“ Life Essence? ” Asked the old man.

 

“ It could have other names but that is what I call it. ” Immediately I raised my hand. “ No need for further questions about it, I will tell you and we will move on to the things I want to know. “ 

 

Not ever giving the old man the chance to object I do a little monologue. “ Basically said and as far as I have discovered Life Essence is generated by anything that is alive. The longer that life has lived the more is generated and the longer it has lived the higher the chance of it gaining awareness of it with the subsequent manipulation. ”

 

Again I raised my hand to interrupt him as I noticed he wanted to ask me something. “ This is where stuff gets complicated. If everything happened according to normal then any human child of around 10 years would tap into it unconsciously and a human of age 20 or more if trained properly would be able to manipulate it. Sadly that is not the case as an outside influence has creeped into our world. I do not know who made it, or why or even when but ever since it appeared almost all biological life has lost the ability to tap into that power. ” Like that I stopped my monologue and eyed Moustafa the old man. 

 

“ The Soul? ” Asked the old man but there was a shocked face on him. “ Yes, old man. I am talking about Souls. As far as I can tell they are Extradimensional. What that entails I have no idea but there is one thing I can tell you. Its ability to interact with Life Essence and store it is probably the reason it was created. ” Again I raised my hand to interrupt him and gave him one of my questions. 

 

“ Old man, Ask yourself this question: if every human and animal has a Soul and all their Life Essence is stored in their Soul and not their bodies then what happens to all that energy if it's not used by the being generating it? ” Immediately the old man froze and even stopped breathing. 

 

` He didn't get a heart attack, did he? ` With that I stood up and went to him and used Auril to examine him. “ Oh, hey old man you can't die on me now. I still need you for a bit. ” Immediately I used my Auril on his heart and had it pumped again. It was as if his body realized it had stopped working and started its ignition again.

 

Like that I regulated his body for a bit. It took a few minutes to get his bearing back again. With realization I could see his faith collapsed and his hope went with it. “ Old man, were you religious? ”

 

Hearing me he came back to the world of the living and with a nod confirmed it. “ I grew up in a Muslim family and grew up with Islam. Ever since I came into contact with the Magical stuff I had wondered why He Created the World with so much suffering but for it all to mean that one is used like cattle. Does that not mean that my life was meaningless? ”

 

Raising my eyebrow at that thought “ Old man, I think your misunderstanding this a bit. Who said your God created the World? Ok, now that I said it, it sounds stupid but I wont deny the fact. Your God did not create the World and neither was your presence on this one meaningless. ” Best I explain a bit before he collapses again. “ Look, it's easy to understand. You were born into this World lucky, as you were born a Human. Yes, to me being born a Human is lucky in itself. Due to our big brains we can think and search for our meaning and not it being given to us by somebody else. ”

 

“ So tell me old man if you consider what you have achieved and what you will leave behind once you kick the crap like everybody else, minus me I hope, of what are you the most proud of? ” With a question quoted like that, there was only one answer. 

 

“ My grandchildren? ” With a puzzling look he asked for confirmation. “ Well, it depends on the person but for most it would be their children. I think at least, as I have yet to have them, I can only speculate. ” Indeed, now enough pep talk for an old man on his deathbed. 

 

“ Ok, old man. Since you have found your reason to stick to our World for more and with my help it should be done soon, let us talk about how it's gonna be done and finally for me to get what I want too. ” Immediately hope came and strengthened his resolve. That done I went back to my chair.

 

“ Here is how it's gonna go. As the Soul is not needed to live at all it can be ignored, but as the Life Essence generated by you is inside I will have to redistribute it to your body slowly to undo the damage the aging process has done. But know this, even if I use everything you had I can't reverse the aging it has already done. Right now that is beyond me and even if it was not you would not have enough of the needed essence for it. ” Ha, learning about genetics will be left for later when I settle down and make my system. 

 

“ Understood. ” Said the old man with hope in his eyes. “ In what shape will I be? ”

“ Shape? Hmm, well this will be my first time doing it so I am not sure, but if my theory is correct then you will still have the body of an old man in general at first but as we go along with it and with help from Life Essence it would slowly improve. To what degree I do not know but you will likely gain a healthier body then a normal man of your age. ” Again I raised my hand to stop him from asking me.

 

“ But, there is one thing that the end result will depend on the most and that will be your active engagement in the process. ” Putting down my hand the old man asks right away.

 

“ I am fine with that as long as I can help my grandchildren. ” Sigh, for old people it will always be the children first. 

“ Good, since the process will take time there is no need to start right away anyway. I think it's about time you tell me what I want to know. ” With a nod he agreed. 

“ Very well, what would you like to know from this old man? ” Haha, he picked up on my calling. Although he is an old man, so it's kind of right. 

 

Anyway shaking my head to refocus I ask for the much needed knowledge I need. “ First things first. Before I started my journey around the World I looked on the internet around a bit and came to 3 conclusions and I want you to confirm them for me. ” 

 

When he nodded for me I continued. “ First, is the Western culture predominantly controlled by Magic users? Second is the Eastern culture predominantly controlled by Qi users, and the last one is, are the other Power structures underneath these two systems. ”

 

With my questions stated I looked at the old man as he contemplated for a bit. Done with it he answered.. “ In today's World, the Western culture is influenced the most by the Magic system, yes, but that influence is slowly growing in the east too with modernizations. ”

 

“ Modernization? Hmm, is it because Magic is involved with the Science system? ” All so far I had found out was that Magic works similar to the Science process of basic thought of theory. 

 

“ NO. ” With a harder tone in his voice the old man denied it. “ No, they are not involved with each other as they are the same thing. ” What? 

“ How can they be the same thing? ” To think of them as the same thing is, is, well weird. 

 

“ Haha. ” Laughed the old man seeing my confusion. “ Haha, it was the same for me when I first heard it but I think I know your confusion. Here let me first explain how the modern Magic system came to be. ” Like that he took a deep breath. “ Many centuries ago in what historians now call the Dark Ages when the Church's influence was the iron law and the Magic system still followed the old system of Mysticism and Rituals, users of the old Magic system were almost all eliminated. Over the years they could only hide and hide. Everytime even a mention of them came there would be slaughter following not far behind. ”

 

` Holly, finally some Magic lore to learn about. ` 

 

“ It went on like that for a long time until one day a few of those hidden heard a rumor. It is not known what the rumor was but the results are known quite well. When the golden age of the Islamic culture spread into Europe and with itself brought a wealth of knowledge of the scientific kind that is known today, one of those hidden Magic users used their knowledge and combined it into the Magic system that we see today. Of course at first it was hard as the prejudice of the Church was everywhere, but slowly with time they won where they could, developed where they could and more, and slowly brought the Scientific thought of thinking into the World. ”

 

Seeing him stopping there I could only go deep into thought. ` To think the story went like that and if one thinks about it hard enough one will come to the realization that as more normal people learned the Scientific thought of reasoning the more they would learn and reap from them as they developed it. Like leeches maybe, but it's a very effective method either way. `

 

Out of my musing I looked at the old man. “ Tell me, were the greatest minds of the Scientific community in that past Magic users? ”

 

The old man just shook his head. “ I do not know. Could be or it could not be. All that I knew of that time I have told you. All I can tell you is that in the future if you want to meet some of them I can only suggest that you visit the best scientist of every field there is. If you do it's highly likely you will meet them like that, probably. ”

 

Raising my eyebrow at that I could only ask. “ Wait, you're saying that as if they are hard to find? Why are they hiding if their system is used so heavily in the World. ”

“ There could be many reasons but there are two main ones. ” Stopped the old man to take a breath. “ One would be that the influence of the Church is still strong but they have been losing ground slowly. And the second would be that they have changed their place of residence. ”

 

“ Eh, what? Change of residence? Where could they have gone? ”

 

“ There are many rumors. ” Said the old man. “ There is one rumor that is more prevalent than the others. In the height of battle between the Church and Magic users, the Magic users discovered something. From that point on supernatural stuff was happening less and less all over the World. ” There he stopped for a second. “ But like I said there are only rumors and that one is the most accepted by everybody as for the truth, it will be up to you to find it. ”

 

Shifting a bit on the chair as I considered it, I asked the old man. “ And when was that battle? ”

 

“ If one considered that rumor to be true and if one looked into history a bit and if they know what to look for they will notice that the witch hunts first started around 600 years ago. That would be the start of the comeback of Magic users. Like that it went on for a long time and about the 16-17th century was the conflict at its peak. “ Again he took a deep breath. “ That is as far as I know. ”

 

“ I see. Hmm. ” If I consider when the first Scientific community was starting to be accepted by normal people was when the Church started losing. After that there is no point in even thinking about it. 

“ Either way, it doesn't matter that much now that I know what kind of system they are functioning, I can extrapolate everything else on my own. Tell me old man, about the Eastern system. ” After all, the eastern part of the World is my destination but the old man shook his head again. 

 

“ There is not much I can tell you about it. ” He considered it again for a bit. “ As I said before, even there the Western system is being used heavily. When you mentioned the Qi system I assume you are talking about the Cultivators as they are called today? ” Seeing my nod he continued. “ The only thing I can tell you is that it is much rarer than you have imagined it. When the Western World was in contact with the Eastern World, there were huge Religious conflicts going on at the same time. What I am about to tell you, you can take with a grain of salt but that Religious conflict was almost at the same time as the war with the Mages happened. ” Oh, if they are about the same Time period then they should be connected somewhat. Hmm? 

“ Do you know what the conflict was mainly about? No, wait there is only one thing that would hinder Religion truly and that is the Soul. Hmm, wonder what they did that angered the Churches so much? ” No, it doesn't matter. I can find out when I visit them over there. 

 

“ Well, the World is a bit different then what I thought it was but my plans won't change for the foreseeable future. ” Standing up, I went to the old man. “ You don't have to give me the third thing as I can already understand it enough. Since I will have to stay here for a bit to oversee you for a bit, let's just start already. ”

 

Just before I started the old man addressed me again. “ Wait, let me ask one thing. What kind of Power do you possess and how will this work? ” Hmm?

“ My Power, well I call it Auril but its current form is advanced so it won't tell you anything about it but at its core it's about Life Essence. ” I don't think it will matter if I tell him a bit more. “ Life Essence at its core is generated by the body but to manipulate it, one needs to first have a great amount of it and the next thing needed is a consciousness. Combined Life Essence and consciousness make the essence heavily based on intent and with Life Essence one can influence one's own body like no other power. ” I stopped there for a second for him to realize what I meant. “ At least that's my theory. ” 

Immediately the old man picked up. “ And the advanced form of it? ” 

 

Looks like he's interested. “ To acquire Auril one needs the Souls' influence. By using my own body as the anchor and Life Essence as the Power generator, I used the Soul as glue to bind it all into one in a careful balance that almost killed me. Like that I acquired a Power that is again heavily intuition based but with the possibility to influence the World around me. ”

 

As I explained it to him I looked him deep in the eyes. I knew he wanted to know if he could acquire it too. “ Look old man, I like you and your grandkids aren't bad either, but I won't be giving them this Power. ” Immediately I could see disappointment and acceptance. “ To be honest even if I wanted to they would probably die the second they tried. Like I said even I lived with only a sliver of chance but I will tell you one thing. ” There I stopped to make him realize I meant every word I said.

 

“ I have big plans for the future and when I am ready to enact them and share my power to the World I can promise you that your grandkids will be among the first to do so. ” With a happiness in his eyes I said no more.

 

“ Now let's start the process of your rejuvenation. ” Like that I pulled out 10 years worth of Life Essence out of his Soul and distributed it around the body. 

 

` As my first experiment of this degree, I hope he does not kick the crap easily. `