Demon continent Alsace in the year 237 in the 8-month Mogum on the 6th day after the shattering of the empire.

There were only a few moments in his new life when he was reminded of his new gender in such strength, a good example would be when he ascended the ranks or when he washed himself. Then there were days, or rather several days, which seemed to depend on the will of the gods, in which he could not escape his gender. Like today, for example, on a beautiful sunny day, which could be endured in the shade of the trees even with constant physical exertion. Only the day was not to be endured, because his abdomen seemed to have a personal vendetta against him and to want to remind him with all power of his sex. Which the latter also succeeded in doing. After all, he had not experienced such bad pain during menstruation for a long time as he did today on this day.

As a Psion in his old life, this pain and the sensations of women had of course not remained hidden from him. Every Psion got to know what was thought and felt around him unless of course, he was not a very good Psion. Not that you have to be a psion to see when women are on their period, as they could then become a bit sickly, both physically and in the mood. However, as in his old life, he could understand why some would be displeased if they had to go through such pain and that every month anew.

Now, of course, he couldn't just read it from the faces and thoughts of the people around him, but he had the dubious honor of experiencing it firsthand. They always seemed to have a surprise ready for you, sometimes strong, sometimes weak, or sometimes so that you didn't even notice anything about it, except that you were a little more irritable than usual. But that could just as well be due to other things.

As he continued to walk along and let the whole thing go through his mind once again, he asked himself the question of how he actually saw himself. Would much change if he no longer spoke of himself as he, but as she? That would not mean that he would give up his search for a solution. Whereas solution would probably be the wrong term for him from his point of view it was a problem to which he wanted to find a solution, so maybe solution after all. He shook his head, this was not something he should get hung upon. It was what it was and he wanted what he wanted. For now, though, there was still nothing he could do about his situation and he had to endure the constant reminder of his new gender through his body. Not that he didn't feel a certain pride, since he had created such a body, and he was not a man who did his work badly. He had let all his knowledge flow into this body, well, he had made the mistake that he had built his physique on his old male human. Until now, however, he had not been able to find any disadvantages or even a mistake. He saw this body as his masterpiece and didn't want to destroy it if he was honest with himself and he still didn't know if he would survive another death, even if he had an idea by now what had made him survive his first death.

He continued to think about this for quite a while as he struggled to move forward. Until, around noon, he decided that there was no point in continuing to fight his body. He looked for an appropriate tree on which he could set up his camp or something similar, where he was protected from wind and weather and could set up his camp. He would soon have to set up a proper, longer inhabited camp so that he could prepare hunted meat and prepare it for a later time. He also had a similar feeling as if he was climbing a mountain and he was getting less and less air, only with Arcane Energy and the other way around. That Arcane Energy was rushing at him and he had to get used to the intensity with which it tried to rush into him when he accumulated it.

So he spent the late afternoon looking for a suitable place where he could set up a temporary camp. All the while making sure he watched for signs of animals and monsters. Hoping that he could learn from more cores and that he would find a source of food as well as water to consume or to wash in. So he kept enlarging his mental map of the area as he walked around in ever-widening circles.

As the late afternoon turned into early evening, he was lucky and found a large tree on which he could build a treehouse without any problems, hoping that no predators or monsters were living in the vicinity that could climb trees.

One observation he had made in the last few days was that on this continent there were more animals and monsters with a core. Far more than on Arsacid, his former home. On which every animal or monster with a core was hunted like a trophy to be displayed alive or dead. This is why he hoped that none of the monsters or predators living here could climb trees or attack him from the ground.

For the first night, he made himself comfortable on a wide branch, on which he secured himself with a rope so that he would not fall down while he slept. Then, as he sat on his branch, Lerne wrapped around his legs, watching the setting sun, his thoughts returned to the question of himself and how he wanted to see himself.

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He had made centuries of life experience as a man, what were his sixteen years lived so far or his still coming years. He could not know how long it would take him to find a way to change his gender and race back to that of a human male. Until that time, however, the outside world would perceive him as a female demon, and he didn't want to spend all that time trying to change his surroundings, either by reminding them or by messing with their memories. Not that anyone would see him out here in the wilderness, at least he doubted he would run into anyone. It was more for him and that he came to grips with his own inner problems, as his appearance and his own perception did not match that of the outside world. Which can be dangerous, both for him but also his opponents. Nevertheless, it was more about him reconciling his divergent perceptions so that they did not hinder him further. Because it bothered him on some level of himself that his inside and outside I did not agree and he had a wrong perception. It seemed to him like a weakness, which he would rather not allow himself.

So he decided, as the moon rose over Arkan, that from now on he would think of himself as she or he would try... She would try, what were a few decades in the body of a woman and another race. It could be only experiences, which she could collect now and possibly also should. Experience finally formed the mind and possibly the aura one emitted, at least that was a theory he... She had, how she could recognize others like herself. Possibly this made him a better Psion. Practicing the runes and the mandala of the Hangistkata, she finally fell asleep under a large full moon high in the starry sky, with a red star watching over her.

Demon continent Alsace in the year 237 in the 8-month of Mogum on the 9th day after the destruction of the empire.

She had spent the last few days hunting and exploring the area. She had found a river, which was regularly frequented by the local fauna. As well as by her, to wash after each hunt.

There were some monsters she could hunt and all of them had a core, which she took and examined for runes or a mandala. Not all of them reacted like the core of the dead Hangistkata but had to be fed with arcane energy and she had to enter them with her senses to uncover their secrets. Sometimes she also set out to find knowledge in the spirit of monsters or animals. However, this was as difficult and dangerous as entering the mind of an undead, since one could lose oneself in the strangeness of the animal or monster mind, and when one found the back to one's old body, one behaved exactly like the animal or monster.

The monsters she encountered here were all quite animal-like in appearance, as she had already noticed in the Hangistkata. She could not remember any monsters from her old lives that had the resemblance to animals like here. Conversely, the same was true she could not recall ever encountering a monster here on Alsace that looked like those from her old life.

Monsters were supposedly the children of Titans, if he was to believe his family's internal history, this was true, and again, he had learned this from Sappho and Sia. Nevertheless, no "monster", against which he had fought in this life, fit into the learned picture. But why not? And what was the difference between the two continents or was there even a time difference. She had to pause, what if she was born much later than she had died? What if there were decades or even centuries between her death and rebirth? Something she didn't know, since she didn't know what year it was after the empire was crushed when she was murdered, and she had learned shockingly little about other nations and continents. So it could be possible that over the past time, the races of the Titans had changed, becoming more and more like animals. A question to which she would hopefully find an answer at a later time. Wouldn't that be some kind of reward for the monsters who had fought alongside their Titan parents against the gods and the divine races? Again, the same answer she often had to give herself in this life, that she would find out everything at a later time, or at least hoped she would.

In any case, the monsters, if one wanted to call them so, were a bit more different here than even a bit closer to the settlement areas of the demons. From snake-like, which immediately threw themselves in front of her, to bear-like and bird-like monsters. She had also encountered insect monsters that reminded her of ants. Except that all monsters always had one or more limbs more than an animal. So they had six or eight legs or several heads or tails. As diverse as the monsters were in appearance, they were still so diverse in the use of magic and body art, only no monster that used Psioni was found by her.

So it went a few days in which she hunted, processed the meat of the monsters, and gathered their cores, when she was doing neither, she worked on her camp. She had cut down some of the trees around her tree and set about processing this into planks which she planned to use for a simple hut in the tree. Fortunately, the bark from some of the trees was suitable for making ropes from which she could make a hammock. The whole house she had assembled with wooden nails or inserted into each other, that it would hopefully hold. She had used the leaves and smaller branches together with other plants for a roof, which she had fastened with further ropes.

These efforts made her empty her whole core and demanded all her knowledge. From body art to magic and psioni, she had to use everything. Sometimes several times at the same time. But in the end, she stood in front of her finished little treehouse. The first thing she had created in this lifetime with her own skills.

She had forgotten a hanging ladder.