In front of me there is a little blonde kid, we are both floating in what i can only describe as the void, the only difference between me and him is that his body looks human and mine is looks like light in form of a person, also he has some cool clothes, reminding me of a kid on a piece of media that uses Keys as a weapon.
For some reason I am extremely calm, my mind is telling me that I should be freaking out right now but I guess not having a body, or at least a normal one, helps with keeping your cool. After what looks like an eternity the little boy finally addresses me, floating towards me. Looking him up close this is not the face a normal boy would have made, he is stressed, so much that even a person like me, who can't read kids to save his life can see that he is really stressed.
After he is close enough he starts talking to me.
"Sorry about the delay, it was better to take care of things before we start for our safety" says him while crossing his legs to sit? On the void and bowing his head as a display of sorriness.
"Start what exactly?"
"Explaining your current situation. You know you are dead right?" while looking me dead in the eye.
Now that I start to think about it,I remember that I was walking somewhere and then light engulfed me. And before I can start thinking back more about my life the kid starts talking again.
"Anyway, first. We are sorry, it's kinda our fault that all of you died so we are trying to remedy that. Second, you should abstain from trying to remember details of your life, they are not there anymore, names, places, faces, it is all gone from your memory, if you try too much you will feel pain like the ones you only get in hell"
His statement doesn't show a hint of lies. I can't say anything while trying to block my own head of thoughts for now.
"Continuing, we are sending all of you to one of our worlds that could use your knowledge, but don't worry, if you want to just live a quiet life, no one will hold it against you, the world is not really safe, but we can guarantee that you guys will not die because of it"
"Who said I want to live again?" I sarcastly say.
"Well, you dont look like someone who wants to die." he says with a dead face.
"Yeah, death seems like a hassle. Anyway, is there anything I should know before I get sent?"
"Yes, there are some warnings and some rules that you will have to follow for a while. First, don't skip technologies, this world isn't that advanced technologically but it has magic. We don't really care if at some point you make a car or something, just don't skip steps, don't go straight to a racing car. Second rule, don't tell other people about your situation, we are not saying that you can't say it forever, but don't go screaming to the heavens that you are from another world, also don't tell that we pretty much killed you or the others, this could put a wrench on the gears that keep the world functioning"
I stop him for a second and ask a question that is eating me for a while.
"Who are you and what are you?"
"I can't answer the first one, but for the second one, I am a god, or at least what can be considered one, sometimes we debate if we really are gods or just really powerful beings." he says while making a thinking pose.
"Well, I am here, no reason to doubt that you are at least powerful."
"The last thing isn't really a rule, more like of a warning, you along with everybody else is being sent to a body that would die because it either didn't have a soul or it was damaged, we can't really check what you will get but in case you get a empty body, you don't have to worry about anything, but in case there is still part of the soul left, your soul will have to consume the soul in the body so you can completely control the body. Don't worry about it too much, an incomplete soul is pretty much the same thing as no soul, especially for a new-born. The process of eating a soul will take around a year so you won't be able to act as yourself in the body for at least that amount of time"
I have no option but to accept the facts and go to my new life, hell, he said that magic exists, maybe I can realise my dream of becoming immortal. But now that I think about it, why do I have this dream? It looks like without all of my memory I can't remember why, but hey, it's better to have something to strive for, and I have a feeling that anything would be better than the life I had before.
"Ok, ready for departure captain" I say in a happy sailor voice.
"Good luck with your new life, and sorry for what happened, one day we will probably explain everything but for now go live the life we took from you" he says this with a refreshing look in his face as he touches my head sending me somewhere.
--//--
I wake up, I feel my body, I am warm, I try to open my eyes but I can't really use them for too long. In front of me I see two people, a man and a woman, probably my new mom and dad, they look happy and sad? everytime they look at me I can get a glimpse of their smiles but then they face each other and cry a little. By the looks of things I was born a little while ago, I am in clothes and washed so there is no way I was just born, somehow I also feel like I am stuck in a box with something but it's probably just this body.
For the next few days I am fed and washed, the fact that I can't go to the bathroom alone is kinda shameful but there is something else in my mind that can overwrite my feelings of shame. Rage, so much that I cry a lot. I became a girl, but that's not the worse, for some reason I still have a dick, I think there is a term for it, Futa or something, probably from a place in my old world, anyway, on one hand I am kinda relieved that I have one of the things a man need to be a man, but that don't change the fact the everything else is woman. I have no idea if this is normal in this world, but by the looks of it it isn't, my family doesn't let anyone care for me and when she washes me she cries almost every time saying something that sounds like an apology. This rage continued for about a month until I had a dream with a familiar face.
--//--
The kid appears in front of me in a void again, the only difference from last time is that I don't really have a body this time and I am unable to move.
"Hello, how is life going? Haha" says the kid with a forced smile
If I could I would scream and punch him right now, but this is beyond my abilities right now.
"Well, looking at what you are thinking I guess saying sorry will not help our side..." he starts to cry a little, and I can feel it's genuine, he actually is sad with something.
"I am responsible for you for the time being so I will give it straight to you, you probably gonna die when you are 5 years old"
I am in shock, not only those fuckers killed me once for no reason, now I am in a death-trap of a body.
"Look I know you are freaking out right now but you need to listen to everything if you want to survive this, we are trying to help, we swear" He says apologetic.
I calm myself down and start to listen to him.
"The first thing I should explain is why you probably will die. The thing is we didn't check your parents while selecting a body for you to be reincarnated and their situation affected you more than we would have liked. I can't go into details, but in summary, your family was cursed and you are the result. What you are is what the Church of the world declares as abominations and when they find out about you they are going to kill you, that's a fact. But there is something else, something that could kill you even faster, we know that you are feeling a discomfort that you can't really pin down. The thing is that the body you are right now has 75% of its soul instead of the fragments it should have, probably because of the curses, if you don't find a way to hold yourself there she will eat you"
Fucking great, now besides the inquisition, I have to worry about what amount to suicide toughts, I can at least run from the first one.
"As for the help, we are going to give you a little more than we would give to other kids when they turn 5"
If I had a face right now I would have a really confused one.
"This is something you learn as you grow up so there is no problem telling you right now. You see in the world you are right now we gods give blessings to people based on what they do or can do, these blessing are a way to make your knowledge and experience stick to your soul because we were really tired of some really smart and resourceful people forgetting how to do things after they got old or hitted their heads, so when someone has potential or acquire enough experience doing something we the gods give him a blessing so that experience and knowledge stick to his soul forever, or at least until he dies, by that account, there are also curses that do bad things to your soul and body, but unlike blessings, mortals can remove them under certain conditions, which unlucky for us, the only god who knows how is sort of a dick and is not helping"
Fuck that guy or girl, if I find him I will punch him or her.
"Anyway, when you are 5 years old a ceremony will happen in the church where we gods would usually give a blessing based on the potential of the kid. The church will be able to see every blessing and curse you possess using an artifact. That is probably when your life will begin to be in danger but that is the earliest we can actually directly intervene. When the ceremony happens we will give you 3 blessings of your choosing, so take the next 5 years thinking of what you want and need. But remember we can't give you something that is not archivable via study and training"
Well, fuck me, at least I have a head up this time. I am still angry, but it's better to spend that energy in a way to survive. So let's calm down and see what I can do.
"That's everything, I am going to send you back right now, good luck!" He says it to me as he waves his hand while everything blackout and I wake up crying of hunger.
--//--
I am 6 months old at this point, I am finally able to understand a little about this world language, also I finally know my name, Lucia. Shame I don't know my family name since ever since I was born they pretty much stopped having contact with other people besides the bare minimum. I never even left the house once.
Saying ‘I am’ now is kinda wrong, I should say ‘We’. the girl whose body I am right now finally got its soul together enough to have a conscience, since she is a newborn she can't really think like I do so it's not like I have someone to talk to. Because of this situation I discovered a lot of things.
First I can no longer 100% control our body 100% of the time, it's kinda like a tug war between us, usually I win but not by much and it takes too much of a toll on me. I can influence her movement without really doing much, since at least 25% of her is me so i am using that part to make sure that our minds synchronize the maximum possible using this space, with that we are able to walk a little without hurting our body since she can use my memories and knowledge if let her.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
The other thing is that I can Astral project myself from my body pretty much splitting my mind into two, in that state I was able to see myself for once since there are no readily available mirrors.
I have really red eyes almost like a ruby with blue dark hair. Mom and Dad both have brown hair, but the fact that no one batted an eye on this must mean that genetics work another way... At least is what I hope. On the good side, mom is really beautiful, she probably would have eyes on her all the time in my old world. I have to make sure the baby-me can't access my adult knowledge too soon, this can screw a brain and I need her to be stable.
Anyway time to train, this body needs to be in peak condition when the time comes.
--//--
I am 3 years old now, I am able to walk and talk a little, even read. The language in this world is strange, if I didn't have my previous knowledge on how to learn another language it would probably have taken another 2-3 years for me to be able to have a conversation.
In those two and a half years Me and Lucia Soul reached a kind of agreement, don't ask how, even I don't know, probably too much knowledge got to her soul and instinct is doing its job. I will not control the body anymore, at least until she is around the age I was when I died, but she will do what I ask her to do when needed, like exercises and studying even if playing seems like more fun. Fun can wait until we are not on the death row.
It's kind of strange talking with yourself or seeing yourself. Everything She feels, be it physical or emotional, I also feel but usually I hold those things back because as a kid she has no concept of restraint. I once relinquished total control of her soul a little and she almost jumped out of a window because of curiosity.
I know why we can't leave but she can't understand why, it's like babysitting yourself.
I also acquired more knowledge about my surroundings, the world is called Gaia, right now we are on the north part of the Strip Continent on the Maka Kingdom, the second largest kingdom on the Continent. Our village is not that big, there are not even 1000 residents here so we can't have a name, we have a number, 56. When a village has 2000 or more residents the king gives the village a name. Let's hope the books are wrong on this one, I don't like the idea of just being a number. See if we could get a name sooner, that would be cool.
I also got the name of my parents, my mom is called Maria and dad is called Julius, we don't have last names. Mom used to be some kind of medic and dad is a soldier or some kind, he is always leaving with armor and a sword and coming back with scars and bruises. Mom patches him up everytime and he gets all better really fast.
All this time I really took a liking to them. I remember my relationship with my old family being bad at its best and downright wrath inducing at its worst, that is probably why I was living alone. Now mom really cares for me, sometimes treating us like a doll putting us in various dresses. At least it looks like we are not poor. I let Lucia play with mom and take a backseat. When dad comes home we pester him to train us, at first he did it just for fun but now he is starting to take things a little serious, at least as much as you can when you are training a 3 year old girl, anyway, he at least is actually training us instead of just playing with us. Mom thinks it's adorable that we want to be like dad, but she really hopes we could become a lady, well, if not for the thing between my legs that would scare most men out of a bed with me in it. Dad hopes one day I can use the big sword he got from his dad. He takes care of that sword as much as mom takes care of me sometimes, it must be a family heirloom or something.
I also am pretty sure that I am able to block memories and probably sound from Lucia when she is sleeping. As you would expect from a kinda of medieval society with some magic that recreated modern goods like a toilet and freezers, which I thank the gods for, there is not much on the way of entertainment, adults have sex, a lot of sex. At least they do it when Lucia is sleeping. The me that is not on her body actually can stay awake while the body sleeps. Anyway, mom makes a lot of noise, and dad likes it. I guess I now know one of the reasons why whe are pretty much in the woods even though we are still part of the village. I also try to block this memory for myself, knowing you parents are making sex is not something you would like to have in your mind, even if they are beatiful.
When she wakes up, we are going to train till I can forget a little about what happens at night here.
--//--
The day I was training finally came, no matter how much mom and dad tried to delay it, saying I was sick, I runned to the forest after dad, etc... Anything they could think of, the church made it clear that if a child didn't participate in the ritual the family would have to be kicked out of the village.
Mom with tears in her eyes and praying to every god she could remember dressed me in the most beautiful dress we had along with dad walked me for the first time through the door of our house.
The walk to the church was a long one, they were going as slow as possible, probably because they knew what would happen if someone didn't hear their prayers and acted upon them.
The village was not really that impressive, most houses looked the same, going more to the side of being useful than being beautiful, most where just wooden or stone square rooms with rooftops of what I can only identify as grass, sometimes brick tiles on the big houses were looked like rich people lived, ast least in comparison to everyone else.
The church was a white square building in the central square where the shops and the village fountain was.
As we enter the church trought its big doors that had to be opened via a lever on the inside we see a big golden scale almost my body size, which is kinda of shocking since looks like I am pretty tall for our age and sex.
Mom and dad walk us to the priest and go to the side of the scale. The priest starts saying something but both me and Lucia agree that it's best to ignore him and keep an eye on the door. After he finishes talking I am instructed to place my hand on the scale, when I do it the scales flash a golden light and I see myself again in the void this time with a light body like the first time, in front of me is Lucia, but she isn't responsive. Seconds later that kid appears from a portal or something distorting the space and starts talking to me.
"Well, here we are, the moment of destiny, did you think about what you want?" says him in a really cheerful voice.
"Kinda hard not to when you know you will die if you don't get something useful, also and the Girl I am sharing the body with? any reason why she is in that state?"
"Well unless you are a full soul you can't really exist here, and since you are 25% her normally she probably was sucked here along with you"
"So how does this work?"
"Think about what you want as a blessing, it will appear like a message on a computer for you just confirm it and it will be yours. You can choose 3".
"That is a pretty simples system"
"So simples that the guy who did it almost went on a rampage after hearing that it will be used only once"
I pause for a second and send my condolences to the god who made this. And start selecting.
First I select what is called Great Sword Mastery, which is what you earn when you learn to use the Great Sword but not a specific style, this makes sure you can never forget how to properly use, maintain and basic fighting with a big sword. Dad probably has this since he uses Buster Swords with ease.
Second one is Weightless Mastery. This makes sure that anything I have a mastery wont have weight for me while I use it.
Lastly I tried Magic Mastery to be able to use every kind of magic but I was unable to get it and Fire Magic Mastery kept appearing in its place in the confirm screen.
"Hey, why can't I get Magic Mastery?"
"Probably because you have a negative affinity with one or more elements and some are pretty big at that. The system will select the best for you in that case, if you want magic I suggest you get the one you are best at"
"Not like I know how to use magic yet, Mom can use it but never taught me how and I can't figure it out just by looking other people, but ok"
I get the Fire magic Mastery and just the moment i do it my mind starts to leave the space. But before that I can see the kid in surprise as the unconscious soul of Lucia also selects something before we both are trusted back on our body.
The golden light of the scale stop, the priest take a piece of paper and press on the scale where I can words forming, Mom and Dad are praying in silent, but just by looking at the priest reaction to what is written there I can see what happened, Lucia also did, even if only on a subconscious level, her mind knows what will probably happen so she give complete control to me as a way to survive since she knows I have more intelligence than her, and even with this body I can probably slip from here in the worst case.
"WHAT IS THIS!" Scream the priest while looking at mom and dad.
while doing my best to sound innocent I look at the priest and ask "Is there something wrong? Did I do something wrong?"
The priest looks at me ready to kick but he stops. He calms himself and approaches mom and dad while holding a smaller silver scale in front of them.
"By my authority by the Church of The Gods I ask you both. Did you encounter a demon and/or did its bidding by your own accord?"
Mom and Dad looking at me with tears in their eyes answered "NO!".
"Then as the head of this Church I sentence the spawn you call daughter to exile and both of you to services until you are both cleaned. You have until the end of the day to lead this thing in the form of a child out of this village or all of you will be branded Heretics and killed without warning."
Those words shocked me, they also shocked Lucia, I could feel it, luckily I was in control so I could control my emotions.
Mom and dad took me and we pretty much runned from the church back to our house.
There they started discussing something I could hear no matter how hard I tried and then Mom took me out to the woods alone there she started talking with me.
"Lucia, my dear, I am sorry for making you like this, I wish I could do something..." She starts crying a lot but continues to talk. "But I can't so you will have to be strong, dad is coming so please be a good girl and wait for him." She gave me a hug so full of love that for a second I almost started to cry myself, I don't remember ever feeling like this in my old life.
Mom walks away leaving me in the woods for a few minutes when dad appears holding our Heirloom Great Sword and a bag.
"Sweet, this is for you" he puts the sword in my hand and ties the bag in my body, they are both strangely light.
"Dad and Mom can't stay with you now, you need to go far away in the forest, away from everybody, so when the bad people come after you they won't find you. We will find you later and we will go far away where we can live together in peace" He gives me a hug like mom, Lucia inside me is almost taking control of the body with just sheer emotion, if I didn't have the spirit of an adult I would be in a river of tears right now.
"Ok dad, I will go far away and wait for you and mom, and don't worry I can eat alone" I say making a child's smile to try make dad happy.
I turn my back to dad and run into the forest at full speed not looking back knowing that they will come after me. How wrong I was.
After running and walking for around 3 hours, leaving a trail that even a child could follow, I started to get Hungry, Lucia was a little better knowing that mom and dad would be coming back later so I made my damn sure to be alive. I found a river to get water and while there was still light checked my bag. There were around 10 apples there along with a flash for water.
But before doing anything I had to check on my family. They said they were going after me so I need to make sure they are following the trails, if not I would have to meet them along the way. How would I do that? Easy, now that I am 100% in control of the body I can astral project really long distances. I use this power and before I know I am all the way back at our house where mom and dad are talking with each other.
"Why did we have to do it this way?" Says mom crying.
"I know it's hard on you but it's better than a painful death" Says dad with a dark face.
"But she is our daughter, we should have gone with her"
"If we had gone with her all three of us would be dead by tomorrow"
"But she is our daughter, we could have found a way"
"Not anymore, forget about her, think about it as just a sad dream, one we will both wake up from in some time."
Mom started to cry with no signs of stopping.
"Let's hope Venom does it's job properly and she passes away in her sleep. That way I hope the gods help her soul to a better place, Lucia, I am sorry that your last meal will kill you and it's not even the fruit you like" Says dad with an angry face but a calm voice while the weight of what he did falls on him.
At that moment something in me and Lucia broke, we were both seeing this, but for me it's somehow worse, it's not the first this happened, I don't remember my family but I remember what they did, how they left me to fend for myself when I was just a kid doing the bare minimum just to not go to jail and ignoring me completely the rest of the time, they in more than one occasion left me to die in something that would be considered an accident if someone else looked at it and didn't know they were around or left me there. All the hope I re-earned from mom and dad died at that moment, Lucia was just destroyed, and we both cried in anger and sadness that we were abandoned by the people who once said they loved us the most.
I throwed the bag, drank all the water I could from the river, picked the sword and started walking. I don't know where I will end up, or if I will be able to survive this, but I will keep walking, anywhere is better than here, I... We need to survive, we need to live, we need to be able to be happy...