Chapter One - Arach

A man found himself looking down upon the world. He had spent the last five years perfecting this world. Yet he was frowning. In front of him was an old woman. Her wrinkles were deeply inset, and her skin was a sickly grey.

The man looked at the world below, then back at the old woman. As his frown deepened, he asked, “Why me? Why not her?” His voice was smooth, alluring, almost as if it could draw the listener in without effort.

The woman shook her head. In a scratchy voice she responded. “No no no. I’ve already tried that old batty!” Her face turned slightly angry. “She would have been perfect, too! She turned me down without even thinking about it! Even before I finished asking she was saying no!”

The man lightly scoffed. It’s not that she didn’t think of it. She more time to think of it than you’ve likely been alive.

“Still. Why me?”

The old woman sighed. “Because you are my only hope. I need someone to represent me. I’ve made many bad choices, and my power is waning. Please.”

The man continued to frown. He had ‘changed’ himself for the better over these past several years. If he accepted her offer he would be throwing away everything he had worked towards.

“Look,” the man continued, “I’ve been outside of this game several times now, on good behavior you see. I will know if this is a lie. Or just some fraud.” He gave the woman a piercing look.

Without flinching she nodded. “I’m aware.”

“And this will truly grant me complete freedom?”

She hesitated for a moment, but the nodded. “Except for the fact that you would be representing me.”

The man composed himself. His eagerness at complete freedom, was only slightly outweighed by the caution he felt.

I’ll know it if this is a fraud. There is no real reason to disagree. Something just feels … wrong.

The woman they referred to was the absolute god of this realm. She could read and manipulate the mind of any being within her realm. Except for one. The man floating in front of the old woman. He had long ago gotten into the inner workings of this universe. He had partitioned his mind away from hers.

“Fine but you must sign this.”

He produced a written scroll. On the scroll suddenly appeared hundreds of lines of red ink, detailing the contract. “This is a soul contract. Should you fail your end of the bargain, your soul will be mine to control.”

The old woman’s eyes went wide, before gazing at the contract. After reading it she slowly nodded, and infused the final line on the contract with her power.

Not that it is likely going to be able to hold any power over her. He thought to himself.

The haggard, scratching voice rang out again. “Very well, since we have finished the details, it’s time to go.” As if to herself, she whispered, “Hopefully the council lets me use him.”

She opened her hand. A black orb quickly expanded from her open palm. Its size swelled until it encapsulated both. As it began shrinking, the world around them began to shake. Soon the black orb disappeared altogether, as did any trace of the two entities.

---

Sunlight flitted between the windows in a spacious room. The mid-morning sun cast long shadows around the figures therein. Around a circular dais were situated a dozen chairs. The men and women sitting in the chairs seemed to be amused.

One person, a large muscular man, looked as serious as the others did mocking. “Are you sure you want this thing to be your Chosen? It will be the last time. Should you lose this Turn, your power will dissipate.”

The beautiful, toned, woman on his right said in a mocking tone. “Orpheus, there’s no reason to try to dissuade her. Her Chosen ones have been dropping in quality each Turn.”

The man referred to as Orpheus ignored her. “Are you sure?”

The old woman, the only one standing. Nodded her head.

Orpheus shook his. “You realize you are sending a golem to fight against Chosen?”

The old woman again nodded her head.

The man to Orpheus’ left let out a bellowing laugh. “NO! She is sending a golem made by a golem! It’s not even made by human hands! How it’s supposed to grow from infancy is beyond me! HAHAHA!”

Orpheus silently stared at the old woman, until she was forced to turn away. “Very well,” he stated solemnly. “The golem shall be your Chosen. Any disagreements?” He looked around, only to be met with uproarious laughter from each of the others. With anger evident on his face. He stomped his foot. The massive force caused the entirety of the room to rumble loudly. The others in the room quickly silenced themselves.

“Any disagreements?” He repeated in an authoritative tone.

One by one the members in the room responded with “None.”

“Endrine, what is your boon to your chosen?”

The old woman, Endrine, did not think of for more than a moment. “I want his memories erased until he can no longer live a normal childhood life, or until he grows into a man.”

“So be it. For the forty-third Turn, Endrine’s Chosen shall be this golem! Make his abilities that of a human until Endrine’s conditions are met, reduce them to a tenth of a hundredth after, and let him be born!”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

---

Arach was born on a warm sunny morning. The heat of the day, and the birth of the unwitting child, caused deep moats of perspiration upon the mother’s face as she gave birth. The room, filled with hectic midwives, was strewn with the various items labor required. Wet towels, hot water, and many many charms for good birth.

“Come on Delilah! Push! Really push!” One of the midwives, old and wrinkled with age, urged Delilah. The baby was crowning, just peaking its head out into the world. This was the most difficult part of childbirth, as if the entirety of childbirth weren’t difficult enough already.

With much pushing, and pained cries of the mother, the baby was out. The willful lungs of the babe filled the room. The midwife holding him, wiped him and handed him to his mother. “It’s a boy! Congratulations!”

A man rushed in. He was a muscular 250 pounds, taller than the midwives by a head, and had deep brown hair with matching eyes. His body could have passed for military, had his face not been marred by the passage of time.

“Where’s my son?” he exclaimed loudly upon entering. His eyes darted around the room, finally landing on his wife and child. He sighed to himself, a sigh of contentment. “Good, it’s a boy. His name will be Arach.”

The midwives helped tidy up the woman, a disheveled but joyful mess, then left. Not long after they left the man began screaming for them to come back. Something was wrong! His heart pounded like a heard of horses. His wife was jerking intensely, as if some demon had possessed her.

“WAIT! Somethin’s wrong! Somethin’s wrong with Delilah!”

            He placed the baby on the nearby bed and rushed to get the midwives.

---

Arach was a rambunctious child. He was only six, but always getting into something. “Pa? The town fair is tomorrow. Can we go?” He asked his father after a long day in the fields. They had just finished gathering the last of the crops before winter.

            Arach always had energy. It seemed like no matter what he did he could keep going. He was almost jumping as he asked his father.

His father, now a grim looking man, simply nodded. Since he wife died after giving birth, he had been much less joyous.

There was rarely a day that would see him smile.

Arach went to sleep, hopeful dreams of tomorrow floating in his mind. When he awoke, he was greeted by the most unpleasant surprise.

“Pa! It’s time to head to town!” The sun had already begun painting the sky with its purple and oranges. The animals had begun to stir from their dwellings, announcing their wakefulness to the world. Usually Arach’s father would be the first one up.

Arach made his way from the small bedroom his father had made in preparations for his birth and entered his father’s room.

Arach’s movements stopped when he entered his father’s room. “Pa? Pa! Wake up Pa!” His subconscious was already forming what was happening. But his conscious mind would not accept it. “PA! GET UP!” In a rush of adrenaline and fear, he slapped his father, hard, in the face. “Wake up!”

He knew it was already too late. His father’s body, graying through its haze of death, was already cold. Its soul had left. Something broke inside Arach that day.

Arach had been blessed by the goddess Endrine. He had memories of a past life locked away. But the priests did not know how to unlock. The only reason it was a blessing, and not a curse, was that he had the smell of healing holy magic exuding off his body so potently that a curse was impossible.

When that thing broke inside him, his memories of his past life returned. Everything that had happened before, in the other world. Even his agreement to come to this world. The memory of a hundred lifetimes outweighed the six years of life Arach had. They outweighed and consumed.

This new entity, the one that had taken control of Arach’s body, flexed himself. “She was right. I really am not in that world anymore. I’m free. I’m free!”

He jumped in the air, springing up as high as he could go. Inches off the ground. What? What happened to my body? He knew he was in the form of a six-year-old, but he should be able to do more than that, surely.

He closed his eyes and sent a tendril of mana through his body. Unlike the fluid motion of complete obedience, what he got was a clunky imitation. The mana in his body, barely more than a drop compared to the other world, seemed murky and miniscule in amount. No, it was less than a drop. It was a chaotic mess and could have been easily absorbed by his other self without paying attention.

He could normally tell the exact details of his body, but now could only vaguely sense his abilities. His physical abilities were all far less than they should have been. It couldn’t tell exactly how bad it was, but he had the body of an average child.

He forced the world to slow down. This was his trademark skill in the other world. It slowed down to a crawl. Instantly the information surrounding him came into his mind. Instead of the flow of absolute information he was used to, only a small bit of information appeared. The density of the dirt, and how much friction it provided. The worst part about it was he felt the mana being drained from his body.

It had never done so before, why would it require mana now?

His vision turned black as he felt his body hit the loose dirt. The smell of rotten paper and stale water entered his nose following the dirt kicked up by his fall.

“Arach! Wake up boy!”

Arach shook his head. Huh? Wha- Oh crap! My powers! The man before Arach, noticed his sudden jump, and look of alarm. The man was strongly built, with the look of a weathered warrior, looked down kindly at Arach.

“Don’t worry boy, we took care of your pa’s body. What happened?”

Arach was laying on a bed, his faint memory of this life led him to believe he was in the smith’s house. “What happened?” He repeated the question in a daze, the side effect of mana depletion. I ran out of mana! The intense look of alarm made the smith all the more determined to hear the story.

Arach realized, after looking at the smith’s face, that the smith was mistaking his look of alarm as one of worry for whatever had ‘happened’. Thinking fast, and with his memory of these town’s folk, he came up with a reply.

“A dark wizard! A dark wizard was at the farm. He used Pa for an experiment. We have to get help!”

The melancholy that appeared on the smith showed how much he had cared about Arach’s father. “Listen boy, there’s no sense running in to trouble. Your pa is gone, we can’t change that. But if you go runnin’ off after some fool’s errand and die, what will that get? Two dead bodies instead of one. That’s what! No, you’ll stay here, the missus and I’ll think of somethin’ to help you.”

With a stern look, the smith headed downstairs.

I think that he believed me. Acting wasn’t hard for Arach, his last life had been full of deception. He was usually on the giving end of it.

What about my blessings? Can I still bless myself? He realized terms like ‘blessing’ and ‘ability’ weren’t what he usually used. But the other words would not come to mind. Then he remembered. He and the goddess had made a pact. He would forget large portions of what happened in the other world in exchange for his freedom. He would remember some things though. He was a golem, crafted by a golem that had become a god.

As Arach steadied his mind, he tried to think of the best-case scenario. He couldn’t give away he was from another world. That was one of the rules of this game of the gods. He could allow his power to flourish if he wished, but not speak of the other world under any circumstance.

If he did, the gods would destroy his soul, not even letting him into the cycle of reincarnation. Then the best choice is to leave. If I accidentally let anything slip, his body shivered at the thought. He was weak. These beings, these ‘gods’, held much more power than he did.

Arach decided to leave right then. With a deep breath he closed his eyes. He was sensing mana. He was trying to sense mana. He was failing at sensing mana.

What? Why can’t I sense the light mana around me? All mana was categorized into sections. He was trying to sense one section of that mana, but found nothing.

He mentally made a list, and prepared to go about it.

1. Come up with a viable reason for what happened at the farm.

2. Sense mana outside of his body.

3. Find out why his abilities are so shackled compared to his last life.

4. Increase the fitness of his mind and body once he finds out.

And finally,

5. Keep his end of the bargain to Endrine.

Hey guys, this is the continuation of the story Dive I promised a while back. Things are getting a bit easier at school, so I finally have time to post.

As always, comments and ratings are appreciated. Ratings are especially good once the story gets started since I am hoping the critiques from them will help enhance my abilities as a writer a step further.

Enjoy!