《Journals of Cultivation》 Prologue : Nothingness Prologue : Nothingness Silence. Deafening, Terrifying, Silence. I don¡¯t know how much time has passed, or even if time exists. The longer I think, the longer I float here, unable to do anything but reminisce, the more regrets begin to surface. While I was alive, I regretted nothing. My early years were dedicated to knowledge, to power. I did horrible things to people, animals, beasts, demons, even dragons. I say that I only killed Melinda¡¯s son because he tried to eat me, but the truth is that I went looking for a baby dragon for decades. I needed an unformed dragons core, one that I could form around my own soul and use to reach deep, deep down into the elemental sea. At least, that¡¯s what I thought at the time. I never realized until it was too late that there are many ways to seek power, to seek knowledge. I chose the path of stealing it, from any and all. I chose poorly. I was barely a hundred years old by the time the Human¡¯s started calling me a demon. Everyone who saw me ran in terror, Kingdoms fell just because I decided to stay there for a few years. By the time I was two-hundred parents used my name to scare their kids into being good. ¡°If you don¡¯t brush your teeth at night the Demon-mage Freeney will curse you! Your teeth will fall out, your gums bleed, and your jaw will break!¡± Melinda chased me around the world a few dozen times by the time I was Four-Hundred. I sparred with her often, but would always escape just before she could kill me. Looking back, I think that was my favorite time of life. I think that¡¯s when I first started to notice my complete lack of relationships. My parents had disowned me long ago, my friends were all dead, or my enemies now. I had reached a certain point in my life where I had enough power to do just about anything, but had nothing that I really wanted to do and no one to do it with. It was at this point that I decided to change my lifestyle. I went from living in extravagant mansions with servants and slaves at my beck and call to living in hovels in small villages. I told stories from my past, from the books that I had so slavishly gathered in my first couple of centuries of life. I learned how to tell tall tales, and for the next 600 years I lived quietly, studying magic and telling tales. My name all but forgotten in the Annals of History. The Demon-Mage Freeney, The Devourer, The Licentious, The Destroyer, The Forgotten. In the end, I couldn¡¯t complete my studies. I couldn''t become immortal. Perhaps, I just lost my drive, my willingness to do anything to learn. Or, perhaps I just realized that being reborn would allow me to start over again. To live a life where I¡¯d never been known as a demon or devil. My only true regret is that I never got to tell Melinda how I truly felt. She was the only one who understood me, understood the loneliness of supreme power, of hatred. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Time¡­ Time¡­ The lack of external stimuli slowly eats away at my mental processes. Slowly, ever so slowly, I stop thinking, stop being. My once all-powerful soul shutting down; going into hibernation. When I used my forbidden technique that day so long ago, I offered up far more than just my lifeforce. Unknowingly, I offered up my very soul, my memories, my everything for that power. I would¡¯ve never done it if I¡¯d known what it was going to do to me, but it was the best thing that could¡¯ve possibly happened. Time¡­.. Time¡­.. Time¡­ *Swoosh* The beating of the waves. *Swoosh* As if I was sleeping in the middle of an enormous sea, the waves flowing around me. *Swoosh* Rocking back and forth. *Swoosh* More relaxing, more healing than you could possibly imagine. I remember very little from my time before the Elemental Sea. By the time I finally became able to see again, my soul had already been cleansed. I didn¡¯t realize it at the time, but in the pursuit of knowledge, of power, I had caused a terrifying amount of damage to my soul. It took millennia after millennia to cleanse away the taint of what I had done, the lives sacrificed, the core stolen, the anger and pain of my childhood, all washed away. What a wonderous feeling it is, to leave behind the burdens of a hateful life. Even the elixir they force you to drink when you are reborn couldn''t have erased my sins, yet the elemental sea did. Part of the reason it took me so long to sense anything was that I had no eyes, no ears, no skin. In fact, I had no material form at all. From the moment that I began to feel again something changed in me. I could feel it, the endless sea of elements slowly moving back and forth, sometimes creating, sometimes destroying but always gentle, soothing. In mortal terms, the only way I could describe it would be as a womb. It felt¡­ safe. Secure. Wonderful. I don¡¯t know how long I stayed there, basking the the feeling of security before my consciousness began to slowly, hesitatingly, awake. When I finally did awaken, I was lost. Massive chunks of my memories were missing. Those, unfortunately, came back. I will say this though, sometimes I wish that I''d just stayed put. Ignorance can be bliss. Book One: The Elemental Sea - Chapter One : Huh? Preface I thought long and hard about writing this book, for the longest time I thought it would be best to keep my secrets to myself. You see, in one of my past lives I wrote a similar book that to this day is still read by every magus in training, and many warriors. I feel kind of¡­ obligated to leave something similar behind in this life. Since I¡¯ll soon be leaving this plane for the higher-realms I decided to leave behind this book depicting my time on the elemental seas. Perhaps, one of you will be able to gain some insight from it. Good luck, you¡¯ll need it. Chapter One - Huh? My early memories of the Elemental Sea are fragmented and consist of mostly doing nothing. I was seriously injured when I first awoke, and it wasn¡¯t until years after my rebirth that I was able to remember anything about the sea clearly. This I will say; some days I wish I¡¯d just stayed there. - Nicholas Freeney *ZAP* ¡°Huh?¡± It was as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice-cold water on my face. One moment, I was drifting peacefully, blissfully asleep. The next, I was awake. ¡°WHAT THE FUCK?!?!¡± I panicked, trying to move, trying to breathe, trying to feel something. Anything. Its a surreal feeling; being alive yet not having a body. It¡¯s an experience not for the faint of heart. I have no idea how long it took before I finally settled down enough to observe my surroundings. To my surprise, I could actually see! Though I wouldn¡¯t really call it seeing, more like sensing. Everything within a 10 foot radius of me I could sense. The empty sky above, the purple sea below. No matter what I tried however, I couldn¡¯t affect anything. I was just a mass of energy floating along, bored. Not that the sea wasn¡¯t fascinating, it was. As my ability to sense slowly increased, the natural wonder of the place slowly began to awe me. So much pure, focused essence right there. To make it even better, just being around the stuff refines your soul, making you stronger. Anyone with even the slightest affinity for lighting essence would think the place is heaven. For the most part the sea is a calm, smooth, relaxing place place. However, like any mortal sea, things can take a turn for the worse. Hurricanes and tsunamis occur infrequently, later I learned that when a being of massive power uses a lot of essence, for instance a massive lightning bolt is called to fry some luckless fool, the elemental sea will react. Usually, this results in a tsunami of essence rushing forwards, for a reason I¡¯ll explain later. For a long time, I thought that was the only thing that could cause one of these events, but then suddenly maybe 20 feet in front of me a massive plume of sparks erupted from the sea. It was the best fireworks show in the universe, and I was a little too close for comfort. Perhaps because it was so close, and because I¡¯d already spent at least a century floating around doing nothing but watching the sea, I was able to faintly understand what had happened when the eruption occurred. Deep, deep in the ocean a massive amount of essence was slowly gathered, concentrated under pressure until finally the volatile stuff couldn¡¯t take it anymore then¡­ BOOOM. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Well, maybe it was because of the loss of my previous life¡¯s memories and therefore my loss of all understand of what is possible. Or, maybe I just really wanted to actually do something other than float around aimlessly on top of the sea, but I wouldn''t give up trying to figure out a way to affect my environment. Teaching yourself how to gather elemental essence without any cultivation techniques is hard, doing so without a body is INSANELY hard. Hell, according to all the major literature on the subject it should be impossible for a soul to gather Elemental Essence¡­ Well, maybe it was because I¡¯d been alone for far too long with nothing to do but try, or maybe it was because there is literally no such thing as a better location to cultivate at than in the middle of the elemental sea. For whatever reason, I did the impossible. Now, just so you apprentice mages and warriors reading this journal don¡¯t get too jealous, you should understand just how long it took for me to gain even the slightest control over the lightning elements. In the elemental sea, there is no easy way to tell time like there is in a mortal world. In the mortal world the sun rises and sets; moons wax and wane. In the elemental sea¡­ there really isn¡¯t a good way to tell time. What I can say, is that based off my observations of time in the mortal world since I was reborn, I spent at least a century studying on that endless sea before I could even create even the smallest of sparks. It was worth it. *spark* I can¡¯t tell you how excited I was when I finally managed to gather together that tiny amount of essence and create my first spark. Time passed, and I got better at creating sparks. By then I could create massive explosions of energy, and I was starting to get pretty bored with it. It had become a habit of mine to always be gathering essence by this point, and I absentmindedly gathered more and more and more. While I pondered about what to do next I suddenly realized that I had surpassed my limits. *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM* My soul shook, nearly imploding as a massive explosion ripped from the sea beneath me. When I finally regained my senses, I stared in wonder at the sea beneath me. Except, I wasn¡¯t my customary few feet over the sea. No, I was a few thousand feet above it. As I reached the top of my parabolic arc I noticed far off into the distance that the sea was no longer purple! No, it was Red right in front of me, and off to the left it was Blue! To the right it was Yellow! SWEET, something not purple! Not that I dislike purple, but a few centuries of only purple would drive anyone nuts! Hell, back then I thought there were two colors. The purple of the sea underneath me, and the black of everything else! At this point, I started falling and everything else left my mind in a massive O SHIT moment. Sometimes, it really sucks not having vocal cords. There is a certain release of fear that comes along with screaming ¡°AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!¡± In a high-pitched voice as you plummet to your doom. Unfortunately, all I could do was think ¡°fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckity fuck¡± to myself as the purple sea came closer and closer. *SPLASH!* My soul descended into the Elemental Sea of Lightning. Book One: The Elemental Sea - Chapter Two : Pain and Gain There¡¯s no denying it, I am a lucky being. Through the three lives that I can currently remember I have made so many mistakes, done so many stupid things that should¡¯ve killed me and destroyed my soul making it impossible for me to ever reincarnate again. Never forget, in the world of martial cultivation and magic only two things matter. Luck and Determination. - Nicholas Freeney Despite everything I¡¯ve said about how healing the elemental sea¡¯s felt to me, they are more dangerous then you can possibly imagine, especially the Lightning Sea. Lightning essence is extremely volatile, as everyone knows the vast majority of mage-apprentices who die during their initial awakenings and training are lightning mages. Even warriors who decide to focus on the lightning path suffer a far greater percentage of injuries and setbacks in training than other warriors. Yet, people are always willing to risk those injuries and the few lightning mages who survive to reach the peak of their powers are incredibly powerful! This is due to the very nature of lightning; it is untamed, violent, explosive, and fast! Speed second only to light, explosiveness exceeding even that of fire, it can be considered to be the ultimate destructive element! As an unprotected soul, there is no way that I should¡¯ve been able to survive even a millisecond in that sea. Only the most powerful masters of cultivation and arch-mages could even hope to survive on that sea. The only reason I survived for so long, was even healed by the sea, is because when I used that forbidden technique so long ago I actually became lightning essence in a way. My soul was forever changed that day, and I could¡¯ve been destroyed so many times over that to this day just thinking of all the things that could¡¯ve gone wrong forces me to break into a cold sweat. Then, to make matters worse I actually plunged deep into the Lightning Sea with a damaged soul. I have made many mistakes over the course of all of my lives, but that explosion is hands down the worst of them all. I should have died that day, no questions about it. I got lucky. Pain There are no words that can describe what damaging your soul feels like, only experienced experts who have withstood powerful soul attacks can possibly understand. Even then, what they experienced is only a minor annoyance, a bug bite, compared to what happened to me that day. For the second time since I used that forbidden technique holes were torn through my soul, and I was forced into hibernation. I was never sure how long I slept this time, only that in comparison to the millenia that I know passed during my first period of hibernation, this was over much faster. I slowly, groggily came to awareness only to receive the greatest shock since the last time I awoke. Growling slightly, I tenderly moved. I moved! ¡°There, there, don¡¯t move. You haven¡¯t fully recovered yet, pup.¡± Shocked, I turned my head¡­. Wait, I have a head! The happiness I felt at being able to move, even with the massive amounts of pain even the slightest movement sent through my body! Only someone who has been paralyzed for a decade or two, unable to move anything but his eyes, could possibly understand what having a body meant to me at that moment. Tears were instantly streaming down my face as I happily jumped about. Finally, it hurt too much to move anymore and I layed down on the floor, happily crying my heart out. Thankfully, he walked into my view at that point, because I couldn''t have turned even an inch to face him. I nearly fainted in shock, staring at the massive wolf standing in front of me. He was nearly 15 feet tall even while standing on four legs, with a coat of startling blue that seemed to be moving. Looking closer, I realized that he was actually covered with lightning! The lightning was streaking from his head towards his tails in an intricate pattern of interwoven bolts. The three tails were a fiery red and they seemed to be absorbing the energy from the constant, coiling lightning running down his body. With a massive grin on his face, the nearly foot long scimitar shaped fangs that stuck out over his lower lip made me relieve myself on the ground as I shook in terror. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. What is this thing?!?!?!?!? ¡°HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA¡± his booming laugh shook the room, while thunder fit to destroy the universe shook through the sky. Looking into his startlingly purple eyes, I just couldn¡¯t imagine a more terrifying, majestic being than this. Suddenly, another voice rang through the room from outside as a massive ball of white fire flew through the open door at an insane speed. ¡°RAIJU! What the hell do you think you¡¯re doing laughing like that in the middle of the night?!?! You¡¯re disturbing the peace!¡± With a lazy swipe of his tails, the ball of fire dispersed into nothingness leaving behind only a slight warmth in the room. ¡°HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA¡± The attack from outside seemed to have only encouraged the massive wolf to make more noise. More voices came from outside the room, ¡°Why the hell is he our Emperor?!?¡± and, ¡°You awoke the Empress, you shall suffer!¡± and, ¡°We should depose him! Exile the Emperor!!!!¡± more and more cries for his death, exile, and torture seemed to come from the angry mob forming outside the door. Yet, all this only seemed to make him laugh harder, ¡°HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA¡±. The laughter continued, and at this point I finally stopped pissing myself. Not because I wasn¡¯t scared out of my wits, but rather because my rather small bladder was so empty that I didn¡¯t need to piss again for a week. Suddenly, the first voice I¡¯d heard carried over the rest authoritatively, ¡°SHUT UP!!! You¡¯re just encouraging him I¡¯ll deal with this!¡± Then, another fireball came through the door. Except, it was much smaller and faster. Before the laughing wolf could even react it¡¯d smashed into his tongue and down his throat. ¡°That should shut him up.¡± Walking through the door was the most beautiful being I had ever seen. While the huge wolf apparently called Raiju was rolling around on the floor breathing out smoke and coughing, I couldn¡¯t help but happily yelp at my savior. She was much shorter than the massive wolf, only about eight feet tall and HOT! I don¡¯t mean sexy hot, although she was that, I mean surface of the sun HOT! Her skin was the most startling white, while her red hair and blue clothes seemed to burn on her body. Suddenly, I realized that she was actually made of fire! Suddenly, I was just as scared of her as I was the massive wolf. The woman smiled at me warmly, then glared at the wolf saying, ¡°You¡¯ve frightened him! I should never have agreed to let you stay in here.¡± Then, she reached down to pick me up. HOT HOT HOT!!! Yelping, I tried to run away but she held on tight refusing to let me go. From the floor, the wolf seemed to have finally put the fire in his throat out because he started laughing again, ¡°You blame me for scaring him and here you are burning him! HAHAHAHAHAHA¡± She seemed to realize what she was doing to me as the smell of my burning fur came to her nose, her pale face was suddenly full of color as she blushed, ¡°Shit, I forgot!¡± Despite my yelping, she still didn¡¯t put me down. Instead, the fire on my body seemed to change. Going from unbearably, scorching hot to comfortingly warm. I even felt the various aches and pains of my body slowly disappearing as she smiled down at me. ¡°Sorry, little one.¡± The comforting warmth seemed to seep into my bones, into my very soul. I let out a single growl of satisfaction before the drowsy feeling overtook me sending me deep into sleep. Book One: The Elemental Sea - Chapter Three : Anger I once toyed around with being an elemental summoner; it¡¯s not difficult. The problem is that for the most part I can¡¯t stand low-class spirits. One look at them brings back memories. Unpleasant ones. - Nicholas Freeey Groggily, I opened my eyes for the second time in this life. I felt weak, so weak that I¡¯m amazed that I even woke up. Even my injuries from the day before didn¡¯t affect me so badly, what is going on?!?! By the time I finally managed to slowly drag a paw over my eyes and wake up enough to see I couldn¡¯t understand what was happening. Just yesterday I woke up in a nice room with a gigantic mutant-wolf waiting for me and had a fire woman burn then heal me! Yet, now I¡¯m in a dark, dank cave. What the hell is up with this life?!?! Finally, I noticed hundreds of small, purple blobs were attached to my body, slowly expanding as they sucked the very essence out of my body! ¡®NO!!! I REFUSE TO DIE AFTER I FINALLY GOT A BODY!¡¯ I swiped my foreclaw ferociously at one that had stuck to my belly. It just absorbed the blow and sprung back, unaffected. ¡®What the hell? How am I supposed to kill these things?¡¯ Then, I realized that they were sucking lightning essence out of me. How could these low-class slimes possibly compare to my ability to control lightning essence after millennia in the elemental sea? ¡®If they want to suck out my essence, fine.¡¯ I used the slimes¡¯ own absorption powers against them, directly sending lightning essence into their bodies, then forcing it to spark. *pop* *pop* *pop* Endless popping sounds seemed to deafen my sensitive hearing in the silence of the cave. As the sounds finally faded, I managed to stand up with difficulty. The feeling of my energy slowly draining away finally went away, and I was able to begin recovering. Concentrating, I was able to feel the scant Lightning Essence in the air. I began to absorb it, replenishing my body. Now that I no longer hurt like hell, had giant mutant-wolf monsters trying to kill me, and the slimes were dead, I finally had the chance to check my new body out. I was a little over a foot and a half tall with dirty, shaggy purple-blueish hair that was currently covered in purple goo and was in serious need of trimming. I still felt weak, my body was emaciated and my muscles seemed to have trouble even holding my body up. All four of my paws had claws that would extend at will. Curious, I extended my right forepaw and scratched the ground with my claw. It left a visible cut in the hard stone. ¡®How the hell did the slimes take that?¡¯ Then, I noticed that the essence that the slimes had stolen from me was slowly leaving their dead bodies. I closed my eyes, sitting down and focusing on absorbing the lightning essence. To my amazement, the essence restructured my body. Muscles quickly regained their firmness, the constant nagging of hunger left and my belly was no longer distended. Closing my eyes, I used my soul to examine my body. ¡®My god, no wonder I felt so weak earlier.¡¯ My body was made almost entirely of lightning essence, but when I examined it closer I found that it also had minute amounts of both fire and water integrated into it. Even as I stood there, examining myself I could feel the surrounding lightning essence all congregating inside of me. The feeling a spirit gets as he absorbs a massive amount of elemental essence is indescribable to a human. It is akin to the feeling of satisfaction a human feels after an orgasim, but much more intense. I lost myself in the feeling for a long time. Sadly, moments like that can¡¯t last forever. I regained my senses a while later, wondering what had happened to end my blissful moment. Using my sould, I figured out that I had actually absorbed all the lightning essence in the cave! *Sigh¡­* ¡®I guess it¡¯s time to figure out where the hell I am.¡¯ With my strength returned to me, I began to search for an exit from the warren of tunnels. Lost and confused, I wandered aimlessly from place to place. Occasionally I¡¯d run into more slimes, but they were easily dealt with now that I knew how to kill them. More excitingly, I ran into some crab like creatures covered in a hard shell. When I tried to explode my essence inside of them nothing happened, as if they didn¡¯t feel it at all. Thankfully, my claws were sharp enough that with some effort I could pry open their shells and kill them. Many hours later, I saw the flickering light of a fire ahead. Cautiously, I approached the flames. From the distance, I began to hear two voices. ¡°Do you think that pup is still alive?¡± This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Nah, with all those slimes sucking on him he can¡¯t have survived for more than a few hours. We should go collect the bounty soon. I can¡¯t believe those stupid birds didn¡¯t even post a guard on his room!¡± ¡°We¡¯re rich! His energy was so concentrated, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised we can sell those slimes for millions!¡± ¡°Screw that, I¡¯m using my share to evolve.¡± ¡°Lucky! If only I was a lightning spirit. Then, I too could become a high-class.¡± At that point, I¡¯d heard enough. Somehow, these fools had managed to kidnap me and were planning to let those slimes absorb my energy for money! Previously, I had never felt anger. Boredom? Loneliness? Excitement? Depression? Yes to all of those, but never before anger. Now, I was in a full blown rage, and I wanted blood! Slowly, I snuck up on the fire. As I got closer, I was able to actually sense the essence inside the body of those two spirits with my soul. ¡®What? These weaklings tried to kill me?¡¯ I couldn¡¯t believe it, those spirits didn¡¯t even have as much essence as I did when those slimes were sucking me dry! No longer cautious, I raced the final twenty yards to them, using my paws to chop the purple one in half in one blow. ¡°AHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!¡± A scream fit to wake the dead split the air. The red one instantly jumped to his feet, then froze in terror as I glared at him. As the first one died, I could feel the lightning essence escaping his body. Instinctually, I opened my mouth and directly ate the lower half of the creature I¡¯d just killed. I could feel his body breaking down into lightning essence as it entered my stomach. It took less than 30 seconds for his body to be completely digested, the lightning essence he was composed of quickly spreading throughout my body. The speed at which my body absorbed the food bespoke of a terrible need for energy, why else would my body need such an efficient means of digestion? The entire time that I was chowing down on his friend, I had been glaring at the other creature that had been talking about how he wished he was a lightning spirit. He just stood there, his legs quivering as he stared at me in terror. ¡°PPPPPlease spare me! I had nothing to do with this! What would I have to gain by hurting a lightning spirit such as you?¡± I just stared at the creature standing infront of me, trying to figure out what he was. He was short, only half a foot taller than me with stubby legs and claws. With a couple of short, hard looking horns coming out of his hairline, combined with his ugly face he was the least appetizing meal I¡¯ve ever seen. Not to say I didn¡¯t eat him, he tried to use me as feed for slimes! I think he must¡¯ve seen the look on my face as I tried to decide what part of him to eat first, because he stopped begging for his life. I could feel fire essence start gathering on his palms as he shoved them towards me. He unleashed a bright red fire that rushed towards me, singing the tips of my hair. Again, my automatic reactions kicked in. The lightning essence inside of me suddenly rushed to my hair and formed a barrier of crackling thunder. The pitiful fire couldn¡¯t even harm me, and I rushed forward directly beheading him with a swipe of my paws. Sitting down, I ate the fool raw just like I had eaten his friend. The first time, I was so consumed with anger that I never even tasted it. This time, I got a good taste and it was disgusting. One swallow was enough for me to be done with this one, it tasted like singed sewage. Not only that, but his skin was hard and leathery. Unlike the lightning spirit I didn¡¯t digest him immediately, as if my body wasn¡¯t quite sure what to do with the fire essence it was made of. Pondering, I closed my eyes to try and figure out what was wrong. Using my soul to search, I realized that fire essence doesn¡¯t react like lightning essence. I had spent several millenniums observing lightning essence but I had never seen fire before I woke up in that room with the mutant-wolf monstrosity. Yet, somehow there was some fire essence already present in my body earlier today. Slowly, I felt the same sensation that I feel when absorbing lightning essence of my body strengthening. So, despite the disgusting taste I decided to eat all of that foul creature. Anything that will make my body stronger is worth doing. Yawning, I decided to take a nap next to the fire. It had been a long day, and at least it was warm¡­. ¡®I better not wake up in a different place again!¡¯ Was the final thought to run through my head as I drifted off. Book One - The Elemental Sea : Chapter Four - Hunger It¡¯s been nearly a month since I escaped from the cave, and I think I¡¯m going to die out here. The fire I slept next too was near the entrance to the cave system. It only took me a couple of hours to escape after I woke back up. The problem was that when I left the cave I had no idea where I was or where to go. To the North I could see a humongous mountain, to the west was a sea that stretched into nothingness, and to the east and south was a vast grassland without end. To this day, I have no idea how in the hell those damned imps managed to get me all the way out here. I think that someone powerful must¡¯ve helped them because I must¡¯ve been teleported, and there were no portals nearby. For some reason, I was drawn towards the grasslands. It was as if something was calling for me in the distance. So, I headed in a generally south-easterly direction while hunting anything I came across. The first week was great, nothing could possibly harm me out here. For the most part, the spirits running around had yet to even form a consciousness yet. The more essence that one can safely absorb and control, the smarter one is. It seems as if every elemental spirit spends its infant stage mindlessly eating anything containing their element. For the most part, this meant that infant spirits would absorb other infant spirits until finally one of them would evolve, turning into a low-class spirit. Even then, they wouldn¡¯t even be as powerful as those idiotic imps I killed. Unfortunately, there was nothing but infants and the occasional low-class spirit in these unending grasslands. This wouldn¡¯t have been a problem if I had thought about why no middle or high-class spirits had claimed the grasslands. The density of elemental essence in the area is extremely low. So low, that within a week my body had already passively absorbed all of the lightning essence in the area without my even noticing it. To make matters worse, the vast majority of spirits in this hell-hole are earth and wind spirits. Fortunately I can somehow digest wind spirits as a stop-gap, but I can¡¯t eat earth spirits. Even worse, the one time I tried to eat one the earth essence ran wild in my body, totally uncontrollable. It left me severely injured, and on the verge of dieing. I had to use the majority of my lightning essence to heal and restructure my body or I would¡¯ve died then and there. So here I am, stalking a low-class wind spirit who was currently flitting around in the air. I hate killing wind-spirits, they are so childish and fun to be around. For the couple of weeks while I traveled through the grasslands I often played with them, but I didn¡¯t have a choice. Slowly, I slipt through the 5 foot tall grass following the spirit, waiting for the wind spirit to turn towards me. I could¡¯ve killed it hours ago with a burst of lightning, but I need to save as much of my lightning essence as I can. This spirit might give me another 8 hours of life, but only if I never used any lightning. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ¡®Now!¡¯ The spirit had finally turned, approaching within 10 feet of me. I immediately pounced, killing it with the swipe of a forepaw in an instant. Hunting a tricky prey relying on nothing but your body is something that should make you proud, yet as I ate the spirit I couldn¡¯t help but feel sad. ¡®I truly wish I hadn¡¯t been forced to eat you.¡¯ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Another month has passed, and now I know that I¡¯m about to die. I¡¯ve gotten so weak that I could no longer hunt even low-class elemental spirits. Forcing me to prey on the infantile spirits, but they had such a low amount of essence that it almost takes more energy to eat them then I gain from them. I would¡¯ve given up long before if not for that feeling, as if something is calling out to me in the distance. I can feel it, pulsing nearby now. If only I could make it there I just know that I¡¯d survive somehow. Each step feels as if it¡¯ll be my last. *trudge* ¡®Should I just give up?¡¯ *trudge* ¡®Not yet, nearly there¡¯ *trudge* And so it went, step after step, hour after hour, day after day. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ¡®I¡¯m so close, I can feel it.¡¯ Another week had passed. I have no idea why I kept going, but I just couldn¡¯t stop. No matter how tired and hungry, no matter how much it hurt, that pulsing feeling just kept pulling me towards it. ¡®This is it, I can¡¯t go on.¡¯ I couldn¡¯t even stand at this point, I only had the energy to lay on my side and look in the direction of the pulsing. I could feel it, coming closer. ¡®If only I had one more day.¡¯ I could no longer go on. Laying there, I stared into the distance and waited to die¡­ ¡®It¡¯s time now.¡¯ I could feel my body shutting down, my emaciated form laying on the ground. ¡®I¡¯m not going to just go out like this and wait to be eaten.¡¯ Instead of waiting there to die, I decided to spend every last remaining essence I had. Weakly, yet defiantly, I roared out louder than I¡¯ve ever roared before or since. I used the lightning essence and fire essence to create an explosion with me at the center of it; I planned to burn away my mortal form. No one was going to eat me. ¡°ROOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!¡± The echoing boom thundered across the horizon as I felt the flames engulf me. Book One - The Elemental Sea : Five- Death A/N: Hey all, sorry about how long this took to put up, The first week of classes combined with my new job threw me into a loop. Good news is that I spent a lot of my time in those boring syllabus classes planning the story so I should be able to release quite a few chapters quickly. - Chit Chapter Five - Death For the vast majority of spirits, death isn¡¯t actually death. It¡¯s just an exhaustion of energy; the soul lingers on and is slowly pulled towards a nexus of the elements where it is replenished. The only way to actually kill a spirit is to destroy his/her soul. For the vast majority of spirits¡­ One second I was burning up in a fire of glory; my body destroying itself. The next, I was floating above the fire in my soul form¡­ ¡®WHAT?!?!?!?!?!¡¯ My soul felt¡­ different, it¡¯d changed. I¡¯m sure you shamans out there who¡¯ve traveled the spirit realm in their souls understand what happened. For those who haven¡¯t, the spirit form and the soul form are linked. Before, I was just a big blob of purple¡­ a massive slime you might say. But now, my soul form was changed forever, I was now a mutant-wolf. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. The greatest change of all was that I was actually able to not just see using my soul sense, but also through my eye¡¯s. I could even move my soul by walking with my legs! I couldn¡¯t touch the actual ground, but I could sense the very essences and walk on top of those. I was afraid that I¡¯d go back to the elemental sea for thousands of years without even having a body when I died! I was so excited, I ran around in circles chasing my tail and yelping. That was when it happened, I began to feel the tugging. The parts of my soul where the memories I had long forgotten, the memories of my past lives hid, started to scream at me¡­ Somehow, I just knew that that tugging would only bring me back to the Elemental Sea for good this time. I fought. I used everything I could think of, even using the small amount of essence I managed to gather in my soul form, flinging it in the direction of the suction. Nothing worked. The suction just kept going, and my soul was sucked into the air and on a journey. The last I saw of the place I died was the fire-lady crying as she cradled my ashes while the mutant-wolf howled in anger. Dimly, I could could hear the mutant-wolf screaming as I was sucked further and further away. ¡°You will pay for killing our son!¡± ¡®Huh?¡¯ Shit! No!!! I started to fight again; I really didn¡¯t want to leave my parents now that I knew I had a family. Of course, it didn¡¯t matter. I only managed to exhaust the small amount of essence I had remaining to no avail. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For a long time, I just lay with my head on my paws, staring in the direction of where I died. The howls of my parents had long since died away, and my journey still continued. Months passed in the spirit plane as my soul was pulled inextricably towards the elemental sea. My slow journey continued on. The never-ending pull only giving me glimpses of empire after empire. If I was to say what my greatest regret of my time in the spirit plane was; it would be that I died before I had the opportunity to explore the empires. instead, I was forced to observe from afar as I was pulled through the main territories of every Spirit Emperor and Empress. Apparently, I had died not far from the main gates of the Earth Empire¡¯s capital and my parents were extremely upset at them, because by the time I flew over it, it was aflame and my mother was screaming at some massive giant about killing her son. I remember thinking, ¡®Ouch!¡¯ and ¡®Way to go Mom!¡¯ as I watched her bathe the whole city in flames while fighting the giant. All in all, it took a year in the spirit plane, judging by the position of the sun, before I finally reached my destination. I travelled through the great city in the skies, the dungeons of hell, the fiery chaos of the plains of the phoenix, the nomadic wind currents, before I finally came back to where I was born. At the top of a massive mountain, a purple cloud of energy crackling with azure lightning. Everywhere the lightning struck the ground, a massive plume of smoke would erupt and a terrible white fire would burn. To me, it was the most wondrous sight I¡¯d ever seen as I floated through the cloud. Inside the cloud was a massive fortress city on top of the highest peak of the mountain range. In my heart, I knew that was where I was born and I wanted nothing more than to stop, to stay there. The density of Lightning Essence was overwhelming, my previously drained soul drew deeply from that massive well, so deeply that currents of essence were actually created in the sky. The melancholy and depression that¡¯d been my constant companions for months lifted as I felt alive again. Of course, that didn¡¯t stop the pulling no matter what I tried; it was a futile effort as I always knew it would be and I soon gave it up. Instead, I played with my constant companion for millennia; Lightning Essence. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. It wasn¡¯t until after I had passed through the kingdoms of every major element that I felt a change in the suction. No longer was it just endlessly sucking me in a single direction, now I was going up at a steep angle leaving the spirit plane behind. Thankfully, at this point the suction sped up going nearly ten times as fast. The journey upwards towards the limits of the sky was much longer than the one that had previously taken me a year to complete. I think I would¡¯ve gone into hibernation and lost all of my memories again if it hadn¡¯t sped up. Of course, now I had no way to tell time again as I was once again without a sun, the suction pulling me upwards into nothingness it seemed like for centuries. This time, I was much smarter. I was able to think far more clearly in my soul form. Maybe because I had a brain in this form unlike when I was a blob? I spent my time on the journey trying to understand what had happened during my time in the spirit plane. I had starved. The miserable feeling of a distended gut; weak, wobbly legs; my stomach eating itself. A mantra was formed in my brain during that journey. ¡®Never Again! Never Again! Never Again!¡¯ For a long time, that was all I thought as the memories paraded through my soul. For most, it would¡¯ve ended like that. But, without any external stimuli other than the endless sucking, the only thing I could do was play with the little essence my soul had absorbed and replay those few memories over and over again. Finally, I realized that just saying never again to myself wasn¡¯t enough. I started an internal dialogue, my soul protecting itself from the insanity caused from sensory deprivation and loneliness by doing an inherently insane act¡­ I needed someone to talk to, someone to bounce ideas off of. So, I took the parts of my soul that had affinities with elements other than lightning and split them from my main body. The main body, the mutant-wolf stared at the other bodies, a miniature bird of flame, a wind-sprite, and slimes of light, darkness, and water. Of course, I was really all of these things at once, but it helped. It was a coping mechanism. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some time later .... ¡°Why did we starve?¡± Asked the miniature bird. ¡°Because there wasn¡¯t enough Lightning Essence to eat.¡± The mutant-wolf responded ¡°No, it was because we couldn¡¯t absorb enough wind!¡± responded the wind sprite as it happily played, bouncing on the various slimes. The slimes made gurgling sounds that I interpreted as, ¡°We wanted to eat too!¡± Then the bird responded, ¡°We need to absorb other elemental essences as easily as lightning if we are to survive in that world. Never Again!¡± To which we all responded, ¡°Never Again!¡± While the slimes gurgled in time with us. ¡°But why can we absorb lightning so easily?¡± Asked the mutant-wolf The answer may seem obvious to everyone now, even to me, but I wasn¡¯t tracking so well at the time. I rehashed the argument with myself over and over again, trying to find an answer. It wasn¡¯t until much later, as we were nearing the Elemental Sea that the bird of flame thought outloud. ¡°It has to be because of how long we spent on the Elemental Sea of Lightning. We spent millennia there, playing with lightning essence, learning about it, infusing it into our very soul. Perhaps, we should visit the other Sea¡¯s.¡± ¡°But how? I can feel it, we are nearing the Lightning Sea. How are we supposed to travel to another sea?¡± Asked the mutant-wolf. No one had an answer to that, but we were running out of time. The elemental sea was approaching and the various pieces of my soul that¡¯d split off had to rejoin me because they couldn¡¯t survive on the Lightning Sea by themselves. First, the slimes hopped over, oozing into my body. Followed by the sprite, who flew around my head dizzyingly a few times before laughing happily and disintegrating into essence in my mouth. Finally, the flaming bird flew slowly around my head and rested itself on my shoulders. It was looking in a certain direction, as if listening carefully. Just before our soul were completely reunited it spoke into my ear. ¡°Go that way. I can feel it; the Sea of Fire.¡± Book One - The Elemental Sea : Chapter Six - The Elemental Sea of Lightning ... Again Chapter Six - Elemental Sea of Lightning¡­ Again It¡¯s really hard to think as a soul, especially when you split your soul into multiple pieces. So, maybe that¡¯s why my little fire-bird spirit-soul self forgot to point¡­ Yea, lets go with that. Here I am, who know¡¯s how many years later and I am going in ¡°That¡± direction¡­ whatever that means. At least I can run along the surface of the sea now that my soul has a form. I was afraid I was going to have to resort to blowing myself up while pointing in a general direction; like I did when I was a slime. Unfortunately, I¡¯m slow, and I have no idea where to go. To get a good idea of how fricking hard it is to find another Elemental Sea unless you can see it, go to a wide river without a current. Then close your eyes, keep them closed, and try to swim to the other side. Unless you¡¯re some-kind of monster, you¡¯ll wind up going in circles. For most people, one leg is stronger than the other, and without the external stimuli of seeing your destination the circling ensues. Now, imagine that, but you have no fucking clue what direction you should be going, no way of making sure you are going in that direction, and the only help that you have is the sense that the Sea of Fire is in ¡°That¡± direction¡­. Good luck. So, to keep you from blowing your brains out (trust me, I would¡¯ve blown my own brains out too if I could¡¯ve found a way after a few years of walking in circles) I¡¯ll just skip over the annoying parts. I gave up trying to figure out what direction my flaming birdself pointed me in, and instead I just played with the elemental essence for a while. Now that I had a different form, and my cognitive abilities seemed to have been boosted higher now that I was no longer a slime, I was able to do more then just make pretty explosions. I started what I like to call ¡°Lightning Sculpting.¡± For some reason, the image of that mutant-wolf who turned out to be my dad kept intruding in on me whenever I felt down. I could feel a sort of connection to him, as if he knew how I was feeling. Every now and then, I¡¯d get an image of him looking at me while smiling that horrific, terrifying smile and seeming to urge me on. I thought back then that I¡¯d gone crazy, but hell, I had already split my soul just to fight boredom. Of course I was crazy. For some reason though, whenever I got that image of him it cheered me up a bit. So, I started trying to sculpt him, that way whenever I was feeling down, I could just look at the sculpture and cheer up. Before that moment, I always thought that I had a great amount of control of lightning, and I did compared to most people, but I realized that I was sadly lacking. To start out, I couldn¡¯t control enough essence to create that monstrous father of mine. Fifteen feet tall, 7 feet wide, enormous teeth, probably weighing over six tons... At most I could create mini-me sized version, and then as soon as I lost my concentration even slightly the essence would go out of my control and fade away as it rejoined the sea. That was what pissed me off the most, I always figured that given time I would be able to control more essence, but how do I keep it from leaving my control after I stop paying attention? That was when I discovered the Law of Attraction, purely by accident. During one of my experiments, I realized that a couple of essence particles were always trying to get closer to each other. No matter how hard I tried, no matter how many times I pulled them apart, they just kept forcing themselves back together. Suddenly, I was reminded of how the lightning on my father''s body was constantly flowing into his tails. Was this why? After much experimentation, I finally figured out why these two essences of lightning were attracted to each other. Actually, the principle is the same as when you cultivate and attract the element into your body or soul, and also the reason why affinities are so important to cultivating. The easiest way to explain this principle is that each essence has a numerical value of 1. This one essence had a value of 1.6 while the other one had a value of .4, so when the two of them were together they were each worth 1. Which is why the smaller essence was so attracted to the larger one. In fact, all essence is attracted to larger essences. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. There are a lot of things that go into determining your affinity to an element, but the most important for beginners is how much of a specific element that your body passively attracts. In other words, how much your body has naturally supercharged the element. Likewise, the best cultivation techniques all focus on condensing and concentrating the elements in your body, basically supercharging the elements to an extreme. Allowing you to attract more essence. Every element has it¡¯s own way of attracting essence, it is one the only law that is shared across every element. Just be careful, not all of them are the same, do not attempt to overcharge an element if you do not understand it. Of course, I didn¡¯t know all of this back then, but what I did learn was how to sculpt something out of lightning essence. I would put supercharged essences at both ends of the sculpture, and figured out a way to make it so that the regularly charged elements would flow endlessly, attracted to the tail, then turn back around on the inside of the sculpture and head to the nose. I now had my sculpture of my dad, I even managed to make it fifteen feet tall like he is because I didn¡¯t need to build it all at once, instead starting from the feet up then letting the natural attractive force of the elements keep it in place. A side effect of this discovery was that I now consciously condensed the lightning essence I had attracted to soul as much as possible, supercharging it. Within minutes of doing this, the essence in the elemental sea rushed into my body in an overwhelming wave, my body growing another foot in the span of a few minutes. Now I was three feet tall on all fours. The more important effect of this was that I had gained insight into a second law of lightning, and with my new insight I began to notice things in the elemental sea that I had never noticed before. I had always thought that he sea ebbed and flowed, similar to how a sea on a mortal world would. What I never noticed before was that the sea of essence was all attracted to one particular place. Interested, I decided to follow the flow of the sea. Years passed as I continuously played with the essence, I had realized that I had only just barely scratched the surface of the Laws of Lightning and I had much to learn. Over the years, the pull, the attraction the essence around me was feeling was increasing. The sea becoming violent, with massive tsunami sized waves hundreds of feet above the surface rushing forwards. ¡®How powerfully would you have to overcharge an essence in order to attract the entire sea to one place?¡¯ I thought to myself suddenly, for the first time since I died in the Spirit Plane I was scared. I thought about turning back, but now the attractive force was working on me too. I couldn¡¯t turn back, and as the massive wave crested at a height of 3,000 feet I realized that I could see other elemental seas. Directly in front of me was a gigantic wave of green, while to the left and right of me was a wave of yellow and red. Looking around, I saw 7 different colors all converging together into the same spot. Each of the elements directly across from its opposite, Electric and Earth, Water and Fire, Light and Dark, with Wind being the odd one out, just jammed in there randomly. The attraction reached it¡¯s peak, my soul being sucked forcibly downwards as the massive tsunamis of essence were sucked into a massive whirlpool miles wide. My soul uncontrollably followed the lightning essence spinning around and around; faster and faster. Book One - The Elemental Sea : Chapter Seven - Title Hidden Chapter Seven - Title Hidden There are times when I wish I could have puked as a soul. Every other form of life has some form of regurgitation, to get rid of that horrid nauseous feeling that comes when you spin around and around and around so fast you can¡¯t even tell what you are anymore¡­ Of course, I would¡¯ve been dead long ago if I had a mortal body. So I guess I shouldn¡¯t complain. The weirdest thing about going through that whirlpool was the other essences. I had spent so much time in the Lightning Sea that I assumed the other Sea¡¯s would feel similar. Well, it didn¡¯t. Because of the forbidden spell I used long, long ago my soul was comforted and nurtured by the Lightning Sea, but the that didn¡¯t help me with the other seas. While I was in the whirlpool, the essences of all the other seas were constantly traveling through my soul. I absorbed all I could of them, but I reached my limit very quickly. After that, I had no control over what they did to my soul, and they seemed to flow through me like a river. I think because of who my mother was, the fire essence greeted me warmly. I felt a kind of maternal love from them that I can only attribute to her. Water seemed willing to put up with me, at least temporarily. While light and dark were kind of just there, they didn¡¯t really make an impression in me at all. Wind floated along happily and cheerily, it felt as if they were inviting me to play in some children''s game. I like wind essence. Earth, though. We don¡¯t get along. Every time I came across Earth Essence they would slam into me, unwilling to let me pass. As I¡¯ve said before injuries to the soul are extremely harmful, if it wasn¡¯t for the constant rejuvenation of the Lightning Essence I was with I would¡¯ve died that day. *Pop* Or at least that¡¯s the sound I imagine I made as I was squeezed through the bottom of the whirlpool. There is a multi-colored gem at the bottom of the whirlpool that someone, probably the creator of the universe, placed there. It has the attractive properties of each element bestowed within it, with such a massive power that it pulls every elemental sea into it. When I reached the bottom of the whirlpool, I was forced through it because of all the elemental essence that I¡¯d absorbed into my soul. I don¡¯t really have a way to describe it; a feeling of powerful attraction, a moment of perfect bliss as I was made whole, then I popped out the other side feeling that I¡¯d lost something important. After the dizzyingly terrifying whirlpool, the other side was so peaceful, so calm. I was unable to understand what was going on at the time. Now, I know that the Elemental Sea flows purely between two points an nearly infinite distance apart from each other. The further you are from the next pearl, the calmer the sea. In the past, I had been on the top of the elemental sea, and now I was on the bottom of it. As I slowly recovered from the experience, I realized that after leaving the whirlpool the massive seas that were forced to compact in order to flow through the pearl were spreading out again. I could only see the seas next to me at this point, the rest had already disappeared beyond the horizon. This was my chance to actually move into the Sea of Fire! I ran as fast as I could, moving as diagonally to my left and back towards the pearl, where the sea¡¯s were closer together. Thankfully, as long as I had essence I never tired, so I was able to fight and move constantly. Unfortunately, the sea just kept getting further and further away as I couldn¡¯t run faster than the currents flowing towards the next pearl. The further we got from the pearl, the wider the seas got. The Lightning Sea was maybe 100 feet wide after it got through the pearl; by the time I realized what I needed to do it was a few thousand feet wide. Now, I have no way of telling how wide it had gotten. Only my unending effort, and the fact that the rate of growth slowed down after a while allowed me to reach the Sea of Fire at all. Even then, it was a close-run thing as I was forced to move as fast as I possibly could for years on end. Thankfully, I was always able to keep the Sea of Fire visible just at the edge of the horizon. Or all that effort would¡¯ve gone to waste. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At least a decade of effort finally paid off as I reached the edge of the Sea of Fire. By this point, the Lightning Sea had become a part of my very existence, it had purified my soul and healed me, but I had been asleep for most of the process. Perhaps, I should¡¯ve picked the Sea of Wind or Water first, but I went from the most violent sea to the second most violent sea, and this time I was conscious. I was ignorant, and didn''t stop to think about the properties of the element I was going to get in tune with. The Sea of Fire burnt me; burnt my very soul. The further I walked into the sea, the hotter it seemed to get. As I¡¯ve said before, the Elemental Sea¡¯s are an extremely dangerous place for the unprepared. If I hadn¡¯t of been born in that Spirit Plane as the Fire-woman¡¯s son my soul would¡¯ve been burnt until nothing of it remained. Instead, the fire purified my soul yet again, baptising it for the second time. If I were to point to two main themes of this journal, it¡¯d be agony and luck. The luck of the ignorant somehow managing to survive in one of the most hostile places in the universe, and the agony of the changes it wrote upon my soul. Anyone who truly wishes to seek absolute power should understand, and be prepared for, the absolute agony that seeking power will cause you. Somehow, through all of this I stayed conscious and continued to walk into the fiery essence. I don¡¯t think I could¡¯ve managed it, if it wasn¡¯t for the Fire Essence itself. I have mentioned before that essence seems to have a will of its own; a consciousness. I truly believe this to be true. Individually, each particle of essence just exists to be governed by the laws, but who creates the laws of each essence? Someone, somewhere is the supreme ruler of all fire essence and I suspect that he or she lives somewhere deep within the Elemental Sea of Fire. That¡¯s the only explanation I can give for how I began my time in that sea. Every step forward I would gain a small portion of insight into the element while the fire purifying my soul would intensify. I could hear a voice somewhere telling me when to stop, when I could move forward, rooting for me. The pain in my soul was beginning to become unbearable, yet I could still hear the voice telling me to go on. It was at this point that the visions began. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A young man read in the dark of night, his hard eyes had a maniacal glint to them. The title of this text read, ¡°The Pursuit Of Power.¡± in an ancient, indecipherable language. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The same man, decades later, climbed a mountain slowly, carefully. In front of him was a baby dragon, perhaps a year old. The gold light coming from inside of him crackled as he roared; feeding on the magical beast he had just hunted. While the dragon was roaring, the man suddenly uses a spell. His body disappeared, turning into a bolt of lightning so powerful that the world shook. *Booom* The dragon was too young, too inexperienced, and the man had struck with perfect timing. The blow might¡¯ve been fatal to an adult dragon, it was definitely fatal to this baby dragon. The man''s body was nearly destroyed, yet it seemed that the man had held himself back, stopping the spell just before it reached its maximum power. He was pale, and older than just a moment before. Moving slowly, unsteadily, the man took out a pure black dagger, and cut into the skull of the young dragon. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. The man talked to himself, a look of pure ecstasy on his face as he worked, ¡°I will fall into the deepest depths of hell, I will die thousands of deaths, and suffer worse torture than any before me. That shall be my fate should I fail! But, I will not fail! I refuse the bonds of fate! I refuse to be weak! I refuse to die!¡± With the final word still echoing across the mountainside the man plunged the dagger into his chest, cutting out his own heart. In its place, he put the core of the dead dragon. As his heart stopped beating, his chest magically healed, his face and body rejuvenated as he lost decades. Power flooded through him. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I took an unsteady step forward, not quite understanding what these images were. They were accompanied by a gut-wrenching pain as the fire purifying my soul intensified in further. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A city burns to the ground as a massive, azure dragon with a golden light coming from within fights a man in mid-air. Ice and fire fly everywhere from the dragon as she uses her most powerful magic to kill the man. Below, the people of the city watch as the hero of the country, their king, faced the horrid beast down. ¡°The King shall prevail!¡± came from a group of knights clad in armor, the peasants bowed down in worship, and the nobles looked on with jealously while muttering to themselves. ¡°If only I had power! I would be king not this jumped up peasant!¡± ¡°MY ONLY CHILD! WHY?!?!??!¡± came the cry of anguish from the dragon far above. The man turns into a purple bolt of lightning, laughing ¡°HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! FOR POWER OF COURSE!¡± In a flash of thunder, the man disappears leaving his country to burn. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Slowly, ever so slowly, my soul began to evolve yet again. My originally pure purple form changed as fiery wings sprouted from my back. I took yet another step forward into the flames as they grew more and more intense. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Images of mansions burnt, cities destroyed, and countries ravaged continuously flashed through my soul as it reached a crescendo. The man was old now, very old, and he walked slowly through a village while listening to a woman berate her child. ¡°If you continue to act like such a brat I¡¯m going to sell you to the Demon-Mage Freeney to use for his experimentations.¡± The old man stopped suddenly, looking puzzledly at the woman. Slowly, he walked over to her and asked, ¡°Why do you say the Demon-Mage Freeney would buy a child for experiments?¡± The woman just looked at the man like he was crazy, ¡°You have to be kidding me? Everyone knows that he¡¯s the most despicable man who has ever lived! He kills tortures and kills children to please the devil he sold his soul too! He no longer has a heart, he ripped it out himself and placed in it¡¯s place a demon''s! He rapes princess for sport, using spells to ensure they get pregnant and saying that they should be proud to carry on his lineage!¡± She went on and on endlessly. With each accusation, the man¡¯s face crumpled slightly, his shoulders sagged. He left the woman as she continued to hurl accusations of all the terrible things that the Demon-Mage had done at his back. ¡°What have I done? Did I lose myself so deeply in my pursuit of power that I forgot why I seek it? To think that mothers use my name to scare their children straight¡­¡± The old man''s shoulders remained humped as he slowly walked away from the village deep in thought. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My canines retracted, my legs shortened, my body shook. The fires grew even stronger, so strong that my soul started to crack. How much more of this will I be forced to endure? I took another step forwards as if in a trance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Several centuries had passed since the woman opened his eyes to what he had become. The old man looked like he was about to blow away on the wind as he sat half-way up a massive mountain, looking down into the tree¡¯s and beautiful scenery below with a look of peace in his eyes. From behind him, a crystal voice so beautiful and yet terrifyingly powerful spoke sadly, ¡°Why? Why after all these centuries of hiding and fighting do you just show up one day and not even defend yourself!¡± Turning, the man found himself looking at a behemoth of might. Four golden claws attached to short, (for someone her size), stubby legs. The Azure body with a golden flame crackling inside of it. Simultaneously colder than ice and hotter than fire; the most beautiful being in existence. ¡°Nice to see you too, Empress.¡± said the man cordially. She just snorts, ¡°Answer me, I¡¯d like to know before I kill you.¡± ¡°I came to say goodbye. After all these years of fighting, I finally realized that you are my only peer on this world, my only friend. Perhaps, we will meet again in another life.¡± The massive dragon seemed aghast, her voice thundering across the valley as she howled, ¡°You call me your friend after you killed my only child?!?!?!¡± Smiling at her sadly, the man transformed into a bolt of lightning. Using a forbidden magic, one that burned away his very life force, destroying his body completely, and melding the powerful soul of the man with the element of lightning. She gasped, unable to believe what he had done, creating the strongest barriers she could of both fire and ice while retreating quickly towards her den. It was too late, he had become one with lightning, gaining a brief moment of control at the cost of his very existence, his soul. Lightning capable of killing a god tore through her barriers, slamming into the dragon. But, it didn¡¯t kill her. No, it caressed her, as if caressing a lover. A voice carried by the wind came to her as the power of the lightning slowly faded away. ¡°Goodbye, Empress of the Dragons, Ruler of the World. Goodbye, Melinda, my only friend. After all these years, I finally won one of our fights.¡± -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was no longer a wolf, but rather a fiery-bird with purple lightning crackling between its wings and in it''s tail. The fire had finished purifying my soul. I shook in mid-air, unable to control myself as sobs wracked my soul. Sorrow. Unending, unremitting remorse for what I had done. ¡°Why? Why? Why am I still alive?¡± Chapter Seven - Memories Book One - The Elemental Sea : Chapter Eight - The Judge Chapter Eight - The Judge Nicholas Freeney lived to be 993 years old. With my memories returned, I spent at least that long going over what had happened. At first, I was so focused on the terrible wrongs that I had done that I was totally unwilling to forgive myself. Why? Why didn¡¯t I fall into the depths of hell and suffer tortures greater than anyone could possibly endure for what I had done. The oath I took when I absorbed that dragon core was an oath of power. The gods, the essences, the creator himself heard that oath declaring my fight against fate. The punishment for such as that is the destruction of your soul in the cruelest way imaginable. I think it was the final parts of my life that allowed me to forgive myself. The smiling, laughing children as I told tall tales in villages around the world. The good I managed to do using my magic, the research I carried out. Finally, the most important part was that I actually managed to beat Melinda! I remember hundreds of battles with her, but I only won that final one! Chuckling to myself, I finally managed to break myself free from the introspection the visions caused within me. Looking around for the first time in centuries, I was stunned. The elemental sea had sped up already, I was already past the halfway point to the pearl! So much time wasted on feeling bad about past actions that took place so long ago that even god¡¯s have probably forgotten about them! I went to face-palm and then realized, ¡°O shit I have wings now!¡± I hadn¡¯t even taken the time to check out my new soul/spirit form! What the hell was I thinking losing myself like that! I quickly checked out my new form, it was actually quite nice, but I missed being a wolf, that¡¯d just felt¡­. right somehow. Before I even realized what I was doing, my form started to shift and I was suddenly standing on all four¡¯s on top of the Sea of Fire. ¡°Cool! I can switch between forms now!¡± Then I realized that I could sprout wings of fire out of my back whenever I wished it! I couldn¡¯t help but squeal and jump up and down in joy¡­ even with my memories of being alive for thousands of years and the pride of an archmage I still was the same little mutant-wolf who chased his tale and yelped in joy in the spirit plane! The difference was, now I regained control of myself quickly, and settled down to do business. Since I had my memories of being the most powerful archmage in the history of the planet Iounia, I knew how to train systematically now. Plus, the Elemental Sea¡¯s are the best training locations in existence for understanding the law, so there was no way I was going to let that opportunity go! Time passed swiftly, and another 500 years had passed. During my life as Nicholas Freeney I had specialized in using lightning magic, but that didn¡¯t mean that was unaware of the basic principles of fire magic. Using my knowledge of these principles as my basis, I managed to master many of the laws of fire during this 500 year period. I was extremely excited about my training results because I felt that I had become just as powerful using fire as lightning. Hehe, I couldn¡¯t wait to fry someone with lightning that then exploded into a massive wave of fire. But, in order to do that I first had to figure out how the hell to get off of the Elemental Seas! Just as I was trying to figure out what to do, the waves began to rise and the sea move swifter. As the tsunami¡¯s began to form, I noticed a massive courthouse hanging in mid-air above the whirlpool formed by the pearl. Trillions upon trillions of shuffling, sleeping souls slowly moved towards the courthouse waiting to be judged. As I watched some of the souls were pushed out of the back of the courthouse and into the elemental seas, while others walked towards a pair of glowing doors that whisked them off to be reincarnated. Quickly, I transformed into my bird form since I found it easier to fly this way, and flew upwards to the courthouse in the sky. As I got closer and closer, I noticed that the vast majority of souls were just blobs like I had been originally. The few whose souls had form seemed to be in a different line, and as I flew closer I saw that there was a second, much smaller courthouse with a sign hanging on it¡¯s front. I couldn¡¯t read it, but somehow just looking at the sign made a deep, powerful voice ring out in my head. ¡°Special Case Courtroom, if you are hearing this message then get in line and prepare to be tried by a head judge.¡± ¡®Well shit¡¯ I thought to myself. Despite feeling a bit of dread at being judged by the head judge himself, I was looking forward to this. ¡®Worst case, I¡¯ll just have my soul destroyed. Other then that, anything is acceptable as long as I can escape the elemental seas!¡¯ It wasn¡¯t like I had a choice anyway, after hearing the voice a force seemed to lock onto me with an unexplicable power, forcing me to fly to my place in line. Flying in place was too annoying, so I shifted back into my wolf form and waited. Thankfully, the line seemed to move at a fast pace, which surprised me as there were millions of souls in this line. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. It wasn¡¯t until I got inside the courthouse that I realized there are many head judges. Another sign in an indecipherable language was hung above the entrance, and the same voice once again rang out in my head. ¡°You will see the main judge, climb to the top floor and await his summons.¡± Then, I started moving like a puppet again, quickly climbing the stairs. Aparently, this sign picked what judge you see. The vast majority of souls go to a room on the first floor it appears, as I kept climbing I saw fewer and fewer souls until finally I reached the top floor all by myself. Standing outside the single door, I waited impatiently to be summoned. Inside the door I could hear the faint sound of movement, and the same voice that rang out in my head previously was heard on the other side of the door talking to someone. ¡°You know it¡¯s been nearly twenty-thousand years since I last heard a case. I¡¯m retired dammit, that''s why I hired all of you!¡± His angry voice was filled with such power that the entire court house shook. ¡®Fuck, not only is he powerful but he¡¯s pissed and it¡¯s my fault that he¡¯s pissed¡­. I can just see where this is going.¡¯ Another voice spoke quickly, hastening to explain, ¡°I know that Lord Yama, but this case is very special! We¡¯ve never had a similar case before, and you told us that any case that will set a precedent must be heard by you.¡± ¡°Fine!¡± came the original voice. ¡°Give me the book, and show him in! It¡¯s been so long since an original case came through here it better be interesting! If it¡¯s not you¡¯ll pay!¡± The door then opened, and I finally regained freedom of movement as the assistant waved me through it, closing the door behind him. I heard him sprinting away as fast as he could. ¡°Harumph.¡± The irritated sound came from behind the back of the humongous swivel chair as the almighty being swivelled it back and forth slowly while talking to himself. ¡°Lets see, lets see¡­. Slayed a dragon, used its core as your heart, destroyed multiple kingdoms, became known as the Demon-Mage Freeney¡­ Hmmm¡­ Offered soul to the Overlord of Lightning at the end of your life and he allowed you to continue existing because you intrigued him, that¡¯s a new one¡­. Hmmm¡­. underwent the overlord¡¯s baptism and survived, that¡¯s rare, that bastard always pushes it too far! ¡­ regained consciousness after 21 millennia of floating along the Lightning Sea¡­ That¡¯s quite the long recovery period¡­ HAHAHAHA, You blew yourself up and wound up being incarnated in a dead high-class spirit! HAHAHAHAHA¡­. So, you were the son of the Fire Empress and Lightning Emperor for a couple of months, hmm¡­ that makes things difficult¡­ Underwent the Fire Overlord¡¯s Baptism! Thats another first, you actually survived undergoing two baptisms! No wonder I have to judge you¡­ let¡¯s see, says here that you took another 3 millennia to undergo the baptism and then another 500 years after that to reach my palace, my, my you¡¯ve had a long journey.¡± Finally, the humongous chair turned around to face me, and I was surprised to see a small dwarf wearing a monocle and british style suit complete with tophat turn around to face me with a huge grin on his face. I have to admit that when I first met him, I couldn¡¯t believe what I was seeing. He even had books piled up on the seat of the chair so that he could reach his desk properly¡­. Wait, how was he swivelling the chair back and forth before? His feet can¡¯t even reach the ground! Of course, he didn¡¯t wait for me to regain my senses, he hopped off his chair and walked around me three times while talking to himself. ¡°Yes, quite the interesting soul. Originally damned to the deepest depths of hell by his own oath, and yet he crawled his way out of worse torture than anything I¡¯ve ever heard of from hell¡­ His sins were long since cleansed from the Lightning Overlord¡¯s baptism and after surviving the Fire Overlord¡¯s baptism his soul even ascended. Sigh, a dual element god blessed by the two craziest Overlords possessing the spirit-form of both a Phoenix and a Raiju. How in the hell am I supposed to reincarnate you?¡± I assumed that was a rhetorical question, because I had no idea what an overlord¡¯s baptism is in the first place! Not to mention... ¡°I¡¯m a god? I ascended?¡± He just sighed, waving his hand and saying, ¡°Follow me.¡± We walked through the door at the back of his room which turned out to be a magic portal to a massive mansion. ¡°This is my home, make yourself comfortable but you¡¯re not allowed to leave! I¡¯ll be back in a bit, I need to consult with your overlords.¡± Then, he turned right back around and walked through the door back to his office while muttering something about being retired, and how he was too old for this shit. Book One: The Elemental Sea - Chapter Nine: The Seeds of Life Chapter Nine - The Seeds of Life Boredom! I¡¯d been stuck in this mansion for nearly 50 years all by myself, unable to leave! At first, the mansion fascinated me. It was even larger than the courthouses, with innumerable rooms, and means of entertainment. At first I wondered, "What the hell does Yama need with a house even bigger than a Courthouse that served trillions of souls a day?" Then I realized it, Yama is a hoarder. You don¡¯t realize it until you really delve deeply into the dungeons, vaults, and trophy rooms, but he hasn''t thrown away a damned thing in his life. The first thing I did was check out his vault; in my past life I had stolen plenty of treasures and cultivation techniques from people, and there was no way I was going to let this opportunity pass. Of course, I forgot to take into account that stealing from Yama is not a good idea; especially when he has his eyes on you. I opened the door to his vault and stared in wonder at the unending treasures. Innumerable divine equipments hanging on the walls, with row after row of bookshelves covered in cultivation techniques, martial arts, and spells. Of course, the moment I went to touch a book his voice rang out in my head yet again, ¡°HAHAHAHA, I forgot to tell you that if anyone other than me touches a book in here his soul will be sucked into a gem until I get around to punishing them and reincarnating them as slugs¡­ HAHAHAHAHA¡± ¡®Fucking Dwarf!¡¯ was all I could think as I scampered out of the room before my greed took the better of me. Instead, I decided to explore the other rooms of the mansion The trophy room truly fascinated me. It was filled with the heads of giants, dragons, and gems that seemed to give off an otherworldly glow. As I got close to each gem, Yama¡¯s voice would ring out again reading the plaque in that otherworldly, indecipherable text. ¡°This is the soul of the betrayer; a fallen god who nearly destroyed the southern essence pearl. For his punishment, he was given to that bitch downstairs to play with for 50 million years, and I¡¯ve had him for a couple more million. I might reincarnate him sometime in the future¡­ maybe...¡± And, so it went, a never ending litany of damned and punished souls. Eventually, I grew bored of hearing tales of how some idiot gained power and then abused it. Later on though, I was thankful for the experience. Every time I began to feel truly powerful, and it started getting to my head, that litany of fallen god¡¯s and goddess¡¯ as well as their punishments would run my head as if it was engraved into my soul. Everyone gets judged eventually. Some unsolicited advice... Try not to break the Laws of Heaven. It was after the trophy room that I neared the kitchens. In keeping with the humongous mansion, they were overwhelming. I think you could¡¯ve served millions of Gods and Goddesses out of that place with ease. The best part of all was the pantry. As a soul I didn¡¯t really need food to maintain myself; just essence to maintain my form, but I still had the base desire to eat. During my exploration of the pantries I found one that was larger than all the others put together. I couldn¡¯t understand it at first, but it was stuffed with apples. ''Why would you need so many apples?'' Intrigued, I pawed one over to me and took a bite. A kaleidoscope of colors erupted from my mouth as my tastebuds were overwhelmed by the explosion of flavors. Just like when I was in the spirit plane, the apple disintegrated in my mouth turning into every kind of essence as it flowed through me. I had to be careful eating them, the earth essence had to be spit back up in the form of the apple¡¯s core since it still refused to join with me. But, other than that it was the most delicious thing that I''ve ever eaten to this day. Just that one apple contained more essence than I had absorbed during my entire stay on the Elemental Sea. I should¡¯ve stopped after having one, I mean it''s obvious that something containing that much essence can''t be normal. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Since then, fifty years had passed and I had long since explored every nook and cranny of the mansion. Bored! That''s the only way to describe my feelings, as for the last 20 years I¡¯d done nothing but laze around and eat apples. That nearly endless supply? I just finished the last of them. Every single day I would eat until I was so full that I would explode if I ate a single bit more. My limit started at one a day, but slowly over the last 50 years of my limit expanded. If I had a body, I¡¯d long since of become a big, white and purple furball from all the apples I''d eaten. Thankfully, I was just in my soul form so all I had to do was learn how to concentrate the energy better and now I was back to looking like a sleek, noble muntant-fire-wolf. That was the day. The day that Yama finally came back, and the day that I learned of his wrath. From the front of the house, I heard him laughing, ¡°HAHAHHA¡± to himself about something. At this point, I was so bored that I actually sprinted through the house to the front door as fast as possible, meeting him there. ¡°So, the place didn¡¯t burn down yet! I was half expecting it to be gone.¡± I was feeling great, his arrival meant that I could finally get out of here! ¡°I didn¡¯t burn it down, but I did eat all the apples.¡± I said while grinning. ¡°Apples? What apples? Wait, you don''t mean¡­¡± He rushed into the mansion and flew to the now empty pantry. ¡°NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO¡± He screamed with such force that his precious mansion broke apart around him, torn into pieces. ¡°You...You...You! Do you know how much these were worth?!?!?!¡± HE screamed at me while holding he final remains of the apples, the cores of earth essence. I just stared at him dumbfounded, ¡°I thought they were just really tasty apples? ¡°Apples? Those were seeds from the tree of life! One of those has enough essence in it to create a fucking world! What kind of monster are you?!?!?!¡± I was going to respond with something witty like, ¡°You¡¯re the real monster.¡± Or, ¡°If they were really important why didn¡¯t you put a trap on them like you did the cultivation manuals?¡± Instead, I went to open my mouth¡­ and burped. I¡¯d swallowed the earth essence of that last seed by accident and it chose that moment to work it''s way out. I think the image of me standing there, coughing the stem and core of a seed of life was just too much for him. Yama stood there, fuming. Divine power was literally leaking out of his ears while his anger built, and build, and built¡­ ¡°Enough!¡± He screamed out then punched me so hard that my soul flew through the remainder of the mansion, through the portal to his office, out of the courthouse, and through the gates of reincarnation. Book One: The Elemental Sea - Chapter 9.5 - The Tale of Nicholas Freeny; Demon-Slug Chapter 9.5 - The Tale Nicholas Freeney; Demon-Slug Earlier in this journal I spoke of three lives that I remember, technically that¡¯s wrong. I lived four lives... well maybe a few more then four. I just really tried to forget about this one and maybe a couple others¡­ Yama was really pissed off at me. Thankfully, the lives were blessedly short, and even he can¡¯t afford to offend two Elemental Overlords. I only managed to live a week or two usually, maybe three if I got lucky. Apparently, once your soul reaches a certain level of power you require a proper vessel to inhabit. This was the true reason that Yama had left me alone for so long; he had to figure out how to create a situation where a mortal vessel that could house ascended soul that had been baptized by two different essences was born. The solution they came up with was fucking crazy¡­but, that¡¯s for another time. During this period of time, my soul wouldn¡¯t even make it back to the courthouse before it was pushed into another body; it was a total abuse of power! Anyway, this is just a brief summary of what Yama can do to you if you really piss him off. The first life I was born as a slave¡­ a worker ant. Before this, I had no idea that worker ants even have souls; but they do apparently. My mom, the queen, was a total bitch apparently, thankfully she was already dead by the time I was born. My time as an ant was spent mostly following others around, picking up leaves, and generally being a good little worker ant. That is, until a new Queen and her nest took over our homes. With this specific species of ant, the Queen mates with workers and then feeds on them using their bodies as fuel for the pregnancy¡­ When the new Queen came everyone partied happily; but slowly all my worker buddies from before started disappearing. They¡¯d be called into see the Queen and leave with a huge smile on their face talking about the honor of meeting her personally, never to return. Now, I was a bit smarter than all the other ants around me, and while it¡¯s hard to think when you have an ant-sized brain, my soul was still that of a gods¡­ So, when I got called into see her and we started to get it on, I was like Hell Yea! But, then she tried to eat me just as I was about to climax¡­ Now, for some reason that really pissed me off and so I blocked her mandibles and finished off, roaring out¡­ And engulfing the entire ant-hill in flame. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Now that I was dead, back in my soul form, I could think straight again¡­ and I was pretty happy with myself. ¡°Even as an Ant I¡¯m a total BAMF!¡± Then, the usual sucking feeling came back except instead of dragging me to the elemental sea I got dragged into the body of a falcon. That one was a fast life; I was pecking my way through my egg, getting really annoyed at the hard thing. Too annoyed. I subconsciously summoned a bolt of lightning frying Mama Falcon and all of my siblings along with me¡­ Many, many lifetimes had passed in a short period of time. When you average two-three weeks per life you can go through them very, very quickly. It was at this point that I finally was given a body that managed to support me for a whole month! I was born as the offspring of a demonic-slug and the Slug Overlord¡­. I never really got to know my parents; a side effect of being born a demon is that you absorb energy and essence from your mother during pregnancy. Despite being quite powerful (for a slug), my mom couldn¡¯t survive the drain I put on her. She died when I was born, and my Dad was killed by some team of famous adventures not long later. I remember watching them carry his carcass away and crying in my soul¡­ I wanted to eat him! Of course, The Demon-Slug Nicholas Freeney wouldn¡¯t let some pesky humans get in his way! I spent the next 5 months terrorizing the humans¡­ Since this body could actually handle absorbing some essence I would set fire to villages, bombard towns in lightning, and get dragons to destroy kingdoms! Now, I know all of you want to know how I managed to get dragons to destroy kingdoms for me¡­ It¡¯s actually really easy if you¡¯re powerful enough. Just shoot a bolt of lightning up its nose and run like hell in the general direction of the kingdom in question. Despite all the fun I had terrorizing that world; my time was cut short yet again by my OP soul. One day as I was terrorizing the adventurer¡¯s guild headquarters the lightning essence started flowing through my body out of control¡­ I had absorbed too much by accident again¡­ DAMMIT!!! *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM* Book One: The Elemental Sea - Chapter Ten: The Council A/N: Originally, the plan was for this chapter to completely explain the reincarnation process, and set us on our journey! Then, I realized that I wasn''t even halfway through what I wanted to do and I had already written as much as a normal chapter so I decided to split it up. I know all of you are excited to find out what''s going to happen, it''s coming... next chapter. Promise! Chapter Ten - The Council After the Demon-Slug episode, I was finally allowed to escape from the clutches of the cycle of reincarnation. And so, here I am back at a familiar courthouse trying desperately to avoid looking at the signs. I just knew that the moment I did, a certain dwarf¡¯s voice would echo in my head telling me to come to the top of the special courthouse. That was when I heard it, a certain jolly dwarf¡¯s booming laughter came echoing through the courtyard, ¡°HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA¡±. ¡°Ahhh, I haven¡¯t felt that good in so long! I can¡¯t remember the last time I stuck someone in a reincarnation loop like that! AHAHAHAHAHAH¡± ¡®Well at least he¡¯s happy.¡¯ I thought to myself, trying to ignore the sound of his voice getting closer and closer to me. ¡®Think blob, I am a blob of elemental goo waiting to be reincarnated¡­.¡¯ *Slap* A hand full of divine power slammed down on my shoulder as I still refused to look behind me, ¡°Ahh come on Nick, stop pouting. I know you had fun too! How could you not? Nicholas Freeney; The Demon-Slug Overlord of Doom! AHAHAHAHAHAHA¡± At this point, I couldn¡¯t help but smile a bit as his laughter kept echoing through the courtyard, the damned dwarf was infectious. Though, I felt kind of bad about using the dragons again. It hit a bit too close to home. I guess that a slug¡¯s ability to reason was just enough to use my old memories of using Melinda to destroy kingdoms, but not enough to feel guilty about it. The rest of it though, it had felt great to do something different. I had lived life for so long, always doing the same things, never interacting with others. I have to admit, of all the forms of punishment I could think of, making me reincarnate as a random animal/demon for a few years wasn¡¯t bad at all. ¡°Alright¡± I said, turning to face him, ¡°So, what¡¯s the plan now?¡± ¡°Well, I would¡¯ve left you there to reincarnate for a little while longer, but we finally figured out a way for you to be reborn! The only problem is that your role in the process has to be approved by the council, so we need to make an appearance.¡± Before I could even ask him what the council is, he had whisked me away. Opening another one of his damned portals, we appeared in a well-lit circular room with twelve seats. Eleven of them arrayed in a semi-circle, with a twelfth, much larger seat, looming above behind them. There were 10 people, all emanating that same terrifying aura that I still felt from Yama, and he left my side walking to the chair to the furthest on the right. Leaving me there to stand alone, with absolutely no clue what was going on! ¡°So, you¡¯re finally done playing with my son Yama?¡± Asked the one in the middle, as thunder clashed outside and lightning seemed to leap from his eyes. ¡°Our son you mean!¡± Interjected the one to his left, she glared a Yama just as fiercely as the man. A golden, white fire flashing in the depths of her eyes. ¡°I have no clue what you¡¯re talking about.¡± Said Yama, not nearly as boisterous as usual. ¡°Now, Now" said the person to the far left, "We all agreed to let him punish Nick a bit. He did hundreds of seeds of life after all.¡± ¡°Harumph¡± Said the woman, crossing her hands over her chest, not agreeing to the argument. His boisterousness back, Yama started laughing again, no longer trying to feign ignorance, ¡°AHAHAHAHAHA, It¡¯s not like he didn¡¯t enjoy his vacation. He needed to blow off some steam after all that time floating around by himself.¡± ¡°Now, now¡± came another voice, the twelfth chair suddenly filled by a young-man. The eleven others all gasped, turning to face the man. ¡°Father!¡± They all cried out in unison. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Why have you come?¡± Asked the voice of the third from the right, a giant with one eye whose voice seemed to cause the earth to rumble. ¡°What? You didn¡¯t miss me?¡± ¡°No, No... I mean Yes, we did!¡± replied the man quickly, ¡°We just haven¡¯t seen you in nearly a million years.¡± ¡°Has it been that long? Time flies when you¡¯re playing around with the help¡­¡± ¡°You mean you spent the last million years ignoring us to sleep with the maids?!?!?!¡± Asked the woman who seemed to think she was my mother. ¡°Well, whats a god to do when he¡¯s bored?¡± *Silence* ¡­.. The chirping of grasshoppers in the distance ¡­.. ¡°Umm, what am I doing here?¡± I asked. As if I had broken a spell, all eleven of these insanely powerful deities started berating their father. ¡°Is that anyway to act?¡± Grumbled the the hulking giant ¡°Way to go Dad!¡± Shouted out Yama¡­ of course he probably spent the last few thousand years doing the same. Lightning flashed and thunder crashed as the one in the middle shouted, ¡°What will the other realms think? The council of creators will strip your power!¡± *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM* ¡°Silence!¡± Shouted the twelfth man, the entire realm shook at the power of his voice. My soul nearly dispersing just from the force. As the echoing rumbles quieted down, and my soul slowly recovered, ¡°The council wouldn¡¯t dare! They exist at my sufferance, now stop bickering and introduce yourselves you¡¯re completely forgetting why we gathered today!¡± Grumbling to themselves, they all turned to look at me again. I was starting to feel kind of nervous; wondering what I did so horribly wrong that caused someone like this to show up! ¡°Knowing Yama, you know nothing right?¡± Asked the Loli who was sitting on the far left. She seemed to be wearing a school-girls outfit and was perhaps a 4 feet tall with long, dark blue hair. I nodded, wondering what a god was doing dressed up like that, ¡°All I know is this is something called the council, and you¡¯ve figured out a way for me to be reborn?¡± A snorting sound resounded around the room as everyone glanced at Yama¡­ With a wry smile on her face, the loli chuckled, ¡°Well, yes. He¡¯s always been too busy playing around with his toys to bother to explain anything.¡± The wry smile on her face widened as she continued. ¡°My name is Fate¡­ You know, the one you defied all those years ago. I always get excited when a new mortal defy¡¯s me, without it life would be so boring!¡± *Cough* We all turned to the twelfth man, who was hiding a smile and laughing while trying to convince us he was really coughing. ¡°Anyway,¡± she went on, pouting cutely and pointing to the person sitting next to her, ¡°This is my sister Shiva, Destroyer of Worlds and Ruler of Hell.¡± She pointed to the woman sitting comfortably next to her wearing a dark blue business suit and looking down at me interestedly. For some reason, I got an image of her in leather with a whip in one hand and Yama squirming under her feet. ¡®No wonder he calls her the bitch downstairs¡¯ I thought to myself as the scene continued to roll on¡­ ¡°Stop that Shiva!¡± Squealed the loli, smacking her sister¡¯s head. Shaking my head to clear it, I realized that I had been put under a trance and the dominatrix was whispering to herself. Her lip movements seemed eerily close to ¡°Bitch Downstairs¡±, and judging from her glance at Yama I think he¡¯s in for some fun later. ¡°Going in order, we have Brother Camazotz, Overlord of Darkness, Brother Leviathan, Overlord of Water, Sister Solaris; the Divine Phoenix and Overlord of Fire, Brother Raiju, Overlord of Lightning, Brother Gabriel, Divine Angel and Overlord of Light, Sister Tempest, Overlord of Wind, Brother Cyclops, Overlord of Earth, Brother Michael, Divine Angel and Ruler of Heaven, and Yama, the judge.¡± ¡°Finally,¡± She waved at the man in the tallest chair, ¡°there¡¯s father, the Creator, Ruler of All, Overlord of Time.¡± Book One: The Elemental Sea - Epilogue: Choiceless Epilogue - Choiceless ¡°Wh...What?!? The Creator!¡± If I had a body, my heart would¡¯ve stopped in that instant, piss travelling down my legs. From the books I¡¯d read about him, you really don¡¯t want to meet this guy. Even when he helps you out, you usually wind up going through hell. ¡°Kakakakaka, Too bad! I think if he had a body he¡¯d have fainted already, the sight of a young Raiju fainting would¡¯ve done me good.¡± The creator, ¡°Alright, tell him the plan Yama I¡¯m running out of time.¡± I noticed a suspicious smile on Shiva¡¯s face as Yama suddenly woke up, seeming to recover from a trance similar to one I had recently been in. Shaking himself, I couldn¡¯t help but notice his flushed cheeks and surprise at seeing all of us looking at him. ¡°Ri...Right¡± He said, regaining his control. So, you aren¡¯t the only newborn god who is having trouble figuring out what to do with him/herself. Unfortunately, our galaxy is already pretty well managed. Honestly, we have too many gods. This situation seems to occur fairly frequently, after all with trillions upon trillions of souls all cultivating trying to break from from the bonds of mortal life, they will eventually evolve. The problem is, we have a limited number of godly positions available, and without a position it¡¯s extremely hard to gather divine power. Worse, it¡¯s boring! The only thing more dangerous than a bored god is a hoard of them! As the overpopulation issue keeps increasing, there will eventually be a war. Half the galaxy will probably be destroyed, and father will be forced to step in to stop the war and rebuild the galaxy¡­ again.¡± ¡°We are frankly getting tired of this shit, it keeps happening over and over again. We¡¯ve been at a loss as to how to deal with it for a long time. Then, you came along. A god without a body, yet able to move freely in his soul form. You are unique, even father has never seen someone like you before. Able to survive not one, but two baptism¡¯s in your soul form. Not to mention eating so many Seeds of Life without exploding. You offered us a special challenge, because it was obvious that you needed to be reincarnated. It¡¯s impossible to gather divine power in your current state, and all you can really do is float around the elemental sea¡¯s unless we find you a body. Now, this wouldn¡¯t be the first time that a god has been reincarnated, that¡¯s easy. It¡¯s just that you need a vessel that has insanely high affinities to both Lightning and Fire; otherwise your soul will eventually absorb too much essence, too quickly and blow yourself up¡­. as you¡¯ve done a few times now that I think about it. There just isn¡¯t a mortal body out there that has those affinities naturally!¡± ¡°I was talking it over with the council for a while, and we suddenly had a spark of genius¡­ what if we gathered all of the powerful souls, the reincarnated gods and people on the verge of godhood and put them all on one massive planet! This way, after a while someone who has undergone the Fire Baptism will mate with someone who has undergone the Lightning Baptism! That should create a body that we can shoehorn you into somehow.¡± This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°While you were busy¡± *Ahem* ¡°playing around on that mortal world, I let the word out. Well, quite a few god¡¯s have already approached me about reincarnating there, and I¡¯ve begun collecting powerful souls who show up at the courthouse to flesh out the population as well offering various immortal beasts the chance to move there when it¡¯s completed.¡± ¡°Of course, we had to get father¡¯s permission to build this place, only he has the authority to build a new universe. Especially since this universe is going to have to be insanely close to the Elemental Sea¡¯s in order to work. The Essence requirements for that many powerful souls cultivating in one place are astounding.¡± ¡°It was at that point that we realized that we couldn¡¯t build anymore universes. There are a limited number of sun¡¯s allowed in each galaxy, and we¡¯re at capacity. Which is understandable given the population issues we have. If we could¡¯ve built more universes we wouldn¡¯t have this problem. So, we decided that instead of building a new universe from scratch we¡¯d move one. You wouldn¡¯t know about it, but your old library has made quite the impact on society there. The average cultivation level has skyrocketed, and new immortals are cropping up all over the place. We thought that it¡¯d be poetic justice for us to use the world where you first became a legend.¡± ¡°So, what do you need me for?¡± I asked, ¡°It seems like you¡¯ve already decided to build the place and how you¡¯re going to do it.¡± ¡°Simple, I¡¯m going to use all of the essence you got from those Seeds of Life to move your old universe over and rebuild it a bit.¡± Said the Creator. ¡°Wait, won¡¯t that kill me?¡± I asked, freaking out. I really don¡¯t like where this is going! I tried to back up but found I couldn¡¯t move. ¡°Nah, it¡¯ll just hurt worse than anything you¡¯ve ever experienced before, and knock you out for a few thousand years.¡± ¡°WAIT!!! Don¡¯t I get to say no?¡± ¡°Why would I ask for your opinion? You¡¯re but a babe, not even a hundred thousand years old yet. Trust Grandpa, it¡¯s for your own good! Now, this will hurt a bit, but don¡¯t worry it¡¯ll be over quickly. ¡± ¡°AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!¡± I felt as though my entire being had been ripped to shreds, my soul descending into hibernation yet again. The last thing I saw was the image of Solaris, Overlord of Fire transforming into an enormous Phoenix and rushing to me. While Raiju transformed and started yelling at the creator.... Huh? Wait, why does he look exactly like that damned Mutant-Wolf! ¡°Why did you have to do that too my son, father!? You could¡¯ve at least explained to him why it was necessary!¡± My vision faded to black, a familiar warmth spreading through my soul, it reminded me of my mom from the Spirit Plane. The voices fading away into nothingness, the sound of the creator¡¯s laughter rocking me to sleep¡­ ¡°KAKAKAKAKAKAKAKAKA¡± Interlude - The Creation of Idonius Pt. 1 Interlude - The Creation of Idonius part one Excerpt taken from Pope Julius XV¡¯s private Journal. Juntos 16th, 25,789 S.C. It was the day before the grand-ceremony of opening. Every year for the last 25,789 years, since that calamitous day so long ago, the church had opened the library of the most powerful human to ever live. He was known as a demon, a betrayer, and a destroyer; but despite all of that the Goddess still respected him. At first, I refused to understand why. All of the texts point to the mutual enmity, the hatred between him and the Goddess. It wasn¡¯t until my elevation to Papal Seat that I understood. I can still remember that day, the visit from the Goddess; her beauty beyond measure, power beyond fathoming. It is no wonder that to this day she remains the one true god, no one can possibly rival her. It was on that day that I asked her, ¡°Why do you allow the library of your hated enemy to exist? To pollute the world with his heretical ideas, and loathsome actions?¡± She smiled so beautifully when I asked that question, that I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I nearly missed her response, yet her words were drilled into my very soul; changing my very outlook on life. ¡°My son, there is the possibility for redemption in all of us. At the end of his life, I finally understood him. I finally forgave him for killing my son. He is the only human to have ever rivaled my power. Perhaps, it is time that I amend that little journal of his. To show the glory of his final moments, the truth behind the legends and myth. I allow his library to exist because I miss him; before he died he once said that I was his only friend, his only peer. At the time I thought him mad, but now I truly do understand it, the loneliness of power. It is my greatest wish that one day, someone will use the library he left behind to reach the pinnacle of power, to end my loneliness.¡± Today, the Goddess came down to deliver to me a message. This was only the 2nd time I¡¯d seen her humanoid form; she appeared before me out of thin air. Then, with but a wave of her hand a hole in space was rent; her power is beyond comprehension. She speaks but a single command ¡°Follow¡±, before she walks forward into the hole and disappears. O, the glory! The ecstasy! I couldn¡¯t believe my luck. The church has records dating back to before the calamitous thunderbolt that marked the start of the new age. Since then, only three mortals had been graced with the opportunity to follow the Goddess into this wondrous place the records called The Realm of Gods¡¯. Of course, the church had long since changed the records; for there are no Gods, only the Goddess! The Realm of The Divine Goddess of Dragons; Ruler of Ice and Fire. O, how I had dreamed that one day I too would be chosen to enter this place of myth. So, imagine my shock when I stepped through the portal and instead of a beautiful mansion with perfectly manicured lawns and the remainder of her clan lounging about it¡¯s grounds, I saw a line of trillions of weirdly shaped slimes going towards a courthouse that seemed to be bigger than Idonius itself. For some reason, the place felt vaguely reminiscent as I had a feeling of Deja Vu, but I was unable to truly absorb the seen before the Goddess¡¯ perfect voice tore me away from the scene. ¡°Come!¡± Just the one word, spoken quietly from nearly a mile away, and yet it rang through my mind with such force that I had no choice but to follow. Truly, the Goddess¡¯ power is vast. As I followed her, we began to walk past another line; but this time instead of slimes it was a line of creatures. At first, I couldn¡¯t comprehend what they were, but when I accidentally stepped through the tail of a flaming Tyrannosaurs-Rex, I nearly jumped out of my skin. Spirits! My highly trained senses started to scream DANGER!!! Every single one of these spirits seemed to have enormous power, and all of them stood peacefully in line; almost as if they were in a trance. ¡°What could possibly have caused so many powerful Spirits to stand in line so peacefully?!?!¡± Unfortunately, an answer was provided just a few minutes later when my Goddess and I stepped onto the top floor of the Courthouse. From behind the door I heard a voice filled with immense power screaming angrily. ¡°I don¡¯t care what you have to do, but we need thousands of Immortal¡¯s. I want Dragons, Kitsune, Spirit Kings, Dinosaurs, anyone who is a Legend at the Immortal rank! Don¡¯t even think about coming back to work tomorrow if you don¡¯t have at least 3 Immortals pledged to come when the world arrives!¡± ¡°Yes, sir!¡± came multiple voices, obviously chastened. The scariest thing was that all of those voices also contained immense power. ¡®What is this place that my lady brought me too?¡¯ I thought to myself. Moments later, running footsteps could be heard approaching the door from the other side, and I finally got a glimpse at the inside of the office. The too tall desk, with an enormous swivel chair turned to the perfect angle so as to block our view of its occupant. The astonishingly deep, base echo of his laughter, and then the most astounding event in memory occurred. The Goddess actually went to one knee! Bowing her head in supplication, and saying, ¡°Melinda, The Lesser-Goddess in charge of the world Idonius reporting as ordered, with my most senior mortal vassal, My Lord.¡± I had thought myself surprised before, but the reverence in her voice, the submissiveness of her posture. They were the exact tone that I took when greeting her. Who is this man, that the one Goddess revered as I revered her? With a glance from her, my knees hit the ground with a thud in the next instant. I could feel her anger; I acted with impropriety infront of someone whom even she kneels too! ¡°What?¡± The voice seemed surprised. Suddenly, I saw the edge of an enormous book appearing out of thin air on the other side of the chair.. ¡°HMMMMM. O! I lost track of time, you must forgive me I meant to meet you at the gate.¡± The chair started to rock from side to side, as he seemed to read from the book. ¡°So¡­ You sure have done a good job with the little world we left you in control of.¡± Finally, the chair turned around, and I was astounded with the view of a dwarf with short, stubby legs sitting on top of a ten foot tall stack of books. ¡®How the hell was he rocking that chair from side to side?!?¡¯ He hopped down from his chair, and started walking in a circle around the Goddess; staring at her with measuring eyes. ¡°Normally, when someone new ascends we send them off to an apprenticeship with some more experienced god; but frankly in the past Idonius was so small and weak that we didn¡¯t really care about it. The decision was made to give you the chance to manage it for now. Mainly because the world was originally slated to be managed by another new God, but he went off and sacrificed his soul like an idiot¡­¡± He seemed to break off for a moment; mumbling to himself. I didn¡¯t catch much but did hear him say, ¡°That addle-brained fool¡±, and ¡°Solaris, you truly picked a fun one¡­¡± Of course, I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, but after a minute or two the mumbling came to an end with a grunt of satisfaction, and a final sentence I just barely managed to hear. ¡°Yes, yes; I think she¡¯ll do just fine. Maybe she¡¯ll be able to knock some sense into that fool boy, and Fate will just laugh her ass off while setting this up¡­¡± If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.The dwarf then turned around and hopped up onto his chair; comically scrambling to the top of the heap of books. ¡°Get up already!¡± He shouted out while pointing at the Goddess; ¡°Seriously, you¡¯re a God now, even if a baby one. You need bow only to the Creator, and I sure as hell ain¡¯t him!¡± ¡°Yes, Sir!¡± Said the Goddess while standing up; but I remained kneeling. ¡°Now, now. No need for such formalities! We might soon be family after all; call me Yama.¡± It was then that it clicked; the trillions of blobs, the enormous courthouse, the immense power of the being called Yama sitting in front of me. One of the most heretical book in the Demon-Mage Freeney¡¯s library talks about the Creator of the Universe; and his aids. Chief among them was Yama, The Judge. ¡®O, Goddess, what have we done to be called into Yama¡¯s office?!?!¡¯ ¡°Family?¡± Asked the Goddess, looking surprised Yama suddenly jumped; sending books toppling from his seat as the Goddess spoke. ¡°Crap, I wasn¡¯t supposed to say that out loud¡­¡± He turned his head quickly from side to side; and I felt a great power emanating from him as he checked for something before sighing in relief. ¡°Phew, no one was watching. If Solaris found out I was already thinking about arranging marriages my ass would be fried!¡± I stood there, unable to understand a word that he had spoken, but apparently the Goddess understood at least a little bit. ¡°Solaris?¡± she asked quizzically, ¡°You mean the Overlord of Fire; The Divine Phoenix, Solaris?¡± ¡°Ahh, so you¡¯ve heard of her I see. Well, that¡¯s not too surprising seeing as how you are a Divine Beast of Fire and Water¡­ Please, forget everything that I just said, and don¡¯t tell Solaris I said anything. Anyway, it¡¯s far too soon for you to start worrying about this." He looked at her hopefully for a moment, but the quizzical expression didn''t clear up. Sighing, the dwarf started speaking again hesitatingly, "I can see that you won''t be able to forget that, so I''ll just give you a hint. An old friend/rival of yours will be joining you shortly¡­ or maybe I should say that you¡¯ll be joining him. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA¡± His booming laugh was suffocating, but infections. It was obvious what Yama was implying. But, how could the Demon-Mage Freeney and the Goddess be meeting again? She herself had said that he sacrificed his soul to bring about the Great Lightning of Calamity. ¡®This is disastrous! We must prepare to destroy him before his power can become great once again!¡¯ But, then I noticed the look of pure joy on the Goddesses face, and that made me remember her talking about how lonely she was. ¡®Well, maybe we should just let the Goddess deal with him.¡¯ "So, he did survive. I had always hoped that he would." ¡°Yes, he did! Looking at you I think that this will work out even better than I could possibly have imagined! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA¡± The floor seemed to shake; through one of the windows I saw one of the blobs fall off the edge of the land to his doom. ¡®How is this place still standing?¡¯ I thought, as I saw cracks begin to form in the walls¡­ Then, his laughing fit finally subsided into a coughing fit¡­ his long beard had somehow gotten in his mouth and down his throat. The sight of THE YAMA rolling around on the floor, choking on his own beard¡­ Anyway, it was after he finally recovered that he told us of the true reason for our visit today. That he warned me of what was to come, and my service to the Goddess was forever terminated. It was the worst moment of my life. *COUGH* He manages to pull his beard out of his throat. *COUGH COUGH COUGH* He spits out the final few hairs; then starts laughing again. ¡°HAHAHAHAHAHAHA¡± Thankfully, he managed to get himself under control quickly this time, and with only a few ¡°HA¡¯s¡± he finally told us why we were there. ¡°Well, I¡¯m running out of time. I have to be a press conference announcing this in a few hours. I just wanted to let you know that the council is taking over management of Idonuis permanently; we thank you for your service, and promise that you¡¯ll be rewarded.¡± ¡°What?!?! Why?!?!¡± For the first time since entering the office, the Goddess¡¯ power seemed to return as she stared indignantly at Yama. ¡°Well, the council has something special planned for that planet, and despite how good a job you¡¯ve been doing there so far you lack the strength to carry out this plan. In fact, the entire council including the Creator will be involved in this effort. Don¡¯t worry, I said you¡¯d be rewarded, and I meant it!¡± ¡°Now, for you.¡± For the first time, he looked at me; speaking before the Goddess had the chance to object. ¡°You will gather all of the people on your planet above the rank of apprentice mage and 5th rank warrior; as well as anyone with an affinity reaching High or greater in one of the elements. You will bring them into the library of the Demon-Mage Freeney, and you will live there for the next thousand years. Food, water, and other essentials will be provided for by me. Anyone not inside of the library within a year from today will die, we are moving you¡¯re universe and anyone not in a dimensional space will be killed instantly when we begin. Repopulating a world from scratching is such a hassle!¡± His gaze suddenly became even stronger, and his words began to echo in my soul. Burning a curse into my very being¡­ ¡°If you fail in this task, then I will personally ensure that you spend the next ten-thousand years as a slug! Now, get to work!¡± With a wave of his hand, a doorway back to my office was opened, and with a nod from the Goddess I began to walk through the portal. As I left, I heard Yama inviting the Goddess to dinner, ¡°My sister Solaris and brother Raiju would like to meet you. Tonight, a dinner-party will be put on at my place and I would be honored if you attended.¡± Juntos the 16th, 25790 S.C. Pope Julius the XV Thus began the worst year of my life; every time I even thought about taking a break, I would hear that bastard¡¯s voice ring through my head. ¡°Ten-thousand years as a slug!¡±.... After time, the threats became worse and worse as other voices entered my head¡­ A disembodied, fiery voice threatening to, ¡°Purify my soul with heavenly flames¡­¡± Worst of all, a heavenly beauty dressed in leather, and holding a whip began to appear in my dreams¡­ At first, I thought I was just repressed, but one night I woke up and the lashes on my back didn¡¯t go away¡­ Even worse, I started enjoying it... Finally, tomorrow is the day. The Library of the Demon-Mage Freeney will be opened; and all of the talented people in the world will be hidden within. Avoiding the calamity brought upon this planet by Yama and the Council; whatever that is. Everyone except me that is. Even if it means that I will spend the next ten-thousand years as a slug; I refuse to survive by hiding myself away in that heretical place. No, my place will be taken up by a child from the orphanage whose talent was too low to garner a spot. I couldn¡¯t live with myself if I abandoned my duty to the Goddess, to the people, to the planet, and survived while they died. This will be my final entry into this journal; hopefully it¡¯ll provide some insight into the events to come. I find myself, in my final hours, finally understanding why Nicholas Freeney created the library and wrote that journal of his. Pope Julius XV Interlude - The Creation of Idonius Pt. 2 A/N: New book will begin next chapter, expect it either tonight or tomorrow! Thanks for reading, and please rate/review/comment. Also, thanks to everyone who has commented and reviewed! Interlude - The Creation of Idonius Pt. 2 Transcript provided by GNN (Godly News Network) Interview of Yama by GNN Correspondent Eros *Intro Music* ¡°Hello, and welcome to GNN, the galaxies leading news provider on the Magic Mirror Network! My name is Eros, and I¡¯ll be your host tonight for this special where we will interview everyone''s favorite dwarf¡­ YAMA!!!!¡± *Clapping¡­. endless¡­ clapping¡­* ¡°Now, as all of you should know, the Council of God¡¯s are on the verge of completing their greatest project since the creation!¡± *Roll Clip* *Yama is standing in space while a world behind him is forming; and just at the edge of your view lies the elemental sea. He waves his hand at the world, and then starts laughing.* ¡°AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, Welcome, to paradise! Bored of your life as a god? Have nothing better to do but screw with mortal¡¯s heads? Miss the heart-pounding action of fighting to the death? Then, come to my courthouse and submit an application to be reborn on the planet of Idonius! The world will be stocked with high-caliber mortal souls who are on the verge of becoming immortal! Only 500,000 ascended beings will be allowed on the planet at a time; so put in your applications now!¡± *Clip fades as Yama keeps talking¡­* ¡°Well, I for one am looking forward to hearing Yama¡¯s story about the creation of this new universe! Please, give a big round of applause for YAMA!!!!!¡± *Clapping, hollering, cheering* ¡°I love you YAMA!!!!¡± (Random guest #580) ¡°It¡¯s so good to have you back on the show.¡± ¡°It¡¯s good to be back, Eros. Honestly, it¡¯s nice to get out of the courtroom every now and again.¡± ¡°You say that, but recently you¡¯ve been hearing fewer cases than ever. In fact, my sources tell me you haven¡¯t heard a case in nearly a thousand years! ¡° ¡°Well yea, I¡¯m a little busy with this project at the moment. I never realized just how hard it is to get my brothers and sisters to work together on something!¡± ¡°Of course, and I must say that this is quite the project you have going. There has been a lot of secrecy behind this until just recently; tell me, what is this all about?¡± ¡°Well, we¡¯ve been trying to figure out something for newborn god¡¯s to do as the galaxy gets more and more crowded. There¡¯s a limited number of worlds with available management positions. Also, quite a few of the older gods have been stuck in a rut doing the same thing for hundreds of thousands of years!¡± ¡°So, this is an attempt to stave off the war of the ages?¡± ¡°There is no way to completely rid ourselves of war between god¡¯s. Anyone who actually manages to ascend will without doubt be strong of character and unafraid of anything! This is just a place where a god can take a vacation for a few thousand years.¡± ¡°A vacation costing all of the divine power accumulated through hundreds of thousands, even millions of years! Isn¡¯t the cost too much?¡± ¡°To some reincarnating on this planet is simply for fun; but to others it¡¯s a chance to get stronger. As you know, when you ascend, your mortal body is remade by the elements, and the elements that you¡¯re closest too make up the vast majority of your body. It makes it nearly impossible for you to cultivate the other elements. But, if you are reborn into a mortal body that is naturally attuned to those other elements than you can train in them!¡± ¡°So, you¡¯re saying that in actuality this is a place for god¡¯s to train?!?¡± ¡°Not just A place to train, THE place to train. This universe is closer than any other to the elemental sea! Not only that, but the world we will be placing everyone on, Idonius, will be the largest world in the Galaxy. Each and every member of the council, including the Creator, are involved in turning this place into a cultivators paradise! Secret Treasures; Ancient Ruins; Immortal Monsters; The best cultivation techniques in the galaxy! Hell, if the elixir of rebirth would work on me, I¡¯d hand over my stupid job and go play on this world myself!¡± ¡°Please, don¡¯t kid with us! Who else could possibly handle your job?¡± ¡°No one, Yet! But, who knows. Maybe someone will become strong enough to handle it on Idonius!¡± ¡°So, you seem quite excited about this, and so are many of our viewers. Before the show started, we had the audience write down some questions and we¡¯d like you to answer them for us.¡± ¡°Alright, bring it on!¡± ¡°Ok, to start off we have a question from a concerned Goddess. Please, stand up and ask your question my lady.¡± The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. *Random guest #228 stands up* ¡°I would like to know what kinds of guarantees we have on the protection of our souls? We all know that some people practice arts that use other souls as power, even enslave powerful souls to themselves permanently. As gods, we have ways of blocking this, but without our memories we¡¯d be easy targets.¡± ¡°That is a great question, Yama?¡± ¡°Well, the world in question will be personally governed by every member of the council. No soul extinction or enslavement techniques will be allowed, and any attempts at such will result in the immediate destruction of the perpetrator¡¯s soul. Normally, we don¡¯t bother with policing such, but as this is supposed to be a vacation spot for the gods any such action will result in immediate action. I¡¯m sure that you can trust our abilities in dealing with such.¡± ¡°That¡¯s quite the guarantee. I¡¯m sure all of us considering spending time on Idonius feel much safer now! Next, we have an anonymous guest who asks, ¡°When are you going to visit me again? She even included a picture.¡± *Eros shows the crowd a picture of Shiva dressed in her famous dominatrix leathers while standing over a naked Yama, holding a whip in her hands* ¡°HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, I think someone¡¯s been playing around in photoshop again!¡± ¡°O, so this video is fake too?¡± *Video pops up on screen showing the image from before and Yama¡¯s distinctive voice begging for more¡­* *Crowd starts laughing and doesn¡¯t stop for nearly half an hour* ¡°Well Eros, what can I say? I have a thing for good looking women in tights¡­¡± ¡°Well, as the God of Perversion I certainly agree! Now, when will you be visiting the mistress again?¡± ¡°Well, I usually stop by every few-hundred years to drop off a shipment of the damned and pick up those whose sentences are up. So, sometime in the next hundred years or so I think.¡± ¡°Moving on, we have a guest from Xion in our audience here today. She asks, ¡°My master wants to know if their are any restrictions on the power of those allowed to be reborn on this planet?¡± ¡°Of course, if you are too powerful to have your memories completely wiped by the Elixir of Rebirth then you will never be reborn again! Other than that, the only cost is the complete destruction of your divine body and loss of divine power. For that cost, you receive a contract giving you the rights to specify a goal for your next life, to pick what region of the world you will be reborn into, and guaranteeing you that you will always be reborn on Idonius as a human.¡± ¡°Wait, as a human? While every god has at some point lived as a human, the vast majority of them do not manage to reach even immortality, much less ascension, as a human! Why not allow them to be reborn as their own race?¡± ¡°It¡¯s simple, to make the playing field even. Think of this as something of a competition, a challenge. There will be many powerful souls born as Dragons, Gorgons, even Spirits! But, none of those souls will have ever ascended!¡± ¡°Then, how many lives to you expect these gods to take to ascend?¡± ¡°Tens, Hundreds, Maybe even Thousands! The average lifespan for a human is little over a hundred years of age. Everyone on this planet will have access to cultivation techniques, so assume that you at least reach the 5th rank which gives you another hundred years or so. This is a part of the challenge of this world; humans have the least amount of innate power out of all cultivating lifeforms, and yet they have the greatest potential! Very few people reach godhood as a human, but each and every one of them is powerful! You¡¯re all gods, if it wasn¡¯t challenging it wouldn¡¯t be worth doing!¡± ¡°You also said something about allowing you to pick a goal for each rebirth? How is that possible?¡± ¡°Now, now. I¡¯ve already said too much! This will be a new world of wonder and adventure that will be open to the public in another hundred years. We still have some open spaces, and will be creating a waiting list for those who don¡¯t make it in the first round! As someone ascends, they will leave Idonius and the next in line will get his/her vacation.¡± ¡°Well, I guess thats all you¡¯re willing to answer tonight?¡± ¡°Yup, for the rest you¡¯ll just have to discover it yourself! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA¡± *Yama disappeared into thin air as his laugh shakes the building, and lesser god¡¯s faint at the power of his voice¡­* ¡°Well, I for one always love it when Yama visits us! That¡¯s it for this special, I hope you enjoyed it! This is Eros from GNN signing off, goodnight god¡¯s of the galaxy!¡± Book Two: The Early Years - Prologue Book Two - The Early Years Prologue - It¡¯s Time Where the Sea of Fire and Sea of Lightning meet A being of pure fire floated stationary above the Sea of Fire, her eyes a startlingly blue, liquid flame burning endlessly as she stared at the being below her. A majestic wolf made out of lightning slowly approached her from behind, caressing her wing as he too gazed down at the small form in front of them. ¡°It¡¯s time.¡± He said softly ¡°I know.¡± She responded sadly, tears of liquid flame dripping from her eyes and falling onto the form below. ¡°I wish he had woken up just once; so that we could say goodbye.¡± ¡°Perhaps, it is better this way.¡± Responded the majestic wolf of lightning. ¡°He must face this journey alone, he has gone through worse before. At least, father finally managed to get our brother to forget his petty grievances!¡± ¡°If it wasn¡¯t for him, then this wouldn¡¯t be necessary. I know that the two of you have never gotten along, but to think he would cause our son¡¯s death in the spirit realm!¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t his fault, and you know that. He was just pissed that we had a child first, and it is his right to control the Essence of Earth.¡± ¡°I know, and I¡¯m thankful that he has granted our son the right to gather them, but still!¡± The creature of fire burned hotter, staring off in a certain direction vengefully. ¡°Now, now. Father has put his foot down. We will do nothing to hurt any member of our family, period! You know just as well as I that even that cyclops feels bad about what happened.¡± Below them, the form stirred slightly in its dreams. Shifting from a young wolf of lightning, to a majestic bird of fire, and then back again. ¡°If only we had a thousand more years, we could train him and get him ready for his future duties.¡± The tears continued to fall, their pace quickening as the fire continued to intensify. ¡°He will have plenty of time for that, but Yama has finally managed to find a human body that he will survive in. We will watch over him, and after a few thousand years he will ascend again, stronger than ever.¡± ¡°So, he has finished healing!¡± Came a voice behind them, and the two beings turned to find a young man walking towards them calmly, atop the Sea of Fire. ¡°Hello, father.¡± Said the lightning-wolf coldly. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.¡°I know you¡¯re still pissed at me, but I did what I had to do otherwise his soul would¡¯ve been destroyed.¡± ¡°We know that, we just hate that it had to happen.¡± Said the being of fire, who had transformed into a beautiful woman made solely of fire. ¡°So, it is time for him to go?¡± Asked the wolf ¡°Yes, his time on the Elemental Sea has ended.¡± Answered the Creator. ¡°Which realm will he be born into?¡± Asked the fiery woman. ¡°Yours, my dear. I made sure that a suitable body would be available when he had recovered, and I¡¯ll leave it to his mother to look over him. But, it is time for him to leave.¡± With that, the creator stooped down and picked up the form of the three foot tall wolf, smiling happily as he cradled his grandson in his arms. The fiery-woman kissed the child on the cheek while the lightning-wolf hugged her, and in a poof they had disappeared. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- They reappeared in an office with a gigantic chair moving from side to side while a deep voice talked to himself, ¡°Well, well¡­ Now that it¡¯s time for him to be reborn it seems that it¡¯s finally time for Melinda to be reborn. Well, maybe in a couple years, after all the husband should be older! HeHe! I can¡¯t wait to see Solaris¡¯ face when she finds out. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.¡± The gleeful laughter was broken by the amused tone of the Creator as he spoke, ¡°I see you¡¯re up to your old tricks again.¡± The chair spun around so fast that the swivel broke, and books spilled everywhere as the chair toppled over. ¡°OWWW!!!¡± Came the basso voice, as a dwarf slowly climbed out of the massive pile of books that¡¯d landed on top of him. Finally, looking up the dwarf spoke. ¡°Why, hello father! What tricks are you talking about?¡± ¡°HA! You think you can hide anything from me? Anyway, its time.¡± ¡°Wait, doesn¡¯t he have to be conscious to choose his goal?¡± ¡°His goal was chosen from the moment he was born, no reason to ask him about it.¡± ¡°What goal is that?¡± Asked the dwarf, confused for the first time in a long while. ¡°For now, to master all of the elements! Now, feed him the Elixir of Rebirth and get on with it. We¡¯ve been waiting for nearly two-thousand years for him to heal. It¡¯s time to get started!¡± ¡°Of course, father.¡± Book Two : Chapter One - Blessings Chapter One - Blessings Before I allowed this to be added to my library, I went back and edited it a bit. Not to remove sensitive content, but rather to make it readable. I was rather embarrassed when I first examined these after a few centuries had passed, but I guess I shouldn¡¯t have expected much from the journal of a 6 year old. My name is Nicholas Freeney. Now, I know that you¡¯re going to ask; ¡°Why are you named after the most famous person in the universe?¡± My answer is, I have no fucking clue! Of course, Nicholas has always been a very popular first-name among the denizens of Idonia, but I had asked at the ceremony yesterday and apparently I am the second person in written history to be named Nicholas Freeney¡­ The strange thing is that my parents¡¯ last names are Elenwood and Smith, so where the hell did Freeney come from? Well, the answer is kind of the reason behind why I am writing in this journal this morning, and am apparently forced to do so for the rest of my life! Yesterday was my 6th birthday, and the ceremony of choosing. Ever since I was born, I was extremely excited about this day. On Idonius, everyone is required to visit a greater temple on their sixth birthday to receive the blessings of the Gods as well as their Status! I was lucky enough to be born in Agni, the Capital of one of the eight great kingdoms of this world, so going to visit a greater temple doesn¡¯t involve months of travel. I asked my parents over and over again, but they always just smiled at me whimsically and said, ¡°When you turn six you¡¯ll learn about it.¡± Even worse, my older brother Jack keeps teasing me, hinting at some sort of task I have to complete! Of course, the instant I turned six and I rushed into my parent¡¯s room jumping on their bed yelling, ¡°Tell me! tell me!¡± My dad clotted my right ear hard! He¡¯s a blacksmith, and his body seems to have been forged by an even hotter fire than his smelter. I swear I went deaf; thankfully Mom knew healing magic and healed me while cradling my head in her lap. Of course, the moment I stopped crying she slapped me across the cheek leaving a mark while she spoke, ¡°I thought we taught you some manners, now get ready to go to the temple!¡± Which is how I found myself with a giant red mark across my face, sitting in a room inside the Academy of Divine Fire with nearly a hundred other kids, bored out of my mind. My parents and brother were in the corridor outside, while a few strict looking pages of the church stood enforcing a strict quiet. Finally, the door opened and a harassed looking man stepped into the classroom as it erupted in noise. Every kid in it, including me, was yelling out questions, ¡°When do we get to meet the gods?¡± Seemed to be the most popular one, although mine was, ¡°Do I really have to kill a troll to get a blessing?¡± ¡°Quiet! Return to your seats!¡± The voice of the harassed looking man was so loud that my ears started to ring, but as my ears finally recovered the man had managed to reach the blackboard in the front of the classroom. ¡°You have all just turned 6 today, congratulations you are now eligible to receive blessings from the Gods as well as to view your status! Before you receive your blessings, I am to teach you a little of history lesson as well as explain a few rules.¡± ¡°1,962 years ago, the survivors of the apocalypse were finally released from the alternate dimension known as the Demon¡¯s Library. They had been stuck inside that dimension, unable to open the doors for nearly a thousand years. While there was an abundance of food, drink, and even a few private rooms for sleeping, the feeling of being trapped all of your life inside a library drove our ancestors to the brink of insanity. We know now that they were trapped in there while the gods moved our world to its new location, and that only the warning they gave to the Saint, Pope Julius XV saved any of our people.¡± ¡°When the door finally opened, an overwhelming rush of essence rushed into the room. Stepping out, they found themselves in an enormous antechamber of what has since become the School of Creation. The people rejoiced in their freedom, the taste of fresh air, and the overabundant essence with which to train. As the nearly 50,000 humans rushed into the opening, a commotion erupted from the front as they found 12 statues awaiting them. What was most amazing was that seven of these statues were created from pure elemental essence. While four of them seemed to be created by a force even stronger than elemental essence. These eleven statues were arrayed in a semi-circle directly across from the door¡¯s to the library, while a twelfth statue towered above them in the background. On the ground in massive letters were famous words, ¡°Approach and kneel to the Creator and his Council if you dare! The deserving shall be blessed! The undeserving cursed!¡±¡± ¡°Of course, no one believed that there was an actual statue of the Creator outside of the library. But the current Pope, Alexander IV, was a man of immense power who had actually reached the verge of immortality, remembered meeting Pope Julius XV just before he was locked into the library. During this meeting, Pope Julius XV gave Alexander IV his journal as well as warning him of a being of unimaginable power whom he had met with the Divine Goddess of Ice and Fire. So, while everyone scoffed at the massive statues, he stared at the statue on the farthest right. A dwarf stood there with mischievous eyes that seemed to laugh, while a feeling of immense power emanated from him. Pope Alexander IV then spoke softly, ¡°So, Julius didn¡¯t go crazy.¡± shocking every survivor of humanity as he kneeled in supplication to the Creator and his Council.¡± ¡°As the first person to ask for blessing, Pope Alexander IV received the blessing of the Creator himself, a gift which has been given only four times since. Along with the blessing of the Creator, he also received the blessings of Leviathon and Gabriel, as well as being the first ever to receive a status card! It was from the instructions given to him by the Creator that day that he announced the course of humanity! Those instructions were thus; everybody must visit a greater temple on their 6th birthday. After that, you may visit once each year afterwards; and depending on your actions the gods may choose to increase or decrease your blessing. There are 8 cities in which no beast can possibly exist, and these cities are ruled over by the Creator and the 7 Overlords of each element. As long as you possess at least a minor blessing from an Overlord than you may live in their city, and anyone with at least one minor blessing may live in the City of Creation!¡± ¡°Thus is the story of our world to this point; outside of these cities empires rise and fall, treasures of unimaginable value are located in mysterious ruins, and mythical creatures rampage, but to this day the system of blessings has remained unchanged.¡± An eerie quiet fell upon the room as the man finished; even the obvious nobles who sat at the front of the classroom who had obviously been told the story before, were affected by the mood of the room. The silence was finally broken by the instructor after nearly two minutes. ¡°Now, you are ready to receive your first blessings.¡± The instructor then walked slowly through the room, until he reached a door that had so far been unopened and beckoned us to follow him. Excitedly, we all jumped up and followed while talking to eachother. As we exited the doorway, we entered a wide hallway with people in page uniforms running. Through the occasional open door a glimpse of priests going over documents, studying, and praying could be seen From the front of the group, I heard a couple of nobles talking to each other, ¡°Such riff-raff, I doubt anyone will receive anything other than a minor blessing.¡± Spoke a boy wearing the crest of a roaring dragon on his back. *Snort* ¡°I bet some of them will be forced to move out of the city.¡± Spoke his companion, a kid with fiery red hair who seemed to heat the very air around him. Turning to the girl standing next to them he asked, ¡°What do you think, Syndra?¡± She turned to look back at everyone else; for some reason our eyes meeting before she turned back and laughed saying, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if you only received a lesser blessing Carson; showing off in her temple by wearing a jacket with fire-crystals embedded into it. I doubt she¡¯ll be impressed.¡± Carson blushed, looking embarrassed as he shut his mouth. Thankfully, I didn¡¯t hear the rest of their conversation as a boy next to me started talking, ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Kalvin.¡± The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Turning, I nearly jumped as I realized that he was a dwarf! ¡°Wow! I¡¯ve never met a dwarf before! I didn¡¯t know they received blessings too.¡± ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t we be able too? One of the gods is a dwarf too!¡± ¡°Cool! I hope you do well, my Dad always talks about how awesome Dwarven Smiths are!¡± ¡°HeeHee, thanks! I hope you do good too.¡± The hallway started widening at this point, and an enormous atrium could be seen in front. Looking around, I saw my parents waving to me while my brother had disappeared somewhere. ¡°Go stand with your parents, it should be a few minutes before you are called forward.¡± Spoke up the man that we¡¯d been following, and I ran over to them in excitement hugging my mom. ¡°Was the story everything you wished for it to be?¡± Asked my mom quietly, hugging me tightly. ¡°Yea!¡± I said excitedly, ¡°I can¡¯t wait to see the statues!¡± ¡°I bet!¡± she said, then letting me go. That was when I looked at dad; he was talking to someone dressed in clothes expensive enough to buy our house! and that noble girl from before was standing next to him, looking at me. Looking back, I saw that she had purple hair with streaks of black running through it. I¡¯d never seen anything like it; at the same time alluring and foreboding. ¡°So, your son was born on the same day as our daughter, Nathan?¡± said the man. ¡°Seems so, perhaps it is time for our houses to join after all, HAHAHA.¡± ¡°Perhaps old friend, perhaps! Although, I¡¯m not planning on forcing Syndra to marry anyone she doesn¡¯t want too.¡± ¡®Huh? Dad¡¯s just a smith, why would a noble joke about me marrying his daughter?¡¯ I looked at mom questioningly, but she just smiled mysteriously again¡­ ¡®Shit, they¡¯re not telling me something again.¡¯ ¡°Neither will Nick!¡± Said my dad, but then he looked at Syndra, ¡°She looks just like her mother, I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll be quite the beauty!¡± Syndra seemed to be kind of shy, or maybe scared as she hid from my dad¡¯s gaze behind her dad¡¯s legs. ¡°She surely will be. I see your son takes more after his mother, thank the heavens! We don¡¯t need another muscle-brained idiot running around this city.¡± ¡°Muscle-brained idiot is it?¡± He growled out, and I thought that he would start slugging it out with the man right there in front of everyone. I sighed in relief when he was interrupted by the voice of the instructor from earlier. ¡°Alright, when I call your name come forward and receive the blessing of the gods. Remember, even if you only receive a lesser blessing as long as you work hard and impress the gods you can even reach for immortality.¡± The room went quiet as everyone began to move further into the atrium, and I finally got a look at the statues. I thought before that the instructor had been exaggerating about how the statues were formed, but he wasn¡¯t. Eleven humanoid forms stood shoulder to shoulder, with four of them made of some weird silver substance that seemed to flow and yet emitted a kind of power that scared me. But, what truly fascinated me where the seven statues made out of pure elements. Especially, the woman made out of fire standing next to the man made out of lightning. As I looked at them, something in me called out to them, and for some reason my heart felt heavy. My eyes even began to tear up, and I couldn¡¯t shake the feeling that the statues were looking back at me even as the first of our group went up to receive his blessing. It takes a surprising amount of time for a person to receive a blessing; first he must kneel down in the proper spot and lower his head before praying. For a six-year old, the act of sitting still for that long is exceedingly difficult, and it seemed like many of the commoner¡¯s children needed to try multiple times before they got it right. But, he got it right eventually, and the first time I saw the light descending onto someone my breath caught. The first boy to go on stage didn¡¯t have much talent it seemed, he only received two lesser blessings. Yet, even then it was the most beautiful thing I¡¯d ever seen. A fiery red light flew from the fire-womans eyes, and a round blob seemed to be transmitted straight into his chest. At the same time, the man of darkness to her left seemed to move; wings appearing that I hadn¡¯t seen earlier. A black beam shot from them, and I somehow saw a tiny bat fly into his chest. The lights erupting around the room spread; and for an instant I could see the form of a giant bird of flame behind the woman while thousands of bats seemed to spread across the room battling the flames. The interplay of light; it was the most breathtaking event I¡¯d ever seen. Then, the lights died down and the statues returned to normal. Except, the hand of the dwarf on the far right was extended with a slip of what looked like paper but seemed to be made of the same silver material as he was. A priest took the slip, reading it before handing it to the kid and announcing, ¡°Alvin Armach, Lesser Blessing of the Dark, Lesser Blessing of Fire.¡± A spattering of applause greeted the announcement, seeming almost rote. As more and more people went through the process it seemed that gaining even a lesser blessing was rare. Everyone gained a blessing of fire, as if the Goddess was giving her people her blessing, but it was rare for anyone to gain a second blessing as the first had. The instructor called the next name, ¡°Syndra Lightsbane.¡± A hush deeper than any other time so far came across the crowd as everyone watched her expectantly. Apparently, the Lightsbane clan is extremely famous, but I haven¡¯t managed to get my Dad to tell me why yet. The girl slowly walked forward, kneeling gracefully in front of the statues of the gods. After a minute, a fireball shot out of the woman of flames flying into the girl. For most other people, that would¡¯ve been it. But, she continued to remain still and none of the priests moved to remove her. I watched puzzled as minutes passed by slowly, without any reaction. The longer we waited, the bigger the smile grew on the face of her father standing next to us. I heard my dad whisper to him after nearly twenty minutes, ¡°Congratulations, your daughter inherited your talent.¡± The man¡¯s grin just grew wider. That was when I noticed the aura¡¯s of two of the statues growing, a crackling thunder heard and yet not heard; the room went darker and darker until all that could be seen is was the faint purple light and the darkness. After thirty minutes had passed, an earth-shattering cry broke free as a bird of thunder ripped through the air; breaking apart the darkness and yet simultaneously melding with it, growing into a dragon before disappearing into the girl¡¯s chest. The aura¡¯s of the statues quickly dissipating, the sunlight returning, and the hushed atmosphere shattered as a thunderous round of applause rippled through the atrium even before the priest could read off her status. A man dressed in the robes of a Cardinal of the faith had appeared from seemingly nowhere to congratulate her, and the entire room went silent again as the priest retrieved a bigger sheet of silvery paper from the statue of the dwarf. Coughing, the young priest seemed amazed as he read, ¡°Syndra Lightsbane, Dragoness of Nyx, Friend of the Dark, Disciple of the Raiju. Greater Blessing of Darkness, Greater Blessing of Lightning, Lesser Blessing of Fire. There is a message from the God of Darkness, ¡°May your journey through this life be as enjoyable and entertaining as your last; do not fear the dark, for we shall forever be friends.¡± Signed, Camatotz, Overlord of the Dark.¡± The silence was deafening as even the cardinal¡¯s eyes bugged out. I had no clue what was going on, but none of the others, even that one who received a greater blessing of fire, had taken so long or involved such a message from the gods; not to mention all of the titles before hand. Dragoness of Nyx? What does that mean? The silence was finally broken as the stunned girl was picked up in a humongous bear-hug by her dad. The priest carefully handing the slip of paper to the Cardinal who examined it with disbelieving eyes and the rest of the crowd went wild; clapping and hollering, congratulating the father-daughter pair celebrating in the middle of the room. It took a long time for the room to quiet down again; and when it did the instructor called out again. ¡°Nicholas Smith-Elenwood¡± I felt all of the eyes on me as I walked towards the altar, the entire time cursing that girl Syndra. She seemed nice enough, but why did she have to go and do that right before I went?!?!?! How in the hell am I supposed to overtop that performance? Book Two: Chapter Two - True-Name A/N : Hey, so I meant to release this on Saturday, but then my family decided to drag me on a 20 mile long hiking trip through the Rocky Mountains... As fun as it was, I''m so goddam sore that I can''t even walk so I figured I might as well write a bunch. Chapter Two - True Name My mind was wiped completely blank as I reached the altar. Before I could even kneel, I felt a power overcome me. A deep voice rang through my mind, ¡°You need not kneel; not even to the Creator!¡± Suddenly, I felt my body being lifted off the ground by a silvery mist that was coming off of the four statues that had not moved so far. When my body was nearly 10 feet off the ground, all seven of the statues seemed to come to life. The statues of Fire and Lightning seeming to gather strength, while the others all moved simultaneously. A silhouette appeared behind each of them; an enormous black bat, an angel of pure light, a one-eyed giant with a huge club of rock, and the largest of all; an enormous wave of water erupted turning into Leviathan. Suddenly, they all shot beams of essence at me which converged turning into a blob of all four colors as it entered my my body. Soon, it was joined by a wind sprite that flew around me playfully a couple of times. That was when the waiting started. Ten minutes, fifteen, twenty¡­. nearly an hour passed before a voice that I seemed to know, yet couldn¡¯t recognize spoke to me. ¡°My beloved son, I cannot wait for you to rejoin us. We love you.¡± Another voice joined her for the last part, and the auras of fire and lightning that had been gathering suddenly broke free. Turning into a bird of fire that pierced the air with a screech, while a 15 foot tall wolf with lightning streaking from its snout to it¡¯s tails roared. The two then rushed forward, combining into a wolf with wings stretching out from it¡¯s back. Fire and lightning perfectly balanced within before it shrunk to a size of three feet and with one last roar passed into my chest. Slowly, the silvery aura returned me to the ground and retracted back to the statues from which it came. The dwarf¡¯s statue extended its hand with a piece of paper. This time, the Cardinal himself personally picked up the paper and announced with a shaky voice. ¡°Nicholas Smith-Elenwood. The Journalist, The Demon-Mage, The Forgiven, One with Lightning, Son of Fire, Friend of Yama, Defiler of Fate. Lesser Blessings of Earth, Water, Wind, Dark, and Light. Greater Blessings of Fire and Lightning. A message is left from Fate, ¡°Let the games commence!¡± A final message left from Yama, ¡°AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA¡± Finally, the crowd erupted in congratulations just as loud as it was for Syndra. My mom rushed to me, picking me up in a tight embrace, my dad following and hugging us both. We stood there for a while before the Cardinal tapped my dad¡¯s shoulder and handed him the paper he had read from. I heard him quietly speaking to him, ¡°I need to you and your son to come to my office; please join me and the Lightsbane''s after everyone is finished.¡± My dad nodded in acknowledgement to the Cardinal before he handed me the sheet of silvery paper. The crowd had finally stopped clapping and was attentively watching the next person. I looked down at the silvery paper now that I was no longer the center of attention. Puzzled, I turned to my mom and asked her, ¡°Why can¡¯t I read this?¡± The possessiveness in her gaze as she happily gazed at me was shocking, ¡°What?¡± I asked her. Shaking her head, my mom regained her faculties, ¡°The status sheets are special; they are made of a power that no mortal can possibly hope to understand. Place it on your chest and let it be absorbed into you, then think status. You should be able to read it after that. The priests can read parts of the sheet using a special technique.¡± I placed the sheet on my chest, and after it was absorbed I thought ¡®Status!¡¯. In front of me the silvery sheet reappeared, but this time I could read it. The sheet covered an enormous amount of information, but I ignored it all as I stared at the first two lines¡­
NameNicholas Smith-Elenwood
True NameNicholas Freeney
I tugged on my mom¡¯s dress to get her attention, after she looked down at me I asked, ¡°Mom, what does true-name mean?¡± She stood there, staring at me as if she was frozen in place. Finally, I tugged on her dress again, asking, ¡°Mom, are you ok?¡± She wasn¡¯t it seemed, as she fainted on the spot falling towards the ground. Thankfully, my dad had noticed something was wrong and managed to catch her. ¡°Honey! Honey, can you hear me?¡± The lack of response seemed to scare him, so he turned to me and asked, ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, I just asked her what true-name¡¯s mean and then she froze up before falling.¡± Little did I expect that my dad¡¯s eyes would fly wide open, seeming to freeze in place himself. After a couple of seconds he shook his head, then stared at me in wonder for a second. Finally, he looked around to see a crowd of eyes on us. ¡°We¡¯re going to the Cardinal¡¯s office, follow me.¡± He strode off quickly, carrying my mother in his arms as I followed along worried about her. From behind me I heard Syndra¡¯s father say, ¡°Come, we need to go to the Cardinal¡¯s office as well.¡± The crowd opened before us, letting us through as my dad turned to smile at his friend wryly, ¡°You too?¡± ¡°So it would seem.¡± After that, everyone was quiet as we quickly walked through the temple. After climbing four flights of stairs, we reached an ornate hallway with two knights standing on either side of its entrance. A priest walked up to us and bowed gracefully before the knights could say anything, ¡°The Cardinal is waiting for you, please follow me.¡± Double-doors wide enough for 8 people walking side by side to fit through were flung open with unseemly haste as we arrived. The Cardinal from before opened the door, looking as if he¡¯d sprinted the entire way back to his office, was speaking sporadically as he panted. ¡°Welcome!¡± *pant* ¡°Please, have a seat.¡± My dad laid my mom down on a couch, then we all moved to chairs by the surprisingly messy desk. By the time we all managed to settle into seats, the Cardinal had finally managed to get a hold of himself. ¡°So, I just finished watching the ceremony; you were the only two to receive more than one greater blessing and per the law, you both have to go to the City of Creation.¡± ¡°What?¡± My father asked surprised. ¡°Why? I don¡¯t want to go!¡± I yelled out. ¡°Its simple really, humanoid beings are the weakest group on this world. If it wasn¡¯t for the blessings of the God¡¯s on the 8 great cities and their temples, then humans, dwarves, elves, and demons would¡¯ve all gone extinct long ago. However, humanoids have the greatest potential for growth. It is for this reason that the gods bless us, in order to show us the proper path. In order for humanity to grow stronger, cultivation and education became compulsory. Even those with minor-blessings are compelled to cultivate at an academy. After all, with enough hard work, the Gods and Goddesses may increase their blessings.¡± ¡°The seven great academies are placed inside of each of the seven great temples, and accept anyone with at least a Blessing of their specific element. For those who received lesser blessings, they go to a preparatory school where after 5 to 10 years they are usually able to impress the gods enough to grow their potential. However, the School of Creation is located inside the Temple of Creation and it requires you to have at least a greater blessing and one blessing, or three blessings. Since both Syndra and Nicholas were blessed so highly by the gods we must insist that they be sent to the School of Creation.¡± ¡°No! I want to stay home!¡± I cried out, tears beginning to gather in my eyes. My dad hugged me tightly, and spoke. ¡°It''s ok, we always knew that this was a possibility. I just didn¡¯t realize that you would have to go all the City of Creation.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but compulsory education and cultivation are the only reasons that we can now begin to explore this world.¡± Said the Cardinal. My dad nodded and asked, ¡°When does he have to leave?¡± ¡°I will enroll both Nicholas and Syndra tonight, the new term begins on the first of January. Convoys with protection from the church leave once every month, so he would have to leave by October to get there in time.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± spoke Sin for the first time since they entered the room, ¡°I will be returning to the main branch of the Lightsbane¡¯s, I¡¯ll bring Nicholas with us.¡± ¡°Finally done playing around with us hicks eh?¡± Asked my dad. ¡°I don¡¯t have a choice... The only reason I was allowed to stay out this long is Syndra and now that she has to go to the school of Creation.¡± ¡°Got ya¡­¡± My dad stood up to leave, picking my mother back up. ¡°One last thing, the majority of those born with multiple Greater Blessings, and anyone born with multiple titles are given true-names by the Gods. These are given to those who accomplish great feats so that they will never be forgotten, forever to be known by their true-names. The Gods have made it clear that after being reborn, everyone loses their past memories and only regains them if they ascend to godhood themselves. That being the case, they look unfavorably upon those who hold grudges even after their enemies have died. Despite that, the vast majority of those with true-names hide their names just to be safe. Unfortunately, some titles are known to only be given to a small number of people, and Syndra''s true-name is obvious.¡± This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡°True, only one person has been known as the Dragoness of Nyx afterall.¡± Said Sin. ¡°Thankfully, no one would dare to offend the Lightsbane¡¯s by harming her, but Nicholas you must never reveal your true-name to anyone you do not absolutely trust. That being said, I encourage both of you to investigate your past lives. ¡° ¡°I¡¯ll make sure he¡¯s careful.¡± Said my Dad. At that point, we all left the office and the last words spoken by the Cardinal were, ¡°Remember, be careful and you have to be at School by 9 A.M. on the First of January.¡± --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The next day While we were walking out of the temple my mom regained consciousness, and started walking about. Right as she began stirring, my dad told me, ¡°Don¡¯t say anything about going to school out of the city until we get home. I don¡¯t want to have to carry her all the way home.¡± Thankfully, she only caught the final part of that, ¡°Hmmph, you should be happy to be carrying someone as beautiful as me!¡± she said while slapping him hard. ¡®Yes!¡¯ I thought to myself, ¡®Now I¡¯m not the only one who had to spend hours walking around with a red mark on his face today!¡¯ My Dad didn¡¯t have to worry much because almost the instant my Mom got back on her feet, I started yawning exhaustedly. I was wondering why Syndra had been so tired as she was told she had to leave the city, but I now I realized that she¡¯d been asleep the whole time. ¡°Hey!¡± Yelled my Mom while glaring at Dad. ¡°He just received 7 blessings, why aren¡¯t you carrying him!¡± That¡¯s all that I remember, because before I could be picked up I had already face-planted into the ground in complete exhaustion. Waking up in your own bed is nice; especially when you fell asleep on a marble floor¡­ Well, thankfully Mom is an amazing healer so my formerly broken nose was only obvious when I saw my clothes from yesterday soaking in the kitchen sink. It was way earlier than I normally wake up, so I was the only one here. I started replaying last night in my head, unwilling to accept that I had to move. ¡°Status¡± I said outloud and stared at my true-name¡­ ¡°Why does Nicholas Freeney sound so familiar to me?¡± ¡°Of course he¡¯s familiar dumbass, he¡¯s the most famous person to ever live.¡± Said Jack, my brother who had just come down the stairs dressed in his blood-red robes getting ready for school. ¡°What? I mean I recognize his name but I don¡¯t remember what from.¡± ¡°The first thing you do when you go to school is read his journal. Only those without any blessings or a single lesser blessing who focus completely on the path of the warrior aren¡¯t required to. But, almost all of them wind up reading it eventually.¡± ¡°Huh? Why would someone''s¡¯ journal be so important?¡± ¡°His journal is really interesting, and many people learn a lot from reading it, but it''s not the journal itself that¡¯s really important. No, Nicholas Freeney was a crazy sonofabitch who loved practical jokes. So, he wrote a long winded, multi-volume expose on his life and then built a spell so great that only a god could undo it. The spell makes it so that if anyone wants to read anything in his library then first he has to read all 11 volumes of his I-Love-Me novel. Narcissistic Ass!¡± ¡°So? Its just a library, I¡¯m sure that you can find books like it elsewhere on the planet.¡± ¡°You know what, I¡¯m done speaking to you until you spend at least a year at the academy. Your ignorance and stupidity just astounds me!¡± ¡°Be nice Jack!¡± Called my mother as she walked down the staircase. ¡°So, you¡¯re finally up Nicky. How¡¯s it feel to be blessed?¡± She asked with a grin. ¡°Confusing!¡± I said. ¡°I have to figure out what all of these words in the status mean, and even worse I have to move to the capital. I don¡¯t wantta!¡± ¡°WHAT?!?!¡± Shouted Jack and my Mom at the same time. ¡°Who said that you have to move?¡± asked my Mom. ¡°The cardinal, he said that it''s the law since I have two Greater Blessings I have to go school in the City of Creation.¡± ¡°WHAT?!?!¡± They both yelled out again. ¡°O Gods, why would you give such a gift to my snot-nosed little brother? You only gave me one Greater Blessing! Why Gods? Why?!?!¡± At the same time as my brother was cursing his luck, my mom had started crying hysterically while shouting, ¡°NOOOOO, My baby is too young to leave me!¡± This went on for nearly a minute before my dad came downstairs, ¡°Whats up with all the racket! You¡¯ll wake up the whole neighborhood. Huh? Why are you still here Jack, you¡¯ll be late for class.¡± ¡°O Shit!¡± My brother started running around the house grabbing his school things, but my mother finally recovered enough to start screaming accusingly, ¡°You knew! You knew my baby had to leave, and you didn¡¯t say anything!¡± She rushed him and started pummeling his chest. My brother and I stood there amazed as lightning started coiling around her body and thunder echoed with every hit. ¡°Eighth rank?¡± Whispered my brother with a look of astonishment on his face. Even more astonishing, my dad just stood there taking blows that could¡¯ve easily destroyed our house looking as if it didn¡¯t even scratch him. ¡°Now, now honey. You¡¯re scaring the kids.¡± Came his usual calm basso rumble. ¡°Don¡¯t you honey me! You bastard they¡¯re taking my son away!¡± ¡°Our son, and you knew he couldn¡¯t study here given that he inherited your blessing!¡± ¡°I¡¯m leaving you! I¡¯m going with him to the City of Creation!¡± ¡°Of course you are; we all are.¡± ¡°Wait, what?¡± ¡°Jack only needs 1 more blessing to qualify for entry into the School of Creation, so you¡¯re going to spend the next two months training him how to cultivate light and then we¡¯re going to move there as a family. I worked it out with Sin last night, in return for a few weapons and teaching some of his clan how to smith he¡¯ll let us stay there.¡± ¡°Oh, so I¡¯m not losing my baby?¡± ¡°Our baby!¡± Mom leaped in the air, going to give my dad her ¡°I¡¯m happy¡± hug. While all of this was going on, my brother had finished gathering up all of his things, and was about to leave when he suddenly asked me, ¡°Why were you so interested in Nicholas Freeney anyway? You didn¡¯t know who he is.¡± ¡°Apparently, Nicholas Freeney is my true-name.¡± Everyone froze in place. My brother¡¯s bookbag fell to the floor, splitting open and spilling all of his gathered school things. My mom froze in mid leap, seeming to hang in mid-air for a second before gravity finally took over again, slamming her into my father who was waiting to catch her in a bear-hug, but forgot to because he was too busy staring at me. ¡°Why are you looking at me like that?¡± I asked as I watched my mom collapse on the floor. My brother was the first to recover, then he started yelling, ¡°Stop lying! Everyone knows that he sacrificed his soul to the Overlord of Lightning.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Jack, shut up.¡± said my father sternly before turning to me and saying, ¡°There is a way you can show your status to others. You can choose what you want to show, I¡¯ll teach you how to before we get to the academy. But, for now I want you to say Show Full Nameplate.¡± ¡°Show Full Nameplate.¡±
NameNicholas Smith-Elenwood
True NameNicholas Freeney
Titles
The Journalist; The Demon-Mage; The Forgiven; One With Lightning; Son of Fire; Friend of Yama; Defiler of Fate
¡°WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!¡± (All three of them) ¡°How is this possible? He should¡¯ve been destroyed, never to be reborn!¡± Asked my mom. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but we have to keep this a secret.¡± Said my dad, then he pulled her away and whispered to her so softly that I could only barely make it out, ¡°You know how crazy the church would go if they knew. He¡¯s practically the ninth god in their eyes.¡± ¡°I know, we¡¯ll keep this a complete secret.¡± She started speaking louder, ¡°Jack, I¡¯m sorry love but I¡¯m going to have to modify your memory. This is too big a secret, and you¡¯re not strong enough to protect your mind yet.¡± Then, she started chanting in some wierd language and a flash of light shot across the room and into Jack¡¯s eyes. He passed out, ¡°Guess we¡¯ll have to send a message to the school, he¡¯ll be out of it all day.¡± She muttered. Then, she turned to me and her face turned stern. ¡°Now, you will tell NO ONE who you are! Also, I know you are a little mischievous and that is fine but if I catch you going crazy and falling into depravity again then I¡¯ll kick your ass!¡± ¡°What¡¯s depravity mean?¡± I asked, while scrunching my face up confusedly. ¡°HAHAHAHAHAHA¡± Dad¡¯s laughter rocked the room as my mom facepalmed. ¡°You¡¯ll understand eventually¡­ Hmm¡­ Honey, I think we need to buy a journal for him.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Well, he has this title, ¡°The Journalist.¡± and his original journal is quite famous...¡± ¡°I never thought I¡¯d say this, but that¡¯s a good idea!¡± And that¡¯s why I¡¯m now forced to write in this journal every night! It¡¯s hell! I can barely read in the first place, how should I know how to write?!?!¡± Book Two: Chapter Three - Two Months Chapter Three - Two Months Over the period of the next two months my journal entries kind of¡­ degenerated. The first one was quite the masterpiece (for a 6 year, 1 day old). But, then again I had a lot to write about. Of course, it was very messy and nearly unreadable but hidden within it were gems of the truth. It brought back memories. Unfortunately, not every day is as exciting as the day you turn six. Actually, maybe it is fortunate looking back I have too many ¡°exciting¡± day¡¯s in my life to count. Anyway, this is a representation of events that took place over the course of the next two months. From July 6th, 1962 S.A. to October 1st, S.A. Bored¡­ Mom is spending all of her time torturing Jack. Or, at least I think that¡¯s what she¡¯s doing. Every time I walk by the room I see a blinding light and constant cries of, ¡°Please Momma, it hurts!¡± At first, I wanted to join in the training; after all I have a lesser blessing of light too, but as I went to ask I started to hear the screaming and feel the heat coming from the room. Just getting close, it felt as if I had been baked by the sun¡­ Nope, not for me! So, I decided to go check out the forge. Normally, dad was all too pleased to have me around. For days after the testing he¡¯d say, ¡°It¡¯s all because your a Smith that you got the Greater Blessing of Fire. You¡¯ve been around fire since you were an egg in your moms belly! It''s the secret of our family¡¯s success, all of us have it! Although, I¡¯m kind of sad you only got a lesser blessing of Earth; you¡¯ll need to work on that if you any hope of succeeding me someday!¡± Of course, he never was able to explain why other blacksmiths¡¯ sons and daughters didn¡¯t all have Greater Blessings... Anyway, he kicked me out! For the first time since I could ever remember I wasn¡¯t allowed in. Apparently, he made a crazy deal with Sin, Syndra¡¯s dad, so that we could move into his home in the City of Creation while I went to school there. Of course, I had no idea at the time what the deal meant; it wasn¡¯t until I got to school that I realized just how freaking crazy my old man is. I opened the door to the smithy, and the heat was higher than it¡¯d ever been before. Smoke was billowing so forcefully that as soon as I opened the door it rushed out; as if a vacuum was sucking it out. When the smoke cleared, I saw my dad with the most serious expression I had ever seen, covered in a bluish haze that turned red at its tips. It took me a couple of seconds to realize, but the haze was flickering! ¡°Dad, you''re on fire!¡± I yelled out, scared. ¡°Huh?¡± He turned towards me, finally his expression turned from serious to angry. ¡°Get out! Can¡¯t you see I¡¯m trying to make a legendary weapon damnit! If I mess this up then Sin won¡¯t let me stay in his villa!¡± Of course, I didn¡¯t really know what a villa was, but I figured it was some kind of fancy house since we were supposed to be staying with him. I was kind of upset at the time, so I slammed the door as hard as I could and stalked off. Those first six years, I never really had any friends. Mom and dad weren¡¯t worried about it since they figured that I¡¯d make friends when I started school, and they weren¡¯t so busy that I needed other people to play around with. Actually, I kind of got a feeling that my Mom was jealous of anyone my age might become my friend¡­ Anyway, this left me with some hard choices to make! By this time I¡¯d spent nearly an entire week just lazing around the house, doing nothing, and the boredom was enough to drive me to desperation. It was so bad that I even asked my Mom help me start training, despite how scary it was, and how much my brother was pleading for her to stop¡­ ¡°Mommy, can you train me too?¡± ¡°Honey, you can¡¯t start training until you go to school. There, they explain everything and you get to pick what you want to train in after you finish reading the first volume of Nicholas Freeney¡¯s journal.¡± ¡°Then what am I supposed to do? Dad won¡¯t let me in the Smith to play like usual, you¡¯re too busy teaching brother, I have nothing to do!¡± ¡°Go play with your friends!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have any!¡± ¡°What about that boy across the street, Adin?¡± ¡°You scared him away with a glare, then after speaking to his parents they moved out of the city!¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ Now I remember... Yes, sorry honey. Why don¡¯t you get a headstart on your required reading? Go to your brothers¡¯ room and find the first volume of Nicholas Freeney¡¯s journal. Most nobles start reading it before going to school so they can get a head start.¡± ¡°Nobles? Why should you compare them to me?¡± ¡°Honey, just go read the book. Your brother is attempting to escape again, and I need to go punish him.¡± She said, placing her hand on my head and forcibly turning me around before patting me on the head. ¡°I love you!¡± She called out as I was pushed out of the room. With nothing better to do, I started up the stairs towards his bedroom. Behind me I could hear my mom¡¯s calm voice, ¡°I know it hurts, but I¡¯m doing this because I love you. In another month you¡¯ll be qualified to enter the best school in the world!¡± ¡°NO! MOM! PLEASE STOP! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!¡± Cold sweat started flowing down my face as I realized I¡¯d just dodged a bullet. ¡°Thank god she refused to train me...¡± I walked away, attempting to tune out my brother¡¯s screams. I failed miserably. After shutting the door to my room, I was able to block most of the noise coming from downstairs. So, I sat cross-legged on my bed and began reading the most-read book of all time. I was kind of excited, after hearing my brother calling me a stupid, ignorant dumb-ass I couldn¡¯t help but think that the book was important. I opened the cover, and began reading slowly out loud. ¡°The Journal of the Demon-Mage Freeney. Volume One of Ten.¡± Wait, am I expected to read all ten?!?!? I stared at it, flipping to the index page¡­ there were over 10,000 pages in the first volume! WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?! I turned back because I had noticed that the page before had a lot of writing on it. ¡°This is a copy of the first volume of Nicholas Freeney¡¯s famous journals, which is provided to every first year student at every academy free of charge. When he wrote his journals, he created a brand new magic that no one has since been able to learn or disable. Using this magic, he made it impossible for anyone to alter any copy of his journal or any book in his library in anyway. Even more amazingly, he cast a spell of illusion that makes it seem as if he¡¯s reading the book to you. The further you get, the more you come to understand him, the louder he becomes. Finally, he made it so that in order to read the books of his library you must read his journal. The first volume allows you to read about 50% of the books in the library, almost all focusing on the early stages of cultivation. Every student must complete this volume in order to begin their cultivation, as all cultivation methods, even the divine methods given to us by the gods, can only be found in his library.¡± You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. ¡°Many students find it difficult to comprehend much of what Nicholas Freeney wrote in his journal, but what you have to understand is that the world was literally different back then. It was much smaller, its entirety had long since been explored, and while he lived no god was involved in the rule of the planet. Because of this, the world was in a perpetual state of chaos; all of the races of man were constantly at war with each other. Slavery, discrimination, hate, all were common before he changed the world forever. In his writings, you will find yourself immersed into a world of desperation and repression which was thankfully gone by the time of my own birth. A time where even reaching the third rank was an unimaginable feat in the eyes of all but the great clans who hoarded all of the resources and cultivation techniques.¡± ¡°His journal combined with his library are greatest gifts that a mortal has ever given to the world. It singlehandedly destroyed the oppression of the great clans, and taught the world that anyone, no matter how humble their birth, can reach for great power.¡± ¡°Pope Alexander IV¡± ¡®Alexander IV? Isn¡¯t he the pope who received the Blessing of the Creator? I wonder if he¡¯s still alive.¡¯ I shrugged my shoulders in thought, figuring I should go ask my parents about some of the words that I didn¡¯t recognize. Heading downstairs, I couldn¡¯t find anyone and got bored again so I decided to keep reading at the kitchen table. Flipping through the book, I came to the beginning. As I started reading, an old yet prideful voice seemed to ring through my head. With every word, every sentence, he got louder until the words came to life. Preface ¡°For as long as I can remember, people have been coming to me and asking, ¡°How did you get so strong?¡± Or, ¡°Did you really kill a dragon?¡± Now, I like these kinds of questions. I¡¯ve always enjoyed telling a tall tale or two. Hell, if you get me drunk enough, I might even tell a true tale. The problem is, after enough tales people start to actually believe you. Worse, tell a tale of how you saved a princess, defeated a kingdom single handedly, and then spent a night with Aphrodite enough times and kings start coming to you asking for your aid. Underneath all the bullshit and fun tales I made up to entertain village children, I¡¯m actually fairly strong. That thing about killing a dragon? Well, yea. But it was a baby dragon, maybe a year old. Damned thing still nearly killed me! Saved a princess? Well, there are a LOT of princess out there and some, hell most, of them are idiots¡­ of course not all of them felt ¡°saved¡± after I was done with them. All the tales talk about how a princess is supposed to reward her ¡°Savior¡±, and I don¡¯t work for free. ¡°HEHEHEHEHE¡± Thinking back, I guess I have destroyed a few kingdoms too, so maybe I¡¯m not quite so full of shit as I thought. It¡¯s quite easy to do now that I think of it. Step one, piss off a mommy dragon by killing her son. Step two, hide in kingdom of your choice¡¯s royal palace. Step three, watch it burn!!! ¡°Muhahahahahaha.¡± *Cough* *Cough* *WHEEEZE* ¡°Damn, I can¡¯t even laugh maniacally anymore.¡± Sadly, I¡¯m afraid to say that thing with Aphrodite never happened, I would¡¯ve settled for the Empress, but well¡­ she hates me now. I really enjoyed my life, I started writing this journal when I was 10 years old. Now, nearly a thousand years later, it is finally time for me to die. In my final moments I find myself reliving my life, and realizing that all I brought to this world was destruction and hate. Well, I can¡¯t heal anyone or atone for the wrongs that I did throughout my life. Honestly, I don¡¯t really regret them much anyway. After a thousand years of life you come to realize that you are who you are. Anyway, I decided that in a final act of graciousness I¡¯d lift my middle finger in salute to the rulers of the world one final time! If you are reading this, then you¡¯ve found my library. Within lies the secrets to cultivation and the galaxy that I spent my life accruing! In the final few years of my life I raided the secret rooms of all the great clans, hunted through the most dangerous and ancient of relics, and all of it is here!¡± That was when my dad came into the room, grabbing a beer before sitting down at the table and somehow breaking the spell as he took a deep pull on the beverage. He seemed exhausted, as if he had just run a few marathons back to back, but I was excited that I finally had someone to ask about the book. Quickly, I asked, ¡°Dad, what¡¯s slavery mean?¡± ¡°What? Where¡¯d you hear that word?¡± ¡°Well, mom told me to start reading this¡± I showed him the huge book that I¡¯d lugged downstairs with me, ¡°and I was reading the note at the beginning but it had a lot of words I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ I¡¯m too tired to deal with that tonight, so how about you go to bed. I¡¯m done with Sin¡¯s request, so how about tomorrow you bring that with you into the smithy while I work and read it outloud. Anything you don¡¯t understand I¡¯ll explain it to you.¡± So, that¡¯s how I spent my next two months. Reading the first volume of the massive journal that I¡¯d apparently written thousands of years ago while my dad explained the parts I didn¡¯t understand to me. Apparently, for most people they only start hearing the old man¡¯s voice as they reach the 5th or 6th volume. Maybe I really am the reincarnation of that old guy... Book Two - Chapter Four: Journey A/N: So, I promised this like two weeks ago; I''m sorry! I just found myself in the midst of a crazy writers block. Hopefully, I''ll be able to move past it and start writing again. Chit Chapter Four - Journey As many of you know, the road between the great cities is extremely dangerous. Powerful monsters taking advantage of the dense mana and essence inside of humans to evolve, bandits so powerful they could form kingdoms, secretive clans killing off potential rivals, and scariest of all¡­ my mom. Today, we finally left for the City of Creation as a family! The final convoy from the church taking people to the City of Creation had already left a few weeks previously, and we were cutting it close. So, that day mom rushed down the stairs; glaring at my brother. He had yet to complete his training, but was given a reprieve starting the week before because my mom thought he was close enough that he could finish his training by himself. The sound of my brothers sobs of happiness kept me up all night when he was finally released from his torment. Seeing mother¡¯s glare, I could see that he¡¯d kept her up all night as well... I once again realized just how lucky I was that mom couldn¡¯t train me. Standing in front of the city¡¯s gates for the first time in my life, I felt a sort of awe. For all my life I had lived in a mid-sized home, only going out to the market with my mother during the day. So, for the first time I realized just how big, how beautiful the city is. It¡¯s magnificent; the ever burning torch of Solaris reaching high into the sky, the play of the light and shadow in the predawn light. Truly, I didn¡¯t want to leave. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I sat on the front of the family carriage as we made our way down the wide, cobbled stone high-road towards the City of Creation. All around us, hundreds of carriages were going in both directions along the road. Some carriages pulled by horses, some by massive beasts; one massive carriage that must¡¯ve weighed 20 tons was even pulled by a tiny golden rodent who kept pace with another team of nearly 15 horses pulling an identical massive carriage in front of it. However, none of these beasts or carriages were as eye catching as ours. We didn¡¯t have a beast pulling our carriage; instead my mother sat on top of it while meditating with her eyes closed. Lightning coated the carriage as it rocketed around, over, and sometimes through the slower carriages around us. Turning to look at the carnage left in our wake, I couldn¡¯t help but wonder why the guards patrolling the high-road hadn¡¯t arrested us! Just now, I saw one carriage that had ventured into our path burst open, an old man seizing on the ground. I¡¯m pretty sure murder is against the law! For the last two weeks, we had been traveling non-stop. The entire time, mom was in this weird trance-like state and I could somehow feel the electricity pouring out of her. When I asked my dad if she was ok without eating, he responded, ¡°The lightning feeds her far better than any meat or vegetables could possibly.¡± Whispering under his breath, I could just barely make out my brother saying in awe, ¡°Sustained by the elements¡­¡± Every couple of miles we¡¯d pass a guard tower with one or two people standing outside of it. Usually, they just stood there looking bored, but as we passed by they would always straighten up looking surprised and snap a brisk salute. This drew my attention, and as I craned my neck backwards too look up the massive six story edifice I asked, ¡°Why are there so few guards? I thought that the high-road was extremely dangerous to travel.¡± ¡°These are just lookouts, they use signal fires on top of the towers to call for reinforcements that are kept at garrison cities along the road.¡± ¡°Why are there so many people on the high-road? Everyone in the market is always talking about how desolate and lonely it is.¡± ¡°We¡¯re still in the Kingdom of Fire; sometime later today we¡¯ll pass into the wild lands in between the Kingdom of Fire and the City of Creation. Very few merchants make that journey, and only the strongest fighters, mages, and mercenaries do. If bandits don¡¯t get you, magical beasts will.¡± ¡°What?!? Then how do all the kids get to the City of Creation to go to school?¡± ¡°The academy takes them usually; or if their parents are strong enough they do. We¡¯ll be meeting up with Sin and Syndra later today at the border garrison. Between Sin, your mother, and me¡­ no bandit or beast would dare to attack us.¡± I wanted to keep asking questions, but the carriage suddenly started slowing down and not far in front of us stood a nearly forty foot tall wall with a gaping standing open. For some reason, the merchants in front of us were all being moved to the side of the road. For the first time in weeks I heard my mother speak. ¡°Get inside and get cleaned up! I won¡¯t have my sons looking and smelling like shit!¡± She seems cranky; I bet she¡¯s just hungry. I suspected for a while now that my dad was lying when he said that lightning sustained her better than food¡­ While my brother and I scrambled to get changed, the carriage kept slowing down, finally coming to a stop. Finally presentable, I stepped back onto the bench on the front of the carriage and was amazed to see nearly two-hundred men dressed in dark-purple robes bow down to my mother, who stood with her arms crossed under her breasts, her mouth with a tick in it¡¯s left corner. In front of her stood a familiar looking man with a long, flowing beard of white smile broadly while his eyes gleamed with mirth. ¡°What are YOU doing here?¡± ¡°Is that anyway to talk to your beloved uncle?¡± *SNORT* ¡°You used to be so cute too! Where is that little girl who used to burn cakes and cookies before taking them over to my place. I miss her!¡± *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM* Lightning fell from the clear sky, engulfing the smug looking man. *AAHAHA OOOO HEHEHE AHHAHAHA* Weird sounds emerged from the location where the man used to be standing, and as my eyes regained their ability to focus I saw him dancing weirdly. ¡°That¡¯s not nice. You know I¡¯m ticklish!¡± ¡°What are you doing here old man?!?!¡± ¡°Well, you did leave the clan on short notice! It took us a long time to find you, but the Clan Leader left emphatic orders to take you home the moment you left Solaris! He was quite pissed when he found out who you married; you know the clan''s¡¯ rules! However, that changed after our spies reported Nicholas¡¯ gifts. We are here to escort you to the City of Creation; the clan leader is already there awaiting your arrival.¡± ¡°Dad left the forest? He hasn¡¯t done that for nearly a thousand years! Wait, does this mean that he won¡¯t fight me over my choice anymore?¡± You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. ¡°Honestly, if he was truly against it you wouldn¡¯t have escaped so easily¡­¡± For the first time since seeing her uncle, my mother lowered her arms; her face crumpling as tears started to gather at the corners of her eyes. Finally, she ran forward and hugged him tight. Next to me, my brother was nearly apoplectic, ¡°I must be dreaming¡­ No, this is impossible¡­ She¡¯s crying?!?! After all those times she yelled at me for being a wimp!¡± ¡°Uncle Sam!!!!¡± *Sniff* ¡°I missed you so much, I thought I¡¯d never see you again.¡± Commence the crying, sniffling, hugging, tickling, etc¡­ Apparently in mom¡¯s family reunions take FOREVER! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nearly four hours later, the sun was starting to set; the hoards of merchants stuck behind us are beginning to revolt, and the snuffling is finally dying down... Thank the gods! The wet, disheveled pair finally broke apart and my dad approached them with a giant smile on his face. ¡°Hey Sam, it¡¯s been awhile.¡± ¡°Nathan! You know I thought the next time we met it¡¯d be a fight to the death! Running off with my niece like that.. if I didn¡¯t like you so much I¡¯d roast you where you stand.¡± ¡°AHAHAHAHA¡± My father¡¯s laughter resounded throughout the opening, ¡°You might find that a little difficult, but that¡¯s enough. My kids are bored, it¡¯s getting dark, and we were supposed to meet up with Sin and Syndra hours ago!¡± ¡°They¡¯re at the inn we bought, if we¡¯re lucky Sin hasn¡¯t finished eating all the meat in the city.¡± My mom having finally dried her eyes, she came over to my brother and I. Hugging us both, she led us over to her uncle, ¡°Kids, this is your Uncle Sam. Sam, this is Jack, and this is Nick.¡± ¡°My very own Grand-Nephews!¡± We were both swept into a huge bear-hug, and carried towards the entrance to the city. ¡°Welcome to the Phoenix''s Nest; the border of the Empire of Fire!¡± ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Over the next two weeks, I got to know Uncle Sam; along with some of the 200 men that followed him. Apparently, they were all members of generation directly before mine of my mother¡¯s clan, yet they seemed unwilling to explain exactly what clan we belonged too. Apparently; Sam, Sin, and mom and dad were old friends and with the overabundance of young, fairly strong lightning mages mom was able to take a break from driving the carriage. The smells of pipe tobacco and alcohol, along with the sound of laughter could be heard coming from Uncle Sam''s¡¯ carriage day and night. Jack had disappeared, joining some of the younger guards in some games involving dice and more money than I thought he had. This left me alone with Syndra for the most part; which was a problem. I¡¯ve never had any friends before, and I honestly had no clue how to interact with her. Unfortunately, I wasn¡¯t the only awkward one so we spent nearly two weeks sitting in a painful silence, watching the road and avoiding eye-contact. Finally, unable to stand the silence any longer I went into our carriage and brought out Nicholas Freeney¡¯s Journal, starting to read again. I had gotten so into the habit of reading out loud over the last month with my dad that I subconsciously began to read aloud as the carriage rocketed through the wilderness. ¡°Many people think that I had a blessed childhood; after all during my time only the noblest and richest of people knew how to cultivate, and only the noblest of bloodlines were able to create great mages. The truth is my father, The Arch-Duke of Cantz, was insane. The Freeney clan was nearly exterminated during his childhood, and as a result he was the only remaining member of the bloodline. In an attempt to ensure the survival of his bloodline he bought every slave he could with even a sliver of magical talent, raped, and even kidnapped noblewomen. Keeping them in a sex dungeon the likes of which the world had never seen before. I was born the son of Jason Freeney and Alinda Bowman. She was the first daughter of the Emperor, and with her kidnapping and rape, Jason Freeney destroyed any hope for the Freeney clan¡¯s restoration. In his rage, the Emperor killed every single slave, wife, kidnap victim, and child, before finally killing Jason Freeney. I was the only survivor, given to an orphanage run by the Empire, my existence wiped from history. My mother went on to marry and bear many brothers and sisters, but I wouldn¡¯t meet any of them until much later. That should¡¯ve been the end of my story; born in disgrace, abandoned in a poor orphanage run by the state. I should¡¯ve been sold into slavery or apprenticed to a blacksmith, living and dying in obscurity. Sometimes, I wish I had¡­ As much as the Emperor might¡¯ve wished it, it was impossible to stop the rumors of the genius child; the final remaining heir to the Freeney bloodline, son of the first princess herself. Quietly, many clans, and even entire nations launched investigations hoping to find and adopt me. However, they never found me. Instead, as the rumors spread my mother confided in the one person she trusted my name and location. It was thus that I came to be adopted by Archibald Younger, Principal of the Imperial Academy¡­ ¡° As I read, the familiar, elderly voice superimposed itself over my own, and I found myself seeing through his eyes. Pictures flashing through my mind of the sex dungeon, Alinda, the Emperor, the orphanage, Archibald¡­ Finally, I felt someone touch me, breaking me from the trance. Turning, Syndra took her arm off mine and I saw her staring at me in astonishment. For the first time in over two-weeks of travel she spoke to me. ¡°What was that?!?!¡± ¡°What was what?¡± ¡°That¡­ That voice. I¡¯ve read that passage already, and I never heard that voice, or seen those images before.¡± ¡°My dad says that when someone is synced with Nicholas Freeney that they stop reading the journals, and instead they have a spell of illusion placed upon them where they hear Nicholas Freeney speaking; as if he were telling his story to you personally.¡± ¡°WHAT?!?! That voice was Nicholas Freeney¡¯s?¡± Covering her mouth of my hand hastily, ¡°SHH!!!! I¡¯m not supposed to show off this ability, most people don¡¯t start hearing his voice until they get to the fifth journal.¡± Pulling my hand off her mouth, she looked around before speaking quietly, ¡°Can you keep going? This is so much more interesting than just reading it!¡± ¡°Ok, but let''s go inside the carriage, that way others won''t see.¡± The ice finally broken, the awkwardness ended, Syndra and I forged an unending, deep friendship over the final two weeks of the journey to the City of Creation. Book Two - Chapter Five: Catching Up A/N: This is chapter is a little more world building with a bit of action added in. Next chapter the plot will start moving again; expect it Friday or Saturday. I also wanted to thank those of you that comment/review/message. It makes a big difference to have the feedback and support. Finally, this weekend I finally broke down and started a side project for fun. I explained why I did it on the page, just if you''re interested it''s here. http://royalroadl.com/fiction/3864 It won''t slow down Journal''s of Cultivation; really it was something I''m just doing for fun and won''t have a scheduled release. Chapter Five - Catching Up I was really jealous when I finally got to school; they all had crazy stories of defeating monsters and bandits. Some of them were even true! Yet, on my first trip to the City of Creation nobody bothered us¡­ In fact we didn¡¯t even see anyone or anything else until we caught up with the church¡¯s escort force. It¡¯s nearly December already, and we only have another month to make it to the City of Creation. I finally understand why the church sends its convoys 2 months in advance, the distance between Solaris and Creation is just astounding to me. Even more astounding though is the speed at which we travelled; we left over three weeks after the Church¡¯s convoy did and yet we caught up with them nearly a week before we entered the safe lands around the City of Creation. The trip up to this point had actually been a disappointment. Because of Uncle Sam my parents and Sin had disappeared into an alcohol and smoke induced debauchery that could be heard 24/7¡­ Don¡¯t they need to sleep?!?! My brother had also disappeared, but I didn¡¯t really mind that. Honestly, the worst part about it all is that Uncle Sam brought with him over a hundred talented young clansmen. To compare, the church sent twenty fairly powerful babysitters for the nearly two-hundred students they were escorting, my uncle brought over a hundred for three kids¡­ not even counting him, Sin, and my parents. I think it is for this reason that with only a week left on our journey through the untamed lands on the high-road between Solaris and the City of Creation I had not seen a single beast, demon, monster, dragon, bandit¡­ hell the most exciting thing I¡¯d seen is a mosquito who got zapped by a bolt of lightning for coming too close to my mother. I was bored¡­ and so was Syndra. Now that we were talking, it wasn¡¯t nearly as bad; but the Journal of Nicholas Freeney is rather intense for a 6 and a half year old¡­ We needed to take long and frequent breaks. Which is why I am currently dozing while laying down on top of a cloth covered wagon. Ahead of our convoy, a voice shouts, STOP!¡± I turned over in my sleep, mumbling, ¡°No, mom¡­ just another 10 minutes¡­¡± A different voice shouted even louder this time, ¡°My name is Bishop Archibald Sab of the Church of Solaris! In the name of Solaris, I order you to cease and desist!¡± That shout was loud enough to wake me up, and I sat up slowly, yawning as I wipe away the green buggers that always accumulated in the corners of my eyes as I sleep. ¡°AHAHAHAHAHA; We¡¯re not in the safe-zone friend, your church has no say here! Men, ATTACK!!!¡± That fully awakened me, and I bolted off my perch, leapt off the wagon and raced towards the front of the convoy. At the time, we were heading up a fairly steep hill and the ground was kind of muddy so we were taking our time. When I finally crested the top of the hill, I doubled over wheezing. My dad seeing this came over and slapped me on the back, hard. The slap sent me into a coughing fit that took me nearly a minute to recover from. ¡°That¡­ Didn¡¯t¡­ Help¡­¡± By the time I finally recovered, everyone from our convoy was standing the top of the hill looking down into a valley a thousand meters below. Down there, the twenty men from the church were surrounded by nearly 50 bandits. The scene was unbelievable to me who had never before seen magic on a grand scale. Somehow, an earthen rampart standing nearly 50 feet tall had been conjured and surrounded the churchmen. A barrier of pure white light surrounded them, comets of fire plunging from the sky onto the bandits obliterating them effortlessly. In just the few moments that I¡¯d watched nearly half of the bandits were down, not moving. The rest however responded with even more force. A laugh began resounding as the bandit¡¯s leader was struck over and over again. He pulled a massive great-sword off his back and swung it almost lazily. *BOOOOOOM* The fireballs were split in half by a wave of pure force that continued on and crashed into the earthen ramparts splitting them open in an instant. If not for the barrier of light, everyone within the ramparts would¡¯ve died instantly. ¡°Now that¡¯s a true-man!¡± Yelled my dad in excitement, astounding me. ¡°But, dad! He¡¯s a bandit, and he¡¯s attacking the church! Why do you sound like you admire him?¡± ¡°Son, you have to understand that we are no longer in the safe areas maintained by the gods; out here there is only one law. The strong rule. That man has managed to become quite powerful while living outside of the safety of the Gods¡¯ embrace. That, is a true man.¡± ¡°HA!¡± My mom started laughing playfully, ¡°Admit it, you just miss fighting. Although I must say bandit¡¯s are pretty low, even for your standards.¡± ¡°Honey, please!¡± My dad¡¯s face changed, seeming to pout as he attempted to look like a puppy¡­ Amazingly, it worked. ¡°Fine! Just don¡¯t hurt them too bad.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be right back!¡± The ground beneath my dad exploded as fire surrounded him and he shot like a rocket into the middle of the brawl. In moments, the laughing bandit and my crazy father were fighting¡­ they were so similar that I couldn¡¯t tell them apart from this far away. Turning to my mom, I asked, ¡°Did dad used to be a bandit? He and that guy seem so similar, almost like family.¡± ¡°HAHAHAHA, I¡¯ll have to tell him you said that! No, he didn¡¯t used to be a bandit; he just loves fighting more than anything else in this world.¡± The convoy had resumed its journey, making its way toward the battlefield as if nothing was happening. Below, five bandits surrounded my dad with pikes moved in for the kill. As I was starting to worry, he slammed the ground with his fist and a sea of fire covered the area. It was so hot that the metal of the pikes melted, and as the fire and dust cleared away the bandits closest to him had turned into metal sculptures of men in agony. The bandit leader finally noticed us, and the banner the outriders of the convoy were flying. In a moment he called off the attack, the twenty remaining bandits fleeing into the forest along the road-side in haste. My dad made as if to chase them down, but a single shout of ¡°NATHAN!¡± from my mother halted him in his tracks. With a sheepish grin, he turned back around and walked back towards us. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. *Slap* My mother slapped him in the face, then said, ¡°I told you to go easy on them! You playing with those children is just abuse.¡± ¡°Sorry honey, I just hadn¡¯t fought in so long I lost myself.¡± ¡°Hmph¡­ If you really wanted a fight you could¡¯ve asked me or Uncle Sam.¡± A look of horror flashed on his face as his whole body went pale and sweat started pouring off him, ¡°Please, that¡¯d be the true abuse!¡± At this point, the barrier had been collapsed by the men from the church. The children following them gaped as they saw the sculptures of metal combined with the cracked high-road. The fire had been so hot that even the magically reinforced road had cracked. A man dressed in red robes with the mark of a bishop approached us and bowed to my father. ¡°Thank you for your help. My name is Bishop Archibald Sab, may I enquire as to the identity of our benefactors.¡± ¡°My name is Nathan Smith, and don¡¯t worry about it. I was just having some fun, it¡¯s been awhile since I got in a decent brawl.¡± ¡°Nathan Smith?¡± The clergy around them gasped, ¡°Sir, what are you doing here? A national treasure able to create legendary items shouldn¡¯t be out in the wilds with so few guards!¡± I turned to look at my mom¡¯s clansmen; two-hundred is too few? What the hell! ¡°Well my kids are going to school in the City of Creation and my wife refused to be separated from them and I refuse to be separated from her. As for the guards, we weren¡¯t planning on taking any by my wife¡¯s family can be annoyingly persistent sometimes.¡± ¡°Sir, please hurry to the City of Creation! You shouldn¡¯t have shown yourself to help us we would¡¯ve been fine and now I¡¯m sure that some of the great powers will move to attempt to kidnap you!¡± ¡°Bah, they wouldn¡¯t dare. As for hurrying, if you¡¯d like a ride I think we have enough room in the wagons for you and the kids. I bet Syndra and Nick would enjoy the company, anyway.¡± ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A week later, the churchmen and kids were amazed to find themselves inside of the City of Creation¡¯s safe-zone. They had figured it¡¯d take another two to three weeks to finish the trek through the wilderness. My mom finally pulled me aside to explain how status works a couple of days ago. Apparently, whenever you enter a safe-zone you¡¯re required to show your status to the border-guards. That way, wanted criminals found it much more difficult to sneak in. ¡°When you start school they will explain what each of your blessings mean, and the advantages having a blessing gives someone. They¡¯ll also explain the status cards to you, but before you get there you need to understand at least a little bit of it. According to lore, the status plates were introduced by Yama, The Head Judge. Most people don¡¯t know how or why they were created, but a while back one of our ancestors was actually granted an audience with Yama. He¡¯d always wondered why the status plates existed, and he worked up the courage to ask.¡± ¡°What? How do you get an audience with Yama?¡± ¡°I have no clue, don¡¯t interrupt me! Anyway, Yama said that God¡¯s get bored after awhile and in an attempt to curb their boredom a group of them created something called an RPG. I have no clue what it means, but it¡¯s some kind of game that only the God¡¯s can play. Anyway, in this game you¡¯re given information about the character you play such as affinities, abilities, stats, etc¡­ Once again, I have no clue what ¡°Stats¡± means in the context of a game, but the most important part of this is that these games inspired Yama while he was creating this world. Apparently, the Status is a way for the God¡¯s and your previous self to give you a goal in this life. You can choose whether or not to follow these goals, but if you do then the God¡¯s will give you some help in the form of advice as well as rewards for completing these goals.¡± ¡°So, what you need to do is open up your status and say, ¡°Show All Goals¡±. Still confused about what the hell an RPG could mean I said, ¡°Show all goals.¡± after I¡¯d opened my status. In front of me, the familiar status screened appeared out of thin air. Then, it blinked, changing.
Goals
Bringer of Life and Happiness(Personal)
In your previous life as Nicholas Freeney you brought despair and destruction was synonymous with your name. At the end of your life you realized the value of life, and wished to correct the wrongs you had done. While at times you must kill, widespread destruction is harmful to your psyche and should be avoided.
Rewards:Happiness
Penalties:Kill too many, too arbitrarily, and your soul may fall into darkness and despair
Master Summoner(Solaris and Raiju)
Solaris and Raiju wish for you to become a Master Summoner.
Rewards:A powerful spirit to aid you.
Penalties:N/A
Master of the Elements(The Creator)
As someone with blessings in all seven elements you have great potential. The creator wishes for you to live up to your great potential by becoming the master of all elements.
Step 1:Become Immortal
Mastering all elements will take thousands upon thousands of years. The first step is to become Immortal and travel the world gaining insights through fighting the most powerful of creatures to ever exist.
Advice:Train in Earth. It is far easier for you to become an Immortal by training in Fire and Lightning, but doing so will make it nearly impossible for you to train in Earth later on.
Rewards:??????
I stared at the screen, re-reading it over and over again for a long time. Finally, I was awakened by my mother saying, ¡°It¡¯s ok if you don¡¯t have a goal yet, or only have a single personal goal. As you figure out what you want to do with your life goals and rewards will appear.¡± Shaking my head, I cleared my throat before speaking, ¡°I have three goals, to bring life and happiness, to become a master summoner, and to master all the elements.¡± Shocked, my mother asked with a shaky voice, ¡°Who gave those goals?¡± ¡°Well, I gave myself the Bringer of Life goal. Solaris and Raiju gave me the Master Summoner goal, it even says that if I become a master summoner I¡¯ll be given a powerful spirit to aid me. ¡°You must do that one! I¡¯ve heard of this goal before, every single person who has completed it became one of the most powerful and influential people in the world. What about the last one?¡± ¡°The last one comes from the Creator himself.¡± ¡°THE CREATOR!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!¡±