"GET. OUT. OF. MY. BODY."
Arthur froze mid-breath.
The words hadn't come from his mouth. They hadn't even formed in his mind.
They were *in* him—like a cold blade sliding through his thoughts.
It wasn't a whisper. It wasn't a plea.
It was a threat.
A raw, burning rage coated every syllable, not just spoken but felt—as if the voice had been carved directly into his soul.
"Wh—What was that...?" Arthur gasped, clutching his head. A cold sweat broke down his spine as his legs gave way and he collapsed back onto the creaking bed.
He could feel something—someone—lurking deep within. A second presence. A will that wasn't his.
An unfamiliar pressure coiled around his consciousness, resisting him, biting at him like an animal caught in a cage.
Then it spoke again, venom dripping from every word.
"Who do you think you are?"
"Do you think you can just walk in here, take my body, my life, like some kind of chosen hero? Do you think this is a game?"
Arthur's eyes widened in horror.
"No... No, this isn't how it's supposed to go," he stammered. "This isn't what happened in the novels I used to read—wasn't the original soul supposed to... disappear? Move on? Be reborn or something?"
His voice was weak. Hollow.
Because deep inside, he already knew the truth.
This wasn't fiction.
This wasn't Earth.
This world—where magic reigned, where beasts ruled the wilds, and humanity clung to survival by its fingernails—didn't follow genre tropes.
It wasn't his story.
Not yet.
And the original owner of this body?
He wasn't gone.
He was furious.
"You dare speak of novels?" the voice roared inside him, shaking the core of his mind like a thunderclap.
"I suffered to survive here. I crawled through blood, starvation, betrayal—and now some outsider's soul just... hijacks me?"
Flashes surged into Arthur's mind—not his memories, but the other's:
A boy scavenging in the corpse-ridden ruins of a monster-ravaged village.
Hands blistered from labor.
Days without food.
Nights spent dodging mutant rats and merciless slavers.
"Do you know what I endured just to stay alive? I bled for every breath! I was nothing, and I clawed my way into existence—and now you dare treat me like a disposable character in your story?"
Arthur's hands trembled. The pain in his skull flared like a firestorm, and he felt his soul slipping—his very self being pushed.
This wasn't a conversation.
It was a battle.
"Listen—just listen to me!" Arthur gritted his teeth, forcing his voice out. "I didn't choose this. I didn't ask for your body. I died—and then some voice from the heavens threw me into your world. I don't know what's happening either!"
But his words only seemed to enrage the soul further.
"Then leave."
The presence pressed down harder, as if trying to suffocate him from within.
"I would rather destroy myself and take you with me than let a stranger wear my skin like a costume. If I can't live... no one will."
Arthur screamed. The pain was unbearable now—like his mind was being torn in two, his very existence cracked and bleeding.
But somewhere amid the agony, a spark ignited in him. A primal instinct.
"No," he muttered, his eyes narrowing.
"I don't want your body. I didn't ask for your life. But I won't let myself be erased either."
The pressure paused for a moment, uncertain.
Arthur clenched his fists, feeling the residual tremors from the soul's fury still pulsing inside his veins.
"If we're both trapped here—then maybe there's another way," arthur said, his voice hoarse but steady. "You want to protect your life? Your struggle? Fine. Then don't waste it killing yourself—and me."
Silence answered him. But it wasn't peaceful. It was a stillness wrapped in venom, like the moment before a predator strikes.
Then—abruptly—light flickered before his eyes.
Ding!
A holographic screen blinked into existence mid-air, glowing with shifting runes and static distortions. Letters burned themselves across the transparent surface.
[SYSTEM BOOT SEQUENCE INITIATED]
[ERROR... ERROR... ERROR...]
[ANOMALY DETECTED: MULTIPLE CONSCIOUS ENTITIES IN A SINGLE HOST]
[EMERGENCY OVERRIDE ENGAGED]
[INITIALIZING: PURGE OF SECONDARY SOUL]
Arthur's breath caught in his throat.
"What? Purge? What do you mean 'purge'—are you going to kill him?!"
His heart pounded as the realization hit him like a thunderbolt. The system wasn't designed for two minds. It would remove the anomaly—no matter who it was.
He staggered forward, reaching out toward the panel as if he could grab it and pull the command back.
"Stop! System, stop! You can't just erase him! He's not a parasite—he's the original soul! This is his body!"
But the cold logic of the system didn't flinch.
The screen pulsed.
[SOUL IDENTIFIED: NON-HOST CONSCIOUSNESS – UNSYNCHRONIZED]
[PURGING…]
[PROGRESS: 73%... 91%... 100%]
[THE SOUL HAS BEEN DESTROYED]
[CONGRATULATIONS, HOST – YOU HAVE NOW FULLY ACQUIRED THIS BODY]
[SYSTEM SYNCHRONIZATION BEGINNING...]
[1%... 2%... 3%... 4%...]
Arthur stood still, frozen in disbelief.
The voice—the pain—the fury.
It was gone.
Vanished, like a dream dissolving at dawn.
A dull ache filled his chest, a hollow emptiness that pressed down on him with unexpected weight. He hadn't known him, hadn't spoken more than a few sentences with him. But the rage, the grief, the agony in that voice—it wasn't something Arthur could just forget.
"He didn't deserve that," Arthur whispered, voice trembling.
He slumped onto the edge of the bed, burying his face in his hands as the synchronization bar continued ticking up in the air.
"This is the second life I've stolen."
"And this time… I won't run from it."
When the process finished, and the interface disappeared into a shimmer of data, Arthur exhaled and closed his eyes.
"I will carry your dreams," he murmured. "All of them. I swear I'll make your life matter. I'll make both our lives matter."
He began digging through the fragmented memories now embedded within him—shards of pain, fear, hunger, determination, and tiny slivers of hope.
The boy—this body's original owner—had lost everything at the age of five.
A monster horde had torn through his city like a hurricane of claws and flame. His family... gone. His home, reduced to rubble.
He had survived by chance—rescued at the last minute by a squad of Emberveil's royal knights. But even salvation had come too late to save what mattered.
An orphan among hundreds, he was taken to a crowded state-run shelter. He grew up in a shared dorm, ate thin soup with stale bread, and wore clothes stitched together from the scraps of the dead.
Despite it all, he never gave up.
He enrolled in the cheapest local academy. Studied by moonlight. Trained his body until it bled. Endured the sneers, the beatings, the bruises. Other kids mocked him for being an orphan, for being weak, for being ordinary. But he pushed forward, stubborn and silent, clinging to the faint hope that strength would buy him a place in this merciless world.
Arthur opened his eyes slowly, adjusting to the pale light seeping through the window.
He was now in a city called Eldor, located on the outer fringe of the Emberveil Kingdom—a minor borderland settlement clinging to survival in a wild, untamed world.
This world was called Earth too, but it was nothing like the one he'd known. This world was way too vast.
Here, humanity ruled just 1% of the land.
The rest? Vast, lawless wilderness. Domains ruled by beasts, ancient creatures, dark sects, and monstrous empires.
Even the fraction that humans controlled was divided—scattered into kingdoms and empires that often fought among themselves for resources, land, or power.
Arthur inhaled deeply, gathering the strength to stand.
He needed to understand how to survive here.
How to grow.
How to keep his new promise.
He sat back down and began sorting through the most vital fragments first—the power systems of this world.
A vast array of combat and evolution paths existed, but five stood above all others in popularity, structure, and strength:
---
1. Magic-
Magic-users activated magic cores within their abdomen, allowing them to channel elemental energy and cast spells.
The more cores one possessed, the more powerful their potential.
These cores were cultivated through precise breathing techniques that absorbed ambient magical particles.
Magic is the art of harnessing the primordial forces of the universe—elements, chaos, space, time, and more—through an internal core called the Magic Core, located within the abdomen or lower dantian.
Unlike cultivation, which tempers the body, or aura, which emphasizes will, magic is about understanding and manipulating laws and patterns through study, affinity, and practice.
A magic user, known as a Magus, awakens their Affinity—a natural bond with a certain element or force. Most awaken a single affinity (fire, water, wind, etc.), while rare geniuses may awaken two or more, or even forbidden types like Void, Decay, or Chronos.
Core Levels:
1-Star → 2-Star → 3-Star → ... up to **10-Star
Spellcasting Tools: Wands, grimoires, staffs, rings, or even tattoos are often used to help focus power. However, true masters can cast spells without aid.
Magic is versatile and terrifying—capable of healing, destruction, teleportation, or creation. But it requires immense concentration, study, and talent. One mistake, and a spell can backfire with fatal consequences.
Advanced mages could cast devastating area-wide spells or even alter natural laws around them.
---
2. Cultivation-
Cultivation was the ancient path. The most primal, most enduring pursuit of power across countless eras.
Unlike magic, which channeled external energy, cultivation was about refining the self—body, mind, and spirit—through the absorption and internal transformation of world essence: a natural energy that saturated the land, sky, and cosmos.
Cultivators tempered their organs, strengthened their bones, and expanded their consciousness through cycles of meditation, breathing techniques, and spiritual awakening. Every breakthrough required facing one's own limits—both physical and emotional—and overcoming them.
Each stage pushed the cultivator closer to becoming something greater than human. At the highest realms, cultivators were said to tear the sky with their bare hands or walk across oceans as if strolling through mist.
Cultivation Realms (Standardized across most sects and empires):
~Body Tempering Realm – Foundation phase where the user strengthens muscles, bones, tendons, and internal organs.
~Energy Condensation Realm – World essence is absorbed and compressed into Qi, which flows through the meridians like a second bloodstream.
~Core Formation Realm – The Qi gathers to form a cultivation core, a condensed sphere of internal energy that serves as the seat of future breakthroughs.
~Soul Awakening Realm – The cultivator awakens their spiritual perception, allowing for heightened senses and internal visualization techniques. Dreams may become prophetic.
~Heaven-Step Realms – Beyond this point, paths diverge into sect-specific or empire-defined stages:
(Examples: Sky Vein Realm, Star Ascension Realm, Void Walker Realm, etc.)
Each breakthrough came at a cost. The strain on the body was immense. Many died attempting to leap into the next stage. Others lost their minds. But those who succeeded walked the road of immortals.
---
3. Aura-
Aura was the martial path—born not from meditation, but from movement, willpower, and instinct.
Unlike cultivation or magic, aura was generated from within, activated by intense physical training and spiritual focus. It formed an invisible field around the user—an extension of their intent, their emotions, and their fighting spirit.
Aura users were warriors. Knights. Duelists. They didn't throw spells or chant incantations. They let their fists, blades, and blood speak.
When mastered, aura could:
1. Enhance strength, speed, and reflexes far beyond human limits.
2. Sharpen weapons to slice through steel.
Paralyze weaker opponents with killing intent alone.
3. Interfere with enemy abilities through sheer will suppression.
There were three fundamental types of aura manifestation:
1. Body Aura – Focused entirely on personal enhancement. Users become living weapons. Their punches could crack boulders; their skin could resist blades.
2. Weapon Aura– Infuses a chosen weapon with personal essence. These weapons gain a near-spiritual bond with the user and can cut, pierce, or explode with elemental force.
3. Field Aura – The most advanced form. A user's aura expands into the environment, creating zones of control where enemies are slowed, weakened, or even injured just by entering.
Aura Mastery Levels:
~Awakening Stage – First contact with aura, often triggered during combat or training extremes.
~Inner Flow Stage – Aura circulates naturally with the body's movements.
~Manifestation Stage – Visible aura; enhancement effects increase exponentially.
~Dominion Stage– Aura field can manipulate surroundings; emotional intent gains physical influence.
~Saint Aura Stage – Legendary; few ever reach it. Capable of suppressing armies or shifting the tide of battles with a single presence.
Aura was not without cost. Overuse drained vitality. Wounds took longer to heal. Mental strain could cause hallucinations or temporary madness.
But aura users were feared on every battlefield. A fully awakened aura knight could defeat ten mages before the first spell was cast.
---
4. Bloodline Awakening-
A brutal and dangerous path.
One had to kill a beast and extract its blood essence, merging it into their own body.
A successful bond would allow the user to inherit the beast's traits—strength, speed, unique powers—and even undergo beast transformations, turning into a hybrid between man and monster.
The stronger the beast, the greater the risk—and reward
Transformation Stages:
Level 1 → Level 2 → Level 3 → ... up to Level 10
But failure could mean madness, mutation, or death.
---
5. Soul Power-
Another risky method, but one with terrifying potential.
A user must kill a beast and absorb its soul, forming a glowing soul ring that orbits their body and grants abilities based on the creature's essence.
A person could hold up to ten soul rings in their lifetime.
But each ring increased the strain on the soul. Poor control or greed could lead to one's own spirit shattering.
Limit: 10 Soul Rings maximum.
Color Tier of Rings: White (weak) → Blue → Purple → Gold → Crimson → Black → Mythic (one in a billion)
Soul Power is revered in some cultures and feared in others. It is the path of the soul reaper, the spiritual hunter, and the devourer of legacies.
---
Other paths existed too—esoteric or forbidden systems, forged by eccentric geniuses or lost sects. But they weren't recognized by kingdoms, often lacked support, and carried unknown risks. Most people avoided them.
Arthur rubbed his temples.
"So much to learn… and this is just the beginning."
He walked to the window and looked out at the grey skyline of Eldor. The city buzzed with life—students, traders, mercenaries, beastsellers. Smoke curled from chimneys, and beyond the city walls, the forest loomed like a sleeping giant.
This world was cruel. Brutal.
But now, it was his.
And he would carve a place in it—not just for himself, but for the soul.
..
...
...