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Well, I was right, and it HURTS, so I quickly passed out from the shock of pain ... well, or, most likely, just died.
However, when I woke up, I didn't feel any pain and that made me happy… but after some time, I also realized that something else was missing, namely, my body. Still, a light luminous translucent something that repeats the human contour is clearly not my body ... rather it was the soul, and this moment did not particularly please me.
I took a closer look around, and even a better look at myself, and I can draw the obvious conclusion that I am now a ghostly silhouette, hanging in a gray void.
"So, it looks like I'm either dead or close to it, and maybe that's how people on the verge of life and death feel. - I said ... and then a strange inscription appeared before my eyes:
"The system is being calibrated"
And away we go… the text in an unfamiliar language began to quickly appear and change before my eyes, as well as my body… or it was still a soul, it began to feel strange. Examining myself again, I noticed that in the center of my chest I had some kind of luminous cross, from which multi-colored threads began to diverge throughout the body-dash-soul, which were woven into strange knots and patterns, and that's when these threads reached my head, I began to see a kaleidoscope of different colors in front of me, and on top of all this, strange text was also going on.
This strange process lasted for quite a long time, but at first the doomsday endedie, and then the text began to take on a meaningful and familiar look.
And so:
"Calibration is completed"
"You are welcomed by the adaptive system of spiritual development "ArcAnima", it is also the "Ark of the Soul". The creator of this system is your past incarnation. Further details in the introductorymessage.≫
Hello future me. My name is Leon Astores and I'm a Master in Eastern Europeth Guild of Mages, which, most likely, no longer exists, because when a decent piece of the mainland is torn off the planet and teleported into the void with an accompanying explosion, you will not envy nearby territories. And so I was the only survivor on this piece of the mainland, now floating in dark space. In order to get out of here, I am preparing to go to the only inhabited world I have found, and if you are reading this, it means that I partially succeeded.
But let's start at the beginning to clarify the situation.
In 1908, according to the old calendar, a meteorite about seven kilometers in size flew to Earth, during the fall it almost completely evaporated in the atmosphere, but its surviving fragments fell on the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula. The meteorite impact caused a huge explosion and also woke up the volcanoes in the southern part of the peninsula, making the whole peninsula not the most pleasant place to live. But besides death and destruction, the meteorite brought something else. As it turned out, this celestial body consisted mostly of crystallizedoh mana that, when falling, began to dissipate in the atmosphere.
After fifty years, when all the effects caused by the meteorite subsided, and also after two world wars, the effect of mana on living organisms began to manifest itself. Some animals and plants mutated, children began to be born with inexplicable abilities, and weak psychics and clairvoyants were no longer considered charlatans.
The time was turbulent then - post-war, so then a lot of people got on the prosector table to scientists. And the scientists did not eat their bread in vain, they found out that the fallen meteorite provoked the awakening of a very weak magic shell in a large part of the population. However, as time passed and the change of two or three generations, the influence of mana accumulated, which led to a more obvious effect of mana on the material world.
Basically, the manifestation of magic was displayed in the form of elemental bursts of mana in children with large reserves of this mana. Scientists also found out that although the magical background was the densest near the epicenter of the meteorite fall, but the concentration of mana is gradually increasing on the rest of the planet.
Scientists, together with the government of the states, decided that since they could not stop the spreadmagic and the appearance of magicians, then they should at least control itugh… or rather, they began to control the mages. Boarding schools were establishedbased on researchtheir institutes, where they took children with a magical gift and mana reserves. Children were taught and used to further study magic and magicians.
As is already clear, training and research were carried out with a very large bias in the military field, children were trained as living weapons for combat operations. This lasted for about twenty years, until a group of magicians rebelled and staged a revolution using the murder of those who disagreed with the freedom and independence of magicians. After a small war, the magicians broke away from the direct influence of the government and founded the first guild of magicians with headquarters in western Poland.
Time passed, the countdown of years began to lead from the Fall of the Meteorite. Magic became more familiar to people, the magicians themselves developed their mystical art, two more guilds opened in China and America. It also turned out the fact that electronics do not live very long in the hands of a strong magician or in places saturated with mana, for example, in a place with a large concentration of magicians. So very soon there appeared such a branch of magic as artefacts - with it, magicians at first tried to replace the electronic devices they loved and were familiar with.
And in the eighty-eighth year from the Fall of the Meteorite, I was born in the family of an artefacturer and a healer. They named me after my grandfather, a native of Italy - Leon. Since the parents had professions that required relatively small amounts of mana, but good control, their son had an average amount of mana, but just jewelry control. At first I studied at home with my parents, and later in the guild, so that by the age of forty I became a master of two branches of magic - artefact and healing.
Since a holy place is never empty, and in a world with relatively recently born magic there were no patrons and gods yet, in the one hundred and thirtieth year from the Fall of the Meteorite, five gods arrived on Earth: the God of Knowledge - Zion, the God of Wealth - Tiatzhar, the Goddess of Love - Fuzuhi, and two young gods with no specific area of worship, Munlan and Mivor. These gods settled around the planet, occupying certain territories. So, Tiatzhar lived mainly in North America, Fuzuhi in southwest Asia, Munlan in South America, Mivor in Africa, and Zion settled in Europe.
For trained magicians, practically nothing has changed ... well, the gods appeared, well, they work miracles, just think, strong magicians can do that too. But for very weak gifted ones, who practically do not differ from a simple person, and for ordinary people the gods were just Gods. They were worshiped, they were prayed to, temples were built for them, especially fanatical ones, even sacrifices were made.
The most active were the young gods, who settled in territories with a very favorable population for them. If magicians were born in settlements in these territories, then they could become for the local population with an equal chance as respected shaman leadersand local gods, and be burned at the stake, like the offspring of the devil. And when the young gods came to Africa and South America, they did not waste time in vain, they quickly put things in order and began to build religions with themselves at the head.
Well, the god Zion, who lived on our territory, was the most useful, as he shared some knowledge, not for free, of course, but for an affordable price in the form of mana.
Fourteen years have passed since the appearance of the gods, during which I studied the Magic of Souls and the Magic of Space, and a few other areas. And since everything in the world has an oppositeaside: Light has Darkness, Chaos has Order, and the gods have demons.
At first, the arrival of demons was imperceptible. Devils and demons were the first to come to Earth, they created undead to help themselves and attacked remote villages. It's just that sometimes we ourselves spontaneouslyin the old cemeteries of the undead rose no less. So the attacks were quickly sorted out and they were not given much importance. But, as it turned out, it was only reconnaissance, and the demons, hiding, began preparing for the invasion.
The base for the invasion was still deserted, from the sometimes erupting volcanoes, the south of the Iberian Peninsula. Five months later, we heard rumors about the disappearance of entire villages, and after a couple of days, the demons opened a stable breakthrough in Inferno, through which a wave of evil poured. After three days, the demons were stopped, but this was given at the cost of the destruction of most cities in southwestern Europe, the deaths of civilians, soldiers, and magicians.
But the demonic invasion didn't end there. The war with the demons lasted for more than eighteen years, during which the demons first built a stationary portal to Hell for a steady influx of reinforcements, and later began to capture less protected territories such as Africa, Oceania and South America. The local population resistedbut quickly retreated, allowing the demons to build three more weaker portals. And from that moment on, demons became a problem for the whole Earth, and not just for Europe.
Over time, the magicians prepared themselves, and with the support and help of the Gods, people began to fight back, and then even attack. So the Asian Guild, with the support of the goddess Fuzuhi, destroyed the portal in Oceania. People cheered upattacked the demons even more, thinking that the war could be ended soon. Even the gods descended to Earth, because by helping people win, they show their strength and gain more and more admirers.
Everything was going well until the moment when, during the battle for South America, Demon Lords appeared, comparable in strength to the gods, and Fuzuhi was killed during the storming of the portal. As a result of the battle: among the demons, two Demon Lords were killed, another one fled, but promised to return. The portal is closed. And among the people, a bunch of soldiers and magicians died, including the archmage of our guild, one goddess died, and later we learned that Tiatzhar left the Earth, refusing to fight anymore. The strongest god was Zion, and he calmly reacted to the flight of Tiatjar, saying that he did not expect anything else from the merchant, and was surprised that he had not washed off even earlier, as soon as he smelled fried.
Zion, applying his knowledge in magic, brought down spells that killed demons in droves, but he also fell from the hand of the Demon Prince with five horns in the form of a crown and a red crystal in his forehead. Zion, before his death, nevertheless took the Demon Prince with him to the next world, along with another Demon Lord. This happened at the closing of the portal in Africa, the second largest demon portal on Earth.
And again we lost the archmage and the god. Having become a senior in the guild, I was offered to take the place of the archmage, but I refused, citing the fact that now is wartime, and I mostly have non-combat skills. Therefore, it was agreed that I would be the assistant and adviser to the new archmage, who was made a young talented magician who had recently become a battlemaster, but on the battlefield he always stood out for his incredibly destructivespells of his own invention, in this wartime he was the best candidate for the position of head of the guild.
As assistant to the archmage, I helped sort out the aftermath of the battle in Africa, and a few things fell into my hands. The first curious find was the upper half of the Demon Prince's skull with the remaining three horns and a red crystal in the middle of the forehead. The second find was the upper half of Zion's spear-staff with a blue crystal at the top. And the third find was a pyramid made of an unknown metal, with dark blue luminous streaks. This pyramid was found at the site of the destruction of the portal.
After the death of the Demon Prince, the demons were quiet for a whole year, which gave us time to prepare for the final battle, and time for me to investigate the items we found. So the red crystal turned out to be the third eye, which stored a lot of demonic energy, which was also gradually generated,and the excess was released. The blue crystal contained divine energy, and some kind of magical structure was woven into it, in which I made out only that it was there. The most interesting was the pyramid. Its feature was the material - an alloy of various magical metals, as well as an unknown additive, which is probably crystallizedth energy of Space, which gives the alloy the useful property of transmitting energy over great distances. Here's how this pyramid works: when melting the alloy, the demons use magical metals that conduct energy well, store it, and also generate it. After that, "Crystals of the Void" are added to the alloy ... that's what I called the materializedth energy of Space. When the alloy cools, you need to continue pouring mana into it so that the energy in the metal synchronizesthe alloy has a single subspacefor energy storage.
As a result of all this, if you divide the smelted metal into one large part and several small ones, while placing most of it in a place saturated with mana, where the mana will be absorbed by the alloy, or if you saturate it manually, then energy can be pulled through the fragments over long distances. But this energy turns out to be too unstable and difficult to control, and at the same time it has the color of the energy of the Void, that is, it is ideal for powering stationary portals and for other Spatialth Magic, but in other branches of magic it is almost impossible to use it.
In studying these subjects, I noticed their influence on each other. The demonic crystal drew energy from the pyramid and began to grow little by little. The divine crystal also absorbed the energy of the pyramid, and it went to feed the magical structure, the effect of which I did not notice at first until I put all three items together. The energized Blue Crystal began to vaporize the Red Demon Crystal, and an aura of strange energy emerged. Later, checking the effect of this aura on captive demons showed that this aura neutralizes the magic of demons, and the demons themselves in this aura are very uncomfortable, it generally killed some weak demons. In general, from these three finds, I made an anti-demonicsky amulet. From the metal of the pyramid, I smelted a cross, which I inlaid with demonic and divine crystals, connecting all parts so that they constantly work to create an aura against demons.
And now it's time for the final battle. On the side of the people: two gods, almost all the magicians of the Earth and many ordinary people warriors. And on the side of the demons: three Demon Lords, one of which has already escaped death three times, escaping from the battlefield ... well, and a bunch of demons, of different claws and horns. The army of people was divided into two parts: one part was supposed to tie up the battle and destroy the demons, and the second to close the portal. The gods had to destroy the Demon Lords if possible. I was in the second group.
The battle went on with varying success: at first, people pushed the demons, then the Demon Lords entered the battle and pushed the people back, and then the gods took over the lords, and the initiative again passed to the people. I broke through with the second group to the portal.
I teleportedI dodged for short distances, used my most destructive artifacts on demons, healed myself and fellow magicians when injuredV. At the same time, the aura from the amulet cross protected me from demonic spells and weakened the demons near me.
We were already close to the portal, when behind, in the direction of the first group, led by the archmage, there was a huge explosion directed towards the demons. This explosion immediately destroyed a quarter of the army of evil spirits. On the one hand, it was good, but on the other hand, it was a last chance spell developed by the new archmage, since I was his assistant, I knew about his developments and even helped refine it to reduce its lethality to the user. The spell was weaved in the magician's aura, and was powered by a large amount of mana, prana and emotions… that is, the energy of the whole soul, which turned into a directed explosion based on the Element of Destruction. Anything caught in the center of the explosion is destroyed...even the soul.
But, as you know, the price of this spell is the death of the magician ... in the original version, in the modified version, the magician completely loses the opportunity to conjure and reduces his lifespan to five years, during which he can still try to recover.
Seeing the huge explosion created by the archmage, many people understood what it meant, because such spells are not used against simple demons. Most likely, the archmage saw that the gods were beginning to lose, and decided to help with the most powerful spell that he had in his arsenal. Therefore, our second group hurried up and broke into the citadel with a portal. Inside the building, on the ceiling, hung a huge rhombus with dark blue veins, around which were four luminous blue crystals, pointing downwards, directly at the arch with an active portal.
Just as we were about to start destroying the portal, a Demon Lord flew into the hall, starting to break through to the portal arch. Magicians began to get in the way of the demon, but even being wounded, he scattered them very quickly. And now I'm the only one standing in his way.
The demon uses the same spell that he used to clear his way from other magicians, and it does not work because of the amulet. I, without wasting time, as quickly as possible set the spatialth barrier and began to power it as much as possible, starting to draw energy even from the amulet. While the demon was breaking through the barrier, I recognized him - this was the same Demon Lord who participated in every battle for the portals and always survived by escaping, while the other lords fought to the last.
And just when I thought that the demon would break through the barrier, those from whom he fled appeared, namely two gods - Munlan and Mivor. Both of them were battered, one was missing his left arm, and the other had a huge wound across his right eye. But, despite this, both of these gods are just burning with the desire to kill the demon.
The Demon Lord, unable to break through my barrier, understood his position and shouted "I'll take you with me!" first he threw some kind of spell at the ceiling, and then attacked the gods. And after a couple of seconds there was an explosion.
I don't know how long I was passed out, but when I woke up at night on the street under a clear sky, the first thing I felt was wild pain. The pain was especially strong in the chest, and a feeling of strength came from the chest.
Having coped with the pain and healed, I began to look around. There was devastation around, I was on a hill in the center of a small circle with a diameter of four meters, which was not touched by the explosion. Examining myself, I noticed the cause of the strange sensations in my chest, namely, a bluish luminous cross fused into the flesh. When I touched it, I realized that I felt it as an integral part of my body.
Several days passed after my awakening, and this time was enough for me to find out what exactly happened during the explosion.
And here's what happened. The Demon Lord cast a spell that destabilizedlo diamond drive, causing the magical alloy to shatter and then explode, killing both the demon and the gods. The particles of this magical alloy kept in touch for some time and managed to absorb the energy of the two gods and the demon, but failed to process it, so a large amount of the energy of the gods, the demon and the energy stored in the drive went through the energy connection to the only surviving piece of this alloy, and namely, in my amulet.
Before the explosion, I held the barrier so as not to let the demon through, and I held it with my last breath. The mana was running out, and I was drawing energy from wherever I could, and the energy also came to me from the amulet. So during the explosion, I continued to hold the barrier, and the energy in the amulet began to arrive quickly, but I sent it to maintain and strengthen the barrier.
Later, I began to feel pain, because an uninterrupted colossal flow of energy passed through me. The pain kept growing, especially it became unbearable when the energy of gods and demons poured into me. Unable to endure the pain, I began to heal myself in the hope of alleviating the suffering while continuing to maintain the barrier.
I kept holding the barrier, continuously healing myself, but the pain kept growing, but I continued, because if I let go of the barrier, then most likely I would die. When the flow of energy dried up, I was in a deranged state, as if in a trance, I held the barrier and healed myself until I fainted.
Now, having checked myself, I found changes in the energy, the aura swelled up, the energy began to look like this, whether I was a quarter of a demon, a quarter of a god and a half of a human magician ... however, my appearance also changed to match the aura, horns grew on my head, the skin has turned black, black wings have cut through behind the back, and the eyes shine with heavenly light.
In my former amulet, and now in the fused cross on my chest, bakhion was found - the energy that makes god - God, and the demon - Archdemon. And since I only recently became a quarter of a god and a demon, I did not have time to have the ninth shell of the soul, where bahion should be stored, so the energy accumulatedb on a physical carrier, that is, in a molten cross created from demonic and divine crystals.
After a couple of months, having fully recovered and examined the territory, I understood the reason why the sun did not rise. Because there is no sun here. I was in the void of space, on a small island about three thousand kilometers in size. When I explored this island, I found no intelligent creatures, except for some mutated animals, famous for their vitality.
In general, I began to think about how I got here and how to get out of here.
Having fully explored the place near the portal, I found voids underground from a vein of a magical mineral-accumulationbodies that were adjacent to the remains of a vein of magical ore capable of generating mana. I also found a huge cave, in which, most likely, a huge fragment of a meteorite, consisting of crystallizedoh mana.
Those four blue crystals near the demon portal used to serve as accumulators that stored energy for the stable operation of spatialx gate. These blue crystals were connected to the underground veins of magic crystals and ore, and during the explosion, they released enough Dimensionaland energy in order to turn the neutral energy accumulated all the time in the veins into energy for spatialx moves.
However, this island did not move far, it just fell into some of the parallel realities ... sort of. So, you can try to return to Earth ... I hope it will work.
The problem for the return was the distance, because as shown by the magical scan, the Earth still exists in this reality, but in time I am in the distant past. So far away that the Milky Way galaxy has not yet flown through this place. From the echo in the infosphere and the astral, I learned that all the nearest parallel realities that I can reach have the same time frame as this one. That is, nevertheless, I was moved very far, both in space and in time ... although it's not for me to complain, it's good that I remained alive at all, otherwise they are so uncontrollableNon-movements without specifying any parameters most often lead to dispersal of the moved object throughout the Spatial-Time Continuum.
Oh well, you'll have to work with what you have. Having learned from the echoes in the information field and the astral the approximate direction of the galaxy's movement, I decided to get there myself. But that's just how far I can't open portals, which is why I had to use other ways of moving.
Cheered up after the news of a possible return to my home planet, I decided to draw up a plan for this very return, or rather several plans. A little later, I arranged all the plans so that if one failed, another would take over, and so on.
From another bad news, I began to notice that the number of ba-chioni in the cross is gradually decreasing, so I decided to spend it and make myself a soul superstructure, similar to those that the gods gave to some of their apostles and priests. Since I was a master in artefacts, healing, soul magic and spatialand magic, well, and I also understood a little in directions adjacent to them, then, having sat down in meditation to make myself a superstructure of the soul, I finished only after seven years, having spent all the bahion and created a whole system of spiritual artifacts. I sewed the basis of this system into the Core of the Soul.
The system had unlimited potential in development, spending time can easily deal with opponents of the level of God Zion or Demon Prince. But, in time, I'm just limited, it's not known how long the light spatialth barrier that keeps the atmosphere of life on the island. I, of course, have not felt hungry for the last seven and a half years, but having caught and roasted the mutated little animal, I realized how hungry I was and during the day, having arranged a genocide for mutants, I ate them. Oh, if only I could satisfy another hunger ...
For another three years, I assembled a capsule-shipto travel through Dark Space and Hyperspacein. I did everything to safely reach the goal: I collected all the metal from the island, used some as material for building a ship, and used some with heavy metals, such as plutonium or uranium, as fuel in the engine of matter splitting. With magic, I made the ship's defenses and life support system for me.
I called my system of spiritual superstructures "ArcAnima" - "Ark of the Soul". After all, it should help me, in the event of the death of the body, achieve the goal, that is, return to Earth in the form of a soul and be reborn again, and also, if possible, preserve my memory.
But even in case so many years pass that the protection does not help and my soul begins to collapse, I built the System Foundation into the shell of the Soul Core. So the future me will not have to start a new life from scratch every time after death. Here, for the sake of interest, I will place a counter of years in order to know exactly the time elapsed since the creation of the Soul Ark system: "5666 years".
And now, after another three weeks, spatialth barrier fell and the atmosphere on the island began to evaporate. I got into my ship and took off low, after which I activated a ritual that began to turn the island's matter into energy and began to feed the magic circle with it to open Hyperspacegates, which, however, will only slightly reduce the distance to my galaxy, because in the Dark Space Hyper-Spaceyours is practically non-existent.
When enough energy entered the magic circle, a hole formed in space, flying into it, the ship found the Earth using the tracking system and headed towards it. And I, before going into stasis, just in case, compose this message.
I hope that the future me will read this letter with nostalgia… well, or what is also not excluded, the future me will not remember anything, and from this message will learn the history of the origin of the System and the history of its past incarnation.
≪ End of message≫
Path of the Demiurge - Soul Ark, a Naruto fanfic FanFiction
Word Count: 4995