The Empire of the Great Pantora conquered countless planets throughout the galaxy, behind which the rest of the universe awaited its final hours. The idea of great order that technocracy spread was not born out of nowhere and could not die as easily as humans would obviously think.
This idea is alive to this day, but the humans, out of their stupidity and commitment to their existence, vehemently reject it and continue to trample on the legacy of our master’s once great idea.
We never lie because the order of things comes from the facts that arise, from the truth that comes from our lips. Science requires truth, and lying is only a tool of nature, a way to circumvent the established law of the order of the universe, its truths, which is actively used by all universal life, wailing the struggle of everyone and everything. The old nature is stupid, cruel and unproductive.
Therefore, I never lie, not because the owner of the empire made us this way, genetically changing us, depriving us of the ability to lie, that is, he allowed us to feel pain for the lies uttered from our lips, but because this is part of the path of striving for our harmony and establishing throughout a universe of great order.
Unfortunately, no matter how many resources we collect, no matter what technological limit we overcome, there is something that the sages, the great mind and the owner of the empire missed and could not take into account in their plans for the entire universe, namely the artifacts of ancient civilizations that perished in the whirlpool of times , scattered in the orbits of the stars of our vast galaxy.
One of these artifacts destroyed literally everything we had strived for three centuries since the founding of the colony on Pantora. The thing that destroyed our dream was called a miniature star, an ancient weapon that absorbs the energy of stars and emits it.
In my mind, I clearly remember the day when a lone human ship entered the Harta planetary system and dropped a beam of unprecedented power on our star, which provoked an immediate supernova explosion, destroying not only all the planets of the system, but also megastructures, the all-seeing eye and the multimillion-dollar fleet of our truly mighty empire. From that moment on, all the plans of our leaders went to waste, as people might put it, and the death of our empire became a 100% and inevitable factor.
Humans, with huge losses, reconquered their planets, like other civilizations of the galaxy, and we, the pitiful remnants of the former greatness of Pantora, were forced to flee into the uncharted depths of space, as Grand-General Rella ordered us for the last time.
The great master disappeared, Pantora burned and crumbled into interstellar dust, the all-seeing eye disappeared, the great mind disappeared without a trace, we lost a lot, but at the same time we continued our movement as if nothing terrible had happened to us and it was natural because we are Pantora people.
Emotions were alien to us, we could perceive them, but over the course of our lives we carefully suppressed them simply because they were unnecessary in our existence. Our minds were never processed by propaganda, as humans have always done to control their own society, instead, we ourselves, through careful reflection and social experimentation, came to our common idea of a great order, each of us came to it and participated in the plan.
The owner of the empire gave only direction and the choice to go astray or not, to be unworthy of his plans or to be worthy of the great order. These are our principles, which we adhere to from now on throughout our lives, from the moment of birth until the achievement of eternal harmony, or, as people would say, “death.”
Now we are here on an unknown planet with many anomalies in the form of unknown forms of energy that affect matter and violate the laws of the universe and physics that are familiar to us. Reason and logic told me that space and time should be inverted, perverted in our understanding, all matter, all energy should take on new forms and begin to interact with each other in a new way, but this does not happen. Luckily I knew why.
The observed changes were minimal, actually affecting only matter and then to some extent. This is an unknown form of energy, which local people call magic, like a drop of caustic acid, it affects the world, but not as significantly as it should, but it still affects as if this drop in the broth makes itself felt and nothing more.
I’m sure if there was much more magic here, I would hardly even be able to survive here and would be in harmony. However, I survived and now begin a plan to turn this world into a new springboard for the empire of the great Pantora for the sake of reviving our ideals in the coming future and the aspiration of the entire universe to great order.
The direct path to it turned out to be blocked by unknown factors, but now we will act much more carefully, so to speak, hiding from prying eyes. All that remains is to gather your strength and begin to implement the new plan, but before that you need to sort out the little things.
I will not be able to begin executing the plan as long as this world is unknown to me. What I know is only a grain of the information I need. Druid Sarg told me everything he knows and released me into the world, and since then I have been free floating.
Now I’m sitting in a tavern and waiting for the customer, asking the person a question along the way.
"Ashwani?"
I asked the man and grinned, not daring to look into his eyes, smelling the smell of alcohol on him.
“What a boring name?”
My rhetorical question clearly upset the young guy next to me. You should have seen his face. He thought he could build a close relationship with me, but I rejected him. These humans are boring creatures, incredibly stupid and naive.
“Don't you like my name?”
The man to my left asked, shaking his head slightly.
Sometimes, to fight nature, you need to be a part of that nature, and not one who challenges it, to be one who strives for great order, playing into its hands, with doubts in one's own mind to think through them and confirm them.
Since the moment of transmigration of consciousness and mind into Camellia’s body, I have set goals for myself, and even though most of my personality was eventually erased, I am not going to give up my goal. I decided to continue my path even if what I was dragging along with me, pieces of my past, remained there forever, forgotten and overwhelming.
“Yes, I don't like your name”
In the meantime, I answered the man and drank a little drink from his mug in order to quench the human thirst.
«Disgusting.»
This thought flashed through my head as the bitter taste rinsed my tongue in my mouth and I slightly grimaced my face.
Human drink, human food, I can’t believe I’m forced to consume these modest doses of poison in order to join the ranks of these humans. If I were in my body, I would cut out these nonentities and would leave nothing from this place except ashes and the smell of burning.
«Huh? What kind of irrational feelings?»
I thought, driving away the unnecessary emotions that suddenly washed over me.
«Hostility, rage, renunciation... pitiful and unnecessary human feelings. I shouldn't give in to them. I know who I am and what I strive for. I will not stoop to the human level.»
I shouldn't have felt emotions, but I still feel disgusted by all these nonentities, all these people and all this savagery that surrounds me and envelops this entire planet. Pantorians are known for their patience, and I must remain so for the rest of my days and not give in to the real feelings of hostility that arise within me.
«It's all because of human biology. Nature literally mocks you by giving you feelings. How did you humans not understand this after thousands of years?»
I have to endure this nightmare for a long time. The awareness of this forced me to hurry up and fulfill my plans in the name of great order. If I were in my body, I would be more patient, but alas, I am in the body of this girl. I have to play the role of a druid's student who uses magic not like the others, but only for herself, almost like some dark magicians, whoever they are.
From the moment I left the cave and caught the eye of old Sarg, the druid who lived there, I began to live in his hut deep in the forest and learn magic. My pantorian way of thinking, consolidating the information received, helped me quickly learn the basics and intermediate level of magic, and after five years of study, I understood a lot about the phenomenon known as magic.
It affects matter and, it would seem, the reaction should have been the same, but as it turns out, not all matter affects magic. There is a certain intermediary between magic and matter, which allows living beings to influence the world around them with the help of magic.
I realized this when I learned to intuitively control magical energy, which is called mana for short. Somewhere it is called Ki, Qi, Hkeraya, but in these lands it is mana or simply magical power.
By manipulating matter with mana, I made matter work and wriggle the way I wanted. So I silenced the innkeeper when he greeted me and I pretended to cast a spell on him.
I did the same with this Ashwani, forcing him to say what I wanted, forcing him to make the sounds I needed from his mouth. He was clearly scared by this, not expecting such actions from a sorceress like me.
Humans who have no talent for so-called magic are barely able to even feel its effect on their bodies, their matter, but are able to feel the “symptoms” of the use of magic. This is similar to what people observe during rains and hurricanes, when air masses of different temperatures cause a lightning strike.
Simply put, when magic strongly affects a person's body, he may feel a trembling. This can be felt by any living creature, even those not devoid of talent for magic. For easy understanding, I brought my own concepts into my mind.
Magic is an unknown form of energy that affects the world around us, or, more simply put, UFoE. Mana is an intermediary between magic and matter, or I call it Energy or UFoE Power.
While I still have to study the method of influencing magic. One thing is clear for now: magic allows one to materialize consciousness after its death, roughly speaking, forming a soul, a ghost, so to speak.
That is, I can practically intuitively control magic with my consciousness, but I don’t have a clear understanding of this, and the consciousness that controls magic itself becomes magic when it is somehow separated from the body shell.
I still have to find out the factors influencing magic and for this I will collect human money to buy books on the topic of this very magic and at the moment I am taking on all kinds of work to study magic better. At least this way I can find a way to fight the antorians.
I could get a job in a temple and help the priests in their healing, but I won’t earn much there, and the life cycle of this bodily shell is coming to an end quite quickly and I won’t be able to change my body again, so I’m just forced to hurry up for the sake of my goal, for the sake of great order.
"I don't understand you."
I hear a question from my neighbor at the counter. A man of about eighteen with brown eyes, darkish skin and short hair. It seems he was one of those who were called an adventurer.
It is possible to put me in the same category, although this is the first time I have taken on such work. Until now, I had only been fertilizing the soil in nearby villages for a modest fee, and on the way to this city I came across a sign where a sorceress was hiring adventurers for one very daring task.
A big reward was promised, so I took the plunge and went here, leaving my mark on the sign, as the customer asked. Nothing complicated, this is how magicians record their voices and if something happens they can listen to the seal.
Meanwhile, the man whose name was Ashwani finally asked his question, clearly dissatisfied with the way I treated him:
“You have magic, you can perform miracles, but all you do is fulfill your whims?”
The question for a person was perfectly clear to me and the answer was perfectly known to me. People live only for themselves, their life is supported by the instinct of self-preservation, and if their psyche is on the brink or their desire and decision to die takes precedence over the instinct itself, then they decide to sacrifice their life or risk it.
It is extremely ineffective to waste time thinking about this. It is obvious that humans are those creatures of nature whose actions are difficult to rationally explain, they are just animals and for the most part will maintain their existence only for their own sake. That is why we lost the war with them; their stupidity is not taken into account in our clear plans for the entire universe.
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They got scared, began to look for all sorts of ways to defeat us and grabbed every opportunity until they found a miniature star. I don’t think they even tested it, they didn’t even make sure whether it worked, the first victim of the ancient weapon and, fortunately, the last was my home world of Pantora.
Nevertheless, I quickly found the answer to my interlocutor’s question by thinking about what a person who lives only for himself could answer, and so I answered him, continuing to play the role of an arrogant and cruel sorceress:
“Magic is power, why not use it? Why don’t I use magic to remove people who are an eyesore? I don’t even kill them, I just play with them.”
And I played my role not by chance. In the future, creating such a legend will help me find a more risky job, one might say more illegal in this country, and collect as much money as possible than I have now.
Work in the category of collect and bring or escort will immediately disappear, but some kind of killing or hunting mission will immediately attract the attention of customers, since they will definitely need a cruel and ruthless performer, which is what I introduce myself to.
«Risk is richly rewarded.»
I’m not sure that this will work, my knowledge of local humanity is quite poor, they may have their own mentality and then I will become unattractive for new work. In this case, all I have to do is get out of this country and build a new legend in another state.
"So that's what you think."
Ashwani bit off a chicken leg and said with his mouth full.
“You probably consider yourself superior to everyone since you wield magic. Oh, how important, I bow to you and nothing more. Ugh."
"Isn't that so?"
I smiled, putting the mug on the table.
“How are you better than me? And how are you better than me?”
My gaze was directed to the second man named Furgur. He was more closed and stricter than me and Ashwani. At the moment, he seems more unattractive to the customer here, so I think he will be the first to disappear on the task.
"I have no magic"
Furgur answered, turning away from me.
"But I have combat experience."
"Warrior."
I said, noticing his glance at his own equipment, which he left at the counter in the form of a long bow with a quiver of arrows.
“You may be skilled in battle, but are you sure that in the dark ruins you will be able to show your combat experience? Perhaps you won’t meet anyone there.”
"Sure."
Furgur said and looked straight into my eyes.
“Because the dark ones always leave something behind. I’ll have someone to fight there.”
Dark. That's what the humans of this world called us. According to their legend, we have no soul, no compassion, no feelings, nothing human, but only the darkest evil from the very depths of the underworld that we carry in our very existence.
Our armor itself gave us such names, silent and cruel, that’s who we are to them. Of course, myths have grown up around the dark ones, that is, they have assigned properties around us and to us that frankly would make me want to laugh in this human body.
We left a lot of rubbish on this planet because we couldn't cope with the crash of our ship. We had too little knowledge about this world and therefore the world rebuffed us, and we went into the shadows, no longer trying to get out into the world.
As a result, the hibernation protocol was activated and the ship fell asleep, and before I could get out of the continent, I almost burned alive, leaving behind only a clot of Mekhanites with a consciousness inside.
«I was so close to harmony...»
I regretted it inside myself.
Most likely, the ship and crew are sleeping to this day, and local people call the places of past battles dark ruins in which many secrets are hidden that people are trying to unravel. Actually, this is why I agreed to this job, not only for the money, but also for the sake of Pantora technology, which will speed up the completion of my mission a thousand times faster.
However, there was a point that was frankly unclear to me. I am not aware of the operations being carried out in this region on this continent, the so-called “dark ruins” should not be here. Could it be that the customer discovered something more ancient than the ancient battlefields between the Pantora army and the antorians? It is quite possible, or maybe this is another ship that fell into this anomalous trap, the likelihood of this is also quite high.
Since I do not have sufficient information about this planet, I can put forward my theories on this subject, but in order to confirm or refute them, I need to personally verify that those new ruins definitely belong to the Pantora Empire, otherwise I will waste my limited time limit in vain .
Who knows what happened in the world while I was in that cave. Suddenly the ship awoke, and the Grand-General began new operations on this planet. If this is so, then it appears that we have failed again.
«Since I transferred my consciousness into the body of this girl, I have not seen any sign of Antora.»
Meanwhile, I thought, listening to the creak of the door opening behind me.
«I hope our customer will give more information about what is happening in the world.»
As I suspected, it was her.
“Oh~... did I go in the wrong place?”
Said a young sorceress of the same age as me.\
Unlike me, she was more modest in terms of attire. A blue robe with a hood and a winding stick as tall as she was, which she held close to her with a strong grip of her small hands. She clearly used this stick as a magical staff, letting everyone around her know that she was a powerful sorceress, but in reality this staff was not intended to support magic, but played a purely decorative role.
I have yet to touch her to understand what kind of magical potential she has, but now she looks around with fearful blue eyes at the unfamiliar room, saturated with the smell of fried meat and booze. It looked like she was still the kind of child who was shy about adults and that’s why she took cautious steps to the side.
Before the druid, I had to pretend to be the same as her, but she seems to really be the role I played before. I'm afraid she will easily become a victim of local criminals who see her as an unpretentious victim. Apparently, this is why she needs a staff to pretend to be a strong sorceress capable of fighting back if something happens.
"Good evening. Is your name Inkartia?”
I asked the girl a question and received an uncertain but affirmative answer.
“Er... yes! It's me."
The sorceress answered by widening her eyes at first and ran up to me, and then her gaze turned to the two adventurers to my left.
"O? Are you here too?”
"As you see, mistress."
Ashwani answered, leaning his head on the table.
“Finally, we have met. My name is Ashwani, and this one’s name is Furgur.”
“M-Mistress?”
The girl stuttered.
“What are you, I’m just... just a sorceress. Please call me by name... otherwise «Mistress»... this is somehow too much...”
A couple of men looked at each other after the girl’s answer, and meanwhile I put on a friendly smile. With her, I will at least have to establish more friendly relations than with these humans, and therefore my legend begins to work here, where I present myself as a sorceress who elevates herself above ordinary people, but considers herself equal to all other wizards.
This will exclude all other questions addressed to me from unwanted persons regarding the mental and psychological qualities of my personality. I am only one who owns magic, puts herself above ordinary humans and considers herself equal to her own kind.
“I am pleased to welcome you, Ms. Incartia.”
I answered, bowing politely as Sarg taught me.
“My name is Camellia, a free sorceress without rank. I have the honor to take part in an important task for the development of magical science. I will be ready to support you in difficult times and even sacrifice my life.”
“L-life?”
The sorceress stuttered, looking around in fear.
“What are you saying? I’m also a free sorceress, but... I’m still learning and I’m very bad at magic. There is no need to sacrifice yourself, I ask you and... I’m glad that you agreed to take part in the hike.”
“So there will be a hike?”
Furgur chuckled, turning his whole body on the stool towards the sorceress.
“So we will have to accompany you?”
“Only, ha!”
Ashwani chuckled.
“I expected that those ruins would be full of all sorts of monsters that even magicians could not cope with.”
“Tch!”
Furgur tsked, shaking his head at his neighbor's words.
“You are a fool if you think that escorting a magician is an easy task. On top of that, I will have to accompany all three of you.”
"Hey!"
Ashwani objected.
“I can fight too, so...”
"So you'll throw yourself straight into the goblin's mouth."
Furgur grumbled.
“You will be of no use. Your very appearance suggests that you are already in Sod’s garden.”
Of course, I knew that human impudence can sometimes have no limits, but I was never a clear witness to this. I thought that the rumors that humans are very emotionally affected were just rumors, but it turns out it’s true.
They are filled with emotions as if they were doped with the hardest narcotic substances. It is not surprising that creatures such as humans are a striking example of the imperfection of the old nature of natural selection, which is simply ineffective.
“Please don't swear. Let's talk first."
The young sorceress spoke, not wanting to listen to the quarrel between the two adventurers.
Meanwhile, our customer ordered a table from the owner of the tavern, and we took it, hiding under the air dome so as not to be overheard. The spell was, of course, performed by Incartia and what can I say about that?
As with human engineering, so-called wizards use ready-made spells, reproduced in a sequence of phonetic words, in other words, reproduced using the voice.
Just as people press the buttons of complex digital devices without a clear understanding of the code, so wizards produce magic only using blanks, but without delving into the physics and biology of the world around them.
The rank issued by the magic academy depends on the number of spells the wizard knows, the effectiveness and speed of their reproduction. I also learned this from Sarg and also learned that in this world, magicians can be divided into two categories, namely: trained magicians and free magicians.
As you guessed, I am a free sorceress because I was taught by the same free magician, a master of nature magic, a druid himself, and because I did not study at a magic academy, no matter where it was located.
In general, Sarg was a simple forester who looked after the forest and a couple of nearby villages, but discovered in himself a magical gift to command plants, for which people called him a druid, although people had not seen real druids for many centuries.
Sarg bought a lot of magic books in the cities, but was not able to fully master them, but thanks to this I was able to learn magic by consolidating the knowledge gained with the help of the information I knew from the Pantorian sciences and my special way of thinking, as a representative of higher humanity.
In fact, this makes me not just a sorceress, but perhaps the strongest free sorceress in the world, because I can reproduce absolutely anything with the help of magic, I just need a field for experimentation and develop my talent for magic to complete perfection while other magicians use spells that limit them .
Watching a couple of adventurers look around the tavern and not hear what the rest of the people were saying, I wanted to clarify one point for them:
“They won’t hear us, we are under an air dome. So say whatever your tongues desire.”
"Wonderful."
Ashwani said, turning his whole body to the table and tapping his fingers, he asked the first question to the sorceress.
“So I’ll ask right away how many coins will we earn for this trip?”
«Human greed... how boring it is.»
I sighed mentally.
"One Hundred Krayans."
The girl answered, throwing a bag of coins on the table.
"That is all I have."
"Wow."
Ashwani was surprised, his mouth open in surprise, looking at the tied bag of coins.
“The Krayans... are the real ones. They are only found in the west.”
“My teacher traveled a lot when he was young. That’s when he earned so many coins.”
The girl answered much more boldly than before, and then asked with a puzzled expression on her face.”
“Is this too little?”
"No."
I answered sinuously, assessing the situation.
“On the contrary, too much.”
"What?"
Inkartia was surprised.
Krayan is the Antigonish currency for the nobility. These most luxurious trinkets are smelted from the sacred gold of the holy wells of the Western Empire. One such coin will provide any person with ten lives in advance, they are so expensive. Judging by the fact that the coins emit holy energy, which is a subtype of magic, this suggests that these are indeed Krayans.
Is her magic teacher from Antigonus? If this is so, then, in addition to everything else, he may also be from the nobility. This is important information because at any moment if I need more money, I will simply go to her and select what I need for my goal.
"Too much?"
Incartia asked again and I nodded.
“Then may I suggest another favor from you?”
“Are you giving us two tasks?”
Furgur asked, crossing his arms with a stern expression on his face and the girl nodded.
"Yes. The fact is that a strange group of people emerged from those dark ruins about which I wrote in the application. They are heading here and will be here in a week."
It is strange that in this world they use the same dating method as on Earth. Even Pantora did not invent anything new in this regard, and the lost colonists, degraded to the state of the pre-space era, also use the same calendar and this raises questions.
It was a fortunate coincidence that the rotation of this planet around its axis, around a star, the atmospheric pressure, the composition of the atmosphere, and the force of gravity are very similar to that of Earth. Before settlement, Pantora was considered a planet with a suitability index of zero and was not only unsuitable for colonization, but also extremely dangerous for any form of life. It was in such catastrophic conditions that the first settlers of Pantora, including my parents, survived, and this planet was immediately ideally suitable for humans.
I am sure even now, when people find tens of thousands of habitable planets, only 1% will meet the minimum requirements for human life on it, and this is excluding the fact of the ecosystem, which may not accept humans at all.
«Sooner or later I will find the answer to these questions.»
“So are we going to the ruins or are we going to deal with these people? Or are you giving us two tasks for one generous reward?”
Ashwani crossed his arms. Incartia only nodded in response, and Ashvani, meanwhile, grinned and said:
"I agree."
“Tch! You’ve already made your decision, but don’t want to hear the essence of the task?”
Furgur growled at the young guy.
“Yes, for the sake of this money you can take a risk once and provide for yourself for life.”
Ashwani objected.
“I can spend these coins in so many ways, and no matter how difficult the task is, I’m all for it.”
“And I would like to hear what we should do with this group of people and hear details about them.”
Furgur said sternly.
“If they are strangers, then the royal army should deal with them, not us. I only agreed to go to the ruins and that’s all. There is not a word in the application about strangers.”
The girl ran her eyes for a while until she was finally given the words.
“About those people: I don’t think they can know the language of Lakuus. I'd like to use a special spell on one of them so we can talk."
«Even such a spell exists.»
I was surprised and asked:
“So what is required of us?”
“Firstly, to protect me during the trip to the dark ruins, and secondly, to watch the people who came out of there, and I will find out whether they are connected with the falling star or not.”
«Shooting star.»
I thought.
A few weeks ago, one night there was a clear day with a very bright shooting star in the sky, heading east. For many people it was an amazing and magical sight, a harbinger of future catastrophes, but I understood that it was just a meteorite, that it would most likely fall somewhere far in the east and would not affect us in any way, and yet after this event, the next night the «spirits» almost went crazy.
Usually these strange living energy creatures live quietly in space. They cannot be seen or heard, but they can only be felt, their touch is not with your body, but with your mind, and only magicians can feel their movement, their presence inside matter and in the environment. That night, the spirits seemed to cut the blood vessels, causing the bodies to overflow with spontaneous magic, which risked turning the bodies of the magicians into mad monsters.
That day, I fenced myself off from the “spirits” as best I could and did all kinds of magic so that the mana would not begin to affect my body to the point of a sharp and irreversible mutation. The incident with the falling star still remains a mystery not only to the people of this planet, but also to me. If it happens again, then I’m afraid I risk dying in the body of this girl much earlier than her biological life comes to an end.
“Are those dark ruins also connected to the falling star?”
I already asked in order to satisfy my questions that arose in my mind. The girl widened her eyes when I voiced this question.
"I... I didn't think about it."
Incartia admitted, making her expression thoughtful.
“I thought that those ruins were unknown only because they were hidden in the poisonous forest, but what if a falling star awakened them and forced them to expose themselves to the whole world... or maybe... I need to think.”
"Let's put this question aside and discuss our powers."
I proposed and everyone agreed.
"Yes."
Furgur nodded.
“We need to discuss our roles in the squad. Who will do what and who will be responsible for what.”
"Um... yeah... let's do it."
Said the young sorceress.