Matt awoke with a jolt, patting his body. Jumping up to grab his pistol, taking two quick steps forward. Before he could reach it, he was on the floor, his legs getting caught up in each other. Trying to push himself up and noticing Merlin backing away hands raised in the air.

"What the fuck!" Matt yelled, as Merlin tried to be as non-threating as possible.

Floundering on the floor like a new born calf. Matt yelled at Merlin again, "What the fuck did you do to me?"

"Relax Matt..", Merlin tried to say.

"No mother fucker, let me shove a cow prod up your ass, then tell me how relaxed you are."

"Enough!" Merlin yelled as fire enveloped his hands

Stunned at the display of power, Matt stilled and slowly inched his way towards the table.

Merlin sighed and let the fire extinguish. Walking forward to grab the pistol, Matt's eyes widened as he lay helplessly on the floor, and his shoulders sagged in relief as Merlin tossed the gun out of the kitchen and knelt down next to him.

"Look Matt, do you feel any pain?"

Stopping to feel his body as the adrenaline wore off.

"No, actually I don't. I feel great."

"I didn't cause to pain to harm you. It was necessary to fix you. Look behind you, all the rods and pins in your back have been expunged from your body. You're actually stronger and faster than you were in your prime. I injected a wisp of Qi into you, opening your dantian. It'll take a few hours to get your coordination back. Here let me help."

Merlin lifted his hand and Matt felt himself float off of the floor in sync with Merlin's movements. Merlin stood and walked into the living room that was furnished with only a ratty couch, a recliner, and TV mounted on the wall. Lowing his hand, Merlin rested Matt on the couch as he took a seat facing him in the recliner.

"Now that you've joined us I can answer a few more questions in depth."

"Ok, why can't I return to earth?"

Merlin slumped, took a deep breath and rubbed his face, the years suddenly showing on his body. "You used to be able to. With no free essence it was thought that cultivation would be stalled by returning to earth. Sure you'd be stronger and faster than almost anyone. Enough that back in the day men would proclaim themselves Kings or Emperors and carve out a section of land as they ruled over the mortals. This is were most of the clans and sects draw thier people from as the descendents of their branch families, they have first claim. Around two thousand years ago a genius cultivator of the Atlantis Guild came back to earth and we were all stunned. How could he pause his cultivation and be content to rule over mortals instead of striving for Immortality."

"He found a way around it didn't he?"

"Yes, he had a fortunous encounter in a forbidden realm and accepted the legacy of a demonic cultivator."

"What makes someone a demonic cultivator?" Matt asked curiously.

"To take something from another sentient being and use it to cultivate. Lifeforce, virginity, their soul." Merlin trailed off.

"Woah, the soul is real? Like I can gain eternal life in heaven if I give my soul to Jesus Christ?"

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"The soul is sacred, and should never be given to anyone." Merlin replied heatedly, "Infact the name of the demonic cultivator was Jesus of Nazareth. I was there you know, I just use the name Merlin because I failed to stop him. It's a shame for me to use my original name as I failed so many."

"Holy fuck, your Judas."

"Yes, I am", Merlin replied.

"Holy fucking fucksticks, if people knew there would be riots in the streets. Hell, half of Earth's governments would collapse." Matt looked at Merlin with wide eyes disbelief. "How did he even pull it off?"

"So let's begin with the history of the Earth." Merlin said with Matt now full entrenched in the lesson.

"Three hundred thousand years ago the Earth was discovered by the Atlantis Guild. As humanity had just lost their homeworld to the star going supernova, the human forces spread out through the galaxy looking for a new home. After we found Earth, all the human forces rushed to settle the new world. A few forces didn't want the humans to regroup on a new world and a war of attrition was fought for the planet. After decades of struggle, we finally won but being reduced to a shell of our former selves the humans retreated from galactic politics. Over the millennia, wars were constant on Earth. Until twelve thousand years ago an initiative was taken to protect the Earth. Massive pyramids were built, inlaid with thousands of runes that channel all of the free essence back into the planets core, and trap any non human on the planet.

"Now the planet's core is very important, its why we settled on Earth and why we fought so hard to keep it. Earth has a soul core and an extremely large one at that. Every sentient being borne requires soul energy from a planet. If there is not enough energy then the child is stillborn. Now the pyramids keep any powerful beings from threatening the planet because coming here would just be a death sentence. So Earth has become the cradle of humanity. Most planets only allow for a billion beings on them before they are too taxed. That's what makes Earth so special and why it was heavily fought over."

"Why is there no evidence of any of this?" Matt asked.

"Remember when I said you'd have the power to reshape continents? Most evidence was erased in the fighting but it's still there, besides just the pyramids. Ever heard of the proto humans?

Ancient ancestors or cousins of the homo sapiens?"

"Yea, what about them" Matt enquired.

"Well Neanderthals are actually Orc remains, Homo rhodesiensis are dwarfs, and Denisova hominins are Elves. There are others thought to be prehumans due to the small cranial size. But in reality Homo naledi, and Homo floresiensis are just Goblin and gnome remains"

"Ok, so Earth is important"

"Very much so Matt. It has given humanity the ability to stand firm against a myriad of races allied against us."

"How does Earth's massive soul core relate to Jesus?"

"Well Jesus didn't just get the cultivation technique from the forbidden realm, he also came back with three artifacts. What you know as the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, and the Spear of Destiny.

The Ark is a sudo soul core able to trap souls and refine them for consumption. The Spear is able to sever a soul from the body and from a planet core. And the Grail is used to hold a portion of a soul so one can be reborn, and have a second life if they were to die."

"So the stories of You and Arthur and the knights searching for the Holy Grail are true?"

"Very astute of you Matt. Yes, we searched and found the Holy Grail and destroyed the portion of Jesus's soul so that he could die his final death. On the road to cultivate to Immortality there are tribulations from the Heavens one must pass. Jesus hid a portion of his untainted soul before he started cultivating with the Ark. Now the Ark is like a planetary core but it's not perfect. There is still a small portion that's tainted. While it's not an issue for absorbing one or two souls, Jesus cultivated millions of souls. Now a soul has memory and even when separated the sectioned off portion would naturally regain that size of the original eventually if the main soul were to perish. Jesus planned to face the divine tribulation, and gain insight to the Dao through it and let his tainted soul perish. Then after being reborn through the Grail, and going at it again after the second soul healed and regained the power of the first."

"Ok, well didn't know horucurx's were an actual thing." Matt said, "I feel like your going to ruin more of my childhood next."

"Matt, even the most incredulous of myths and stories have some form of truth behind them."

"So me and a group of knights searched the Middle East for decades before finding the Grail. It really was a race against time, but in the end we found the Grail before Jesus went through his tribulation. Even though we managed that, the Earth was still damaged at the time. The Bubonic Plague was the planet's response to recoup a large portion of the lost soul energy. Sixtyfive percent of the world's population died for one man's greed for power."

"How did he manage to fool everyone?" Matt asked, with a skeptical look.

"Well when he went around healing the masses which gained him a cult like following, we all thought he was trying to carve out a kingdom for himself to start his own clan. By using peace and not war it was thought to be revolutionary. By the time I caught on he started the ritual to unbind his soul from earth and attune the Ark to steal the souls that gave themselves over to him before I could get help from the Guild to stop him."

"Wait a damn minute," Matt interrupted. "the crucifixion was a demonic ritual used to set the stage for a hoax of a religion to steal millions of souls. Which caused the planet to later unleash the Bubonic Plague killing of a majority of humans to recoup the lost soul energy?"

"Yes Matt, and that is the reason most cultivators are not allowed back on the planet after they start cultivating."

"Then how did you come to be on earth?"

"To be a protector of Earth one must prove that they value the safety and security of Earth over everything else." Dejectedly, Merlin replied, "Jesus wasn't born to a virgin, it's kind of impossible when you already have an older brother."

"Shit Merlin, that's a giant kick to the nuts." Matt said, whie stretching out. "I think I need a drink, you want one?" Matt went to get up and landed on his face. "Fuck"

Merlin chuckled as he levitated Matt back onto the couch. "Yes, it was very hard to stomach. Even though I loved him dearly I could not let him sacrifice so many innocent people."

Reaching his hand out, the bottle in the kitchen floated into the living room. "A drink sounds nice, then you need to rest. So let us drink to the fallen, I'll still be here in the morning. I need to walk you through your first steps of cultivation."