I am re uploading this because I can no longer use my old account therefore I'll stick them all into this single thread. Since I'm re-upping it, might as well modify it.
Chapter 1
The stench clung to my frail body, and violated my nose. The gastric juices from my stomach could no longer force itself out of my burning throat, and cracked lips. The rippling pain continued to tear into my body, and something slowly ate at my flesh and blood from the inside.
I stared at my fingers, bony, and frail, no different than the living dead. As I ignored the pain, I stared at the white mountain in front of me. A mountain made of varying sizes of decayed bone, from children, women, and men. The sky rumbled violently as something tore open the blackish red sky, breaking away the thick dark clouds, and created an overwhelming shadow on the barren ground below. It was a fat, bulbous red hand, several kilometres wide, with thick dark claws, that had torn flesh and body parts clinging to it.
It scooped the mountain of decayed bone, and brought it into the dark abyss above, the loud sounds of crunching reverberated throughout the sky.
I could only stare idly, where the gigantic hand disappeared to.
“So that bastard is having his snack, huh.”
The head of the creature was so high up, I could never see it's face, that thing was the one that devoured, and played with, all life on this planet. It was an existence that hid in the far corners of the terrifying universe, devouring races, souls, planets, and gods. The time in this world was made meaningless, the cycle of death, and rebirth on this planet was already at a state of limbo.
Someone who I knew that died fifty years ago, is now crawling on the ground, begging the world for him to finally die.
As I stared around me I could see the marching of transparent humans, tied up in chains, marching in a ghostly procession towards the distance, where that thing sat. They were the souls of those devoured, the flesh of mortals were not enough to sate it's appetite, even the souls would be destroyed, made anew, and toyed with. Everything was at it's whim, the laws of this world were merely it's play thing.
This world is dead, it had died one thousand year ago, the last vestiges of what could have stopped this things birth had long been soiled by the empires, heroes, and men long past. If not for those damned fools, how could the world have ended this way?
I slowly felt my life trickling away, I closed my eyes to accept my end. As I await for my body to dissolve, and face the world as a disembodied creature, a tiny shard of light escaped me, and I felt me eyes and consciousness grow dark.
As I opened my eyes again, a loud rumbling could be heard in the distance.
The bright blue sky started to form a ripple, the birds flew away in panic, and the army of soldiers watched in terror, as a gigantic eye the size of the morning sun distorted the very reality of the world itself. The horses neighed in fright as wagons, and men toppled over. I stood up from my frenzied horse to shout out commands, I felt a sharp cold steel piercing into my flesh. I turned around to look at my assailant, but all I could see were the trees flying past me, and eventually the dirt on the ground. No thought entered my mind as I sunk into a deep abyss.
Explosions woke me up, I got out of my bed and put on my shoes, after exiting the tent I could hear the screams of men. Balls of fire decorated the skies, as they bombarded the land below, men were burnt to ashes, and tents were set aflame.
I could only stare idly in shock, when I was about to finally regain my senses, I felt something slam into me, causing my flesh to burn in agony.
The series of deaths repeated again, and again.
I died while fishing when I was a farmer. I discovered something in an ancient temple, as I ran away with the prize, my fellow adventurers murdered me. When I went to magic school, I studied as an artificer, I learned to imbue magic properties into weapons. When I went home in the middle of the night, I was robbed and murdered, the pool of blood escaping my body, caused me a slow, cold death.
I was the sister of a young noble, the noble one day discovered something he shouldn't have learned in the ruined fane. My brother disappeared many days later, and I along with him, a week later.
The lives, and deaths flashed across me over, and over. Eventually all things stopped, and only a warm darkness could be felt. The darkness was thick, and heavy, I felt something tickling my cheeks, as I woke up, I saw a rough pink tongue licking me. It was a fluffy white cat, the cat immediately stopped when it noticed me awake, and gave a cute mew sound.
I shook my head trying to get rid of the momentary dizziness, as my mind began to clear up, the images of all those deaths, and experiences, bombarded me like a tidal wave. The anger, revulsion, hatred, and despair, consumed me, threatening to tear my soul into shreds. The disembodied voices seeped into my mind like cool water, pouring into the dry soil.
The images frightened me, the experiences made me want to vomit, and the things I've seen caused my spine to freeze.
I quickly closed my eyes, and curled up in my bed, trying to absorb the information crushing me. My body slackened as I was continuously assaulted.
The tiny white cat lay beside him in concern. Large tendrils of blue light leaked from the walls, and slowly converged on the boy, creating a thin blue film protecting his body.
Day turned to night, the warm gentle winds, turned into frigid cool winds, clear green grass, turned to white fluffy snow. Days became months, and months into years.
The sparse forest around the single black tower jutting out, steadily grew over time. The thin frail branches grew thick, and ancient. The sparse forest grew thick, and bountiful,and the flawless black marble tower lost it's lustre. Vines started to spread across the black isolated tower, forgotten by man, and time.
The inhabitant of the tower remained still and silent, not a single person could be seen, nor a sound made.
The silent scenery that had been still for many years, finally saw movement. A small young boy in a large black robe walked out of the solitary tower, his deep red eyes looked aged, and tired. Not a trace of innocence could be seen, it was the exact opposite of his cute, and childish face.
“That was fucking horrible, I felt like my damn body was about to be torn for the fifth time!”
Any who heard the young boy cursing violently would be shocked in dismay over his choice of words, and, actions.
“I can't believe those fools actually allowed the world to become ruined!”
The young boy around ten years old was cursing, and gesturing violently.
The boy rampaged over 20 minutes before finally calming down.
“Oh right, what was my name again?”
Due to experiencing many branches of future lives, his own identity became blurred, and distorted. Likely his original personality had long been wiped out. All the experiences he felt, and saw merged together into a wholly new being.
He stared at the unusual tree in front of him.
“Fine, Acacia it is.”
Names were merely labels without substance, it did not matter what people called him, even wood was fine, since the tree he first recognized is an Acacia, then that was the name he decided on.
The boy named Acacia gripped his hands tightly, and punched the tree in front of him. The knuckles were white, the skin was torn, and barely a dent was made on the tree.
“Can't believe I'm in the body of a little kid, so weak, so frail, and so disgusting.”
The end of the world gave him many bitter experiences, even though this was his original body, it angered him no less. There were too many things he had to accomplish, and too many errors that needed to be corrected. The frail body of a ten years old boy stuck in bed for many years, was not an ideal starting point at all.
Occasionally torturous images of the future, clung to his mind, and made him nearly vomit. The disgust at what was done to the world angered him, the hatred of his fellow man who allowed it to happen disgusted him, and the weak frail body he had, gave him despair.
Men were used as play things, women were violated, broken, and devoured, children were cannibalized, and tossed around like broken toys. The thick red blood formed lakes, and rivers, and the faint ghosts of the dead wandered around in agony.
The boy coughed violently as he smashed his fists against the nearby tree, further bruising his pale, delicate hands.
His eyes were filled with complex emotions, and his smooth childish face, looked terrifying. The white fur ball whined, and patted his leg lightly. Acacia saw the cat looking worried, and slowly calmed down.
“Those useless leaders, that stupid hero, that annoying demon lord, that arrogant church, those idiotic citizens, so many people to blame! They ruined the world for the rest of us!”
Acacia took in a deep breathe, and slowly breathed out, clearing his fragmented mind.
“No, the main point is to prevent those fools from preventing her birth, ugh what year is it today?”
Acacia shook his head as he marched back into the black tower. The first floor was completely invaded by plants, and animals. Bunnies, deers, and insects roamed about. Acacia climbed the stairs to the second floor where a bunch of pixies were darting left, and right, occasionally tugging at his robes in a playful manner. He ignored them completely, and arrived at the third floor, in that chamber was a large room, and in the centre sat a large skeleton of what was once a person,
Acacia bowed deeply to the skeletal remains before reaching the fourth floor. Where his room was, he continued on, and on until he reached the final floor at the 20th level.
It was a large observatory with a telescope jutting out from the tower, the floor was filled with books, constellation charts, calendars, and mapping tools. Acacia was breathing furiously trying to catch his breath.
“I hate this damn body!”
He manipulated the large telescope with tools made from clockwork, springs, and hinges, trying to find something in the sky. The top of the tower rotated slowly, along with the telescope. Eventually it stopped, and Acacia saw two moons floating closely to each other. The twin red, and blue moons, only intersect once every 100 years. When he entered a deep trance to peer into the future by fragmenting his soul, the moons were just out of intersection, meaning over a decade had passed.
He stared at the calendar pasted on the wall, That said year 1450 of the imperial calendar.
“So it's around year 1550 now.”
Sifting through his distorted memories, he remained still for over an hour, finally he remembered a certain incident.
“I have seven years to take advantage of that. At the moment I'm too weak, let me first gain a better body before I try anything too dangerous.”
He stared at his frail hands, and sighed.
“Better fill my body with some meat first. Everything else will come later.” The cat mewed lightly and sniffed him. Acacia sniffed his arms, and curled his lips in disgust.
There were too many worldly matters he had to do, but apparently eating, and bathing was at the top of his current concerns.
With a large exaggerated sigh, he slowly walked down the tower, while the hunger was torturous and his body smelled horrible, he had felt much worse, and had encountered scents from much more disgusting sources. Compared to what he's seen, and experienced, this was nothing.
Chapter 2
Three days had passed since Acacia had regained control of his body, after a century of merging together the aspects of his future selves, desperately containing their thoughts, emotions, consciousness, and knowledge. If not for the protective runes embedded within the black tower, his soul, and body would most likely have been broken down into an empty husk.
Loud violent coughs echoed from the walls in the enclosed tower.
“Damn it! I thought this was a health issue, but this is abnormal!”
Acacia coughed violently, he felt an empty chilliness from inside his very soul growing larger, and more deadly.
A black scar tattoo formed on his chest, and a deep profound fear enveloped him. While Acacia did not see the scar, he felt it's existence underneath his clothes, and could feel the darkness converge at the centre of his body.
“To think temporarily being in the same time period as that creature already tainted my soul. That bastard is actually trying to consume me from the future!”
Acacia's face distorted in fury as he drew the vast mana residing in his body to isolate the growing black scar forming on his skin.
“Scram!”
With a violent roar, Acacia forced his internal mana to crush the invasive magic in a primitive, and violent manner.
After a vicious episode of coughing; did he finally calm down. That thing lives at the end of time for this planet, however that thing still lacked the power to exist in the present, and the past. But who knows how long before that reasoning no longer holds, and it obtained a state of omnipresence in this world.
From the corner of his glowing red eyes, a white fur ball eyed Acacia curiously with it's large blue eyes.
“Mew?”
Acacia talked to the cat casually, about the things he planned to do.
After an incredibly long conversation between child, and cat, Acacia went out of the tower to collect food by picking plants, herbs and berries. In one of his future selves he was a hermit that lived off the land, so he could discern edible plants from non-edible ones.
He could only sigh in depression occasionally, “I could not control who I latched unto in the future, or affect their actions, so a lot of useless information was passed on to me. Apparently one of my future selves was a lousy, and useless debauchee that spent most of his life, visiting brothels, and gambling, what kind of a useless bastard I was, If only I could strangle that asshole for wasting my time.”
He also witnessed scenarios where he walked into a well and died, when he died from food poisoning over a mushroom he found in the woods, or was caught cheating with a powerful noble's wife, and executed.
Acacia wanted to strangle each, and everyone of those idiots.
While picking fruits he accidentally pricked his finger, the bright red liquid oozed out of the tiny wound.
I stared at the blood absentmindedly, a powerful headache assailed me, and vicious images of the future caused me to choke on my spit, and nearly scream in terror. I bit my lip tightly till blood oozed out, the shock of pain cleared my mind, and allowed me to regain control of my body.
My entire body shivered as I desperately tried to blot out those memories.
“Shit! Even though I'm going to see alot of blood in the future, to think just a little sent me into a frenzied mess!”
A deep sense of hatred, embarrassment, and anger enveloped me. But those feelings were useless if nothing productive came out of it. After exhaling a long, slow breath, I decided on my course of action.
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“For now, I should train in my magic, it's not good if I have memories of it, but no physical foundation, or training in my body for it. Since my body was made inactive for so long, and my soul finally became anew, I need to re-familiarize myself with the world.”
I walked up the spiralling staircase into the entrance of the 8th floor. My master has made some of the floors as a training ground for harmonizing oneself with the elements. Unlike Wizards who primarily spend a vast amount of their time studying, us sages feel the laws of the material, and immaterial world with our bodies, and minds.
My teacher sought to gain a deep understanding of the laws of fire, wind, earth, water, and spirit. While studying also has its merits, it is secondary to first hand experiences that us sages value. However that same precept causes the majority of the civilized world to look down on sages, because our training borders on self torture.
I entered the empty room, that had runic carvings plastered all over the walls. A single elevated stone platform sat in the middle of the featureless room. I closed the metal door behind me, and went to sit on the platform. After crossing my legs, I emptied my mind, and allowed the mana to flow around my body from the centre of my being.
Mana felt like a gentle warmth expanding in my body, I moved the mana towards my eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and exposed skin. By moving mana towards all my senses, I heighten them to become more sensitive, and alert. Mana has a multiplier affect towards physical characteristics of the host that it covers.
For example, if mana was poured into a spider web, it could enhance several specific characteristics. A spider web can be sticky, soft, flexible, and depending on the creature that created it, hard. By manipulating the transferred mana into an object, I can multiply specific attributes of the web.
The same theory can be applied to the human body.
As I cleared my mind, a gentle tingling sensation could be felt in the room, drops of water slowly rained from the ceiling. The cool water brushed gently against my skin. Eventually the gentle summer rain turned into a thunderous rain storm, pounding against my body. I could sense a building pool of water growing larger, and larger.
It reached my legs, then my arms, then up to my neck, eventually the entire room was filled with water, and I was locked in the platform I sat in. I could feel the oxygen leaving me, the cool embrace of water enveloping me, and the silent pressure weighing down on me threatening to crush me.
My body eventually felt rigid, and I could feel the threat of death looming. The cool water, turned colder, and colder. At first my skin felt itchy, then numb, then the water felt like thick cold blocks that burned my skin with an icy cold flame.
My body was frozen in Ice.
I could feel my mind slowing down, my warm legs eventually turned into numb lead, my body rapidly shivered in futility trying to warm up, and flashes of pain extended all me. I could feel bit, by bit, inch by inch, that my body was slowly slowly dying.
The elusive grasp of a bony hand mired by the stench of death reached out to me. As it's bony hand was about to touch my soul, the ice turned to a thick mist, and the walls sucked up the mist, leaving the room completely empty.
The lone figure in the room sat still for many hours like a frozen statue. Eventually the eyes wavered, revealing piercing red eyes.
“To be at the imperceptible border of life and death, is to finally know your true self, and the world around you. I don't think I can ever get used to this, master.”
Acacia weakly hobbled to the exit, the tiny cat sat patiently outside the door waiting for him, it began to rub against his leg.
“No need, I'm not gonna feel warm from something like that.”
The cat eyed Acacia curiously.
Acacia coughed irritably, he transferred the mana to his muscles, organs and bones. He then stared back at the cat.
“Can't stop now, I still have to deal with the other elements.”
“Mew.”
“Who the hell are you calling a masochist!”
Chapter 3
The howling sounds of a dark wind blew violently next to my ears, in front of me was a large endless tunnel made of a vile wind. My body moved forward walking in the endless tunnel, the speck of light in the distance gradually faded.
The time within the tunnel was long, and endless. How far should I walk? When Can I stop? Why am I still moving forward? As I slowly wandered into a continuously dark abyss, the sound of the violent wind stopped.
I could hear whispers, and giggling. Try as I might, I could not hear what they were saying, or know where they are. I felt agitated. I wandered about, trying to reach the source of those noises. Gradually as I continued to walk forward, the noises became louder, and louder. The soft whispers became shrieks, and the odd sensation of something drawing closer to me became more apparent.
“Help me.”
“Save me”
“Kill me.”
“It hurts.”
“Where's my mommy?”
The loud voices, grew angrier, fiercer, more desperate, and more numerous. From my sight a ghostly light in the shape of a little girl floated towards me. As she moved towards me, her hair started to fall out, her skin grew flabby, and her form quickly melted. When the misshapen girl reached me it moved it's mouth, and disappeared.
Why only you?
The image slowly melted away and the bright room came to view. A hollow and chilly sensation bombarded me, I quickly looked over my body. Black inky scars formed all over me, tendrils of black vines slowly tried to envelop me.
A deep rage burned inside.
“Fuck off!”
Pouring out all the mana from the centre of my body, I bombarded the invasive magic, wiping it away violently.
Acacia stood up and stared at the room. In the centre were scorched tiles, and broken bits of cloth from his own black robe.
He stared idly at the scorched scenr in the centre. He exhaled slowly, trying to calm his mind.
“So I was rejected?”
In that room he had attempted to practice basic magics that he learned before, however the results were far from what he expected. He not only failed, but the resulting backlash knocked him unconscious. Acacia laid back down and thought deeply.
The difference from the him before, and the him now was the soul merge. In order to tap information about the future, he would shed a part of his soul, and latch on to the future; clinging to a random person that met the conditions. However that practice would normally last one month to a year, time flows differently for a fragmented soul to a different branch of the future. It was an alternative form of training for the spirit, and studying the paths of the world to be.
Normally the memories, feelings and experiences became vague once they reached the main body. Acacia did not know if it was the fault of the taint, or because of the extended exposure to the future life times.
His master had also done the same, and often, and the results should not be what Acacia experienced before. One day when his master performed the soul projection, he never returned. After many years, he eventually died in that chair his skeletal remains sat on.
His master had raised him ever since he was little, but not as a son, but as a disciple, there was no love, but there was admiration. In order to discover what went wrong. Acacia made preparations to investigate the matter.
After many protective measures were set in place, and years of preparing, he began the magic ceremony. He first shared the life of a middle aged knight whom died in battle against the lich king. Normally he would have returned back to his body, but something prevented him from returning, constantly dragging him deeper, and deeper into the future; splitting his soul more, and more.
What was supposed to be a single life, spanned generations, upon generations, eventually reaching a time where that thing officially gained power. Pretty soon the cycle ended, and he was trapped in the same time period as that thing. Forced to live for countless years, being tortured by that thing, and it's minions.
The sights, sound, smells, memories, and feelings were the strongest in this lifetime, and also the longest. However Acacia felt something strange happen, and his body was dragged back to the past, reliving all his deaths once again.
“The thing that changed from before I could use elemental magic, and now, was the taint my soul received from that thing.”
A sudden thought entered his mind.
“However if that same thing happened to my master, did it affect all the other sages in this world as well?”
Acacia stood back up, and marched to the library, on the 19th floor.
The magic he primarily dabbled in were taught by his master. In short, it was elemental magic, and spirit magic. He had used a basic spell of each category, only to find each spell was a failure. From what he understood of magic there was one simple explanation.
“The world rejected my tainted soul.”
From that understanding, Acacia isolated himself in the library. He only came out forage, wash, and relieve himself, in the blink on an eye, several months had passed.
Summoning was a failure, necromancy failure, holy magic failure, dark magic failure, each, and every book he learned the most basic spell, and simple magics to test out, and they all failed. Along the way he suffered countless backlashes, and injuries.
He even used the memories, and experiences of his future lives to no avail.
“The only thing I didn't try is.....”
The very last life he lived, before time stopped.
He was a student at a magic institute in the year 2016, magic advanced to the point where civilized races lived in floating islands, while the land was dominated by the monsters, and beasts.
Acacia back then was called Arcturus, and was also one of the students that attended a lecture by one of the leading magic researchers of their time. Through that course, two types of magics systems were introduced, and had yet to truly exist in the world.
Acacia immediately got up, walked towards the the 20th floor, rummaged through a desk for a pen, and started to furiously jot down notes. Desperate to throw everything on his mind, to the paper in front of him.
A few months passed, and Acacia turned eleven, and it was the year 1551 of the imperial calendar. Something as insignificant as a birthday for his first life was long forgotten, in order of simplicity he merely made the first day, of the first month, his birthday.
During that period he merely observed the stars, and jotted down the planets, and celestial bodies. Other times he would desperately dig on his memories of Arcturus and jot down notes. Sometimes he would go through various books, stick a book mark in them then pile them up on his desk. Other times he would realize he was starving, and forage for food.
On many occasions he would mumble to himself while sketching something, occasionally he would go into coughing fits that lasted a few minutes. His hair grew long and unkempt, and his eyes grew more calm, and focused.
The anger, and irritation at the beginning, was all poured into his work.
Acacia mumbled to himself as he jotted down some notes.
“Arcturus born on the 11th month, under the celestial body of the blind dragon...”
“Helen born on the 10th month, under the celestial body of the water maiden...”
Acacia mumbled constantly.
On the 7th day of the 6th month, Acacia walked towards the roof of the tower.
He began to sweep away all the clutter, from the leaves, dirt, dust, abandoned birds nest, branches and insects. After a good hour of cleaning, he knelt down, and took out a thick ink brush, and freshly made paint. He started to draw on the roof of the black tower.
He slowly, but surely drew out an incredibly intricate magic circle, occasionally placing runic symbols in specific areas. Sometimes he would draw on it, place a star somewhere and often times place a large out of place circle in a weird area of the magic circle. Then he would wait till it became night, and started to pour his internal mana into the magic circle.
The magi circle would glow, and Acacia would meditate on top of the weird circle. After he was done, he would completely wipe away what he drew. The very next morning he would repeat the process but change the symbols, runes, the location, and size of the out of place circle.
He repeated the process again, and again. After two weeks passed, Acacia drew the magic circle on the roof again, this time however he only drew the basic outline. In the centre of the circle he sat down, and concentrated. When the morning light dimmed, the blue sky turned dark, and finally when the stars decorated the skies, did Acacia finally mutter something under his breath.
He looked deep into himself, a consciousness of pure black, slowly but surely gray outlines started to appear, and form shapes. At first it looked like indistinct sketches, but slowly the sketches became more defined, and the images felt more, and more real. Eventually a single grey circle slowly rotated, gaining rough contours, shapes, and colours; eventually forming into a single small blue planet.
The activity spread throughout the darkness, and the images started to move. Planets, stars, meteors, and heavenly bodies started to interact, it was almost like a mini solar system. However everything was faded out, and grey, except the single blue planet.
Acacia slowly opened his eyes, the magic circle underneath him mirrored the picture inside him, he slowly looked up at the night sky, and saw something very far away.
He slowly felt inside his being, and for the first time ever, he wholeheartedly smiled. As he finally got up to stretch, a single white fur ball, stared at him.
“Mew.”
“As sorry, for ignoring you for so long.”
The cat snuggled up to him and closed it's eyes. Acacia smiled as he walked back in the tower. He took a nice long shower, cut his hair, and changed his clothes.
He went to the room he spent so long being absent from, and slept.
The same torturous image came back to haunt him, the soul of the trapped begging for release, all of them looking for someone to blame, to pour their hatred, and despair on.
The ghastly images of tortured souls desperately shot out their arms, trying to cling to him, but eventually being sucked into that unfathomable vortex. A single frail hand stretched out to Acacia.
“Why only you.”
Acacia thrust his hand out, and gripped it tightly.
“I'm sorry it's only me, but.....”
The little girl slowly started to dissolve.
“I'll do something about it.”
Before she disappeared, the little girl gently patted his arm, and disappeared. Acacia couldn't see her face, but she formed a small, and barely noticeable smile.
Notes:I am not making it a habit of doing combined chapters, I'm just re-uploading things I already did.