that it was my best chance to stay with my daughter. And after couple of mounts of peaceful life, we were forced to flee again.


    Once we entered the woods again, I started running, still dragging my daughter along. I could tell, that she was barely being able to keep up, but we didn''t have much choice.


    *WhooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOO*


    Then I heard the wolf''s howling. It seems that blood and loud fighting and screaming attracted their attention, but they aren''t confident enough to join the main fight, so they decided to pick on the easier prey, and right now we are the easy prey. Pulling the dagger from under my clothes and tightening my grip around my daughter''s wrist I try to run faster.


    I can already see a couple of wolves sneaking around the trees, they are trying to encircle us. Although they aren''t mana beasts, they still can sense my mana, and they are cautious of me. In my best days I would be easily able to dispose of a dozen wolfs, but right now I don''t have my gear, nor do I have my shield and sword. All I have is a dagger, and my biggest worry is, I will be forced to fight them while protecting my daughter, so I won''t be able to use my superior agility. I am using mana to boost my body''s strength and mainly agility, that''s the only way us commoner has of utilizing mana. You have to be from those noble clans to get access to the techniques of using mana in other ways. So mages are only the people, who are born in the noble families or has high enough talent to be recruited.


    As we keep running, the noises from the camp is getting quieter, I''m struggling to find a cliff or big enough rock. If I have to fight I''d better face those wolves from one side, instead of letting them encircle me, but I can''t find a suitable place, so I just keep running. By this time, I have already counted 8 wolves, and it looks like they hunger got better of their caution, because the first wolf from my left side, where I keep dragging my daughter by the hand pounced on us. Twisting my body and pulling Nica''s body into a hug, I use the dagger in my hand to hit the wolf in his side, feeling the dagger go through his skin and cutting through bones, I then avoid his sharp claws. Although I can''t use my superior speed to run around them and kill them one by one, avoiding their attacks and dealing my own on the process is still easy for me. But as I thought that, I noticed how close the other wolf have already gotten, trying to pounce on us from my right. The first wolf have already hit the ground, bleeding, although It doesn''t look like it''s a fatal wound, it''s still serious enough to reduce the number of wolves I have to worry about by one.


    Reacting to the second pounce, with already uncomfortable position I was in from the previous exchange, I don''t have any choice but to push us both with my daughter to the ground, avoiding the pounce. Deciding that there is no helping it, I try the only thing I can think about. Hugging my daughter with both of my hands, I start sprinting to the nearby tree my muscles already infused with mana giving me an explosive speed, then I jump as high as I can, landing on the first branch, which is already cracking, ready to break, I jump once more landing on the highest one, and it looks much sturdier.


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    But I know, that just hiding on the trees won''t save us from the trouble, so I gently place my daughter on the branch, and we are standing and look at her for the first time from the very start I woke her up. She is clinging to me with both of her hands, with as much power as she got and crying, her beautiful face twisted in an expression of panick. Glancing once more at the base of the tree, I place a hand on my daughter''s cheek and smile to her, making the most relaxed expression I can.


    "Nica, dear, listen to me" Still sobbing and unsure, but a lot calmer then before she looks at me "Mama have to go down for a little bit ok? You just have to sit hear, and wait for me just a minute, I will be back sooner than you will notice" Panicking again in middle of my sentence, she realize that I intend to leave her in here alone, even if for just a moment, she tries to grab me once more, but I just slip from her grasp, jumping down dagger in hand, I can hear Nica''s cries in my back. I''d like to sooth her more, calm her down first, but I really don''t have the time. The wolves already started biting and clawing at the tree. Although they aren''t monsters, who can directly utilize the mana and control it, their bones, teeth and claws are nurtured by the mana, making it stronger, so even if they can''t bring trees down just by one swing, given enough time the 7 of them would be able to do it sooner or later.


    Sinking the dagger through unfortunate wolf''s skull, I landed on, I pull it out as fast as I can, glancing around. The wolves, that number 6 now and one wounded, look more hesitant this time, but after the brief hesitation, 4 of them pounce on me at the same time.


    Now that I have don''t have to worry about my daughter, I can use my speed to bring them down one by one, dodging their attacks. I already took a stance, ready to face them, making a small step towards the one to my left, I strike with my dagger through the side of his neck, inflicting a fatal wound, then moving pass it, I go for the other one, which wasn''t with the initial 4, that attacked me.


    Clearly being faster than the wolves, I appear near the startled wolf and sink my dagger right through his eye, directly into the brain, not feeling much resistance. Pulling dagger out once more, I turn around, to see now 4 wolfs sprinting towards me. Those wolves are more aggressive than I remember. Now it''s too risky to try dance around them, I can''t dodge all of their attacks at once, I''ll need to use the trees and my speed to find an opportunity, I don''t have to be impatient, so I keep taking steps back, still facing them. Feeling that my foot isn''t on the hard ground and hearing a whimper, which followed by the pain in my leg, I turn my head to see the very first, wounded wolf biting my leg. Slashing with the dagger, and killing it as fast as I can to free my leg, I realize that it''s much too late, when the other wolf bite me in my stomach. Killing it too with a fast slash, now bleeding I face the remaining three.


    I have to think clearly, with my damaged leg, I don''t have the advantage of the speed. That damnable wolf, why should I be so unlucky as to run right into his mouth. Ignoring the pain both in my stomach and leg, I greet the wolf''s pounce just like with the first one, dodging it and slashing, dealing a not-deadly blow.


    Then sidestepping the second one in a way, I stumble because of the pain in a leg, and try as hard as I can not to cry out loud, falling on the ground, but I don''t have the time to collect myself and get up, because the third one is already on me, trying to bite my face. I use my arm to push its head away from my face, at the same time sinking my dagger through its ribs, and just after a second it fells on me powerlessly.


    The last one bites, which I tried to not-so-successfully sidestep, bites my foot, thrashing around, while its friend is still laying on me. Pushing the dead wolf out of me I take an upright position as fast as I can and send the dagger right at the last one''s eye, although with its thrashing around, I miss, hitting hard bone, but I keep hitting and hitting, after a couple of hits wolf understands, that things aren''t good for it, and instead it tries to bite my hand, so I make use of its straight head movement, elbowing it on the side of the head to defend myself parrying its last struggle, while using the dagger in other hand to sink it right through its neck. After I feel the warm blood gushing out of wound into my hand and the wolf falls limp on the ground. I try to regain my breathing, at the same time trying to stop the bleeding from the wound in my stomach wrapping some clothes around it and pushing it as tight as I can. But I won''t make the same mistake again, I have to kill the wounded wolf, the last one alive.


    It took me more than the whole fight, couple of the minutes to tighten clothes around the wound and kill the last one, it didn''t pose much of a threat in its situation, and would die sooner or later from bleeding, but still kept glaring at me, I ended its life with one precise strike. And finally sigh in relief.


    Now that the battle ended I can hear my daughter''s screams and sobs, calling for me.


    "I''m ok dear, *cough*.........  don''t worry, I''ll be right there after a second, *cough*,..... just wait a bit longer ok?" I manage to say through the haggard breathing and coughs. We can''t stay here, it''s still dangerous, I don''t know when another pack of wolves or something else will attack us. We have to get out of here as soon as possible.

 The Spirit

    *Still Unnamed MC''s POV*


    I keep going north from the village, making my way through the forest. Pondering about everything that happened, trying to find any information about this world and magic from my conversation with Kaster. I don''t even know what I was thinking about when I accepted his last name, it''s basically the worst name one can have in this world, number one enemy of the society.


    Remembering other parts of our conversation, if there really is such a library, I have to pay it a visit, it can be quite useful even if I didn''t have the problem with my body. Dull sounds, black-white vision no sense of smell or touch, although after my time in void it''s a lot better, but I still want to have a normal body, and being spooky skeleton isn''t the best way to avoid trouble.


    Also, analyzing the bits that I heard from him, it looks like anyone who has a core, which I assume is or contains the mana pool, can use magic. Now that I have a core of my own, which is practically Kaster''s core, after melting and shaping for myself, it should be more possible for me to use magic, but where do I start. Trying to grab the mana from the ''dantain'' and manipulate it into my mucles (which I don''t have) and bones, as I''ve read countless times in novels and mangas doesn''t seem to work. Either my core is empty, or I''m doing something wrong. Do I have to meditate to replenish my mana pool before trying to manipulate it?


    Just guessing and trying every theory I''ve read about isn''t the best way to learn, so I''ll just put it as last resort, if the high and almighty spirit doesn''t grace me with his presence. Learning everything from him will be the easiest way, from Kaster''s story it seems even the best mages have a lot to learn from spirits, so he is best teacher I can think of, and the only one too.


    But I won''t be as naive as to think, that only because I asked, he will teach me everything. What can I offer him in exchange? Considering, that I came from other world, with a whole new culture for them and developed science, I have quite high chances to find something worthy of his knowledge. Knowledge for knowledge, seems fair trade to me, and from Kaster''s words, spirits will meet only those who piqued their interest.


    Right at this moment, after entering the forest and running non-stop for couple of hours, I felt something, which made me pause and look around in confusion. It was some kind of tingling feeling, like it was pulling me in a certain direction. It made me excited, like I knew for sure I''d find a hidden treasure if I went there. Without thinking much I resumed my running, but this time in that direction. Closer I got more the sensation grew. I kept running less than an hour, before getting in front of an unassuming cave under the cliff.


    When I was a step farther from the cave, I was so excited, I forgot why I entered the forest in the first place, and once I made the first step inside the cave, the feeling disappeared altogether, without a trace, like it was just my imagination from the start. I was standing there, inside the dark cave, staring in confusion, when I heard the voice inside my head, it was just like when Kaster was talking to me.


    "Such an interesting creature, I clearly sensed your core being formed right after Merlyn brat''s death and his spell being cast. Considering his researchers I assume he reincarnated someone, but it''s clearly impossible for him to reincarnate his family, or himself, and your soul is different as well, so who are you?"  (?)


    "Oh, are you the spirit Kaster told me about? Where are you and what was that sensation before I entered the cave?" (me)


    "Yes I am, and before bombarding me with questions, you should answer my own first." (Spirit)


    "I''m just someone he met after entering the abyss of souls, as he called it, I don''t remember my previous name, but I already thought a new name for myself, you can call me Anubis Myrddin. Actually in my world, there was a legendary mage called Merlyn, and in other languages his name was Myrddin, so I picked it to not attract unwanted attention, and I chose Anubis because it was a name of a mythical god of death and the underworld, it fits all the skeleton thing." I didn''t miss the chance to brag about my new badass name.


    "What do you mean ''my world'', weren''t you in this world before dieing?" (Spirit)


    "No, I was living in another world which is very different from this world, but shouldn''t you answer my question before asking me yours?" (Anubis)


    "Hmph, very well, I don''t have body, so I can''t answer the question, where am I, and the sensation you felt was the desire to obtain the spirit flower, which any creature with soul wants. Tell me about your world" (Spirit)


    I proceeded to give a brief explanation, that we only had humans living in our world, and no mana. Around 200 countries and no empires or emperors. I could tell that he was quite interested in my explanation, I guess it''s the same feeling I had when I heard that there is a world with magic, and I can be reincarnated there.


    "Your turn, what is that spirit flower" (Anubis)


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    "Spirit flower is a unique flower that only grows near a spirit''s den, growing while it feeds on the spiritual power that the spirits recycle. Spirits consume spiritual power in atmosphere, which is being dispersed every time someone with soul dies. For example after the deaths of those two brats from Pankratius and Merlyn families, their huge spiritual power that left their bodies, and it would naturally disperse and recycle with time on its own, but spirits make the process a lot faster and feed on the energy that we get in the recycling process, the leftovers in turn concentrate in the surroundings and with a lot of time a spiritual flower grows, which will give a huge help in strengthening one''s soul. So any creature, who possess a soul has an instinctive desire to consume it and grow stronger, which is what I used to give you direction, now I''m surpassing its aura, that''s why you can''t feel it anymore


    Now tell me about your world''s science that you mentioned" (Spirit)


    "Well, my world''s... " I continued telling everything which could be interesting for a Spirit from another world, judging from his reaction and questions, it seems that he is more interested in our science than in our culture and history, well it''s logical for a creature, who don''t concern himself with a mortal affairs as mentioned Kaster.


    "I want to know how to use magic, how do I feel and fill my mana pool?" (Anubis)


    "I will explain it to you with the difference from your world, I already have quite a clear image of your world. I think in your world mana still exists, I can''t imagine a world that can exist without a mana, and your world''s conditions are similar to ours, so if I''m confident, that it always was there, but you didn''t have any way to control it. Mana in natural state doesn''t affect and interact with anything, the only way to manipulate it is using the spiritual energy of the soul. It seems in your world gods didn''t allow you to manipulate the mana with your spiritual energy, you just didn''t have the access to feel or control it.


    Mana pool is actually different, mana is everywhere and you can draw it at any moment of time, it will never deplete, but doesn''t matter how powerful a soul is, it will always have a limit of maximum amount it can control. So mana pool is actually the endurance, in physical example, even if you have the whole ocean beside you, after carrying the water from it constantly, sooner or later you will be exhausted. So for a mage it''s important to have both a large enough bucket and big enough endurance.


    The bucket''s size will determine how big spells can you cast, while endurance, how much of them can you cast. All the spells from the rankings have a huge disparity in mana, higher the tier, and higher the mana consumption, for example an average Master will be able to cast 100 Expert ranked spells, or a few Master ranked untill his mana pool will run out." (Spirit)


    (AN: The ranking goes like this: Beginner -> Intermediate -> Advanced -> Expert -> Master -> GrandMaster -> Sage)


    "Hmmm, it seems the battle has began, the villagers don''t have much choice but to surrender and be enslaved again, *sigh*" (Spirit)


    "What do you mean, it''s the villagers that Kaster saved? They should be in the east from the village right?" (Anubis)


    "Yes, they were ambushed by some bandit group, and although bandits are not as numerous as villagers, all of them have the D, C and a few B rank adventurer''s power. The strongest villager is the bear man, and he has the C rank''s power, and most of the villagers are unarmed and defenseless, they are just like sheep, waiting to be slaughtered." (Spirit)


    I think he is using the same technique, which I saw Kaster using in his memories, the one that allowed to spy a hundred meters away, but it seems like the spirit was able to even see the fight in the village. Maybe it was also him, who told Kaster about the army, and that''s why Kaster made it in time and leapt from the mountain right into the village.


    "Why don''t you help them, you are great and ancient spirit after all" (Anubis)


    "I indeed have the power to kill those bandits, but spirits are prohibited to kill humans, we are only allowed to defend ourselves once they enter territory we reside on. Although there isn''t much they can do to us in the first place, but as I said before the spirit flower is something anyone would want to steal some even not intentionally.


    It looks like some villagers made run into the forest, and although I scared away most of the predators on their path, It''s hard for me to see all of them, especially those who are running in few numbers. A pair of elves are being attacked not too far from us, they were running right at our direction, it seems that the older one is in dire situation, although she managed to kill all the wolves, she is losing blood with a high speed and probably will die soon. If she dies her daughter won''t be able to survive in the forest either, you''d better hurry up and save them before they are found by the bandits." (Spirit)


    "Ok, which way?" (Anubis)

 More Questions

    Tell me if you find any mistakes. I''d also appreciate constructive criticism.


    Also please make a review if you liked the story. Thanks.


    From now one telepathic speech and any kind of communication which isn''t through normal voice, will be like this: ''~This is an example~'' (from), and regular talks: "Another Example" (from)


    <hr />


    After hearing about the bandits attack and their fight with villagers, I was excited. Actually, after leaving the reincarnation I can''t understand my own feelings, it''s the wrong word, not feelings, but rather instincts. My instincts give a strange sense of hunger towards that battle, the same feeling I felt when I sensed the spirit flower. I changed after the void, was it because of the time I spent there, or is it because of the fact that I''m undead now, I''m not sure, maybe both, but my feelings are weird and I don''t really feel like *me* as I remember myself before dying.


    A moment ago I was really sad when Kaster severed our conversation, and the other moment when I was standing and seeing his body lying there lifeless, I didn''t feel anything. I didn''t even bury him because it could attract unwanted attention. So it''s safe to say, the state of being an undead is responsible for my change. Well, it''s not like I don''t feel anything, just the feelings are really dull. So far I had a strong desire to absorb the spirit flower and now excitement towards the place, where people are being slaughtered, but my other emotions are surpassed. I''m not even scared of that fact. When I was in the void I was scared and unwilling, when I came to a conclusion, that sooner or later my memories will be lost and the personality that is me will disappear.


    I fought, I struggled to keep my personality and my memories safe. I can''t just ignore it, even if right now my emotions are calm and I''m not scare of this change, but I can''t just accept it as is, after struggling so much. I have to know more about undead and my situation, and I know the best person I can ask it from.


    While I keep running in the direction Spirit pointed me in, I try to communicate with him, thinking inside my head just like I was doing in the cave. After all if he could sense everything all the way out of forest, keeping our communication shouldn''t be different right?


    ''~Can we still communicate if I''m out of the cave~'' (Anubis)


    ''~Yes, you''d better hurry, with your current speed it will take around 20 minute until you reach them~'' (Spirit)


    If he could talk to me from any distance, why did he lure me inside of his cave using the flower. Was it because he had the permission to kill me there? Now I''m reluctant to enter that cave again. Back to what I wanted to ask him.


    ''~Can you tell me a bit about undead, what am I? From your reaction earlier it seems like even you haven''t seen someone like me, am I right? ~'' (Anubis)


    ''~Indeed, you are the first undead with a soul and a core of your own that I heard of.


    Let me continue my explanation than, I already gave you a brief understanding of mana. There are a lot of ways to control and use mana. The easiest and most common way is to guide the surrounding mana using your spiritual energy, through your core and channeling it through muscles and bones, giving a bust in physical characteristics. But of course there is a limit in strengthening.


    More complicated way is to guiding through the core the same way, make use of your understanding of elements and conjure a spell. For low level spells the everyday life experience of elements, which is common knowledge for anyone is enough, but for higher level spells, you will need to research and understand all the properties and interactions of the element in various cases and even with other elements. That''s why most of the Master level mages in one or another element are proficient with other elements as well, although not as much as with their main element. It''s still difficult to gain insights and understanding into elements and reach a high level, and Master is a level, that can be considered as having gained some basic understanding.


    Elements are Air, Water, Earth.


    Actually there are evidences of the forth element, but it''s so rare that even I don''t have much understanding of it. Probably it''s because that mysterious element isn''t as common as the other three, and it''s harder to even witness it, much less comprehend it''s properties.~'' (Spirit)


    ''~Wait, wait, before you continue isn''t this mysterious element the fire? In my world we had many theories of magic, I guess even if we didn''t have any way to sense or utilize it, it''s still natural and innate thing for us, and the fourth element always was considered the fire~'' (Anubis)


    ''~Of course it''s not, how is fire not common in everyday life? Even if people can''t touch and the only thing they can feel is the heat coming from it and not the fire itself, they are still able to have good understanding of it. But the element I''m talking about isn''t encountered at all, so much that in thousands and thousands of years, I haven''t met a mage, that can use it, although I''ve heard of weird dragons that were using an unknown magic, but they are extremely rare, and I''m sure you won''t find any evidence in human libraries.~'' (Spirit)


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    ''~Oh dragons? Like real giant flying lizards who breath fire? And they can even use magic?~''  (Anubis)


    ''~Yes, they really are big, but I haven''t heard of any that could manipulate the fire, not to talk ab out actually breathing it.


    And yes, of course dragons can use magic, they are actually most proficient in it. As we spirits are innately gifted with abilities like telepathy that I''m using right now, dragons are gifted with an innate understanding of their elements, once they reach adulthood most of them will already be at Master or higher level, but they have problems comprehending other elements that aren''t innately given to them. That''s the reason why it''s pretty much impossible to find a dragon at Expert level of its innate element, because of their innate advantage, but to get stronger and deeper understanding they need knowledge of other elements too, and they spend a lot more time comprehending them.~'' (Spirit)


    ''~But doesn''t make it impossible for anyone to completely understand one element because of that mysterious element, that no one know anything about?~'' (Anubis)


    ''~As I said, the most important part is how the elements interact with each other, so considering how rare that element is in nature itself, it''s not as important for farther understanding of one element. Even if you knew all the interactions with that element, you wouldn''t necessarily have a way to apply them in a spell.~'' (Spirit)


    ''~Ah so it all comes to how you apply your knowledge, and the ranks of the spells you can use determine what rank of a mage you are~'' And after getting the confirmation I asked ''~So what level of mage are you~'' I was curious, after all he has lived countless years and is strong enough to kill people from a kilometer distance.


    ''~What were you listening with? I said it haven''t I, to conjure an elemental spell, you have to channel it through your core, and spirits don''t have cores. That''s why we are unable to use elemental magic.~'' (Spirit)


    ''~Than what about the spiritual magic? Kaster and Zenon were death and life mages right?~'' (Anubis)


    ''~Yes, besides elemental magic there is spiritual magic, which is a lot more complicated than any of elements, because you can''t feel or interact with life or death in any way. And although this magic''s name is spiritual, its called that because it''s corporeal and not-material, and we spirits are called as such because of the same reason, and not the other way.


    But even so, spiritual magic still works on mana and even if in a different way, it has to be channeled through the core before conjuring, even if it''s not material.


    We, spirits, use other kind of power. As you could already guess, to determine how strong a mage is, it''s important to know his level of comprehension and how powerful spirit power he has. Even if you have the understanding of an element in a sage level, you still won''t be able to use spells of that level, because your spirit and soul won''t be strong enough to draw the amount of mana.


    And there is another way to use spiritual energy. For example~'' As he said that, I could feel my head spinning, my vision darkening, and before I would lose my conciseness, the feeling disappeared, letting me run once more in the pointed direction after a slight pause of confusion. ''~Spiritual energy can control the mana, but in the same way it can interact with other spiritual energies. Right now I used it to affect your mind and soul. There are a lot of ways of utilizing it. You can make an enemy fall unconscious or kill them overwhelming their spirit, and severing their soul''s connection with core. Or you can spread your spiritual sense, projecting images from the places it can reach  directly into your mind.~''


    Awesome, so it''s like haki from my favorite pirate story. I already know my first priority in learning magic.


    ''~Oh, now that I think about it, Kaster used it to share his memories with me, why aren''t we doing the same thing, instead of talking about all of this?~'' (Anubis)


    ''~Good question, it''s because souls of spirits and humans are different, your souls are accustomed to vision, hearing and it all shaped your soul in a way that it''s incompatible with my kind, it''s impossible to forcefully share memories. Actually that''s one of the most interesting insights I had after your story about your world and soul abyss. I was doubting at start, how can two different worlds with such a different developments have such a similar natures. It''s not a coincidence that Kaster found someone with the same human body and same nature even if you lived in different worlds, contrary to that, Kaster was searching only for creatures that had the same type of souls as him, to be able to share the memories. It''s because of that, that everything in this world is so familiar to you, because if you change some basic thing in the elements, everything will change, and probably you wouldn''t be able to survive in such a world.


    How marvelous is it, that even in completely different worlds, because of the similar natures, humanity kept changing and evolving until they''ve become the same way they are in both worlds.


    I didn''t answer your original question did I? So to summon undead...~'' (Spirit)

 Meeting the elves

    ''~I didn''t answer your original question did I? So to summon undead the mage has to use incantation, it''s a prayer to a god, but in reality they are just using commands, that are set by gods. That''s why it''s summoning, because mage gives enough mana to execute the command and gets the ready result. Those incantation based spells have set value of mana and set effects. An Expert and a Master level mages, using the same command will use the same amount of mana and get the same result, even if Master mage has 100 times more mana and a lot more knowledge.


    Those commands are just one of the ways for gods, to have more influence and control over the world. They can grant those they favor a strong incantation and make them stronger. Also they have their own system, to make incantations equally strong for various elements, as to not have an advantage over each other. But it all matters for those under the sage level. Once someone reaches sage level, no incantation will help their enemies, or at least gods haven''t given such a powerful ones yet.


    Lich incantation spell is Master-Grandmaster level, it summons an undead mage, and yes, they don''t have a core, they use their summoner''s core to draw mana through the connection established by the spell. Those summoned liches are Expert-Master level, depending on the summoner''s own level. To use such a spell without incantation, to rise a lich yourself without god''s help, one would need to have extremely high level of understanding in more than a one field. Even creating a link to send mana and control the puppet will take a lot of knowledge and mastery. You can already see the advantages of those commands.


    But I told all of these, because although a summoned lich, if summoner was Kaster, should be Master level, but you are not summoned, but risen lich. He just raised an empty body without any link. Actually he could use parts of the incantation, to give something else from the summoning lich spell, because I clearly see him using incantation, but it wasn''t the complete one, he just used a little of everything. So I''m not sure what else he gave you. He could send some of his memories, or something else. So I can''t tell what you are exactly~'' (Spirit)


    ''~I haven''t noticed any memories, but I noticed, that my emotions seems more different. I feel a hunger for battle, or more precisely for slaughter, I feel excited every time I think of how the villagers die, instead of feeling sad, sorry or at least guilty for not being able to help them. I don''t know what to think of this~'' (Anubis)


    ''~Hmmm, I''m not sure why didn''t he gave his own memories, probably because they wouldn''t be much of a help for you anyway. I can tell that you have some racial traits of undead, maybe he wanted to give you the lich''s innate understanding of death magic, so he used only the part of the incantation responsible for that, and you are suffering side effects now, or it can as well be something else, it''s hard to tell, you are the first lich with a soul and only he himself know what parts he added in your creation. You can only find it by yourself with time.


    As for the emotions, it''s just because your soul isn''t powerful enough. When your soul strengthens, you will have a better control over yourself. And before that happens, I''d advise you to use your experience from your previous life to make decisions.~'' (Spirit)


    Using experience from my previous life, it makes sense I guess. What would do previous me in this situation?


    I think I''d check the elves first, making sure they are safe, while being very excited to meet a real elf, and then I''d try to save as many villagers as I can.


    ''~How high are my chances against those bandits?~'' (Anubis)


    ''~Hard to tell, your body is created by a Grandmaster, so it won''t be easy to damage, even for a B rank adventurer, but only if you can use mana to infuse your bones. Originally a Master level summoned lich would be able to fight a group of A ranked adventurers, if he uses the advantages of a mage, he will even have a chance to kill them. But you don''t have spells, that any lich should have after a summoning. So it all depends on what Kaster gave you, if you are able to use the mana, to strengthen your body, you will have high chances, depending on your swordsmanship.


    And if you find a way to cast a spell, you can take care of them without much problem.~'' (Spirit)


    (AN:


    Mage and spell ranks:   Beginner ->  Inter ->  Advanced -> Expert -> Master -> Grandmaster -> Sage


    Adventurer ranks:          E -> D -> C -> B -> A -> S -> SS -> SSS)


    So all I need is to heroically charge in and save everyone in the last moment like in some manga? I have to practice channeling the mana at least, if I won''t even be able to strengthen my body, I will just go to my death. And I''m not really confident in my swordsmanship, so my goal will be to remember a spell, if there even is one left by Kaster.


    ''~How much distance is there to elves and villagers?~''  (Anubis)


    ''~You are very close, 5 minute or so, and until the villagers, it''s 10 more minutes. I''ll talk to the elf and tell her about your approach~'' (Spirit)


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Nodding, I kept running in elves direction and trying to use my spiritual energy to guide the mana, whatever it should mean... And the fact that I''m running isn''t helping at all.


    After couple of short minutes of running, I could already see a figure leaning on a tree and wolves scattered here and there with blood splattered everywhere, ground, trees, and all of the silhouettes, especially the humanoid one, was practically red. Not that I can distinct the color itself since I see the world in black-and-white in the first place, but the dark color splattered everywhere on her clothes, made it obvious. I called the silhouette ''her'', because now I was close enough to make out her features, and she was in a bad shape. Also I could hear the sobs and pleas of a little and frail voice from somewhere near.


    Remembering what I was now, I pulled up the hood of Kaster''s robe that I was wearing. Even if the Spirit will somehow be able to explain to her why a skeleton tries to help them, we don''t have the time. Now that I think about it, I haven''t asked Spirit''s name. Shouldn''t he introduce himself before asking who I am, and I had a lot more important question in my head at the time. I''ll have to ask after this is over.


    I carefully approached the elf. Her eyes were already unfocused, and I think I could see a spark of hope in her eyes when she noticed me, but she still grabbed the dagger and tried to face me, while grimacing from the painful actions.


    "Don''t worry, I mean no harm, I''m here to help" (Anubis)


    (AN: The text written next isn''t made to be understood. You can just consider it gibberish and continue reading. And if someone happens to know russian, or uses translator, understanding the text won''t affect the story in any way)


    "§®§à§ñ §Õ§à§é§Ü§Ñ, §à§ß§Ñ §ß§Ñ §Õ§Ö§â§Ö§Ó§Ö, §á§à§Ø§Ñ§Ý§å§Û§ã§ä§Ñ §á§à§Þ§à§Ô§Ú §Ö§Û." Said the elf in some language. Well, it''s easy to forget, that you don''t know any of languages from this world, when you are using telepathy to talk from the very start. I somehow forgot about the first problem that any ''hero'' face when they appear in another world. Probably my concern over my body conditions and emotions had a role in it, but it was really stupid of me. I might look suspicious now, hiding my face and talking in unfamiliar for her language.


    But it seems Spirit did a good work in explaining the situation to her, because she was pointing at the nearby tree, where the frail voice was coming from and looking at me expectantly, I didn''t need the Spirit''s translation to understand what she said. But even then she still looked suspicious of me and I could tell, that she was ready to pounce on me at any moment, but she still understood, that I was her best choice considering the situation.


    This will save me from wasting my time and maybe I will be able to save more villagers, if I don''t end up suicideing in the process of course.


    I climbed the tree very clumsily making clinging sounds from the swords hitting each other and my bare bones, while mother kept talking to the girl on the tree in the unfamiliar for me language. I was glad that it was a night, and the little girl couldn''t see my face under the hood''s shadow. I''ll need a mask for future. I landed with a mess of tears and snob in my arms, and once we touched the ground she threw herself at her mother.


    Now that I see her wound and the blood she lost, I know that there is nothing I can do to save her, at least they can be with each other at her last moments, but I can''t lose more time on this. I confirmed with the Spirit, that he will be able to scare away any predator close to them, and that there seems to be no bandits going this way, I darted into the forest leaving everything concerning soothing this pair to the Spirit, I''ll come back for the girl later.


    There is still 10 minutes until I reach them, so I have to try circulating the mana through my core from the surroundings if I want to have a chance at fighting those bandits.


    ''~Can you give me some hints at drawing the mana? I have trouble even sensing it~'' (Anubis)


    ''~You won''t be able to sense the mana until you reach a certain level of soul power anyway, so you better not even try it right now. Honestly speaking it''s ridiculous for someone to try to learn the body infusing in 10 minutes, but you have a little chance, if Kaster really gave you some innate knowledge, a lich should have. But he should''ve limited it, because even with such a low amount, instincts and traits still affect you. It''s hard to tell how much time it will take you to learn it. You better be ready to abandon this people, if you won''t manage to succeed.~''


    After a brief pause he continued ''~Try to imagine yourself being surrounded by a vortex, and your core as the center of it. Everything in surroundings keeps rotating and getting sucked into the center. Once you can feel something inside your core, don''t be too impatient, it will only hinder your progress, at first try to force everything you feel inside your core into your spine. If you succeed to do so much, I''ll tell you what to do next.~'' (Spirit, whose name I still don''t know)

 Determination

    ''~Stop here, if you go any closer bandit-scouts will notice you. Right now the fight have already ended and most of the villagers are still alive. Those bandits were talking, that more slaves they bring back, more money they will get, so they are unwilling to kill too many of them. So far they''ve killed some of the villagers that tried to flee but were unlucky and some of the brave ones that tried to fight them.


    All of the villagers are terrified, bandits used the bearman, the village-chief as example, beating him half to death on everyone''s eyes and no one is trying to resist them anymore. They will wait until the sunrise before moving the villagers, and such a huge group will be slow. I advise you to sit down and patiently learn the body strengthening while you still have the time~'' (Spirit)


    He is right, as much of an advantage I might have right now that the bandits still don''t have the control over the villagers and probably are tired after the fight, it doesn''t matter if I don''t have the power to fight them.


    I sat dawn and closed my eyes. I wasn''t worried about random bandit spotting me, because I''m sure Spirit would tell me beforehand. It''s pretty useful to have an all seeing all hearing being as your ally. Although I haven''t asked, I''m sure his range shouldn''t be reaching too far outside of the forest. But it''s more than enough. Even if the imperial army start to pursue, they will have even bigger problem moving through the forest with their numbers, in their place I''d intercept the way out of the forest, but right now it''s not important for me. My problem right now are couple of dozen bandits.


    ''~Oh, I have a good idea, can''t we use your spiritual flower to lure them inside your cave like you did with me and then you can kill them freely?~'' (Anubis)


    ''~It''s still a direct intervention, gods aren''t so stupid. All I can do is bend the rules slightly and assist you in the fight, by making them dizzy in the most decisive moment. It will increase your chances fighting a huge amount of enemies. If you don''t have swordsmanship skills, you would have practically zero chances against such a number of enemies.


    Even if you manage to learn the body strengthening, most of the bandits won''t be able to scratch you, but they have a few B ranks, and even if you have indestructible body, it doesn''t mean you can''t be defeated. They won''t need to destroy you, just restraining would be enough.


    And all of that even if you manage to use the body strengthening on the Master lich level, which is to say channeling your mana evenly through all of your body without any error. It''s hard and requires years of practice.


    The only way for you is to use the cheat given by Kaster. And it''s still a question did he even give you anything of that sorts.~'' (Spirit)


    *Sigh* Yeah... it couldn''t be as easy as that.


    Concentrate on my core, wait....  but where is my core? Thinking about it for a second, I instinctively reach with my hand towards my forehead, where I can feel a gem-like object. I guess it''s my core huh? I want to see how it looks like. Well, for another time I guess.


    Concentrating on my core, I imagine a vortex around it. When I first heard about the vortex, I imagined a water-vortex or an air-vortex. But now that I think about it, probably imagining ''physical'' vortex wasn''t the best idea. I am supposed to use my spiritual energy after all. And I have an idea of exactly what that is.


    I remember in the fight Kaster showed me, before they used the white and black magic, which I assume is life and death magic, there were a lot of invisible wave crushes between them. And before that Kaster was using those waves to send any soldier near unconscious. I think that''s exactly what Spirit used to make me dizzy, so I''ll use the images Kaster shared with me of those waves to imagine a vortex.


    And right as I did, I sensed something moving, like how would you feel making a wave inside a water with a hand, but the feeling didn''t come from my hand, it''s difficult to explain. I opened my eyes startled from the new sensation, and a smile crept on my face. (not really, I''m still a skeleton remeber?)


    I instantly closed my eyes again and tried to repeat the success. After what felt like couple of minutes of concentration, I felt the same sensation again, and this time I was ready, so I guided the ''water'' that I was sensing through the vortex, spinning, while drawing even more from the surroundings, inside my core.


    Once the first drops entered my core, after a slight resistance, no more would enter, like the core was already full, I was confused once more, and tried to guide the drops than entered out of the core.


    Actually the little amount that already entered the core, was successfully drawn out and channeled through my skull. But the vortex dispersed because I was too focused on the mana that was already inside the core and lost my concentration. Also the mana that left my core was somewhat different. I didn''t need to use the ''wave hand'' which is obviously called the spiritual energy to guide it anymore, it followed my orders directly.


    I repeated the process once more, and this time managed to draw a little more, but it was still far from enough to cover even the little part of the skull near my core. And that was the moment when I heard the Spirit''s voice inside my head.


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    ''~You made quite a good progress for someone, who manipulates the mana for the first time. But it''s already morning, the sun has risen an hour ago, and the villagers will soon leave. You better forget about saving them, because with the laughable level of body strengthening that you now possess, it is an impossible task to save them.~'' (Spirit)


    What? It''s already morning? How many hours have I spent meditating?


    So even if I am able to draw mana, and strengthen my body, if I can''t find a way a summoned puppet-lich does that, I don''t have a chance. Well, it would be ridiculous if I managed to beat dozens of trained and seasoned fighters after just entering this world and meditating for couple of hours.


    I won''t be able to save them? And the worst part is I don''t feel anything thinking about that. I feel nothing when I think about all of those villagers dying. Apathy...


    The fact, that the power is somewhere inside me, but I can''t draw it is frustrating though. And the fact, that I don''t have any emotion is making me angry and a also rising inside of me a tiny spark of a guilt.


    But why am I feeling guilty? Didn''t I try as hard as I can? Was there something I could do, is there something I still can do?


    Probably, I would be able to save them if I had the emotions to drive me, probably I would be able to find the solution like the heroes from mangas and novels. The only emotion that I felt all this time is the desire to kill people. Consume their souls. All of them, not only the bandits.


    But I tried to avoid those emotions, forget them, deny them. I was afraid of my own thoughts, and maybe because I denied and ignored them, I was unable to use the cheat that Kaster leaved with them. But if the price of obtaining that power is becoming a mindless monster, who can only kill people, I''d better not have that power.


    At the same time I remember the Spirit mentioning, that my soul wasn''t strong enough to surpass those instincts and my real emotions will be back once I become strong enough.


    Is it how this ends? I wasn''t strong enough to control the power I have, and just left the villagers to their death or slavery?


    How will I be able to live with this after I get my emotions back? I won''t be able to forgive myself. No, I can''t, I won''t be able to live with that, I have to use anything I can, at least try to. Determined, I start to talking to the spirit.


    ''~I think I have an idea how to acquire the cheat, but it will be dangerous. Please, if you feel that I lost control over myself, stop me. If that really happens, I hope just knocking me off will solve the problem, but if you have to, kill me. Don''t let me harm anyone.~'' (Anubis)


    ''~If it''s your choice, then so be it~'' (Spirit)


    Should I be concerned of how easily he agreed? Then again, I know him only for couple of hours anyways, and I don''t think spirits are very sociable beings, if they choose to seclude themselves inside a cave for centuries.


    Pushing those thoughts aside, I concentrate on my anger. I''m angry of how powerless I am, angry of how close I am to my goal, angry, that I will have to leave this villagers to their cruel fate, without doing anything.


    As my anger rises, as do the desire to devour those bandits. Kill them. Slaughter them. Eat their souls. Trying to accept and multiply those emotions, my mind gets clouded, and I give a loud shout.


    "I WILL DEVOUR YOU ALL" (Anubis)


    And right at that moment I feel the mana entering my core and dispersing through the whole my body by itself, I didn''t feel any invisible waves, spiritual energy or anything else that would guide the mana, it just entered my core and dispersed through my bones on its own. And it wasn''t like my core was sucking it itself, but like the mana had a will of its own.


    ''~Oh, interesting. I was always wondering how can a mindless summoned lich have any knowledge of manipulating or applying the mana, but it looks like they never did in the first place. They are just toys, containing buttons inside. When the summoner pushes those buttons, giving the command to the puppet, it just works on its own.


    Gods never gave a creature, who can understand and use the mana, but a creature, that can be ordered to use a function, given to him by the gods. Marvelous.~'' I heard the Spirit''s voice, but my mind was too clouded, to even register what he was saying.

 Starting the attack

    Be warned that there is cliffhanger.


    ########################################


    I heard the Spirit''s voice, but my mind was too clouded, to even register what he was saying.


    So many people, and I can eat all of them. Maybe their souls can finally satisfy my hunger.


    I take a step in the people''s direction, then my body froze. I still don''t feel anything towards this people, and compared to before, right now all those negative emotions, or rather instincts erupted like a sleeping volcano.


    But my memories are still there. Be it another time, before the void, I think I would stand no chance against this temptation. It would swallow me whole and make me a monster, but now, after living through the void for who know how long, experiencing the fear of losing myself, becoming something else, or just ceasing to exist, I can''t let something like this turn me into a monster. I won''t lose myself because of instincts like some animal.


    I am me, I won''t let anything change it, be it so called gods or the void.


    In my previous world, I never liked violence, and if I could, I always wanted to fix all the problem talking, explaining. But I''m not so naive, as to think, that any conflict can be solved with words, there were some cases when I was forced to fight. First time it was when I had no choice but to help my friend when he was bullied.


    That''s when I decided, that I will do my best to avoid any conflict, but when it arises, I will be ready to fight. And in this world, that''s even more true. I won''t be able to talk to those bandits who already killed a number of villagers. I won''t be able to scare them away. The only thing I can do is fight.


    This is who I am.


    After clearing my own thoughts, I can feel the negative emotions like hunger, desire and anger dissipate slowly. It was like the fire inside me started to extinguish little by little, my mind clearing and returning to my calm self. But my determination was as strong as ever, and I could feel other emotions, my real emotions becoming a little stronger too.


    Not putting any more thoughts in that, I darted forward, and could feel the increase in speed, but more importantly, my bones felt like they are indestructible, the mana surging through them evenly and without any fluctuations. Every cell having the same amount and resonating with each other.


    So that''s why it was so important to have evenly distributed mana through the whole body, not just to protect all the parts of the body, but to make them resonate and strengthen it even further, it''s like a net, that will take the impact and disperse it through the whole surface, instead of taking the whole damage. I had an advantage over the cutting attacks to begin with, and now with this net, I have no fear against blunt attacks too. Of course there should be limit to how much I can withstand, but it''s reassuring nonetheless.


    But to have a boost in speed shouldn''t I need muscles and guide the mana through their cells, how do I move in the first place? I''ll just blame it on god''s magical magic.


    Also having a clear mind without emotions, or when they are surpassed to some extent can be useful at times like this, I can calmly observe everything and even make some judgment using my knowledge through the all games I''ve played. Even if I can''t use the swordsmanship or magic from those games, strategy and battle basics always stays the same no matter in which world you are. Know yourself and know your enemy...


    My tactic will be to use Spirits directions and stealthily knock out as much of them as I can, before the fight begins. They are escorting a large group of people after all, and they are forced to scout in a large area as to detect any animal attack.


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    And yes, I decided that I won''t kill any of them, I will disable as many as possible, but not kill. It''s not only because I would never kill in my previous life, but also I have the feeling, that if I give to the temptation once, I will lose the control over my instincts, and the caged beast will be freed.


    Moving through the forest, making as less noise as possible, and failing of course because of the lack of experience, I move closer to one of the scouts, that casually walks in the forest, giving bored glances around. I notice a sword in his belt. It''s not as well crafted as the two I took from the imperial army soldiers. He has a red armor, and although not fancy-looking knight armor, but still I imagine it should cost quite some money. Shouldn''t bandits walk in rags or leather armor at least? Their business must be flourishing


    Finally when I am at around 20 steps from him, he notices the noises from my approach and starts unsheathing his sword. Once his line of sight landed on me, I already sprinted forward.


    In short span of couple of seconds, I''m already in an arm reach to the scout, who tries to pierce me with his sword, panicking a little because of my speed. The sword pierces right through the cloak, and making a dull sound like hitting a wall, stops. All the while I punch towards the bandit''s chin.


    *fwoosh* *chong*


    *crunch*


    Of course the blade haven''t done any harm to me, and the bandit lands on the ground after a brief flight. That unhealthy crunching sound of bones on his chin makes me look at my raised fist, wondering how much strength I have now. And I initially held back, because believing the Spirit, the guy was at D rank. So I guess my speed and strength can be considered a C then? I don''t want to be too overconfident, because liches should be mages after all.


    I take the time to think about what to do with the guy. Will it be alright to just leave him here? He is still breathing, but he will have a really painful experience healing broken chin and he must''ve got a concussion too. I can''t waste too much time, so I just took his sword and the dagger he had in his hip and moved to the next target. I''ll have a use of those weapons soon and I don''t have a problem hiding them inside my hollow carcass. So I just putted it between my ribs, the handles facing outside, and the blades inside me. A very efficient way to carry those swords if you ask me, even if it sounds ridiculous.


    Now that the swords weren''t clattering and making sounds, and were dead struck inside of me, and now that I have a bit of practice, I moved a bit more stealthier, some bored bandits didn''t even manage to notice me, but some vigilant ones were able to see me from even farther away than the first one, and at that time with spirit''s help they became dizzy and I took them out before they could raise the alarm.


    Like that I patiently and stealthily spent near two hours, circling the large group of people that were making their preparations to leave, and taking out a scout after another. I was in a close enough distant to hear the huge crowd but haven''t really seen them close yet. Like this I managed to take out 8 scouts and confiscated their weapons, before they started to get alarmed.


    They thought that it''s some kind of a stealthy monster, that is hunting their scouts one by one, and raised the security. Scouts were a lot more alerted and nervous now, and they weren''t getting too far from the group, also they were scouting in groups of 3-4 now, and not only that they were ready to support each other at any moment. I was lucky to have Spirit''s information, or else I would''ve blindly attacked and get surrounded in no time.


    Right when I was thinking of how to proceed now, Spirit''s voice resounded in my mind once again. ''~I have a plan, this is what we will do...


    .

 Distraction

    POV Change: Lug Bedivere, the bandit leader (equivalent of B rank adventurer power).


    I feel my tent being opened, and a man steps inside. I already pulled out my sword.


    "I hope you have a good reason for waking me up" (Lug)


    The stupid job made us run all the way to this village, than trail the villagers. We were patiently waiting for them to get to sleep until making our move. And all of that without any rest or sleep. I was so tired last night that I for the first time didn''t even have a taste of those villager girls. Thought Lug to himself in an obviously bad mood.


    "Y-yes boss, w-we have an emergency" (bandit)


    Said the sweating and out of breath bandit, after running to give the report.


    "Speak, what emergency" (Lug)


    "B-boss, we started losing scouts one by one, we aren''t sure how many of them are missing right now, but some haven''t returned for more than two hours already. We thought that it was some smart monster.


    And n-now b-boss, we are under attack of animals. And it''s not only wolves that we heard yesterday, a lot of different kind of animals just attacked us simultaneously from two sides."


    "What? Idiots, you can''t take care of couple of animals? And what''s that nonsense about the monster, there isn''t any monsters in this forest, monsters only live in places, where they can feed on creatures with mana, what would a monster do in this forest?" I already have gotten up and yell at him while dressing up.


    "But boss, they are too many of them and i-it i-i-is like the f-f-forest itself wants us dead."


    "Stop saying stupid things. Can''t you idiots even take a piss without me? Why did I get this stupid bunch of idiots with this stupid mission" (Lug)


    Moving out of the tent, what greeted him was a blinding sun. Squeezing his eyes and shielding them with a hand, he noticed the ruckus and panick from both his subordinates and the villagers. That idiot that woke him up lead the way to the right side of their group, where he could see the animals and his subordinates fighting.


    Any of his C rank thugs, should be able to take a dozen of those animals alone, and although C rank weren''t the majority of their bandit group, their numbers weren''t lacking too. D ranks shouldn''t have problem fighting with their numbers too, but he couldn''t believe what he was seeing.


    Boars, wolves, tigers, bears were attacking from all sides, encircling them. Lug cursed under his breath, he never heard of something like this happening. And the worst thing was they were forced to thin they numbers and disperse through the whole area as to protect those stupid villagers.


    "Axel, what''s the situation" Lug called out one of his trusted man, and the only one other than him, who was B rank in their bandit group.


    Axel was shouting orders, when he noticed his commander, he said without hiding his annoyance "Hey boss, when I just send for you there were only attacks from two sides, but in five minutes they started attacking from all the sides, surrounding us. I just split our forces to fight them at other places too. But boss, we are no heroes, we aren''t here to protect those villagers, but to capture and sell them later, as I see it, why don''t we pull back a bit, letting those animals attack villagers, than while they will be distracted by their meal we will attack from behind and kill them all at one go."


    Lug frowned when he heard the suggestion. Of course he was no hero himself, but his orders were clear, to bring as many villagers as he could, and he would better sacrifice some of his own man, than villagers.


    Only the weakest of his men would die anyway, and there were no problem recruiting more of those useless trash. But if he let the animals attack those villagers, they would lose too much of them until they were able to clean them all out.


    There was one more thing that was making him uneasy. Not only those animals attacked with big numbers at the same time, and they should already be fighting his men more than ten minutes, but there were too few dead from both sides. Now that he looked closer, he noticed, that animals while fighting were protecting each other. As soon as in one part of the battle some of their own were in danger, others would push to that side to help, than  retreat a bit, than fight again. It looked more like they were stalling, diverting their attention and distracting them than trying to kill them.


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    He was the commander of this group not only because he was a B rank, of course that helped too, but he was appointed to this mission because of his observation skills and tactical thinking. So he immediately managed to notice this unusual behavior.


    What was going on in this cursed forest. As he thought to that point, he suddenly noticed, that in the left flank of their group, the villagers were panicking more than the others, they were frantically trying to flee from that part to the other sides, pushing each other.


    Those villagers were now in a crescent moon like shape. And the center that was exposed now was were his tent was supposed to be. Did their left flank completely collapsed, was there really some kind of a monster that was attacking them?


    He heard of some strong monsters, that were as smart as humans and had the ability to control other animals, but what could such a monster do in this place? That kind of strong monsters should be only in Great Forest.


    "Axel, I will take 10 C ranks and check other flank, you stay here and command the forces, hold your ground and don''t let any of the animals slip through your defense. I will first take care of the monster that you lot are so scared of, then we will kill those animal one by one until none of them is left." (Lug)


    Without waiting for his command''s acknowledgment, he took some of the bandits and made his way back to his tent. What he saw there made him dumbstruck.


    There was a black skeleton, with untied black robe, his front part visible. The skeleton had swords sticking through his ribs, he was taking them one by one and giving to their prisoners.


    Those were the villagers, that decided to fight against them. Lug made sure yesterday, that they learned their lesson and wouldn''t try to fight against him second time, but right now, they had even more hope and determination than before, when they were fighting with that stupid righteous bearman.


    ############################################


    POV  Change: Anubis Myrddin (Merlin)


    ''~Hey, what did you tell them that they are so enthusiastic and ready to fight?~'' (Anubis)


    ''~Technically I told only the truth. I said that you were summoned by the corrupter and you are here to protect them, but corrupter can''t help them himself right now and they will need to fight to if they want to escape.


    It looks like they have a great faith in that Merlyn brat, they are ready to even trust an undead just because it was sent by their hero.


    Don''t relax yet, the fight is only beginning. I just gave you distraction, so you can fight them in small groups, it will increase your chances. Right now I''m surpassing the bandits will and making them dizzy so they won''t give any deathly blows to the animals. I don''t have the right to force the animals to sacrifice themselves for you. Once there will be too much of them wounded, I will let them retreat.~'' (Spirit)


    It''s already more than I could ask for, I don''t know what would I do without the Spirit. I wouldn''t even know that they were enslaved.


    The villagers watch me with hope, but there is still a hint of fear in their eyes. It''s only natural for a living to feel animosity towards undead, because my desire keeps growing stronger and stronger every second I''m near the villagers. But it''s still at the level that I can control myself. They all receive the weapons I picked up from the scouts, and at the time I gave the last sword I tilt my head to the side and see a group of tough looking red armored bandits looking at me with a disbelief shown in their faces.


    The one on the head of their group catches my attention because his gear is better crafted than anyone else''s and he is obviously the leader of their little group.


    ''~Be careful, it''s the bandit leader, and one of the B ranks in their group. I already told the villagers to go free and arm the others while the main bandit main force is still distracted, so this group is all yours~'' (Spirit)


    I unsheathe my own sword and take it in both hands, keeping the second one in the sheathe, and ready myself for my first real fight.


    .

 The fight [1]

    As I took my sword in both hands, I saw most of the bandits with confused and fearful expressions, they looked like they didn''t know what to do. But the leader was like a hawk, scanning the surroundings. At first I thought he was going to launch after the villagers that I just freed to kill them, and I was ready to intercept, but he was just standing there while the villagers kept running.


    I decided to not let them make the first move, and took the initiative in my own hands. Rushing forward, I startled the confused bandits even more. But they weren''t novices, so they started taking stances.


    The bandit leader was still vigilant of something though, he was frowning, while still scanning the area, and once he noticed my rush, he made a calm steps back, while barking orders to his subordinates.


    "Don''t fear him you fools, he just a mindless undead. Fan out and surround him, then attack from all the sides and kill him." (Lug)


    He was quite calm and collected, when I heard his command I was already in sprint and very close to the bandits, I didn''t have the chance to change my tactics, considering I don''t have much of a speed advantage over C ranks. It''s what I learned after hunting scouts before the fight. So all I could do is let myself being surrounded, while using my momentum to slam into the bandit right ahead of me.


    It looks like seeing my speed they underestimated me, because I was able to push the bandit''s sword, which he used to block my attack, breaking his block and making a nasty cut into his chest.


    I can literally feel my own heartbeat quickening. If he doesn''t get help soon he will die. And I''m the one who caused it. For a second I just stare dumbly at the chest with flowing blood of the collapsed bandit, and I feel a collision on my head. I take a step to the left from the impact, but don''t feel any damage. It looks like mana strengthening helped in that. But negative emotions are boiling, all the instincts are calling to me to slaughter them all.


    They are criminals anyway, they killed so many of the villagers and I''m sure this is not their first crime either. It''s not because of their armor that they are called red bandits I''m sure. So maybe if I devour only them it will be ok? Just a little...


    I reach with my hand towards the bandit''s throat, which slammed his sword into my skull, and has disbelief in his eyes because of lack of the damage he caused. He start choking and flailing around while grabbing my one hand with both of his. I can see the despair and fear in his eyes, and it makes me excited and hungry.


    I already lost myself in my own clouded world, and forgot about the other bandits. But at this moment when the bandit is already nearly at the deaths door, my mind goes dizzy for a moment and I loosen my grip on the bandit.


    ''~Remember you objective and why you came here. If you lose yourself right now, there will be no turning back~'' (Spirit)


    I nearly lost myself there, I thought that I''m ready to face whatever comes without giving in to my instincts, but the temptation is too great, especially in the fight. I can''t kill them no matter are they bandits or innocents. But I won''t do it because of some stupid reason like saving them and giving second chance, but for myself. To not become a murderer myself. There is no such thing as a righteous murderer, or a hero that killed bad guys. Killer is a killer.


    My mind comes back again and I can see other, that are currently surrounding me looking fearfully at me, some of them are backing away, and others hands are shaking. Right now I''m covered in no little amount of the first bandits blood and I was totally unaffected by their second comrades attack. It''s no wonder they don''t want to fight me anymore. The little demonstration already made clear that they won''t be able to harm me without exhausting my mana-pool.


    Well, in their situation I would think of the same thing, but right now, being in this body, I don''t feel any exhaustion or a limit at all. I already thought about it when I was killing the scouts. Should I shut down the body strengthening to not waste the mana, but it turns out, that I am not doing anything at all. Mana flows inside my core and disperses on its own, I''m not using my spirit to guide it like I was doing while meditating, it''s completely different. If there is some kind of limit, then I don''t know what that is and can''t feel it.


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    But it would be stupid to just think there is no limit, so I actually gave the command to deactivate body-strengthening. Probably that was also the reason why they underestimated me, because I turned it on only when I had no choice but to rush forward. Now that they can feel my mana strengthening, probably it has a good effect on inducing fear too.


    While his subordinates are fearfully gazing at me, and giving me the chance to collect myself, their leader is angrily looking at me with an expression of inner turmoil. It looks like he noticed a moment of my weakness and wanted to attack, but something was keeping him unable to do so, and it was angering him even more.


    When his anger reached its peak, he gave a frustrated shout "Show yourself you coward. Only sending an undead and hiding? If you are such a high level mage that can summon undead, why aren''t you attacking yourself?"


    "...*no response*"


    It looks more like he is talking to himself "Hey corrupter, it''s you right? Were you so badly injured that you can''t even fight and all you could do is send an undead? Hahahahahah...


    Then I will come after you right after I finish of your pawn, I wonder how big price will I get for your head."


    So that''s why he wasn''t willing to attack me before this. He was scared of the corrupter''s sudden attack from the side. But if he''d witnessed what I''ve seen, he wouldn''t have stand here and just wait for the attack. If the corrupter really was here, no matter how injured he was, he could kill all of you with just a thought, with just the presence of his spiritual energy. But I''m not going to convince him otherwise, I''ll let him believe what he wants to believe.


    Now confident in himself again, the bandit leader disdainfully pushes one of the subordinates to the side and steps forth himself, to face me. He reaches behind his back and pulls a large war hammer, smirking at me. Although the mana net should be able to withstand the blunt damage, dispersing it through the whole surface, he is still B rank, and their leader. He is the final boss, so I have to be careful.


    He walks forwards with confident an slow steps, while swaying his large war hammer in his hands. Is he thinking that I''m some kind of prey to him that can be played with? The war hammer comes lightening fast descending towards me, and I abruptly try to dodge, sidestepping. Even if, and the keyword here is IF, I can take the damage from that hammer, it''s still better to dodge while I can.


    My clumsy sidestep don''t help me much, and the war hammer hits the side of the blade that I used to block. The impact sends me rolling on the ground a couple of meters away. Until I can get up the hammer slams again near me, and I hastily roll to the side, avoiding it at the last moment.


    Using the momentum from the roll I stand up to face the bandit leader, and nearly get hit by the other bandit from behind, who falls down on the ground, his sword missing me. I think it wasn''t such a lucky coincidence. I''ll have to thank spirit for that. Again...


    The leader obviously holds the advantage, and he also has the aid of the remaining bandits. Even if my strength is on par with him, and defense even stronger, he is much faster than me and the most important thing is he is a lot more skillful at fighting.


    So how should I defeat him?


    .

 The fight [2]

    The leader obviously holds the advantage, and he also has the aid of the remaining bandits. Even if my strength is on par with him, and defense even stronger, he is much faster than me and the most important thing is he is a lot more skillful at fighting.


    I glance around me keeping my eyesight at the leader. The bandits already have me surrounded. I am able to break the encirclement and run away, try to bait him and fight somewhere else, but he is faster than me too.


    I kept dodging his attacks and trying to think up a tactic, a way to win here. Whatever the reason Spirit won''t be helping me too much here. Occasionally some bandits tried to hit me too, but mostly they didn''t do any damage, and only tried to push me into a vulnerable position, so their leader can hit me. I was bad at seeing the whole situation from all sides, so Spirit helped me couple of times to dodge those kind of attacks, and most of the time they were hit by my body and blocked without much effort.


    The only solution I see is to fight head on, and prey that I will be able to land a lucky hit faster than my defense will be shattered. I made my decision, and gripping my sword, rushed at him right when he swung his hammer at me from overhead. I tried to sidestep and slashed with my sword towards his leg, at the same time his hammer, that was aimed at my head, slammed into my shoulder. I felt a huge pressure on my shoulder, my legs nearly gave in, but pressure dissipated a moment ago through my whole body.


    I think I heard a small cracking sounds on my shoulder, but my arm is still working perfectly fine. It''s dangerous to take such attacks head on. His leg wasn''t in much better shape too, although my skills with swords were practically non-existent, but with such a huge force backing it up how could he get away lightly. I''m sure if our defenses were equal, I''d lose in first exchange, but his body strengthening wasn''t as good and the fact that he had flash and blood didn''t help at all.


    So the bandit leader had his leg cut until the bone. Not as good as I hoped for, but it will still affect his agility greatly, and give me higher chances if he can''t lean on both his legs to hit me with his huge hammer. His left side, where is now wounded leg is will be a lot safer for me now because of that reason. Blood started flowing in slow but steady stream from his wound, when I pulled the sword back.


    He was gritting his teeth and showing a great deal of self control not yelling, or maybe he is too accustomed to injuries, or maybe it''s adrenalin. Without thinking much about that, I kept to my tactic, circling him in a way, that he couldn''t use all of his strength, because of injured leg, and I was more agile now. Really easy tactic, use your speed to dominate the enemy without letting them hit you, and if enemy has higher speed, make him slower. It''s the fighting tactic that I always admired watching movies or reading novels - Hit without being hit.


    At this time he have already forgotten about the corrupter that he imagined himself and is only focused on me. The fact that his attack wasn''t able to shatter me completely has clearly cut his arrogance. There were occasional bandit attacks here and there and sometimes I tried to find opportunities to deal with them first, but it proved to be stupid decision when the bandit leader gave a savage shout and leapt onto me with the hammer in his hands. I dodge the attack not so successful again this time, and it hit me, once again making me feel the huge impact on my bones.


    He was ready to sacrifice his subordinates to kill me with them if he could. Because the bandit I tried to attack before his savage rush was hit in the hand by his massive hammer and had his hand bent in a wrong way after bouncing on a ground a couple of times. I''m sure his bones were shattered completely. His shouts made other bandits feel more fear, so whenever I was advancing to their side while dodging their leader''s attacks (or being thrown by the impact) they tried to frantically dodge and weren''t trying to attack me anymore.


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    Leader''s breathing were more and more haggard, it looks like he doesn''t have much endurance, how can he compare to an undead anyway? And his bleeding leg is making his situation worse. After a ten or so minutes of angrily chasing me and throwing me from side to side by the impacts of our weapons he was a lot more careful now when attacking, not showing me any openings even for my kamikaze-style, but his anger was rising more and more. His leg wasn''t bleeding anymore, but he was already exhausted after swinging such a huge hammer all this time.


    When he attacked once more, his leg shook a little from the weight of the swing and he made the result of his swing was awkward, missing me and losing his balance. I of course didn''t lose the chance, and circled him through his left side cutting into his other leg, but this time I cut near his thighs. Last time he would manage to block a cut so close to his hammer''s handle, but now that he lost the balance and the hammer was impaled on the ground after missing me, I didn''t have much problem cutting deep.


    This time a grunt escaped his lips, and some of the bandits still tried to launch at me, to bring on ground and restrain under their weight, but I simply punched them with my boney hands. Other bandits tried to help their leader to escape, but even if I was distracted for couple of seconds, how far could a man wounded in both legs run to?


    I caught up to him and when he noticed me, he pushed the bandit that was helping him towards me, and used the hammer he was leaning in to make his last desperate attack. The bandit unconsciously grabbed at my robe, when he was pushed towards me, and I couldn''t dodge the hammer either.


    The hammer fell on both of us and I flew through the air, landing a 5 meters away. The bandit although didn''t take the main damage, because the leader was aiming at me, still took some of it and was lying near me.


    I got up and approached now kneeling bandit leader. His face was twisted in pain and he was clutching the wound on his foot. His body strengthening was already down, maybe because of the pain and loss of the concentration, maybe because of the exhaustion, or maybe the both.


    He looked at me and didn''t say anything, I really expected that he would beg to spare his life like any bandit in his situation do. Did he still believe that I''m mindless undead? Wasn''t it obvious from the battle? Does he have any other reason.


    I didn''t keep him waiting too long, and with a heavy hit of the sword''s hilt he lost his consciousness. I asked the Spirit to make the crowd of people near to us tie and disarm those bandits and their leader. Some of the bandits ran away, and I''m sure there will be reinforcements soon. I have to thin out their numbers as much as I can until the animals are still distracting them.


    Our fight was long, and I was afraid that they would get reinforcements before I''ll be able to defeat the leader. Some villagers were tailing me without saying anything, I just kept ignoring them while I was following Spirit''s directions for other bandits.


    While they were distracted fighting the animals, I didn''t have much problem knocking them out, it was even a little boring. At first I was vigilante towards the animals, but they kept retreating right after I took care of the bandit groups. Like this I managed to knock out 3 groups of 7-8 C ranks, before animals retreated completely. With the scouts and the group that came with their leader, it made around 40 people already. I don''t think they have a lot of people left, but they should still have a B rank left, which is concerning.


    .