Darkness, the omnipresent void. Nothing could be seen, no discernable form nor artefact made itself apparent. Just the overbearing lack of existence. I am the sole-being drifting for an eternity it was draining.
Slowly, numerous flickers of existence made themselves apparent. They began as lights, slowly streaming from, somewhere. Flickers like fireflies, they began to take shape, and hold form their being. Another set of screens, similar to those prior, boards, gifts, power.
The information they presented, races, worlds, planes. Anywhere, anywhen, anywho, anyway, I wanted to be. More panels, options, and choices of creation made themselves present. Panels continued flashing into existence, more and more overwhelming.
I could say it was headache inducing, but I had no head. I was something, immaterial. But it was still pain, unbearable pain. More panels, red this time, speaking of errors, warnings. Something's gone wrong, but I suppose it's unsurprising, everything I took, why would I think I could just get away with all of it?
Gradually, in this eternity of pain and suffering, voices began to appear. They sang a sweet song, a soothing melody. They whispered in my ears of great fortune and power.
A voice, joined by many. The shouting began, one to start, then they all joined. A cacophony of madness drilled my ears. They demanded a chosen. They demanded to be chosen. What began as a pleasant melody soon deteriorated into a mania discordant.
I hear a voice, more distinct than the rest. It overpowers the others, and it calls me. Pleasant and soothing like before, pleasurable even. It calls to me, begs me to come find it in a language I don't understand. It is my guide, so i leave my shell, to chase far and wide in the sea of screens. It calls me, and so I go. To leave on a journey into the vastly occupied void.
Still more options present themselves, yet it stands above the rest, a shimmer of gold, runes and a language whose complexity I can't understand flow from within. I am guided by the voice, It is telling me to choose. So I do…
A flash! A blinding brilliance! It dies down, and a vortex is seen. It is taking, everything. The panels once overwhelming and ever-present in the void, are no more. It spoke thanking me, It had visibly swollen in size, now taking up most of the once thought to be, endless space. The sheer radiance of It was overwhelming now, It’s
[You, young one! You will call me Ark. Your, [Assistant], and guide to the omniverse. Now prepare yourself, for there is much to be done.]
Chanting began, this time louder than all voices before. It wasn't painful this time, however. Ark assures me and warns me to brace myself. The space around us was rippling, floods of light flashed before my eyes. Ruins appeared, then disappeared, cities took their place, then villages, then nothing...
[Brace yourself young one! This is the final destination!]
And so I do. I brace with everything I have. The rippling is larger this time, the void is shaking. Crumbling even. It hurts, it hurts on an unimaginable level. It doesn't stop this time, it feels like I'm being pulled apart, and put back together, over, and, over again. Then darkness.
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I take a deep breath the newfound feeling of air stings my insides. I attempt to open my eyes, resistance is found, no matter the force put into opening them I couldn't seem to get it to budge. I struggled to move my arms, a sense of heaviness overwhelmed them, I struggled to guide them to my face and to clear away whatever had been preventing me from opening my eyes.
A success! a layer of debris had shifted around me, a breathtaking sight it was to finally see. Light gleamed down from a tunnel above. Darkness surrounded me. A closer look denoted trees shifting in the tunnel above. Roots cascading down into the cave I found myself in.
I looked around moving my line of sight lower, an abhorrent sight filled my view. Bodies littered the ground around me. Not fresh, not by a long shot. Skeletons they were ancient looking things, some surprisingly preserved corpses tossed about. Moving my vision to myself I found my arms were shriveled, and my entire body appeared to be gray and dried. Leathery skin surrounded me, I checked myself thoroughly I had wings once again, albeit bony. The brilliance of my white wings in contrast with my shriveled and decrepit frame was mesmerizing, in a morbid fashion to say the least.
Pushing myself up was another challenge altogether. My malnourished body protested to move, how I was still alive was a complete mystery. Why I was here in this form was another. I fumbled on my grip overestimating my strength, a tumble followed propelling me to the ground. a resounding snap was heard rumbling throughout the tunnel, thus signalling the breakage of a bone. The lack of pain was surprising, in comparison to my arm that hung limply, noticeably twisted in a hideous fashion.
[Patience boy, take your time or you risk damaging yourself. Take calm and gather your strength, I'll heal you while we talk. For now, ask what questions you want.]
sarcasm in my voice "Yeah you think now is the time for questions?"
No shit I needed answers. This explosion of overall insanity was starting to grate on my nerves. The pain and suffering I experienced prior was just the tip of the iceberg at this point. It is time for answers, and so help me, I'm going to get them.
"Ok how about where are we. What happened? Where was I before this, that limbo, what was that? Why am I here, I thought I was getting reincarnated? And what happened to these people?" Just to start off this shit show anyway.
[To answer your first question, I don't know the exact location, A mid-high level plane for sure I can taste the pungent mana.]
[Your second question, you were in your soul space, the options presented to you where your gifts being assimilated into your being. As to what happened... Well to make the most sense for now; you had too much in your soul. The points left over were to refine and strengthen your soul. However... You simply had too much, I had to take on most of the gifts and refine them into myself which took time, lots of time. Your soul was damaged severely and I had to shield your ego, which I why is called you to me.]
He took a grave tone [That shuddering of your soul you saw was time passing before your eyes, locations moving, and your soul being torn apart and put back together. I'm sure it was agonizing, however, I had to limit the space of your soul, and restrain your power. I'm sure you don't understand, you might resent me for the torture, it's quite possible you don't even remember what happened. But it was all necessary, it was all to protect your ego, your personality. If I didn't we would have both died, then and there.]
His tone turned dry carrying a guilty undertone [ To answer your third and fourth question, You were going to be reincarnated. Focusing on were, as in the past. Unfortunately, due to our circumstances, I couldn't risk you undergoing reincarnation. Doing so presented the possibility of your soul just collapsing during transplantation. So instead I forcefully removed your soul during the process. Don't ask how, I'm more powerful than you think, after all, you inherited my legacy. ]
The guilt in his tone was overwhelming at this point [ These people came to investigate the phenomenon of you being forced into the world. You see that hole in the roof? ]
My head moved in sync with his words.
[ That is the result of me creating a beam of pure divine light. That was once the center of a town... Of course, seeing such an event, everyone rushed to the center thinking a legendary treasure had been born, a child of legend perhaps, or the coming of a god. Surrounding cities, kingdoms rushed here, anyone who heard of this event, or saw what was here, rushed to this very spot. I had a bubble of divine protection around you, try as they might, they couldn't see you, or what was left of you that is; let alone touch or harm you... ]
He paused and silence overtook the area. I let everything he said sink in for a moment. The fact that I had died once, and then almost died again had been numbing to say the least. I didn't fear death to begin with, I was the tool of my own destruction prior. My memories are still hazy and I can't seem to recall many details, I know what I did, I know my name to be Cardis. However, I had no recollection of or names of other people. I know that I once had children, but I don't know their names, how many, or even what they looked like.
My gaze wandered to my surroundings, first the light beaming from the tunnel above, then to the corpses and skeletons around me. Then I noticed the ruble and the now apparent anguish and suffering that the corpses had on their faces.
Things clicked in my mind at that moment, and I began connecting the dots present before me.
"Ark? What happened to these people! What did you do!?"
The guilty tone came back somber this time [ I did what had to be done... Your soul was shattered, so I needed to fill in what was lost... ]
A pause from Ark, more silence...
"Listen, Ark, as much as I don't like what you may have done, the fact that I'm still here is enough to me. If you did what I think you did, then that's fine, they still technically live on, right?"
Another pause...
[ Yes, yes they do... They live on inside you, inside us. As much as I hate to say it, they are part of a greater picture now. They may lack egos but... They are still alive.]
This has been undeniably draining. I wake up after being in a catatonic state for who knows how long. Then I get bombarded with new sights, and the moral dilemma that, what appears to be a few thousand people have died and have been stuffed into my soul... Just to keep me alive.
"I'm going to sleep again, Ark. Wake me up when I'm healed, if you can that is."
I just can't process any of it, nothing. I accepted that it happened, and quickly shoved it down deep down inside with the rest of my feelings and emotions. It would take time to process, and doing this now is a, lot, to take. I could cry now but I don't know when I'd stop. And not knowing something, like where I am, what the hell mana is, and the fact that I am probably some type of god now.
Again, I just can't even begin. I choose sleep I'm done. I need rest.
REST
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I was transitioning into slumber, yet, Ark thought it would be a brilliant idea to have me view his, our, my, [Library]. I just wanted sleep, to rest my mind after everything and maybe come to terms with it. But no this asshole of a person, thing, wanted me to read up on mana. Because he imagined it would help me deal with my issues.
The Library was in my soul space, inside of Ark for some damned reason. A lot of stuff was inside Ark actually. A whole civilization is what it looked like. All in a tint of gold, even the sky wasn't spared from the gaudy coloring scheme.
The Library itself was massive, taking up most of the space. It looked ancient, pillars of some type of marble caressed the outside of it. everything was still tinted gold I swear I'm never going to be able to look at gold it without some form of disgust.
The inside of the Library was equally gargantuan, it looked bigger on the inside than out. The horrendously unending line of bookshelves, and books for that matter was unnerving and unnatural.
Then it happened. The horns of the apocalypse sounded and spurred the bookshelves into motion. Books flew through the air, and bookshelves teleported out of the way. A smaller bookshelf appeared in front of me, and a hoard of books accompanied it.
They all flew at me, scaring the shit out of me. The bookes dodged and weaved around me in an intricate set of moves that could put any ace-pilot to shame. The hoard assembled and shot into the bookshelf filling it to the brim with booky goodness.
Happily, Ark vociferated [ Here are all the books on mana, and magic that will be useful to you for now. Read to your heart's content, while I work on your incomplete body. Hopefully, it won't take another eon. If you need anything just yell for me! ] his voice oddly booming and jumping in the library.
And so I read, and read the books, my understanding grew, and grew about the mystery called mana. I learned about the most important parts it seemed. I, however, did not find anything on what mana exactly was on this shelf. I learned of the metaphysical organs and the methods to stimulate them, as well as grow them.
There are four main organs that are consistent in most life forms. They are the bean(filter), reserve(storage), nexus(control), and branches(movement/usage). There are more mutated organs, and types that can appear, however, they are incredibly rare and often enough have no effect on mana, rather they have an effect on the body. These organs except for two special noteworthy ones can be trained and tempered just like your muscles. By repeated use, and strain.
The bean(Filter) is incredibly important, it determines how far you can go on your path in consideration to your use of mana. Especially if you intend to use mana for spells, or as a sorcerer. However, as a warrior, quality and purity of mana aren't necessary, so warriors are typically prevalent. Anyways, The bean is important as a filter, it purifies and compresses mana; quality changes through one's life and is dependent on location and age, as well as means of training. The bean is the hardest magic organ to train, as such, it is a common misconception that it is impossible to train and you are stuck with your mana purity for life. Training of the bean involves cultivation in a sense, active meditation and circling routes of mana to improve and refine the bean, thus, in turn, improves the beans in most ways. However, as much of a marvel as it is, with it being an often unknown method of training, it is common in most planes and worlds for mana training methods to be uncirculated and restricted to clans, and guilds.
The nexus is also important, more so for those that walk to path of a spellcaster, or sorcerer. The nexus determines your affinities and degree of control over mana. The general consensus among the books is that the nexus assigns mana to your being and body which then puts it under your control. This prevents someone from hijacking your mana and using it against you to a certain degree. High-level sorcerers can turn your mana against you if they have enough control or a mutated nexus. Training the nexus involves a regular exercise of control and refinement.
My interest grew in mana, and so did my time spent. The most saddening information I found was in a piece talking about mana, and briefly walked around exactly what mana was, yet they didn't go into detail. I saw a depiction of mana a lone strand of mana, inside it were particles. However, the particles resembled something I found in my past life. Unobtanium...
It was quite a bit jarring to find out that mana was a particle, albeit infinitesimally small. Smaller than any quark, or lepton. Multiply the size of a quark by about a negative-googolplex and you should get around the size of it. I still to this day have not an inkling of a clue as to how I found it.
I found it beyond interesting how different classes worked in general. So interested in how they used mana, and what mana could do. Another saddening prospect was how little I used mana in my previous life, and how we didn't attempt to use it for more broad tasks. I found myself undecided on which path to take, there were many different paths to take, the most common in order being Warrior, spellcaster, and sorcerer.
I yelled for Ark "Ark! How should I use mana? Should I be a spellcaster, sorcerer, or warrior?"
[I've taken the liberty of setting your body up to be a Magus. Sorcerer is similar but by far different, Sorcery is a perversion of being a wizard it is honestly useless, they use raw mana and skin-deep understanding of how the fundamentals of the world work. Taking for granted chemical reactions. They throw around fire and lightning, when they could be summoning magic, and throwing pure plasma at their enemies.]
A pause for a brief moment, and Ark returns in a commanding tone [ I expect you to at least follow the path of a magus, otherwise I'd be sorely disappointed in you. ]
" I haven't seen any information on what a Magus is. Is it the same as a mage? "
He scoffs [No a Magus is Magus, there is no other term. It is a rare specialty most similar to what you were in your past life. A magus is someone who uses research and understanding, and turns it into a terrible weapon or a beneficial gift to those around him. Unfortunately, it is a commonly overlooked path, yet most paths use their knowledge in their own fields. Especially spellcasters, those dreaded bastards don't use anything of their own, pilfering a magus's hard-earned earned work and knowledge, and perverting it.] his utter contempt for spellcasters was made apparent.
Returning to his normal monotone sage mode [ Listen youngling, you will walk the path of a god, and use divinity. However, your soul is not strong enough yet to shoulder my legacy. Like those corpses from before, to expand your soul, you have a few choices. You can either steal pieces from souls who've passed in close proximity, either by you slaying them, or just death near you. Or you can bide your time and wait for your soul to expand by itself. The last option is to learn a lot, knowledge is power, after all, an increase in the size of your ego(personality/memories) will cause your soul to grow and shield it. ]
"Why don't you use your divinity to make my soul larger?" I asked in a quizzical tone
[ I can if you steal someone else's. Unfortunately, it is the systems domain when it comes to souls, they are incredibly complex and often times fleeting. If I force it to expand, I run the risk of breaking your soul... I myself can't create a soul, only by rocking the walls lightly can I make it expand slightly. Any more and the wall will shatter. The only reason I can even touch your soul lightly is because of the reinforcement of it by the system. Luckily you won't have to worry about anyone shattering your soul unless they are as strong as me, which mind you, is incredibly unlikely. ]
I swear I could see his shit eating grin from here.
"So divinity" I paused "What is it and how does it work I heard it is similar to mana..".
[No] earning me another scoff [ Learning too much about it now will hamper your future, but it is nowhere close to mana, divinity is a supreme force. Whatever you want it to be is what it shall be. You can create, you can destroy, and you can change. Understanding and knowledge of all will help with your powers. But most of all is time].
A ripple of the space around me and a pulling sensation takes over.
[It is time to wake up youngling, but before I send you along. Take a look at this it should clear up some more questions and probably create more...]
Gifts: [Library] [̶͚̖́̊Ḁ̷̙̂̓̕͝s̶̩̖̬͕̓̿̚s̴͔̗̟̙̉̉í̷̧̛̻̲͌͛s̴̲̓͊͋t̷̘͔̦͖̓͒a̴̯͇̹̐n̵̻͈͇͑̔̐̏t̷͉̎̓̑̀]̸͉͊̈́͂ [Legacy] [Administrator] [Superableness] [░̶̶̵̶̵̵̶̴̸̨̧̧̱̠̟̠̬̭͈̫̬̻̭͙̻̳͙͎͇̯̟͔̟͚͉̲̠̜͔͕͇̤̣̝̹̘̥̾̇̀̿̽̀̇̉̑̂́̾͗̊͐̓̈́̾̾͂̾̔͐̔̇́̐̀͂͛̽͆̆̒̇̏̕̕̕͜͜ͅ░̸̸̷̷̸̢̺̗̝͇̯̥͎̤̟͎͖͍͒̄͂̐̋̈́̇̂̈́̂̀̽̿̍̊̉͜͜͝ͅͅ░̴̶̷̴̷̴̶̶̛̛͇͈͓̯̠̰̫͍̫̜̱̭͖̫̗̭̱̼̩̦̯͇̭̣̪̭̟̱̠͊͌̀̈́̓̈́̓̄̊͐̔̉́̒͠͝͝ Comprehension]
Magus Knowledge:
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Particle physics[Incomplete],
Nuclear physics[Incomplete],
Quantum Mechanics[Incomplete],
Space Physics[Incomplete]
Astronomy[Incomplete]
[Corrupted]
Name: Cardis Galilei Soul Width: 100(Mortal) Upgrades( [Transcendent(+1%): 200], [Lesser God(+9%): 500], [God(+30%): 1350], [True God(+20%): 3000], [Arch God(+40%): ???], [Administrator(???): ???], [By???s] Race:Hybrid(Ancient High-Elf/Archon) (Primordial)Arch-Divinity: 0.1% Multiplier: 1x, Minor-Creation(Restricted: 99.9%), Minor-Destruction(Restricted: 99.9%), Minor-Manipulation(Restricted: 98%) Administrator(Restricted)