As my consciousness slowly returned, I stared at the glowing red light which shone through my eyelids and felt the warmth of the sun beaming down on me.
I felt something soft and slightly moist on my hands, like grass in a summer haze. A smell wafted over me: the pungent burning of lit bamboo.
My body felt tired and something inside me felt… off. I tried to delve into meditation but an intangible pain forced me out of the state before I could form any kind of visualisation.
My eyes blinked open and I gasped as the pain lingered deep in my gut. I squinted as the powerful sun above shone directly into my eyes.
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the thick black smoke of battle was gone. I pushed myself into a sitting position with some discomfort and saw Panda sitting to the side of me, smoking his pipe.
He looked over the rim of his book, eyeing me up carefully.
“You’re not gonna rip my soul out are you?” He asked, squinting at my face.
“What?”
The last thing I remembered was running through the town. Fires were burning everywhere, dryads were crying and screaming as blades clashed all around me.
“Looks like you made it back kid.” He said, his face softening as he closed his black book and placed it on the grass.
“What happened?” I asked meekly, “…and where are we?”
He regaled me with the tale of my missing memories and it all came flooding back in detailed flashbacks as he spoke.
I remembered watching Treena die as I stood helplessly, I remembered being unable to tell if the woman lying dead on the ground was Treena’s mother, or my wife. I remembered losing myself to an anger, the like of which I’ve never felt before. I remembered holding the soul of the orc in my hands and crushing it.
Was I really capable of hurting someone’s soul? That sounded like something straight out of a fantasy novel. It sounded like the kind of power a villain would have.
“… and once the orc died there was this bright flash of white light and we were here in this meadow. The walls, the village, the castle. It just… vanished.” Panda finished, pulling me out of my nightmarish daze.
I stared at him at a loss for words. How do you reply to someone who’s just told you that you literally killed a guy by crushing his soul?
“What about the rest of the dryads?” I asked, stumbling through my words as my mouth tried to keep up with my gushing thoughts.
“That’s another, much weirder story.” He sighed, picking up the black book. “You should read this; you’ll understand once you read the last page.”
He held out the black book to me, it was old and battered. It felt familiar somehow but I didn’t know why.
Wordlessly I took it and flicked to the last page. It was blank. I flicked back through the book and found the last entry. It seemed to be a diary.
Atheline 347-36
The Elder still hasn’t returned.
He entered the castle yesterday but hasn’t come out. I heard some of the villagers say he had to speak orcish to open the door.
I memorised the words. I’ll write them after this entry so I don’t forget them.
My mommy and papa are leading a rescue team to go find the elder. I’m scared, what if they don’t come back either?
I don’t want to be left all alone.
I overheard papa saying something about the orcish inquisition. I didn’t really understand it but he said something about how they hunt dryads and other forest folk.
He said that they think we’re heretical. I don’t know what that word means but it sounds bad.
I’m sure they’ll be ok though. They’re strong, especially mommy. I know they’ll come back to me, and when this is all over we can play again.
I stared at the pages for a long time. My heart thumped loudly and slowly. My stomach churned and it wasn’t just because my core was still suffering from the soul attack I’d used.
I couldn’t read the orcish that was written at the bottom of the page. I guess my translation skill doesn’t work on everything – or maybe it was spelled wrong.
It didn’t matter.
After a long moment, I spoke.
“This is the book I touched inside the castle isn’t it?” I asked sombrely.
“Yes.” Panda replied.
“It’s Treena’s diary isn’t it?”
“I think so kid, yeah.”
The backs of my eyes felt hot. I didn’t understand at first, but the pieces slowly began to come together. Panda didn’t let me sit in silence mulling it over for long before he explained his own theory.
“You were out for a while kid, I read through the whole thing.” He began, his voice was uncharacteristically sincere. “Do you remember when you asked me about the date in that book in the meeting hall? It said Atheline 347-35. I thought it must have been written wrong or something at the time.
“You see Atheline is the calendar name for the god Athena like I said before. The next number is the year 347 and the number after the dash is the day in that year: 35.
“I thought it was written wrong because we’re currently in the year 20347. I figured they’d just missed the first two numbers off like a shorthand or something.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
“I don’t think that anymore.” He took a deep breath. “I used my sage ability to research the orcish inquisition. I’d never heard of it before, but I found something.
“It was a massacre. Orcs killed dryads and other forest folk by the thousands. It was a religious thing, a feud between Athena and the orc god.
“The thing is… the reason I’d never heard of it before is because it all happened over 20,000 years ago. I’m no spring chicken, but I’m not that old.” He sighed and slowly took a long drag on his bamboo pipe.
20,000 years ago? I thought.
How could that be possible? We’d spoken to Treena; I’d ripped the orc’s soul out and I’d shot another one. How could that be?
I looked at Panda and tried to ask but my mouth wouldn’t form the words. My brain was in overdrive, it felt like a restart on a computer. My brain simply wouldn’t brain. He seemed to get the gist though and answered me anyway.
“I know, I couldn’t believe it either. I think… I think Treena tapped into some kind of memory magic when she died. Strong emotions can unlock weird, and in your case creepy, powers.
“It’s rare but you’re living proof that it does happen. They call it hysterical mana. Like when a mother blows up a forest looking for their lost child.
“Most people can’t do that normally. But sometimes, in extreme situations, people can control external mana and use it. I think that’s what Treena tapped in to.”
I looked up from the book, my head hurt. I couldn’t organise my thoughts properly. It was all so surreal. I’d gotten so angry, so furious, over something that happened that long ago? It wasn’t even real.
That doesn’t explain why I saw Layla there. I thought, and there was something else that didn’t make sense either.
“You’re wrong.” I said quietly. “What I did couldn’t have been hysterical mana. I don’t have any mana at all, remember?”
“You might be right there, kid.” He sighed, letting small plumes of wispy grey smoke out of his mouth. “All the same though, I think that’s how the village and those walls came to be. They appeared on the island suddenly, remember?
“I think Treena’s anguish and grief lived in those pages. Hell, it probably happened on this same island. I don’t know why they appeared now, but I could hazard a guess as to why they vanished.”
“Because it played out the same way again.” I said dryly. “Because I couldn’t save her. I froze, I just cou-”
“No you idiot.” Panda interrupted. I looked up at him with a furrowed brow. “What part of memory don’t you get? That already happened. You can’t change the past dipshit… no… I think that when you went all apeshit psycho killer on that orc it meant something to Treena, or at least to her memory.
“I think, somehow, your anger on her behalf soothed her soul. I think she was trapped in a cycle, reliving that memory over and over and somehow when she saw you literally rip a dude’s soul out of his chest on her behalf, it finally put her spirit to rest.”
I wasn’t sure what to say. Had my enraged reaction really helped her? Did that make my soul ripping ability a good thing? I wasn’t so sure. At the time I wasn’t even sure if I was angry on Treena’s behalf, or angry because my deluded mind thought Layla was the one lying on the ground dead.
It felt like a pretty evil power to have. Surely destroying a person’s soul is much worse than just killing them. It’s not just ending a life; it’s warping and breaking everything that they are.
I could feel the memory so clearly. It felt like I was ripping apart the orc’s very sense of self. Worse than that, I enjoyed it. What kind of person gets off on that level of torturous pain?
Panda watched me curiously as he quietly puffed on his pipe. He looked concerned, his brow was furrowed slightly and in that moment his eyes looked… old.
For the first time since I’d met him he actually looked sagely.
“Kid, don’t use that power again.” He said solemnly.
“So it is evil?” I asked, my heart sinking in my chest as my fears were confirmed.
“Not exactly.” He answered. “No power or skill is inherently good or evil. It’s more about how you use it. Soul attacks are taboo in this world because they cause irreparable damage that transcends death.
“But they are powerful. It’s a rare ability and personal power is important in this world. You shouldn’t use it because you’re not powerful enough to control it. It will kill you at your level.
“Moreover, if anyone finds out you have it they will kill you. Powerful people don’t like noobs gaining power that they shouldn’t have. It’s that simple.”
So it wasn’t evil? From what he said the power itself didn’t have an innate morality. No, the evil deeds that came about from using it were entirely my own. I sat in silence, staring at nothing as that horrifying revelation began to sink in.
“Kid.” Panda began, still speaking in a quiet and solemn tone. “Who’s Layla?”
My stomach flopped. I looked up at him, feeling myself tremble. I’d never told him about her before. I was never sure if he knew my past simply by being my familiar.
I knew that he saw flashes of my time in Celestia before I summoned him, but not if he knew about my life on earth as well.
“She’s my wife.” I replied slowly, unable to look him in the eye. “She was pregnant when I was isekai’d here.”
He stared at me for a moment. I could feel his gaze even though I couldn’t bare to look at him as my eyes felt hot. He didn’t say anything. Instead, he leant back, stretching out, before smiling and standing up.
“Anyway,” he began. “Enough of all this. You should check your notifications and then we should go back to the boat. I’m starving.” His voice changed into its usual playfulness.
My mind was reeling. I had so much new information to sort through. But I was glad he didn’t ask anything else. I knew he’d lost his previous summoner, maybe he knew how hard it was to talk about those things. Besides, he was right. There would be time for that later, when we were both ready.
I checked the notifications tab on my HUD. It looked like I had a couple.
Quest Complete:
Nobody Expects the Orcish Inquisition
What the shit?
Objectives:
Follow Treena 1/1
Rewards: Gain level x1
A new level was always useful, couldn’t argue with that. Though I noticed an absence of you have defeated notifications.
I decided that it must have been because the orcs weren’t really there. They were long dead memories rather than living, breathing creatures. Thinking back, I didn’t take any damage either.
I guess it made sense that I wouldn’t get experience for killing them even if that big orc was probably a high level.
Also, the reward had changed. Originally it had said something like you don’t have time for rewards. Did that mean the system could change its mind about what rewards it gave out, or was it simply a hidden one that had been decided from the start?
I had so many questions, but system fuckery was the least of them at the time so I pushed the thought aside and checked my other notification.
Achievement Unlocked!
Kali Ma
You’re shaping up to be an evil little prick aren’t you? You fight with acid, mass murder goblins and now you’re ripping people’s souls out.
A man after my own heart. Who doesn’t love a good villain?
You have tapped into the power of your soul and used it to negatively affect another creature.
This kind of power is coveted by the most powerful people in Celestia. You go girl!
Reward: Someone with your propensity for truly despicable acts doesn’t need a reward.
Even the system thought ripping souls out of people’s bodies was evil. I didn’t need it of all things to tell me how despicable I was. Panda was right, I needed to keep this power to myself and not use it.
“Don’t listen to it kid, the system is always a dick.” Panda said, placing his soft paw on my head.
I smiled sadly and placed my hand on top of his. Though a part of me, the really curious part, kinda wanted to experiment with soul power a little more. Maybe it was something I could work on during meditation.
I tried to push all of this business out of my mind. It would do me no good to dwell on it. Besides, I had my adventurer exam to look forward to. I didn’t have the luxury of wallowing in self-pity. I needed to keep getting stronger and pushing forward.
I’d just completed my third and final trial quest. Once I handed it in, it was exam time.
I couldn’t help but grin as I thought about finally being a full-time adventurer with a real rank. This journey was only just beginning.
I picked myself up off the floor, dusted myself off and headed back to the yacht. I had an exam to ace.