Edit: May 11th 2015 Formatted to newest standards
Legend:
Italics style - what's happening in the Soul Realm.
Normal style - what's happening in the 'outside' World.
[Name: Normal Conversation.]
[Name: *SFX or actions*]
[Name: "Thoughts."]
[--Name--: Conversation inside Soul Realm or Telepathy]
[
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[Time: unknown]
[Place: unknown]
11 years old child woke up and found himself standing in a strange place. Above him there was a floating massive black ship(?).
[--???--: What's going on? Where am I?]
A child's name was Vorst. An orphan from a distant planet with a complex name that he couldn't remember - not that it seriously mattered to him...
Occupation: Cadet in the Heran Combat School (a place that trained future soldiers for the Kollos Alliance.)
Focus: Soldier.
Status: KIA (Killed in Action)
That's right. Dead. At least that's how it was supposed to be.
[--Vorst--: "Am I in afterlife?"]
According to the latest research of the Kollos Alliance there is no afterlife, a body after death goes through the scientific decomposition and with the law of mass conservation it clearly negates any notion of afterlife. Confusion suddenly dissipated as clear images came back to him.
[--Vorst--: This has to be afterlife, after all... that happened...]
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[Time: Sometime in the past]
[Place: Planet Cerra Z1429:2, Surface]
Mission was proceeding smoothly, a team was advancing without a hitch. Composition: Standard 10 person team - 5 soldiers (S), 2 scouts( C), 2 engineers(E), 1 medic(M)
At the moment Vorst was leisurely walking next to another soldier while chatting. The current region was classified as Low Strafe and within a maximum danger level could be compared to 3rd Low Step Tier(LST). Every single person in this team was 5th-6th LST thus for them it was comparable to an errand.
[: Vor-chan you should hurry up and pass the exam for 6th LST already, otherwise I'll really leave you behind.]
A soft laugh could be heard in the communication system.
Vorst: Please stop teasing me Mer-chan, I'm trying my hardest here!
Young boy's shoulder visibly fell down. A person walking beside him was his childhood friend: Mersa, 10 years old, orphan, cadet, soldier, 6th LST. His pride as a man was completely shattered. An younger girl was already stronger than him... Well, actually it wasn't strange at all, because... he was from a 'powerless' sub-race.
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Ten thousand years ago on Earth a scientist made a discovery. A new particle named later as nano-photon was found. It was several thousand times smaller than electrons, in fact it was smallest and most elementary particle, but no one was seriously hyped because it was useless. After hundreds of years of compounding ridiculously large but useless atoms, they found a ridiculously small particle. So what?
It happened two hundred years later, after 5th World War while Earth was slowly recovering a scientist named Edward Serfera invented a new weapon. It was so strong that it was capable of reducing atoms to the nano-photons and completely disintegrate it's target. With it the Serfera Corporation was founded and 6th World War was started. With the next gen weapon Serfera completely dominated the world.
10 years after side effects of that war showed themselves. An incident known as Photon Apocalypse nearly wiped out the humanity. It was caused by enormous density of the nano-photons in the atmosphere that made constant but unnoticeable changes inside the bodies of Aris (humans).
Death descended down the world and for 5 years it continuously swept through the mankind. In the end less than 0.00001% survived. Only 9 millions remained, most of them young adults. Medical examinations found inside every single one a new organ - Photon Core a special organ where [New Aris] collected the nano-photons in small quantities.... It was Fist size and was located on the right side of the chest. That was the beginning of next stage of the evolution.
Photon Core enabled the Photon Defense which completely nulled all weapons known to that date, from white weapons to tactical missiles, even the Disintegrating Railgun couldn't put a scratch on them. But of course there is no perfect defense, but let's leave it for another time.
Thanks to the Photon Core new technologies emerged, one of them made space travel possible...
After building the space-ships they quickly left the ruined Earth to venture the vast universe. For the next centuries Photon Core - going with the principle of evolution "survival of the fittest" - was changing the bodies of [New Aris]. The culmination point was reached several generations later as sub-races came into existence. There were a lot of them, for example Bear sub-race were stronger, Cheetah sub-race faster and so on...
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Vorst belonged to the 'powerless' sub-race... That's right he was an Neo-Aris sub-race... [AN: sorry humans lol]
They were in fact incredibly rare, and what's more other sub-races clearly looked down on them. Well... they were indeed weaker in every aspect...
On the contrary to Vorst, Mersa was extremely gifted. She was also an extremely rare case - a hybrid Wolf-Elf sub-race. Wolf sub was considered a Medium power level, but Elf was a true High power race. Combine those two and she was definitely one of the most talented beings in the academy.
It was thanks to her that Vorst was accepted into the Heran Combat Scool, exempted from any fees and even given a personal lodging.
That day they were on their way to the shuttle. The mission was completed, the only thing left to do was to get back into the Academy and get a reward. As mentioned before the danger was almost non-existent, especially with Mersa who in fact refused rank-up test several times while waiting for Vorst to get to 6th LST. It was all due to Academy regulations which made it only possible to form team with a maximum 1 level difference. In fact Mersa's true level was 8th LST.
Hell started in an instant.
A scream.
20 meters away a black scorpion pinned down one of the scouts. His sharp claws already ripped apart poor boy's chest and it was chomping on his Photon Core. Vorst froze, on the holo monitor in his helmet bunch of information pooped...
[Vorst: "2-2-2nd HST..."]
There are 10 ranks of LST, after it there was a major advancement which leads to High Step Tier (HST) which also has 10 ranks. The difference between them and that beast was enormous. What was it doing in the safe area?!
In the next instant three others died - the black scorpion was way too strong, there was nothing they could do.Then it advanced towards Mersa... Her body was completely petrified by fear. Black beast was incredibly fast but somehow Vorst clearly saw it, and at that moment summoning all of his courage he burned all the nano-photons inside his body and pushed her out of the way.
[Mersa: Ow-ow-ww...]
As Mersa opened her eyes and the only thing she could see was a needle that was heading towards her face, but at that moment a black shadow appeared in front of her... It was Vorst. After having his body stung various red messages popped up inside his helmet...
[Alert! Photon Poison detected. Threat level: High.]
[Alert! Photon Poison detected. Threat level: High.]
[Alert! Photon Poison detected. Threat level: High.]
[Alert! Poison rank: 8. Threat level: High.]
[Alert! Injecting Sedative.]
[Alert! Injecting Detox.]
[Alert! Injecting HNP (healing nano-photons).]
Vorst completely ignored the warning messages. Right now he was worried about Mersa, how could she escape from the current predicament?! Fortunately at that moment the explosion occurred and Scorpion was blown away. Raising his head he saw the reinforcements - the Academy's Disciplinary Squad, every single of them was at least 7th HST. A relieved smile floated inside his helmet, now that he knew she would be safe he allowed his consciousness to fade away...
[Alert! Probability of death: 100%]
That was the last message that he saw...
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That brings him to the current situation... A giant black ship that floated above him was incredibly strange. Vorst never saw anything like that before.
As if noticing his presence semi-transparent blocks have appeared creating a staircase that led to the entrance.
[--Vorst--: "Afterlife sure is strange..."]
He had nothing to lose now. Young boy nonchalantly climbed up and walked past the doors of the strange ship. Immediately a semi transparent arrow appeared in front of him as if it was leading him.
[--Vorst--: Hmm this looks similar to that VRG (virtual reality game) that I played several weeks ago. Mersa was furious about me spending money on stupid things, but it sure was fun...]
Suddenly a sense of sadness came over him. He realized that he'll never see her again...
[--Vorst--: "Maybe she'll get into the same afterlife as me? But there is no one here..."]
His thought continued as he walked past the hallways. The interior was absolutely gorgeous, but young orphan had no idea about aesthetics.
[--Vorst--: "What a strange place, why walls are painted? Why there are carpets on the wall? Why there are a lot of golden flowers on the floor? Why is that shiny stone put inside the wall? That looks like wolf, no idea why would someone make something so useless?"]
If Marc could hear that boy would definitely be cursed to death... After a while he found himself in front of enormous black door. The white arrow flew towards it and opened the doors. Inside, on the far end of the place, there was an enormous Red Throne. The arrow urged him to move forward... As Vorst closed in, he noticed 'them'. On the lavish throne, above the violet pillows there were seven girls sleeping. In front there was a kneeling man with his head resting on the throne. He also was sleeping.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
[--Vorst--: Hello?]
Boy called out as he advanced. Well, he didn't wanted to look like a thief, and it was that arrow that led him to this place after all. As he closed in to about 200 meters the arrow shoot towards the sleeping man, and he woke up. As he turned around the green eyes inspected the boy that stood before him...
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[Time: unknown]
[Place: unknown]
[--Marc--: Curse you FATE!]
He howled and then he tried to gather Flow around him, but he soon realized that he almost couldn't sense any Flow.
[Marc: "That's right, this is a different world after all."]
But it wasn't as if there was absolutely no Flow, or more like he found something akin to a substitute. Anyway he didn't have time to spare, anything would be fine... Normally for people from this world it was totally impossible to sense any nano-photons without a Photon Core, but thanks to his abnormal sensitivity towards magic Marc managed. This time he was lucky too - his soul was floating right in the center of the White Dwarf (extremely dense and hot celestial body, a dying small star) and thanks to high density of nano-photons the demon emperor could somehow get a hold of it bit by bit despite the lack of the Photon Core.
He tried dozens of methods at once but found that most of his powers were useless...
[Marc: "I can't control it? Wait... Runes... They are working properly."]
At first he was shocked, in his previous world Marc has attained a complete domination of the Flow, he forgot that something like lack of control existed. But then he noticed that the magic system known as 'Runes' was working properly.
[Marc: "Well, it's not that surprising, Runes never needed any sort of control, after all their power is derived from the knowledge and understanding of the magical equations."]
Using his unwavering determination he collected nano-photons and made them form 'Runic formations'. His body was burning. Flow (substance that his body was made of) was not only disintegrating because of natural 'Purge' reaction of foreign matter, but also because of the intense heat that reached hundreds of thousands Kelvins. But who was Marc? In his old world he was one of the five Dragon Monarchs, and the title of the Adamantine Dragon wasn't just for show. Despite feeling the pain that could drive any man to the brink of insanity he tirelessly formed the 'Runic formations'. His arms were already gone, legs were halfway done, head dissipated long ago, but his unyielding soul was forcing the Runes to arrange in neat fashion.
Thousands of Magic circles of highest class were floating around in orderly fashion, and just as the 'Purge' finished eliminating his Flow Body the Magic formations shone brightly and compressed to the size of a tennis ball. Inside...
[--Marc--: Made it...]
At that instant the enormous pressure landed on his soul, as if thousands mountains were pressed on his shoulders he collapsed in front of the throne. After a while his breathing became steady, now he just had to wait for a suitable candidate to appear...
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[Time: unknown]
[Place: Inside Marc's soul, Floating Castle, Main Chamber]
Jade eyes carefully inspected the boy standing in front of him. On the other side Vorst was absolutely stunned. Who was this man? He never heard about sub-race with those kind of eyes... Even though the were examples of vertical pupils all of them were only mildly different from the usual, but the ones in front of him... they were incredibly sharp, as if it belonged to a real animal...
[--Vorst--: H-hello.]
Boy was visibly terrified, he was inside an unknown place, with no information and in front of a complete stranger. What's more from an objective point of view he was certainly trespassing...
[--Marc--: You're dead.]
That was the first thing that he heard - a threat... As far as Vorst knew he was already dead indeed.
[--Vorst--: I-I'm sorry! But this is afterlife right?]
[--Marc--: No.]
[--Vorst--: It's not?! T-then are you God?]
[--Marc--: No.]
[--Vorst--: Then are you alive?]
[--Marc--: Barely.]
[--Vorst--: ...]
[--Marc--: Name is Marcdrak Euharm Maxkael Adajax Emerald Vegyla. Just call me Marcdrak.]
Vorst opened his eyes wide, the hell was that long name for?! He knew that adults usually had two parts in their name. Children had only one - family name, and at the age of fifteen (naming age) parents would give them their private name, for orphans they decided that themselves... But he never heard of the long names like that!
[--Vorst--: Then Marcdrak-san, I-I'm Vorst.]
[--Marc--: Your soul is about to disappear.]
Vorst was confused... Soul? What was that?
[--Marc--: For one to live soul is necessary. Soul forms from the sense of self, without soul you will just be an non-moving puppet.]
Marc explained to the child.
[--Vorst--: Oh, you mean the core crystal?]
Marc realized that this was the New World's definition of soul.
[--Marc--: Indeed... As you might know for soul to actually continue to exist it needs a body to nourish itself... I lost mine.]
Young boy was shocked.
[--Vorst--: No way! There is no way for a core crystal to exist without body! When the body dies core crystal inside the Photon Core dissolves into the crystal liquid. It's a fact! You're dead!]
Green eyes showed a bit of amusement as he shook his head.
[--Marc--: I'm just barely alive.]
With a flip of his hand both of them appeared in on a large terrace. With another a low table appeared in front of them. Vorst was totally surprised, at first he thought that the man in front of him was just escaping from the reality but after what happened he didn't know what to think anymore.
[--Marc--: Sit.]
Two violet cushions appeared on the floor, mysterious man sat down and the boy followed after a brief while of hesitation.
[--Marc--: I'll say it again. You're dead.]
[--Vorst--: ...]
[--Marc--: If... If the crystal core is strong enough and appropriate method is used to preserve it, then it allows the crystal core to last a while without body.]
For souls as strong as Marc's it would actually last an eternity.
[--Marc--: But if your crystal core is lost, no matter how strong your body is, you're dead.]
[--Vorst--: Then my core...]
[--Marc--: Yes, it's being dissolved right now. In this place time flows differently. That's why you still have a while before you completely disappear, but in the end nothing can be done about that...]
There was a long silence but in the end boy forced himself to ask a question.
[--Vorst--: Then why am I here?]
[--Marc--: ... I need a body.]
Boy twitched as turned his head to look at the man sitting beside him. He was calm and composed. At this moment Vorst finally believed that the man didn't lie about him being alive.
[--Vorst--: I see...]
[--Marc--: In exchange I'll grant you a wish.]
[--Vorst--: Wha?]
[--Marc--: I'll take your body, and there is nothing you can do about it. However I'm not a type to be ungrateful, therefore in exchange I'll grant you a wish. As long as it doesn't go against my principles and as long as I can do it I'll grant you any wish you want. Revenge. Greed. Wrath. If you wish for somebody's death, he'll die. If you wish for a destruction of an organization, they'll disappear. One wish. Anything.]
Young boy looked at him in astonishment, but Marcdrak had a made serious face as he watched a pair of moons that were moving on the night sky. Vorst first thought was about living... But according to the other person there is no way to save him now... Well that last alert he saw also confirmed that... Vorst quickly remembered the Black Scorpion... that particular one might be dead but if he wished for it then maybe this mysterious man would be able to kill all of them... And the bullies... being the Neo-Aris made him suffer a lot of times... Rage and hatred were boiling within him... Just as he was about to voice his wish he remembered a face. It belonged to the girl that he gave his life for... How she nearly lost her life... Serenity returned to his soul.
[--Vorst--: Mersa...]
Marcdrak heard and remembered the name. He knew that it was important - as he said, any wish will be granted.
[--Vorst--: Marcdrak-san, she is my friend, so please 'protect her'.]
Marc was surprised, his formerly indifferent attitude warmed up towards the small boy. for the first time since their meeting the mysterious man showed a smile as his irises lighted up in violet hue.
[--Marc--: Done. I swear that I, Marcdrak Euharm Maxkael Adajax Emerald Vegyla, will protect her or die trying.]
At that moment on the table two cups appeared with a bottle of sweet sake.
[--Marc--: Little brother. Although our meeting was short and there won't be another one, drink with me. You are the first brother I've made here...]
Under the night sky two of them drank until Vorst soul shuddered and dissipated. The jade cup fell down and shattered on the marble table. Marc as a response raised his cup.
[--Marc--: This one is for you. Farewell little brother Vorst. Our promise, I'll absolutely honor it.]
And with this Marc ended his first drinking session in the new World.
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[AN: 'Purge' A rule in every world that it eliminates the foreign object. In this new world the 'soul' exists in the form of the 'crystal core' so it was properly converted but Marc's body was made from Flow, which in this world doesn't exist thus it was completely wiped off. Bodies in the new World are made from 'matter' which doesn't exist in the Flow]
If you have an advice do not hesitate to point it out.