Nathan gasped as his eyes shot open.

The pain from his injuries, which had, just a second ago from his perspective, been too much for his peak willpower to handle, was nothing more than a light tingling sensation. Nathan put a hand down on the white marble he was sitting on to prop himself up

“FUCK!” Nathan suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs as he remembered the events prior to his death.

A look of absolute panic suddenly crossed Nathan's face. He grabbed his left leg with both hands. The panic was replaced with wonder as Nathan felt the leg, still not entirely convinced that it was there.

“How?” He wondered, amazed at the miracle. “How am I still alive?” Nathan stood up and frowned. “Where am I? Did the Voice send me here?

Nathan spun around slowly, taking in his surroundings. He stood in the middle of the largest library he had ever seen. He stood on a hexagonal platform in the center of the library. The platform seemed to be a mirror of the library floor which was also a hexagon and also made of marble. It seemed to have a radius of at least three hundred feet, although it was hard to tell in the gloom.

The only source of light that Nathan could make out was a glowing blue stone about the size of the raised platform embedded in the middle of the ceiling, about ten feet above Nathan’s head.

Nathan walked down the steps that ringed the platform, the marble cool against the soles of his bare feet. Nathan walked to the nearest bookshelf and ran his hand along the spines of the books. There must be tens of thousands of books in this library. Nathan thought in wonder, as he walked down the maze of bookshelves, brushing the spines of the books closest to him.

He eventually turned around and walked back to the central platform. Okay now I definitely see a pattern. Nathan mused, rubbing his peach fuzz. If I die or give up on life, then the Voice sends me to a seemingly random location.

That still doesn't tell me what the metrics that Voice listed right before I died means, though.

Nathan shivered, repressing the memories of his death at the hands of the manticore as they threatened to overwhelm him. I will never be that weak again. Nathan clenched his fist and continued walking.

Nathan returned to his mussing. My first order of business–after I inspect my soul to see if the Voice messed with it again–should be seeing if there are any doors, or ways that I can get out of this library.

Nathan paused on the third step of the platform. “Was that here before?” Nathan knelt and picked up a scroll that was resting in the center of the platform.

“I'm pretty sure that that's where I was when I regained consciousness, so that definitely wasn't there before.” Nathan shrugged. Wouldn't be the strangest thing that's happened lately.

Standing in the center of the platform to get the best light, Nathan peeled the wax seal off of the scroll. The seal was emblazoned with a sigil in a language that he had never learned but which resonated with something deep within him. As a lowborn, his reading and writing were shaky, even in his birth language, Orphian. Or at least it was, before I got Prodigy.

The sigil on the seal meant ‘knowledge’.

“I certainly would like some more knowledge as to what the hell is going on.” Nathan chuckled. He set the seal down on the ground carefully, so that he didn’t damage it. Nathan unrolled the scroll, pulling the two jade finials apart, and swept his gaze at its contents.

It was clearly an extremely expensive item, even by the standards of a noble. The first thing that Nathan noticed was that the letters seemed to be not ink, but in gold. Gold leaf pressed into the high quality paper. Second was that the writing was in the sigil language and the words seemed to resonate with power. The final thing that Nathan noticed was who the scroll was addressed to.

Mortals,

Nathan raised an eyebrow. Seriously, how full of themselves was the person who wrote this? Addressing a scroll to ‘Mortals’ is like saying that you aren’t mortal yourself. It's like saying ‘Hi. I’m a god.’ Nathan's eyebrows shot up. Actually, if the Voice is a god, probably the Nameless one, that would make sense…

You may be wondering where you are.

“Of course I want to know where I am.” Nathan muttered and continued reading.

You may be wondering how you got here.

“Man, this guy sure has a penchant for stating the obvious.”

I will tell you.

“Because I thought that you were just going to state questions, and not answer them.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

I am Knowledge, The Great One. One of the transcendents

“Does that mean that there are other gods that call themselves knowledge, but you're the best one?” Nathan asked, rolling his eyes.

I am the greatest of all Knowledge transcendents.

“So basically, yes.”

You have been given one of the greatest honors that a mortal can receive.

I’m not liking the ‘priest screaming unholy at some random dude in the street!’ vibes this is giving off.

You have been selected for one of My experiments.

Nathan’s mind only had two thoughts. The fist was Did he just capitalize my? Who the hell does this guy think he is? And the second was Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck! Of course I had to be selected by the insane evil wizard for the insane evil experiment! Of course!

The only thing that those of you in this experiment have in common is that you have brittle, or shard, souls.

At least there are other people in the insane evil experiment. Actually maybe that's not a good thing.

Both of these words are imperfect metaphors for the real situation, however. When your soul was formed at birth, for whatever reason it was formed with many times more energy than an average soul has.

Normally this would just lead to you gaining a more powerful Ability at your awakening but your soul had so much energy that it made the jump between two states of soul, expending much of the energy in the process. The closest analogy would be going from a non Newtonian fluid to a solid.

Nathan's jaw actually dropped. While he didn't know what a non Newtonian fluid was, he could grasp the gist of his situation. That's why I couldn't manipulate my soul, like everyone else could! My soul isn’t something that I can knead into place because it's a solid!

On your home universes, as well as in effectively all of the, nigh infinite, greater Multiverse,

This just keeps dropping artillery Abilities. This is saying, Nathan thought, barely believing it, There are other universes. And that there are an infinity of them. “How?” Nathan breathed out, barely more than a whisper.

you would have been regarded as talent less. Cursed by whatever false god your people worship.

Nathan had lost count of how many times he had been called ‘cursed by the Sprenfather’ or ‘Cryptalborn’ because he couldn't manipulate his soul’s shape.

The experiment that you are participating in will prove to the Multiverse, and the other Great Ones, that the state of your soul leaves you in a uniquely suited position to ascend, and that you are not any weaker than an Ascendant that ascended through typical means.

You will find enough sustenance pills for ten years here inside of the bottom finial. The right end cap will pop off.

Nathan shook the lower finial, and sure enough, it rattled. I hope I'm not stuck here for the next ten years. I think I might go insane If I don’t have anyone to talk to for that long. Actually it probably wouldn't take more than three years, completely alone, for me to crack like an egg.

Nathan’s stomach rumbled with great hunger. I would kill for an egg right now. Apparently you get really, really, really, hungry after being resurrected by an unknowably powerful, ancient, evil, trans-universal, wizard for the purpose of an evil, trans-universal experiment. Who would've guessed.

After you have ascended, if you manage to, you will find yourself back in the power assessment area that you died in before I resurrected you here, here being an isolated ascension zone.

The power assessment area has seven levels. There is an objective that you must complete for each level before you move on to the next level. Your power will be gauged after you die.

“Fuck!” Nathan groaned, using his left hand to massage the bridge of his nose as his right hand held the scroll open. ”So If I manage to ascend, whatever the hell that means, I’m gonna have to fight the manticore again! Oh, and six more levels that are apparently certain doom! This is the worst Monday that I've ever had, and that's saying something”

If you are gauged powerful enough, you may be resurrected and then offered a position in the Order of Knowledge. You may even be stationed to help the cause on your planet. If you are not familiar with the Order of Knowledge you may know the name of one of our servant organizations. The most wide spread of these are, the Armashi, the Dread Legion, the Inquisition,

Nathan’s hands shook as he tread the last name. The other three may have sounded sinister and not a little evil, but the end of the scroll was like a punch to the gut.

And the Cryptalborn.

At first, Nathan just stood there a dumb look of shock playing across his face.

That shock was then replaced by pure icy rage. Nathan felt chills spreading down the back of his neck.

There may have been more that was written on the scroll but Nathan would never get to read it. An expression of horrified understanding was frozen on his features as he tore the scroll in half with careful precision.

Then he put the two halves together and tore the scroll again. And again. And Again. And again.

Nathan only stopped when the pieces became too small for him to rip. He let the gold flecked pieces flutter to the floor before he put the two ornate jade finials, probably each worth more than all of the money that he had ever seen in his life, on the ground next to each other.

Nathan stomped, and with a crunch the finials, shattering them into a thousand tiny pieces with his bare foot. The shards scratched Nathan, but didn’t puncture because of his high endurance and the calluses he had gotten from working in the field every day for years.

A pile of several thousand tiny pills lay, mixed in with the shards as well as the slips of paper. Nathan collapsed onto his knees, face in his hands. Silent tears fell down his face. A week after his parents had died, Nathan had promised himself to never cry again, to stay strong.

“ARGH!” Nathan's anguished scream echoed through the library. Now that he had found the mastermind that had started the chain of events that had killed them, the death of his parents was like a raw, reopened wound.

“I WILL FIND YOU, KNOWLEDGE!” Nathan screamed upwards, as if the god was hiding in the glowing stone above him. “I will grow powerful enough to challenge you, and when I come for you you won't know what hit you!” Nathan declared. “You will pay!”

That day, in that library, the oath of numbness that Nathan had taken was broken. In its place was something new. A new path. A new goal.

Vengeance.

Nathan clenched his fist and closed his eyes, his rage replaced with an icy bitter expression. The path will be long, and I may not take my vengeance for years or decades, or centuries. But I swear, Knowledge, I swear that there will come a day when all your power, your people, your knowledge is torn away from you.