A/N: Lots of info dump ahead.
"I'm back again."
Viktor looked around. The cabin was exactly as he had left it. His eyes drifted toward the window, where the world outside had undergone a change. The sun was gone, replaced by a pale, watchful moon.
But even with the moon's light, the darkness outside was unnaturally thick, swallowing the trees and stretching endlessly into the forest. The more Viktor stared into that abyss, the more the chill crept up his spine. It felt as if something in the woods was staring back at him.
He quickly tore his gaze away and turned toward the desk. The book was still there.
Viktor hesitated.
If he opened it, would he see those visions again? Those impossible, nameless beings that existed outside reality, things that seemed to hunger for the world itself?
But the book might hold answers, maybe even the key to understanding why all of this was happening to him. Staying afraid was pointless.
He took a deep breath and opened it.
Inside was another letter. He unfolded it and began to read:
---
[Dear Viktor,
The place where you are standing now, the world around you, is your soul.
Yes, Viktor, this is the shape of your very soul: a world of its own.
Here, you may do anything, like a god. However, you must not think like one, for arrogance will hinder your path.
This world is your soul. You must protect it at all costs. If this world is destroyed, you will be destroyed with it. Never allow harm to befall your soul.
The book before you will help you manage this world.
And lastly, Viktor… please save the Outcasts.]
---
Viktor stared at the final words, his expression hardening. The plea was desperate, almost begging him. But why only the Outcasts? Why not humans, too? Whoever wrote this seemed to have a history with humanity… and not a good one.
Setting the letter aside, Viktor turned his attention to the book.
It was plain, its cover an unassuming shade of black. But when he opened it, the first page appeared blank, until his fingers brushed against it.
Words began to bloom across the page in glowing ink, forming sentences, lines, and diagrams.
It was Viktor.
Everything about him was written there, his name, his age, his abilities, even an image of himself appeared beside the text, shifting and moving as if alive.
He turned the page.
The next section described the world itself, including its size, the number of mountains, the creatures that roamed within, and the very energy that floated through the air. The book was an encyclopedia of his soul-world, holding everything that existed within it.
Viktor studied it carefully and became fascinated the longer he read and the more he understood. This was no ordinary book.
It was a tool. A key. It allowed him to control everything inside his world.
But there was a catch: to use its power, he needed World Energy.
World Energy was the very lifespan of living beings within this world. When they lived, grew, and eventually died, their existence would be converted into energy that the world absorbed. And when Viktor had gathered enough World Energy, he could use it to create miracles, shaping reality inside his world.
Viktor divided the books into five pages, even though it was thick except for the five pages; every page was blank. He flipped into the first pages; he called it the Status Page.
His personal page read as follows:
---
[Viktor DeMille]
Age: 17 (21)
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Ability: Invisibility
Status: Healthy
World Energy: 0
Soul World Level: 0
... ...
Beneath this section lies Viktor's hidden potential, background, flaws, and more. This page allowed him to edit himself, removing poisons or disease, healing injuries, sharpening his senses, or making other changes. However, each edit consumed a large amount of World Energy. If he edited too much or acted recklessly, the changes could backfire, causing damage to his soul or even leading reality itself to reject him.
What if he tried to make himself superhuman, for example, strong enough to lift a ton? He couldn't simply do that. His Soul World would first need to be strong enough to handle the change. But what if he uses it when the Soul World is weak? Then, using this ability would have a heavy cost and might severely harm both his body and soul.
As the saying goes, the stronger the soul, the stronger the person.
The next page was the World Page. It displayed many places across the world, global events, rifts, and other phenomena. This page granted Viktor control over the environment, landscapes, weather, realms, and even spatial cracks. By using it, he could shape terrain or summon natural phenomena such as fog or earthquakes. The cost depended on the scale of the change, and the greater the alteration, the more unstable the Soul World would become.
The third page was the Energy Page. It revealed what kinds of energy existed in the world: Spiritual Energy, Moon Energy, Sun Energy, Life Energy, and, most importantly, Mana, which Viktor was already familiar with. Using this page, he could redirect, purify, or temporarily empower himself or others with these forces.
The fourth page was the Population Page, which recorded every living creature in the world. At present, the page lists only insects and Viktor himself. With this page, he could track, categorize, or even command creatures. He could also sacrifice their lifespans to generate World Energy. Conversely, he could create new life, though doing so required seeds, souls, corpses, or fragments as raw materials.
[Human: 1
Insects: 9,203,563]
Unless the little girl from before was counted among the insects, Viktor had no idea where she had gone. When he used the book to search for her, he couldn't find her anywhere in this world; it was as if she had simply vanished into thin air.
Viktor sighed as he opened the final page.
The final page was the Path Page, which recorded the destiny and fate of every living being in the world, even insects. Yet when Viktor tried to view his own destiny, the page was blank, as though he had no fate at all.
This page allowed him to glimpse possible futures, subtly nudge events, or even rewrite small parts of fate. But this power came at an extremely high cost. Altering fate too much could summon Outer Entities or other beings connected to destiny itself, which made this page the most dangerous of all.
But no matter how powerful the book was, Viktor still needed sufficient World Energy to activate any of its pages. Each page had its limits, and their powers could only be used inside the Soul World, never outside it.
World Energy came from living beings. To gather it, Viktor needed life from the outside world. Fortunately, this process did not kill them outright. Instead, it worked like aging; the world slowly absorbed a fraction of its lifespan, just as humans on Earth naturally grow older.
Viktor stepped out of the cabin. Since this world was a reflection of his soul, it did not automatically absorb energy from him. The same applied to the insects that lived here; they were created by the world's own energy, and thus the world would never consume its own essence.
Opening the book, Viktor commanded the world to absorb half of the insect population, draining their entire lifespans and converting them into World Energy. Yet he quickly realized there was a limit. The maximum amount of World Energy he could currently hold was 100. If he absorbed more than that, cracks would begin to appear across the Soul World, threatening its stability.
He needed to strengthen the world before he could harvest all the life around him. That was why on the first page of the book, a Soul World Level, his current strength determined how much energy his Soul World could safely contain. To hold more, he would need to grow stronger.
Understanding this, Viktor absorbed only the amount he needed and converted it into World Energy. Then, he willed the terrain to shift. The ground rumbled beneath his feet as the earth rose, forming towering mountains. Viktor ascended with them, lifted high above the land until he could see everything.
The moon cast its silver light upon the green sea of forest that stretched far beyond the horizon. The wind brushed against him as if the world itself acknowledged his presence. Though this was his world, he was reminded that it was not infinite, merely the size of a small country, perhaps a hundred kilometers across. However, it was vast enough for now.
What he needed now was to raise his Soul World Level and grow stronger. No matter how overwhelming his abilities might seem, he knew next to nothing about the entities that existed beyond reality, and he had no certainty he could fight them if they came for him.
"Perhaps that letter meant that saving the Outcasts means hiding them inside my world…"
Viktor frowned. If he could not yet confront those entities, then hiding might be the only option. But he knew hiding could not last forever.
"Those entities… what are they really? Outer gods? Void Creatures? And the Cult of Shadow, are they summoning them here?"
As he spoke, a sudden agony stabbed through his eyes. Viktor collapsed to his knees, clutching his face. The pain became unbearable, forcing a scream from his throat. The mark within his eyes seemed to come alive, writhing as a black line slid into his face, slithering down his neck, his arms, and finally onto the ground itself.
The dark lines twisted like serpents, wriggling through the air before forming a black circle before him. From within that circle, a crack appeared, and it broke like a glass.
Beyond the crack was nothing but darkness.
Darkness like the mouth of an endless abyss.
...
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