“Damn it,” I said, breathing heavily.
In front of me was an opponent the likes of which I have never faced before, simply said, such an opponent was strong..
I myself was weak, and I only fought those who were weak as well, as someone destined to be within the lower echelons of society I kept myself within it. They say understanding your own strength is the first step in realizing yourself, and I have stuck true to that saying. I am weak, there is no denying that, therefore I try my best to avoid those who are stronger than me and just live. Consider myself fully realized.
Despite that, I can’t just not be able to defend myself. Due to that I have learned self defense and basic fighting styles.
You see, in this world, there are those born and destined to have great power, and then there are those who aren’t. I fall into the not destined category.
The great planet sized cities and normal sized cities on planets that make up this world are filled with people like me, weak and starving, constantly relying on those who have power.
My opponent was one such person. Larry Elford, a boy in the sense that he was in his mid teens but he was strong enough to crush a boulder with his fist if he wanted to.
How did I get here? Well it was simple, the bar I frequented was a crappy one, but it served beer I could afford. When I got there I ordered my beer as always and as I was about to drink it the upstart came in. Larry Elford was the son of Baron Elford, the ruler of this planet. As for why he came in here, I didn’t know, but he decreed his intentions as soon as he arrived. “What a disgusting place, I hate this planet.” He then proceeded to order his entourage of knights to wreck the whole place.
The bartender I knew well hid while I scrambled as well. It just so happened that I was caught by a knight and then presented to the young lord.
“Excellent,” He said, “This one looks feisty, she looks moderately strong. I’ll kill her.”
Hence why we are in this situation now. Nobles made little to no sense, Larry was trying to kill me!
Before we get into our fight, there is a bit of a background we must establish on how the hierarchy of our universe works. Our universe is very developed, with spaceships and gundam style mobile suits. Humans have spread across the galaxy colonizing planets and building interplanetary nations. My home planet was in the Empire of magic, Lazos. It was an empire built on magic and the use of spells..
This universe had magic. It was fueled by mana, an energy stored within our bodies. There were those without mana, and those with immense qualities of it. Those with mana could strengthen themselves with it and make their physical abilities stronger, there were also those who could use mana to call forth the elements, crafting spells and magical techniques. Those with mana were called none other than the nobles.
Nobles used magic freely to control people. A noble with the littlest magic could take on a thousand man army. The common folk rarely if ever had magic. Those with mana would be taken from a young age and trained at a noble’s house. They would be educated and learn how to use their magic, then they would be adopted by the noble or one of their retainers and serve as a knight (the lowest noble rank) of the family.
The nobles were the ones born with power and destiny. I had magic, little as it was but it wasn’t nearly enough to attract the nobles. I could strengthen myself so slightly that I barely felt it, and only for a few seconds at a time (it required hours between use to recharge).
Why was this noble thinking I was strong?
I barely dodged a mana empowered fist that swung at me. “Tsch, no she’s weak.” Larry said.
The next punch caught me in the jaw. My head swung up as it was subjected to a massive amount of force. All this time avoiding nobles would lead to my death.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Larry picked me up by the neck, I struggled but I couldn’t break free. He punched my stomach. Something ruptured, I didn’t feel anything. He dropped me and left me there.
“Let’s go now, I’m bored.” He said. Then he proceeded to gather his knights and leave.
My vision became blurry. Why! Why! I thought, why was I like this? I just wanted some booze. I didn’t deserve to die, and after all that time staying out of nobles’ way. I was born and raised on this planet, with little mana I graduated the mandatory 3 years of schooling and became a simple mechanic for a local company contracted to do work on military vessels for the lord. Commoners had little education, some lords didn’t educate their population at all. The only reason I received any education was that the lord was in dire need of personnel that could work for the military. Mechanics and pilots were high in demand. The empire was at war, with itself. The heirs to the throne were fighting for the right to inherit it. Due to our current monarch’s lack of interference, the heirs could freely fight. Often they used armed forces to kill or hurt other member’s military forces which in turn led their forces being hurt. This vicious cycle meant there was always a battle somewhere. Our lord was in a faction of one of the heirs. He was contributing a lot to the war effort in hopes of getting a promotion from a baron.
Barons were low, the third lowest rank of all nobility. There were knights, who didn’t own land. They served as vassals. However knights could take on other ranks as well, typically a knight was simply someone who was trained to harness magic and fight. Many nobles of every rank were knights. The common folk who became knights were the only ones who typically didn’t have territory, so if someone was a knight, and only a knight then and only then were they truly the lowest. Next came a baronet. Not a widespread rank but they typically own part of a planet, not a whole planet or an asteroid or small satellite. Barons owned 1 planet and sometimes asteroids or satellites. Viscounts owned 2-4 planets. Counts 5-8, Marquis 9-12, and Dukes owned 13-20. Planets with habitable planets near them were far and few between so having more than ten planets was a sign of considerable wealth. However, many lords taxed their citizens too much or didn’t provide them with the means of cultural development leaving many planets devastated and without much use. The baron had a 80% tax rate on everything and overmined all of the natural resources on our planet. If this kept up within a few years everything would fall apart.
That didn’t change the fact that I was dying. “Please,” I whispered to some unknown entity, if there was any out there.
“In my next life, make me one of them. Make me powerful. Make me have meaning.”
I breathed my last breath.
Where am I? I should be dead but I have consciousness?
I awoke. I was in zero gravity, and I didn't have a body. To be precise I was a floating blob. My surroundings were that of glowing light, nothing discernable was available for me to see.
I moved, it was difficult but I wiggled through the empty space. Soon I was able to see a lot more. T-thats my planet!
Believe it or not there was a planet in front of me. Beautiful it was, but after the Baron’s overexploitation it looked like a sad gray blob.
What am I? Is this my soul?
And then I knew. I was a soul. I had never heard of a soul being able to be removed from the body but here I was a soul, floating through space.
“Greetings.” A mysterious voice said.
Next to me a blob much like myself appeared.
Startled, I paid attention to it.
“I am the soul wanderer. I recently felt a new soul awakening and have come to investigate. It must have been you.” it said.
“Y-yeah?” I replied.
“It is nice to see another soul, I was waiting for another soul to manifest, you are the first I have seen other than myself in a long time.” It said,
“O-oh yeah? Um… so I am a soul? What do I do now?” I asked.
“Well, as a soul you are a manifestation of pure mana, I’m sure you could do much. I myself have done many things after I became a soul. You see, a soul is where mana is stored, sometimes when people like us die, our souls are left. I don’t know why many nobles and the like with mana don’t manifest as souls after death but we have.”
“Wow?”
“There are few of us wandering souls. But I will tell you that as a soul you can become much more.”
“Really?”
“Yes, I teleported here. Such an act is impossible while the human body contains mana. As a manifestation of pure mana that a soul is, you can learn impossible magic and control impossible power.”
“Wow, can you teach me?”
“Ha ha, I can, and I will, I have taken it upon myself to guide new souls. As souls we are immortal, only those with substantial magic can see us, and we can move freely throughout the universe. We can also take over other bodies.”
“Are you messing with me?”
“No, I have done so many times, souls like us can become whoever we want, we can become those who already exist or those who never did. If you train under me I can teach you how to become anything you want and take over anybody.”
“That sounds…. Good. Who were you when you got a physical body?.”
“Well, the emperor, several knights, a lord. After a while it gets tedious now I just pass my time wandering around and teaching new souls. I believe some humans become souls for a reason, of all the souls I have met, all of them share one thing in common. We all suffered needless deaths, I believe that we became souls due to our intense feelings about our deaths, and being a soul is a way for us to enjoy the universe and live on.
“That makes sense. Alright! Please teach me!” I asked.
“Ha ha ha, come along youngling, there is much for you to learn.” The soul wanderer said.