{Jin Harb PoV}
Words flow in a voice that touches the soul and brings comfort to all who despair, “I am Uriel. Archdemon Uriel.”
Her words brought comfort and my body relaxed. The shaking was gone. My body falls into an unreasonable state of ease that it simply cannot keep up. The cycle of terror and peace caused exhaustion to flood once more, stronger than ever before, and I see my vision darkening as I fall into unconsciousness.
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{Uriel PoV}
I stared at Jin as he collapsed on the ground unconscious. The smile on my face disappeared and was replaced with a look of unease. I know that I must be looking noticeably paler than before. My breathing was laboured, and I could feel two distinct trails of blood going down my cheeks. My eyes hurt and my vision was slightly blurred. I knew that if I were to look in a mirror, I would see the veins of my eyes forming intricate webs over my black sclera. I had indeed pushed myself too far this time. The original plan was to infiltrate the Holy Empire with the slaves and leave as soon as I set foot in there to search for the Hero. It has been rumoured that the Holy Empire of the Light Faction wanted to summon a Hero to end the ongoing war with our Demon Faction…to exterminate the Demon Faction most likely, ‘That Goddess of Light wouldn’t change her goals so easily, and would be willing to achieve them by any means necessary; even if it meant to erase a few races altogether…she’s always been like this.’ I smile nostalgically for a bit but shake my head trying to keep focus on the issue in front of me.
I wipe the blood from my face and approach this man called Jin. I crouch next to him and lift him up on my shoulder ‘Truly skin and bones, as light as an undead skeleton soldier. Even with my relatively weak constitution I can carry him and forget about him from how light he is… It’s decided. He must go back home with me, to the lands of the Demon Faction.’ He will be necessary for the upcoming war. There is no need to look into the Hero any further. This Mirai is still too weak to pose any threat against the main force of our armies and for now, the war is centred around the weaker members. Both factions need to get their newer, weaker members trained, so who better than the enemies’ army to train them against? Wins and losses at this stage mean nothing, and numbers mean nothing to us. The undead legion alone will make up for any losses we take in terms of pure numbers. I walk Southwards through the forest, getting as far away as possible from the main roads leading to the Capital of the Holy Empire. I walk for a couple of hours then find a spot to set up camp. I lay Jin with his back on a tree and sit next to him. I think back again… ‘I can handle myself well, but… but this man Jin… I must take him with me at any cost. He’s too dangerous to leave to his own devices. If he acts under my watch and guidance it’ll be safer.’
If left alone, he’ll end up dead, or a potential liability in the future, especially if the Goddess of Light gets her hands on him. I doubt she heard about him yet. Considering that he was in Fantasia even before the Hero and she still went with a Hero summoning ritual. I’d rather risk him being on our side than killing him right here and now.
‘But this…is odd. It’s true that his soul comes from another world, but the mana expenditure was truly too large. If my mana pool didn’t reach this level in terms of pure quantity, I would have overused my mana without a doubt. Even the Demon King would not have been able to sustain this level of use. But I guess my mana level being the largest in the Demon Faction come to show its uses in situations like these. Strictly from experience, the only one who managed to overdraw my mana to this extent through the was the Goddess of Light.
How peculiar, it must have something to do with the corrupted fraction of his soul. It acted as if it had a conscience of its own…Calm down… there’s no use in panicking over this. Let’s analyse this properly. When using my ‘Soul Antiquity’ spell to see into his soul’s past the mana expenditure was as usual. The ‘Showcase’ spell I used to show Jin his soul’s past was fine as well since the mana use was the same as usual. The issue must have been with my ‘Soul Divination’ spell… the mana use was insane and the level of resistance that showed up when I reused ‘Showcase’ sucked my mana dry… as if an external factor interfered and tried to block my spell by increasing the mana cost to a point where the castor would die before the spell is even finished.’
I grimace realising how close to death I actually was. Any other castor on the continent would have died ten times over with the insane speed and quantity that the mana was being consumed at. But still, I think that this is truly unnatural, there was no one else in the area and there was no signs of external interference in the area. Moreover, I’ve never seen anyone interfering with a spell by means of mana drain.
‘Could it be? Yes! It must be! Nothing else fits the criteria, it must be the irregularity I detected in his soul. The fragment that he sacrificed and willingly corrupted to survive!’
I rethink Jin’s past, and focus on the emotions he felt. I rethink his potential future and focus on the emotions he felt. The soul link that forms thanks to the Soul Seer related skills help in giving me a better feel over his state. I stand up, close my eyes and focus….
My ‘Recollection’ spell activates.
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[Soul Link:- Soul Antiquity ‘Recollection’ begins]
‘Focus! When using the spell to see into the past and future of a soul, you are no longer Uriel. You are the target. Yes. I am Jin. In the past I lived on Earth until I fell into Fantasia. Appearing suddenly in the slums… no one to communicate with… no one to help me know left from right… no ID without money… no money without a job… theft in the slums would barely keep me alive and no matter how much I steal, I will never afford an opportunity to change my situation. But still, I will survive… survive to return. I lose my arm and slave away in a brothel for years… my body is destroyed from the inside and out by whatever diseases I got from who knows who and when… but I survive for I must return. Years pass and I meet someone I can connect with. Someone who can understand my plight. I meet Mirai. I feel relief thinking that with her I can finally be free of this miserable lifestyle I’ve been living. But I realise that even though she’s the Hero. She has no control so I manage to get out of the Holy Empire’s capital with my life intact. That’s the best I’ll get but anything is better than being stuck there. I could not afford the exit fee and being thrown out is better than living as I was. I walk. I see corpses torn to shreds. I see a carriage on its side with cages thrown all around it. I see corpses. Food. Yes. I eat and eat till I have my fill. With every mouthful my stomach is fuller, and I feel something break within. Yes. It must be something important. I feel it slipping with every bite. It’s gone. It’s cold. I feel something is awfully wrong. But, I feel content for I must sacrifice anything and everything n order to return. This world is ruthless and I must be ruthless to others from now on. To be ruthless to others I must be ruthless to myself. My goal can never be achieved otherwise.
Return? Improbable. An infinitely small percentage of success. But I managed to get here so I can get back. Mirai was summoned so her way back is my way back. Then I feel it. The coldness that consumes me from within, the corrupted fragment of my soul. As if it has developed a sense of self. I feel it burning with a ruthless determination that could engulf the world. A calm twisted version of my voice that speaks in a calm manner with an unshakeable will. Voice calm and steady. But resounds like yells in my heads. ‘Waiting for a miniscule chance to return is foolishness! Waiting for Mirai is foolishness! To return I must act! To return I must struggle! To return I must give it my all to gain as much strength as I can! Strength that will give me the chance to return and have no one stand in my way. The Goddess of Light summoned the Hero and is capable of sending her back?! She will send me back whether she likes it or not! The one who can summon people… the Goddess of Light who summoned Mirai as her champion knows how to return them! She will send me back whether she likes it or not!’
[Soul Link:- Soul Antiquity ‘Recollection’ ends]
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I open my eyes and take deep breathes. Calming my heart and reminding myself that I am Uriel. “Madness… pure madness…” I murmur. Having goals and struggling to achieve them is fine but deluding yourself to the point of having the audacity, to even think that you can ever compete with the woman who was the most talented and promising Goddess of Light candidate. The one who used to be named Lumin, the only candidate to be titled Incarnation of Light by the Light Faction; she who killed the Demon God candidate and refused to absorb his mana to ascend quickly, but chose to ascend by feeding on the mana of Dragons and Evil Dragons alike, bringing the Evil Dragon population down from thousands to a mere two is nothing but idiocy. Thinking of competing with someone like her that build her might in no less than 500 years within a single human’s lifespan is at best idiotic.
I think of Lumin, the current Goddess of Light, the one I know best in this world. I think of the massacre that will descend on the Demon Faction if she wins this war, and the even greater chaos that will erupt if she gets her hands on Jin. Having a Hero with a abilities that will grant them an ability close to hers is bad enough, but a wild card like Jin, who more than likely has a potential just as high as the Hero’s, but with an inhuman determination that is close to insanity as one can get, when is comes to achieving an unrealistic goal is a worse case scenario. Not mentioning the fact that Lumin can only return the Hero because she was the one who summoned her in the first place; so someone like Jin who came through untraditional means will require an untraditional method to return as well.
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“…Fuck” I can’t help but cuss out as I prepare myself to recollect the potential future lines of Jin’s soul. “This is gonna be tricky…” I frown trying to focus on the future my ‘Soul Divination’ showed. The best possible future that Jin could potentially live. This was the future that I decided on using to try to get him to willingly join the Demon Faction. It was mostly a gamble I was willing to take since I know Lumin the best. There was no way in hell that someone like him would get a decent future by following her. I gambled that the best future that he might have would surely be connected to me. I swayed his thoughts towards myself when ‘Showcasing’ his past and had myself linger in his thoughts. So I know for sure that this future would have something to do with me as well. I feel it. I know it. So, I brace myself… I shut my eyes once more… and focus…
My ‘Recollection’ spell activates again
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[Soul Link:- Soul Divination ‘Recollection’ begins]
All I see are the eyes filled with love, devotion, and trust. Eyes I missed for the past five years…
(Uriel’s Thoughts) I see myself throwing flame spells that burn my enemies to ash…
‘RETURN!! WE MUST RETURN!!’
‘RETURN FOR MOTHER!! RETURN FOR FATHER!! RETURN FOR SISTER!! WE MUST RETURN!!’
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My sacrafice is for returning. Not for adapting to this world. My ruthlessness is for going back to my home… not for creating a new home here. I survive and struggle to return.
[Soul Link: Soul Divination recollection ends]
My eyes snap open. My eyes hurt. They hurt as if they were pierced by a blade. My vision is blurred. I feel blood gushing out my eyes. My brain turns to mush. My head about to burst. I collapse from my seated position next to Jin and try my best to maintain consciousness. I am on my hands and knees. I throw up. Exhaustion takes over and I feel myself about to faint. I shake my head violently trying to stay awake. ‘How could the backlash be this intense!?’ I think as my consciousness falls into the dark.
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I open my eyes and push myself off the ground. My head hurts and my eyes are blurry. I look next to me and Jin is still asleep. The sun is still up and I must not have been out for long. My headache is less intense than before I passed out, but I know that it will take a few hours for it to go by.
I take out one of my water bottles from my Spacial Ring and down a quarter. I then spill as little water as possible on my hand and wash blood that did not get the chance to fully fry of my face. My eyes still hurt and I know that the backlash this time is going to be bigger than anytime I used my spells before. You see.. looking into a soul does not only come at the expense of mana; but each time I use any Soul Seer spells to look into the past or potential furute of a soul, my eyes get damaged. This means that as long as I use the spells that come with my class, I wil slowly, but surely, go blind.
This would not be a problem if Souls Seers could use other types of magic, but no, one of the restrictions of the Soul Seer class is that no other types of magic can be used. It’s not as bad as I make it out to be. Well, it’s true that there can be only one seer at any time in each faction. It’s true that it’s a lineage type of class, where the class is inherited by blood. It’s also true that Seers are doomed to be born blind, and must inherit the only pair of eyes from their Seer parent. It’s also true that Seers will have weaker bodies that would require extensive training to remain healthy. But you know, we have the advantage of looking into people’s souls. In a battle, a well execute Soul Antiquiity will not only reveal a person’s past; but the Seer will gain knowledge and unserstanding of their weaknesses and habits, good or bad, since Soul Antiquity deals with the soul’s past in its entirety. Moreover, even though we will enivitably go blind we are blessed with extraordinary vision to balance out the slow decline that comes with the class. Seriously! At best we can see in pitch black darkness as if it was in the middle of the day, and we can see things several Kilometers away with the clarity of things at our fingertips. At this point, since I’ve been alive for around 700 years, and had my class for 600 or so, my vision is nowhere near as it once was, and the Divination I did on Jin had a backlash similar to the one I had when I used my spell on Lumin after she became the Goddess of Light…
My sight was shot down from 1 Kilometer of clear vision to a mere 500 meters… This is going to be slightly tricky to get around. But.. “Demon King Lucius was correct.. it’s good that I listened to him. I should not over rely on my vision and it was good that I trained my other senses. But now the strain on my other senses is going to basically double.” I mutter while planning what I should do now with the situation coming to this point.
I carry Jin once more and continue South towards the border. The sun starts going down after two hours of walking and I find a good semi-open, circular area to set up camp for the night. I set up my tent and sprinkle some wild beast repellent around it just in case. I would rather not move in the night with Jin in his state. Things might get too dangerous if we’re attacked. I’m not in my best state after the backlash I suffered, and in desperate need of mental cleansing. ‘We’re going through the Kingdom of Fólkvangr on our way to the Demon Faction’s Hel. I will get Nigel to cast a mental cleanse spell as soon as we get there.’ I make a mental note of this.
I lay Jin in my tent and get ready to sleep but I stop for a moment. “Better safe than sorry”. I tie Jin up and put him back down. I lay next to him. ‘I don’t think he’ll wake up before we start moving tomorrow, but I wouldn’t want him running away if he wakes up at night.. not that I won’t be able to tell he woke up even if I’m asleep. My senses are too sharp to let something that clear escape. But… this is odd.. I don’t feel anything wrong when sleeping next to him. I don’t feel anything against it. Even though I’ve never had anyone sleep in the same area I sleep in since Lumin. For some reason I don’t feel all that against it when it’s him. As if I’ve been next to him for a lifetime. Must be because of the Soul Divinaiton. The Soul Link this time was too strong. There are still some remanent thoughts and emotions.. I’ll stop using the ‘Sight’ spells till we get to Hel. The remanents should not einterfere as much by then.’ I shut my eyes and fall asleep. Deeper than I intended.
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I wake up early next morning. Jin is still asleep. I eat some of my rations, drink some water. Use some to wash my face and freshen up and down the rest of the bottle. I have many other bottles in my ring and I don’t like acting conservative with my food and drinks. ‘Holy shit! This headache won’t go away! And the remenants of the spells are being annoying as well so early in the morning! ...mood swings!? Really!? So this is how it’s gonna be?’ I refuse to be dragged by these annoying factors so early in the morning. So I take out my special solution. A solution I keep hidden inside a spacial ring that I keep stored inside my main spacial ring. A most wonderful bottle of wine! Not any wine, but wine made by the Oni of the Demon Faction. With high enough alcohol percentage to match the Dwarf’s wine! Hehehe!! God thing my tolerance levels have one up with my hundreds of years of alcoholism! Maybe one of the best gained unexpected quirks of my class!
I untie Jin and start walking once more. I walk from early morning, around 6:30am till around 12pm, so midday with occasional breaks scattered here and there. As I finally find a good enough place to rest and have lunch at, I feek Jin start moving lightly on my shoulder. I turn my head slightly over my shoulder and make eye contact with him. I see his face twist in shock and then he purses his lips and all his eyes show are confusion. “Good morning” I speak with a wry smil on my face. “…Good morning…” He whispers back. “Ummm… can you put me down please… and stop groping my ass while your at it if you can.” He whispers again and I notice a slight shade of red crawl up his neck. “Ass?” I murmur and notice that I indeed had my hands on where his ass should be… if it wasn’t dehydrated and malnourished to the point of non-existence that is.
I seat him down with his back against a tree and sit right across him. I take out some of rations and water and eating and drinking. I see him eyeing my rations but not making a sound. His caution levels must be pretty high so I decided to use food to lower his guard slowly. I keep eating ignoring his stares until he makes this pitiful face that’s on the brink of tears.
“Want some?” I extend my half eaten sandwich. He snatches it with a speed that I never thought his wrecked body would be capable of producing and he devours the whole thing in seconds.
“Slowly.. Your body is still not used to normal food.” I remind him gently and offer one of the water bottles I have in my ring. He chugs the whole thing down and looks up at me as if asking for more. I smile gently and flip my wrist. A sandwich and water bottle lands infront of him while another sandwich lands in front of me. I resume eating and take occasional swigs of my wine while he slowly eats and drinks with some tears going down his face every now and then. I feel my heart ache for him ‘Must have been ages since he had normal food. Even these rations are delicacies to him.’ I freeze and realise what I just thought and felt. I lower my head to hide my eyes and the shock of the conflicting emotions and unreasonable thoughts I just ha. ‘Even though we ust met yesterday.. these remenants are starting to get out of hand.. to think that they would actually affict me to this extent. The only one who afficted me to this level was Lumin, and that was because I’ve known her since chieldhood and we’e been friends for 300 years… This… This might be bad. It must have something to do with that corrupted fragment of his soul. It must have influenced me through the Soul Link to have a better view of the original to help in achieving his goal. This is the most likely reason. The second I can think off is the fact that the potential future I saw was deeply intertwined with mine. This Mix-blood Dark Elf toddler that keeps popping in my head must be the other reason.’ I fall into thought and decide on how I will can use this lingering effect left by his corrupted soul to my advantage. Waiting it out will take who knows how long, so I must use his goal to rope him into our Demon Faction. As for the todler and the potential future.. the more I think about it the more inconsistancies will show up in the future. ‘I do not know what will happen in the future, but the mere act of looking into is enough to change it. So I will go with the flow. Help the Demon races avoid getting massacred, and stop my best friend from doing the massacring.
I raise my head and make eye contact with Jin. Noticing that I iscovered him staring at me in a daze, a slight blush crawls up his neck all the way to his cheek. I raise an eyebrow and chuckle slightly causing his blush to intensify. He forcefully clears his throat and carefully says, “Ummm.. I believe we have a few things to talk about.”
I flash the most dazzling smile that my Dark Elf being can muster and reply, “Indeed we do.” I see him noticably lower his guard and prepare myself to bind him to me.. us.. yes… us.. for the rest of his stay here.