John couldn't believe his eyes and the rest of his senses. A road made of tar, several cars rolled along it, there were buses, Toyotas, SUVs, and some motorcycles circulating, on the sidewalks people walked from one side to the other, men, women and children.
Modern buildings in the 21st century, famous skyscrapers adorned the district, people offered their services on the street, selling newspapers and all kinds of trade on the street, there were so many people, that some robbed each other occasionally.
In the scratches, giant screens show news relevant to the population, weather news and some commercials.
— New York— John couldn't believe his words.
John ran out, with the speed of a Primary level 1 being he was able to get to his apartment very quickly crossing several districts along the way, he pressed the elevator controls, floor 199, as it was taking a long time and to get there, he decided to take the stairs, running with all his strength he reached the planned floor.
Using the questioning sky, John opened the door using the door fingerprint, he arrived at his living room and saw his sister sitting lazily on the couch with the remote control zapping, he looked at her and said excitedly.
— Delfi, I'm back
He then threw himself at Delfi, his sister, as he always did, but then his face froze, no matter how much he tried to hold on or throw himself at her, his fingers went through her body, it was as if she was intangible.
— What's going on? — John said with tears streaming down his face.
Delfi, who was sitting on the couch, declared herself, went to the kitchen and got some cookies and milk, she returned to the couch, she walked past John as if he were a ghost, John tried every way to establish contact but nothing, without success.
But then, Delfi said something that touched his heart, she looked in John's direction and said in a reprimanding way.
— Brother, you're going to be late, it's already time.
For a moment John thought Delfi had spoken to him, it was then that John crossed over and went to Delfi's side, stroked her hair and said.
— Don't worry, I won't be late, you won't leave today.
"I have nowhere to go today," Delfi said while pouting.
John threw down a credit card and said, "You can go shopping with your friends."
Delfi, surprised and happy, gave him a hug and said — my brother is the best — John took a moment to say — be careful with my jacket.
Delfi was late and asked — bro, where are you going this time?
— I'm going to Egypt.
- serious?
– Yes. A relic was discovered, with an energy impulse, never before seen on Earth, the CIA decided to send a team to investigate and I was included.
— Bro. Why are you telling me the contents of your mission? Isn't this confidential?
— It is confidential, but who's going to tell them? It's not like they have hidden cameras here at home.
— can I tell this to someone, or post it on Facebook?
— Of course you can, but the people you tell will be erased from the map, your Facebook profile will disappear the second you make the post.
— hahaha hahaha — John laughed loudly.
John got serious and said — Delfi, be careful, I'll be away all week, don't forget about yourself...
Delfi finished what John was going to say.
— I know, I'm your most precious asset. Don't worry, you'll rest, nothing will happen, besides, there are the Agents protecting me from the shadows.
John smiled and said — I'm going — John opened the apartment door and kissed Delfi on the forehead, suddenly everything stopped, time froze.
John looked at his sister and his past self, tears streaming down his face, he fell to his knees, with a hoarse voice he asked.
- what is that ?
Oni materialized in front of John and said emotionlessly, "We are in my memories, or rather, our memories."
John growled angrily, "I know these are memories, I asked why did you show me this?"
— I already.. I. Already
— Have you ever,.. what? — Oni, he asked.
— John, did you change because you wanted to forget your sister, the person you loved more than anything, more than yourself?
— What are you saying? Who gives you the right to say that I was trying to forget Delfi?
— John, you can even lie to yourself, but not to me, I know you better than yourself.
— You don't know me, you're nothing more than a parasite, I bet you're the one who dragged me to another world.
— John, why do you want to forget her? — Oni asked.
— because you want to forget everything you experienced here on earth.
— I don't want to forget anything, you must be dreaming — said John.
— since you try to deny yourself, allow me to show you.
Time resumed and flowed backwards, John was in another older memory, in this memory John was only an hour old, using his powers, Oni, placed John in his old baby body.
— you will live your life again, you will feel everything you felt before with greater intensity, this will last until you recognize and accept your past life back.
John blinked his eyes and experienced his past life, after an hour, he met his parents.
— How cute, honey, what name should we give? — asked John's mother.
— Jonathan, that sounds like a good name, how about calling him that? — asked the father.
— Jonathan? How about shortening it a bit, it seems too long.
— Hmm.. how about John?
— Sounds good, John knows your father and mother.
In this memory, John met his parents for the first time, he also tasted fatherly love for the first time.
When John was one year old, his parents threw him a birthday party. When he was two years old, they did the same thing. At this age, John was walking on his own. His parents were happy and full of pride. He was amazed at the looks his parents gave him.
After a few years, John had the biggest surprise of his life, his parents had a baby.
— John
- mother ?
— come closer.
— Look at her, she's your little sister, as an older brother you should take care of her.
— Yes mom, I'll take care of my little sister and mom too.
— How sweet, okay, you'll take care of both of us.
- mother
— What's wrong son?
— What's her name?
— her name is Defi
— Delfi? Look here Delfi, I'm John, your older brother, I'm going to take care of you, you must obey me, okay?
As time went by, John's love for his sister only grew, he took care of her when their parents went out to work, they spent a lot of time together, when Delfi got hurt at the age of three, John cried all night.
When his sister turned 5 years old, horrible news arrived, John's parents had died on a business trip, the plane exploded due to a technical failure, there were no survivors.
— Delfi, mom and dad aren't here anymore, but don't worry, I'll take good care of you — John said to his sister, tears streaming down his face.
John and Delfi grew up under the care of their aunt, they were not happy in their aunt's house, John endured mistreatment from his uncle, until John had his first part-time job.
To distract his mind, John became an otaku, since then he always had a smile on his face, he faced difficulties, thanks to his sister who gave him strength and the life bids he saw in anime.
John proved to be a genius in computing, he did all kinds of business on the internet, when he reached high school, John and his sister moved out of their aunt's house.
With a part-time job and his internet business, John held his own until someone noticed him at the CIA and offered him a scholarship and promised to help take care of his sister in exchange for providing services to the American government. John accepted.
With joy, John watched his sister grow up, he lived for his sister, throughout his studies at college, John made several friends on the internet, he had not given himself over very well to society, he had some girlfriends at graduation, but the relationship did not progress well.
When John joined the CIA, his world became just his sister and a life as an otaku gamer. He didn't have many friends, but he had his team who were like brothers, they shared life and death together.
John enjoyed his life, all because he had his sister.
***
One, two, three, on the tenth time John spoke.
- he arrives
The world stopped and shattered, John came out of the crimson egg and saw himself in the sea of soul, his gaze had changed, now in his gaze, determination could be seen, he now looked more like his earthly version.
After living his past life several times, every moment he lived was firm and vivid, the personality he was trying to adopt in this world was cruelly suppressed.
Now, John was just John the Earthling, John Venhorst was now just the accumulation of memories over 9 years.
— Why did you want to forget your past life? Your sister and your companions whom you shared life and death with, and decided to call family? — Oni asked.
—They were left behind, on earth, and I am here alone, how could I live but deny the past.
— At first, you wanted to find a way to return to Earth, why did you change your mind? — Oni asked.
— Look at Father, how long did it take him to become a higher being? Three decades or more of his life, and yet he has never heard of other worlds.
— Was that why? You don't believe we can go back, so you decided to forget, leave everything and everyone behind? — Oni asked, John lowered his head in response.
— John, and if I tell you that with enough strength it is possible to return to Earth, would you seek this gallows?
— what force would that be?
— a force that surpasses a superior being by several folds
— what's the point in conquering a force like that, in the end when I return to Earth there will only be tombs instead of real people.
—No matter how many years pass, you can return to the same moment you left—said Oni.
John raised his head and looked at Oni and asked, "Are you serious?" Oni nodded.
— Then yes, I would like to go back.
— John, I also intend to go back to a place.
— what place would that be?
— I would like to return to the Abysmal throne.
— Abysmal throne? What is this place? — asked John
— That's where I came from, I belong to the abysmal throne, I want you to take me back there and I will take you to earth with your sister, or you can bring her here if you so wish.
— Seriously? Can you bring her here or should I go there?
— Not in this state, first I will have to return to the abyssal throne, only then will I be able to do whatever I want.
— Alright, then I'll help, I'll take you, Back to the Abysmal throne, and you'll bring my sister to me.
—what should we do then?
— For now, we must level up as quickly as possible. To do so, we must explore the crimson energy to the fullest and your scientific knowledge from your past life.
— Alright, let's level up then, the faster we level up, the faster I can be with my sister.
— Oni. How about you tell me what you promised me.
— Okay, John, pay attention to what I'm going to tell you.
— My memory goes back to the day I met you, everything before that is fragments.
—Was that on Earth? — John asked.
— no, we don't know each other on earth
John stared blankly at the Oni, who continued with his story.
— John, this is not your second life, as you think, you have lived several lives, and in all of them I was there by your side.
John paid full attention to Ôni's words.
— When we met, you were a fragment of a soul almost destroyed, at the time I was a being without memory wandering through samsara, searching for a soul to link me to, through a soul symbiosis.
—I couldn't escape from samsara, the sea of reincarnation, I wandered for a long time, when my existence was coming to an end, I saw a fragment of soul being transformed into pure energy.
— every soul that falls into the sea of reincarnation, samsara, is transformed into energy, purified and then converted into a new soul ready to reincarnate in a random world.
— We merged, becoming a complete soul, and were sent to reincarnate on Earth, but unfortunately for us, there was no spiritual energy on Earth, so evolving was out of the question.
- we lived, on earth depending only on the crimson energy, 99 lives on earth together, whenever our life came to an end, we were sucked into samsara the sea of reincarnation, but we were always sent to earth.
— we tried everything to escape from the earth or samsara, but we were unsuccessful, with each life on earth, the crimson energy was extinguished, life after life, until it reached the point where it was no longer possible to resist samsara, once we died, upon reincarnation our memories were lost.
— I was also affected by samsara, to preserve my memories, I used all my power to create the sea of soul within your soul, it was in your last life, when you answered the name John, that I completed the sea of soul.
— At this point, my memories before meeting you were erased, by the sea of reincarnation, I decided to just stay in the sea of the soul sharing your life, I accepted your family as mine, I did not interfere in your life, which is why you were not aware of my existence.
— this lasted until his last mission in the pyramids.
— When I went to Egypt, I came across the crimson egg? — John asked a question after remaining silent for a long time.
— Yes, that was exactly it, when you touched the fragment of the crimson egg on earth, someone in this new world, or rather Catarina, our current mother, also found a fragment that was in this world.
— the crimson egg that Catarina found was larger than the one you found in Egypt, as a result there was a singularity, the sea of reincarnation opened a passage between the earth and this world and we were sucked in, appearing in this world.
—Luckily, Catarina was pregnant.
— What if the mother wasn't pregnant? What would happen? — John asked.
— most likely, her soul would be annihilated and we would take the place of her soul, possessing her body, luckily for Catarina, it was the soul of her unborn child that was replaced by us.
—So that's how we ended up here? — John contemplated for a while, his expression changing several times.
—So if we die, we'll be sent to Earth? — John asked.
— I no longer have enough power to face the sea of reincarnation, if you die in this world it will be our end, our soul would be annihilated to create a new soul.
so what should we do?
—Luckily for us we are in a different world from Earth, this world has spiritual energy, we can evolve and recover my previous power.
—and after regaining your former power?
—when that moment comes, we can wander through space, crossing worlds in search of the abyssal throne, and then we can return to earth at the exact time we came to this world.
— Okay, then we will do this, first recover your power, second find the abyssal throne and lastly recover my previous life.
— Then let's make a pact.
— how does it work?
— We will be completely one, until we find the abyssal throne, I will give you all my power and I will not hinder your life in this world, I will train you and help you in any way possible.
— Alright, let's make the pact then.
Oni, deeply placed his hand towards John's forehead, a mark that was previously only on Oni's forehead, was also present on John's forehead, he felt a coldness running through his entire soul, the connection with the sea of the soul heated 100%, now everything that Oni was capable of doing, John did too.
—Is it ready?— Said John
— by now you should be aware of some of my abilities, try pronouncing the word "assimilation" in the Baboan language — Oni suggests.
John did what Oni said
— Assimilation — John chanted the word in an incantation. Several pieces of information appeared in his mind.
— Assimilation, is the first soul art that I will be giving you — Oni said — in the future, — you will be able to use, all the soul arts that I possess — Oni added.
— Go rest, after all we will have to leave tomorrow, when our level goes up, we will try to use assimilation.
John returned to the real world, in his room, all this reading left his head hurting, there is a lot of information that John got today, he needs time to digest it and chart a suitable course in this world.
Now that John knew that returning to Earth was not impossible, no matter how much time passed, he would do everything he could to level up.
***
John looked very tired, he fell into a tired sleep, the mark that, Oni,, made on his forehead, began to refine his soul, slowly without, he realized, it became purer.
When Catarina came to check on his condition, she assumed that John was in a deep sleep.
Catarina spent half the night watching him. Thus a new day was born.
The day for John to leave finally arrived.
Continued...