On a grass plane, eight people walked towards a gate. The eight of them looked completely identical and at first glance, one would mistake them for Octuplets. At the second glance, there could be two different reactions because all eight of them were a bit transparent. A normal farmer, who had never contact with magic or any knowledge of it, would think they were ghosts and run away screaming for his life. A mage, on the other hand, would recognize the eight as something, that the magic user of this world called mage souls. The moment, he would realize, that all eight mage souls belonged to one person, he would drop his jaw from shock. It has to be known, that a normal mage would have one soul, which would transform into a mage soul once he opened one of the gates of magic. If he opened the first gate of fire, it would become a fire soul and so on. The soul would be drenched in the elemental essence of the respective element, which would allow the person to draw the power of this element. A “Blessed by the Goddess” would have two souls, but that was the absolute maximum.
And yet there walked eight mage souls, belonging to a single person, side by side across the grass plane. All of them looked like the young man in the green robe, who was killed mere moments ago.
When the eight souls finally reached the gate they saw two figures guarding it. The figures were dressed in silvery armor, with quite a few gold decorations. It was clear, that this armor was just for show and had nearly no value in battle whatsoever. The most notable about the two figures were snow-white wings behind their back.
“Angels,” thought the eight souls at the same time. They stopped in front of the two figures and bowed respectfully. The two angels smiled and one of them started talking.
“Welcome children. You have lived a good life and therefore, your souls have been brought to the divine gate. Once you step through your souls will be purified and you can find peace. I see you brothers are mages blessed by our beloved goddess. I’m sorry to tell you that, but once purified your souls cease to be mage souls and become normal souls once again. All your hard work will be lost. But do not be unhappy about it. You do not need to worry about anything anymore. Everyone will have their personal heaven, where they do not need magic power. And if you want, you can visit each other.” The angel who said that smiled at the eight, wanting to soften the impact his words made. Most mages would be unhappy and unwilling to let the work of their life just disappear, but the young people in front of him did not even frown. The angel was surprised and sighed for himself.
“I can see these children are not very sad, that they died at such a young age. The world has become more and more chaotic. Their life must have been not a kind one, for them to welcome death with such indifference.”
The eight young men looked up to the angels and for the first time, a smile surfaced on their faces.
“Forgive me, but I am just one person. No brothers. Just me.” The eight said completely synchronized.
The angels were stupefied. They looked shocked at each other, as they tried to figure out how this could be possible. They started talking mentally with each other.
“How is this possible? Is he the reincarnation of goddess husband? I did not know he has chosen to reincarnate again.”
“He didn’t. Maybe the goddess blessed him a few times?”
“Don’t be stupid. How could she bless him seven times at once? The only one who is getting blessed so many times is her husband when he reincarnates now and then to walk the world.”
“Wait… His mage souls all have different attributes. And two of them are the lost ones. There is only one person like this! He is the worldmage!”
Both of the angels stared at the man in complete terror. It was not because they feared him, quite the opposite. A worldmage was well-respected by all angels since he was the chosen guard of the goddess herself, but because they knew exactly what his arrival symbolized. It is impossible for a worldmage to die because of sickness or an accident. They were simply too powerful for such things to happen. A worldmage could only die in one of two ways. The first is of old age. The second is being killed.
The man in front of the two didn’t look very old. In fact, he looked, like he just hit the twenties. The two angels did not want to confirm their fears, but they had to ask to be sure.
“You are…”
Before the sentence was finished the eight souls interrupted it in unison.
“Yes. It is exactly as you fear.”
The two angels could no longer suppress their emotions and started cursing in rage. After a while, they cooled down a bit and asked the patiently waiting souls.
“Who exactly did it? Who could possibly kill a worldmage? As I see every one of your souls has opened the fifth gate of their respective element and your fire soul seems to have even opened the sixth gate. You should be the apex of the world and nothing should be threatening to you.”
The eight souls sighed and started to explain the reason, for his death.
“After my master died three years ago, the church somehow uncovered the position of our palace. I did not know that so I could not react when they finished their stealthy preparations and appeared with their entire army in the eight element valley.”
The eight souls gave off a bitter laugh as they remembered the shock they experienced when they saw the gigantic army moving towards the valley.
“They had even used some of their inherited artifacts, to make themselves unnoticeable through magic as long as possible. Once I noticed them, they were already at my door.”
The angels started foaming with rage again.
“DAMMED. So it was the so-called “Church of the Benevolent Goddess”. These guys are filthy! They are using the name of the goddess to commit the gravest sins without repercussion. I don’t even remember when the last time was when a high ranked official of this piece of mud came to the divine gate.”
The other angel looked at his friend and said in a sad tone.
“The last one was about 600 years ago. It was a grand cardinal. He was a true believer, who upheld the ideals of the goddess and wanted to reform the church. He was branded as a heretic and burned alive for this. And there was that one guy with his wife 16 years ago. If I remember right, he was the leader of one of their mage-divisions. What was his name? I think it was… Adurn”
The two angels looked again at the eight souls and signaled them to continue their story. The eight souls nodded and started to speak once again.
“After they appeared at the entrance of the valley I knew, that my time was running out. I was powerful, but they had just too many men and far too many resources. I was no fool to believe I could withstand it, so I choose to not fight. Instead, I used the time the defensive mechanisms of the valley gave me, to strengthen the seal as much as I could and more importantly to teleport everything out, what the church might want to have even in the slightest. Then this day came. I finished my rituals, the lackey of the church came and then they killed me. I warned them, but I doubt they will listen.”
The angels looked sorrowful at the eight souls. After a while, one of them spoke in a dejected manner.
“Your teacher came just three years ago, which means you had no time to take an apprentice. Am I right to assume, the line of the worldmages broke with you?”
The eight souls nodded silently.
“Then the world is doomed” continued one of the angels.”Continue the ceremony. I have to make a report to the goddess.” After this sentence, the angel disappeared. The other one sighed and looked up at the eight souls. He then looked behind the eight and noticed another soul coming to the gate.
“We have to end our chat. Another one has come to the divine gate, so I will just let you in, without further questions.”
The angel straightened himself and started to continue the ceremony, which was interrupted by the grave news they received.
“Come forth child and enter the gate. Cleanse yourself of your grief and hatred. You have lived a good life and you upheld the principles of the goddess. For that, paradise shall be yours.”
The eight souls nodded and stepped through the gate. As soon as they did, they felt a cleansing power flowing through them. The souls felt, that the elemental energy which was flowing through most of their essence was slowly pushed out. For a living mage, this would mean regressing in his training and a decrease in his power. This kind of situation was the worst imaginable nightmare for a mage, but at this moment, the souls just let it happen. They knew, that these powers are now completely useless for them. After a few minutes, the souls were completely cleansed. Slowly they started to flow together and after a few minutes, they united into one. This was the only soul left out of the eight. It was not a mage soul anymore, but a nearly completely normal soul.
The remaining soul started to walk forward and after a while, it found itself at a lake. The soul was standing at this moment on a hill. When it turned around it didn’t see the grass plane it crossed just a few moments ago, but a dense green forest. The soul was confused for a bit but decided to just accept it. When it started to look around, it noticed that its body was no longer a bit transparent, but completely solid. The soul has transformed completely into the young man, it was in its lifetime.
“Fine with me,” he thought when he descended down the hill. After a few minutes of consideration, he stopped halfway and just laid down on the hill. The next moment he closed his eyes.
1 Year later
The young man was once again lying on the hill. He enjoyed paradise to the fullest. When he wanted to eat something, the thing would appear in front of him. This was the same for nearly everything. Every wish was fulfilled with just a thought.
The young man was humming a song with his eyes closed when he suddenly heard a familiar voice.
“Can I lie down next to you?”
As soon as these words were said the eyes of the young man snapped open and he looked at the figure next to him with a warm smile. It was a man in his late twenties. He had short brown hair, which matched with his scrubby beard. The eyes of the man were also deep brown. The man smiled and revealed two rows of shiny white teeth.
The young man on the grass answered with a laugh.
“What kind of apprentice would I be, if I would disallow my own teacher to lie down on a piece of grass. Of course, you can lie down here for a mere price of 50 gold coins”
The young man moved his hand and two glasses of wine appeared before him. He passed one of them to the man who now was lying beside him.
“Stop calling me teacher. We are both dead and there is no hierarchy between the dead. Just call me Sen. Also screw your sarcasm” The man said.
The young man shook his head and answered with a respectful tone.
“You are my teacher. Nothing will change this fact. Dead or not, I will always call you teacher.”
Sen was lying next to his apprentice not saying a word. Both of them remembered their time together when they both were still alive.
Sen remembered how he one day walked through a harbor town. On that day he wanted to dress up for whatever reason and looked therefore like a rich merchant going for a walk. He teleported to a random town and just started walking around the town. On that walk, he saw a young boy lying on the street. The body of the boy was badly mangled and the poor clothing he wore was torn to shreds. The malnourished body indicated that the boy lived on the street. When Sen went near the body to burn it with magic he shockingly found out, that the boy was alive. Just when he wanted to heal him he heard an unpleasant voice.
“This pile of filth offended the cardinal. By the goddess just decree, he is being punished. Walk away, if you don’t want to share his fate.”
Sen turned his head around and saw a group of knights. Every single one of them had a despising smile on his face when they looked at him. In the midst of the group, stood a figure in a red gown. Sen’s face convulsed when he saw the figure. From the moment of his birth and from then on right until his death, he never saw a person this fat. This person happened to be the cardinal, which was offended by the boy. Sen’s eyes glittered coldly when he stared at the group. What could the boy have done, to be left in such a condition? Did he steal the cardinals cookie? When the group of knights saw his evil glare, they immediately unsheathed their weapons and the one in front shouted.
“You dare to look threatening and disrespectful at the knights of the goddess? Die heretic!”
Clearly, they saw Sen’s splendid clothes and just searched for a “just” reason to rob him. Once a heretic is dead, all his possessions go to the church. Sen’s face grew cold immediately. He waited until the foremost knight charged right in front of him and then he… snapped his finger. With this little snap, hell broke loose. The knight who was in front of Sen erupted in blue flames. He screamed like a madman, but this scream lasted only for mere seconds before he was completely reduced to ash. The other knight starred in complete terror at the remains of their friend, then one of them screamed.
“A-a legendary Archmage! He opened the fifth gate of fire!”
When the other knights heard him they immediately turned away to run. In reality, they had nearly no training whatsoever. They were children of nobles, so their military career was very fluid and without any complications, they were promoted to knights of the kingdom. And since they joined the church, nobody dared to even look at them in a bad way. It was more precise to call them a bunch of goons with pretty decent equipment than trained knights. So naturally, when a mage out of legends appeared before them, they immediately tried to run away. But unluckily for them, Sen had absolutely no intention to let them get away alive.
Another snap and the rest of them burst out in flames. The cardinal also tried to run away or roll away if you ask Sen, while he screamed like a pig being roasted. Sen snapped again, and the cardinals screams could no longer be heard. The cardinal tripped over his own feet in shock and turned around to look at Sen. He was trembling in fear and slowly a stench of urine and shit started to emit from him. It was always him, who decided upon life and death and now he was at the complete mercy of this mysterious mage. The fact, that he was a complete coward, was the last thing, that made him soil himself.
“Don’t worry. I won’t kill you.”
Sen said in a calm voice. The cardinals fat face changed immediately from fear to arrogance.
“Of course not”, he thought ”kill me and the entire church is your enemy.”
But the next words Sen spoke changed his face back to fear.
“I will train this boy. And once he is strong enough, he himself will end your life.”
After saying this, Sen touched the mangled body of the boy and started to heal it. The process needed only a few seconds to complete. There were already a few people gawking at the scene and under them were even a few mages. When they saw what Sen did one of them let out a shocked cry.
“He didn’t need an incarnation or magic circle for the healing spell! He has opened the fifth gate of light! Does that mean he opened the gates of two elements up to the fifth gate?”
The crowd stared at Sen with mixed emotion. Some felt fear, while a few felt veneration, while the most majority of the mages felt envy. Opening the third gate of two elements was no easy feat. But opening the fifth gate of two elements was beyond difficult.
Sen meanwhile carried the boy away. A few people followed him. Some were ordinary gawkers, while others were mages, who wanted to ask him, to become their teacher. Sen turned a corner and teleported away. To the people who immediately rushed around this corner, he simply disappeared.
Sen opened his eyes to stare at the sea before him and remembered how he tested the boy’s soul and found out, that it was extremely powerful, which was the requisite to becoming a worldmage. He remembered how he taught the boy the fundamentals of magic and took him officially as an apprentice. He remembered how proud he was when his apprentice opened his first gate of magic. He remembered how happy he was when his apprentice showed a completely perverse talent in magic when he opened the fourth gate of magic for all elements when he was only 14 years old. And he remembered how his apprentice cried when Sen was dying of old age. To Sen, who was never married, this apprentice of his was like a son. And then when he was with his last breath he passed Atsurio, the staff of the worldmages on to his apprentice. When Sen arrived at the divine gate, he knew, that one day he would meet his apprentice again, but he had never imagined, that this day would come so soon.
“You didn’t take someone as an apprentice, did you?”
Sen asked in a hopeful manner, as he looked at the young man beside him. He was the 56th generation worldmage, so it was rather painful for him to see their ancient order crumble like that. Sen didn’t know how many thousands of years of tradition have ended when his apprentice died. Some worldmages lived for a very short time until they passed down Atsurio, but some, like himself, lived for two centuries, until they took an apprentice.
When he saw his apprentice shake his head, he sighed in dejection. He then asked in a joking voice.
“Did you kill the fat cardinal?”
“Couldn’t find him. It was like the earth swallowed him”
The young man looked unhappy when he said that. After that, they just lied on the hill and stared wordlessly at the lake. After a long time, Sen finally asked.
“Do you regret anything?”
The young man sighed and answered with a pained smile on his face.
“In the end, I couldn’t find out, who I was. The earliest thing I remember was when I lived on the street before you saved my sorry ass. But I know, it was not always like this. I only know my first name, but I regret not knowing my last one.”
Sen nodded. He too was curious about this. His disciple’s talent was just too monstrous. It could be, that he was the son of a prostitute and just had good luck when it came to talent. Such things are not too rare, but the talent his disciple displayed was simply far too great, so Sen suspected, he came from a very old family of magic casters. The greater the strength of a mage is, the more magic is in his blood. Only an extremely tiny amount of this magic is inherited by the children of this mage. Even this little bit of inherited magic would increase the talent of a mage and if such an inheritance is done across countless generations, then it would be not too strange for such a ridiculous talent to emerge from this bloodline. But this hypothesis had one major flaw. Such families were well aware of this fact and they knew, that every single child of theirs would be at least a middle ranked mage. They would under no circumstances abandon it, but when Sen found his apprentice he was clearly a street rat. Sen shook his head and both of them continued to remember things.
2 years later.
Apprentice and teacher continued to enjoy paradise. From time to time other people visited like Sen’s teacher, the 55th generation worldmage and one time even the 33rd generation worldmage visited for a couple of days although she was just curious, with which generation their order ended. All in all, absolutely nothing changed until it all ended.
Sen and his apprentice were sitting at a table made out of black granite. Both of them had a glass in their hands. In Sen’s glass was wine, while in his apprentice’s was apple juice. Sen raised his brows and asked in a wondrous voice.
“Apple juice? Why apple juice?”
“Just had the momentary craving for apple juice. What’s wrong with that? Are you forbidding me to drink apple juice?”
Sen just shook his head. He wanted to retort with a snappy joke, about apples being the reason of death when a soft feminine voice interrupted them.
“Forgive me for interrupting, but could I talk to the young man here?”
Sen and his apprentice looked up to determine the owner of this voice. It was not a voice the two of them recognized. The 33rd worldmage, who visited them not too long ago had a different voice. Once their eyes fell upon the woman standing there their jaws immediately dropped. The woman could be described as a perfect beauty. She wore a red one-piece dress, which perfectly complimented her perfect hourglass figure, had very long raven black hair, which flowed right down to her ankles, cherry red lips and eyes so bright, that they were nearly white. What shocked the teacher-apprentice duo was not her otherworldly looks, and not even the overwhelming power they could feel emanating from the woman, but her identity. Every child would know who this woman is. Her face is plastered in every church, a statue of her is in every big city, every priest has her face sewn on his robes and every knight of the church has her face painted on his shield.
Both teacher and apprentice fell down on their knees and shouted together in one voice.
“My Goddess!”
The goddess walked slowly to the table and looked over the two kneeling men.
“Rise. I have not come here in order to be worshiped, but to ask a favor.”
The two men were completely dumbfounded. Ask a favor? A favor for the goddess? What kind of joke was that? The two of them were worldmages, so they were automatically servants of the goddess. She could just order them and they would do it.
While the two were thinking these things the goddess noticed the two cups. After inspecting them she raised her brows in surprise.
“Really? Apple-juice? You have the power to get everything you wish to drink and you choose apple juice? Not heavenly Ambrosia, not the finest wine of heaven, not the blood of dragons, not even the tears of your enemies, but apple juice?”
After seeing the completely confused faces of the two men and the fact, that they had absolutely no response to her question she sighed and said in a little-depressed voice.
“The downside of being the goddess. Everything you say is taken dead serious and your jokes can end up very badly.” After that, a new chair appeared at the table. The goddess sat down and ordered the two still kneeling men.
“Sit!”
The two immediately sat down.
“I mean not the floor, but your chairs”
The two men sprang up immediately and sat down on their chairs. None of them dared to utter even a single sound.
“I will come to the point. You” she pointed at Sen’s apprentice “ are being resurrected right now.”
The young looked at the goddess with a questioning look, not understanding what she was talking about? Resurrected? Him? He is dead for three years, it’s completely impossible to resurrect him. The longest possible confirmed duration, of how long a person could stay dead before the resurrection spell would automatically fail every time was two days and four hours.
Seeing his confusion the goddess nodded and explained.
“Of course, it will fail. But they are trying it anyway.”
The young man grew even more confused now. Did the goddess come here just to tell him this? Why the hell would he care, if the people in the world of the living are trying to resurrect him? Especially, when it will not work anyway. It would only work if the goddess herself would decide to lend them a hand, by sending his soul back…
The moment he thought that he instantly understood why the goddess was here.
“No no no no no. Not a chance. I fulfilled my part of the contract. I have protected the world as good as I could and earned my place in paradise. I’m definitely not going to give this place up.”
Sen looked angry at his apprentice. Was he serious? The goddess asks you for a favor and you refuse?
The goddess, on the other hand, had a calm look on her face. She had anticipated this response. Before she came, she had investigated the life of the young man before her and was familiar with his characteristics. The most surprising thing until now was, that he didn’t respond in a sarcastic manner. The goddess sat still for a few moments before she tried to persuade him
“Even if I say that this place is secured for you? Once you die again, you will just return here.”
“So I just got more work to do without additional reward? Paradise is the already highest reward possible, so you just can’t promise me anything more.”
The goddess sighed in dejection. What he said was true. He would just be working more without any reward. She could only blame herself for creating her children so profit oriented. Just when she was about to give up, Sen spoke.
“Just do it. After all, you are a worldmage. It is your duty to protect the world. Right now there is no worldmage left in the world and you know exactly how this will end.”
The young man closed his eyes and sighed. He sat like this for a very long time thinking the whole thing through. He could refuse the goddess because, in his opinion, he had fulfilled the contract he made with her, But if his teacher asked him to do it, he could hardly refuse it. Without his teacher, he would have died by the hands of that fat cardinal. The word duty meant a lot to him in this context, since he was what he was only due to his teacher. He stated in an unhappy voice.
“I would need to open every single gate of magic again, I would not be officially the worldmage since the contract ended with my death and there is no worldmage who could pass the contract to me.”
The goddess saw finally a glimmer of hope. She smiled and tried to persuade him.
“You already have experience in opening up to the fifth gate. And for the worldmage issue… you could visit the mountain of oaths.”
The young man looked up to the goddess.
“Could you not just renew the contract after I’m resurrected.”
The goddess shook her head.
“No. Even I have to follow the rules I set. If I break one, I will break another and then another. One day I would just do what I want. I gave my children free will so they could decide for themselves what way they could tread. I have an absolute zero interference policy. If I didn’t, do you seriously believe I would let that shitty church, which drags my name through mud stand? Even resurrecting you is only possible, because it’s a grey zone. You are already dead, so if I send you back, I would directly only influence you, who is already dead.”
“Even if the lives of all children are at stake, you would not destroy the eaters?”
“This… has another reason. I will tell you that one if you open all gates of magic.”
The young man grew curious. Another reason? He stopped thinking about it pretty fast and looked at his teacher.
“Looks like I will be heading to the world of the living once again. See you, once I die a very gruesome and painful death.”
Sen just nodded knowing better than to answer.
“Good. I’m ready. Let’s get resurrected. Maybe, this time, I find out about my origins. Or maybe the goddess could tell me about my origins.” The young man hopefully looked at the goddess.
The goddess smiled happily when she heard the young man. She lifted her hand and spoke
“This will be your reward then. Now LIVE”.
The young man disappeared. The goddess sighed and closed her eyes. Worry was written all over her face.
Sen saw this and tried to ease her mind.
“He will manage it.”
The goddess remained silent for a long while before she spoke in a grave voice.
“He is the worst possible choice. I would have rather send you. But they are trying to resurrect him.”
Sen stared with wide eyes at the goddess. Was his apprentice the worst choice? Sen could not believe it.
“My apprentice is a genius in all fields of magic. Who could be a better choice, than him?”
He asked in an angry voice, not caring about the goddess status. His apprentice was like a son to him. Of course, he would not want to hear such an evaluation.
The goddess opened her eyes and told him with a sad voice.
“In that point, there is absolutely no one better. But the main point is his heart. You and the other worldmages wanted to protect the world. He only wants to fulfill his duty. The great difference between him and the rest is, that the world has never shown any warmth to him. He doesn’t remember his parent, the life on the street nearly killed him and once he became the worldmage the entire world wanted him dead. If not for his duty… He probably would not give a damn about the world. This attitude… Is completely unsuitable for a worldmage.”
Sen wanted to retort, but could not. She was right. His apprentice never showed any interest in the world whatsoever. When Sen told him about the many wondrous sights, his apprentice just got bored. He never wanted to start a family, never wanted to get rich and never wanted to travel. The only thing, that interested him, beside his sick obsession with everything magic, in the slightest was his origin. Aside for this, his apprentice never left the eight element valley.
Sen sighed.
“Please boy… Be safe… Also… Why didn’t you just tell him what his origin is? The poor boy wants to know it so badly.”
The goddess looked and Sen and spoke with a grave voice.
„If I told him, and that knowledge would fall into the hands of some specific people, they will investigate certain things. And if they find out the truth… Let’s just say at a moment like this, when the world is on brink of destruction… Hmmm… How to formulate this… An extremely bloody war would be not very helpful for the world.“
Sen shuddered. Just what is his apprentice’s origin?