《Re: Elemental God》 Pre-Prologue Part One: Judgement Authors Note: The pre-prologue tells why the main character ends up with the ability and knowledge he has when he is reborn, however knowledge of Tartoro and ¡®her¡¯ will not come for a long time. Pre prologue characters may or may not make a reappearance much later in the story. Before the Prologue there will be a small info dump to explain a little bit about the world (you¡¯ll get more info later as the MC learns). The prologue then sets the stage for the MC¡¯s rebirth before we start the story. I currently have all three parts of the pre-prologue written as well as a side story and the very basic info dump about the world. The rest will be posted when I re-read it all tomorrow to make sure it is valid. Pre-Prologue Part One: Judgement Location: Celestial transport in route to celestial court. View: Main Character (MC will be changed when named after rebirth) (If I don¡¯t say otherwise in later chapters viewpoint is most likely MC and location is a continuation from previous) I¡¯m one of the souls on this bullet train heading to celestial judgement for our most recent lives. It¡¯s way too crowded in here though, and I don¡¯t like crowds to many people to be wary of. Dropping my most recent form, that of a chubby computer scientist, I reform as a ball and float above everyone. I move to the back corner near the door in order to get away from the crush and so I can get out faster when we arrive. This causes some surprise since everyone else is still in the form most comfortable to them, coming from multiple lives on earth that means a human, and usually the form you had in your most recent lifetime. Some don¡¯t even realize they can change, but a few of the more experienced souls follow my lead and float above the press of people. One of the ones looking at me in surprise is a midget, who almost gets squashed because he wasn¡¯t paying attention. With a look of annoyance he suddenly turns into a 7 foot giant. I chuckle with a few other souls as an old granny scolds the now giant for bumping her walker, which is currently fading back into her form as she stands there shaking her finger at him. She is surprised when she reaches for the walker, that she didn¡¯t need in this form, to find it gone. This causes me to chuckle louder. That drama lasted the short amount of time to our destination and the door next to me opens. I float out but pull up short as a flood of information rushes over me for the second time. I would have had a massive headache, if I still had a head, as multiple lifetimes fill my memory now that I am back on the celestial plane. I already went through this when I gained my earthly memories, before getting on the celestial transport, but now memories from other worlds are released. The soul¡¯s memories are dormant while we are using a physical mind to store information and it takes a trigger to awaken them such as ascension, courts, heavenly beings, etc. One of those lifetimes, longer and darker than the others, causes me to float higher and double check my surroundings. As I check that none of the other souls are nightmares I see the golden cloud moving to its next destination. Yes it is no longer the bullet train I rode in on but now a golden cloud. It takes the form of transport for whatever world it goes to, in order to not scare the newer incoming souls, since there had been incidents where souls had to be forced on. After verifying that I am indeed in the celestial court I fly to one of the upper waiting rooms. With the influx of ground based humanoids from earth these rooms should be less crowded. Entering the room with a collection of winged souls and a few of other soul balls like me. I see some fairy like creatures, a few different types of avians, and it looks like some winged lizardmen. I take my place in a ceiling corner, where I can watch the rest of the room. I review my returned knowledge as I wait. After spending a number of lifetimes in a worlds cycle of reincarnation a soul is sent to the celestial planes for judgement. Judgement is made based off of a type of energy that sticks to your soul called Karma. Karma is a form of energy that was spread through the multiverse to make the judgement of souls easier by one of the celestials in charge of judgement, and was named after her. That judgement has five possibilities; time in heaven, hell, or purgatory, immediate reincarnation, and soul stripping. Heaven, Hell, and purgatory are different places a soul can wait as it sheds karma. Heaven is a nice place that also strengthens the soul for those who have a positive karma balance. Purgatory is a boring waiting area without much to do and is for those who have a minor negative balance. Hell is a place that ranges from irritation to torture depending on what level you are assigned for those with negative karma balance. Immediate reincarnation is just like it sounds you go right back into the river of souls to be reincarnated, and is given for those whose balance is basically neutral. Soul stripping is when a soul has its memory, personality, and power taken away reverting the soul back to its base state so that it hopefully turns out better next time. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. I¡¯ve lost count of how many times I¡¯ve been to this place, but this is the second time since my ageless life on the planet of horrors I¡¯d rather not think about. After that universe was destroyed all the souls were thrown back into the river of souls and I spent four nice lifetimes on a peaceful scientific world much more advanced than earth that also had a bit of magic. I was then reincarnated to earth which has progressively become a worse place to live over the past five lifetimes. By the way just as an aside Jews, Christians, and Muslims all pray to the exact same god, and slaughter each other in his name. He is the top god for the planet and none of the holy books were his direct words. They were all written, rewritten, manipulated, translated, and edited by men who used them to keep power. For the most part the gods only interfere when absolutely necessary and are waiting for humanity to wipe itself out. They care only that the planet will be able to sustain sentient life afterwards. Well, all of that aside it¡¯s my turn now as I¡¯ve just been teleported in front of a secretary¡¯s desk. I expect to either be sent to heaven or reincarnated this time since my four trips to judgement on earth sent me to heaven twice, reincarnated once, and once to purgatory once, and I didn¡¯t do anything wrong in my last life. We get judged at the end of each lifetime at a world and then judged for all of the time at the world when we make it back here. I feel the being in front of me scanning my soul, which I don¡¯t like but have to deal with, before I follow him to the office were I will be judged. Entering behind him I watch as the blue humanoid hands the folder he created to the judge, a red ogre looking giant with a horn coming from his forehead. The judge sits behind the desk as the secretary leaves the room. The judge looks at me with a scowl before opening the folder. Scanning the first three pages with a frown he flips to the fourth page. His frown deepens as he looks at what should be a short list of sins I committed while on Earth. I know because I asked to see my folder before and the judge showed it to me before explaining that all folders have the same layout. The first two pages are details on the soul including base personality and power level, the third is an overview of my lives on the most recent world and the more recent worlds I¡¯ve lived. The fourth page is the start of the list of negative karma breaches. After that is positive karma and an overview of each of my lives. The judge generally reads the folder and after that reads the soul to clarify any questions before passing judgement. I sit there expecting this to take a while so I¡¯m surprised when the judge closes the folder after the fourth page, and doesn¡¯t even look at the rest. The atmosphere holds an aura of menace as the judge looks up, which I don¡¯t understand since I did nothing really wrong on earth. I certainly did nothing that would upset the celestial nor have I gotten on the bad side of any gods that matter let alone a celestial. Judge: ¡°So you were on Tartaro, I personally believe that we should strip every soul that was touched by that vile place if not destroy them entirely. Unfortunately I can¡¯t order your soul stripped without reason and that doesn¡¯t include being on that vile place. So save us both some trouble and ask me to strip your soul of its vile taint boy.¡± I shiver just hearing the name of that planet, but it clears up why the judge is hostile. I spent more than one lifetime fighting there, I¡¯m glad I ended up with an ageless body at the time so I could avoid having her play with my soul. After managing to avoid having my soul stripped and remade by her, fighting in a living hell for years, now this red bigot wants to mess with my soul. The light given off from my soul changes from a pale blue to a dark blood red as my rage comes to the fore. Me: ¡°No way you self-righteous prick. I didn¡¯t spend hundreds of years fighting those monstrosities to keep her from playing with my soul just to let you do the same.¡± As I say this I shift into the form I wore back then, still familiar as I spent way too long at war in this body. I form two swords by condensing my spirit power with some of my essence and set the edge vibrating. I prepare to charge this red ogre, it no longer matters that I¡¯m in front of a celestial judge, all that matters is that I have an enemy in front of me. The judge sneers at me. Judge: ¡°Everything from that place is a monstrosity including you. I¡¯ve marked your soul as my enemy. No being of power will help you as the enemy of a celestial and your soul will always be brought to me for judgement. I¡¯ll send you to hell over and over again until I can finally shred your monstrous soul.¡± Feeling him touch upon my soul I charge flying for his head, as he lowers his head to stab me with his horn I unsheathe my left blade cutting the horn as I twist myself over it. Coming down I lash out with my right sword aiming to cut his spine at the back of the neck as he screams. Judge: ¡°GO TO HELL!¡± Pre-Prologue part2: Hell Author¡¯s note: I use his/he and its/it both to refer to the main character here. Why? Because souls don¡¯t have a gender though they may be in the form of one or have a preference of which gender they¡¯d rather be. It is also hard to see the details of a soul¡¯s form especially if it is a weaker soul or from a distance. Since the MC is at the back of a long line Diyu can¡¯t clearly see his form until he gets closer. Pre-prologue part2: Hell Location: Entrance to hell, mortal hell court 4(minor entrance). Viewpoint: Administrator Diyu I sit at my desk in front of a line of souls in one of the processing pavilions at an entrance to hell. This entrance is for mortal souls and I¡¯m one of the administrators who select which level of hell a soul goes to. Along with processing souls I¡¯m also in charge of two junior administrators in the other pavilions at this entrance and 5 minor guardians, at least for the next year before I go on vacation. Celestials working in hell are given quite a few benefits for working in this place. Even the entrance is irritating with the heat, hence the pavilions instead of an actual building. I don¡¯t like my job, the heat is irritating and I have to deal with the nearly the worst of souls. I hope that after my vacation I can work elsewhere. I¡¯ve been stuck at this job for three cycles thanks to an ability I developed working in the courts as a secretary. I don¡¯t like looking at the horrors mortals inflict upon each other so frequently which I see during a soul scan, so I worked on looking at the karma instead. This method is actually faster, less intrusive, and less draining than a scan but the way to read negative and positive karma is different. Since I wanted to avoid looking at so many mortal crimes I focused on reading negative karma, however the efficient technique landed me here. During my vacation I¡¯ll train at reading positive karma and hopefully I can get a position either in heaven or teaching this technique. Hell has three purposes, to punish souls for their crimes, to teach souls to be better, and to remove unbalanced negative karma from souls. Souls are sent to different levels based on their crimes and karma. I generally focus on karma level so I don¡¯t have to scan or read the souls, the darker the color from negative karma the lower they go. I take the next file turning the page to the negative karma breaches as I look at the soul; light gray no major crimes lvl1. Light gray but had armed robbery lvl2, gray lvl4, and so on and so on. While taking a look at the next soul in line I notice the two guardian¡¯s with me shifting. I look to the sides and notice both have their hands on their weapons and are looking near the end of the line. I follow their gaze to see what has put them on edge and see a newly arrived soul, a soul that shouldn¡¯t be here. First what has set the guardians on edge is that this soul has formed two swords out of its essence and power. I take a second look just to be sure of what I¡¯m seeing; this soul shouldn¡¯t be here and someone messed up, BADLY. First this soul has the strength of an immortal, and a skilled one at that since it can form a soul blade. Second this soul still has positive karma attached which should never end up in hell and will cause all kinds of problems if the hell-beasts sense it. Negative and positive karma repel each other weakening the attachment to the soul. When judged the balanced portion of karma is removed before the soul is sent to its destination. Finally this soul has a positive karma balance which should lead to heaven not hell. At least the soul has sheathed its blades, which let the guardians relax slightly. It didn¡¯t absorb them however so while they take their hands off their weapons they keep watching it as it picks something up off the ground. I motion the guardians close. Diyu: ¡°Send a message to the chief administrator and guardian captain that there is an immortal soul with positive karma here. Have the guardians at the other pavilions head back to support the one guarding the entrance and take positions between the pavilions.¡± I turn back to the immortal but there is another soul in the line that is strange. I see a soul that has a densely packed, pitch black, ball of condensed negative karma. I look at the face and see a crazy and frozen eyes. A shiver goes down my spine; that karma color is darker than the souls that get stripped even if it isn¡¯t throughout plus he looks like hell will be a pleasant trip to the park. First I need to deal with the positive karma, hopefully without the hell-beasts noticing and coming up from the lower levels. Then I¡¯ll call the guardians back before dealing with the dark soul. Diyu: ¡°You with the swords come here.¡± The soul walks forward along the line with the guardians¡¯ watching every step as it still has swords, if sheathed. Coming closer I can tell it is in the form of a male humanoid warrior. As he passes the dark soul I see the dark soul¡¯s eyes narrow before his grin gets wider, now looking more like a feral beast bearing its fangs. When the soul is in front of me I see that he still has what he picked up from the ground earlier. It looks like a piece of ivory that comes to a sharp point, a horn or tusk maybe. But where would he have gotten such a thing here, or how did he bring it here. Regardless I scan his soul before picking his file out of the pile on my desk and opening it. He does have a positive karma balance, enough that he should have been sent to heaven. So the judgement I see at the top stuns me. Judge: Senior Judge Hao Verdict: Hell: Level 8+ Judge Hao is known to follow the karma guidelines as though its law. While some judges will adjust the verdict up or down based on the circumstances Hao NEVER has. So it is surprising in the extreme that he would send a soul with a positive karma balance to the lower depths of hell. This soul has also been marked as an enemy by the same judge. I send a message to the chief secretary I worked under at the courts asking for an impartial chief judge for arbitration. After sending the message I move to continue reading the file only to be interrupted by a clamor and shout behind me. It seems that the hell-beasts did notice this soul¡¯s positive karma and a pair managed to break through. This will cause trouble both here and at the nearby entrances. I motion for the guardian to my left to go deal with the strays and support those at the entrance. At the same time the right guardian moves in behind the soul at my desk, hand on sword. I skip to the crimes part of the file to see if there is anything serious that might have angered Judge Hao but they are all minor infractions except vigilante execution, I read that incident from the karma and can see the victim was a nasty piece of work who had played and bought his way out of multiple crimes for rape, murder, kidnapping and more. While there is only a quarter page of crimes there are two pages of positive karma actions. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Taking another look at the warrior in front of me I see that the dark soul is now near the head of the line. My eyes grow wide as the sphere of negative karma in the soul seems to expand and open up, but it isn¡¯t only karma. The energy inside of the sphere is twisted and sickening. I try to shout a warning to the guardian as it pounces, but I was too late. It changes shape in midair and crashes on the guardian¡¯s back before he can turn to face it. Having too much of his attention on the warrior the guardian couldn¡¯t turn around in time as the monstrous beast claws at his back and takes a bite out of his shoulder. I take a look at the warrior, just in case he takes this chance to attack, but he is facing the fight swords drawn and a grim expression on his face. The guardian manages to throw the monster off and awkwardly draws his sword with his left hand, his right arm limp at his side. The beast now facing him looks like a four armed gorilla, but with claws on its hands, fangs in its mouth, and tentacles coming from its back. I have never seen a soul take that form, and its power level grew like crazy. The soul originally had a strong mortal soul but it grew to an immortal level power when it opened the sphere. Now its power level is growing to that of a god! Diyu: ¡°What is that thing!? It doesn¡¯t feel like a hell-beast or void-beast but it isn¡¯t a natural creature, and how did it increase its power so much.¡± MC: ¡°It¡¯s a Nightmare, creature of Tartaro. They feed off of souls and power to get stronger and to create more of themselves, I¡¯m guessing that the flesh and power of a celestial gave it quite a boost.¡± The warrior in front of me turns dark red, and at the edges of his form is a sickly green color. This is a dangerous technique that uses one¡¯s own soul to shred that of the opponent, it is also a suicide technique. At the least it will reduce the power the soul has, more likely strip parts or all of the soul, and potentially destroy the soul completely. At this level it could even slightly wound a lower celestial like myself if he was to sacrifice his soul. Diyu: ¡°H-h-high Level P-poison Soul!¡± MC: ¡°Never let a nightmare get ahold of your soul, better to be stripped than go through the process of turning into one of them. Besides that the only way to destroy it permanently is to completely shred the soul anyway.¡± I guess if your soul is going to be shredded and twisted like this thing¡¯s then it would be better to do so. Plus it would keep it from stealing your power like what happened to the guardian. The warrior has moved to support the guardian but even so they are still being pushed back. While celestials are much more powerful the gods the guardians sent to the mortal entrances of hell are the newest of trainees. They can deal with mortals, immortals, and low level hell beasts without breaking a sweat, but now they are faced with a surge of hell beasts from different levels, and a god level monster. Normally a skilled high god versus a lower celestial would still favor the celestial, but now the minor guardian is weakened and facing a god that can steal his powers. Even with the warrior helping they are being pushed back. I summon my own sword and move to attack from the side, managing to wound one of the monster¡¯s arms. I may not be skilled in combat but my power is still that of a lower celestial and now we are pushing this Nightmare back. The advantage is definitely ours but the beast jumps back and sends it tentacles after the mortal souls. One of the tentacles stabs a soul causing it to disappear, and at the same time the wound in its arm is healed. The warrior moves to protect the souls and I order the other administrators to do the same. Now the battle is at a stalemate. While we are more powerful we have to protect the souls and keep the nightmare from stealing any of our power. Both sides test each other with feints and minor attacks with neither side fully committing. I send out a broad call for help, hoping someone answers, but the only reply I get are other calls for help from nearby entrances. It seems that high level hell-beasts are trying to get through some of the bigger entrances. I try to send a message to the guardians still at the entrance to seal it as soon as they can and come back, but who knows if they got it in this confusion. I worry that one false move will allow the nightmare to escape. MC: ¡°Get back!¡± The guardian and I both jump back at the shout before a golden curtain comes up in front of us. While we have been skirmishing with the nightmare my two juniors and the warrior formed a triangle seal. The nightmare studies the seal before turning to attack the warrior¡¯s point, the weakest member of the formation. He won¡¯t be able to hold long, even with support from the other points of the formation. I quickly move to replace him, but¡­. MC: ¡°No the guardian and I should hold this point, the seal has an open fourth point to make it a pyramid seal. Go high and take that before it forms wings to fly out!¡± I look and see the nightmare is indeed starting to form wings from what used to be a mass of tentacles. I push power to my feet to jump above the formation seal and take the fourth point as the guardian lends his power to the weakened point. Bending the seals walls towards me I turn the triangular prism into a triangular pyramid. As soon as I do the formation snaps shut and a golden glow appears on the ground as well. Luckily so because when it saw the sky sealed the nightmare immediately tried to dig, before it returns to pounding on the seal. The nightmare is contained for now, but while we might keep the formation up for a few hours eventually the battering from inside will wear us out. We also have worry about an escaped hell-beast coming to attack us because of the positive karma of the warrior. The guardian¡¯s wound is draining him, and the junior administrators are not that powerful. I send one last call for help before focusing all my attention on the formation. We can only hope that help comes before we can no longer hold the formation, and that whoever comes has enough power to destroy the nightmare when the formation comes down. Pre-Prologue part3: Sealed Soul Authors Note: We finally get to the point of the pre-prologue in this chapter. Thanks to those who are still reading this story. There is a bit of a side chapter after this before the world info dump. Pre-Prologue part3: Sealed Soul Viewpoint: Main Character (MC) We¡¯ve been holding the formation for about half an hour now, and should be able to hold for another hour at least if nothing interferes. The guardian next to me sighs, whether in relief or worry I can¡¯t tell. MC: ¡°What is it?¡± Guardian: ¡°The others activated the artifact at the entrance to seal it and are on their way back. One stayed back to monitor the seal but with the others we don¡¯t have to worry about this thing escaping anymore.¡± MC: ¡°Will it be enough to destroy it?¡± Senior Administrator: ¡°Not definitely, once the seal comes down the four of us will be too drained to fight and the nightmare might be able to escape or steal power from the remaining. We¡¯ll rotate maintaining the seal and standing guard until there is enough power to destroy the nightmare instantly when we take the seal down.¡± When the other guardians arrive they replace us and the junior administrators at the triangle points. The junior administrators tend to the wounded guardian. After they¡¯ll stand guard and recover energy so they can take turns holding the seal. I on the other hand get told to watch over the mass of souls that haven¡¯t made a run for it. After having watched the fight with the nightmare none of the souls wanted to challenge any of us and stayed put. After an hour all of us could feel the arrival of powerful beings, two celestials and a demon. One of the junior administrators flies up to take the administrator senior¡¯s place at the seal, while the other comes to replace me and orders me to the others. Coming up behind the Administrator I see him bowing to the three in turn. Senior Administrator: ¡°Yama Xue, Chief administrator Joel, Demon King Babel, I, Administrator Diyu, thank you for answering my call for assistance.¡± The three seem surprised and look at each other. The first to speak is the demon as he looks back with a scowl; followed by the other two. Babel: ¡°I didn¡¯t come to assist you celestial; I came to find why my beasts have been acting up. To think it¡¯s because of a soul with positive karma.¡± Joel: ¡°I came to check on the soul and find out why the sealing artifact was used at this entrance.¡± Xue: ¡°I came in answer to a call for arbitration with Judge Hao. It surprised me and when I went to see him he asked for the soul to be immediately stripped for attacking him.¡± Diyu: ¡°Lords this soul had the positive karma and was also mistakenly sent to this mortal entrance. When I noticed this I sent out an alert and sent most of my guardians to hold the entrance just in case. However there was a strange creature among the souls that we had to seal. My guardians used the artifact so that they could return to assist me.¡± Babel smirks as he makes a few snide comments aimed at the other celestials. On the other hand Joel focuses on Diyu at the mention of needing to seal the beast instead of subdue it. Babel: ¡°Oh so not only did a judge send a soul to hell without stripping the karma but he even sent an immortal soul here, not to mention some other beast that the guardians can¡¯t subdue. Are the celestials starting to lose their touch I wonder?¡± Joel: ¡°What is the creature?¡± Diyu: ¡°I¡¯ve never seen anything like it before but this soul called it a Nightmare of Tartaro.¡± At the mention of that world the expression on the three turns grim. Xue points to the pyramid. Xue: ¡°The creature is in that formation yes? If it is indeed a Nightmare I¡¯ll destroy it.¡± So saying he flies to the seal and looks within. Suddenly a bright light from Xue breaks the seal and we can hear a terrible howl. Blinking from the flash I find that Diyu and myself have been teleported back to the pavilion this started at, but this time it is Xue that is behind the desk. Xue: ¡°Diyu explain everything that has happened.¡± Diyu reports on everything that happened from his perspective since he noticed the guardians tense. Xue takes a moment to contemplate before questioning the two of us. Xue: ¡°You said you saw an odd dense ball of negative karma in the nightmare. How did you see the karma and notice the oddity while the judge that sent it here did not.¡± Diyu: ¡°I developed a technique to see and read karma so that I could avoid needing to scan and read negative souls. I am not as skilled reading positive karma which led to my placement here. I believe it probably worked to block that from the soul scan. Since my technique is much less invasive and energy intensive I doubt it even knew what I was doing and so was not trying to hide.¡± Xue: ¡°How did you know that the creature was a Tartaro Nightmare?¡± MC: ¡°I spent a long time fighting such on Tartaro. While they have different forms they all have the same presence.¡± Xue: ¡°After successfully hiding from the judge why did it attack. Do you think it knew you had found out about it Diyu?¡± Diyu: ¡°I don¡¯t know sir. I don¡¯t think it knew as there was no reaction then. It did react as this soul past it but didn¡¯t attack until after the last guardian had turned his back on it. It may have seen the guardian as a target of opportunity to increase its power, or it might have been hoping to destroy an old enemy.¡± Xue: ¡°Diyu, be ready to teach others this technique of yours and tell no one about the nightmare until you hear from the celestial council.¡± Xue then takes another look at me, and for the third time I can feel my soul being scanned. I clench my teeth and glare but of course that does not bother the celestial. Xue then grabs the file and horn off of the desk. Xue: ¡°So here¡¯s the tip of Hao¡¯s horn huh. Well I¡¯ll take this soul away from here so that the hell beasts calm down. Diyu you¡¯ve already dropped a load of work on me today but I¡¯ll take the job of arbiter for this case.¡± Xue walks around the desk to stand next to me, and the last I see of hell is Diyu¡¯s shocked stare at the horn in Xue¡¯s hand. I¡¯ve been teleported to a room that looks similar to where I was judged so I assume that I was back in the celestial courts. Xue sits behind the desk and gestures for me to sit in the chair next to me. If I had known what he intended to do I would have tried to flee the room instead of taking that seat. Once I sit he reads through the file he brought with him. Then he starts to read my soul, reading what has happened since I came to the court, then about my lifetimes on earth. I expect him to stop since he now has the information about the incident with the judge and can judge my lifetimes on earth, but he continues through the world before that. When he gets to my memories of Tartaro I try to get up, but can¡¯t move or even scream. He doesn¡¯t stop dredging up everything that happened on that terrible world which stirs up memories best buried. Then he continues from there and reads the entirety of my history, or at least everything that my soul still remembers. I have no clue how long it takes, I lost track while dealing with the memories of Tartaro and am now seething at the being in front of me that dared do this. MC: ¡°You Dare!!! Even after you agree to be a neutral arbiter you do this to me!¡± The appearance of judge Hao just then is the last straw, I literally see red as I try to attack them with everything I can. I manage to get up from the chair and start towards Xue before everything goes black. ****************************************************************************************************** Viewpoint: Yama Xue Location: Yama¡¯s office in celestial courts. After agreeing to act as arbiter I bring this soul back to my office. Part of the reason I agreed to act as arbiter is that we may need all the information possible about Tartaro and this soul has some. After reading the file on this being I start to read his soul. Once I get through the incident with judge Hao I send a message ordering him to my office. I then continue to and read his lifetimes on earth as I might as well give a verdict on that while I¡¯m at it. I see that the trust and anger issues that are mentioned in the file are pervasive throughout his lifetimes on earth, and in the previous world. I believe that their origin is probably from his time spent in Tartaro, but I¡¯ll confirm that by reading about his lifetime before that. When I get to the memories of Tartaro I feel him trying to get up and scream, so I seal his movements. I need this information even if it brings up the memories he¡¯d rather bury. It is a gruesome and cruel place with souls twisted into monsters, including his comrades. I see him killing his soulmates so that he can send their souls beyond the reach of the goddess controlling the world. Using the same technique to end mortally injured comrades so that they aren¡¯t turned into nightmares. Continually using the poison soul technique to fight the nightmares. All of this for multiple lifetimes in an ageless body before the world is destroyed completely. I realize that this is not the soul of a lower immortal like we thought. He had the soul of a lower immortal when he came to Tartaro though he instinctively did not ascend. No by the end of Tartaro he had the soul of a peak High Immortal though gravely wounded and without power from the use of poison soul. His nine lifetimes since have restored much of his power, and brought his soul to the peak of High immortal; the cusp of godhood. I now have to look at his previous lives to get an idea of how he was before and what he might become now. After the plot of the Goddess that controlled Tartaro the celestials must be assured of the character of all gods. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. It takes some time to go through his previous lifetimes. I believe that he will be a great god if he can work through his current trust issues, which I see as a large part of the reason for his anger management problems. He has cut himself off from others though he was a social soul before Tartaro, and the lack has caused further problems. I ease up on the restriction I placed on the soul in front of me. He starts to yell at me but when judge Hao appears in my office as ordered he loses it. The soul suddenly turns red with a green outline before charging at me, and I¡¯m forced to put it in stasis. Hao: ¡°He turned the same color when he attacked me and damaged my horn, though without the green outline.¡± Xue: *sigh* ¡°The blood red color is a poison soul technique and the green represents that it has been taken to the highest level. With this soul being a peak high immortal it could even harm a celestial, or kill a god.¡± I watch Hao pale as he realizes that while such an injury would not kill a celestial it would take him decades to recover, centuries for a lower immortal. Hao: ¡°This is the second time he has attacked a celestial judge let alone having attacked one of the Yama¡¯s we should destroy his soul for this insult.¡± Xue: ¡°The first time was after you had sentenced him to hell and declared that you would see his soul stripped was it not? You then sent his soul to hell without stripping the balanced karma and while his soul had a positive karma balance.¡± Hao: ¡°Sir, I sent him as he was attacking me. I didn¡¯t have time to strip his karma beforehand as he attacked as soon as I made my judgement.¡± Xue: ¡°Leaving aside that you sent positive karma to hell which caused an incident there; did you know that this soul had a positive karma balance when you made your judgement.¡± Hao: ¡°Sir this soul came from Tartaro, and was there at the end of it at that when there was nothing worth saving anymore. Even if the monster managed to not commit a lot of crimes in its last life it never received judgement for the atrocities it committed there. That place was a den of corruption with every soul in it twisted beyond redemption.¡± Xue: ¡°Hao I find you guilty of misuse of your authority as a judge and negligence for sending positive karma to hell. You will present yourself to lady Karma for judgement. I also order you to remove your mark on this soul.¡± Hao complies and removes his mark, though unhappily. As he turns to go I make one more accusation before sending him and a message to lady Karma myself. If guilty he knows his soul will be stripped or destroyed, if innocent the knowledge will make him submit to his punishment without complaint. Xue: ¡°This soul fought from the very start of her reign, till we ended it, as an ageless mortal. In time he led the only resistance to her rule, and it was through the souls he saved that we found out about her actions. It is suspicious that you not only sent him to hell but one of her nightmares as well which attacked him and the administrators.¡± His eyes just start to widen as he is teleported. I then turn to the soul I have in stasis and the problem he represents. It will be difficult to heal the wounds and personality from Tartaro, made even more difficult with the fact that he currently sees me as an enemy and will not trust me. I will not be able to interfere directly in the process but I think the best plan is to work indirectly through others. Perhaps at the same time I can solve a different problem my brother has been having. I study the poison soul technique as I must be able to suppress it when I release the stasis. It takes me some time but his memories of developing the technique give me an edge on countering it without causing harm. I then release the stasis and force the soul back in the chair. Xue: ¡°First I apologize for having read that deeply but with the encounter of a nightmare we need all the information possible about Tartaro.¡± MC: ¡°I can see how that may be the case but instead of just asking about it you chose to rip the information directly from my soul without permission. It doesn¡¯t explain why you went through the rest of my lives and with such scrutiny either!¡± Xue: ¡°The information had to be read so that no important details may be left out. During that reading I found that you have the soul of a peak High Immortal which required me to read you to be sure of your character.¡± MC: ¡°Since when have celestials been required to read and judge the character of immortals to that depth? There is no reason for that! And what the heck is a high immortal anyway.¡± Xue: ¡°Celestials have been required to check the character of gods ever since Tartaro.¡± MC: ¡°Even so I am not a god so why did you do that!?¡± Xue: ¡°True you aren¡¯t a god, as for the reasoning you may find that out later. Now then¡­¡± MC: ¡°I doubt any god would put up with what you just did to me.¡± Xue: ¡°True a character check does not require us to read that deeply however because of your trust and anger issues as well as the ordeal from Tartaro I needed to analyze your previous character to guess how you may turn out in the future.¡± MC: ¡°So now you are going to judge me on things I have done only in your imagination!¡± Xue: ¡°No. I am going to judge you how you are now and what can be done about it.¡± MC: ¡°That is not your place! The celestial courts are to judge the actions a soul has taken in its past lives not the current state of the soul and what it will do in the future.¡± Xue: ¡°That is not exactly correct. While for the most part we do not judge the actions a soul may take in the future we do strip souls that we have concluded are a lost cause.¡± MC: ¡°So now you are threatening to strip my soul! I did nothing to deserve that!¡± Xue: ¡°SILENCE!¡± *deep breath* The soul goes to yell again but I reinstate the seal on his speech, and so he just glares. Xue: ¡°No I¡¯m not going to order your soul stripped nor judge you for actions not yet taken. However you do present an interesting problem to judge. Normally with such a positive soul balance you would spend time in heaven, however with your trust issues you would cause a disturbance so I¡¯m going to send you for reincarnation.¡± Xue: ¡°Your trust issues are pretty intense you know. You avoided your soulmates and anyone interested in you in each of your last nine lifetimes. In order to deal with your trust issue I¡¯m going to seal the memories in your soul before you reincarnate. I¡¯m also going to seal your poison soul technique, your knowledge and experience against nightmares may be needed so I can¡¯t have you destroying yourself. The seals will activate when you leave here to reincarnate.¡± I grab the horn off my desk before touching the forehead of his form, placing the six seals on his soul with my two gifts. I then lift the seal on his speech and set the movement restriction to lift when he leaves, I¡¯m not taking the chance of him attacking me again. Xue: ¡°Any questions before you go?¡± MC: ¡°How is this different from stripping my soul!? I¡¯ll still have some of my power but my personality and memories will be sealed and a new personality will grow as if I was a new soul. The only thing I see is different is that you¡¯ll be able to bring me back and use me as a tool if you want to later.¡± Xue: ¡°While I am sealing your memories, your personality will still stay the same. The seals are temporary, except for the one on poison soul, and will release when certain conditions are met. I¡¯m also leaving the knowledge you gained on your last two worlds though the memories behind them are sealed.¡± MC: ¡°That doesn¡¯t solve the trust or anger issues that YOU said were a problem in the first place, and what happens if I run into more Nightmares!¡± Xue: ¡°True that¡¯s why I also gave you knowledge about a technique called soul sense. You¡¯ll be able to use that to tell if someone is telling you the truth or lying, and while it can be blocked it can¡¯t be fooled. You¡¯ll be able to get even more information from it later like someone¡¯s emotions. Think of it as a reward for your positive karma since you won¡¯t go to heaven or reincarnate as an immortal. As for Nightmares; the seal on your technique is keyed to temporarily release in their presence.¡± He seems to pause for a while, gathering his thoughts perhaps, before asking me another question. MC: ¡°Why are you doing this to me?¡± Xue: ¡°For your own good. Now have a nice life.¡± And with that I send his soul to the person I have decided will be his next mother. That takes care of the first half of my plan for this soul. Now I only have to find and talk to a few other souls to complete it. SS1 chapter1: Meddling Authors Note: The last chapter was getting a bit long so I cut out the part after the MC is sent away and no longer involved directly. This is not required in order to understand the story and you can skip it if you wish. It is short though, only 800+ words, and tells you more about what Xue did to the main character; so spoiler alert for those who would rather learn when the Main character does. I may continue this as a side story occasionally were these two will discuss what the main character does. I¡¯m not sure if there will be any other side stories or series of side stories but just in case I¡¯m going to differentiate it as Side Story 1 (SS1) for the future. SS1 chapter1: Meddling Viewpoint: Yama Xue Location: Yama¡¯s office in celestial courts. I locate all of the souls needed but before I can bring them to my office¡­.. ??: ¡°XUE!!!!!¡± Xue: ¡°Yes Yama Jiang. There is no need to shout so.¡± Jiang: ¡°Don¡¯t try to hide behind formality brother! What did you do to Eternia!?¡± My brother has come into my office. Out of all the celestials he is one of the best at reading the probabilities of the future; so that soul must have affected the world on some level. I knew that would happen and also knew my brother had been watching this world. After all the solving the problem he mentioned is part of the reason I sent the soul there specifically. The only thing that is unexpected is that that my brother noticed so soon, and that he could so quickly pick me as the cause. Xue: ¡°I just sent a soul there. Why?¡± Jiang: ¡°Because the possibilities are so in flux that I can¡¯t tell about the possibility of any future! There is now even the possibility of the world being obliterated which wasn¡¯t there before! The only time the future is this much in flux is when you have interfered much more than just reincarnating a soul!¡± Jiang: ¡°Now WHAT Did You Do!?¡± Xue: ¡°Sealed this souls memories and gave it soul sense.¡± My brother gives me a look filled with confusion and annoyance. Jiang: ¡°Why would you give a mortal soul soul-sense? They can¡¯t use it.¡± Xue: ¡°But it is an immortal soul so it can.¡± Jiang: ¡°Why would you reincarnate an immortal soul in the mortal plane, and give it soul sense!? Xue: ¡°How did you know it went to the mortal plane?¡± Jiang: ¡°Because the future on the immortal plane and divine planes are the same for the immediate future. Again What EXACTLY Did You Do!?¡± Xue: ¡°I placed 6 seals on the soul and gave him soul sense then reincarnated him on Eternia.¡± Jiang: ¡°And what do each of these seals do EXACTLY!?¡± Xue: ¡°Well¡­ The first seal is permanent and seals a high level poison soul technique except in the presence of Nightmares. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.The second holds the memories from his past two worlds, and will release when he comes to trust one of his soulmates. The third seal holds the memories and knowledge from Tataro. It will release when he is capable of besting its guardian. The fourth holds the memories and knowledge from all of his lifetime before Tartaro and will be released either by his soulmates so they can see him through the shock, or when the power behind it is no longer a concern. The fifth will bring him back to me for judgement, should he die, and alert me if he attempts to ascend. It will also prevent him from ascending by binding his soul to his body, and will release when I feel he has made enough progress on his issues.¡± Jiang: ¡°¡­¡­.. And the sixth seal?¡± Xue: ¡°That seal hides a pair of daggers made from judge Hao¡¯s horn. It will also prevent their use and binds them to the soul. The weapons can¡¯t be used until I release that restriction, but the hiding and binding will remain unless I personally remove the seal and weapons.¡± Jiang: ¡°You put an immortal soul with celestial weapons on the mortal plane and gave it soul sense! No wonder the future is in flux!¡± Xue: ¡°Well I don¡¯t plan to release the weapons to him until he ascends at the very least.¡± Jiang: ¡°Give me the file with ALL relevant details on the soul.¡± I go to my desk picking up the file and adding everything important from the deep reading. Handing it to my brother who sits down in MY chair and puts his feet up on MY desk to read the file in MY office. He reads the file thoroughly, occasionally going back to check something with what he read previously. Once he is done he puts closes the file, and finally takes his feet off my desk while replacing them with the file. Jiang: ¡°So a peak high immortal soul that has the potential to ascend to godhood with trust and anger issues huh. You plan to keep him bound to the mortal plane until he gets over it don¡¯t you; that could backfire if he gets too powerful you know. I hope your plan works because otherwise we¡¯d have to strip his soul and he doesn¡¯t deserve that.¡± Jiang: ¡°Now then you will tell me exactly where you reincarnated the soul, now and in the future. You also won¡¯t be releasing the fifth or sixth seal without my permission. I plan to keep an eye on your experiment as well.¡± After getting the information he demanded my brother leaves the room and I bring the souls I located before to my office for a little chat. Now I know that my brother is blind to the future on Eternia and will focus his attention on the newly reincarnated soul, he shouldn¡¯t notice my next bit of meddling. Basic World Layout. Authors note: Sorry but here is a bit of an info dump to explain the place the Main character is born into. At least now we¡¯ll get to the prologue (YAY!:)), after I finally finish it of course:(. It is short because you will gain more information about the world and history as the character does. Eternia is a world with two supercontinents, and two unpopulated polar ice continents. Two large oceans separate the continents. In each ocean is both a large island and an island group one in the north of the ocean, the other in the south. The world was oddly symmetrical in the placement of its landmasses except for some variations between the lands. When the divinity that created the world was finished it went to sleep in the divine realm to recover. The place where the creator slept in the divine plane corresponded to the northern large island. Over time its power drew many races to its shores; humans, elves, fairies, dwarves, mermen, elementals, and dragons as well as many magical beasts. In time the dragons, and elementals left the mortal plane but they left behind a new race and many more mortals drawing upon elemental energy. The race called itself draconians while those who use elemental energy were called elementalists. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. The Island looks similar to a large C with a natural harbor in the center that opens to the southeast. Eventually the island was unified as one country with five districts four labeled after the elements fire, water, earth, air surrounding the fifth district simply known as central. It is in this country that our Main Character will be born.