ã€ŠIn Association with Deathã€‹


 Vol. 1: Prologue and Chapter 1

    As ¡®I¡¯ awaken I realise that I am lying sideways on the ground, lacking strength and only capable of looking at whatever is directly in front of me due to my inability to turn my head away from whatever it is I am looking at. In front of me I see an aged man sitting on what I can only assume is a throne.

    The throne has no decorations, made of metal akin to silver but strangely with a light dark hue seeming to hide behind the metal. The throne consists of 4 rectangular prism type stones, one of which is made as the seat and  another stone being the backrest. The last 2 rectangular prisms are situated on either side of the seating stone and appear to be armrests. The ground a metre in front of the throne is elevated and located higher by 50 cm than the ground prior to the elevation. This is obviously made so that people feel inferior to the person in the throne as they will have a lower eye level than him. After waking up and being given the chance to survey the seat and the man on it for a few seconds, I hear the aged man speak to me,

    ¡°Great, your consciousness was only in purgatory for about 8 years. Thank myself that you are not one of those shattered souls, Hell they can take up to 800 years to reform.¡±

    Although my head is clear I am incapable of making sense of the words that he said for some reason at this time. I find that my strength is slowly returning and I manage to push myself off of the ground with the small amount of power that I just recovered.

    As I stand, although my head is still fixed facing the man sitting on the throne, I now have a wider field of view and become capable of making some observations of where I am located. I find that I am in a cavern of some sorts, with naturally formed earthen pillars on my left and right, along with some stalactites on the ceiling, but a lack of stalagmites everywhere excluding the edge of the wall behind the throne that I can see. The wall isn¡¯t far from the throne, only being situated approximately 10 metres behind the throne.

    Unfortunately since I still cannot rotate my head in any which way, I cannot see how wide the cavern that I am in is. However, since I am now standing now I now possess a better view of the old man.

    The old man has a white beard that reaches down to the centre of his chest ending at a point. He also has hair that has gone white corresponding to his age. He has wrinkles on his face that also appear to have come with his age. In general his face appears to be that of a normal old man, but his clothing and actions say otherwise.

    He is garbed in a black robe of sorts, however different parts of the robe¡¯s edges seem to fade in and out of existence, causing them to appear similar to moving waves. I also notice another strange thing, I am not sure as to why I noticed this almost instantly, but I observe that his chest isn¡¯t moving. Does he not breathe? Also, probably the most terrifying thing that I realised instantly was the incredible feeling of death that he exudes.

    It is as though I am facing a person that has killed millions and has been killed the same amount of times. At that moment the meaning of the words he said began to appear and I finally made sense of what he had said. After analysing the words I make a few quick deductions about my situation and some questions come to mind.

    Because he said I was in purgatory for 8 years, I must be dead although I cannot remember anything about my death and even anything about when I was alive other than that I am certain that I once was alive.

    -¡®Thank god¡¯ is the right term, not ¡®thank myself¡¯. Is he god?

    This place is terrifying, so I find it difficult to think of this as heaven. Is it hell?

    My strength still feels weak, I am barely capable of holding myself up. It is as if I am bound by incredible gravity.

    This man is the most terrifying existence I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Frankly, I am amazed that I have the ability to not relieve myself in my pants.

    The man raises an eyebrow and speaks.

    ¡±You aren¡¯t the only one who is currently terrified of the creature in front of them. Your deductions are terrifying, even though it has barely been 5 seconds since you stood up.¡±

    ¡°I apologize if I have scared you, and may I ask of you to answer my questions since you appear to be capable of reading minds.¡±

    The man¡¯s eyebrow drops back to its original position, he adopts an angered face and leans forward slightly as though he is about to get out of his throne. The feeling of death he exudes all of a sudden becomes twice as strong. This causes me to drop to my knees sweating and panting from lack of breath while clutching my heart which feels as though it will break out of the chest entrapping it by it¡¯s intense beating. My head is still facing him as I cannot move it or look away from him as much as I want to. He then speaks with a deeper, angered voice.

    ¡°Do not believe that such petty actions can truly make me afraid, I just said such a statement because I wanted to transmit your capability of understanding my surprise. I am not a being in which you can invoke fear so easily.¡±

    As the pressure he releases eases up and allows me to breath again, I decide to crack another ill-placed joke.

    ¡°Sorry milord, but you were the one who said he feared me and that is enough to make my day. Besides I believe you will not smite me as there is no point in smiting an already dead person.¡±

    The events from before repeat in which he increases the pressure and appears angry but all of a sudden he releases the additional pressure, causing it to return back to the original powerful, but bearable pressure. He then laughs. As opposed to his appearance and how terrifying he is, the laugh is joyful and seems to warm peoples hearts, similar to that of how an old man would warm your heart if you make his day and he laughs, with absolutely no ill feelings.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I always like to do the ¡®Supremely Powerful God of Death¡¯ act on people I meet for the first time. Forgive me, I honestly don¡¯t care in the least about how you take the fact that I feared you when I met you, and yes it is true that I was afraid of you due to your sheer intelligence. Once again I have to pat myself on the back for being capable of calling such an intelligent soul to serve me, even if it was by means of lottery.¡±

    For a few seconds I stare at him dumbfoundedly as I cannot believe that this person was the owner of that terrifying aura that nearly killed me a few seconds ago. After picking all my thoughts up I decide to ask a question.

    ¡°... So if you don¡¯t mind me asking you to fill me in on the situation, fill me in on the situation please.¡±

    The ¡®Supremely Powerful God of Death¡¯ leaned back into his throne and appeared to ponder for a moment before he appeared to come to a decision.

    -It is so obvious that you are acting, after all you wouldn¡¯t call me here if it was otherwise. Goddamn it old man, hurry it along-

    The aged one frowned and then proceeded to speak.

    ¡°First of all I want you to agree not to say anything before I finish talking, the questions will come after as I may answer some along the way. Do you agree to this?¡±

    I nod and he continues to talk after receiving the answer from me.

    ¡°First of all you are being rude to the elderly asking us to hurry it along, not all of us wish to die you know. We haven¡¯t ever wished to hurry our lives along as it would just lead to an early grave.¡±

    He grins and then looks at me as though waiting for a reaction from the joke he told me.

    -Good joke, but can you please continue with the explanation, I have an urge to know the answers to my questions-

    His grin changes into a frown before becoming a jovial face again.

    ¡°You ruin the fun, well I guess I will listen to your request and begin with explaining who I am and then who you are.

    I am what you people would call Death or the Grim Reaper or Hades or Pluto or Lord or Satan and yes, this is Hell. Honestly it amazes me how you guys could have so many names for my existence. I am usually impressed by the ingenuity of humans, but in this case I am even more impressed at how you guys can¡¯t just decide on one name and leave it at that. Phew¡­ Getting past that topic, I believe that I should explain your existence to allow you to understand more about me.

    You are what people would call a soul. The soul of an already dead person. You have died and that is the hard fact. I also took the liberty of erasing all memories of your experiences as a human being. However I have let you keep all memories involving the information you gathered during your lifetime, but even if I wished to possess a soul with intelligence, I thought it would be entertaining to let you shape your own moralities and thought process so that I can watch your adaptation and giggle.¡±

    -... I believe that according to my memories this is what would be considered an evil person but as he said, I have no true sense of what is right and what is wrong, just what was correct and what wasn¡¯t in my previous world. So unfortunately I believe I cannot really do anything to judge his schadenfreude personality-

    He glares at me for a few seconds once again and then proceeds with his explanation.

    ¡°Soooo, breaking it down since I am an immortal, I got bored and decided to bend the rules a little and attach my power of death to a random soul so that it would naturally come here before me. You were actually really quick as other souls, as I mentioned earlier, can take up to 800 years to actually come here. Apparently you didn¡¯t have much attachment to your previous life which could end up keeping you close to the place which you have the most care about. So you shouldn¡¯t hate me much about taking away your experiences and feelings as a human.¡±

    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    -I don¡¯t believe I feel as much hate for you as irritation right now-

    ¡°I know I said don¡¯t interrupt and you are keeping silent, can you keep all the menacing thoughts away as well? It kind of disturbs my concentration on the topic at hand.¡±

    -I will try, but I doubt it will work-

    ¡°Good, now getting back on track after being disturbed so many times, I will now discuss with you what I brought you here for. I mean other than entertainment of course and what I shall gift to you.¡±

    He grins menacingly, as though finding a fun toy to play with.

    ¡°There is a world which I will send you to in which you will act as my employee, entourage, follower, priest of my religion or slave. Pick whichever you find more suitable, although I am in great favor of slave.¡±

    -And there is that infamous grin of his, you can clearly understand his personality with that grin-

    ¡°Menacing thoughts¡± he chimes in before continuing the explanation.

    ¡°So I will send you off to this new world, in which there exists magic and creatures and lots of factors to keep me entertained as opposed to your Earth, especially in your 21st century after all the wars. I honestly don¡¯t care what you do. Although I said that you are my slave, you can do whatever you want. I just want to see how much havoc you will wreak upon the world. I will bless you with the marking of death, believe me it¡¯s not as bad as it sounds, before sending you off to be one of those babies left outside an orphanage. What you do with your life is not my concern, I will help you if I feel the need and sometimes I will throw challenges at you. If you wish for a safe, happy lifetime I will do everything to stop that.¡±

    -And there is his infa- -

    Completely ignoring me he continues.

    ¡°I shall also grant you this weapon. Honestly I haven¡¯t called it anything because it can take the shape of any weapon if you will it. If I were to call it anything it would be ¡®Death¡¯s Weapon¡¯.¡±

    He takes a cylindrical rod that appears to be made of a metal reminiscent of silver but with a black glow below the metal. It appears to be made with the same material as the throne but the glow is much darker as opposed to the throne¡¯s. The rod has a diameter of 3 cm and a length of 30 cm length.

    -Appears similar to the throne, doesn¡¯t it?-

    ¡°Indeed it is similar to the throne due to it being in my presence. When metal stays in my presence or the presence of death for a prolonged time, it begins to be converted to what I call ¡®Mortisite¡¯. Mortisite is the hardest substance, even envied by the gods as my power is vastly superior to the majority of the gods. Sadly mortisite has 2 drawbacks but also has a positive, reinforced by the one of the supposed drawbacks.

    The drawback or negative point is that mortisite is incredibly rare as it takes billions of years in my presence to form, along with the fact that mortisite can only be formed in natural ore veins that have access to my presence, in this case the veins that are located in this cavern.

    I already looked and this ¡®Weapon¡¯ and the throne are the only pieces of mortisite that I possess, and even so the piece that I am giving you is the most refined. All these pieces naturally converted from their original form in my presence into these chunks but since my presence was spread out evenly and half was absorbed into the ore chunk which you know as Death¡¯s Weapon and the other half into the ore for my throne, the ¡®Weapon¡¯ possesses a much higher concentration of my aura.

    So overall, I am giving you an incredibly expensive weapon which you cannot hope to buy even if we had one billion of you possessing my aura. You simply don¡¯t have the lifespan, aren¡¯t I such a benevolent being? To simply give away such a work of art, I feel like I have accomplished a good deed.¡±

    I attempt to turn my head away in disgust but I forgot that my head is still incapable of movement and give up on moving it, just rolling my eyes, but nonetheless I get my message across pretty well with my eyes and thoughts.

    -I would feel devoted to you and  be very thankful for the gift if I was not aware of the fact that you just gave me this gift to hope to ¡®spice things up¡¯ in the world you are sending me too. Am I wrong.-

    ¡°Nah, you are pretty much correct, in fact that was a great deduction, yet again you make me think that choosing you as my little guinea pig was a smart idea. So where was I? Ah right, I will not explain how to use this weapon as you will learn by yourself and eventually I will teach you a technique, but only if you are strong enough. But I will give you a clue.

    You can expand the ¡®Weapon¡¯ if you put some aura or magic power into it, however you cannot change its fundamental pole shape, but you can create a sword that can hit physical objects. I will leave you with that clue about the weapon, how it manages to become a sword won¡¯t take long for you to realise.

    Oh yes, forgot to mention that this ¡®Weapon¡¯ shall reside within your body until you are three. If anyone asks about it just say something about it being a memento or something, you are smart you will figure out a solution.

    Now shall we go into the more exciting bit about your powers? Hahaha, I won¡¯t give you a choice anyway, now listen up and don¡¯t forget because I won¡¯t explain it again. Since you are blessed by me, you will have this weird birthmark on your chest that is the symbol of death. Honestly, I think when I made that symbol I was feeling a little tipsy, after all it looks relatively weird. The symbol has a use, I mean other than looking weird. It basically acts as a link between your soul and the body that you are residing in. After all it is not your body so I have to make some kind of glue to stick the soul to the body. However as you, the you as a soul is dead and not actually one with the body, but merely attached to it, you are capable of sensing the aura of death with a sixth sense.

    In this new world that you are being sent to, every person has an affinity with a certain element, and you will gain an affinity with a hidden element that only allows the non-living to use it. Yes, it is just as you imagine, affinity with the element of death. Now I basically finished my explanations, any questions?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I can speak now, you locked my speech away after I agreed to not interrupt you, couldn¡¯t you put your faith in me at all?¡±

    ¡°Faith is a strong word, especially for immortals like me. However I must ask is that your only question?¡±

    ¡°Of course not, well for my first question: Is this allowed?¡±

    He ponders for a second, then replies.

    ¡°Are you talking about me bringing you back to life and attaching your soul into the body of a dead human being or about me bringing you here?¡±

    ¡°Both¡±

    ¡°Well yes it isn¡¯t outlawed by the gods, although it is true that an immortal favoring a living being as well as an immortal giving a living being an object and a plethora of rules involving humans and immortals doing stuff to help the living beings, whether it be directly or indirectly, are all banned. They only apply to as I said, living beings, you are not a living being but rather an already passed on soul, so for all they care I can eat you and there is nothing illegal about that.¡±

    ¡°I find it strange that there is no rule about this though, kind of begs the question as to why other immortals or gods haven¡¯t tried this before.¡±

    While stroking his beard in an intelligent looking manner he replies to my question.

    ¡°Well my dear child, the reason for this is because interacting with the dead is my kingdom of power and only I am allowed to do such a thing. Hell, they never even expected that I would attempt this since I seem like such a loyal dog. Hahaha, well at least I won their trust and am capable of doing this under the radar.¡±

    ¡°So it isn¡¯t legal.¡±

    ¡°No my child, it is legal, just bending the rules a little and the gods may get a little mad if they realise, but they don¡¯t need to know.¡±

    ¡°... Okay, so here is another question: Who or what am I in that world?¡±

    Death strokes his beard again.

    -I swear if he does that again simply to waste time, I will rip his beard out personally-

    ¡°First of all calm down before I proceed with answering the question. Me and you both have all the time in the world before I have to send you to your new home. Now as for the answer to the question, you are an elf child and you won¡¯t really be treated differently for that. Elves are accepted fine by humans and in that orphanage too. Also your name is ¡®Sephtis¡¯, I was inspired to make that name after looking at your cultural background. ¡®Eternal Death¡¯ is a cool enough name, is it not? Is that all, because I am getting impatient and want to watch you grow up in that world already.¡±

    -Who has all the time in the world now? Well I better reply before he answers this question-

    ¡°Yes I am ready to go, send me off at will.¡±

    ¡°Well, it was nice talking to a person that didn¡¯t lick my boots 24/7 for once, I hope you will entertain me enough to let me spend at least a millennia before getting bored again.¡±

    Right after he finishes saying that, the floor beneath my feet opens and I find myself able to move my head again. I am given just enough time to be able to see the darkness below my feet that I am about to fall into and enough time to think.

    -Well, shit-

    Before falling into the deep abyss.

 Vol. 1: Chapter 2 - A new life

    In this chapter and all after this one, when something is in italics, then that is the MC thinking. Anything in quotation marks, is obviously speech, everything in normal text is an observation and everything inside of 2 hyphens like this (-aaa-) is telepathic speaking. Anything between 2 asterisks like this (*aaa*) are sound effects, usually onomatopoeia.

    -Waffle Fluff out-

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Well, Shit

    Before falling into the deep abyss.

    I sigh.

    ¡°That guy is such a pain to talk to. He is way too jumpy and egoistic. Jesus. Wait is that blasphemy considering I am now the prophet of Satan? Well who the hell cares, I hope this long fall ends soon.¡±

    As I say such a thing I suddenly begin to feel sleepy, and my eyes naturally begin to close, but not before I notice that I am all of a sudden lying in a basket with an establishment similar to a church in front of my eyes. The shock from the change of scenery without forewarning works as a stimulant to wake me up. Well I believe it is a church, although I have no idea why. It looks nothing like the churches from my world, I guess it has the same feeling as churches from my world.

    Was I Christian in my past? Well, it doesn¡¯t really matter now anyway now does it, considering the removal of all my human memories. In fact, I believe that being Christian is not so good for me at this point in time.

    -You are indeed correct my child, being Christian is not a smart idea. Actually it won¡¯t influence you negatively at all other than not letting you have as much access to my voice, which is a huge negative-

    -Is that really a bad thing?-

    -You¡¯re a douche, I feel heartbroken. *Crying*-

    -... Do you even possess a heart that beats? Also I am beginning to feel that I am superior to you, for some reason-

    Satan recovers quickly for some reason and says in a more serious voice, acting more his age, as opposed to what his normal actions speak of his mental age.

    -It doesn¡¯t matter if you feel I am inferior to you, I honestly don¡¯t care and no one will really punish you for such a thought process. But be warned, do not think that gods are inferior to you until you are certain that they are. They are nowhere as forgiving as me-

    -Yes, yes, yes Lord Satan-

    -You decided on that name for me, out of all of them? That is kind of rude isn¡¯t it?-

    -It best fits your personality, but don¡¯t worry when I refer to you when talking to other people, I will make sure to use some other name-

    -*Cries* That doesn¡¯t make me feel better-

    -Yup, I definitely feel superior to you-

    -Well, I won¡¯t contact you again for a while since I have other matters to attend to such as managing hell. Do you know how much of a pain it is to separate the millions of souls that come to hell into the good and bad kind. Then I have to judge how bad and how good they are and give them the treatment that they deserve. There are like a thousand different possible treatments. It is such a goddamn pain. Seriously damn the gods, they gave me this boring ass job-

    -Thank you gods for giving him a job in which he can separate from me for a prolonged amount of time-

    -... You¡¯re a douche, *waaaaaaaaah*-

    Satan¡¯s voice fades out as though he is running away from me before becoming silent.

    Shortly after he leaves, the door to the ¡®church¡¯ opens and an old woman comes out and looks at me. The old woman looks kind and releases a benevolent type of feeling.

    Completely the opposite of Satan, I swear if this person was a benevolent god I would not be surprised.

    The old woman is dressed in clothing that appears to be second-hand, seeming to have been used for a long time. The clothing looks is a nun habit but she doesn¡¯t appear to wear any or carry any items that can be considered religious. She walks up to me while saying.

    ¡°Oh what do we have here? Another child left by his parents. What a sad occurrence and it is for some reason becoming more and more frequent nowadays. Well let me take you in before you freeze, okay little Sephtis?¡±

    I can somehow understand her, even though I can tell that it is a different language, it is capable of converting to mine. Did Satan mess with my head again? Well in this case it isn¡¯t such a bad thing. Guess I will stay silent for now, I doubt I can talk right now without making baby gurgles. But in case I can speak fluently, I better keep quiet for now. How does she know my name anyway? Did Satan influence her too or is there just a name tag on my basket?

    I look back at her and she picks me up and brings me inside.

    I must say, this is far better than I expected. This church-like building seems well lit and although looks old on the outside, it is really well kept inside. Wait nevermind, I forgot that it is an orphanage.

    Satan did say something about this before I came here.

    The inside of the orphanage is dark with no lights on.

    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    I just realised that it is almost pitch darkness, yet I can see clearly and easily. Satan messed with my body again didn¡¯t he? Or is this just a trait of elves?

    The interior seems to be similar to that of a roman catholic church, however with all the seats pushed against the walls, stacked on top of each other. There are a lot of other kids lying on the ground, appearing to be asleep. The kids appear to be ranging from the age of one to some appearing to be fourteen-sixteen.

    The 5-14 year olds are dressed in clothes that appear second hand, however they are a better quality than the clothes of the nun and look handsewn. These kids appear to wear a simple shirt with pants. Some of the younger childrens pants look baggy as the ones wearing them aren¡¯t tall enough yet to make use of it entirely.

    The older 14-16 year old¡¯s shirts and pants look new and nowhere near as cheap as those worn by the younger kids. The 3-5 year olds are in onesies to keep them warm and prevent them from catching a cold as their immune systems are still weak.

    The woman carries me past this main room, carefully as though not to disturb any of the sleeping children, and into a smaller, still dark room filled with newborns sleeping in worn out wooden cradles. The babies are all wrapped tightly by cloth to keep them warm and are sleeping peacefully. The woman leads me to a cradle, inscribing some symbols, which I can only imagine to be letters on the side of it with her free hand and then takes me out of my basket and wraps me tightly in cloth just like the other newborns and then places me into the cradle. She then says:

    ¡°Sleep tightly Sephtis, tomorrow I will introduce you to the other children.¡±

    After saying that she leaves, careful not to disturb the babies that are asleep.

    The shock from the change in location is starting to go away and is being replaced with fatigue again. *sigh* (Yes he sighs mentally in his head, that is just his personality). Well the woman seems nice enough, after all she seems to place the children before herself, even with clothing. If my memories serve me right, it was rare in my previous world to have such a selfless person. Well goodnight Satan, I hope you enjoyed this incredibly action packed day.

    ¡­ No reply huh, well then goodnight myself.

    Right after thinking that sleep takes a hold of me and drags me down into its clutches.

    ¡°Ahh, what the hell.¡±

    Right as I fall asleep I notice that I am in hell again, in front of Satans throne and in my old soul body.

    ¡°And here I thought I could have a good nights sleep. Guess I hoped for too much. ¡­

    SATAN YOU HERE!? ¡­¡±

    I wait for about a minute before deciding that he isn¡¯t here.

    Hmm, I wonder if I should just explore, after all I haven¡¯t had a chance to explore last time considering I was forbidden from moving my head and felt intense pressure prohibiting me from moving because of Satan. There appears to be a distinct lack of such pressure now although I can still slightly feel it.

    I do a slow 360 rotation so that I can intake all the information about the cavern I am in.

    Well, that answers the stalagmite question, there are stalagmites at the edge of all the sides of the cave. Hmm, completely pointless question now that I think about it.

    The cavern has dimensions that appear to be 100x50x8 (Length x Width x Height).There are stalactites hanging from every possible place in the ceiling, with some earthen pillars here and there going from the ceiling to the ground.

    Hmm, there is no light source at all, as opposed to what I believed initially. Rather, the light is probably just my eyes capability to see in the dark. Hmmmm, that is not a bad power I must say.The air here feels clean as well, with me having no trouble breathing, well at least when not in the presence of Satan, his aura is still terrifying although his actions are harmless.

    There appears to be an exit opposite of the throne. However, strangely enough although I can feel that that place is an exit, it is pitch black , seeming to absorb even the lack of light into itself. It is similar to a black hole I suppose. Well if anything goes wrong when I jump through there, so be it, after all I am already dead.

    I walk to the black doorway and start to feel a pulling sensation, but it does not feel like a physical pull, but rather that of a mental pull as though saying, ¡°Enter me, you must and you get no choice in this matter.¡±

    Hmm, well this doorways sensation is unpleasant, well I guess I shall see what is behind it, it can¡¯t be worse than death.

    As I step right in front of it I suddenly lose my sight and all my senses for a second before appearing in a new location.

    ¡­ What the hell is this.

 Vol. 1: Chapter 3 - Betty

    ¡­ What the hell is this.

    In front of me is a large open cavern, in which you cannot see the ceiling. There are hazardous looking bridges of earth evenly spaced with humans and many other sub-humans that I can only assume are elves and werepeople lined up, slowly shuffling forward with blank looks in their eyes.

    They look as though they have lost all meaning of their existence. I feel like that isn¡¯t far from the truth actually.

    The lined up beings seem to be sorted by intelligence and are all on separate bridges. There is even a bridge with just insects which also shuffle forward, perhaps they do it on instinct or are forced to, who knows? I see another bridge with beings that I can only call monsters, such as orcs, giants and only god knows what that is.

    Nevermind, Satan also probably knows, the changing of common terms is gonna be a pain to get used to.

    At the place where the bridge ends, there are guards that appear to be souls themselves, with no real race that has a noticeable numerical superiority among the guards. The guards keep the souls that appear to have not completely lost all meaning of their existence and I see some pushing souls that try to escape back in with the metal rods that they are holding. It appears the more that they push the souls back into line, the less the souls resist, as though giving in. Those that give in lose all meaning in their existence.

    A cruel system befitting of Satan, I suppose. The most shocking thing however, is probably what is beneath those bridges. I hope Satan doesn¡¯t throw me in there.

    Beneath the bridges is a long fall, which ends with a lava-like liquid at the bottom, however no heat is felt from the liquid, rather it feels as cold as a cave here. There are many screaming, painful faces which, whenever you attempt to concentrate one, they seem to fall back into the lava, to be replaced with another one. This process continues, as if telling one not to look or feel any attachment to those in the liquid.

    ¡°A cruel treatment is it not? But a necessary one.¡±

    I almost faint from the sudden jump scare and from the sudden realisation of the destructive aura of death that is exuded from someone behind me. I turn to see Satan standing behind me looking grim, as though not enjoying the pain of the people I just saw.

    ¡°Strange,I thought you would enjoy the suffering of those people below us.¡±

    He looks at me with a stricken expression and replies to my words.

    ¡°Do not think of me as Satan, the reason why I dislike that name is because it is given to a being opposite of a God, which I must admit I am, however I am not at all torture-loving and evil like how you mortals portray me.¡±

    ¡°So mind explaining why you do that to people?¡±

    He sighs and then begins to sit down. As he is in the process of sitting down, the ground ripples and out of the ground come a few blocks, forming the same of his throne located inside of the throne room. He leans back in the throne and says to me with a serious expression.

    ¡°You must understand that the people in the rivers of hell are murderers, rapists, destroyers of families and ruiners of lives. But the most common people in there are those that offend Gods.¡±

    He sighs again and continues:

    ¡°Time in there goes much slower than time in here, so in one second they feel 100 seconds of pain in the rivers. The rivers are the most painful things in the world, which even gods cannot resist. Although they will kill any mortal being, they will only inflict intense pain upon souls or immortals.¡±

    I look at him with a blank expression, because I cannot understand what my feelings are about this subject. I have not adapted such emotional capabilities at the moment as I haven¡¯t lived long enough in my new living body. According to the knowledge from my previous life, I should be disgusted by this, but alas I am not repulsed at all, just shocked. So I asked a question that bugs my mind, and though it doesn¡¯t really matter to the current me, I feel like it would have mattered to my previous morales.

    ¡°But does that give you the ability to cast them into those rivers for eternity, or even 1 year since time is slower there?¡±

    He sighs for the third time and says:

    ¡°Of course not, in fact I don¡¯t believe anyone should be in there for 100 years of external time or even 100 years of internal time. People who murder others only get 100 seconds of internal time as punishment in there for each person they killed intentionally. This is because the pain is far too excruciating for them to be kept in there longer, it would just be unfair. That is how painful it is.

    The only people kept in there for a year of external time or more are those that offend the Gods so greatly during their lifetime that the gods come to me and personally tell me to punish them.

    In fact, there is a least painful place there. The place is at the very top with your head sticking out, as the liquid actually doesn¡¯t give off anywhere near as much heat on the surface compared to in the liquid. The reason I made use of such a liquid as punishment is so that there is internal conflict as well as pain. Beings will pull each other down, step on each others heads, rip souls in half that will mend in a few seconds and basically do anything to get to the least painful location called the surface. In the river everyones strength becomes equal with absolutely no influence by your strength prior to your death.¡±

    ¡­

    ¡°Wow you are sadistic. More so than I could have ever imagined.¡±

    ¡°It comes with age.¡±

    ¡­

    ¡°I think if you were in my previous life you probably would¡¯ve made me more speechless than anyone else.¡±

    ¡°I will take that as a complement. So got anymore questions before you wake up.¡±

    Suddenly I realise that I am in hell and that this is unnatural. To just go to sleep and wake up in hell.

    ¡°Ok, so am I dead and if not, what am I doing in hell after going to sleep? Actually, nevermind even if I am dead I want to know what I am doing here after going to sleep.¡±

    Dea-I mean Satan twirls his finger in his hair, before saying:

    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    ¡°Well, because of the fact that your soul can¡¯t really assimilate to your body, every time you go to sleep your soul and consciousness will end up here. Do not worry, your body is resting fine so when you come back to your container that you call a body, you will awaken and feel refreshed from a ¡®good nights sleep¡¯.¡±

    I ponder on that fact for a moment before asking another question, well another 2 questions to be exact.

    ¡°Is there any positives about this movement of my soul or not? Also why exactly does it move here?¡±

    Satan answers my first question quickly.

    ¡°Well there is the fact that your soul possesses all your magic power or aura, whatever it is you wish to call it. In this matter, you can practice magic and expand your aura pool before waking up. No there are no negatives about this, when I decided on doing this I kind of broke the rules of this game that you call the world.¡±

    He then appears to be in deep thought and searches his memory banks before answering the second question in a concise, incredibly well versed practical answer that speaks for Satans ingenuity.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

    I stare at him with another dumbfound look before my stare changes into quite a vicious glare if I say so myself. In response to my glare, Satan raises his hands up in the air while they are bent  at a right angle and states:

    ¡°Look, I don¡¯t know everything about the world. None of the immortals do son. I actually know the most about souls and their passage out of all the immortals. But I have never sent a soul prior to you back into the mortal realm. How the hell am I meant to know everything about you?¡±

    ¡°I guess I expected too much out of you, why did I even ask you in the first place. I am honestly regretting my decision in trusting Satan with my questions now.¡±

    ¡°Can we do something about the name. I mean Satan is not really the correct term for me, I am a much kinder person than the Satan that people imagine.¡±

    ¡°Okay then I will think up a name for you that perfectly captures you and your personality.¡±

    After deep contemplation I decide on a name. A name that will rupture the heavens and  shatter the skies while striking fear into the hearts of all beings. None shall be free from the pressure that this terrifying monstrosity of a name exudes. I nod with satisfaction of the name I created and say this fearful name.

    ¡°Betty.¡±

    ¡°Sorry?¡±

    ¡°I said Betty, that is your new name. After all it perfectly fits your face and you yourself said you were a kindhearted person, so it captures your personality as well. Well at least according to you, although I still beg to differ.¡±

    ¡°Are you making fun of me, an immortal, a being that can kill you billions of times over and still not even have a scratch or be tired?¡±

    ¡°Oh you just realised, well I suppose realisation comes as a big hit huh?¡±

    ¡°I think I haven¡¯t said this enough: You are a douche.¡±

    As he says the last line, he begins to cry, covering his eyes with his arm. Seeing this pitiful sight I decide to attempt to ¡®comfort¡¯ him.

    ¡° *Ssshh*. Betty it¡¯s alright, you will be a great Betty and be remembered by many as the Great Betty.¡±

    He looks up at me with tears in his eyes and a glare fixed on his face and says:

    ¡°Now you are just rubbing it in, don¡¯t do such a thing to an elderly, they have feelings too.¡±

    ¡°But you are a superior being are you not? You just stated something relatively similar to that a second ago when I named you. Live with it, life isn¡¯t so nice, death is even worse. That applies especially to you.¡±

    All his tears suddenly appear to sink into his skin and it appears as though they were never there, with the only indicator of the events that just happened being the glare that still stays on his face.

    ¡°Fine, I will deal with it, since I am already asking something outrageous of you.¡±

    ¡°Mmm, what might that be?¡±

    ¡°To entertain me.¡±

    He says that statement with a grin on his face and his glare changes back to soft eyes, that you think would match a smile with no ill intent better than a glare, but the two strangely work well together when he does it.

    ¡°Well, pushing your statement out of my head, I want to know more about the magic of this world and how my affinity with death influences this. I am assuming that you know a lot more about this than you do about souls, do not betray my expectations.¡±

    ¡°Oooh scary, don¡¯t worry I am the one with the best affinity with death so I know a phenomenal amount about the effects and uses that possession of this affinity will have.

    Now shall we get started into looking at the benefactors of being with me?¡±

    ¡°Is this a marriage counselling or what? Because I am getting that feeling from your words.¡±

    ¡°Nah, don¡¯t worry it isn¡¯t, but if you find any pretty lady in your life who dies early, inform me of them and I shall have a true marriage counselling in which you will receive a reward.¡±

    This guys nonchalant attitude amazes me to this day. It goes against every idea of logic from my previous world.

    ¡°Are you telling me to kill a person?¡±

    ¡°No, no, no, nothing so brutal, just cause an accident or something. We will work from there.¡±

    ¡°I assume that is a joke, because otherwise you would be the most horrifying thing in existence, truly deserving of both the name Satan and the name Betty.¡±

    ¡°Yes it is a joke, so don¡¯t go combining those two names into something worse. I feel like if you do that I would be far more pleased with the name Betty than the name that you create.¡±

    ¡°Well at least you understand. Anyway, mind answering my question?¡±

    ¡°Wait so I was right in my assumption *cries*.¡±

    Wiping the tears away with his arm, he explains the concept of magic and how my element affects it:

    ¡°You see magic is¡­¡±

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Forgive me for all the cliffhangers, but I just can¡¯t resist. Actually I intended to make this chapter twice as long, but as I said just then, I can¡¯t resist making cliffhangers.

 Vol. 1: Chapter 4 - An explanation

    Merry earth day. Here is a chapter for you guys!

    This chapter is a pure explanatory chapter. Yes, it is long and yes, it is not the last long-ass explanatory chapter. This chapter exists to let you guys and myself understand the idea of magic in this world. Also, anything that goes against natural physics and doesn¡¯t make sense in this chapter, I ask you to attempt to turn a blind eye against it. I am not a physician, as much as I would love to be.

    If anyone doesn¡¯t understand a section, I will write a longer, simpler explanation in the afterword if you ask for it.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    ¡°Magic is the manipulation of elements and the reduction or promotion of the density of a jot of element by use of your ¡®aura¡¯.

    No one truly understands ¡®aura¡¯, rather we immortals know very few things about it. The only things that we really know is

    that it is generated by the soul and is released with every action you do, dependant on the difficulty of the action.

    The harder the action, the more aura you naturally release, and the more aura you release, the more you tire. However this also works the other way around, where as long as you have a substantial amount of ¡®aura¡¯, you will not require any physical rest although you might take a huge toll mentally.

    This aura, like I said earlier can be used to manipulate different elements.

    There are 10 elements that I know of, with your world only possessing knowledge of 6 of them. The elements that your world knows are:

    Fire, water, earth, wind, light and darkness. The first four are called basic elements whereas the last two are considered rarities in your world, with only ? of the population capable of using magic and only a 0.1% of those capable of manipulating the last 2 elements. However, unbeknownst to the majority of the world, there are 4 other ¡®extra elements¡¯ that exist.

    These ¡®extra elements¡¯ are unique, with an incredibly small number of beings in all planes of existence capable of using them. The reason for this is because of the controversial requirements to be able to manipulate these elements, and even if you meet the requirements, there is a large chance that you will be incapable of influencing the extra elements to abide by your will.

    I am unaware of anything about the requirements to become capable to manipulate any of the ¡®extra elements¡¯ exempt death. The requirements to manipulate and influence deaths ¡®aura¡¯ I would believe to be the simplest.

    You just have to die, but keep your natural ¡®aura¡¯ and soul from reforming. All of the ¡®extra elements¡¯ originate from 4 different beings, with me being the cause and origin of the ¡®aura¡¯ of death that is capable of manipulating the death element. That is the ¡®gift¡¯ I have you and why you are in possession of the ¡®aura of death¡¯.

    The 4 basic elements originate from the power of all the gods combined, being split evenly into each of the four, with no element being more dominant than the other.

    To manipulate water into a ball, it requires less ¡®aura¡¯ than someone who attempts to make a fireball. This is because encompassing all the water vapour already existent in the air and pushing them together with use of your ¡®aura¡¯ to form a ball of water is much simpler than the creation of it¡¯s counterpart.

    To create a fireball, you must magnify the small amount of heat generated by the friction of rubbing your hands. Magnifying this heat requires an instantaneous increase in the density of oxygen and heat within the space where you wish your fireball to be. Your spark will in turn convert into the spell known as ¡®Fireball¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Umm¡­ Can I ask something about this spell?¡±

    ¡°If it¡¯s for me to demonstrate it, then no, as I am the embodiment of the ¡®aura¡¯ and element of death, I am incapable of bending any of the other elements to my will. Well, I have full control in this realm of existence, so I can create a ball of fire

    inside this area, but it won¡¯t be made by the same methods at all.¡±

    After his initial sentence I shake my head to show that the question I wish to ask has nothing to do with his assumption. However, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on whether the information he just made me aware of will be useful later, he seems to ignore me and continue talking, so I  interrupt him by asking the question directly.

    ¡°Do all magi have to know about this idea and phenomenon to be capable of using magic? It seems a bit far-fetched if you ask me.¡±

    Betty nods as if to agree with the validity of the question I proposed to him.

    ¡°I was getting to that, you see the world you were transported to at what you would consider a medieval stage with their technology. They still use swords, and only made siege weapons a few decades ago, but fear not my child, they don¡¯t have the weird thought system that the people of your world had. They believe magic can solve everything and few things are attempted to be solved with science, well not any science that isn¡¯t based off magic anyway.¡±

    ¡°... So if scientific research hasn¡¯t progressed far at all, then how do the people from my new world capable of casting spells and using magic.¡±

    ¡°Well, I hesitate to use the terms ¡®casting spells¡¯ and ¡®using magic¡¯, as they are just fancy words for manipulation of ¡®aura¡¯, but to answer your question: The magicians of your world slowly understand these concepts naturally the more they delve into the world of ¡®aura¡¯ manipulation. But to be honest, they still predominantly act on imagination of the end result, rather than the entire process.

    Although this reduces mental strain and doesn¡¯t require a high capacity to manipulate ¡®aura¡¯, it is a very wasteful method. The reason why it is such a wasteful method is mainly because of the many different methods by which you can come to ¡®cast a spell¡¯, such as fireball. For example, you can when imagining the end result and pouring in enough ¡®aura¡¯ be lucky and  make my incredibly efficient version of fireball, or unlucky and get a different result. In fact, there is an almost 100%  chance that you will go through another, more difficult means to achieve the same end result of a fireball..

    For example, one of the wasteful methods that you may stumble upon would be to maximize the friction and movement of air particles to generate heat. Then eventually the temperature will increase enough so that the heated up oxygen particles spark into fuel for a flame which gets enlarged by all those particles.

    This requires at least 8 times the amount of ¡®aura¡¯ that would be used in the previous selection as well as a longer casting time, which is incredibly inefficient. The main reason why this happens is because people attempt to create a fireball in mid-air like in books and movies from your world because it looks cool.

    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    However those stupid people are just ignoring natural laws that can help you ¡®cast your spell¡¯. After all, the heat generated by your hands is far superior than the heat generated by air particles rubbing against each other, even if vigorously.¡±

    As I listen to him rant on and on about this subject on how people are stupid, I decide to interrupt and stop him from saying more with 2 simple words repeated.

    ¡°Down Betty! Down.¡±

    He stops his rant upon hearing my shout and looking up to me with an attempt at puppy dog eyes. They don¡¯t belong on an old man, but still haven¡¯t lost the full extent of their effects.

    ¡°Ok, now Betty I want you to do something for me. That is to explain to me how to manipulate ¡®aura¡¯ and train in magic.¡±

    He realises that I am ignoring his attempt at getting sympathy and so he instantly stops his acting and replies to me with a sigh.

    ¡°You are getting too ahead of yourself now. I haven¡¯t fully explained the topic although I agree I got sidetracked a bit there.

    From now on I will try to not go into such deep explanation, I apologize.¡±

    He looks sincere for the entire time that he says those words, but only a second after he finishes he drops the act.

    At least ¡®try¡¯ to keep the act up, *sigh*

    (Yes in case you haven¡¯t figured it out by now, the main character likes to sigh in his inner monologues... Weirdly...)

    ¡°So where were we, oh yes now about the different applications of mana manipulation.

    First about the spells: Basic spells such as generation of heat by vibrating the particles in the air are actually much more inefficient than consecutive uses of ¡®aura¡¯ to influence the same things.

    The reason for this is really simple, when you manipulate elements with you aura initially such as vibrating the air particles, your aura encompasses them and mixes with them. This leaves a sort of ¡®indent¡¯ so to speak of your aura on the particle, which makes any more attempts to influence the particle much simpler, requiring far less additional concentration to manipulate it.

    The indented particle naturally forms back to it¡¯s pre-indented state, given enough time.

    However, each elemental particle can only have one ¡®aura¡¯ indent and when influencing a particle already indented with another person¡¯s ¡®aura¡¯, it becomes more difficult than influencing even those that have no indent in them.

    This is why, although you can disperse a wave of air created by another¡¯s ¡®aura¡¯ by taking control of the particles and moving them, that method is rarely used as it proves more difficult than simply copying the spell and releasing your own version of the spell.¡±

    Stopping, he looks at the ceiling with a complexed look, as though listening to someone say something he dislikes.

    After being quiet for a few seconds he looks at me with a sad frown and tells me the problem.

    ¡°You see, I was just informed by my servants about the fact that my free time is almost up. So before I leave, I will answer one question.¡±

    ¡°Is the length of the question debatable?¡±

    ¡°No, also was that your question?¡±

    ¡°Of course not, rather the thing that I want to know is how to expand my aura reserves and my capability to manipulate ¡®aura¡¯.¡±

    ¡°Ehhh, it¡¯s not that simple, well not to begin with at least. You have to learn to feel aura, and this ability usually becomes available to your body when you turn one, which is the time when the, let¡¯s say pores that allow aura to be released comes out.

    When you are still a baby, your ¡®aura¡¯ is too weak to be able to leave the inside of your body at all, without completely draining you of aura.

    This is why as a child, you get tired and sleep often during your first year of life.

    You can counteract such an effect, however it requires your soul to be capable of separating from your body and training in ¡®aura¡¯ manipulation..

    However, this is usually impossible to achieve due to the fact that your soul and body are one until death separates the two.

    Luckily for you however, since your current physical body isn¡¯t your original or true body, the only attachment that your soul really has to you body is made by the will of it wanting to be there.

    If you for instance, no longer wanted to live, you can detach your soul from your body and your soul would be brought here in the same manner that you got here just now.

    Since your soul, the you at the moment has no container stopping your ¡®aura¡¯ from leaking outside, you can already manipulate ¡®aura¡¯.

    So getting to the point about how you can learn to manipulate your ¡®aura¡¯.

    ¡®Aura¡¯ is used mainly by imagination combined with the capability to feel the elements and ¡®aura¡¯ at a high level.

    To first become capable of sensing the ¡®aura¡¯ that you possess, the most efficient method would be to meditate and attune oneself with the elements around you.

    This is probably the oldest, but the best method because it relies on your ability to attune to nature and acts as a display of ones own willpower.

    There are other methods such as pills or the injection of ¡®aura¡¯ into your system, but it can be harmful and also doesn¡¯t necessarily work. Not only that, but it will take longer for you to be able to progress in the increase of your ¡®aura¡¯ after you take in the ¡®aura¡¯ from a foreign source.

    If you want to learn to manipulate ¡®aura¡¯, it takes pure patience. You must be patient enough to not stop meditating and just wait until you attune your soul with that of nature.

    Now, I better go before my servants give some souls the wrong judgements, just meditate whenever you come here in your soul body. The more you meditate, the more you peel the layers protecting your soul from sensing the outside ¡®aura¡¯. This is made so that your soul isn¡¯t instantly revealed to the dangerous outside forces of other¡¯s aura without forewarning.

    I must go now, good luck in your meditation.¡±

    He stands up, waves goodbye and then his body erupts into a black flame leaving nothing behind.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Forgive me, copy paste kind of messes up the lines sometimes and merges them together. I apologize for this inconvenience.

 Vol. 1: Chapter 5 - "That makes two of us."

    The particles in the stories are microscopic particles, at the size bordering on the edge of being a macromolecule. Google is your best friend.

    Also Mother is the term used for the owner/top caretaker of an orphanage, in case you were not aware.

    Apologies for the lack of a release yesterday. *Waffle Fluff kowtows*

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    He stands up, waves goodbye and then his body erupts into a black flame leaving nothing behind.

    I go back through to the throne room and decide to keep meditating for the next few hours, at least until my body awakens. During all the hours, I only achieved a mind that was one with nature about 20 minutes prior to my awakening, so I barely managed to peel any of the barrier covering my soul off.

    Becoming one with nature was an interesting experience, if anything. I could feel the movement of the cold air in the large cavern, the particles of water in the air. I could even feel all the vibrations in the earth. Interestingly enough, when I reached the zen-like state, I felt my body move when the surroundings moved. When the wind suddenly blew from the black doorway, my body swayed with it, although the wind itself was incredibly weak. When the earth shook, my body naturally trembled. When the heat increased, my body heat also jumped.

    That was when I realised that I was one with nature and that the sensation was slowly, so very slowly becoming clearer.

    However, while in this state, I was woken up by a loudly crying baby in the crib opposite me. I looked around to see what could¡¯ve caused him to cry, but not before cursing the child for making me lose my attunement with nature. He didn¡¯t seem to be crying for any real reason other than just for the sake of crying.

    This made me curse him in my mind again as his crying caused a chain reaction in which all the newborns erupted into a cacophony of tears.

    Dear Lorde Betty, may these childrens souls calm down and quieten so that I can fall back asleep and continue peeling the protective layers.

    As I prayed quietly in my mind, it seemed as though my prayers were answered when the old woman from yesterday night entered.

    The old woman came in to attempt to silence the ¡®little ones¡¯ and slowly but surely the babies quietened down. She then looked at me with an inquisitive look, as I did not cry at all during that ¡®event¡¯ and instead had a pained expression on my face, mirroring my thoughts and views on the ¡®event¡¯.

    Also, I unconsciously regard Betty as my deity now, probably because he has been the only one who has helped me or answered any of my questions as opposed to the other gods who have done jack-shit to help me so far.

    Now after that matter was dealt with, all the ¡®little ones¡¯ were given milk in bottles, clearly because of the lack of mothers that can provide breast milk in the establishment. We were also given some mashed potato, or at least something that tasted similar to eat. After eating and drinking, I immediately attempted to go back to sleep and succeeded after an hour or two.

    [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

    I awaken in the throne room, on the same spot as last time. I stand up and stretch a bit to check if everything was O.K. with my soul-body and then proceed to get into a cross-legged position and meditate again.

    This time, unlike the previous 4 hours that it took to become attuned with nature, it only took three hours and forty-five minutes, which I considered a huge improvement because if I managed to lower the required time by 15 minutes each time I slept, it would only take 16 sleeping sessions in total to become able to instantly come into the meditative state.

    Of course I acknowledged that the chances of that happening are incredibly close to zero. I repeated this 6 hour sleep, 2 hour awake repeating cycle for the next month. I found that every time I meditated, it decreased the amount of time required to get into a state of attunement with nature.

    However, every time that I finished a sleeping session, although the time for me to become attuned with nature decreased, so did the time it was reduced by. The first time reduced the time by 15 minutes, but then it was 12, 11, 7, 2 and now steady at a constant one minute reduction every time I finish my meditative sessions.

    Another month later, 2 months since I began peeling the layers, I broke the last layer and became capable of manipulating the ¡®aura¡¯ in the air. How to say this¡­ It felt like I just gained insight on the fact of how to release my ¡®aura¡¯.

    It kind of feels strange when I release my ¡®aura¡¯. It feels as though the power comes from all over my body, pouring out like sweat, but at a much higher rate.

    Strangely enough though, it¡¯s comfortable and when it surrounds me I get a feeling of bliss, as though I am in my natural environment.

    During those 2 months, I never saw Betty, and although I had tried calling out to him both physically and mentally, he never replied. I still had an hour remaining in hell before having to return back to the surface, so I might as well attempt some magic.

    I attempt an efficient fireball spell and rub my hands together to generate heat and attempt to increase the friction and flammability of the small heat particles inbetween my hands. However, I find myself incapable of selecting a single particle and only pouring ¡®aura¡¯ into it.

    ¡°Already failed on the first step, huh.¡±

    I mutter this as I can¡¯t affect a single particle only. I convince myself that, since I only need a single particles to be affected and am incapable of doing so, rather than increasing my ¡®aura¡¯ reserves and deciding to ignore selecting one particle and just select a bunch of them to make up for my lack of control, I would instead train in control. As Betty said that this method is 8 times more efficient than just trying to simply use power and not logic, it proves how important control is.

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Because of my realisation, I spend the remaining 30 minutes trying to affect the smallest amount of particles with my aura, and only then do I realise how difficult it is to do so. I can only affect a minimum of 100,000 particles which fill less space than a 1 cm^3 cube of air.

    I awaken and think to myself:

    Well, this is going to take a while to reduce to one¡­ Now I understand why most mages of this world decide to just go for power rather than control.

    I look around and see children everywhere, crawling around on their playmats. It appears that after my appearance at this orphanage, there was no more soldiers added to the ¡®legion of babies¡¯ that this place has. No, but seriously there is way too many kids younger than three years of age which just makes you assume that they are trying to make either a city or an army of babies.

    Oh, I forgot to mention that 1 ? months after my ¡®birth¡¯ into this world, I was allowed to crawl around a bit without being watched by that eagle of a grandmother.

    It¡¯s like she knows where you are at all times, whether you are a kilometre away or hiding under her feet. It¡¯s scary.

    But although she used to watch me so incredibly closely that I couldn¡¯t explore or search for answers without raising questions and being forced back into my cradle, I knew she did this all out of maternal love. Oh yes, apparently the name that the older children call her by is ¡®Grandma Sophia¡¯. I learned this when one of the older children came in here to look after us while ¡®Grandma¡¯ was out, and when she returned she was addressed as such.

    Anyways, when I finally was free from the ¡®watcher¡¯ for half a month, I proceeded to first attempt to stand up and discovered, that I was unable to. I suppose the countless hours of sleeping that I did kind of ruined my physical abilities. I then tested my voice to see if I could speak fluently, but not before hiding in a corner out of sight of everyone.

    I found that I could speak fluently, without much difficulty or problems other than my lack of breath. I could only speak about one sentence before having to breathe again due to my horrible lung capacity as a newborn.

    I also noticed that although I am not in my soul body, I can for some reason feel my ¡®aura¡¯ swirling inside my body. I will for it to exit my body and all of a sudden feel intense pain and everything turns dark.

    I woke up in my cradle with Grandma watching me with worried eyes and it doesn¡¯t take a genius to know that I probably fainted upon trying to force my ¡®aura¡¯ out of my body.

    Hmm, strange. So when I faint, my soul stays with my body and doesn¡¯t go to Betty¡¯s Palace in hell. Hmmmmm.

    When Grandma saw that I was awake, she let out a breath in relief.

    ¡°Thank God, I thought that you mightn¡¯t ever wake up.

    Julie, come over here for a second.¡±

    As she called over ¡®Julie¡¯, I shuffled my body a bit and peeked out of the slits in the side of the cradle to look at this new person that I¡¯ve never heard of.

    She appears to be 14, one of the older kids, with freckles, brown hair tied in a bun behind her head. She looked 5 foot 4, her eyes were hazel coloured, her skin a slightly tanned white and she wore another nun habit, similar to Sophia¡¯s but without any indication of it being used for a long time. Her ears also appeared normal and she had no tail, spelling out that she was human.

    ¡°Julie, from now on you are in charge of looking after Sephtis.¡±

    Julie suddenly looked defiant and opened her mouth but Grandma placed a finger on Julie¡¯s lips to stop her from verbalising her defiance.

    ¡°Julie, you decided that you want to take up looking after the kids when I pass away. Although I was at first opposed to such an idea, you imposed your ideals upon me and I resigned on the condition that you agreed to do everything I said, as long as my order doesn¡¯t disregard your wish of taking care of the children.¡±

    Grandma removed her finger from Julie¡¯s lips but although there was nothing prohibiting her from speaking at the moment Julie remained silent. Grandma sighed and continued:

    ¡°There should be no problem, think looking after Sephtis for the next year as training for taking over the orphanage.¡±

    ¡°But Grandma, I want to look after REAL children. I have watched him for a while and looking after him has no complications, he just eats and sleeps. Honestly I was more surprised when I heard he fainted in the corner but not because of the fact that he did so, but rather that he actually went as though to escape our sight.

    Please Grandma, I don¡¯t mind looking after kids at all, in fact I would love to look after the newborns, but not him please.¡±

    Grandma Sophia sighed again and said:

    ¡°That is your problem Sophia, you have no patience for certain types of people. If you are to become the Mother of this orphanage, no in fact any orphanage, you will come across children like this rarely I admit, but you will come across them nonetheless.

    So as I said before, take this as training and look after him.¡±

    Julie looked downcast but as she understood that she had to take care of me for her own sake as a Mother, so she just stated:

    ¡°Yes Mother.¡±

    Grandma nodded and then left the room. Julie looked at me with a face filled with an emotion close to, but not exactly anger, and then voiced her verbal complaints in a plain and confronting way.

    ¡°I don¡¯t like you.¡±

    To which I replied:

    ¡°That makes two of us.¡±

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

    Fixed mistake from {Anyways, when I finally was free from the ¡®watcher¡¯ I proceeded to first attempt to stand up} to {Anyways, when I finally was free from the ¡®watcher¡¯ for half a month, I proceeded to first attempt to stand up}

    -Waffle Fluff

 Vol. 1: Chapter 6 - Julies thoughts

    ¡°That makes two of us.¡±

    Julie froze and stared at me with amazement, after all I was only 2 ? months old, or at least it had been that amount of time since Grandma found me outside the orphanage.

    Seeing as she was rightfully dumbfounded by my remark that even I was amazed by, I tried to hurriedly end any questions that might come for me with a few words.

    ¡°Now that we¡¯ve got that straight, Goodnight it was nice meeting you.¡±

    I hurriedly shoved my thumb in my mouth after that sentence, curled up and made myself appear as though asleep. Although I couldn¡¯t see her with my body turned sideways and closed eyes, I could just tell that she was still standing there with a blank expression on her face just staring at me.

    Her eyes terrify me the same amount if not more than Betty. Betty knows everything so his eyes hold indescribable amounts of knowledge but those eyes that Julie possesses are like ones that are judging me incredibly. Girls are scary¡­

    Honestly, I was shaken up about the whole ordeal, but I managed to keep calm and react in a way which, although questionable, would not have been the worst possible reaction. When she had said that she disliked me, I couldn¡¯t resist talking back simply because the only person that I had interacted with in my new life was Betty, and I can¡¯t help talking back to him.

    It¡¯s just too fun.

    -... Who is the true Satan now?-

    -Oh hey Betty, welcome back. Where were you for the past 2 months, I was calling for you for quite a while.-

    -I know it was really embarrassing, you know that me and my servants can hear you if you yell that loudly. One of my servants even asked who Betty was. Hell, that was embarrassing.-

    -You can get embarrassed? I wasn¡¯t aware, why thank you for that information.-

    -Frankly¡­ You scare me shitless. Seriously, I wouldn¡¯t mind relinquishing my seat of Satan to you simply because of how terrifying you are.-

    -Hahaha, No way in hell am I taking that seat of immortality. I will enjoy my new life for as long as I have it, without any disturbances at all.-

    - *sigh*. Okay, so I came here to help teach you how to manipulate the ¡®Death Element¡¯ with your aura considering how you have managed to disintegrate the coating around your soul.-

    -Oh, you were aware of that?-

    -You caused such a commotion in hell manipulating and playing around with all the elements and especially since everything in hell is under my control, it became even easier for me to notice your breakthrough.-

    -Ahh, I see¡­ I have a question: Do I have any talent when it comes to manipulating aura and increasing my aura capacity?-

    -What makes you ask such a question? Are you hoping that you are going to be incredibly talented and that it is amazing to breakthrough the barrier in 2 months?

    I will admit, that breaking through the barrier in two short months since beginning is amazing, with only the most talented beings capable of doing so. However, your talent is mediocre at best.-

    -What do you mea¡­ Oh, I see so the only reason that this is possible for me is because of my capability to train while asleep. Am I right?-

    -Yes you are indeed correct, now go to sleep and come here with your spirit body. I can¡¯t train you while you are still on a mortal plane of existence.-

    After he says that, I feel as though he terminates some kind of mental connection with me.

    Strange, I didn¡¯t feel this termination last time I talked to him. I guess that my soul gaining the ability to manipulate ¡®aura¡¯ had helped me in sensing such things. Well I better fall asleep fast then before I encounter some kind of problem.

    I mentally state the last lines while thinking of that freckled girls face. Shortly afterwards I drift into sleep.

    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

    Few months prior to the ¡®incident¡¯ of the babies speech.

    Julie¡¯s Viewpoint:

    I never was really a follower of rules. I never liked people who followed what others said unconditionally. In fact, I had a policy that those who follow people without objection are simply brainless bodies, seeking others comfort. Honestly, beings like that simply disturbed me.

    Because of my policy of not following rules, I was still awake even after we were told to go to sleep. Still awake even in the dead of night, I hear a slight tap on the door, and after that Grandma Sophia comes out of the churches annex in which she resides.

    She opens the door and mutters something quietly and as I slowly crawl forward in order to see what she is doing outside, I see her come back in with a basket supported by both her hands.

    She then walks with the basket into the ¡®Baby Room¡¯ and exits a minute later with an empty basket on which I can read the word ¡®Sephtis¡¯ on the side. I put two and two together and guess that ¡®Sephtis¡¯ is the name of a baby which used to be inside the basket.

    Sophia then walks back to her annex and I fall asleep a few minutes later making sure to remember to go to the ¡®Baby Room¡¯ on the next day.

    In the morning, I wake up and do the usual chores, greeting Mark, Liz, Milly and Zale like usual. After completing all my morning deeds, I walk into the ¡®Baby Room¡¯ and see that a crib that didn¡¯t have a child in it yesterday suddenly has an inhabitant.

    I peer at the sleeping newborn and gasp.

    Although he was only a baby who appeared less than a month old, he already had long black hair reaching down to his shoulder blades. The hair seemed bewitching in the eyes of the 14 year old.

    It was a strange colour, seeming to be an unnatural blend of purple and black. In the night, you wouldn¡¯t even notice that his hair had a tint of purple as the purple was so dark that people would mistake it as black unless in an incredibly well lit environment.

    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Luckily the old church was designed to fill every place in the room with light. It did it¡¯s job well and succeeded in lighting up all the darker areas of the house, with the exception of the corner opposite the place where Sephtis slept.

    ¡°What beautiful hair.¡±

    I muttered that with an almost inaudible voice, which only people who stood within a 2 metre vicinity of her would hear. However, there was no one awake that stood in this area at the time.

    The next month went quietly, with me taking care of the younger children while occasionally going to the ¡®Baby Room¡¯, to check on Sephtis.

    Frankly, it was disappointing. As opposed to his strange and mysterious hair which seemed to originate from darkness itself, he wasn¡¯t interesting at all. He slept and ate, slept and ate and also slept and ate.

    I was expecting him to be at least somewhat intriguing, but his actions said otherwise. But because of me trying to sneak peeks at him for the past month, I was in the vicinity of the other younger children and found that I enjoyed their company.

    I even feel like becoming the Mother of this orphanage when Grandma passes away at this point. Ok, I have decided. I will go talk to her about my wish to stay here and become a Mother this week.

    ¡­

    The week past by quickly, with there still being no change from Sephtis. I had begun to start feeling animosity towards him because of how much time I spent watching him out of the corner of my eyes, but still had yet to receive any interesting reaction.

    On the bright side, after I talked to Grandma a day following my wish to tell her, although she had rejected me, telling me I have a bright future in front of me unlike her who could only do so much, I had eventually convinced her. It only took a few days of harassing her every half an hour, including during sleeping times.

    I remember her face when she was awoken at half past 2 with me staring at her with a candlestick on a plate that was held in my hand. Her reaction was so worth the time and effort.

    When she gave in, she took a nun habit that was slightly larger and far less used than hers and gave it to me. When we children of this orphanage grow to 14 years of age, we are allowed to ask for any types of clothing as a present. I had delayed my request although other had instantly asked for theirs.

    Because of this I received the habit as the piece of clothing that I was allowed to get. It made me ecstatic, to say the least. I thanked Grandma with tears streaming down my face, as receiving this habit was also a form of recognition from Grandma about my wish to be the Mother of this orphanage.

    Although she hadn¡¯t verbalised her compliance with my wishes, her actions said it all and I knew that she only wanted me to be able to do what I want. That is the only reason she forces the 14-16 year olds out of the orphanage. Only because she knows that staying here will inhibit their wishes of becoming rich or likewise.

    The remainder of the month went by with me still receiving no entertaining reaction from Sephtis and with no mention of the reminder of Grandma¡¯s recognition from her. I at one point thought that she had forgotten about the events that happened in her old age.

    But whenever she saw me wearing the habit, she would just smile and nod, reminding me that she definitely didn¡¯t forget as well as sending warmth to my heart.

    Another week past without any problems, but after that week came an interesting occurrence.

    Normally, Sephtis would sleep for about 6 hours and stay awake to eat for 2 hours and this cycle would repeat, however one day he just didn¡¯t wake up and just kept sleeping. Needless to say Sophia was incredibly worried about the matter.

    Her feelings of worry increased to a critical level when for the entire week, Sephtis hadn¡¯t opened his eyes at all. Sophia even wanted to call an expensive doctor to help him, but I managed to convince her otherwise as we simply don¡¯t have the money to pay him without selling all our belongings.

    Sophia cares for all her children equally and exactly because of that, she understood the dilemma and didn¡¯t push for a doctor after that argument was made. Although she could diagnose one child with the reason why they weren¡¯t awakening, it would be at the expense of a months food for the other children.

    Everyone knew that it wasn¡¯t Grandma¡¯s fault that she couldn¡¯t pay for a doctor to help Sephtis, but nonetheless she kept beating herself over because of it.

    I felt slightly guilty as well, as I had cursed and disliked him for a while and now he is in such a predicament. Although I clearly understood that it wasn¡¯t my fault, I also couldn¡¯t help but feel as though at least a portion of his ¡®illness¡¯ was caused because of me.

    I watched over him for a while and at the end of the next week, I saw something incredibly strange about him. All of a sudden after I fell asleep watching over him, I awoke to a feeling that seemed like a cold chill filled the room.

    But the cold was not from any reduction in temperature, but rather far more frightening. It felt as though Death had come for us all, and that the epicentre of it all was this little elven boy named Sephtis. At that point I felt intense fear caused by that 2 month old boy.

    In a second, I felt as though invisible mist that was the cause of this feeling rushed back to him, but not before hitting me and almost knocking me unconscious.

    At that point all of the fear I felt had vanished along with that feeling of oppressive death.

    He is terrifying.

    Nothing as boring as I had thought he was at the beginning.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    And we reach the maximum word count at this point. I actually intended to finish up to the moment where he had said his words towards her. But alas, not everything goes as wished. Also the limits imposed on me by the thing called ¡®Word Count¡¯ are incredibly strong.

    I apologize.

    -Waffle Fluff

 Vol. 1: Chapter 7 - The true face of Death

    And here we have a longer chapter because I felt nice and because I felt enlightened about what I should write. Also I might not release tomorrow and you can consider this as a crappy way of making up for it.

    Enjoy.

    -Waffle Fluff

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    He is terrifying.

    Nothing as boring as I had thought he was at the beginning.

    I went out of the room and quickly ran to Grandma to seek advice and guidance on what occurred. After explaining it, even Grandma was baffled, but she still took care of him as her own child afterwards, with no regard to what I had told her.

    A day after the ¡®fear¡¯ incident, Sephtis awoke. He didn¡¯t appear famished or had any apparent hunger after his awakening. Although Sophia had fed him porridge while he was asleep, it can only do so much to someone who can¡¯t swallow it consciously, so we thought that when he woke up, if he did, he would be really hungry.

    But our fears were apparently not based on anything, with his hunger being the same as all the other normal sleeping sessions.

    When he awoke, Sophia cried silent tears of gratitude while thanking the gods for listening to her prayers and saving Sephtis. Although she had prayed, the only reason she did so was because she had no other people that could help her. In reality she had already abandoned her religion a long time ago when her belief didn¡¯t save her children and she only wore the habit as a uniform for the orphanage.

    For the next week, Sophia watched Sephtis like the ¡®scavenger bird ¡®from the Darklands. In fact, Sephtis even showed some reaction to it, making a face that appeared similar to irritation, but no babies can understand what her actions symbolise, so it was probably just chance.

    One week later, with Grandma believing that Sephtis recovered sufficiently enough and wasn¡¯t in any immediate danger, she left to continue her duties around the orphanage tending to the other kids.

    However, the instant she left with me following, Sephtis somehow got out of the cradle and managed to get to the dark corner of the room before falling asleep again. When I returned to the baby room and saw Sephtis lying in the corner, I quickly called for Grandma.

    Shortly afterwards, Grandma arrived panting from her old age and incapability to run due to it. Prior to her arrival, I placed Sephtis back into his cradle and when she arrived, I informed her on how he was asleep in the corner of the room.

    Shortly afterwards I went to tend to the other babies and do my chores before I was called back 20 minutes later.

    ¡°Julie, come over here for a second.¡±

    I come over and look at Sephtis, who seems to be studying and analysing me. This sent shivers down my spine, not because of the actions themselves, but because they were coming from a 2 and a half month old boy.

    ¡°Julie, from now on you are in charge of looking after Sephtis.¡±

    When Sophia said that, I felt an onslaught of emotions and states of mind, with the predominant one being fear. I was scared of the thought of looking after this child which could release such a terrifying air.

    As I was about to object and yell at her due to the onslaught I just experienced, Grandma placed a finger on my lips, an action she would do a lot in my infancy due to my outright attitude which even existed at that time. This action stopped me from screaming and let my emotions settle. Grandma Sophia then spoke, detailing her reason for stopping my proclamation of rebellion.

    ¡°Julie, you decided that you want to take up looking after the kids when I pass away. Although I was at first opposed to such an idea, you imposed your ideals upon me and I resigned on the condition that you agreed to do everything I said, as long as my order doesn¡¯t disregard your wish of taking care of the children.¡±

    After removing her finger from my lips, she continued with her reasoning.

    ¡°There should be no problem, think of looking after Sephtis for the next year as training for taking over the orphanage.¡±

    Although I admit I am hot-blooded, I am reasonable and if you give me a good enough reason, I will accept it. But nevertheless, I was not gonna become this person''s guardian without any opposition. Who knows, it may even work.

    ¡°But Grandma, I want to look after REAL children. I have watched him for a while and looking after him has no complications, he just eats and sleeps. Honestly I was more surprised when I heard he fainted in the corner but not because of the fact that he did so, but rather that he actually went as though to escape our sight.

    Please Grandma, I don¡¯t mind looking after kids at all, in fact I would love to look after the newborns, but not him please.¡±

    I stated my arguments, and although I said that I dislike him because of his boringness, I know this is no longer true. I also know that almost all of my emotions that I stated was a lie. In truth I was just afraid. Afraid of that feeling of death.

    Although I opposed her to the extent of my powers, I still had to give in to the reasonable arguments she made and admit the unreasonability of my arguments.

    But since I couldn¡¯t say directly to her face that I simply hated him outright, I needed to say it to someone, so I turned to the orchestrator of this whole matter and said:

    ¡°I don¡¯t like you.¡±

    I was about to turn around and leave to help the other kids but I was stopped by a high-pitched, but clear voice.

    ¡°That makes two of us.¡±

    I turned my head, with my eyes open wide in surprise and looked straight at him. As though realising he spoke unnaturally, he said some words quickly as though in an attempt to discard the matter:

    ¡°Now that we¡¯ve got that straight, goodnight it was nice meeting you.¡±

    He then turned his body to lie on his side and then closed his eyes, falling asleep.

    For a good half a minute after he ¡®fell asleep¡¯, I stayed next to his bed with my mouth agape. After realising what happened I ran off to tell Grandma about the whole event, but she didn¡¯t believe me and thought it was a ruse to make me get out of taking care of him.

    I tried telling my friends and told Milly, Zale and Liz as Mark had left the establishment to seek his own fortunes a month ago. None of them believed me however, and I was just laughed at as though it was a joke.

    That night I hugged my pillow and with tears in my eyes said:

    ¡°But it¡¯s not a joke.¡±

    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

    Viewpoint of Sephtis:

    Upon falling into a slumber I awoke in the centre of the throne room like every time before. This time however, Betty was here with me, standing in front of me.

    As I stand up I say:

    ¡°Oh¡­ I thought you would be sitting. You always sit in front of me without offering me a seat. I thought you would do that again.¡±

    ¡°What do you take me for. The only reason I sit most of the time is not because of a haughty attitude but rather because I have to work 24/7 with no resting time other than sitting. Who wouldn¡¯t want to use the most of their free time resting?¡±

    ¡°Yes, yes, fine. Now can you teach me how to manipulate and use the Death Element.¡±

    Remembering that a certain action from my previous world is quite helpful in convincing people, I decide to put it into practice. The divine art of the ¡®Puppy Eyes¡¯. Seeing my expression, Betty quickly tries to stop me.

    ¡°Oh put those eyes away, either way I¡¯m gonna teach you.¡±

    I disable my divine art and then watch him expectantly.

    ¡°Right now you can¡¯t actually use Death Magic to damage anyone. At most you would be able to kill an insect, but even that would require effort.

    Although you can¡¯t make use of the magic itself at the moment, eventually you will be able to. So right now I will teach you the way to use and manipulate it. I will also tell you all it¡¯s drawbacks and weaknesses. It only really has 2 positives and even those aren¡¯t complete positives.¡±

    ¡°... Is death magic really that bad?¡±

    ¡°Well not really, I will tell you why when I explain it. I will not be able to teach you later since I will be working for the next few years. Also because of this, I won¡¯t be able to contact you for a while.¡±

    Hmm¡­ I would normally be celebrating in this scenario, but Betty is a comforting existence. At least I know that when he is around me Gods can¡¯t take any actions against me.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    Reading my thoughts, Betty answers my worries and removes them.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, none of the Gods have actually noticed your existence, and I intend to keep it that way. This is another reason for why I will go, because if I stay by a certain mortals side for too long, it gets relatively suspicious.

    Now that we got your worries behind, lets go into the explanation of Death Magic.¡±

    He takes a large breath and starts explaining.

    ¡°Death Magic is the ability to impose the law of death upon others. This imposing can cause different results, with the most often one being the death of the target. This is one of the positives, but as I mentioned before, it also has a drawback.

    Although it has the capability to kill instantly, leaving no traces but as a result is unable to torture or damage without resulting in fatality. Because of this, this magic can only really be used on true enemies. An application of this ability would be one such as this:

    If you fight an entire army of people greatly weaker than you, you can spread your ¡®death aura¡¯ out across the battlefield and they will all collapse dead with no wounds anywhere. This skill will take an enormous amount of ¡®aura¡¯ to use but the good thing is that it is instant.

    The other positive is the opposite of the previous imposement application. In the previous application you would impose death upon the enemy and their souls would shatter, leaving the world for good. However, there is another single target ability which requires incredible manipulation capability and needs to be backed by incredible ¡®aura¡¯ capacity.

    This application is where one, instead of shattering the soul, pulls it out of the body and does what he wishes with it. He can absorb the soul and with it, it¡¯s memories and a tiny portion of its powers.

    I am fine with you absorbing souls but don¡¯t do it too regularly. It would upset the balance of souls thing and also end up being a pain for me.

    Luckily, I think that whoever created the capability to reap souls did think of the future and set a drawback to those who attempted to do so.¡±

    ¡°Question: What do you mean by who created the capability to reap souls? Didn¡¯t you create it?¡±

    ¡°I thought of the application, but I am talking about The Creator. The creator of the first Gods and the first immortals.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­ Continue then.¡±

    ¡°Thank you for not starting the who is The Creator topic. The occasional Gods that visit me annoy the hell out of me with that conversation topic.

    So, carrying on: The abilities that the ¡®Death Element¡¯ section of magic has is very limited and I will only teach you 2 applications of it.

    Firstly we have the ¡®Soul Reaver¡¯ application. It is where we steal or reave the soul out of the enemy. It is single target, as anymore will simply be too hard to handle for you and destroy both of them.

    Upon taking the soul out of a person, you are free to do what you wish with it. You can destroy it, but that kind of counteracts the notion of taking it out. You can also absorb it to gain it¡¯s memories and powers as I mentioned before. You can also place it back into the same persons body within 12 hours and the person in question will awaken a day later feeling the same as before.

    The second application of ¡®Death¡¯s Aura¡¯ would be imposing your aura. You impose your aura upon people which could result in the shattering of their soul if strong enough, or it can just pressure people to their knees, similar to what I did in the beginning with you.

    I try to suppress my pressure to the maximum, but I can¡¯t do it perfectly so I end up leaking a miniscule amount of my ¡®aura¡¯. That was what you felt before I bumped up the pressure by a tiny bit.

    This ability is really useful for avoiding fights because you can disrupt people souls with your imposement strongly enough to knock them unconscious if you so wish. However, the drawback of this ability is that if you have enough ¡®aura¡¯ to knock them unconscious straight away, that means you have enough power to kill the person 2 times over.

    Actually there is only 2 applications in total but there are lots of subbranches and directions in which you can temper these skills. Now, although the explanation is all good, the best way for you to learn how to use the basic imposement and reaving aspects of ¡®Death Magic¡¯ would be to experience it first hand.

    So without further ado.¡±

    All of a sudden his previously old face, coupled with his white beard and hair underwent incredible changes. His faces wrinkles lifted, his face changed to appear young and he suddenly appeared to be in his early 20s. When his face changed so did the colour of his hair. It appeared as though a wave of colour originating from his hairs roots spread to the tips of his hair.

    His hair quickly became black with a slight tint of purple and simultaneously grew to reach all the way to the bottom of his back. His previously hazel eyes turned golden, contrasting with his blackish-purple hair.

    While all this was happening, a black mass suddenly expanded from his back forming gorgeous black feathered wings.

    I watched him with pure amazement.

    Is this really the old man from a second ago?

    As I asked myself this, he looked at my astonished face and his facial expression didn¡¯t change one bit. I thought that he would at least have some kind of reaction such as a grin or something to my flabbergasted expression, but he didn¡¯t.

    This time, he truly looked like the embodiment of Death. I couldn¡¯t command my body, it just suddenly knelt on one knee and my head looked up at him, as if admitting it¡¯s inferiority.

    Lord Death looked over me and said with a deep, knowledgeable voice devoid of any of the stupidity that Betty gave off.:

    ¡°Stand mortal, this is my warform."

    My body, stands by itself, without being commanded by me and after I stand up, Lord Death continues his explanation.

    "All gods have a warform which they undertake when using their abilities, and almost all of them result in a change of appearance as the other look that we have are fake self-created appearances.

    My warform or original form, however you call it differs greatly from my chosen appearance due to the differing personalities. I created the other personality as my original body cannot feel emotion to any reasonable extent other than curiosity. It was due to that curiosity to feel emotions that led me to create the previous form you call ¡®Betty¡¯.

    I must say, Betty dislikes this form due to the dulling of emotions even though he knows that this is the original form.

    Anyway, we shall go back to the demonstration.¡±

    He raises his right hand in front of him and all that I remember that happened after that was an intense sensation of ¡®Death Aura¡¯ being pushed into me before fainting.

    I wake up, however I am still in hell.

    That was an awkward sensation¡­ Falling asleep in a dream that is.

    Suddenly I hear Lord Death¡¯s voice again.

    ¡°Now that you are done with imposement, here is reaving.¡±

    I can¡¯t even turn around to face him in time, all I feel is an intense pain everywhere on my body but at the same time, I feel like my body isn¡¯t hurt at all. Then the pain goes away along with my consciousness.

    I awaken again, but this time in my safe, warm cradle filled with pleasant feelings.

    ¡°So that is the true face of ¡®Lord Death¡¯.¡±

    I mutter this as I look around. It seems to be the dead of night due to the lack of sunlight shining from the sole window at the back of the room.

    However, now that I get to stay awake for longer than 3 minutes like last time, I can feel a change in my body. I feel as though ¡®aura¡¯ is being and is capable of being released out of my body. My eyes open wide as I have this revelation.

    Hurriedly, I exert my ¡®aura¡¯ without converting it to an element just to see whether or not I am actually capable of doing so. My ¡®aura¡¯ easily comes out, it¡¯s colourless and almost fully transparent due to the lack of any element but I can still faintly see it.

    I, Sephtis, at the age of 2 ? months am able to do magic.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Hope you enjoyed the chapter. It''s only 1000 words longer than normal, so not that much longer unfortunately. But I had to end it on a badass note so I settled for ending this chapter here.

    -Waffle Fluff

 Vol. 1: Chapter 8 - Research Progress

    There is use of an asterix in this chapter. If you don¡¯t completely understand the explanation given, scroll to the bottom of the page to the afterword and look for an explanation with an asterix in front of it.

    DIdn''t release yesterday unfortunately, and forgive me for that. However, unless I give prior notices, which I did in the beforeword in Chapter 7, I will try hard to release a chapter a day.

    -Waffle Fluff

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I, Sephtis, at the age of 2 ? months am able to do magic.

    Well¡­ I have more time to expand my maximum ¡®aura¡¯ capacity and control now. I guess I can cast magic because of my previous attempt to release aura in the corner. I guess that the pain that I experienced at the time had something to do with opening my ¡®aura¡¯ exits?

    I decide to put off questioning how and why I am suddenly capable of using ¡®aura¡¯ in my mortal body although I still believe in my previous hypothesis. Instead of thinking too deeply into it, I just decide to train in ¡®aura¡¯ manipulation.

    As time passed, I noticed something that I was incapable of noticing in my ¡®soul body¡¯. Manipulating and changing the ¡®aura¡¯ into different elements is tiring, incredibly so. I probably was incapable of being tired in my soul body because¡­ Well, it¡¯s not an actual physical body capable of feeling tired.

    When I began to run out of ¡®aura¡¯ in that body, I just felt the lack of ¡®aura¡¯ and nothing else. However it seems that this fact differs when applied to when someone owns a physical container for the soul known more commonly as a body.

    Honestly though, after I discovered this fact I felt like it would be a positive, because if I tire myself out, I get sleepy and if I get sleepy then my soul gets sent back to hell. I discovered this when I was able to sense ¡®aura¡¯ clearer after shedding the layers around my soul, but hell possesses a large amount of highly concentrated ¡®Death Aura¡¯ which shaped all the particles into particles with attunement to ¡®Death Aura¡¯.*

    Because of this quirk about hell, I find it far more comforting being in an area filled with ¡®aura¡¯ and particles of the same element as my natural one and in turn find it easier to receive better insight into how ¡®Death Aura¡¯ works. It also helps me with increasing my overall ¡®aura¡¯ capacity due to the high concentration of ¡®aura¡¯ continuously placing strain on my soul and correspondingly, the creator of my ¡®aura¡¯.

    Luckily for me though, unlike peeling soul layers which requires you to be in a meditative cross-legged position to succeed in doing so, increasing capacity and increasing your control over your ¡®aura¡¯ doesn¡¯t necessarily require a meditative position.

    I experimented with this and it didn¡¯t seem to change when I stood up and exhausted my ¡®aura¡¯ compared to when I was meditating and using my ¡®aura¡¯. Even running and releasing ¡®aura¡¯ had the same degree of difficulty, although it was far harder to run and control the ¡®aura¡¯ precisely similar to the principle of trying to shoot a moving target while running. Basically, it¡¯s possible but I don¡¯t have the control as of this moment.

    Of course, my theory was made using my soul body as I can¡¯t actually verify it with my physical body at this time.

    The next few months were pretty repetitive. Eat, expend ¡®aura¡¯, sleep, expend ¡®aura¡¯ in soul body, awake and repeat. For a long while, Julie watched over me with expectation and I even heard her try to convince people that I could talk. Needless to say, she lacked evidence and failed her attempts.

    I was tempted to speak again just to see how she would react, as I realised her expression at that time was amusing. But I held back and didn¡¯t actually talk because I knew that it would cause some problems in the future.

    I overheard a few conversations and learnt a few things about this world and where we live in general. Of course, the information was limited and I wished for a bigger, broader and better source of knowledge such as a book. An interesting thing I learnt was that I was actually asleep for an entire week, but I never actually realised this when I was asleep.

    I guess when you feel close to unlocking certain secrets, time becomes trivial and you lose your concept of it. During all my ¡®aura¡¯ expenditures that I did to make sure my ¡®aura¡¯ capacity increased, I never once tried to use ¡®Death Aura¡¯. This was mainly because I had experienced it first hand, and it wasn¡¯t a pleasant thing to use in the mortal plane.

    However, I did play around with only ¡®Death Aura¡¯, when in hell with my soul body. It was interesting to manipulate and play with and it had quite a few unique characteristics. Whenever I compressed it into a small sphere and brought it near my soul body, parts of it vanished.

    I lost my left arm in my first arm, but strangely enough it didn¡¯t hurt, and it took me a few seconds before I realised that it was actually destroyed. I didn¡¯t feel anything other than inconvenience from it being gone however.

    After waking up and going back to sleep again and coming to hell in my soul body however, I had my arm back. I was curious enough to almost be tempted into destroying large portions of my soul body just to see how much it could withstand. But I doubt that even if I actually tried to do so, I would be capable of it.

    My ¡®aura¡¯ capacity is weak and although my ¡®aura¡¯ control is improving steadily, it is still incredibly lacking as it has only been a few months since I have been able to push ¡®aura¡¯ out of my body.

    I also became capable of walking, or at least some similar type of movement at 5 months. The reason I am hesitant to call this walking is because my body felt slightly stronger from increasing ¡®aura¡¯ capacity but nowhere near enough to give me the power to support the weight of my body at the time.

    Because my strength was lacking, I decided to use ¡®aura¡¯ to influence the wind and basically force my body to take each step. However, I believed forcing myself to walk when my body isn¡¯t ready wasn¡¯t an incredibly smart idea and tried to avoid walking via that method. Even the few instances in when I did walk with wind manipulation, I also had to make sure that some parts of my body were slightly hovering to minimize the possible damage.

    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    It required a lot of ¡®aura¡¯ in general and also control near my current upper limit so needless to say, it was tiring and difficult. Still, it helped me understand how the element of wind can get controlled by my ¡®aura¡¯.

    I spent most of my time practicing ¡®aura¡¯ control as I had done so since the beginning, with one day/night being dedicated to ¡®aura¡¯ capacity.

    More time passed and I turned 3. There were no birthday celebrations for me or anyone of that age group. There were a few farewell celebrations where some older kids left to seek their fortunes.

    Other than that and the few discoveries I made in the past 3 years, the months were similar to before very repetitive. I was mainly mute during those times and only began talking in simple one word sentences when I turned 2. These sentences were mainly dominated by ¡®sleep¡¯, ¡®eat¡¯ or the occasional ¡®no¡¯. I was capable of standing up and walking normally at 10 months old.

    It was clearly a far quicker development than anyone else of my age group, so I decided to lay low and I even found that I preferred my wind ¡®aura¡¯ manipulation as a far more fun and interesting method than just placing foot after foot and occasionally swinging my arms for balance.

    My ¡®aura¡¯ capacity increased by a lot compared to the initial amount that I possessed, however my greatest achievement was definitely in control. I was now capable of selecting incredibly small amounts of particles at a time to inject my ¡®aura¡¯ into and control the elemental particles with. As an analogy, if I could affect a minimum of 1000 particles when I tried to affect only one, resulting in a waste of ¡®aura¡¯ I can now affect 8 particles as opposed to the previous thousand.

    Of course, when I say that I only mean that my control increased dramatically and I can now affect about 0.8% of the particles I could before. However, the actual amount that I am affecting is still far too large for me to count. That is how small the particles are and how hard they are to control.

    I still had a long way to go, to become anywhere near as good at manipulation as Betty is.

    Speaking of which, I never heard from Betty or Lord Death ever again after Lord used ¡®reaving¡¯ and ¡®imposing¡¯ upon me so that I could understand them.

    It was a slow life, here at the orphanage. Very few people actually visited, with the very few being product suppliers which apparently gave us discounts since they knew Grandma personally and some were previous cared after children.

    About 4 more children were accepted into the orphanage and just like me, they were left outside the doorway on the steps before Grandma picked them up and brought them to the baby room. All the children that were brought were all a young age less than 4 months of age, and the previously crowded baby room was now relatively empty.

    The previous cradles were refashioned into makeshift beds by the older kids and all of us had to convert to them in one way or another. Honestly, I hated it. But not because of the transition itself, which seemed a main problem for the other kids, but rather because of how uncomfortable they were.

    The problem that I have with uncomfortability is that if it isn¡¯t comfortable, that usually means it¡¯s harder to fall asleep, and that impedes the growth and enhancement of my ¡®aura¡¯ when it comes to the element of death.

    Although the death element appeared to be very inefficient, requiring and exhausting double your target¡¯s ¡®aura¡¯ capacity to be capable of killing them as Betty stated, he also slipped in that there are many sub branches which can ¡®temper¡¯ the skills.

    This likely means that they would be made more efficient, and since I looked forward to that, I had played around with my ¡®Death Aura¡¯ to see how I could temper them. Although difficult, and with no test subjects other than myself, I managed to make a few improvements.

    As my control improved and my ¡®aura¡¯ capacity increased, I discovered that I can actually manipulate my ¡®Death Aura¡¯ to surround my body. If anyone came too close, I could condense it at their location and it would act as a sort of repellent and everyone would avoid coming close unconsciously due to fear.

    I hypothesised that fear of death is so powerful that it could probably even make people avoid questioning my existence if concentrated strongly enough. It would be a sort of unconscious mental attack that would theoretically make me undetectable to anyone who is far weaker than me.

    I had to test this on someone, and when I was certain that I was capable of containing my ¡®Death Aura¡¯ from accidentally imposing on someone outside of my control, I had proceeded to activate ¡®Fear¡¯s Illusion¡¯ on an unsuspecting victim.

    Yes¡­ I called the spell that makes people avoid me ¡®Fear¡¯s Illusion¡¯, as I thought it wasn¡¯t half bad. The unsuspecting victim was a toddler similar to my age, and I tried to sneak past him while applying ¡®Fear¡¯s Illusion¡¯ on my whole body.

    It was successful and I could actually get past him without him noticing. When I walked into a range of 3 metres from him however, he looked shocked as to him, I simply appeared out of thin air.

    I made a mental note on the results of the experiment but my curiosity wasn¡¯t sated. It was highly likely that the only reason he didn¡¯t notice me was because he was too young to have sufficient internal ¡®aura¡¯ to notice me.

    I thus tried to cloak myself in the illusion before coming into the room that Julie was in. She noticed me immediately as I entered, with the illusion doing nothing to conceal me.

    At the time I sighed and left the room, leaving Julie with a befuddled look.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    *Difficult to explain. Basically refer to the explanation on ¡®aura¡¯ during [Chapter 4 - An explanation] and how a particle can become shaped to be more effective with a certain element. All the particles in Hell are shaped to be more effective with Death Aura. Hope that helps.

    Also, expect a chapter to be released eventually about a more indepth guide to ''aura'' which will probably assist you guys in understanding the concept of this book''s magic.

 Vol. 1: Chapter 9 - Appearance of the Weapon

    Ever since I experimented with ¡®Fear¡¯s Illusion¡¯ on Julie and the other boy of my age, although making observations, my training regime didn¡¯t really change. Rather, I just spent more time playing and experimenting with my ¡®aura¡¯ imbued with the death element more than before.

    After a few months of trying to find applications of ¡®Death Aura¡¯, I realised that the topic is much harder to understand than I believed. Unlike the 4 basic elements in which I can apply knowledge from my previous world to use them, I cannot do the same with the death element.

    In my previous world, there wasn¡¯t really any text that really talked in-depth about souls and even if there was, it was considered as bogus by the general public. So my days past with me just training in ¡®Fear¡¯s Illusion¡¯ and ¡®aura¡¯ control.

    However, recently I found something else of interest. Grandma Sophia normally spends her days caring after the children with very few breaks, and one of the responsibilities she has and accomplishes is teaching younger children from the age of 5-8. I tune in to the lessons while pretending to quietly play nearby.

    I realised a little while back that I had photographic memory. I initially thought that it was normal to remember this much and I never really looked back into any memory to recall it too much, so it was harder to notice.

    However, after I had thought of ¡®Fear¡¯s Illusion¡¯ and had been playing with its effects, I tried to remember every word that Betty had said to verify if he left any clues behind with which I can improve my techniques. I found myself completely entering my memories, as though I was reliving them.

    Although my soul-bodies senses were incredibly dulled, I found myself being able to remember every slight smell, sound, taste, touch that I experienced and felt, not to mention having perfect memory when it came to what I had seen.

    Being interested in the capabilities that photographic memory brings with its existence, I tried to relive images from my previous world in my head. Unfortunately, the memories were like still images or words on a page, as they came from my previous lives memories which subsequently erased everything that had to do with myself.

    I didn¡¯t know when I scanned images, whether they were from images seen on the internet or if it was from my actual memories at this point.

    Because of my photographic memory which I could very quickly access and make judgements  on at will, I was able to learn about this world fast. I made a few assumptions along the way based on my previous worlds knowledge of societies and the like.

    Grandma taught a bit of history everyday, and although I was interested in it, it was clearly a disliked subject by many of the children that she took as pupils. Other than history, the lessons consisted of mathematics, writing and general knowledge.

    At the beginning, I had thought that I would have to learn to write in a new language again, but that problem was apparently already solved. Whenever I read from a page, I read it as English in my head but when I had tried to read it aloud, it impressed Grandma who heard it in this worlds tongue.

    The exact same thing had occurred when I tried to write in this worlds language and I had no implications at all. It appeared to me as though I wrote in English, but when I was writing I saw that my hand was making movements completely different from the letters I wrote.

    Apparently Betty added a natural translator to me, and I was interested in whether this applied to other languages as well. If it did, then this might be quite a worthwhile perk.

    A few more months past and I was almost four when a mark suddenly ¡®appeared¡¯ on my chest. I always had had a large black spot in the centre of my chest, but today parts of it seemed to sink in, creating a black circle with three black heads side by side in the centre.

    The heads appeared to look like Cerberus, the guard dog of Hell. I quickly made a self note to myself to make sure that I remembered to ask Betty about the mark and whether Cerberus actually exists.

    Before I had much time to wonder about why the mark had appeared, the mark changed from a pitch black to a glowing silver colour and then appeared to rotate quickly before stopping the rotation and turning into a pitch black spot again.

    All of a sudden I felt as though a weight was dropped into my hands, and an incredibly heavy one at that.

    I looked at my hands and saw that they were holding a 3 cm diameter cylindrical metal rod:

    ¡®Death¡¯s Weapon¡¯. It appeared nothing different from a metal rod, with the exception of the dark ¡®glow¡¯ underneath it. The ¡®glow¡¯ doesn¡¯t actually appear to produce any light, rather it seemed to suck up the darkness around it and this is what caused its dark ¡®glow¡¯.

    ¡­ Hell, this is heavy. I can¡¯t carry it at all with just physical strength, so I have to resort to using wind element ¡®aura¡¯ to lessen the weight by manipulating wind.

    The weapon was promised to be given to me when I was 3, so I assumed he meant that at the exact time I turned 3. I remember being incredibly flustered about this as at that time, I was being watched by Julie and since having a metal rod suddenly appear in a toddlers hands isn¡¯t the most comforting vision you can experience, I was pretty worried about the hassle if it did appear the time.

    I guess that Betty had some actual complications with delivering it, because he probably would¡¯ve jumped straight onto that opportunity to make my life difficult as revenge and entertainment for himself by giving me the ¡®weapon¡¯ at such an inconvenient time.

    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.

    I quickly went into the dark corner of the baby room where the lights didn¡¯t shine and tried to test the weapon out. I thought it best that they didn¡¯t see me swinging a cylinder of metal around as it would probably be bad for their psyche.

    I tried to swing it a bit, and although it had quite a bit of power behind it due to its weight, it was simply too difficult to swing around without being incredibly wasteful with ¡®aura¡¯ capacity. I suddenly remembered something that I learnt from the general knowledge part of Grandma¡¯s lessons.

    Although rare and expensive, there are metals and alloys that are capable of withholding ¡®aura¡¯ like a battery. They are also incredibly difficult to break and to forge weapons or certain shapes out of them are secrets which only the top blacksmith know.

    I proceeded to instantly try to pour my raw ¡®aura¡¯ with no element into it but found out something rather unfortunate. The ¡®aura¡¯ was rejected and just swirled around the cylinder without going in at all.

    Surely there has to be some trick behind this pole. Betty wouldn¡¯t give it to me and claim it to be incredibly expensive and powerful for no reason, and he didn¡¯t want revenge on me at that point in time anyways.

    As I was wondering about that, Grandma Sophia walked into the room without my noticing and saw me in the corner.

    ¡°Ahh, Sephtis what are you doing there?¡±

    Her voice gave me a jump scare as I had simply never realised she even came in since I was so deep in thought. I quickly realised that I had to somehow hide the ¡®weapon¡¯ so that it wouldn¡¯t be confiscated. My thought process was quick and logical, as I came up with the only method that may work.

    Hide -> Magic -> ¡®Fear¡¯s Illusion¡¯

    I quickly though to that point and manipulated my ¡®aura¡¯, now imbued with the death element, to surround the ¡®weapon¡¯ and impose the fear of ¡®Death Aura¡¯ to whoever tried to detect it. To my surprise, rather than my elemental ¡®aura¡¯ surrounding the pole, the pole greedily absorbed it as though it was devouring it.

    The cylindrical ¡®weapon¡¯ then appeared to become even darker beneath the surface. As I was amazed at what was happening, I stupidly brought the ¡®weapon¡¯ out in front of me and observed it with pure curiosity.

    ¡°Sephtis, I know you have memories about this place, but you have to understand that is for the youngest ones even younger than you. You can¡¯t come here as you may disturb them.¡±

    I was suddenly awoken from my trance by Grandma¡¯s voice, but for some reason she didn¡¯t even seem to notice the ¡®weapon¡¯ I held straight out in front of me.

    Ahhh¡­ so that¡¯s what happened.

    After making a deduction as to why Sophia didn¡¯t notice the pole, I quickly apologized with a simple-

    ¡°Sorry.¡±

    -and then left quickly before my ¡®aura¡¯ was completely drained. It appeared as though ¡®Fear¡¯s Illusion¡¯ which I had thought failed due to it being absorbed by the ¡®weapon¡¯ actually succeeded and even better than I thought.

    With my aging and training, I had managed to bring my ¡®Fear¡¯s Illusion¡¯ to a level where I could walk by without an item being noticed as long as it wasn¡¯t in full view of the victim/test subject. I could do this with Julie but somehow, when I tried it with Grandma, she instantly noticed the toy in my hand but ignored it because she respected her childrens privacy as long as I don¡¯t get hurt or hurt others.

    Whether or not people notice the existence of the hidden item really depends on whether or not they have enough ¡®aura¡¯ to naturally override the spell. Because of this, either Grandma actually has done magic before, she was born with unnaturally high potential for magic, or people¡¯s ¡®aura¡¯ capacity grows with age. Either way, I should not have been able to hide the ¡®weapon¡¯ from her without any help.

    Because of this, I make the conclusion that ¡®Death¡¯s Weapon¡¯ can magnify ¡®Death Aura¡¯ that is passed into it and that is what helped hide it even under the nose of Grandma.

    Cliche, but at least the names aren¡¯t misleading anyone to believe that they can¡¯t work together.

    A few more weeks past and I decide to put behind day training and instead replace it with something different. Something far more important than gaining physical power. I needed knowledge: Knowledge of the world that I now live in, a broader knowledge of magic and knowledge on my career paths.

    I picked up a peculiar hobby along the way of my second life, which was to plan ahead everything, from what I should do at the age of one to my death. I placed milestones everywhere in my memory, from the event the smallest things to the large things. I had an estimated time in which I would finish a task and would start a new one.

    I would follow this schedule in my brain, rarely deterring from it.

    A few months ago, when she began to explain more about the history of the world, she read out of one of the few books in our possession due to their sheer expense since they were hand written. It was a small booklet really, likely without much detail about this world¡¯s history, but it¡¯s worth a try.

    Time to learn something new about this world.

    <hr />

    You thought there wasn''t going to be a chapter release today now did you?

    As I said, I will release chapters daily unless a forewarning is given. Now I''m going to sleep as I released this at 23:56

 Vol. 1: Chapter 10 - The History of the Land

    Ehhhh¡­ I meant to give forewarning about this chapter but I forgot to. It¡¯s going to be a long one and the worst bit is it¡¯ll be an informative one again. Honestly, I enjoy reading and writing such chapters, but I doubt it¡¯s the same for you guys.

    P.S. Double release today, but I will take a break tomorrow, hope you forgive me.

    -Waffle Fluff

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Time to learn something new about this world.

    I snuck out of the room and decided to ¡®obtain¡¯ the small booklet on this world¡¯s history, obviously not stealing it, just borrowing for the sake of self-interest.

    It was unexpectedly simple to steal it, I just had to waltz straight into the room and tucked the booklet under my second-hand onesie and left quickly when Grandma was talking to the milkman and Julie was playing with the 5 year olds.

    I hid in a quiet corner and took out the booklet, hiding it with my bent  legs while holding it on my lap. I looked around to see if anyone was near and not seeing anyone, I proceeded to read the ¡®book¡¯

    --History of this world--

    A long, long time ago a group of three different intelligent races travelled great distances seeking refuge from the monsters in the Darklands. The creatures that were born and nurtured in the Darklands could only be called the most savage, strongest beasts which came in such numbers that humans had close to no chance of fighting the packs alone.

    Because of this Humans travelled great distances to try and escape the beasts and in turn, they met up with two other intellectual races who had the same problems with the ferocity and power of the beasts in the Darklands. Bound together by fear, the newly created group of Humans, Elves and Werepeople decided to look for a safe haven together.

    Elves were creatures that would look exactly like humans, were it not for their long, pointy ears. This species had produced incredibly talented magicians and had long lives almost triple that of humans, but they had a flaw: their low conception rate. The species almost went extinct during its early stages, but they managed to get lucky and barely avoid extinction.

    Humans were the race that had no real disadvantage, except their lack of any perks that the other species had. They also had no advantage, other than being the opposite of the Elves when it comes to their conception rate.

    Werepeople looked the same as humans, excluding their sharp canines, sharper than normal nails and the existence of a tail. Werepeople also had a lower conception rate than average, but nowhere near as bad as the fellow Elves. This species was naturally gifted with far superior strength than that of Elves and also had lives that were longer than Humans but still shorter than that of the Elves.

    After a long time of wandering from location to location, all the while losing population and living like nomads, they eventually reached an area that seemed to be repulsive for the Darkland¡¯s monsters as it was avoided greatly, even with the smell of food.

    The group was overjoyed at this discovery and even better, was that they discovered that the safe haven area of the land was extensive, going very far horizontally and half the amount vertically.

    The group then decided to decide on territories, with the Human¡¯s who had great capabilities when it came to territorial games and claimed an incredibly resource rich are very quickly and managed to take the largest amount of land. This piece of land was located in the South-eastern area of the safe haven. They named their country: ¡®Dragniir¡¯.

    The Elves who hated and were tired after the long travel decided to settle and claim land close to the place at which the group entered. Due to the elves being more concerned with their almost-extinction than territories, they ended up getting the smallest amount of land although the land was still relatively fertile and not too bad of a location. The Elves then named their newfound country as: ¡®Lastva¡¯.

    The Werepeople decided to explore the land for the most fertile, best location. Their efforts led to a place in the west which they claimed and named ¡®Bihel¡¯. The instant they entered the west, they were stunned at the large amount of crops that grew there and acting quickly on the spot and making a rash decision, they claimed the land of the West as theirs.

    They only realised later that the actual amount of fertile land in the area was incredibly limited and they only had the small amount that they discovered first along with a few patches here and there as areas where they could grow crops. Werepeople had a trait as a species in which they would act on impulse, without putting much thought into it, and that is what had happened on that day.

    The ¡®safe haven¡¯ area that they found and lived in was decided to be named ¡®Bidragva¡¯ which originated from the names of the 3 newly-founded countries.

    The first thousand or so years were lived in peace, with no real conflict between the nations save the occasional feud over the name of the ¡®safe haven¡¯. However, a large problem eventually arose as the years passed. The invisible, intangible barrier that surrounded the place and repelled the creatures of the Darklands had deteriorated with the years gone by.

    The monsters started creeping in and brutally massacring all the villages near the borders of the Darklands. Bihel was hit especially hard, since most of it was bordering the Darklands rather than the other countries and it had the most land bordering the Darklands out of the 3 countries overall.

    Although the monster attacks weren¡¯t frequent and were actually rather rare, each attack from a single Darklands predator caused significant damage to villages which were unprotected. The Humans managed to sustain against these attacks because of each village being filled with a large population and a correspondingly large number of guards.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    The Elves had a handful of competent magicians which they stationed near the borders of the Darklands. This was only able to be done by them because of their small country which turned into a positive.

    Bihel had strong warriors but they were too few in number to combat the harassment attempts of the monsters. Because of this they were forced to draw back their borders near the Darklands so that they had less area to defend and they were successful in this tactic, but not without great losses along the way.

    Although population loss was a problem, the main problem was the loss of fertile land as most of the crops were grown in the fertile areas located in the east, close to the borders to the other countries and also near the borders to the Darklands.

    ¡®Bihel¡¯ was already struggling with their lack of food, and with another great dent in their food production, they went into a period of great famish. This caused them to get desperate and attempt to fight other countries for land and resources. They considered waging war against Dragniir due to their large amount of resources, but decided against it because of the war power that the Human race had accumulated with the increase in their population.

    They instead decided to wage war on the smallest nation out of the 3, and began a long war with ¡®Lastva¡¯ over resources. The war was actually relatively even, with ¡®Bihel¡¯ having advantage in numbers even with their loss of a population during the monster attacks. While ¡®Bihel¡¯ had the advantage of numbers, ¡®Lastva¡¯ had accumulated great mages to protect the land.

    While the 2 countries continued fighting with each other, the third power was having an internal debate on what they should do.

    ¡®Dragniir¡¯ was a country which differed from the other 2 because unlike ¡®Bihel¡¯ who was ruled by an emperor and ¡®Lastva¡¯ who was ruled by the tribe chief, the country was ruled by 8 different kings which ruled over 8 different portions of land.

    During the conflict between the other 2 countries, ¡®Dragniir¡¯ was split on what to do in this scenario. Four of the kings wanted to take advantage of this situation by destroying one of the countries and eventually destroying the final one whereas the other four wanted peace and knew that as a side effect of not taking advantage of such a situation, they would be seen internationally as a peace-loving country.

    If they were to be seen as a peace-loving country, then refugees of the war would come to their country, depleting the population of the other countries and giving them reason to naturally expand their borders without causing any war. All in all, one was a straight-forward fight and conquer scheme whereas the other one was an elaborate plan that would corrode the other countries from the inside.

    Both sides stayed stubborn with their idea¡¯s and didn¡¯t wish to give in the others. This almost sparked a civil war but since they were aware of their current position as the most powerful country, they also knew that the civil war would very well cause them to lose this spot on the list of powers.

    The settled for simply splitting the country in half, one being referred to as ¡®West Dragniir¡¯ and the other as ¡®East Dragniir¡¯, corresponding with their locations. Neither wanted to give up the name of their original country and as such the name ¡®Dragniir¡¯ was kept for both of them.

    The two newly formed countries were still known as one power even if they were separate nations. Although the country was divided in two, ¡®East Dragniir¡¯ still helped out ¡®West Dragniir¡¯ and vice versa. The reason for this was simple: The two new nations as one power were about 150% the size of ¡®Bihel¡¯, but with them split in two, they became 75% the size of ¡®Bihel¡¯ each, weakening them greatly.

    Because ¡®Dragniir¡¯ was weakened when split in two, if ¡®Bihel¡¯ and ¡®Lastva¡¯ joined their few remaining troops together, they could potentially overpower ¡®West Dragniir¡¯ which shared borders with the two of them. If ¡®West Dragniir¡¯ was defeated and taken over, then it wouldn¡¯t be long after, that ¡®East Dragniir¡¯ would be similarly destroyed.

    So it became a give and take relationship between the two new nations where they would give troops to the other, to gain security. These troops would be sworn not to betray the side that they came from but likewise they swore not to attack the other side unless in self-defence.

    The war between ¡®Bihel¡¯ and ¡®Lastva¡¯ went for 2 centuries, but it only went for that long because no treaty or anti-war agreement was signed so the war was technically ongoing although after the 3rd year of fighting, both lost too much of their war power to continue the fight and concentrated mainly on recovering from their losses.

    ¡®Bidragva¡¯ was finally at peace with itself, with no large wars occurring, the 2 previously at war races recovering and ¡®Dragniir¡¯ sending armies to try to clear out the Darklands zone close to their borders so that the nation could gain more territory and expand. These efforts were mainly fruitless because of the sheer number of Darkland¡¯s monsters but nonetheless some were effective in holding back the monsters as a side effect.

    However, everything eventually ceases to exist with peace included. On the year 2 B.T. (Before Treaty) the first recorded date in history in which every country began to use the same year system, a large-scale attack began.

    This event was simply known as the ¡®Invasion of the Three-Eyed Gigant¡¯.

    <hr />

    Well I apologize but the second release will be tomorrow, and by that I mean in 20 minutes. Patience is the key to success (Not really).

 Vol. 1: Chapter 11 - Invasion of the Three-Eyed Gigant

    --Invasion of the Three-Eyed Gigant--

    A ¡®Gigant¡¯ is a creature found so rarely that the only records kept of it are those of the time prior to reaching ¡®Bidragva¡¯ and the only other one being this one. A Gigant is a three or one-eyed giant with dark green skin and measuring 15-20 metres tall as opposed to the giant which measures 4-7 metres in height. Gigants also have only one eye or possess a total of three eyes, with the extra or single eye being located at the centre of their forehead.

    A giant can be described as a large humanoid creature with incredibly lacking intelligence, as opposed to its appearance and is just barely capable of understanding the advantage of weaponry and how to use it. A giant is a creature that goes and does things mainly by instinct and will continue to try and complete the task they set themselves unless other giants tell it to stop.

    However this is rare as giants lack intelligence and care of their own kind, with the exception of their superiors. An example of this would be that if a child giant¡¯s parents go get brutally tortured and die, the child wouldn¡¯t even realise his parents are missing. He would just notice that there are less people than before and realise that it means more food for him.

    A giants skin is also a very light pigment of green and covered with bushy hair, but not bushy enough to make the green colour of the skin the less dominant colour of the creature when compared with its hair. A giants hair covers its entire body and ranges in a large amount of colours, similar to humans hair.

    Giants also use a branch as a weapon because that is their extent of knowledge on weaponry, however this branch is incredibly thick, as thick as a Human¡¯s thighs and they swing it with immense force.

    A ¡®Gigant¡¯ is far more terrifying than giants however as unlike the giant species, they are slightly more intelligent and can cast magic. This magic is cast instinctively by the ¡®Gigant¡¯ when it tries to attack and the nature of it¡¯s magic is affected by how many eyes it possesses.

    If a ¡®Gigant¡¯ has 3 eyes, then it uses single target magic and is incapable of any other variation of magic. There is an unproven but widely accepted theory that as each additional eye on us 3 races helps with depth perception and focusing on a certain thing, the addition of a third eye on the ¡®Gigant¡¯ helps with it being able to perfectly aim and focus on a single object. Growing up with this would be a catalyst into which branch of magic your magic would go into and thus making single target spells the predominant ones.

    ¡®Gigants¡¯ use a wooden club made from sturdier wood than that used by the giants as their weapon and they have a few interesting facts about them. If a ¡®Gigant¡¯ has only one eye, it is the exact opposite of a 3 eyed ¡®Gigant¡¯ as it uses multi-target spells and the theory has the same explanation for this except reversed.

    The ¡®Invasion of the Three-Eyed Gigant¡¯, was the first and only organised attack by monsters of the Darklands unlike the previous ¡®harassments¡¯ that were done by solo predators. An army of around 100 giants and a single ¡®Three-Eyed Gigant¡¯ charged from the south-eastern area of the Darklands surrounding Lastva.

    There was no warning to this invasion other than the sudden shaking heard by the unified charge of all of the giants. Luckily, the guards on the borders of Lastva managed to evacuate most people further inland to a safer location and officials actually ran to create the first ever conference since the discovering of ¡®Bidragva¡¯ in which the Elves pleaded for help from the other two nations, right after agreeing to a truce between ¡®Lastva¡¯ and ¡®Bihel¡¯.

    The other two powers weren¡¯t aware of the situation in ¡®Lastva¡¯ and when the kings and emperor of the other powers were informed of this, they decided that they had to do something about it and formed a temporary truce to destroy this threat. All the countries sent their best warriors to combat this invasion.

    The main reason as to why the other 2 powers had decided to help ¡®Lastva¡¯ was because they feared the loss of inhabitable land that would occur when ¡®Lastva¡¯ fell and became populated with monsters.

    The intellectual beings only had a small portion of the planet''s land to begin with, and although to this day we are ignorant on how small this portion is exactly, they couldn¡¯t afford to lose anymore of this land to the monsters.

    ¡®Bidragva¡¯ worked together to repel the invasion and although warriors, mages and geniuses alike were all lost in the fight, they eventually managed to win due to sheer numbers. Only after the war did they realise how lucky they were in the actual fight.

    Had the enemy not been a 3-Eyed Gigant and instead been a One-Eyed, then they would have been eradicated. The reason they won was because since the ¡®Gigant¡¯ in question was only able of killing about 5 people with each slice if they were positioned correctly, they managed to defeat it by pushing waves upon waves of people at the ¡®Gigant¡¯.

    When they re imagined the scenario, with a One-Eyed multi-target spell caster rather than a single target 3-Eyed ¡®Gigant¡¯, they knew that sheer numbers wouldn¡¯t work and they would need exceptional talents instead in order to defeat it.

    They realised their lack in numbers of geniuses was simply because that to be able to access books on magic or advanced sword techniques, you needed status and wealth, which some hidden talents don¡¯t possess.

    After the war, they also realised how beneficial their cooperation was, with all sides benefitting from the war. That was when ¡®East Dragniir¡¯ proposed a treaty during the year 0 and still ongoing to this day.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.However, although this treaty was eventually agreed to, it wasn¡¯t signed before some negotiating took place.

    During the creation of the treaty, there was talk of the creation of an academy that would nurture the most talented students from all of ¡®Bidragva¡¯, with the idea of creating a force rivaling the creatures of the Darklands. These students would be given access to even the rarest magic or weapon techniques at will, and they wouldn¡¯t belong to any single country, but instead work for the entirety of ¡®Bidragva¡¯.

    The students would be, upon reaching a certain year of training at the academy, able to undertake missions across all the nations in protecting them from the monsters or perhaps even subjugation if they grew strong enough.

    The tribe chief of ¡®Lastva¡¯ wished for the academy to be located inside of his country and proposed a few reasons with the most acceptable one being the large loss the country had incurred during the ¡®Invasion¡¯ as it was the country that was targeted and took the full brunt of the attack.

    ¡®Lastva¡¯ had wished for the academy to be located in it¡¯s borders, but still in the centre of ¡®Bidragva¡¯ bordering the other 2 powers so as not to be too far to respond to any pleas for help from any country.

    The intention of the tribe chief in requesting this for ¡®Lastva¡¯ was so that they would be the easiest and closest country to respond to in the case of an attack on every countries borders.

    This is because if there was 2 locations in danger, the closest one would be picked as to avoid any unnecessary accidents. If the students left to respond to pleas of help from the further away location and then discover that they arrived too late to save them, but at the same time had abandoned a savable closer location, this would appear as unjust favoritism among locations, among the many other reasons as to why this decision was stupid.

    The other 2 powers had understood the point he was making by requesting this as well as how placing it within the borders would give reassurance to the country due to how close it was. But nonetheless, it was a negotiation where one tried to get the best possible deal out of the other 2.

    ¡®Bihel¡¯ as well as ¡®Dragniir¡¯ agreed to follow the request of the location of placement and the like, but only if a certain thing was changed. Since the academy was meant to be a separate force funded by all the powers and all the geniuses procured from all the different powers, then why not ensure its independence by making it a separate country?

    ¡®Bihel¡¯ and ¡®Dragniir¡¯ proposed the idea of making a new country and taking away land controlled by ¡®Lastva¡¯, but knowing that this would take away more of the already small land that the third power possessed, they threw another chip onto the table.

    ¡®Dragniir¡¯ said that it would provide 75% of the total amount of land that would be made into a different country and provide it for ¡®Lastva¡¯ as long as ¡®Bihel¡¯ had given the remaining 25%.

    After deciding on the given away land, which turned out to be some of the safest land that was available to each country now with the new treaty, they all agreed to the previous conditions and signed the ¡®Treaty¡¯.

    Very quickly people were paid generous amounts of money to build the ¡®Great Academy¡¯ in the newly founded country of ¡®Magia¡¯. After a long century of people building, supplying books and knowledge to the academy and all the while finding the right teachers, the ¡®Great Academy¡¯ was open to the public.

    This academy however was not the only one that was opened. Although this academy was considered the most prestigious and the number one out of all the rest that were built, others who wanted to jump on the bandwagon decided to fund the building of private academies for nobles or people who weren¡¯t as skilled at magic or swordsmanship.

    The country of ¡®Magia¡¯ had a capital shaped like a circle, with academies everywhere you look and was similarly called: ¡®Academy City¡¯. There were a few towns outside this city, but they were mainly there for the food suppliers as anyone who wasn¡¯t approved by the 3 powers wasn¡¯t allowed to live in ¡®Magia¡¯.

    There was also a long stretch of plains past these villages and this acted as a defence because the country of ¡®Magia¡¯ was also going to be used as the final stronghold of the three intellectual beings as it was in the most well protected area, with the only access way being by destroying all the powers surrounding it.

    The plains acted as a defence because you can see anything that tries to pass through it, and it can be used to easily detect invading monsters or even humans.

    After the ¡®Treaty¡¯ was signed, ¡®Bihel¡¯ benefited the most from it, as trade routes were opened with the other countries and they could buy food from them. Although they didn¡¯t have any money to pay for it initially, the problem was solved when the Human ¡®leader of trade relations¡¯ came to ¡®Bihel¡¯ to inspect what can be bought from them and found that the metal that the country had large amounts of was actually really expensive and useful, thus could sell for sky-high prices.

    This opened a large trade route between the two powers in question. Another country that benefited from this was ¡®Lastva¡¯ as it had gained large tourism numbers because of ¡®Magia¡¯ which was easiest to enter from ¡®Lastva¡¯ rather than any other country.

    ¡®Dragniirs¡¯ relations between the East and West began to slowly mend with the end of the war and the newly signed ¡®Treaty¡¯.

    All in all, the world started to slowly turn it¡¯s cogs and after a long time, we got to the world that we have today.

    <hr />

    Fuar, I¡¯m tired. Forgive me for being 5 mins late.

    -Waffle Fluff

 Vol. 1: Chapter 12 - The Transporter

    I closed the booklet on this world history and breathed out.

    That was an interesting learning experience. This world is more interesting than I thought, but really nothing is known about it. Also only ancient history to the time of the creation of ''Magia'' was recorded, with nothing more recent. I would like to assume that this booklet is old because of how worn out it is, but it might actually be modern and I am just misreading the entire situation.

    Either way, I can ask Grandma Sophia or Julie for information regarding the current situation in the world or be patient so that I experience everything myself.

    After pondering about this decision for a small while, I decided to go with the second option of going out ignorant to the world and making decisions about it with as little outside opinions as possible. Betty would also likely enjoy it, so it kills two birds with one stone.

    Still, the facts presented by the books are very interesting, and actually gave me some information about the characteristics of my race. So I have three times the lifespan of a regular human.

    The information doesn¡¯t really help too much however, because I have no idea what is the average life expectancy in this world. Either way, I can¡¯t help but feel as though I was given an extra long life by Betty so he could enjoy this scenario for a longer time.

    I placed the informative booklet onto the ground and stood up with the assistance of wind element infused ¡®aura¡¯. I picked up the booklet and the ¡®weapon¡¯, coated both with ¡®Fear¡¯s Illusion¡¯ and then proceeded to sneak back into the Grandma¡¯s annex to return the booklet.

    Weirdly enough, Grandma still hadn¡¯t returned even then, so it wasn¡¯t anywhere near as difficult as it would be to normally place the book back on the shelf while hiding it. I used a combination of wind and fire magic to cool down the area underneath the booklet and the area leading it to the top of the shelf so as to create an artificial updraft.*

    This updraft carried the book up to the level of the shelf I wanted to put it on, and then I moved the air particles away from the book and that in turn lowered the atmospheric pressure of the location. With this decrease in pressure, a gust of wind was generated that would push the book onto the shelf.**

    This was actually a method that I created by analysing the fireball creation method that Betty taught me about. It seems to be that using physics and understanding science seems to be one of the greatest factors for creating a cost efficient spell.

    For example, normal mages would manipulate the air particles in a large area and then attempt to compress them into a tight pocket of air with their ¡®aura¡¯. Then they would push that pocket upwards with incredible speed and have to calculate the exact force required to reach the correct height. Then they would use another pocket of air to push it straight onto the shelf, and they would use this method in combat as well.

    Unfortunately for them, this took far too much ¡®aura¡¯ consumption because of the pure amount of air particles that had to be affected for them to create a powerful enough air pocket. This differed when using my method because of the limited amount of particles used and instead the usage was replaced with the natural, fundamental laws of physics as substitutes.

    Afterwards, I decided to go look for another source of information on one of the most interesting things in the history booklet: Magia and the Academies. This source of information was of course, Grandma Sophia.

    I had an incredible amount of curiosity felt towards this country and what I could potentially learn in the academies. Although it technically wasn¡¯t really necessary for me to go to any school or academy to become proficient in magic, I felt like the greatest advantage that I could receive from such a school would be some kind of degree.

    It would be logical for a school to give out some kind of degree or certificate upon completing its courses after all, and this would be a great supplier of money. Being completely honest here, I don¡¯t really care much about money, since I can easily survive in the wilderness completely broke. But the same cannot be said about Grandma and the children here at this orphanage.

    I enjoy the idea of ¡®give and take¡¯, where a person who provides help for someone else has to be repaid by the person cared for. Grandma has taken care of me for a long time, along with this orphanage in general, so I believe that providing them with a slightly better financial situation is the least I can do.

    I walk up to one of the boys that looks about 8 or so years of age, and ask with a sweet, childish, slightly slurred voice that I managed to perfect by going through my memories for tips on this. It is a truly effective way of getting things that you want, honestly I am surprised at how powerful the effect of the voice is when paired with a 4 year-old.

    ¡°Brother, do you know where Grandma is?¡±

    All the children within the orphanage are like one large family, with no bullying and nothing less than a positive relationship between all of us. Because we are a family, we refer to each other as brother or sister, and I have noticed that they have begun to refer to Julie as Mother, whilst still referring to Grandma as well¡­ Grandma.

    She was slowly making her way up the social hierarchy in this orphanage, and her face was relatively entertaining to watch whenever one of the kids called her Mother. It was a cross between bliss and ecstasy, kind of off putting, but still entertaining.

    The boy turned around and saw me looking at him while using the divine technique (Chapter 7). He couldn¡¯t resist ¡®spilling the beans¡¯ about Grandmas location and actually gave a decent explanation along with it.

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ¡°Grandma is outside with Mother and they are talking with one of the children who left us about 8 years back and managed to get a job as a transporter who would move goods from place to place via a carriage.

    Apparently he came to deliver some free goods that he managed to buy with his saved up money. Make sure you don¡¯t go outside as you¡¯re too young and not allowed okay? I wasn¡¯t supposed to tell you anyways.

    I would love to be a transporter and move goods around as well because of how well payed it is and its¡­¡±

    At that point I completely tuned out and after applying a coat of ¡®Fear¡¯s Illusion¡¯ on myself, I quietly but quickly ran outside with assistance from a bit of wind magic. Outside I saw a person in his early 20s leaning against the carriage whilst talking with Grandma who had Julie by her side who seemed to be entranced by the person.

    Her appearance towards him wasn¡¯t that strange considering how he looked. He was a human who was about 6 foot 3, with short dark hair, a short beard of the same colour and tanned white skin. He had clearly defined muscles visible through his black shirt and he also wore some dark shorts. His whole wardrobe basically spoke the colour black.

    Seeing the enamored appearance of Julie, I had a divine vision of a perfect scenario that I could cause. With a grin on my face I decide to begin the steps that would lead up to the divine situation.

    This will be fun.

    I manipulate my ¡®aura¡¯ that I infuse with the wind element and make it enter the particles in front of Julie''s feet. I then use the same trick that I used for the book placement and lower the atmospheric pressure in that area by manipulating the air particles into the area where the man stood.

    I made sure that the particles moved towards the man since he was leaning against the carriage and that would keep him from falling over because of the sudden push of particles towards him. I then retracted my ¡®aura¡¯ and released control over the particles.

    Let all hell break loose.

    With the release of the particles, they moved very quickly towards the low concentration zone, creating a wind in front of Julie¡¯s feet which caused her to lose her balance and fall forward. The best part of it was, that straight in front of Julie was the man, so she basically fell into his arms.

    Although I was incredibly exhausted since pushing a grown up requires an amount of ¡®aura¡¯ capacity which I barely had enough of, I didn¡¯t regret the decision. With the success of my magic, it felt as though my lips were tearing apart from my attempt to stop myself from laughing.

    Luckily I succeeded and was able to watch the reactions of the two without cracking up.

    The man was completely stunned by the situation, and Julie reacted much worse. She went completely red a few seconds after falling into his arms as she realised what had occurred. While this was all happening Grandma looked at her with a surprised reaction, but it was the quickest to settle, being replaced with an omniscient expression. She said with incredible sincerity the words that would fuel the already raging hot fire.

    ¡°So that¡¯s how it is.¡±

    After those words Julie went even redder and quickly pushed herself off him with all the force she could muster, but you could see her reluctance in her face when she did this action. I would have kept her in her previous position if I had the ¡®aura¡¯ capacity to do so, but alas I did not, so I will have to live with it.

    Still red-faced, she opened her mouth as to try to explain the situation but the words she spoke were completely unheard under the laughter that the man released.

    ¡°HAHAHAHAHA, Girl, I know that you might have feelings for me, but there are steps to this that have to be achieved before just diving into my arms.¡±

    Although Julie turned the pinnacle of the colour red from the entire situation, she still managed to rebut the point he made quickly and actually explain herself, albeit she was stuttering.

    ¡°N-no, I was actually pushed by an unnatural wind at my feet, didn¡¯t you guys feel it?¡±

    Grandma quickly spoke up her answer to the question:

    ¡°I for one did not feel any wind at all, and do you realise how flawed your argument is? Why would there be wind only at your feet?¡±

    The man frowned upon this argument but actually supported Julie with his answer.

    ¡°Although it is true that the wind is strange, I also felt wind pushed against my feet, but since I was leaning against the carriage, it didn¡¯t really do much. I don¡¯t really know how that wind could be natural, without me feeling it affect any other part of me.¡±

    The 3 of them then went deep into thought with Julies face cooling rather quickly. Quite regretful really, I wanted this situation to be awkward for longer. Then Grandma seemed to notice something and as I was wondering exactly what it was that she noticed, she looked straight at me and said:

    ¡°Sephtis, what are you doing here?¡±

    Only then did I realise that after my little prank, I lost quite a large amount of my coating of ¡®Death¡¯s Illusion¡¯, making myself and the ¡®weapon¡¯ visible to everyone.

    Oh, shit.

    <hr />

    *Google is your best friend

    **Google is still your best friend

    -Waffle Fluff

 Vol. 1: Chapter 13 - Security Crack

    Oh shit.

    As everyone turns towards me I quickly hide the weapon behind my back and attempt to push all the remaining traces of ¡®Fear¡¯s Illusion¡¯ into the weapon. I convert the remainder of my ¡®aura¡¯ into ¡®Death Aura¡¯ and then push it straight into the weapon. Although the weapon isn¡¯t as well hidden as it normally is, unless someone by some chance stares straight at it or have larger ¡®aura¡¯ than Grandma, they won¡¯t notice anything out of place.

    That was close, thank god for the ¡®aura¡¯ magnification that this weapon has. I would be in a dark deep hole of questions if it didn¡¯t have that capability.

    I quickly adopt a stereotypical innocent 4-year old look, and reply to her question with slurred and stuttered speech.

    ¡°I¡­ I wanted to ask a que¡­ question a-about something and I heard you were ou-outside.¡±

    The young man nodded with approval at my answer while Julie looked at me with suspicion and Grandma still had her normal smiling face. The young man then spoke up.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it fine? Any normal young boy wants to know more about the world. Their curiosity is incurable at such a young age. Even I was quite curious at that age, although I never spoke up about it.¡±

    He looked at the people around him while replying as though seeking approval from the rest. Seeing that they didn¡¯t react at all, he turned towards me and asked me.

    ¡°Boy, what do you want to know? I might be able to answer questions that even Sophia can¡¯t answer.¡±

    I already knew what to answer when he said that, since I had already prepared answers for most situations on my way here.

    ¡°Umm¡­ I wanted to ask about Magia.¡±

    ¡°Ohoho, you are already know about the academy country? That¡¯s surprising, who told you about it?¡±

    ¡°I overheard it from one of my brothers. They were talking about all the countries but didn¡¯t talk much at all about Magia, so I thought I would ask you.¡±

    I realise that my speech is becoming more and more fluent as I talk, and my facade of stuttering speech is slowly being shed. At that point however, I decide that it might as well be thrown away, surely there is at least some children who can talk fluently at this age.

    Another factor of this decision was that it would be far easier to achieve what I wished in the future if I acted intelligent. So I decided to voice my question and answer with a lie. After all, it wouldn¡¯t really be fine for me to just say that I can read even though I was never taught by anyone.

    Grandma and Julie nod in approval and understanding of my answer whilst the man squints as though trying to focus on something while he simultaneously introduces himself.

    ¡°My name is Helra, named by your Grandma. Honestly I have no idea how she came up with such a girly name, but I never bothered to legally change it because of how much that costs. Now I have a quick question before I answer yours, what is that behind your back?¡±

    After introducing himself he drops a bit of a bombshell on me with that last point, but I had expected something similar to happen sooner or later. The reaction of the other 2 to the bombshell were quite different, with Grandma reacting with a stereotypical:

    ¡°What are you talking about, he is hiding nothing behind his back.¡±

    While Julie, who already had her faith in my innocence crumble when I was only 2 ? months old, imitated Helra with a squinting action directed at my hands behind my back. However she didn¡¯t seem to notice anything due to her small ¡®aura¡¯ capacity but kept looking, trying to find a non-existent flaw in whatever technique she thought I was using to hide whatever object she believed I was hiding.

    There was silence for a few seconds, in which I lowered the amount of ¡®aura¡¯ I used to support the weight of the ¡®weapon¡¯ and instead used that power for a larger illusion factor. This caused my arms to tense and also hurt like hell, but any signs of this was concealed by the onesie that I wore and my childish expression, so I didn¡¯t really give any obvious signs away.

    After manipulating my ¡®aura¡¯ release to this extent, I quickly said in a sweet voice.

    ¡°What do you mean Brother Helra, I¡¯m not hiding anything.¡±

    Even I knew how suspicious the words coming out of my mouth normally sound, but a sweet voice from a young 4 year old removes most suspicion and in general is a better reaction than being very round-about with it. Helra wouldn¡¯t ease up on his suspicion, I could tell from his sudden change in expression that he could no longer see the ¡®weapon¡¯, but he wouldn¡¯t just let it go like that.

    ¡°Sophia, Julie let me talk to this little boy by myself for a little while, I have a few private questions to talk to ask him, ¡®mano e mano¡¯.¡±

    At this point I have no idea how the translation sequence works, considering it suddenly switched to Spanish to use a quote, and I can¡¯t stop thinking that this is Betty screwing around with my head.

    Putting those completely irrelevant thoughts away, I watch as Grandma nods and ushers Julie back into the orphanage, leaving me and Helra alone. Helra¡¯s friendly expression drops the instant the women get out of sight and gets replaced with a stern one. Unnerved by this, I quickly pose a question to understand what he wants from me.

    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Brother Helra, what did you want to ask me in private? Why do you not want it to be heard by Grandma and Julie?¡±

    I already established a pretty solid theory on what I believed he would ask, but I still wanted validification.

    ¡°You see child¡­ Unlike your Grandmother or Julie, I have been able to travel around the world with my job as a ¡®transporter¡¯. Because of this, I have seen extraordinary* sights, had had unique experiences and also gained the ability to tell lie from truth, especially if attempted by an unskilled liar.¡±

    Yup, definitely going in the direction of my theory, just build it up a bit more.

    ¡°Did you honestly think I also haven¡¯t experienced magic with my years? Everyone that hires a transporter nowadays has at least some kind of relation to mages and their ways. I even had to stay a week at a powerful mages place because of how long it took to load all the cargo.

    Because of me being in the vicinity of such magic for an entire month, I learnt how to manipulate ¡®aura¡¯ and cast magic if you will. Although I am unskilled and have at best mediocre talent, I can still detect disturbances in the elements caused by a third party known as ¡®aura¡¯.¡±

    ¡­ And there it is, exactly as my theory went. Quite unfortunate, but I am sure that I can turn this into an OK scenario without running into too much difficulty.

    Seeing my calm, unperturbed face when my cover was being bombarded and destroyed, he took it as me not being able to completely understand the message he was trying to deliver, so he said it in a more outright manner.

    ¡°I know you can use magic, and that you just used it right then.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    I breathe in and pose a question in the form of a single word with an unmoved face.

    ¡°So?¡±

    Although he was taken aback by my reaction, he quickly calmed himself and his facial expression changed as he realised the fault in his threats.

    ¡°Ah¡­ I see, there is no real negative that can be received from your magic being revealed, however although I say that, I am not going to take back my threat.¡±

    ¡°Ohhh, and why is that ¡®Brother¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Although there is no apparent negative from revealing that information to anyone, I understand that you are far too intelligent for your age. Because of this, I am sure that although there isn¡¯t any negative that is apparent to me, nonetheless you must¡¯ve hidden this fact for a reason.

    Even if the reason is as trivial as ¡®it will be a pain if discovered¡¯, it is still something I can threaten you with. So what do you think about my deduction boy?¡±

    ¡°... Surprisingly you are actually far more intelligent than you appear to be, I will note that when talking to other people in the future. As for you deduction, it is indeed correct, you even got one of the reasons for me hiding my magic right.

    As you have already deduced to this point, I want to pose you a question now. What will you do with this information?¡±

    I check on how much ¡®aura¡¯ I have regenerated at this point, and although it is only an incredibly small amount, it should be enough to give me a small speed boost. I look up at him and stare into his eyes with my own as I release my ¡®Illusion¡¯ technique that I was applying on the ¡®Weapon¡¯ to save as much energy as possible.

    He looked surprised as he could now see the ¡®weapon¡¯ in its entirety rather than shimmering like he viewed it earlier. Unfortunately, his reaction ended at such little surprise, as he had already established a conclusion about the existence of something similar to the ¡®weapon¡¯ because of the same shimmering that concealed it.

    ¡°Well boy, I actually dislike meddling in other¡¯s businesses if it brings no benefit to me, which yours doesn¡¯t, however your attitude just makes me want to meddle in it.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­ So will you reveal my ¡®secret¡¯?¡±

    He looked at me with a huge grin, contrasting his serious expression from before.

    ¡°No¡­ I just thought of something more fun to do.¡±

    Whilst still grinning he motioned me to follow him and he began to walk towards the entrance to the church-like building. When he arrived at the entrance, his grin changed back to a serious attitude, but his eyes still betrayed his true emotions. He then walked straight into the orphanage and as he disappeared from sight, I sighed and followed.

    Activating ¡®Fear¡¯s Illusion¡¯ on the ¡®Weapon¡¯, I come in just in time to see him pose a question to Grandma.

    ¡°Can I take Sephtis with me, to travel the world of Bidragvil?¡±

    Well, yeah I suppose that would be more entertaining for him than just giving my secret away.

    <hr />

    Hope you enjoy, 4 chapters coming up today.

 Vol. 1: Chapter 14 - No Dreams for the Wicked

    Well, yeah I suppose that would be more entertaining for him than just giving my secret away.

    Grandma looked shocked at his request, but she quickly recovered.

    ¡°Why do you want to take him away with you?¡±

    ¡°You see Sophia, he shouldn¡¯t be limited to this small area, as he is far too intelligent and talented. You don¡¯t have to worry about money, I have already earned enough money to care for both me and him for a while.¡±

    ¡°Still, what brought this change over you? I can¡¯t see you be willing to do this if he was just slightly intelligent, he even stutters a lot when talking.¡±

    ¡°Slightly is an understatement, he can already read and write as well as talk fluently, can¡¯t you Sephtis? He was just hiding the truth. I also have one other secret reason as to why I am taking him away.¡±

    I nodded to his question, verifying his suspicions of me being able to already do things children would take a few years to learn. Whilst he was talking, I was quickly processing the situation in my head and what I should do.

    I am actually ecstatic about being able to fast forward my leaving of the orphanage, and although slightly reluctant to leave as I have warm memories of the place which I spent most of my new life in, I knew it was necessary to satisfy my thirst for knowledge.

    I had already wanted to leave early, plotting ways in which I can get myself to get monetary support as well as being able to explore the world. With my calculations, in about 3 years at age 7, I would have been able to have enough power to convince Grandma to allow me to leave, but those calculations were dependant on someone being able to provide me with money.

    So, of course I welcomed this development and began to plot ways to convince Grandma if she declines.

    ¡°Really? Can you read this for me then Sephtis?¡±

    Grandma still held some doubt about my abilities and gave me the -History of this World- booklet. I proceeded to open the booklet to a random page and read out with a clear voice.

    ¡°If a ¡®Gigant¡¯ has 3 eyes, then it uses single target magic and is incapable of any other variation of magic. There is an unproven but widely accepted theory that as each additional eye on us 3 races helps with depth perception and focusing on a certain thing, the addition of a third eye on the ¡®Gigant¡¯ helps with it being able to perfectly aim and focus on a single object. Growing up with this would be a catalyst into which branch of magic your magic would go into and thus making single target spells the predominant ones.¡±

    I close the booklet and look at Grandma. In actuality I was watching Grandma¡¯s reactions throughout the entire reciting, and was only pretending to read, whilst instead just recalling the words from my photographic memory. I took the most complicated paragraph that I remembered to read out, as I needed quite a reaction to get approval points from my foster parent.

    I gave the booklet back, whilst still eyeing Grandma and verifying her reactions. She answered back to my recitation with a shocked expression, which quickly evened out and became one of parental love and pride.

    ¡°He really is smart beyond his age and it is apparent that he was indeed faking the stuttering. How did you figure this out Helra?¡±

    ¡°Oh it wasn¡¯t difficult at all, he acts completely differently when out of your sight and I imagine Julie¡¯s as well. He basically told me himself with his actions.¡±

    Grandma looked at me with a caring expression and spoke her true feelings about the matter in question.

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to limit any of my childrens potential, and that includes Sephtis¡¯s so I will agree, however can you wait until he is 5? He has a very bright future, but he is far too young to travel great distances with you right now.

    I don¡¯t care if he is incredibly intelligent, he is still a child. At most I can give him over to you in a year after I have prepared all of his possessions and he has become able to separate from this place without any trouble. He is still young and as this is his home, he will be reluctant even if he says he isn¡¯t.¡±

    I felt my heart warm from Grandma¡¯s speech, although I am only a dead weight and a burden at such a young age, Grandma still wanted me to stay for an additional year for my own benefit.

    ¡°Thank you Grandma for allowing me to stay here for a longer time, but I don¡¯t wish to burden you any further. Allow me to go.¡±

    In response to my heartfelt gratitude and point, Grandma responded with one word that made her sound childish.

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Sorry?¡±

    ¡°I said no, you are far too young and haven¡¯t experienced the whole world yet. This place isn¡¯t too close to the borders of the Darklands, so it is relatively safe, however the same cannot be said about other places which you will likely explore and travel to with Helra.¡±

    Out of nowhere I hear a roar of laughter which frightens the children watching the whole spectacle. I turn to face the origin of the roar, and unsurprisingly it is Helra.

    ¡°Hahahahaha, she speaks the truth child. Even if you are incredibly intelligent, you are still young and one year is nothing to you anyways. Stay here, learn a bit, get stronger and I will pick you up in a year.¡±

    ¡° *sigh* OK, I understand brother Helra, I will listen to Grandma.¡±

    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    He looks at me with acknowledgement and nods.

    ¡°Well then, I guess I will be leaving now Sophia. Tell Julie to give up on me and find another man,  also get Sephtis to train a bit before the year is up OK?¡±

    Not even waiting for a response, he steps out of the door with a few more words.

    ¡°I should go as I have stayed here too long, take care and see you in a year.¡±

    --Time Skip--

    2 months flew by after those events. Julie was informed of what had happened and blushed deeply when Helra¡¯s message was conveyed to her, but she wasn¡¯t very surprised with the ¡®reveal¡¯ of my intelligence and instead used it as proof as to her argument of me talking that was all but forgotten.

    She still got nowhere with her convincing, as it was a bit far-fetched to say that I spoke when I was only a few months old. This caused her to become more depressed, but I did nothing to try and assure her because I still regret my decision of speaking that early into my life.

    I didn¡¯t delve too deeply into memories and facts about my previous life at the time, unlike nowadays in which I dwell into them every time I train in ¡®aura¡¯ control and capacity. After the advent of Helra and the occurrences that followed, the children of the place looked at me with a newfound awe. Before, they hadn¡¯t known that I was so intelligent and now recognised that I likely had the brightest future out of all of them.

    Following Helra¡¯s wishes, Grandma arranged for one of the older kids who was inspiring to be an adventurer to physically train me. She also gave me a dark pair of shirt and pants to train in. I trained diligently, but held back a little so that I had time to increase ¡®aura¡¯ control and capacity as well as energy to do so.

    A.N. From now on, I will refer to this as ¡®meditation¡¯ as it is a pain to write ¡®increasing ¡®aura¡¯ control and capacity¡¯.

    ¡®Adventurer¡¯ was an occupation which was similar to the job of the pupils of Magia. Although these adventurers were inferior to the pupils in talent and skill, they were far greater in number and helped to hold of or begin invasions from or to the Darklands.

    I heard from Grandma that she had initially opposed having the child strive for such a dangerous job, but he was far too persistent in his wishes and expressed his want for it so deeply that Grandma eventually caved in.

    Apparently he was also very talented in combat instinct, which also helped sway Grandma, but I had yet to see any of that as he never sparred with me.

    I found something peculiar occurring as I trained however. The more and more I trained, slowly but surely my ¡®aura¡¯ began to mix with my skin and bones, giving me more and more control over them similar to how I manipulate particles with magic. My ¡®aura¡¯ capacity also increased the more I physically trained, although the increase over time was still far inferior to the effect that meditation provides.

    I surprised the adventurer kid, whose name was Barry, one day when I showed up far stronger than before.

    The reason for this was because of me experimenting on my body a day prior. I thought that since mixing ¡®aura¡¯ with my body granted me more control, I could forcibly imbue ¡®aura¡¯ into it and improve my combat capabilities. I only imbued a small amount, but it still took about 8 hours and left me drenched in sweat afterwards.

    It was a success and my body was far stronger and I could walk and run with ease, but was still too weak to carry the ¡®weapon¡¯ without magic. Although I had initially thought everything was fine and dandy and questioned why mages didn¡¯t think of this before, I quickly realised why.

    When I ¡®imbue¡¯ my body with ¡®aura¡¯, it actually doesn¡¯t imbue it, but rather changes the movement of it and where it exits to. For example, for a normal mage they have something that I have named an ¡®aura¡¯ vein, which allows the ¡®aura¡¯ to travel out of their bodies from a single point and manipulate particles.

    However, these veins can be created and destroyed, likewise, they can be moved and altered. In my case, I created 4 additional ¡®aura¡¯ veins which lead from my soul to my limbs. This makes it so that I constantly send a percentage of the ¡®aura¡¯ I regenerate into my arms and legs.

    To put it simply, my experiment ended in my ¡®aura¡¯ manufacturing speed being reduced and lowering my overall fighting capability in magic. Of course, as a result of this, I had gained far more physical strength and maneuverability than training had provided me, but the actual combat strength potential had been reduced far more than that which I gained, not like at my age I had any at all.

    Increasing, decreasing and altering ¡®aura¡¯ veins took a lot of concentration and ¡®aura¡¯ capacity in itself, so I had decided to avoid doing that anymore unless incredibly necessary.

    I had proceeded to train ¡®aura¡¯ control in my soul body when asleep and capacity for a few hours whilst awake. However this all changed today.

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    I awoke and made such a sound after I woke up and came to my senses.

    There was something clearly different about my sleep last night compared to before.

    I didn¡¯t transition into a soul body that night.

 Vol. 1: Chapter 15 - Putting it out of its Misery

    I didn¡¯t transition into a soul body that night.

    That¡¯s strange, I definitely went to sleep last night and woke up just now as proof. I should¡¯ve transitioned my consciousness into my soul body and gone to hell, yet I didn¡¯t.

    What is happening?

    I push away my thoughts and think that the solution will likely come in time, with contact from Betty whilst thinking about the problems this will cause.

    Now that I now don¡¯t have the training time from sleeping, or at least if this continues, I will have quite a few problems. No soul body when asleep means less training time and also reduced power. Although I can control how much I sleep, I am afraid that not having enough rest will instead negatively impact my training.

    I quickly thought and tried to locate a solution to the dilemma, but with none available I decide to simply sleep less and train harder than before to make up for lost time. I wonder about what I can do to increase training potential and come to a crude, but effective method.

    I manipulate my ¡®aura¡¯ and proceed to break the agreement I made with myself 2 weeks ago.

    -Inside his body-

    The black soul shakes furiously whilst ¡®aura¡¯ gets released in thousands of streams out of it and into the muscles, bones, organs, skin, eyes and even the hair of Sephtis. Simultaneously, the large ¡®vein¡¯ which leads ¡®aura¡¯ to outside the body started to contract and close, decreasing in size dramatically.

    -Outer world-

    I control the ¡®aura¡¯ stream to my maximum control potential, which after training solely on it for 4 whole years, wasn¡¯t trivial. I create thousands of streams going into all the parts of my body and it also strangely enters my hair, without any conscious intent from me. I also shrink my ¡®vein¡¯ that allowed my ¡®aura¡¯ to leave my soul and exit my body to use magic, incredibly limiting my magic potential at the time.

    I had converted close to all of my ¡®aura¡¯ into veins which would strengthen and increase my control of my body, forcibly making my body into that similar of a warrior. Strangely enough, there was no pain but rather just sweat. Lots and lots of sweat. There was so much sweat that a large puddle appeared on the ground.

    I felt so dehydrated after my ¡®aura¡¯ increase that I felt as though I would die from thirst. I dropped the ¡®weapon¡¯ and ran with my newly strengthened body outside to the rain tank as I looked around for a cup to use. After looking for just a second, I gave up on searching and dived my head straight into the rain tank, gulping down the cold water.

    After drinking an extraordinary amount of water that only Death knows, I lifted my wet head and hair, which were both sparkling with the reflection of the sunlight on the water I looked around.

    I had gathered quite a crowd, and as I recall how I ran here, I thought that it wasn¡¯t too surprising. A young 4 year old running through the orphanage at high speeds unsuited for his age would attract attention, but if you add the fact that the child is Sephtis, who naturally attracted interest due to his talent and intelligence, then you get a lot more attention.

    After briefly looking at the crowd, I look down at my shirt and pants and begin to strip. This made the girls in the crowd quickly disperse and run back inside. Although that was a good thing as I dislike large crowds, my intention when I stripped was different.

    My shirt and pants were completely soaked in sweat and since I had already dirtied the rainwater which was intended for heating then drinking, I had decided I may as well take a bath.

    After removing my clothes, I jumped in and washed off the sweat with my hands. I discovered something interesting. The sweat wasn¡¯t only sweat but was also mixed with fat. I appears that when I had increased my bodies strength, it got rid of excess waste in the form of fat.

    Luckily however, I never ate much so the amount of fat wasn¡¯t too much, as otherwise it would be incredibly hard to wash off. After scrubbing myself for about 20 minutes, I saw Grandma come up with another clothing set which she laid down near the rain tank that I was bathing in.

    I thanked her, stood up and exited the raintank. I looked down at my body, and although since I was young, I hadn¡¯t developed any muscles at that point in time, my body was still incredibly lean like a cheetah. I was amazed at the large change in body shape, and although I didn¡¯t grow taller, I was quite happy with this change.

    I couldn¡¯t see inside of the raintank as the fat floated to the surface and blocked my vision. Grandma¡¯s eyes widened as she saw my lean body but then she laughed as I started putting on the clothes.

    I stop putting the clothes on and look at Grandma with a quizzical expression.

    ¡°Why are you laughing Grandma?¡±

    ¡°Hahaha, It¡¯s because you looked so proud of your body when you exited the raintank. Although a lean body like yours is quite desired by men and would normally be considered ¡®hot¡¯ by women, on a child like you, it makes you look like a baby cheetah.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    I return to putting on my clothes and look away in embarrassment as I hadn¡¯t thought of that before and wasn¡¯t intending to convey that type of message.

    ¡°Still, boy how did you get such a body? I also saw a pool of sweat and fat in the orphanage which I guess was yours?¡±

    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    ¡°Yes, I apologise for causing a mess.¡±

    I bow in apology and Grandma waves the matter away with her hand.

    ¡°As for how I did it, you could say that I seriously want to train as a warrior now. I will now go and replace the rainwater with water from the river¡±

    That was probably the best excuse that I could come up with at the current time. After all, I wasn¡¯t prepared to say the whole truth and although I could lie, I didn¡¯t wish to do that to my caretaker for all these years. So I opted for a truth that wouldn¡¯t give anything unnecessary away.

    I ran with high speeds with a bucket to the river and filled it, running back while controlling my momentum and shaking so that the water wouldn¡¯t spill out. I repeated this about 30 or so times before the rain tank was full again. Finally finished with the chore, I returned home.

    --Time Skip--

    The next few months proceeded staggeringly well. With my stronger body, I had trained far more relentlessly and became far stronger than before. Only a month afterwards, I had learned everything that Barry had to teach, which was actually a very small amount. He just told me training methods and a few techniques he picked up from the people who delivered products to us.

    Although he had taught me a few methods of training, I prominently relied on information from my previous world to train. After leaving him, I also practiced swordsmanship with the weapon. Although I had initially thought that I had very limited ¡®aura¡¯ available to me for fueling ¡®Death¡¯s Illusion¡¯, I discovered quickly that that was not the case.

    Apparently, the ¡®weapon¡¯ drew out power from inside my body at my request, without me actually needing to force it out of my body with a ¡®vein¡¯. It truly was an incredible weapon. When I trained, I made the ¡®weapon¡¯ visible and played around with it¡¯s shape a lot, trying to think of how to make it into the same sword that Betty said it could be made into.

    It would appear as though I was swinging a short rod, which halfway through my swing would change into a long pole and alternate. The peculiar sight would definitely confuse others and make them wonder about what was happening.

    After I spent a while playing with the ¡®weapons¡¯ extension, I decided to look into my memories for this. Expending half my concentration on training and the other half on scanning my memories, I eventually had a moment of insight while for some reason remembering some Matryoshka dolls.

    I instantly stopped training and looked at the pole in my hand and willed it to become an arms length. It swiftly extended and turned into what I willed. I then imagined a bisection occurring ? of the way down the shaft and it did as I willed.

    ¡°Hahaha, It was this simple.¡±

    I laughed at my stupidity. Although I couldn¡¯t actually change the shape from being a pole into a sword, but I could split it into 2 pieces and make one a sheath and the other a sword.*

    After brandishing the sword, I felt that the sword section was about half the weight of the entire pole, with the sheath being the other half. I once again was entranced by the darkness that seemed to be mixed with the weapon. I snapped out of my trance and quickly returned to training, but this time with a new sword.

    I held the sheath in my left hand in a backwards grip while I swung with the katana-like sword and was met with little wind resistance.

    This is far easier than before, when I had no blade and a lot of wind resistance. The weight decrease also helps quite a bit.

    Swinging my new sword, I tire out after an hour and lie down a bit to rest. I discover that the ¡®weapon¡¯ is actually far more difficult to hide when it is in 2 pieces than when it is in its original rod shape. I sheath the sword and return the ¡®weapon¡¯ back to its original shape before I lie down.

    All of a sudden, with my strengthened ears, I hear a bark for help nearby and turn towards it. I stand up and walk towards the source. There I see a dog on the brink of death, with many bite wounds and claw marks on it. It also had shed a lot of its fur and was bleeding profusely out of one of the claw wounds and was whimpering.

    I walk up to it and think quickly.

    There is no way that I can heal this dog. I haven¡¯t any ability of that kind. The best thing I can do is put it out of its misery.

    I quickly think of the best and least painful method to do so and decide to try imposing ¡®Death Aura¡¯ to actually shatter a soul. This would be my first time doing something like this, but I quickly run into a problem. I have a limited ¡®vein¡¯ and little ¡®aura¡¯ which I can release out of my body.

    I wonder which is the best method and decide to yet again try something new.

    <hr />

    http://www.heavenlyswords.com/product.php?productid=21458</a>

    *The sword of the ¡®weapon¡¯ is similar to this, but with a cylindrical hilt. The sheath is also cylindrical but the sword has a blade similar to a katana. In case you didn¡¯t understand the explanation (Even I didn¡¯t understand what I was writing), then look at the image and it will likely help you.

 Vol. 1: Chapter 16 - Crumbling Away

    I wonder which is the best method and decide to yet again try something new.

    I increase the ¡®aura¡¯ flow into my right hand¡¯s fingers and stick them into my chest in a claw shape, whilst taking care not to hit any vital organs. I then make a grabbing motion with my ¡®aura¡¯ that was now in a claw shape and rip a portion of my soul out.

    I feel an intense prickling sensation all over my body, as though being poked by a million needles and then I pull an ebony black translucent sphere out of my chest. Ignoring as best I can the pain, whilst still releasing a scream that I tried to muffle with my other hand, I drop the sphere onto the ground by my side.

    The pain lessens but I am still panting heavily as I watch the sphere grow and gain colour before turning into a human shape that appeared to be a translucent version of me.

    Phew, success. Thank Death that my soul didn¡¯t actually shatter from that reaving.

    What I had done was that I stuck a claw-like hand into my chest to form a claw shape and from inside my body reave my soul. However, I didn¡¯t reave the entirety of my soul and instead tried to rip it in half and take one half out of my body, creating a soul body.

    This soul body, although using half of my soul to create it, only had ? of my total strength and incredible fragility which makes it useless in fights but it had a single advantage. Because it had no body or container, it had no ¡®veins¡¯ and could therefore send magic anywhere from any area on the soul body.

    This allows me to release a large portion of my power out of my soul body, unlike my physical body which took most of the power for strengthening. It is interesting having 2 bodies active and awake simultaneously, unlike my previous experience in a soul body.

    It was like having my attention split in half, with half my brain focusing on the information that the clone received from its surroundings while the other half was concentrating and receiving information from my physical body.

    I walked forward up to the dog¡¯s side with my soul body and looked at it for a brief second before making a palm and pulling my elbow back. The soul body then slammed the palm into the dog, with its hand passing through the dog. The soul body dissipated in a dark light and turned back into a black orb as it ran out of energy.

    Similarly, the dog emanated green sparkles before they sunk into the earth and vanished. I could tell that these sparkles were the dogs shattered soul and I had a feeling that they would be invisible to anyone who didn¡¯t have any power in manipulating ¡®Death Aura¡¯.

    The dogs rasping and whimpering were silenced, as was its life. I picked up the sphere and pushed it onto my chest. It seemed to sink through the skin and bones and vanish into my body, combining with my other soul half.

    Once again I felt the needles, but this time, it came with a feeling of relief likely originating from the combination of the 2 soul halves. My body calmed down far faster than before and seemed to feel stronger than before I recombined.

    I looked at the dog¡¯s corpse and turned it around, analysing every section of it. Eventually, as I couldn¡¯t find any visible marks on the outside, I decided to do the gruesome but necessary job. I strengthened the fingers on both hands and tore the dog apart at the belly.

    I looked at all of the organs and made sure that no marks were left behind. I discovered no evidence of my soul shattering, and since its soul dissipated and went to the realm of Death, I saw no fragments left behind.

    I returned to the orphanage and swiftly fell asleep due to my lack of ¡®aura¡¯ which made me incredibly tired. After eating a huge meal of rice early in the morning, I arrived at my training place and turned the ¡®weapon¡¯ into a sword and sheath again as I cycled through my memories for sword styles and stances.

    All styles had strengths and weaknesses, but I decided to focus on the stances of Iaijutsu. The ¡®weapon¡¯ was a great for Iaijutsu as it had no resistance when sliding out the sword and also had the benefit of being completely undetectable as a blade.

    Because of me being able to change it from being a rod to a sword and sheath instantaneously, it had great battle potential for surprise attacks. Especially when combined with Iaijutsu which was the art of quickly drawing the sword to either defend or attack swiftly.

    I started with learning the basic draw initially before trying any of the actual stances of the style.

    --Time Skip--

    Yet again a few month past, with it now being 7 months and 28 days after an agreement was made between me and Helra.

    I practiced swinging my sword about 2 hours a day, in two one hour sessions ever since that day. I spent the remainder of my free time increasing ¡®aura¡¯ capacity but didn¡¯t widen the ¡®aura veins¡¯ and instead stored it in my body while really slowly opening the ¡®vein¡¯ that let ¡®aura¡¯ leave my body as my capacity grew and grew.

    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    The basic draw was basically mastered and it seemed that I was far more skilled with learning sword styles and stances mainly due to my photographic memory. I remembered videos (Or was it actual things that occurred in my life, I can¡¯t tell) of Iaijutsu techniques from my previous life and managed to master and perfect a lot of them far quicker than the normal. Having a lot of time on my hands also helped with this, as Grandma didn¡¯t burden me at all.

    I completed one of the draws and then cycled through my memory and compared it to the one done by professionals. If there was any issue with it, I would instantly know of it by comparing the two and just as quickly as finding it, fix the problem.

    Although I say mastered, I still plan to edit the techniques themselves in order to make them more unique and powerful. I also want to learn another style in case I don¡¯t finish the enemy off with a Iai technique.

    For the past half a year, I still had no word from Betty and hadn¡¯t had access to hell in my soul body at all. However, that changed today.

    I was training as usual in small tree park near the orphanage when I felt an incredibly huge, oppressive yet familiar ¡®aura¡¯ appear behind me. I turned and saw Lord Death appear, clad in his black robe from a large purple flame. It wasn¡¯t Betty this time, but rather his warform which he uses when he has to cast techniques.

    Upon his appearance, the trees surrounding us suddenly lost their leaves and the trunks and branches turned grey. The trunks and branches cracked and toppled, turning into dust from Lord Death¡¯s presence.

    This was the true power of ¡®Death Aura¡¯. My simple killing of a dog required me to use my soul body and against a weakened close to death being which wanted to die. However, his power was so great that just by passively standing there, all the life around him died, with the exception of me.

    He looked at me and spoke in his deep, urgent voice.

    ¡°Quick, make haste and strengthen your body with as much ¡®aura¡¯ and techniques as possible.¡±

    I heard the urgency in his voice and quickly did as he said, pouring ¡®aura¡¯ into my entire body, leaving me almost depleted, but not completely so that I could remain conscious.

    I nodded at him to signal that I was done and he clicked his fingers.

    Suddenly, he erupted in purple flames in the same manner which he used to enter and as I wondered what happened to him, I found myself surrounded by the same flames. These weren¡¯t normal flames however, as they produced no heat and instead did something far more terrifying.

    They imposed ¡®Death¡¯ upon me and with such great force that I almost cracked under the pressure and forfeited my life.

    How urgent must it be, that Lord Death is willing to come to me in person and gamble on the idea that I will survive such a strong imposing?

    I look around and realise that I am in hell again, inside Betty¡¯s throneroom. Unlike before, when I came here in my soul body, I arrived here in my physical body and as a result I could clearly feel the cold of the place.

    Lord Death ran up to me and spoke very quickly, as though he had no time.

    ¡°You are my only contingency plan, you cannot die and must get high up in the ladder of power. I will likely not see you again, and you must remember these words:

    ¡®Chaos is Powerful¡¯

    Do you understand? Death is Eternal, but Chaos is Powerful. Remember those words and don¡¯t fight the powerful. Quickly, stick out your left hand, I will give you a mark.¡±

    I stuck out my left hand and he grabbed it, drawing a circle on the top of my hand. The circle then became black, similar to the mark on my chest and started to bleed black blood. The blood crawled up my left arm in two spirals intersecting each other at intervals.

    The place where the blood crawled then turned into a black marking and the black circle on my hand turned back into an image of Cerberus, Death¡¯s Mark.

    While all this was happening, I was screaming from the pain and trying to tear my hand away from him while he held it in a tight grip and repetitively said:

    ¡°Endure, Endure, Endure, Endure, Endure!¡±

    Eventually the whole ritual completed and I looked up at Lord Death in time to see him smile and then crumble away as I got consumed by purple flames.

    <hr />

    *We all love google¡­ Also pardon me if I get something wrong as I am not versed in Iaijutsu. Like at all. But feel free to help me if you find an error.

 Vol. 1: Chapter 17 - Spirals

    Eventually the whole ritual completed and I looked up at Lord Death in time to see him smile and then crumble away as I got consumed by purple flames.

    The scenery changes and I appear in the same place that I disappeared from, yet again sweating profusely. It seems that sweating heavily has turned into a little bit of a habit. At that time however, I had no room for such thoughts as my mind was mainly centred around wondering what in the hell happened and what the words that were spoken meant.

    I think back to the moments right before I was covered by flames, and view the ¡®memory¡¯ playing in my head with huge detail.

    Death¡¯s hands reach back after holding my wrist and his lips corners tug, forming into a slight smile as he looks at me. His body then slowly crumbles beginning from his left side and moving to his right. His body seems to break apart into tiny pieces which vanish into the darkness of the cave.

    His eyes glow with compassion when looking at me and then they change, appearing to glow and rotate fiercely as his expression changes into a look that would torment even the most powerful men. For only an incredibly small fraction of a second later, which was only remembered due to my photographic memory, I saw something that scared me almost as much as Lord Death¡¯s expression.

    Death¡¯s plane of existence, Hell, started to shake as the walls began to crumble. Unfortunately I couldn¡¯t see anything else as I had already been transported back at that moment. Those events in themselves were terrifying to the bone, but there was nothing to be done against them.

    I clench my left hand into a fist and look at it, seeing the image of Cerberus being so clearly imprinted on it. In a moment of realisation, I also look down my shirt to verify something. Luckily for me, the ¡®Death Mark¡¯ on my chest was still in a pure black circle shape which I could only assume was a seal and unlike the raw ¡®Death Mark¡¯ itself.

    I had already figured out that if the black mark was indeed a seal, it would likely be one for my power flowing out of control. Although my mind and soul would subconsciously not allow energy that is dangerous to me be released, it would still make the occasional immortal aware of my existence if my ¡®aura¡¯ flared up.

    I turn all my attention onto my left arm, complete with the mark and spirals. It feels powerful, but not physically powerful, but rather as though it is another soul, a battery if you will. It seems to store so much energy and I did the next most logical, yet rash decision to find out its capabilities.

    I tried to pour out a bit of the energy which felt like my own. It did not end well. My entire body felt nothing save my arm, which started having a rather gruesome reaction. Similar to how it had initially made the spirals on my arm, the mark on the back of my hand began to bleed from every edge that outlined the mark. The mark of Death also begins to glow with intense purple light.

    My red blood oozed out with great intensity, differing from the prior blackened blood that oozed out when the mark was imprinted on my hand. It began to drip down, dyeing the green grass with spots of red. I dropped to my knees while my left, bleeding hand hit the ground as I felt the blood drain from my body.

    When my hand was flushed and filled with ¡®aura¡¯, pulled out of the power source in my left hand, it was washed by a wave of cold, and all feeling of touch was lost. Similarly, quickly afterwards the rest of my body''s temperature dropped with loss of blood.

    When my left hand hit the ground, all the grass in the vicinity of the location that was hit quickly wilted and the majority of elemental particles floating around was quickly replaced with particles of greyness, likely being the particles of the death element.

    Whilst all this was happening, I tried to sever the feeling of death coming out of my left hand, and after trying fruitlessly for a few seconds, I decide to make a rash decision that could be my lifesaver. I cut an incision in my left shoulder and push my wind infused elemental ¡®aura¡¯ out of my soul and outside. I used all the ¡®aura¡¯ that was available to me as I had very little that could be released at this point in time.

    Manipulating the air particles, I push them into the incision and create a barrier of air, not allowing blood to pass into my arm. I simultaneously squeeze the blood veins leading to my arm and as a result disallow blood from passing through. Using the air in the haemoglobin, I similarly push my blood cells back to cycle around the body, prohibiting passage to my arm.

    My left arm swiftly runs out of blood and it turns into a dried, skin and bones limb. Shortly afterwards, the mark¡¯s glow died down and feeling that the place was  I opened a small hole in the wind blockage that was situated inside the incision. This allowed the blood that was being circulated around the body to flow back into my arm, hoping to rejuvenate it.

    A few seconds after opening the small hole, I let go of the pressure on the veins, also allowing the blood inside them to be moved into my arm. I then completely released the wind in the incision, and only pressed it against wounds to prevent them from exiting my open wounds and risk losing more blood.

    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    My body went cold, but luckily when my body gained countless ¡®aura¡¯ veins, they also spread out to my heart muscle and other normally uncontrollable parts of the body and gave me the frightening ability to consciously control them.

    Sending an ¡®aura¡¯ pulse to make my bone marrow generate as much blood as possible, in hope of making up for the litres lost, I forced ¡®aura¡¯ into my brain to make it unable to shut down due to the pain and panic.

    My body that would normally die due to blood loss was barely capable of clinging on to life as long as I very slowly expanded the area where my blood circulated. About 2 hours of immobility later, my body managed to make up for blood lost during the experiment.

    Not doing that again.

    As I thought this, I also realised that my investment easily paid itself off, even only a short while after making it. The investment that I am referring to is the decision that I made to convert almost all my available ¡®aura¡¯ from that short while back into ones used to strengthen my body. I had initially infused my muscles, skin and bones with ¡®aura¡¯ to strengthen them to accelerate training speed.

    This was because even though ¡®aura¡¯ capacity increases far slower when training in physical activities than when meditating, it had the benefit of allowing a person to increasing the capacity for a prolonged amount of time.

    For example, say that I would meditate for an hour before running out of juice, since ¡®aura¡¯ capacity increase entails constant release of ¡®aura¡¯, then my ¡®aura¡¯ would eventually run dry and I would faint. Or otherwise I would get incredibly tired and would have to take a break and give time for my soul to generate the lost ¡®aura¡¯. However, if a person with a strong enough physical body attempted to train themselves physically, they would be able to practice for far longer than a mage with similar amounts of ¡®aura¡¯ capacity.

    Of course, although they would train for longer, it still results in a less beneficial ¡®aura¡¯ capacity increase than when meditating. If a mage with 100 ¡®aura¡¯ at his disposal does meditative training, he could potentially increase that by 1 in an hour and simultaneously run dry on ¡®aura¡¯ to meditate with. However, if a warrior with 100 ¡®aura¡¯ at their disposal trained, he would take 10 hours of training to run dry of power, but similarly would need that much time to gain 1 ¡®aura¡¯ capacity.

    The main benefit of this method of warrior training is the physical strength increase that comes with the ¡®aura¡¯. If you were to meditate, although you would gain ¡®aura¡¯ quickly, you would also not experience any physical changes with your body. An incredibly fat person could be a powerful ¡®aura¡¯ manipulator, but a warrior¡¯s body changes with ¡®aura¡¯ infusing and strength increase naturally.

    Similarly, because your ¡®aura¡¯ usage gets stretched out in time, you don¡¯t have to rest as regularly as a mage but can still train with all your power.

    This was one of the reasons as to why I had decided to invest my ¡®aura¡¯ in physical increase, but the other was to survive dangerous situations like this. As your body gets infused with more and more ¡®aura¡¯, it changes, increasing immunity to diseases and poisons, slowly genetically altering to be more powerful as your body tries to resist the strong impact that your ¡®aura¡¯ inflicts on it.

    Mages don¡¯t have such immunities and strong bodies, but they can easily remove poison or coat their bodies to create similar effects, but they have to do it consciously. If a mage''s body is poisoned silently without their knowledge, unless they have powerful ¡®aura¡¯ constantly pushing outside interferences away, they will die if the poison is lethal.

    However, if a warrior were to be poisoned, no matter their state of consciousness, it will likely fail unless incredibly lethal. This makes up for the warriors path deficit of ¡®aura¡¯ that they can manipulate and release outside of their bodies.

    This helped me survive such a normally lethal situation, simply with the warriors path. Of course, my little ¡®aura¡¯ capacity that I have available to me helped a lot as well. As I can¡¯t decide on which to concentrate on at the moment, I am saving up my excess ¡®aura¡¯ capacity instead of widening my ¡®aura veins¡¯ and using the ¡®aura¡¯ capacity in that sense.

    I will later accordingly distribute the additional ¡®aura¡¯ capacity as required, but in the meanwhile I will save it.

    Strangely however, although the body is forced into an evolutive state as it grows alongside the ¡®aura¡¯, mine still counted as that of a child and all of my bone marrow helped with the manufacturing of blood. This of course could also be due to the evolution as well, as increased bone marrow means less blood loss overall.

    Since my body completely recovered, I decide to return back to the orphanage, eat to replenish energy and also check on something, something that was left unanswered during my conversation with Helra.

 Vol. 1: Chapter 18 - The battle in the Void

    Since my body completely recovered, I decide to return back to the orphanage, eat to replenish energy and also check on something, something that was left unanswered during my conversation with Helra.

    I sprinted back to the church, reaching high speeds and arriving at my destination swiftly. I then slowed down and jogged inside of the church, taking my shoes off first. The church had about 20 pairs of shoes which were leant out to people wishing to go outside, but because of this low number compared to the amount of kids, we are normally not allowed to leave for longer than an hour, as to provide others with the chance to go outside.

    I grab some food from the other church annex, which was being used by us as a storeroom for food and expirables, and then slowly walked while munching on an apple. I arrive at the entrance Grandma Sophia¡¯s annex and peer inside. There are no doors in the entire church save for the entrance door, the storeroom door and the babyroom.

    Grandma was sitting in her old rocking chair, slowly rocking. I first saw this habit in her a few months back. It seems like old people just grow to love how relaxing these pieces of furniture can be.

    I walked in far quieter than I intended and said:

    ¡°Grandma, I want to ask a question.¡±

    Startled, Grandma¡¯s slow rocking accelerated from her sudden jump in the chair, before she forced a stop by pushing her legs against the ground. She quickly calmed and asked me with sincerity.

    ¡°What is it my child? What did you want to know?¡±

    ¡°I want to know more about the continent of Magia and it¡¯s academies.¡±

    ¡°Hmmm? Child where did you learn about this?¡±

    I point to the top shelf of the bookshelf, where it¡¯s only booklet is situated. Grandma quickly realises and shows a passive expression, probably due to her age.

    ¡°I see¡­ So you read that book with your vast intelligence? Considering how well you read, it isn¡¯t that hard to imagine that. The only real problem would be getting the book off that shelf, but you would probably have made some sort of contraption or had some help, that wouldn¡¯t make it difficult.¡±

    I take that back, Grandma is far smarter than she lets off. Actually it was probably mainly because since she hangs around with young children, she doesn¡¯t require to use much of her intellect to handle situations.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ I haven¡¯t been away from this orphanage for a very long time, so the only news I have is second hand, from the people who occasionally visit. But if that is alright with you, I will tell you what I know.¡±

    I nod and sit down cross-legged on the floor, silently training my ¡®aura¡¯ capacity as I listen in.

    ¡°Since you read that book, and are aware of the past events, it helps greatly in informing you about it. About 300 years ago was when the booklets original copy was actually published and the one that we have is one that I copied for the orphanage.

    Since it was published 300 years ago, that speaks for itself on how long academy city has existed. Unfortunately, unlike the history described in the book, the years were rather uneventful, lest for the first few expeditions to the Darklands.

    The ¡®Great Academy¡¯ had many many students willing to go there due to their free tuition, incredible library and professional teachers. The limit to how many students were accepted didn¡¯t exist for a while, taking in and cultivating all the young talents. However, about 50 years ago, they began to limit how many were accepted in, apparently being influenced by the other academies who wanted some talents to themselves.

    Because of this, the Great Academy¡¯s average talent levels were raised and so were the requirements to make it in. This of course also caused the Great Academy to have less students, and left the ones that didn¡¯t make it in, but were still talented to join the other academies & schools.¡±

    I raise my hand, wishing to pose a question.

    ¡°Yes?¡±

    ¡°I want to know what the overall talent requirement is for joining. Do you know what it is Grandma?¡±

    Grandma looked at me with heartwarming eyes and tried to reassure me.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but if you keep on training physically like you do nowadays, I am sure that you would make it in. But even if you don¡¯t, you could probably receive a scholarship from another academy or school.¡±

    So she knew about my training huh¡­ Not that surprising I guess, considering my sudden achieving of this body. It seems she hasn¡¯t thought of magic yet¡­ or maybe she has and is just not saying it. Either way it doesn¡¯t matter.

    ¡°All the countries borders expanded with the new magicians and magic warriors that came with the establishment of the Great Academy. They slowly pushed out the borders of the country, and we managed to expand a whole kilometre out in every direction!

    Although it isn¡¯t too much land gain, it was one of our few victories that we have achieved in our years as a civilization. The rest of the things that I know of is politics and the like, do you want to learn of it?¡±

    I politely declined as I can just figure that out as I get there and I¡¯ll have quite a bit of time later anyway.

    Well, only as long as ¡®Death¡¯ doesn¡¯t lose against whatever he is clearly fighting or running from.

    I instead decided to ask about another matter. Our location in the world.

    ¡°We are in East Dragviir right now, closer to the borders of the Darklands than that of the borders of West Dragviir. Even though 3 centuries have past, we actually haven¡¯t been able to map much of the continent as we haven¡¯t been able to travel further than a dozen or so kilometres out from the city until all expedition forces were lost.¡±

    ¡°Thank you for helping me Grandma. I will go to not disturb you now, take a well-deserved rest.¡±

    ¡°Caring for the elderly, what a nice child.¡±

    I hear those words as I leave the annex and turn my head to see Grandma close her eyes and start slowly rocking again.

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    Well, with my curiosity satisfied for now, let¡¯s think about Death¡¯s message.

    Vividly recalling the moments that occurred today, I start to break them down and make a few conclusions for myself.

    ¡°You are my contingency plan - Do you understand?

    Death is Eternal, but Chaos is Powerful. Remember those words and don¡¯t fight the powerful - I will give you a mark.¡±

    Considering how he was calling ¡®Chaos¡¯ powerful and warning me about the powerful, he likely meant for me to stay away from ¡®Chaos¡¯. The problem is with what this ¡®Chaos¡¯ is and what he is referring to.

    Death is eternal isn¡¯t too difficult to comprehend as it speaks for itself as he; ¡®Death¡¯ is immortal and in turn eternal. The concept of death is also around forever and is eternal. The problem arises with what exactly this has to do with his message.

    Argh, I¡¯m missing something, something that would complete the riddles solution.

    Why is it that whenever I get close to any answers to do with Lord Death, I can never solve them?

    Pissed off, I leave the orphanage again without a  sliver of emotion on my face, a complete poker face. Making emotional faces is a simple thing, but they serve no purpose unless you are actually trying to convey the emotion that you are feeling to others.

    Having a calm face actually helps influence your emotions to stay calm, just as having a happy expression on, even if fake can alter your feelings during a certain situation.

    I walk out the door of the church and begin to sprint, hoping to train my leg strength this time, and not my technique or arm strength. I also try and run as silently as I can, avoiding any obstacles that are potential sound creators and also stepping lightly, but powerfully.

    Stealth training basically. The most effective method of combat is to not fight at all, and instead take the enemy by surprise and kill them before they can even defend. I pointed out the weaknesses of a mage''s body earlier, and even the strongest mage will die if he doesn¡¯t use magic to protect his body.

    The main reason as to why I adapted this sort of training is mainly because of the abilities that ¡®Death Aura¡¯ is capable of using. All of the abilities that uses ¡®Death Aura¡¯ are one-hit kills. Reaving is intended to instantly steal a person¡¯s soul and although imposing can be used to just intimidate, it¡¯s main purpose in battle is to influence the person¡¯s actions and instantly kill them the instant they lower their guard.

    As I sprint as silently as I can across the small forest and around the orphanage, I constantly release ¡®aura¡¯ out of my body in hope of increasing my ¡®aura¡¯ capacity. I cannot train in control at this moment because I have too little ¡®aura¡¯ accessible for me to control outside of my body, so I have to get back to the prior levels of ¡®aura¡¯ that I used to possess before I can attempt that feat.

    I run without stopping for a long time. Too long a time. Hours past and I still don¡¯t feel tired at all, feeling such an anomaly in logic, I stop running and a gruesome view enters my sight. My lefts hand mark of death is glowing subtly, far less than before but still glowing.

    Blood oozes out of the edges of the mark and coats my fingers in a red glove, slowly dripping down to the ground. A few seconds after stopping, the mark¡¯s light dies down and is replaced by a cold from the lack of blood. Already losing large amounts of blood today, and my body having to work over time to replace it, I could no longer hold onto my consciousness.

    I fell face down into the grass with my head tilted to the side, and my eyes involuntarily closed after remaining vigilant for a few seconds.

    I ¡®awaken¡¯ in a dark, dark place. There is no light, but a lot of a certain elemental particle flying around. The particle appears yellow, with incredible density and number. Suddenly my soul body feels as though it is being tugged on, as a section of it passes through a newly appeared tear in space.

    The sight that falls before my eyes shocks me. I see Lord Death in his warform and holding a pure black scythe in his hand fighting ¡®something¡¯. I can only describe it as something as I can only see him attacking what appears to be darkness.

    Out of the darkness appears a hand shape, golden and incredibly quick. The scythe and the hand collide silently, forming no change in the pitch dark plane of existence, but seeming to carry immense power.

    The scythe in Death¡¯s hand starts to flicker and it suddenly disappears under the force of the golden hand. The palm attack continues even after being delayed by the scythe and it hits Lord Death¡¯s right hand, which twists and gets dislodged from its socket.

    Death jumps back and gruesomely his hand twists back to its original shape as he fixes it forcefully with the ¡®aura¡¯ he releases. As all of this occurs, I feel nothing and all my senses are disabled save for sight and ¡®aura¡¯ detection.

    Although I can see the immense density of the particles of ¡®aura¡¯, I cannot feel them and am not damaged by them.

    As his hand twists back, the darkness appears to pull together to form a golden figure of a bald man with a spiked snake tail and spines along his back. Upon making this shape, Death¡¯s eyes gain a harsher expression and the scythe forms in his hand again.

    However this time instead of attacking with it physically, his hair sways as he swings it in front of his body horizontally and the scythe head flies off and becomes far larger than before, moving at high speeds towards the golden body.

    The golden man raises his right hand and catches the crescent shaped wave with it, instantly dissipating the wave. He then lowers his right hand and raises his left, pointing his finger at Lord Death¡¯s head and space seems to crack at the location, shattering and breaking Death¡¯s head into many pieces, spilling black blood.

 Vol. 1: Chapter 19 - Another Immortal

    The golden man raises his right hand and catches the crescent shaped wave with it, instantly dissipating the wave. He then lowers his right hand and raises his left, pointing his finger at Lord Death¡¯s head and space seems to crack at the location, shattering and breaking Death¡¯s head into many pieces, spilling black blood.

    As I watch this scene in terror, the golden man looks straight at me and my soul feels wrenching agony as I get pulled back into my physical body. My eyes open, still having the horror of what I just witnessed imbued within them.

    I push myself off the ground and stand to my feet, and my heart aches at recalling the scene where Lord Death¡¯s head exploded. I recall his fatherly smile when he said farewell after giving the ¡®mark¡¯,

    The heart-broken expression as I teased him, the care he gave to me. All like a true father.

    No matter who my real father is, I will not accept anyone except Betty as a true parent. My only family linked by ¡®soul¡¯, my Grandfather.

    Tears slowly slide down my cheeks and I quickly rub them off, not shedding any more after a few seconds. I steel my resolve and my facial features darken as I gather all my elementless ¡®aura¡¯ and release it out around me in a shockwave. My sadness turns into hate and anger towards that golden being, and unbeknownst to me at the time, it tapped into almost all the ¡®aura¡¯ in my left hands mark.

    My left hand glows with vibrant purple light but quickly dies down when all the energy is released in one go. The grass in at least a 100 metre radius wilts at fast speeds, turning grey and disintegrating and crumbling into small pieces to be carried away with the wind. The trees, although not impacted by the killing effect of ¡®Death Aura¡¯ had been hit by the sheer force of the dense ¡®aura¡¯ and dropped some leaves after shaking a bit.

    A split second after the ¡®Death Aura¡¯ from my mark hit the area, the elementless wave swiftly followed, but something far stranger than the instantaneous death of the grass happened.

    Similar to reversed movie footage, all the dissipated grass particles moved back to their original positions at high speeds, joining with other particles of the same kind in the air before lowering to the ground and sprouting root again. The leaves that were floating down from the shaken trees suddenly stopped moving and were also rewinded, floating up and defying physics, before joining a newly shaking tree that calmed down quickly.

    Time? Reversing time? What element magic is that?

    As I thought this, a shaking sound occurred beneath me and a crack in the earth leading to what appeared to be a bottomless ravine appeared below me. Hearty laughter resounded through the gap in the earth right before I heard a voice from the bottomless hole.

    ¡°Kid, you have potential unseen before in normal people. Time doesn¡¯t flow and influence you, but rather the opposite. I would give quite a bit to take and bless you if you weren¡¯t Hades¡¯ property.¡±

    Another laughter resounded through the ground, with the vibrations giving me goosebumps.

    ¡°I have decided kid, you are coming with me, we can¡¯t waste such talent now can we? Hahahahaha¡±

    *Clap*

    *Rumble*

    After the voice¡¯s body seems to clap, the ravine extends towards the place where I am standing, and although I have a strengthened body and a decent ¡®aura¡¯ capacity, I was unable to use ¡®aura¡¯ because I used it all in my previous feat of strength.

    My body however, felt like it was being held down by shackles, where I couldn¡¯t move at all although my minds command to move was heard clear as day and also felt like it began. I couldn¡¯t even speak or do anything akin to movement.

    Because of this, I could only watch silently as my pupils slowly dilated as the fissure extended to reach and pull me in.

    The ¡®shackles¡¯ on me were released as I fell. Fell so far and for what seemed to be a stupidly long amount of time. I seemed to fluctuate in speed with me falling sometimes fast and sometimes slow. This could all be false however, as I could only feel that from the wind as I couldn¡¯t see at all in this pitch black hole.

    Because of how boring it was falling for so long, I decided to practice magic on the move a little, by releasing my slowly recovering ¡®aura¡¯ outside my body and into the dark space around me. However, even my sole form of ¡®entertainment¡¯ in such a state was denied.

    When it exited my body, it vanished to Death knows where, as I suddenly lost all control of my exterior ¡®aura¡¯ and it seemed to have been consumed by ¡®something¡¯. I had already realised that the goal of the person who spoke wasn¡¯t to kill me, otherwise that would¡¯ve been a simple matter to do with such power, but rather something else.

    I knew that I would likely be here for a while, so I decided to do something that was entertaining in my first few years of life.

    Time to play some chess against myself. I am not looking forward to this.

    I had already played the game so many times in my first years when I had nothing better to do, similar to this situation as when I awoke and was trying to get myself to fall asleep, this was the only available game to play.

    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    ---Time Skip---

    About 1439 games of chess later, I finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel, or in this case, the solid ground at the end of the drop. As I sped towards the floor, a strong updraft caught me and slowed me down significantly enough so that I wouldn¡¯t die from the damage. Honestly, an updraft with enough force to slow me down should also feel similar to crashing into solid ground, but I will likely figure out how that works later.

    My fall ceased about 10 centimetres of the ground, with my belly facing downwards. The wind holding me in place was then released and I fell the length with a small *poof*.

    I stand up and analyse the situation. The area around my person that was illuminated enought to be visible was about a 4 metre radius, whereas everything else was pitch black and I couldn¡¯t see it.

    ¡°Hahaha, welcome to my plane of existence mortal. I understand that the drop was long and boring, but that is for safety measures against many people that may attack my realm.¡±

    The voice from the ravine had spoken again, but what he voiced raised many questions in my head, but starting from the two most obvious ones, I began.

    ¡°Who are you? Why am I here?¡±

    ¡°Calm mortal. Calm. Time is ongoing, never stopping, and we have all of it in our hands to speak. First allow me to appear before you.¡±

    A silver light shone straight in front of my eyes, briefly illuminating the area before transforming into a human shape. When the zone was made visible by the light, I was startled by the scene that entered my eyes. The pitch black darkness that I saw in the area was truly darkness, with no end no matter what. Even with light, it wasn¡¯t visible but instead helped me see what I was standing on clearer.

    It wasn¡¯t natural ground, but rather just a large flat circular silver plate. I stepped forward in the instant that the light shone and the plate teleported to position itself in the centre of my new location. It moved with me by what appeared to be quick teleportation.

    The silver light dimmed and although still shone, it was in a different shape and not as bright. It appeared to be a 2 metre tall silver full suit of plate armor with no decorations drawn on it save for the inscription written at the top of the chest piece, touching the bottom of the neck.

    With my natural translation capabilities, I read it out and it said exactly the words that the voice had expressed earlier.

    ¡°Time is ongoing, never stopping¡±

    The wrist and metal glove piece of the armor rotated and clenched a fist respectively, while the helmet looked at the movements of the two pieces. Finishing assessing the situation, the helmet piece turned back to face me and started to walk slowly in my direction as a voice came from it.

    ¡°This is a form that I use when talking to people as I rarely access my warform if I can avoid it, as it is difficult to control my powers in such a strengthened body.

    Anyway, your questions, to answer the first one, one of my names is Chronos, and the one most of the people from your original world used to name me. I am an immortal and also a God, but my position only exists because I was harassed by the other Gods.

    I am the God of Time, the one who can slow down the never-ending ticking hand of time. I can reverse and rewind it, accelerate and fluctuate it, but no matter what, I cannot end it.¡±

    As I digest this normally unbelievable information, I realise that this actually explains the speed with the fall, the inability to cast spells or move and also why he was so powerful. I guess I became highly adaptive to the situation due to all the events that have occurred around me in the few years of my new life. I remember Betty but push down the feelings that surge up with it, as this is not the time nor the place to have such reminiscal emotions.

    I motion for Chronos to continue speaking as I understood and processed all the information he gave me.

    ¡°As for why you are here, the reason is very simple actually, requiring little to no explanation. You have an immense gift and link to the time element due to the occurrences in your past life, giving you talent beyond recognition in one of the extra elements known as the element of ¡®Time¡¯.

    And what am I going to do with it? I am going to train you.¡±

    He says the last line with the voice of a boy that played a prank on someone.

    The tone that he made reminds me of Betty and as the emotions surface and tear start rolling down again, I drop to one knee and place one hand on the ground saying:

    ¡°Yes master, make me strong.¡±

    <hr />

    And that signals the end of the last chapter of Vol 1. I understand that it was a bit rushed and frankly too much stuff happened in just this single chapter, but I didn¡¯t want to keep being so roundabout and slow about this stuff (Will probably still be in the future). I will likely take a few days break as I plan ¡®Volume 2. Time¡¯. Hope you guys stick with the plot and enjoy. :D

    -Waffle Fluff

 Vol. 2: Chapter 1 - Time Arc

    ---Volume 2: Time Arc---

    I follow Chronos as he walks about 10 metres in front of me on nothingness. The platform below me moving with each step, I walk with strong motivation to become powerful.

    ¡° *Sigh*, Sephtis, calm down. Your killing intent leaks out way too much. Don¡¯t you have anything to ask me or talk about?¡±

    I calm my heart a bit as I realise that I do indeed have a large amount of questions, but Betty¡¯s death weighs heavily on my heart, so much so that I almost forgot about them. Then I suddenly realised the error in his speech, something that shouldn¡¯t have been said.

    ¡°Yes¡­ For starters, how do you know my name?¡±

    ¡°Child, I am an immortal, a God at that. Do you honestly think that I don¡¯t have the ability to perceive the world, even in another immortals plane of existence. I can perceive the world in from any of the faults of time present in the world.

    Remember the pit in hell, filled with countless tortured souls? Time in that pit is slower in that pit than normal, Hades mentioned this to you did he not?¡±

    I nod to his question and he goes on.

    ¡°I gave him that pit as a symbol of peace to one of the strongest figures of the immortal realm. He and I have no enmity, but similarly no real positive connection save for a single thing. Although I ¡®gave¡¯ him the pit, it was more like a trade in the early millenia¡¯s of my life.

    As I said earlier, I can only perceive the world from displacements and unnatural tamperings in time. I am also not liked greatly by the other Gods, and am considered a traitor or heretic. This makes it impossible to place any artifacts or items that influence time in the mortal realm, and there exists very few Gods or immortals that would allow me to gift them such an artifact to place in their realm, as they will be hated for the possession of it.

    Because of this, when I gave him the ¡®gift¡¯, he knew he would be hated by the Gods because of it, but he did not only not care, but accepted it happily. This ¡®gift¡¯ allowed me to learn of your situation, since I listened in from the time rift to get the information that ¡®Death¡¯ told you.¡±

    Basically a spy¡­

    As I think this, a question pops up in response to his prior explanation.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ Why is that; why are you hated by the immortals? Does it have anything to do with the element of ¡®Time¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Indeed, it is exactly as you speculated. To understand why I am hated, you must know some background information about the element that I use.

    Do you remember the 4 ¡®extra elements¡¯ that Death mentioned? These elements are the elements of Life, Death, Time and Chaos.¡±

    When he mentioned Death, it brought up memories as my blood boiled and ¡®aura¡¯ pushed against the inside of my body, willing to go out. However, I barely restrained it as I knew it would dissipate if it actually exited my body.

    Unfazed by my sudden killing intent which quickly died down, the God of Time kept on going with his explanation.

    ¡°The ¡®Life¡¯ element plays around with recovering shattered souls that have been destroyed and killed. It also allows bestowal of souls into bodies allowing you to, in a sense, ¡®revive¡¯ the dead. At the current moment, I know no one who can use this type of ¡®aura¡¯, even among the Gods and immortals as the only user died not so long ago.

    The ¡®Death¡¯ element is one that you are well versed in, so I don¡¯t have to explain it to you.

    The element of ¡®Time¡¯, unlike the previous 2 is actually not a true element. This element is actually an application of the ¡®Chaos¡¯ element and is more like a subsection than a whole. However, its effect is so strong that it was considered as a separate power.

    The ¡®Time¡¯ element changes the flow of time, making it faster and slower at will. You can make a zone incredibly fast, which would affect and accelerate all movement in the area other than that of ¡®aura¡¯ particles, which cannot be accelerated by such magic.

    However, although it can¡¯t be accelerated, it can indeed be slowed and that application of ¡®Time¡¯ magic is the absolute opposite in which everything gets delayed instead. This is what I used on you when you were made to fall into the portal to here, or what you saw as a ravine.

    By slowing time in the area, it makes you incredibly slow and incapable of releasing ¡®aura¡¯ at any speed at all. Although ¡®Time¡¯ magic is so fierce, this pseudo element has some detriments as all elements do. Unlike ¡®Death¡¯ magic, the ¡®aura¡¯ consumption is nowhere near as large when compared to the strength of the outcome that you get. Sadly however, to affect an object, the entirety of the item must be covered with ¡®Time Aura¡¯. The same is said for humans and this in turn makes the other negative more prominent.

    The other negative that I speak of is that the increase or decrease in time will influence all in the vicinity including yourself. If you try and slow your enemy, and throw a punch at them, the instant your body enters the area, you will also slow down greatly and it will turn into a slow motion fight where both your brains process information at the normal, much higher speeds.

    Earlier, when I said that it doesn¡¯t cost a great amount of ¡®aura¡¯ when compared to the outcome, that doesn¡¯t necessarily make it a positive. Because although it uses less than it logically should, the amount is still phenomenal. For example, a normal 40th Fall mage from your world would be able to hold a 2x slowing field for about 80 seconds before running out of power.¡±

    Although I don¡¯t know the mage ranks yet, I guess that a 40th Fall is pretty high up, otherwise he wouldn¡¯t have used it as a comparison. A minute isn¡¯t a bad amount of time, but it¡¯s only a 2x slowing field. Had it been a greater slowing field, I wonder how long such a mage would be able to hold it.

    ¡°This brings us to the fourth and most powerful element, the ¡®Chaos¡¯ element. ¡®Chaos¡¯ is also not considered an element, but not because it is a subsection like ¡®Time¡¯ but rather it is the opposite. It is the only element that we Gods and Immortals alike refer to as a ¡®Law¡¯. We call it the ¡®Law of Chaos¡¯, due to it¡¯s huge power.

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    Theoretically, all elements have the same potential and power to rise up, but it is unquestionable that at the moment, the ¡®Law of Chaos¡¯ is at the top. It has a copious amount of ¡®pseudo elements¡¯ constituting it, differing greatly from ¡®Death¡¯ which only has 2 subsections.

    The people capable of using the ¡®Law¡¯s power¡¯ are few in number and are considered heretics in the immortal planes, I am one of those people. Training in the ¡®Law of Chaos¡¯ is rare and incredibly hard not only because of the abuse you receive from others, but also because of how difficult it is to stay on a single branch of the ¡®Law¡¯.

    Only one God has managed to master more than one section of the ¡®Chaos Law¡¯, while the others are still trying to master a sole section, as those that try and branch out to other uses of the ¡®Law¡¯ are usually met with failure and results in a power drop. This is because it simply takes too long for anyone to study in the ¡®Law¡¯ and the power increase isn¡¯t too large compared to mastery of a sub-section.

    I learnt this from my prior kin, but if you master one of the sections, you gain a huge power-spike, doubling your combat capabilities. However, if you focus on 2 parts of the ¡®Law¡¯ and get about 50% into each one, you will not only be incapable of getting the doubling bonus, but you will also only have a total of around 75% power as the strength gain drops with each section you pick up.

    When you reach 100% mastery in 2 parts however, the 50% loss of the total power of the prior section trained in is removed, causing your power to not add up to 150% mastery but actually 200%.

    The ¡®Law of Chaos¡¯ also differs from the other elements in how it is applied. The basic 4 are just simple manipulation and employing physics to play around with it, as I am sure you know.

    The 2 rare elements also have to do with their own areas of manipulation, but are actually rarely used in actual combat, but instead is used for stealth tactics. This is because by manipulating and bending light, you can become invisible. If you intensify the darkness and remove the light in an area, you can also become unable to be seen, but not invisible like light magic can permit.

    The rumors spread around in your new world about these elements actually differ greatly in comparison to the true uses. It is believed that light and darkness elements are opposites, but even if they work differently, where one decreases light and the other bends light, they are both sides of the same coin. Similarly, because of a light element user being capable of making illusions, they are believed to be saviors because of those illusions.

    Only the highest government officials understand the truth of these types of elements, but the people proficient in them are still hired the instant they show up. This is due to the great image they have in public, but also because of their assassination capabilities. Although nowhere near as great as ¡®Death Aura¡¯s¡¯ they are still effective.

    ¡®Death Aura¡¯ and ¡®Life Aura¡¯ handles with souls, whilst Chaos belongs in another area of expertise.

    ¡®Chaos¡¯ is terrifying because it bends the laws of physics and completely opposes them at will. It can increase the density of a particle, screw with gravity, break atomic bonds happily and many others such as manipulating time and space.

    I am sure that you are aware that ¡®Death¡¯ is fighting someone to do with the ¡®Chaos Law¡¯, considering your reaction to the word. The reason for this is actually very simple, and many people know the story about who he is fighting. I will tell you about the enemy in question before you leave training, but you must be aware and listen to me during when I teach you for however long you stay here.¡±

    The strength of ¡®Chaos¡¯ is no small thing, but the other elements are also terrifying. If even the element of ¡®Time¡¯ goes into ¡®Chaos¡¯, how powerful must the being that mastered more than one section of the ¡®Chaos¡¯ element be?

    Pushing those thoughts away, I pose another question.

    ¡°Where is this place?¡±

    ¡°It is a dimension formed by an Immortal God¡¯s power, namely my own. It is like my version of Death¡¯s Hell, but you don¡¯t have to worry, not the entire place is similar to a void like this. In fact, we are heading towards that place.

    Because there is such a high density of ¡®Time Aura¡¯ in this place, time¡¯s speed flickers occasionally, as you experienced upon falling down to here.

    As we walk, I wonder about the ¡®Time Element¡¯ and its potential benefits. In my head, I thought of the benefits and knew that there was countless, under the 2 abilities of slowing and accelerating that it possessed.

    After walking for another 10 minutes, we appear at a door standing in the empty space. It didn¡¯t move, but just stood there, looking to be a door made of silver, but strangely it wasn¡¯t attached to anything at all.

    As we near the door, a collision of ¡®aura¡¯ in the God of Times hands occur and I feel the great power from here, and although it didn¡¯t have the imposing ability that Lord Death¡¯s presence did, I still got goosebumps from the amount of ¡®aura¡¯ used in that collision.

    As the silver light from the ¡®aura¡¯ manipulation in his hands dies down, I see that he now holds a closed pocket watch, which he brings up to face the door and it swings open, seeming to tear space with its movement, making a rectangular outline in the dark place. The watch then dissipates into silvery thread as I peer through the newly made doorway.

    Through the door¡¯s tear in space is something that differs greatly from the previous dark void of a world.

 Vol. 2: Chapter 2 - A Gods True Colours

    Through the door¡¯s tear in space is something that differs greatly from the previous dark void of a world.

    Inside the open doorway, I could see a field of grass, with a bright blue sky, appearing to be a complete other world when compared to the previous void. Cronos steps through, and I follow him. Right as I enter, the door shuts behind me and fades away, vanishing. I tried to touch the space where the door used to be, but I couldn¡¯t feel anything, making me come to the conclusion that it didn¡¯t only disappear from sight.

    As I am making observations on this phenomenon, a certain rude person interrupts my thoughts.

    ¡°We Gods gain a power upon ascension. In my case it was the power to control time, as I am sure was given away by my name. I have only seen one being other than myself that had talent in ¡®Time¡¯ magic, and he past away recently. That makes you and myself the only beings alive that can train in ¡®time¡¯ magic efficiently.

    This is the only reason as to why I took you in as a disciple, and if you weren¡¯t talented, I would just let you survive by yourself. Now, as I am sure you are rushed for time, I will go ahead and ask you this: What do you think the concept of time is?¡±

    Almost instantly I recited the words that came from a dictionary somewhere.

    ¡°The indefinite and continuous duration regarded as that in which events succeed one another.¡±

    As quickly as I read the definition straight out of a dictionary, The God of Time replied with the same speed, as though expecting my answer to be what it was.

    ¡°I don¡¯t want the definition from a dictionary somewhere recited, I want to know your personal definition that you have created and experienced within your short new life.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll talk about how you know about my having two lives later, for now I¡¯ll answer your question:

    In my short 4 years within this world, the concept of time that I have learnt is one that is steady and ongoing, without any deterrence. But now I have just recently learnt that the flow of time can be changed according to anyone¡¯s will.¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­ You have a solid definition, but there are some faults. The flow cannot be changed by anyone, in fact likely other than myself and ¡®Chaos¡¯, there exists not a single being in the multiverses that can change time¡¯s flow.

    Yes, time can be slowed or accelerated and affected by ¡®aura¡¯, but it will return back to its normal flow when the ¡®aura¡¯ is let up. For now think of it as an irreversible, never ending flow, although that logic doesn¡¯t work with me.¡±

    He turned his back on me, walked up to a large rock and sat down on it, with his eyes staring straight at me as he continued talking.

    ¡°The thing about learning ¡®Time¡¯ magic is, that other than requiring a level of talent and affinity with the ¡®aura¡¯ type in general, it requires ironically enough, time. We can bypass this requirement to a great extent as long as you train in this place, but it would still take about 200 years for an incredible talent, greater than my own.¡±

    ¡°So I take it that you will be training me in it? How long will that take, as I am assuming you have a way to bypass that 200 year requirement?¡±

    ¡° *sigh* I can train you for 100 years at most, if you don¡¯t want time to pass. You see, every God upon ascension receives a gift from the being that we refer to as the ¡®Creator¡¯. No one knows who he or she is, but it bestows all Gods with gifts that are terrifyingly powerful, making us question his identity and power.

    In my case, I received a physical gift, which is actually incredibly rare.¡±

    After finishing his last sentence, his right hand shines with light as silvery threads join together to form the pocket watch with a 7cm diameter that was used to open the door to this dimension. He presses a button on the side, and the watch flips open, revealing a clock face with roman numerals 1-12, but strangely, no visible clock hands.

    He holds the pocket watch in front of himself, displaying it towards me, making sure that I managed to see it fully as he explained it.

    ¡°This is the divine gift that I received. As long as it is within my ¡®aura¡¯ capabilities, I can change the flow of time within any dimension and it also amplifies my abilities quite a bit. Of course, the dimensions that I can change are very limited, as it is far too difficult to reverse the ¡®time¡¯ of other Gods, so I can only affect worlds without any Gods inside of them.

    Also, I am afraid that I can¡¯t reverse time by more than a century, as since the Gods hate me, if I were to reverse time more than that, the consequences wouldn¡¯t be good for me.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Simple, not only would I be greatly weakened, they would also use the use of my own powers as a reason as to why I should be erased. They probably would say something along the lines of: ¡°Oh, he is disrupting the order of the dimensions by messing with the space-time continuum¡± or something like that. Honestly, they never gave a shit about that before, especially when they were messing with other similar laws, just they are now far too frightened of my power, just like how they are scared of Lord Death. Heheh.¡±

    Wait, they are scared of him? I understand that he is powerful, probably the most powerful God, but why are they so terrified if they can just group up and get rid of him, especially as immortal Gods? Also what was with that childish laugh.

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    As though reading my thoughts, he quickly replied to my unvoiced question.

    ¡°A tale for another time my child, now let us get back to the actual matter at hand. Everything that you experience here, will be imprinted into your soul and transferred back to your original body that is 4 years of age. You have a century to learn the slowing aspect of time, after which I will reverse the flow of time in your world by a hundred years and kick you out of this dimension, you got it?¡±

    ¡°Yes master.¡±

    ¡°Good, now I am sure that Lord Death has taught you the two applications of ¡®Death Aura¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Yes, imposing and reaving, he taught me it by having me experience it first hand.¡±

    ¡°Excellent. That is how most of the God¡¯s divine techniques are passed down. Similarly I will pass down the technique onto you. This plane of existence is a great accelerator when it comes to training in time magic, well at least for people who are less proficient at time magic or less powerful than me, capacity-wise.

    All you have to do is sit down, calm your ¡®aura¡¯ to move back into your soul and wait. That¡¯s it. Have fun, bye.¡±

    ¡°Wait, what?¡±

    Silvery flames erupt from beneath Chronos¡¯s feet with a roar and he quickly gets consumed. As quickly as the flames appeared they vanished, leaving no trace of their existence, and no trace of Chronos.

    --silence--

    I mutter under my breath:

    ¡°What an irresponsible bastard.¡±

    I sit down into a meditative posture, close my eyes and quickly start to push all the ¡®aura¡¯ flowing around my body back into my soul. I close off the entrances to the ¡®veins¡¯ temporarily by manipulating ¡®aura¡¯ and then absorbing the excess, remaining ¡®aura¡¯.

    And then I sit there. And wait. And wait. And wait.

    Is it meant to be like this?

    A while later, I feel some kind of fluctuation in my calm soul, and as my consciousness is ready to delve deeper into my inner body, a loud roar resounds, awakening me and stopping my breakthrough in meditation.

    I open my eyes and in front of me, following the disappearance of the silvery flames, a little boy around the age of 10 appears. He has silver hair reaching his shoulders and golden pupils, surrounded by a purple iris. Wearing a t-shirt and short pants, and clutching a kebab stick, he looks into my eyes.

    Frankly, I was surprised, and I would¡¯ve likely questioned his identity if I was a normal person or didn¡¯t notice his eye colour. But even if all the facts pointed towards a certain conclusion, it was still unbelievable.

    ¡°Chro...nos?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s me.¡±

    He replies with a smiling childish face, and brings a kebab in front of himself.

    ¡°Want one?¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be shy, I know you¡¯ll love it. Kebabs are great.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Hey, stop staring at me with silence and that scrutinizing face, it is kind of getting on my nerves.¡±

    ¡°... OK, mind explaining what is going on with your look?¡±

    ¡°Oh that... Eternal youth my child.¡±

    ¡°... Don¡¯t refer to me as ¡®my child¡¯ when you¡¯re only 10 in appearance. Also, give me the real reason please.¡±

    He mutters something under his breath which I barely catch because of my strengthened body.

    ¡°You are younger than me still, you know as a four year old, you can¡¯t really object to me referring to you as a young¡¯un.¡±

    ¡°Tell me the reason.¡±

    He sighs and shakes his head, as though giving up hope on something entirely.

    ¡°You¡¯re no fun, you won¡¯t have a good future ahead of you if you act like that. As for the reason, when you ascend to become a God, it isn¡¯t too difficult to change your body''s appearance with a bit of light bending and illusions. Didn¡¯t you ever question why most of the Gods in mythology weren¡¯t ugly, but instead beautiful?

    As for this appearance, it actually is my real one, and I only wear that suit of armor to trick the other immortals. Then I use ¡®aura¡¯ to maneuver the armor around. If I was to actually fight however, it would have to be in this form if I was serious.¡±

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t changing appearance be a really important disguise tactics amongst you Gods?¡±

    ¡°Gods and the like don¡¯t memorise people by their appearance, but rather their ¡®aura¡¯s¡¯ and the gift that the other God received, as no two gifts are exactly the same.¡±

    ¡°OK, I thank you for helping me with this information, but I want to ask something of you.¡±

    ¡°Anything, if it helps you learn ¡®time¡¯ magic.¡±

    Seeing his willingness to help me, I blandly state my wish and reason for.

    ¡°Leave me in peace, I was almost enlightened but your appearance ruined it. Leave, you distract me.¡±

    Agape he looked at me, then with tears falling out of his eyes, he turned and flew away, vanishing into the artificial forest.

    ¡° *Sigh* Why do all the immortals I meet have such strange personalities? Am I cursed?¡±

 Vol. 2: Chapter 3 - Rebound

    ...

    After calming my perturbed heart for a short while, I sit back down onto the flat plains, close my eyes and try to sense the feeling similar to the last one. I wait. And I wait, and wait...

    Time goes on, as the sun, unmoving in the blue sky of this realm sits there immobile. As the constant clock of time turned, I didn¡¯t know that I had actually spent an entire 3 days sitting still on the ground half-conscious. My mind attuned itself with the surroundings, as I felt a feeling akin to a tingling all across my body, getting hotter and hotter, as my soul and body begin to shake quickly.

    After a few minutes of shaking, countless small beads of perspiration on my forehead, and an increasing heat, my body couldn¡¯t take anymore and my legs unfolded as I fell onto my back in pain. As my posture changed and synchronisation with nature stopped, the shaking slowed down until I couldn¡¯t feel it anymore, but with its leave, another feeling took its place.

    I could feel something other than my heart throbbing in my body. As I looked down at my sweaty chest, I could see something in the centre of my chest glowing brightly before the light died down, and then yet again glowed. This cycle kept repeating, coinciding with the weird throbbing feeling that didn¡¯t originate from my heart.

    My soul.

    That was the conclusion that I came to as to what made these glowing pulsations. I had a sudden instinctive urge to sit back down in a meditative, cross-legged posture and decided to abide by that urge.

    As I got into position and attuned myself, I could hear an extremely quiet, but definitely existent thump coming from my very existence. It coincided with the throb and most likely the light as well, although I couldn¡¯t see it with my closed eyes. The thumping and throbbing of my soul had a soothing effect, and made me feel at ease, forgetting all worries.

    Concentrating on the sounds and throb, my consciousness slowly faded away from the reality I was displayed with and shut out everything else, my mind throwing it away as irrelevant. It was as though a cold wave washed over me, putting out any emotion and thought.

    After a long time that felt miniscule in the eyes of my soul, I opened my eyes and stood up slowly. I stretched my hand out and a silver pocket watch identical to the one that Chronos owned appeared with a flurry of threads of ¡®aura¡¯ in my hand. The only difference between the watch that I now possessed and the watch that Chronos had was the colour of the ¡®aura¡¯ threads. Mine appeared from a flurry of pitch black threads as opposed to Chronos¡¯s silver.

    I look up and notice Chronos wearing a grim, serious expression, which made his childish body seem to exude aged wisdom and sadness.

    ---Chronos Point of View---

    That was entertaining, my acting was perfect as well. I now understand why Death loves to tease him, even though it is usually unsuccessful. Luckily he isn¡¯t like before.

    I fly away at incredible speeds into the forest, whilst thinking this and having fake tears in my eyes. Then my expression turns grim as my thoughts turn towards a perilous direction with the last sentence.

    I fly away before reaching an incredibly large oak tree, that would take 80 fully grown men holding hands to completely encircle the tree. Flying high above the ground, into the cloudless sky and sit myself atop one of the large branches of the tree to begin to meditate whilst amidst my thoughts. I then discard my thoughts of the past and start focusing on the current timeline.

    I wonder how long it will take him to learn ¡®time¡¯ magic. Personally, it would be incredible if he can even learn it in 100 years, however I think he might be able to do it if he gets sudden enlightenment. The hardest part is to begin to enter a blank mind, zen-like state, 10 years of struggle should be enough to enter it, taking into account the limited distractions here.

    10 years swiftly pass, and I decide to go check on him, not visiting him earlier as to not aggravate him, as you need the calmest mind possible to enter the perfect meditative state. I stand up from my cross-legged stance and bend my legs while my body is parallel to the ground, and then push off. I break through mach 30 whilst holding back and as I arrive near Sephtis, I slow myself down with some usage of ¡®time magic¡¯ to give me the time to stop myself with ¡®aura¡¯.

    All of this happens in less than a second, with myself expending very insignificant amounts of energy. When I stop after arriving at where Sephtis sits, my facial expression turns incredibly grim because of what I saw. Sephtis sat there, with black ¡®aura¡¯ spinning around him wildly, and like a bunch of whips, hitting the ground and demolishing it. He sat in a hole created with himself as the centre, and the whips of ¡®aura¡¯ hitting every possible location.

    After a few more hours of me watching Sephtis and his ¡®aura¡¯, it started to flicker, with long intervals between each flicker at first, but then with shorter and shorter intervals until the ¡®aura¡¯ eventually just vanished. It left no traces behind other than the large hole and the indentations on the ground.

    As the ¡®aura¡¯ vanished, a dark silver coloured ¡®aura¡¯ seemed to appear from him, predominantly from his left arm, as though to replace the previously black ¡®aura¡¯. This silver ¡®aura¡¯ seemed far calmer than the previous destructive black ¡®aura¡¯ and just slowly rotated around him like a galaxy.

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    A few minutes after the silver, ¡®Time Aura¡¯ begun to rotate around him, he opened his eyes and his iris, previously green had turned a gold colour.

    Shit.

    ---Sephtis¡¯s POV (Point of View)---

    I finally notice my surroundings and see that I am only inside a hole riddled with imprints of lashes along the sides of the hole.

    I then notice silver-coloured ¡®aura¡¯ rotates horizontally around me and I order it to condense to see if it is mine, although its positioning around my body already gives that away. I force it into a little ball with a 4cm diameter and have it float a few centimetres above my opened left palm.

    The ¡®aura¡¯ that was compressed into that ball was so large that I wasn¡¯t even sure how I was not completely disintegrated because of me staying close to it. I guessed it was because it was mine, but then again I wasn¡¯t sure as my power was nowhere near this large. Pushing those thoughts away I ask the question that was on my mind, one that can give me all the answers.

    ¡°What is this?¡±

    After hearing my question, Chronos came out of his daze and looked at me before waving his hand and letting me feel a tremendous amount of ¡®aura¡¯ for a split second before collapsing.

    I awoke atop what seemed to be a large, ancient oak tree that would easily tower over the clouds, if there were any. After the first few initial seconds of my mind being completely isolated from the world due to inevitable drowsiness existent upon awakening, I composed myself and stood up from my lying down position. Luckily, the branches of this tree were incredibly thick and allowed a person to easily stand upon them without having to balance.

    However, even though they had no need to balance because of the size of the branches, the wind was incredibly strong high up above the ground, but it seemed to completely stop upon entering a few centimetres of the space around me.

    Due to the strong wind, there were no leaves here as they would just blow away if they ever did grow. It was only then that I noticed the changes to my body. My hair had grown to incredible lengths, and a long unkempt beard had appeared in a blackish purple colour, matching my hair. Needless to say, with my body¡¯s growth, the shirt I was wearing was torn and looked like a pile of rags.

    This is gonna be painful to explain to Grandma.

    ¡°You awake?¡±

    I heard a deep voice from behind me whilst I was fiddling with my new appearance, twisting hair left and right. I turned to look at the owner of the voice: Chronos. He looked to have aged into a look of a 40 year old human, still keeping his key features of eye colour and hair colour.

    ¡°89 years, 7 months and 24 days. That is how long it took you to awaken after losing consciousness. Not bad, I was honestly expecting a longer amount of time.¡±

    ¡°Hmm¡­ Right... How and why was I asleep for so long?¡±

    In response he sighed and answered with a cold voice.

    ¡°You overextended your own ¡®aura¡¯ capacity. Usually when a person goes beyond their ¡®aura¡¯ capacity, they lose consciousness or die, but you are an exception. Your soul is ¡®special¡¯ due to various factors, especially with Death playing around with it, and it is because of that that you can actually overdraw your ¡®aura¡¯ capacity.

    However, I recommend you never do that again.¡±

    ¡°I understand that I lost consciousness, but is that really that much of a problem? Even if 89 years, the overdraw let me have such immense power that it would be so incredibly powerful during fights, perhaps threatening even Gods. If I decrease my draw as well, wouldn¡¯t the rebound decrease in power as well?¡±

    Shaking his head, Chronos retorted to my ignorance and arrogance in my statement.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be so arrogant. Firstly, it would never have the capability to kill a God unless the God didn¡¯t use his ¡®aura¡¯ to consciously block it and was on the lowest rung of the power ladder. Even so, I doubt that you can set up a scenario of such a phenomenal overdraw ever again.

    You had to meditate for 10 years to even get in a position to attempt such a thing. You also said that you simply lose consciousness, but that isn¡¯t true.

    My ignorant little boy, you were so incredibly lucky for waking up so early, but it was also due to the fact that you hadn¡¯t actually converted your ¡®time aura¡¯ into any magic to use. Had you done so, the rebound of using such a skill would¡¯ve definitely destroyed your body and even your soul. Do you understand how dangerous your actions were now?¡±

    That body actually suits him for using that apprehending and superior tone. If he was in his child form it would just be awkward.

    ¡°... Sorry.¡±

    ¡° *Sigh*, I also apologize for shouting at you. You only have 2 months until time for you to return comes. I will go try and restore enough ¡®aura¡¯ for that occasion.¡±

 Vol. 2: Chapter 4 - The Truth of his Death

    ¡° *Sigh*, I also apologize for shouting at you.¡±

    "..."

    ¡°You only have 2 months until time for you to return comes. I will go try and restore enough ¡®aura¡¯ for that occasion, honestly I didn¡¯t expect you to only use 10 years of the 100 years for training. Anyway, before I go, I promise to answer a few questions, including those about Death¡¯s enemy, so go ahead.¡±

    Taking in a deep breath I look him straight into his gold-purple eyes.

    Finally I can learn about Betty¡¯s killer. But I will ask that last as not to impede my decisions when it comes to question-making.

    ¡°What was that power I used? It seemed like a copy of your ¡®gift¡¯, only it came from black ¡®aura¡¯ instead of your silver one.¡±

    ¡°Hoho, starting with a good question and not jumping straight to the ¡®enemy¡¯. Hmm¡­ I can only think of one logical reason, but I can¡¯t tell you about it since Death made me swear silence. So, next question please.¡±

    ¡°... Are you trying to piss me off? Because it¡¯s working.¡±

    ¡°No no no, not just that, it¡¯s mostly the actual answer. Ask another question. Try again.¡±

    Mostly?

    ¡°Right... You said that your power can reverse time for 100 years and it is the only one that can do such a thing, but I have the capability to reverse time as well. I discovered that I could when my ¡®aura¡¯ escaped my body in the mortal world and then reversed leaf fall.¡±

    Chronos looked at me with an astonished look, which quickly turns into the same grim look that he has used so many times. This time it actually suits him with his aged body.

    Aged body?

    ¡°... same answer as last time. I swore silence.¡±

    ¡°... Really!? How many questions can I even ask you and get an answer out of? Fine, I know you can answer this one. Why are you older than before? How did you suddenly grow up?¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°Oh for Hell¡¯s sa-¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry I can answer that one, so don¡¯t start cussing. It¡¯s just that it is a sensitive topic. You know of Ra¡¯s cycle of rebirth in the underworld? Same principle, where I age as each hour passes. My age goes from 8 to 70 before my old wrinkled skin sheds and I slim down to become and 8-year-old again.¡±

    ¡°Exactly what¡¯s the benefit from that? Why does that even happen?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s actually one of the abilities of the ¡®gift¡¯ that I received. The benefit is that every hour my power recovers with my sudden aging. Although not fully, it recovers by about 1/10th of a percentage extra, over my normal recovery rate. It is a really powerful benefit for prolonged battles.¡±

    ¡°I see. Well then final question: Who killed my master?¡±

    The last sentence was spoken with incredible anger, but the flames of anger were quickly extinguished with the next statement that the ¡®man¡¯ used. Chronos tilted his head slightly and stated a kind of shocking fact.

    ¡°What? Oh Lord Death? He¡¯s dead, that¡¯s for sure, but he still exists, has a mind and has a body. He¡¯s still combating his enemy.¡±

    A mixed expression of shock, surprise and happiness crossed my face, before logic set in.

    ¡°How is that possible? I saw his head shatter right in front of my eyes.¡±

    Raising his eyebrows, he questioned me.

    ¡°How did you see Lord Death¡¯s head shatter? I am certain that you were not there during the fight.¡±

    I explain starting from Betty¡¯s warning and all the events leading up to Betty¡¯s well... death.

    ¡°Hmm, I understand the reason for your killing intent now. Don¡¯t worry, Death is most certainly not erased from existence yet, he is far too powerful for that. Didn¡¯t you just say that he stated that ¡®Death is eternal¡¯?

    That is all you need to know. He is literally indestructible, you cannot; no matter what kill him.¡±

    Strangely enough, I don¡¯t feel incredibly surprised. Thinking back, although it was only 4 years, Betty was with me for most of my new life, but I reacted so¡­ calmly to the matter. Normally one would have a far worse reaction to hearing such news. Even my anger towards the ''enemy'' seemed forced. I guess I had never really believed that my Grandfather in hell would die.

    ¡°Sit down boy, to learn of this story will take a short while, but it¡¯s better to sit down. I will start with why Death along with myself and Death¡¯s enemy: Chaos, are feared.¡±

    He sat down with his legs bent under, motioning me to imitate him, which I slowly did.

    ¡°Immortals are literally unkillable, this of course includes Gods. However, there are 2 ways in which a death-like state can be induced, and another way in which you can actually kill the unkillable. Again, the only exception to this is Death who has control over the realm of killing.

    The first method of inducing that state is sealing, and isn¡¯t feared at all. This is because all the Gods that have ascended due to their skill in sealing are weak without help. Although the first God of Sealing is powerful, he doesn¡¯t have any special sealing capabilities. He needs another God to infuse an ability into his seal to make it more powerful. For instance, had I helped the sealer, I could increase the time that it takes to break out of the seal by screwing with the target''s sense of time.

    Another weakness of it is that the sealed being can still train their ¡®aura¡¯, although it is far more difficult than in an unrestricted plane and they can also erode the seal with their ¡®aura¡¯. Because of this, the seal needs to be resupplied with power repetitively, but you cannot supply power above the upper limit set during its creation. This means that since the sealed being grows more and more powerful, and it can eventually break out.

    Another method is one that is the reason why Death is feared. The sealing method traps the body and soul in some kind of ¡®aura¡¯ array, but Death¡¯s reaving is far more terrifying. It can pull souls out of bodies and then rip the souls apart into many pieces. When you train in ¡®aura¡¯ capacity, you increase your capacity by a percentage of your maximum each training session and not a set amount like 5 ¡®aura¡¯.

    This means that theoretically when you have a total of 100 ¡®aura¡¯, you can train 1 ¡®aura¡¯ an hour, whereas when you have 10 ¡®aura¡¯, you can only train 0.1 ¡®aura¡¯ per hour. So effectively, by breaking the soul into many pieces you greatly limit their training capability as each soul part has only a fraction of their previous ¡®aura¡¯ capacity.

    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    Not only that, but when Death rips the soul into many pieces, they need to come back together, which depending on the soul can take billions of years, and it is even possible to seal each individual part.

    That is why Death is feared and was cast out, because of this horrific power known as reaving. If the Gods had the power to kill him and he didn¡¯t have the important job of after-death soul mediation, he would¡¯ve been sealed away long ago. This is also why you must never have the Gods realise your ability to reave souls while you are this weak.

    Then there is the third ability, the only one which can actually kill immortals, not including Death. ¡®The Law of Chaos¡¯. This ¡®Law¡¯ has a subsection of destruction, one that only a single being has managed to master, this being that we Gods have named ¡®Chaos¡¯.

    ¡®Chaos¡¯ had incredible power, unmatched save for his single enemy. ¡®Chaos¡¯ sat at the 2nd highest place of the immortal food chain, but he sacrificed his mind to kill the one that sat at the top, taking the top spot but leaving his soul with no mind to control it.

    After losing his mind, he went on a rampage, but with his greatly reduced power due to the previous fight, the Gods and Death managed to seal him away, but every year we have every God donate a large amount of their power to maintain the seal. But even this is not enough, so every month, we have to sacrifice one of the Gods to fight ¡®Chaos¡¯ in his sealed location.

    His power allows the complete annihilation of souls, capable of completely eradicating Gods off the face of the many universes, and this is the reason why we have to resupply the location with a God every time. The strongest Gods wouldn¡¯t dare go to their inevitable death, so they instead send the weakest among the Gods, but still strong enough and that is why they can survive a month.

    This time Death, predicting what would happen in the future if we didn¡¯t send the strongest people, volunteered himself to be used as the next sacrifice. Death can probably last a few million years before all his power is exhausted, and although he won¡¯t die as he is the only true ¡®immortal¡¯, he will not be able to prevent ¡®Chaos¡¯ from freeing himself. That is the enemy that Death is fighting right now.¡±

    I breathe in, understanding that I have a time limit of a few million years to save Death. I know it is a long amount of time, but simultaneously, it seems so short as I have to kill a being far older than me.

    ¡°So is that the ¡®enemy¡¯ that Betty, I mean Death faces?¡±

    ¡°Yes, luckily ¡®Chaos¡¯ has lost all reasoning, because had he still had his previous intellect, Death wouldn¡¯t even last a year.¡±

    Only a year!? I understand why everyone fears him now, and even someone like Chronos who has a small fraction of his power is feared due to his involvement in the law of chaos.

    One must understand that a year is incredibly short in terms of the lifetime of an immortal, with fights usually lasting many times longer. I understand that and that is why it is so surprising.

    ¡°So I take it that he can¡¯t use any of his abilities?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right, he cannot use a single ability, and only uses raw ¡®Chaos Aura¡¯ to assault the enemy and protect himself, relying on instincts. Had it been infused with an ability, its colour would change, similar to how my ¡®aura¡¯ becomes silver upon release.¡±

    Terrifying.

    He stands up from his seated position and looks at the sky, revealing his face which aged again with the passing of another hour.

    ¡°Would you like to see your master again? I can link you to the seal for about 1/100th of a second. The only reason this is possible is because of your connection with him, had you not had any connection to anyone inside the space, this linking would be impossible.¡±

    ¡°Mmm. Thank you, even if it is a really short while, I would like to see him.¡±

    Chronos nods and seems to teleport to the space in front of me with a single step. He then clenches his right hand into a fist with his thumb sticking out as he places the thumb on my forehead and everything goes dark.

    ---Inside the Seal¡¯s Space---

    My vision in the dark space seems to move forwards until I see a golden light in the distance getting rapidly closer.

    The battle between Death and ¡®Chaos¡¯ fills my view.

    Death draws his scythe made of ¡®aura¡¯ back before spinning with it in his hand and creating a crescent shape shockwave of ¡®aura¡¯ heading at incredible speed towards the golden man known as ¡®Chaos¡¯. His hand stretches out and a wave of his own ¡®aura¡¯ heads out to collide with the crescent shockwave.

    Both waves of ¡®aura¡¯ collide and small sections of the two ¡®aura¡¯s¡¯ break off upon collision and hit the opposing casters. The golden man is hit first since Death sent his wave first, and his entire arm is cut off. Less than a second later, Death is hit by the small shards of the golden shockwave and his entire body save for his head gets completely disintegrated.

    Then the golden man''s previously lopped off arm reappears in its original place with a flash of light. Simultaneously Lord Death¡¯s torso, arms and legs grow back with incredible speed, like accelerated footage of a lizard growing its tail back.

    Death¡¯s scythe that was destroyed in the attack reappears as he and ¡®Chaos¡¯ charge straight at each other, one pushing their palm out and the other swinging the scythe to hit the attacking hand. As the two attacks smash into each other, a bright light flashes and my consciousness is back in my physical body.

    ---In Chronos¡¯s Plane of Existence---

    ¡°How was it?¡±

    ¡°... That fight felt like a good 5 seconds, not 1/100th of a second, don¡¯t lie to me.¡±

    ¡°No, that fight was definitely as long as I had said, I just used my time magic to help with your perception of speed. Unfortunately those suicidal battles will continue for a long time, with neither side having any regard to their body.¡±

 Vol. 2: Chapter 5 - A month of imitation

    ¡°Unfortunately those suicidal battles will continue for a long time, with neither side having any regard to their body.¡±

    He then stood up and bent his legs below him, getting ready to spring up, before saying:

    ¡°I will come see you in 2 months to take you back to your world. Just manipulate some time magic and learn the basic control of it. See ya.¡±

    Right after he finishes stating the final two words, his legs extend quickly, and he vanishes from sight, likely flying upwards, to a higher branch of the tree. No evidence of his prior existence remains, with no branches being disturbed at all during his high-speed jump.

    His speed is unrivaled in my eyes, making me unable to see the troubled expression on his face as he ¡®flies¡¯ away.

    After looking up for a few seconds, I shrug off my awe at his speed and begin to slowly convert my ¡®aura¡¯ into that of the time element. After the previous meditation session, it comes smoothly and instinctively, with me only having to supply the ¡®aura¡¯ and think about the time element for conversion. However, I avoid touching the ¡®battery¡¯ in my arm and focus on only using my own ¡®aura¡¯.

    As I begin to convert the elementless ¡®aura¡¯ into time ¡®aura¡¯, the same throbbing sound that I experienced earlier began to reappear, quiet at first before becoming louder and louder with the more ¡®aura¡¯ I converted. Strangely, as the throbbing got louder, my conversion speed jumped and so did my ¡®aura¡¯ consumption rate. After only a few seconds in the loudest state, the sound began to die down as my ¡®aura¡¯ capacity ran dry, with me being surrounded by released ¡®aura¡¯.

    The throbbing that I felt in that short session was far weaker to the one that shook my soul in my initial session of attunement. It likely had something to do with the amount of time I spent getting the throbbing to begin. This time, in which I had only spent a minute to get the throbbing and elemental conversion to begin, I had spent far less time than before, even if I didn¡¯t know exactly how long I spent during my first time. So I believe that just as Chronos said, the more time I spend attuning my soul with nature, the more energy I can draw out of my soul.

    Moving the released ¡®aura¡¯ around I try and alter its properties; something I have never done before to any kind of ¡®aura¡¯. A few hours later, I exhausted the ¡®aura¡¯ that I was trying hard to salvage and reuse, as well as the ¡®aura¡¯ that I recovered and used again for testing purposes.

    I learnt that one aspect of ¡®aura¡¯ control and usage is to have a clear imagination of what one wishes to do, but I learnt that such a thing is only one of the aspects and doesn¡¯t deliver the greatest result. The most important thing was to have an image with a strong link to the element type and use it to assist with the employment of my ¡®aura¡¯ and what I use it on.

    The basic four elements don¡¯t require such a thing as they are quite literal, with all possible uses having significant links to the correct image that should be imagined. For example, creating a ring of fire is basically a flame, which is the most obvious, but also most effective image for employing fire magic. Similarly obvious images work with the other 3 basic elements as well; Wind element-gust, Water element-Raindrop and Earth element-crumbling dirt.

    However, if one was to take a far less clear element such as Death, they would find themselves encountering problems. This is because one cannot imagine a person dying to invoke the imposing aspect of ¡®Death Aura¡¯ as the shattering of a being¡¯s soul is different from the soul naturally leaving the body, without external influences. Similarly, it isn¡¯t easy to invoke the reaving aspect, as other than myself not having enough ¡®aura¡¯ to do it in the first place, it differs greatly from the image of imposing or death.

    A while later, I stood up again after grasping the image of ¡®time¡¯ with the strongest link to all the abilities that the vast ocean known as ¡®time¡¯ possesses.

    At the beginning, Chronos did state that this location had such an influx of time ¡®aura¡¯ that one can train far faster in ¡®time¡¯ magic here than anyplace anywhere else. It is indeed true; there is far too much time ¡®aura¡¯ here that it is stifling. It is as though there is a thick blanket of ¡®aura¡¯ covering me at all times, and to make it worse: the flow of time changes so often here that it feels like a rollercoaster.

    The time ¡®aura¡¯ kept on influencing this entire zone randomly by changing its proportion of time compared to the other worlds. Prior to my learning of time ¡®aura¡¯ creation, I was completely unaware of how to compare different location¡¯s ¡®time¡¯. Everything had simply felt to be the same, regardless of place, but upon learning about ¡®time¡¯, it was as though I had gotten out of a body of water that dulled my senses and stepped onto dry land; ready for the long trek to mastery of ¡®time¡¯.

    The different, easily-changing ¡®aura¡¯ that filled the location was moving and changing so rapidly that it helped one''s soul¡¯s understanding of how time works, even if the person himself isn¡¯t conscious of it. This is exactly why the learning speed was accelerated, all thanks to Chronos.

    I wonder how long it would take for me to have learnt about ¡®time¡¯ had I not had access to this place.

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    Feeling as though the answer was: ¡®a long time¡¯, I knew that I had to take advantage of it as quickly as I could so that I could use the benefits for as long as possible. The only problem I had right now was my lack of ¡®aura capacity¡¯, which restricted me from training for long at all, and if I tried to stretch the duration of usage out by lowering my ¡®aura¡¯ consumption, I would end up not getting many benefits. After all, one has to gamble a lot to win a lot.

    I was very adamant about not using the ¡®aura¡¯ in my arm for anything other than the creation of ¡®Death Aura¡¯, as although I felt like it was possible to change it to create other elements of ¡®aura¡¯, I was worried that I would lose the pure ¡®aura¡¯ of death that my arm currently possessed. But that wasn¡¯t the only reason. I had a horrid feeling that was so prominent that I just had to listen to it. I thought that using the ¡®aura¡¯ in my arm would eventually kill me. After experiencing such a baseless fear, I thought of many theories that could work with the theory but alas, they were still unproven theories.

    The realisation of how beneficial this environment is for training came with the realisation of how much time I had spent asleep/unconscious. I wonder how powerful I would be right now had I not lost consciousness during this period of time. Well, what is passed is passed, nothing can be done about it. I still had one thing that I wanted to test; specifically the ¡®pocket watch¡¯ that I had created with incredible similarity to Chronos¡¯s one.

    During its original creation, my ¡®aura¡¯ was drained and overdrawn, forcing my loss of consciousness, but that was because I had wildly used all of my power without paying any attention to what I was doing. Because of this, I wanted to try and replicate the ¡®watch¡¯, even if it was a hundred thousand times weaker, and if it drained too much ¡®aura¡¯ to create it, I can stop the creation at any stage, dissipating the ¡®aura¡¯.

    I try and recall my past creation of the ¡®pocket watch¡¯ replica whilst standing. Luckily, my photographic memory came in handy for moments such as this. However, whilst browsing through my memories of the moment and remembering exactly how my ¡®aura¡¯ worked during that moment, I realised exactly how complex that moment was.

    I have no idea how I could¡¯ve executed such a complex sequence of orders to my ¡®aura¡¯ unconsciously when I looked back on it. All the particles were controlled individually in groups of 100 each, which although seeming like a lot, was a miniscule amount, one far exceeding my capacity of ¡®aura¡¯ control. Not only that, each particle group had an incredibly dense amount of ¡®aura¡¯ in it.

    Every one of those groups had to be located in a predetermined location amongst the pack and they also had to move in a preordained path. Although the creation of the ¡®watch¡¯ appeared far out of my current control and ¡®aura¡¯ capacity, there would be no negatives in at least attempting it. Right?

    I initially tried to replicate the movements with far, far larger groups of time ¡®aura¡¯ infused particles, but I found even that difficult. I understood that absolute precision was the aim of the creation here, always restarting the moment I missed the correct location by a millimeter.

    However, although my mistakes were many during the ¡®creation¡¯, I made far less than expected. Whenever my maximum mental capacity was breached, and I couldn¡¯t pay any attention to a certain group of ¡®aura¡¯ controlled particles, I would unconsciously make the perfect manipulations. I realised this after scanning through my memories after the first few attempts and after running dry on ¡®aura¡¯.

    This continued for the 30 days of the month, with me strangely enough not requiring any sleep, perhaps because of my previous long ¡®sleep¡¯ or some other reason. At the end of the month, although annoyed at my inability to create the ¡®pocket watch¡¯, I wasn¡¯t too disappointed as the long hours of attempting to recreate the watch¡¯s creation sequence rewarded me with improved control and a further understanding of the time element.

    The image that had the greatest link of time that I could see was in fact a pocket watch, or more specifically; a clock face. If slowing just slow down the second hand, if accelerating do the opposite and if trying to just change your ¡®aura¡¯ to the time element, just focus on the illusory ongoing second hand of time on the clock face.

    This image was of course born of my constant imagining of the pocket watch that I was trying to create. During this period of time Chronos never visited again, seeming to have his own things to do.

    <hr />

    Phew. Sorry for not releasing yesterday and yes, I am aware that this chapter is boring, but some chapters simply need to exist, regardless of boringness. On another note, everyone keeps talking about harem like everywhere: reviews, emails, comments. Let me get this straight, there is not gonna be a harem, although romance is likely. Sure he may be attractive to the girls, but I don¡¯t want to spend any time on a harem. Forgive me you harem-lovers, but that is ¡®how the cheese will cut¡¯ (I just made that saying up).

    -Waffle Fluff

 Vol. 2: Chapter 6 - A Visit From the Tyrants

    This image was of course born of my constant imagining of the pocket watch that I was trying to create. During this period of time Chronos never visited again, seeming to have his own things to do.

    Whilst linking myself with the ¡®time¡¯ element by using the image that I made, I once again stretch out my hand to try and recreate the ¡®larger version¡¯ of the watch, concentrating on every single strand of ¡®aura¡¯, I manipulate them into place. Beads of perspiration began to show due to me attempting to push my mental capacity far beyond its limit. As the ¡®aura¡¯ nears its final movement, it begins to quiver a lot and, eventually unable to hold its shape; it scatters.

    Failed again¡­

    Opening my eyes, I see the childish version of Chronos, this time with a lollipop in his mouth.

    ¡°Finally visiting me huh.¡±

    ¡°I decided to visit you since I have an obligation to help you.¡±

    ¡°From Death?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d rather not answer that.¡±

    ¡° *sigh¡±, How many questions of mine have you answered I wonder?¡±

    Waving his arm as though to brush of the matter, Chronos quickly switches to another topic.

    ¡°Putting that aside, what were you just doing?¡±

    ¡°Oh that, I was thinking of replicating the watch I made earlier.¡±

    Seeing his expression tighten, I quickly verify a point with him.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I remember your words of not showing this power to any Gods, but just for matters that don¡¯t have any association with Gods.¡±

    His expression relaxes, albeit slowly. After a few seconds of silence, he speaks.

    ¡°That¡¯s not what I am worried about¡­ But if you must use it, then you can likely employ a few tricks to make it easier. I can teach you if you want, I have time after all. Only a month, but that should be enough, and your completion of this will actually be pretty beneficial for me and you in a few different ways.¡±

    ¡°How so?¡±

    ¡°Well, if you complete the watch, see the outside world through using that watch as a medium.¡±

    I spent a few seconds contemplating on what he said, then upon stumbling upon a possibility, I send a short probing question.

    ¡°Time rift...?¡±

    ¡°Exactly. As you know, I can view different dimensions only through zones influenced by time magic. Since you have the watch, and the watch is made of ¡®time¡¯ magic, I can view through it, maybe even to the extent of being able to communicate with you due to the similarities between your ¡®watch¡¯ and my own.¡±

    ¡°So what are the tricks then?¡±

    ¡°Ahh, I will tell you how to make the watch easier, and I¡¯ll give you a clue as to what you should try for more efficiency, but I don¡¯t really want to tell you outright the trick for efficiency. It¡¯s better if you learn how to figure things out by yourself without any help from any source.¡±

    ¡°Sounds reasonable, what is the clue and trick to be able to create the watch easier?¡±

    ¡°Well, the only problem with your manufacturing process, other than not being able to concentrate long enough is your speed. You get to the last step of watch creation in about 40 seconds, but to be honest that isn¡¯t anywhere near fast enough in a fight. There are two ways to improve this, one is to just increase your ¡®aura¡¯ capacity, but that will happen gradually by itself, and the other is to increase your creation speed. Your clue is to question who are the fastest ¡®aura¡¯ manipulators: Warriors or Mages? Think about why, and it should help with speed.

    As for how to create the watch in general, ignore everything and try and remember the watch that you made earlier. The size of the watch actually doesn¡¯t matter, it will work regardless of how large it is.¡±

    Gathering a great amount of silver-coloured ¡®aura¡¯, he forms a massive pocket watch, twice his size behind him. Then to demonstrate that it actually works, he slows an area of grass, making it move slower in the wind and the clock face on the watch accordingly slows down the second hands movement, quickly flipping back to the normal time after he releases the ability.

    ¡°See? As I said, try and create a watch by remembering its previous creation, but since you don¡¯t have enough conscious control to create it normally, you have to shut down your thinking and try and do it without any mental awareness, similarly to how you initially did it.¡±

    Thinking about it for a second, I nod in understanding and thank him, but before he leaves again I quickly throw out a question that I didn¡¯t have the chance to ask earlier.

    ¡°How can I even make that watch? Especially unconsciously.¡±

    He avoids looking into my eyes by looking at his feet, hiding his facial expression and replying.

    ¡°... You don¡¯t need to know. Just remember that you should think about the speed issue, and we¡¯ll settle the unconscious casting issue late.¡±

    I had already given up on trying to understand the affairs of a God, and especially this one who hasn¡¯t answered any of my questions.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be preparing the time reversal gate soon, so I gotta go. Call me if you need anything important. Remember, only one more month before the reversal.¡±

    Suddenly he perks his head up and his pupils contract slightly.

    ¡°Never mind, it seems I have some visitors to tend to. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll come back soon. Give me a week or so before calling for me.¡±

    Silver light suddenly spills forth from all his body¡¯s pores and a split second later he is clad in his knight armor. Silver flames consume him and he vanishes.

    Do all Gods have that sort of movement? Death seemed to have the same ability. Who is the fastest: Warrior or Mage, was it? Hmmm¡­

    ---In Chronos¡¯s realm, in the darkness

    right outside the door to the world Sephtis is in right now---

    A great silver flame emerges out of nowhere, quickly dying out as a figure steps out of the flame. The figure is clad in silver armor and has baleful ¡®aura¡¯ spilling out. He is Chronos, the true form shown to all beings with the exception of Death and Sephtis.

    In front of Chronos are 3 figures, one clad in red, one clad in blue and one clad in brown. The red figure¡¯s bright flames cover his body, appearing to take the shape of a hoodless cloak. His long, dark red hair is swung over the cloak and reaches down to his feet, appearing to be shimmering. His irises are blood red whilst his skin matches with the colour of bright orange flames, seeming to cycle through different shades of orange.

    Stolen novel; please report.

    The figure surrounded by wind appears to have an identical appearance to the figure of flames, starting from the clothing down to the facial features, except rather than a theme of reddish orange, it is one of a light green, teetering on the edge of lime. The man''s face is a blue-white colour, like that of lightning.

    The last figure differs greatly from the first two. He has unique facial features, neither too handsome looking or ugly, but he wears earthen armor to cover his body and legs, similar to the armor of Chronos. However, he doesn¡¯t wear a slitted helmet, but instead an open face helmet which almost completely covers his short hair. The armor and helmet seems to be made from cracked hardened earth, but if one peers into the cracks, they will see another layer of earth directly beneath.

    Chronos is the first to speak. He uses a voice layered with pure power and a hint of rage, so powerful that mortals would likely drop on their knees and beg for forgiveness. It is a voice that heavily overshadows the voice Death used during his ¡®first¡¯ meeting with Sephtis.

    ¡°Why are you here, Tyrants? Did we not agree to not attack each other?¡±

    The earth-clad figure replies calmly, as though unfazed by Chronos¡¯s voice. Contrasting the earthen figure¡¯s appearance, his voice doesn¡¯t sound powerful at all, almost deceiving people into thinking that he is weak.

    ¡°That was indeed the agreement, but only if you avoided interaction with the mortal world and limited your visitations to the immortal world to a minute amount. You broke the first rule and forcefully abducted a mortal. As much as you wish to hide it, you cannot hide from us the situations of mortal worlds.¡±

    ¡°I would rather not fight with you Tyrants if possible, so please leave and forget about the matter. It would be better for you anyway.¡±

    The red figure which had stayed silent the entire time put on an arrogant face and with a voice of superiority asked:

    ¡°Do you honestly think you can fight us Tyrants? I hope you didn¡¯t forget exactly who we are, because there is no way that we cannot seal you away.¡±

    ¡°I can ask the same of you. Did you forget what a Tyrant is? I can defeat you in a fair fight easily, since you are only a false Tyrant. Prometheus was the true Flame Tyrant, you are merely his right-hand man who assumed the position after his death. Although I can¡¯t fight any of the ¡®true¡¯ Tyrants and win, much less three of you in a fair fight, did you forget from whom I got this realm? Did you also forget from whom I got this armor?¡±

    The Wind Tyrant finally spoke up, with a voice also carrying arrogance like the false flame Tyrant, but at a much lesser degree.

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget your place. Although you may be able to fight one of us in a one on one fight here, there is no way that you can beat all three of us Tyrants in a fight with the four of us.¡±

    ¡°Correct, I can at most seal away one of you before my inevitable sealing that would occur if we fight. However, I can still seal at least one of you away, and not just the false Flame Tyrant. My sealing is also far more efficient because you would need a major of the time element to unseal you or a large amount of time. Believe me, the time that it would take for the seal to wear off is more than enough to lose your position at the top of the elements.¡±

    The false Flame Tyrant cursed under his breath.

    ¡°Fucking bastard.¡±

    Ignoring the false Tyrants cursing, Chronos continued.

    ¡°Whoever wins, the results will be disadvantageous for you. I recommend that we come to some kind of agreement.¡±

    The Earth Tyrant was the first to ask for what Chronos wants.

    ¡°So what do you suggest we do. We cannot let you off the hook so easily you know. Although the three of us can¡¯t fight you, we can likely convince the Water Tyrant to help us, and then there won¡¯t even be a chance of you harming one of us.¡±

    ¡°I suppose you can convince her if I truly did break an agreement, and her defences are so powerful that I will indeed have trouble even harming you, much less sealing you away. How about I use the promise you Tyrants gave both me and Lord Death.¡±

    The Earth Tyrant narrowed his eyes and asked:

    ¡°Do you have Lord Death¡¯s permission for the promise? It is a shared one in which both of you have to agree.¡±

    ¡°Lord Death is sealed away right now, fighting him and either way, he would likely agree to the promise I wish to make.¡±

    The Wind Tyrant commanded:

    ¡°Fine, speak.¡±

    ¡°I wish for all Gods to be prohibited from entering the world from which I stole the child, and I am to be forgiven for that incident.¡±

    The false Flame Tyrant spoke up in an angered voice.

    ¡°That is two requests, not the single one that we Tyrants promised you.¡±

    ¡°Well, I want both requests to be fulfilled regardless. Otherwise we will have to fight to the last man standing.¡±

    The false Flame Tyrant, angered by Chronos¡¯s words leaned forward and released a large amount of flame element ¡®aura¡¯, ready to charge in an instant. However, right before charging, the Earth Tyrant placed his arm in front of the false Tyrant, blocking him.

    ¡°Calm down Flame Tyrant, we will agree to his requests as they are really small requests and only require a small tweaking of one of the promises that we made. Do not think of opposing my decision. I am the one with the ¡®Immortal War God Body¡¯ here, breaking through me is far more difficult than you think.¡±

    The Earth Tyrant then turns to face Chronos after stopping the false Flame Tyrant and states his compliance with Chronos¡¯s requests.

    ¡°We Tyrants agree to your two requests, but only for the tweaking of the one promise.¡±

    He then signals turns around and signals the other two Tyrants to leave, and they quickly vanish into normal coloured flames and green flames. The false Flame Tyrant still having a reluctant face.

    The Earth Tyrant''s ¡®aura¡¯ then forms into a small ball which he brings to his mouth before saying.

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget, this is the alteration of only a single promise. If it has anything to do with Chaos, we will stop at nothing to destroy you and that world.¡±

    Chronos replies to the Earth Tyrants statement.

    ¡°Do not worry, it has nothing to do with my master.¡±

    The Earth Tyrant nods and then swallows the small ball, vanishing.