GLORY TO THE SPIRIT!
GLORY TO THE DEITY!
GLORY TO SAMSARA!
A universal ritual was unfolding across all of Samsara. Billions of beings throughout the Samsara universe prayed fervently to their deities, their hopes pinned on the ritual's success.
ᚨᚾᚨᚦᚨᚨᚦᛗᚨᚾᚨᛗ ᛈᚨᚦᚨᛗ ᛊᚢᚱᚨᚦᛊᚺᛁᛏᚨᛗ ᚲᚢᚱᚢ
ᛗᚱᛁᛏᛃᛟᚱᛗᚢᚲᛊᚺᛖᛃᚨ ᛗᚨᚨᛗᚱᛁᛏᚨᛏ
Golden streams of faith energy flowed upwards, directed towards the gods who channeled their divine sparks into sustaining the ritual.
Slowly, the runes lit up, signaling the nearing completion of the spell. As the final rune blazed to life, the fabric of space within the divine kingdoms tore open, sealing itself shut only after drawing in thousand souls scattered across the universe.
One of these souls was Ren, summoned to Samsara’s spirit abode with six others. No, they were more than mere people: a qilin with iridescent green scales shimmering in the light; an angel with radiant, unfurled wings; a horned demon, its ashen skin marked by burning eyes; a ghost, its form flickering in and out of existence; a human, standing resolute and unyielding; and a giant, looming above them all.
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Ren’s POV
As I regained awareness, I found myself in Samsara's spirit abode—a realm where all six realms of existence converged.
All six of us are admiring our surroundings which depicted the glimpses of six realms—an intricate tablet depicting devas indulging in a soma-laden banquet, asura statues wielding formidable weapons, dragon and phoenix murals safeguarding their kin, illusions of ghosts drifting through star-lit skies, paintings of demons bowing before the Supreme, and texts talking about humans striving to learn and share knowledge.
"Welcome to Samsara!," the violet spirit proclaimed, her voice echoing through the hall as she addressed us.
"YOU ARE ALL HERE FOR ONE PURPOSE: THE CONTINUED SURVIVAL OF SAMSARA."
"Each of you harbors a wish you would sacrifice anything to see fulfilled," she continued, her gaze sweeping across the room, prompting each of us to recall our deepest desires. I blinked, baffled.
Why is she shouting like a crazed old grandma? And why exactly should I care about saving some random universe? Was this even real? Where is Maya?
I looked around at the others, half-expecting someone to question all this nonsense, but instead, they all nodded along, like they completely bought into it.
Seriously? Am I the only one here wondering why everyone’s just nodding their heads while she’s spewing this cosmic mumbo jumbo? Survival against void beings? Corruption? Does anyone know what any of this means?!
My brain is in full meltdown mode. Wait, can a soul have a brain? What is the anatomy of a soul anyway? I thought I'd be meeting my love, but nope, here I was in some ancient, alien-looking hall with a holy hologram AI yelling at me to save the universe. Seriously, what?!
Meanwhile, sensing my internal freak-out, the purple spirit sent some wisps of purple mist into my soul, which instantly brought up some bizarre visions.
The visions reminded me of my desires. How I wanted to be reunited with my wife and let her meet with our daughter and granddaughter.
Somehow, through all the ritualistic chaos and grand speeches, a future had started to form like a fate where all my desires will be answered. All I had to do was survive for 179 years, find my wife in some mysterious "distant lands," and get myself a divine seat.
How hard can it be?
The others were having similar revelations, or at least that’s what I assumed. They all had the same glazed-over, determined look on their faces. I could only hope they were a bit more in the loop than I was.
"Just like the others summoned across the universe, the ritual will grant you an immortal body until you reach the age of 14 cycles. You will each receive three skills of your choosing. However, unlike the others, your skill cap will not be merely 'Rare'—it will be 'Legendary'. Instead of receiving a blessing, you will have the opportunity to choose a destiny. As a chosen of Samsara, you will also gain an aspect," the spirit explained, highlighting the advantages they had over the other summoned souls spread across the divine kingdoms.
I just stared, trying to wrap my head around all of this.
Immortal body? Legendary skill cap? Destiny and aspect? This felt less like a heroic quest and more like some kind of game. Skills, stats, immortality—what was next, an experience points bar? Honestly, it felt like someone forgot to put in an instruction manual before the orientation.
Before the spirit asked us to make our choices, she connected our consciousness to an interface, akin to virtual reality goggles but directly implanted into our minds.
Seriously, do souls have brains?
This interface provided a detailed overview of our situation, the new immortality, its limitations, the skill tiers and classifications, the distinction between a blessing and a destiny, and finally, what it meant to possess an aspect.
Oh great, now it really is like a game.
I glanced at the others, but they still looked like they were buying into the whole deal. I sighed. Either they were all faking it really well, or I was the only one totally out of my depth. I was getting 'that kid in class who didn't do the homework' vibe, and it was not pleasant.
"All seven of you were handpicked by me, kekeke, mother will be very happy," the spirit declared, laughing like a maniac. "I’ve studied your past lives, scrutinized every little decision, and guess what? You all made the cut! Reviewing your profiles on the interface, I'm thrilled to say I made the right choice. Some of you even came with fancy innate skills, and there's one of you who’s just the crème de la crème, with perfect immortality." The spirit’s eyes glowed with pride, her manic smile widening as she looked like she was about to burst from her own enthusiasm.
I thought of Harry Potter and how he must have felt when everyone praised him and he had no clue why. Yeah, just like that—except I didn't even get a cool scar. Instead, I have this green glowing armor, which, I guess, is my weird magical accessory. Not quite as subtle as a lightning bolt on my forehead, but hey, at least it stands out. So, I thought of the word 'profile' and immediately a screen popped up in my thoughts.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Name: Ren
Race:()
Rank-
Level-
Status- Boon
Title: Chosen
HP: () Mana: ()
Attributes:
Strength-
Constitution-
Agility-
Vitality-
Dexterity-
Intelligence-
Will-
Perception-
Charisma-
Spirit-
FA-
Destiny:
Aspect:
Skills:
Active-
Passive-
Innate-UNIX ( Design, Create, Store)-EX, RRR (Reincarnate, Resurrect, Recall)-EX
Arms:
AC:
Apart from the radiant boon replacing the Immortality (14 cycles) and my innate skills, my profile should be similar to the others.
The violet spirit turned to Ren and said, "Now, before we proceed with the selections, we must address your boon. Since you possess an innate skill granting you a form of immortality, the ritual has converted the excess cosmic energy into a boon. If your wish is worthy enough, the entire boon will be consumed. Otherwise, any remaining energy can be used to fulfill other smaller wishes. So, Ren, make your wish!"
"Will the suit armoring my soul be able to follow me to the material realm?" I asked. It was the only tangible reminder of his past life, crafted lovingly over years with his daughter. Parting with it felt unbearable.
"Though the weird suit of armor has bonded to your soul, it must be sealed away to avoid impeding the growth of your physical body when you enter the material world," the spirit explained. "It will be stored in a personal vault under your name here, and you may reclaim it once you become powerful enough." The spirit's expression became somber. "Possessing the Arm during your body's reconstruction would be too dangerous—an unpredictable experiment that could have unprecedented consequences."
"However, you can wish for it. If it is within the power of the boon, it will be granted."
I took a deep breath and spoke my wish clearly.
A moment later, the interface responded: "Boon granted. Half of the boon was consumed."
I immediately accessed my interface to confirm the change, and there it was—in the section labeled 'Arms':
Arms: Spectral Arm (Prime Nova)
The system had given name to his armor, designating it as an 'Arm,' though the significance of the term remained unclear to him.
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Then came the fun part—the skill catalogue. And by fun, I mean incredibly overwhelming. It was like browsing through an endless RPG skill tree, except everything sounded amazing.
So, I’ve already got the suit doing all the defensive and offensive heavy lifting, right? What I really need is something that clicks with my fighting style—like if Iron Man got to pick a superpower, you know he'd go for technopathy. But here, there’s no skill that screams “tech wizardry,” and I can’t even tell if "Supreme Arms" is some kind of tech thing or just a fancy name for extra buff muscles. The glossary? Yeah, totally useless. It’s like it went to law school just to blur all the descriptions instead of telling me what the skills actually do.
But some of them did catch my eye, first up, telekinetics. It wasn’t just about moving things with my mind for convenience—it was about control. In a fight, being able to manipulate the environment, disarm an opponent, or even defend myself without physical movement could be a game-changer. With my armor amplifying my abilities, telekinetics would let me harness its power in a precise and tactical way.
Next, I went with vibration control. This one had serious potential when paired with my armor. Vibration control could help me manipulate frequencies to enhance my armor’s offensive and defensive capabilities. I could create shockwaves, destabilize structures, or even fine-tune it to break apart materials. The possibilities for offense, defense, and utility were huge, making it a logical choice for surviving in unpredictable circumstances.
Lastly, I picked teleportation. Not just because it was cool, but because it was essential. In battle, positioning is everything. Teleportation could help me stay mobile, avoid dangerous situations, and create opportunities to strike. Plus, with the suit, teleportation could become a lot more strategic, allowing me to move in and out of situations while fully armored. All three skills were ranked as 'Rare', which wasn’t the highest, but they had a lot of potential with the right synergy, and I intended to make the most of them.
Sure, there were some awesome passives with names like Temporal Affinity and Super Luck, but honestly, I had no clue what they actually did. For all I knew, Temporal Affinity could mean I'd be stuck in a time loop. So, I figured it was safer to stick with skills that were a bit more obvious in what they did—no surprises, no regrets.
And I've got some boon energy left over too, so maybe I can upgrade these skills to their legendary rank. So I went ahead and wished for those skills to be upgraded, and just like that, they leveled up.
Skills:
Active- Dominion of Mind-Legendary, Cosmic Resonance-Legendary, Void Step-Legendary
After I made my choices, the spirit gestured us toward these weird glowing walls. One wall had seven runes, while the parallel wall had 333 Arms, from which we had to choose. I ended up picking my rune and arm—one from the wall with seven runes for my aspect, and one from the wall with 333 arms for my destiny.
Destiny: Keeper of Souls-Divine
Aspect: Wrath(Split,Combine)-Cosmic
Honestly, I felt like I was putting together a character build for a game I didn’t fully understand, but I guess that’s just how things worked around here.
“Alright, now that we're done with all the boring official stuff, we can finally send you on your way. Wait, am I forgetting something? Oh, right, just a couple of small things—first, don’t kill each other, okay? If you do, the consequences will be... well, let’s just say not pretty. Second, you can challenge each other to duels if you want. Feel like gambling? You can put anything from your status up for grabs, and if you win, you get it from the other person.” The spirit said, conjuring up a pair of glasses and scanning through some scroll at breakneck speed, like she was double-checking a to-do list she might have missed.
The spirit's words sparked a mix of reactions from the seven contenders.
My mind was racing. Sure, challenging each other could be a solid way to get stronger. There was a lot to gain, and if I wanted to survive here, I couldn't afford to fall behind. But at the same time, the idea of gambling parts of our status felt risky. What if someone decided to take things too far? And what if I didn't agree with the rules of a duel, or the stakes being put up?
The spirit had said not to kill each other, but how severe were the "severe consequences"? How far could someone push the boundaries without crossing that line? The more I thought about it, the more complicated it seemed. It was clear that this "game" we were now part of had high stakes, and I wasn't sure everyone here would play fair.
But one thing was certain—if the others were going to use these duels to get stronger, I had to be ready. I couldn’t afford to be left behind. If they were leveling up, then I needed to level up too. Maybe I didn’t have a clear idea of what my destiny or aspect really meant yet, but I knew that I couldn't afford to be passive.
I sighed internally. Great, now I had to deal with potential fights and keep an eye on all these new allies-slash-rivals.
As I tried to process everything, the spirit began to wave her hand, and I could feel my soul starting to fade away—like, literally fade away. It was like my soul was loosening its form, becoming motes of light drifting down. Just as I was about to completely lose myself in the light, the spirit suddenly stopped.
"Ahh, I forgot something pretty important, I guess," she said nonchalantly, as if it was just a minor detail. "Oh, right, you'll all be reborn as babies! Yeah, sorry about that little omission. We can't have thousands of adult super-strong warriors just popping up all over the universe; that would totally destabilize things. So, we figured the best way is to have you reborn as newborns. Consider it like having parents as your training wheels before you eventually step into your roles as warrior kings for us. I hope you understand and cooperate."
If I still had a jaw, it would have dropped to the floor. Born again as a baby?! This was just perfect. I realized the others were also starting to lose it—their calm nodding and obedient faces, which had followed every word the spirit said, were now completely gone. Instead, they were throwing what could only be described as soul tantrums. It was a chaotic mess, and to be frank, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or worry.
Well, at least you guys are finally on the same page as me for once. Glad we can all collectively freak out together!