Volume I: Transmigration
Chapter 1: The Apple
In the year 682 of the Sacred Calendar, Rogue Ota Rivers had already spent four years at the Lyon Magic Academy. With his fairly intelligent aptitude, he would be able to leave the academy in another two years and become a formal mage. In these turbulent times, mages were highly sought after due to their well-known destructive power. At the same time, because of their equally well-known weaknesses—poor physical stamina and long incantation times—protecting mages in warfare became the primary consideration. Even so, even renowned generals across the continent found it difficult to completely avoid mage casualties.
Mastering magic requires innate talent, and becoming a qualified mage takes a considerable amount of time. This also makes the number of mages on the continent quite scarce; correspondingly, their status is much higher. Furthermore, most high-level mages are also very wealthy individuals, as various gems, magical silver, dark iron, and other magical materials are exceedingly valuable. High-level magical artifacts often make cross-tier duels between mages possible. It has been said that a mage's power is directly proportional to their wealth.
Rogue's father, Viscount Rivers, was a lower-ranking noble of the Rhine City-State Alliance. His fief was merely a small town and a few surrounding villages, with a population of only a few thousand. Regardless, as a noble with a fief, Rogue was qualified to bear 'Ota' in his name, the symbol of lower hereditary nobility within the Rhine Alliance.
The names of the continents were bizarre and varied, with basically each country having its own designation. In recent years, with the rise of the Sacred Church and the expansion of its religious authority, countries gradually accepted 'Gloria' as the name of the continent, meaning 'Hymn to the Gods'. The Rhine Alliance, located in the southeastern corner of the continent, was a union of over a dozen principalities, large and small. Compared to the continent's three major powers—Dello, O'Hung, and Asrophique—its national power could only be considered second-rate. However, while worse off than some, it was better off than many. In front of the remaining thirty-odd smaller countries, especially the neighboring Duchy of Roen and the City-State of Kedo, Alliance King Louis XIV would still frequently flex his military muscle. However, this king's interest in art, beautiful women, and immortality far surpassed his desire for territorial expansion. During his over-a-decade-long reign, he mostly coexisted peacefully with neighboring countries.
Corresponding to the Rhine Alliance's national status, the Lyon Magic Academy was a second-rate, mid-tier academy on the continent, located in the northern part of the alliance's capital, Lyon City. Its teaching style prevailed in its practicality, which directly led to its three-hundred-year history lacking any figures that truly shocked the continent. Due to the demand for mages in various countries, magic academies were often the most egalitarian places on the strictly hierarchical continent—at the very least, commoner magic apprentices generally wouldn't be beaten to death by nobles. Moreover, commoner students who graduated successfully often had a significant chance of becoming nobles themselves after a period of experience.
Rogue's family circumstances were somewhat in decline, with only four servants in the household—a rather embarrassing situation for a noble with a fief. Old Man Rivers, aside from his fiery temper, possessed no particular financial skills, and the family income was decreasing year by year. However, this did not prevent Rogue from learning all the vices befitting a noble: arrogance, conceit, lechery, a hot temper, and, added to the common noble repertoire, cunning and deceit. At fourteen, Rogue became a man for the first time with a maidservant in his household. From then on, he increasingly threw the small fief into constant uproar. A year later, Old Man Rivers had no choice but to send Rogue to this magic academy, spending the last of the family's few heirloom jewels to do so.
Rogue didn't expect the old Viscount to provide him with any further support. To fund his usual entertainments, he needed money. So, using his smooth talk, he curried favor with an intermediate-level mage in the academy, Fess, managing Fess's magic laboratory and handling tasks that Fess preferred not to be seen doing. At this moment, Rogue was in the magic laboratory, studying a pearl that had mysteriously appeared before him. The pearl was dull, pale, with a few cracks on it, and didn't look valuable. The only hint of something unusual was the faint shimmer of one white and one black light swirling within it. Rogue widened his eyes, carefully estimating the pearl's value, never imagining that the pearl was also studying him. Suddenly, the pearl split open. The black streak of energy shot straight towards Rogue's forehead and vanished into his mind.
Rogue's entire body began to writhe as if he had turned into a mollusk. One moment a lump bulged out here, the next a depression sank in there. Black blood occasionally sprayed from his skin. Finally, Rogue slowly opened his eyes—they were completely pale. A low chuckle sounded: "This soul's psychic power isn't bad." Rogue looked towards the fragments of the magic pearl on the floor. Just at that moment, the white streak of energy also struggled to fly out, but couldn't manage to get far from the pearl fragments. A light shone in Rogue's eyes, and both the white energy and the pearl fragments were sucked into his forehead. A faint, shrill scream could be heard in the laboratory. Once again, Rogue's body seethed like boiling water, taking a long time to settle. When he opened his eyes again, they had returned to normal.
The black energy was none other than the soul of Roderick. Using the artifact Soul Orb to isolate all soul-based powers, he had successfully escaped the Judgment Light and evaded celestial pursuit. However, the power of the Judgment Light was irresistible. So-called divine artifacts naturally could not compare to the true power of a god. Moreover, the Judgment Light was typically invoked by a Major God of the celestial realm to eradicate excessively powerful evil in the world. After the battle at the Odi Grand Temple, the Soul Orb had exhausted all its power. The Lich did not destroy Rogue's soul but chose to merge with it, inheriting all of Rogue's personality traits. Since the Soul Orb's energy was limited, and most of it had been used to imprison Venna's soul, during the soul fusion, the Lich only brought along the fundamental understanding of magic's essence, abandoning the vast repository of specific spell knowledge. By now, Venna's soul was reduced to its most core energy, known as the Divine Origin; her entire consciousness had long since dissipated. This tiny bit of Divine Origin was also integrated into the merged soul.
The Lich had not destroyed Rogue's soul but had instead fused with his soul and consciousness. "I am already too deeply branded with the mark of this world; all I can achieve is destruction. Perhaps for this world, creation is the most important thing. When an apple jumps onto the chessboard and starts moving recklessly, its impact on the entire game is far greater than a piece that has jumped off the board."
Rogue's innate talent wasn't particularly outstanding. After four years of half-hearted cultivation, he was merely a Second-Level Mage, capable of using only Cantrips and First-Level spells. According to the regulations of the Lyon Magic Academy, a student could graduate upon successfully casting two different Second-Level spells, essentially reaching the Fourth Mage Level. However, the soul fusion with the Lich brought with it immense, unparalleled psychic power, which could be used to achieve extremely high magical control. After all, a mage's power lies not only in the level of their magical power but perhaps even more in their understanding and mastery of it. In Rogue's understanding, a mage's power also lies in cunning and wealth. "A First-Level Mage wearing magic enhancement rings on all ten fingers would never lose to a bare-handed Second-Level Mage." The Lich actually agreed with this point; after all, the gap between a First and Second-Level Mage was like the intellectual difference between an idiot and a moron. And given Rogue's current level of understanding, grasping mages beyond the Fourth Level was still somewhat difficult for him.
The magic system on the Gloria Continent, after years of development (primarily for the needs of warfare), had formed a rigorous framework. Generally speaking, for every two levels a mage's power increased, the level of spells they could apply would rise by one. That is to say, a Tenth-Level Mage could cast Fifth-Level spells, while an Eleventh-Level Mage's power requirement allowed them to cast two Fifth-Level spells. Of course, freaks existed outside this system, such as the Lich Roderick.
The Divine Origin was the purest soul energy. Rogue, whose soul and body had been completely remade, would use this to create his own Familiar. Mage Familiars were generally the specialty of high-level mages and were always summoned creatures. As for creation, "That is the domain of the gods," the Lich thought. However, gods were never objects of the Lich's respect, and he was busy fusing souls and remodeling the body. After fully merging with the Soul Orb, Rogue's physical body was utterly unrecognizable internally. However, for various considerations, Rogue's external appearance remained unchanged: still short and stocky, with a portly build, a thoroughly unremarkable face, and those cunning eyes. Yet, the Soul Orb bestowed another mysterious skill: a personal pocket dimension.
Rogue himself didn't have much opinion on the matter—or if he did, he didn't dare voice it. After learning the origin of the Divine Origin, he instead felt immense envy towards Brunn. "He definitely won't be the last," Rogue thought viciously.
After three days and nights of a sleepwalking-like existence, earning him several severe scoldings from Fess, the Lich finally completed his work.
Rogue awoke. From this moment on, Rogue was still Rogue, and Roderick was also Rogue. The Lich had finally deceived the celestial realm, placing that apple onto the chessboard.