Authors Note: We finally get to the point of the pre-prologue in this chapter. Thanks to those who are still reading this story. There is a bit of a side chapter after this before the world info dump.
Pre-Prologue part3: Sealed Soul
Viewpoint: Main Character (MC)
We’ve been holding the formation for about half an hour now, and should be able to hold for another hour at least if nothing interferes. The guardian next to me sighs, whether in relief or worry I can’t tell.
MC: “What is it?”
Guardian: “The others activated the artifact at the entrance to seal it and are on their way back. One stayed back to monitor the seal but with the others we don’t have to worry about this thing escaping anymore.”
MC: “Will it be enough to destroy it?”
Senior Administrator: “Not definitely, once the seal comes down the four of us will be too drained to fight and the nightmare might be able to escape or steal power from the remaining. We’ll rotate maintaining the seal and standing guard until there is enough power to destroy the nightmare instantly when we take the seal down.”
When the other guardians arrive they replace us and the junior administrators at the triangle points. The junior administrators tend to the wounded guardian. After they’ll stand guard and recover energy so they can take turns holding the seal. I on the other hand get told to watch over the mass of souls that haven’t made a run for it. After having watched the fight with the nightmare none of the souls wanted to challenge any of us and stayed put.
After an hour all of us could feel the arrival of powerful beings, two celestials and a demon. One of the junior administrators flies up to take the administrator senior’s place at the seal, while the other comes to replace me and orders me to the others. Coming up behind the Administrator I see him bowing to the three in turn.
Senior Administrator: “Yama Xue, Chief administrator Joel, Demon King Babel, I, Administrator Diyu, thank you for answering my call for assistance.”
The three seem surprised and look at each other. The first to speak is the demon as he looks back with a scowl; followed by the other two.
Babel: “I didn’t come to assist you celestial; I came to find why my beasts have been acting up. To think it’s because of a soul with positive karma.”
Joel: “I came to check on the soul and find out why the sealing artifact was used at this entrance.”
Xue: “I came in answer to a call for arbitration with Judge Hao. It surprised me and when I went to see him he asked for the soul to be immediately stripped for attacking him.”
Diyu: “Lords this soul had the positive karma and was also mistakenly sent to this mortal entrance. When I noticed this I sent out an alert and sent most of my guardians to hold the entrance just in case. However there was a strange creature among the souls that we had to seal. My guardians used the artifact so that they could return to assist me.”
Babel smirks as he makes a few snide comments aimed at the other celestials. On the other hand Joel focuses on Diyu at the mention of needing to seal the beast instead of subdue it.
Babel: “Oh so not only did a judge send a soul to hell without stripping the karma but he even sent an immortal soul here, not to mention some other beast that the guardians can’t subdue. Are the celestials starting to lose their touch I wonder?”
Joel: “What is the creature?”
Diyu: “I’ve never seen anything like it before but this soul called it a Nightmare of Tartaro.”
At the mention of that world the expression on the three turns grim. Xue points to the pyramid.
Xue: “The creature is in that formation yes? If it is indeed a Nightmare I’ll destroy it.”
So saying he flies to the seal and looks within. Suddenly a bright light from Xue breaks the seal and we can hear a terrible howl. Blinking from the flash I find that Diyu and myself have been teleported back to the pavilion this started at, but this time it is Xue that is behind the desk.
Xue: “Diyu explain everything that has happened.”
Diyu reports on everything that happened from his perspective since he noticed the guardians tense. Xue takes a moment to contemplate before questioning the two of us.
Xue: “You said you saw an odd dense ball of negative karma in the nightmare. How did you see the karma and notice the oddity while the judge that sent it here did not.”
Diyu: “I developed a technique to see and read karma so that I could avoid needing to scan and read negative souls. I am not as skilled reading positive karma which led to my placement here. I believe it probably worked to block that from the soul scan. Since my technique is much less invasive and energy intensive I doubt it even knew what I was doing and so was not trying to hide.”
Xue: “How did you know that the creature was a Tartaro Nightmare?”
MC: “I spent a long time fighting such on Tartaro. While they have different forms they all have the same presence.”
Xue: “After successfully hiding from the judge why did it attack. Do you think it knew you had found out about it Diyu?”
Diyu: “I don’t know sir. I don’t think it knew as there was no reaction then. It did react as this soul past it but didn’t attack until after the last guardian had turned his back on it. It may have seen the guardian as a target of opportunity to increase its power, or it might have been hoping to destroy an old enemy.”
Xue: “Diyu, be ready to teach others this technique of yours and tell no one about the nightmare until you hear from the celestial council.”
Xue then takes another look at me, and for the third time I can feel my soul being scanned. I clench my teeth and glare but of course that does not bother the celestial. Xue then grabs the file and horn off of the desk.
Xue: “So here’s the tip of Hao’s horn huh. Well I’ll take this soul away from here so that the hell beasts calm down. Diyu you’ve already dropped a load of work on me today but I’ll take the job of arbiter for this case.”
Xue walks around the desk to stand next to me, and the last I see of hell is Diyu’s shocked stare at the horn in Xue’s hand. I’ve been teleported to a room that looks similar to where I was judged so I assume that I was back in the celestial courts. Xue sits behind the desk and gestures for me to sit in the chair next to me. If I had known what he intended to do I would have tried to flee the room instead of taking that seat.
Once I sit he reads through the file he brought with him. Then he starts to read my soul, reading what has happened since I came to the court, then about my lifetimes on earth. I expect him to stop since he now has the information about the incident with the judge and can judge my lifetimes on earth, but he continues through the world before that. When he gets to my memories of Tartaro I try to get up, but can’t move or even scream. He doesn’t stop dredging up everything that happened on that terrible world which stirs up memories best buried. Then he continues from there and reads the entirety of my history, or at least everything that my soul still remembers. I have no clue how long it takes, I lost track while dealing with the memories of Tartaro and am now seething at the being in front of me that dared do this.
MC: “You Dare!!! Even after you agree to be a neutral arbiter you do this to me!”
The appearance of judge Hao just then is the last straw, I literally see red as I try to attack them with everything I can. I manage to get up from the chair and start towards Xue before everything goes black.
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Viewpoint: Yama Xue
Location: Yama’s office in celestial courts.
After agreeing to act as arbiter I bring this soul back to my office. Part of the reason I agreed to act as arbiter is that we may need all the information possible about Tartaro and this soul has some. After reading the file on this being I start to read his soul. Once I get through the incident with judge Hao I send a message ordering him to my office. I then continue to and read his lifetimes on earth as I might as well give a verdict on that while I’m at it. I see that the trust and anger issues that are mentioned in the file are pervasive throughout his lifetimes on earth, and in the previous world. I believe that their origin is probably from his time spent in Tartaro, but I’ll confirm that by reading about his lifetime before that.
When I get to the memories of Tartaro I feel him trying to get up and scream, so I seal his movements. I need this information even if it brings up the memories he’d rather bury. It is a gruesome and cruel place with souls twisted into monsters, including his comrades. I see him killing his soulmates so that he can send their souls beyond the reach of the goddess controlling the world. Using the same technique to end mortally injured comrades so that they aren’t turned into nightmares. Continually using the poison soul technique to fight the nightmares. All of this for multiple lifetimes in an ageless body before the world is destroyed completely.
I realize that this is not the soul of a lower immortal like we thought. He had the soul of a lower immortal when he came to Tartaro though he instinctively did not ascend. No by the end of Tartaro he had the soul of a peak High Immortal though gravely wounded and without power from the use of poison soul. His nine lifetimes since have restored much of his power, and brought his soul to the peak of High immortal; the cusp of godhood. I now have to look at his previous lives to get an idea of how he was before and what he might become now. After the plot of the Goddess that controlled Tartaro the celestials must be assured of the character of all gods.
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It takes some time to go through his previous lifetimes. I believe that he will be a great god if he can work through his current trust issues, which I see as a large part of the reason for his anger management problems. He has cut himself off from others though he was a social soul before Tartaro, and the lack has caused further problems.
I ease up on the restriction I placed on the soul in front of me. He starts to yell at me but when judge Hao appears in my office as ordered he loses it. The soul suddenly turns red with a green outline before charging at me, and I’m forced to put it in stasis.
Hao: “He turned the same color when he attacked me and damaged my horn, though without the green outline.”
Xue: *sigh* “The blood red color is a poison soul technique and the green represents that it has been taken to the highest level. With this soul being a peak high immortal it could even harm a celestial, or kill a god.”
I watch Hao pale as he realizes that while such an injury would not kill a celestial it would take him decades to recover, centuries for a lower immortal.
Hao: “This is the second time he has attacked a celestial judge let alone having attacked one of the Yama’s we should destroy his soul for this insult.”
Xue: “The first time was after you had sentenced him to hell and declared that you would see his soul stripped was it not? You then sent his soul to hell without stripping the balanced karma and while his soul had a positive karma balance.”
Hao: “Sir, I sent him as he was attacking me. I didn’t have time to strip his karma beforehand as he attacked as soon as I made my judgement.”
Xue: “Leaving aside that you sent positive karma to hell which caused an incident there; did you know that this soul had a positive karma balance when you made your judgement.”
Hao: “Sir this soul came from Tartaro, and was there at the end of it at that when there was nothing worth saving anymore. Even if the monster managed to not commit a lot of crimes in its last life it never received judgement for the atrocities it committed there. That place was a den of corruption with every soul in it twisted beyond redemption.”
Xue: “Hao I find you guilty of misuse of your authority as a judge and negligence for sending positive karma to hell. You will present yourself to lady Karma for judgement. I also order you to remove your mark on this soul.”
Hao complies and removes his mark, though unhappily. As he turns to go I make one more accusation before sending him and a message to lady Karma myself. If guilty he knows his soul will be stripped or destroyed, if innocent the knowledge will make him submit to his punishment without complaint.
Xue: “This soul fought from the very start of her reign, till we ended it, as an ageless mortal. In time he led the only resistance to her rule, and it was through the souls he saved that we found out about her actions. It is suspicious that you not only sent him to hell but one of her nightmares as well which attacked him and the administrators.”
His eyes just start to widen as he is teleported. I then turn to the soul I have in stasis and the problem he represents. It will be difficult to heal the wounds and personality from Tartaro, made even more difficult with the fact that he currently sees me as an enemy and will not trust me. I will not be able to interfere directly in the process but I think the best plan is to work indirectly through others. Perhaps at the same time I can solve a different problem my brother has been having.
I study the poison soul technique as I must be able to suppress it when I release the stasis. It takes me some time but his memories of developing the technique give me an edge on countering it without causing harm. I then release the stasis and force the soul back in the chair.
Xue: “First I apologize for having read that deeply but with the encounter of a nightmare we need all the information possible about Tartaro.”
MC: “I can see how that may be the case but instead of just asking about it you chose to rip the information directly from my soul without permission. It doesn’t explain why you went through the rest of my lives and with such scrutiny either!”
Xue: “The information had to be read so that no important details may be left out. During that reading I found that you have the soul of a peak High Immortal which required me to read you to be sure of your character.”
MC: “Since when have celestials been required to read and judge the character of immortals to that depth? There is no reason for that! And what the heck is a high immortal anyway.”
Xue: “Celestials have been required to check the character of gods ever since Tartaro.”
MC: “Even so I am not a god so why did you do that!?”
Xue: “True you aren’t a god, as for the reasoning you may find that out later. Now then…”
MC: “I doubt any god would put up with what you just did to me.”
Xue: “True a character check does not require us to read that deeply however because of your trust and anger issues as well as the ordeal from Tartaro I needed to analyze your previous character to guess how you may turn out in the future.”
MC: “So now you are going to judge me on things I have done only in your imagination!”
Xue: “No. I am going to judge you how you are now and what can be done about it.”
MC: “That is not your place! The celestial courts are to judge the actions a soul has taken in its past lives not the current state of the soul and what it will do in the future.”
Xue: “That is not exactly correct. While for the most part we do not judge the actions a soul may take in the future we do strip souls that we have concluded are a lost cause.”
MC: “So now you are threatening to strip my soul! I did nothing to deserve that!”
Xue: “SILENCE!” *deep breath*
The soul goes to yell again but I reinstate the seal on his speech, and so he just glares.
Xue: “No I’m not going to order your soul stripped nor judge you for actions not yet taken. However you do present an interesting problem to judge. Normally with such a positive soul balance you would spend time in heaven, however with your trust issues you would cause a disturbance so I’m going to send you for reincarnation.”
Xue: “Your trust issues are pretty intense you know. You avoided your soulmates and anyone interested in you in each of your last nine lifetimes. In order to deal with your trust issue I’m going to seal the memories in your soul before you reincarnate. I’m also going to seal your poison soul technique, your knowledge and experience against nightmares may be needed so I can’t have you destroying yourself. The seals will activate when you leave here to reincarnate.”
I grab the horn off my desk before touching the forehead of his form, placing the six seals on his soul with my two gifts. I then lift the seal on his speech and set the movement restriction to lift when he leaves, I’m not taking the chance of him attacking me again.
Xue: “Any questions before you go?”
MC: “How is this different from stripping my soul!? I’ll still have some of my power but my personality and memories will be sealed and a new personality will grow as if I was a new soul. The only thing I see is different is that you’ll be able to bring me back and use me as a tool if you want to later.”
Xue: “While I am sealing your memories, your personality will still stay the same. The seals are temporary, except for the one on poison soul, and will release when certain conditions are met. I’m also leaving the knowledge you gained on your last two worlds though the memories behind them are sealed.”
MC: “That doesn’t solve the trust or anger issues that YOU said were a problem in the first place, and what happens if I run into more Nightmares!”
Xue: “True that’s why I also gave you knowledge about a technique called soul sense. You’ll be able to use that to tell if someone is telling you the truth or lying, and while it can be blocked it can’t be fooled. You’ll be able to get even more information from it later like someone’s emotions. Think of it as a reward for your positive karma since you won’t go to heaven or reincarnate as an immortal. As for Nightmares; the seal on your technique is keyed to temporarily release in their presence.”
He seems to pause for a while, gathering his thoughts perhaps, before asking me another question.
MC: “Why are you doing this to me?”
Xue: “For your own good. Now have a nice life.”
And with that I send his soul to the person I have decided will be his next mother. That takes care of the first half of my plan for this soul. Now I only have to find and talk to a few other souls to complete it.