More information dump, with new and old but more detailed information - Author

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As soon as I reached the top of the hill, I had a strange sensation. I felt as if I passed into a separate space, but still connected to the massacre camp below. Strange.

This was an unexpected place. It could also be classified as strange or unreal. Coming from a world like this, I guess that was to be expected.

With all that green mist and the stacked corpses gone, I see only a translucent ground reflecting the night sky above, showing a piece of the galaxy. Countless colors intertwining and stars emitting soft glows, creating a harmony that brought me a sense of peace and serenity the moment I saw it.

Although it was a very abrupt change of landscapes, with a mass genocide camp below and such a beautiful and calm view above, I didn't feel as if they were in disharmony, but rather that they complemented each other. 

So strange...but so familiar. I wondered why.

After examining the whole place for a while, I thought of just one word to describe it:

"Beautiful." I uttered aloud.

But one thing remains... what am I supposed to do here? I have no idea.

Normally I should be full of questions about the cause of all this, but now I feel there is no need. 

This feeling of familiarity tells me that I shouldn't worry about it. I also feel that this is where I will get my answers. Should I just follow these feelings? I think I should have a little faith in my instincts.

Making this decision, I begin to walk aimlessly through this strange place, with each step creating a fluctuation in the translucent ground below. Could this be water or some other kind of liquid? But why am I not sinking? Well, this is interesting.

I kept going like this, walking and walking, with no sense of how much time I had already spent there, just enjoying the peaceful feeling and the beauty that the place brought to me.

After this long walk, I finally see something different in my field of vision. Starting with just a barely discernible dot, it grew larger the closer I got. Along with this, the feeling I had before faded away, as if leaving after fulfilling its purpose.

Getting close enough to finally distinguish what I saw before, I see a silhouette leaning forward and covered by a black cloak sitting on the edge of a small lake.

"This is it..." I say in a low voice, as I feel the sensation fade almost completely.

Although I find the cause of someone being here suspicious, I still decide to follow that feeling.

I move closer and closer to the silhouette, which doesn't seem to react to my arrival. Even after arriving behind the silhouette, it remained motionless as before. Maybe it has not noticed me or is just ignoring me?

Thinking about what to do for a few seconds, I decide to do the same thing as the silhouette. Sit and watch the lake while ignoring everything around me.

After walking a little further, I sit down on the opposite shore from the silhouette and just stare at the small lake. 

It is a circular shaped lake with crystal clear water, not too big, an adult could swim from one bank to the other in a few strokes, it doesn't seem to be deep either, I think I could stand in it without the water reaching my face - I am about one meter tall, in case you were wondering -.

Starting to observe the bottom of the lake, I notice four points of light in its center shining faintly. One white, one black, one green and one red, slightly tinting the dark water by reflecting the sky with their respective colors.

The moment I set my eyes on the points of light, I hear a male voice coming from the opposite bank. It seems to have stopped ignoring me and now wants to talk. 

"Do you want the answers to your questions? I can give them to you."

Bringing my gaze to the silhouette, I see that the hood that covered his head is gone, and I see something that I honestly did not expect.

"Are you me...?" More precisely an adult version of myself. But strangely, the adult "I" seems to be superimposed on someone else, a blurred figure that I can't quite identify and distinguish.

This shocked me a bit, since I was expecting some gray-nosed old man half bald, with giant eyebrows hanging down the sides of his face and a beard that reaches to the floor, while claiming to be god and starting to ramble on about the danger of having my answers while I am still weak, with a look full of vicissitudes and an air of mystery. That was very specific, but it is the image I created from the beginning of the course of events until now.

But as I said, it was only a little, as I soon recovered and put on an inexpressive face, which I wear whenever I am in the presence of a stranger.

I know, this sounds a lot like some weird teenager who has self-diagnosed himself as a psychopath by a quiz and wants to try to look cool, but I'm not that kind of person. That's just a natural reaction I always have when I'm in the presence of someone other than Mom or Alice.

"More accurately, WE are you." 

Being cut off in the middle of my thoughts, I turn my attention to the "I" on the opposite shore of the lake, which has faded from the now familiar face to that of a black-haired, brown-eyed teenager smiling amiably at me.

Ah, now I understand, that figure I did not identify earlier is the "I" from before. My past life... his previously blurred and overlapping figure... I feel it represents that I am no longer just him. That I am really Lucas Sorey, and not a person who has taken over his body. (Coming back here two or three weeks later, I cringe seeing how embarrassing this came out, but it will stay that way - Author)

Mother, I am really your son. 

Alice, I am really your brother. 

Although it sounds silly, being able to confirm this really makes me happy. 

He, I even feel that my lips have curved a little. 

Even though I want to enjoy this sudden happiness, I turn my attention to the people in front of me. Being happy is nice and all, but now the questions are more important. I'll have plenty of time to enjoy this later.

"Okay, that's nice and all, but how about we talk about what really matters? What is this place? What exactly are you? Why did I end up here?  To sum it all up in a simpler question, what is the cause of all this happening to me?"

Seeming to contemplate for a few seconds, the other Self begins to answer me:

"First of all, let me formally introduce myself. You could say that I am you, Lucas Sorey, more precisely a part of you. I am the spiritual condensation of your Destiny. I am your past, present, and future. The source of all your existence.

And as for the place we are now and what you have previously traversed, it is your soul. The most intimate and important part of your existence. Also being my "home", the place that houses everything about your existence. About the properties of the soul, they are diverse. The appearance of the soul differs from person to person, portraying the most intimate and important part of your personality, the thoughts, desires, principles, and other areas concerning yourself. It holds all the information concerning you, from your past and present lives, and houses your Destiny, as I said earlier. It is the source of your life, while the soul continues to exist, every being is immortal even without a physical body, but if the soul ceases to exist you are dead forever, with no chance of resurrection. It can be used for attack in battle, but you have to be careful with this method, because one small mistake and you will extinguish your own soul.

With that cleared up, I can begin to clarify your questions. I will explain about everything from the beginning and the answers will come naturally.

The ancient world differs greatly from the present world in its structure. With a freer but unfair system of power, it was common for those at the top to be the strongest. And this led to a situation where those at the top continued to grow stronger while stifling the growth of power of the younger and weaker ones - those below - to prevent any possible risk to their dominance, leading to an era of total power stagnation where everyone tried to prevent themselves from growing stronger. This situation brought the world to a standstill, where nothing further progressed until everything began to decline. The Will of the World - the ruling consciousness of the world - when confronted with such a situation was forced to get involved in the situation, looking for new solutions and finally implementing the system of Eras, which in exchange for beings hardly being able to reach extreme heights of power brought constant development to the world, thus preventing another stagnation in power.

(Basically a world of cultivation, "you are talented, so submit to me or die")

of talents eligible to be the Chosen of the Age. If there were only a few, it wouldn't be the problem, since there are always at least two in each race, but the problem just kept evolving, with each Era having fewer and fewer eligible people, with everything erupting with an Era where one race had no Era Chosen and was almost wiped out entirely. This forced the Will of the World to act again, looking for the root of the problem, which stemmed from the scarcity of resources and mana in the world. This resulted in the appearance of Neutral Eras to replenish the resources for the next Eras, which solved the problem by half. Another factor for this problem was that sometimes luck was not on the side of some races and the Chosen were not born even after the Neutral Eras, forcing once again the Will of the World to interfere, but on a smaller scale. And this led to the Will of the World having to "artificially create" the Chosen Ones for those races, by taking Pure Souls - the souls of the dead already cleansed of connection to physical life - directly from the Reincarnation Cycle and manipulating them to be eligible as Chosen Ones of the Age. And that is what you, your sister and one other Chosen are."

I believe your doubts regarding reincarnation are completely resolved now?"

I nod in confirmation and remain quiet. Now that he has finished speaking and I don't have to pay attention, I can more easily ponder the information.

Honestly, the confirmation of another reincarnate hasn't affected me at all. I have stopped caring about them since I care little about what their old world was like or who they once were. Their past has no relevance here.

After a while and finishing pondering what I have discovered, another question arises in my mind, which I soon voice.

"What is the purpose of you telling me all this?" I have followed my instincts thus far and believe he has no intention of harming me, but I still want to hear his answer.

"There's nothing very special, really. This is the World Will's way of announcing that the time has come for the Age to truly begin. All the other Chosen Ones are going through the same thing in their respective souls."

So it has finally begun...I guess my soft life is over for good, but this promises to be quite interesting. I wonder what the other Chosen will be like?  I hope they won't be some arrogant, brainless idiots, or that would be really disappointing. 

"I know you don't have much interest in this, but I still think it's important to tell you the reason for your internal conflict back there. It's all because of one of your affinities as a Mutant. Your affinity with the Dark. Beings with this affinity who are prone to its influence usually tend to be colder, indifferent, evil, lonely and a few other useless things and this caused a conflict with your unusually strong Family Connection, leading to your internal conflicts which consequently made you confuse them with dual personalities."

Oh, since a while ago I completely forgot about that. But I find it interesting to know the cause of it. But a conflict between an Affinity and my Family Connection was something I never cogitated. In fact, I didn't even know it was possible.

  Thinking about it, what would my Affinities be? I know of two so far, Illusion and Darkness, maybe there are more? I'll just ask him and find out soon.

"Touching on the subject of Affinities, other than Illusion and Darkness, do I have any others?"

"Look down. This lake is not just here as an ornament. It is, in fact, your Source of Power, the place where you store information about your talent. And the lights in it represent your four Affinities, which are Illusion, depicted by the color white, Darkness by the color black, Poison by the color green, and Destruction by the color red." 

That's four then, huh. That would be a great Affinity kit for me to become an assassin or something focused on explosive damage. I'll think more deeply about that later.

"The colors are small now because you never trained without your life, leaving them in their most basic state. As you grow stronger, they will increase in size and brightness, and when they fully occupy their respective areas of the lake, it will mean that you have reached the limit of Holy Mage, and can become a Sovereign Mage and enter the final stages of power that once dominated the Ancient World."

Considering what he said earlier in his explanation of the Ancient World and the Ages, it is not surprising that there are levels of power beyond the Holy Mage. I wonder how strong those beings would be. 

Leaving that aside, we now move on to the last, but very important question.

"Is there anything else you should tell?" Considering the way he's telling things, maybe there's something he hasn't said just because he's waiting for the opportune moment. And since I'm not in the mood to play games like this, I cut to the chase.

"How about we talk about your dear sister?"