Time seemed to freeze. Will's lightning, usually so impossibly swift, flew toward me this time with such agonizing slowness that anyone else in my position would have been driven mad by the wait for inevitable death. I simply closed my eyes. It didn't work. A shame. But I would try again, for I held eternity in my hands.
As my charred body plummeted to the ground, I caught the regretful thoughts from Will: "I'm sorry, Taranee! I'm sorry!" It truly was a pity. I didn't want to leave this world so quickly, because it held magic. That magic compelled me to live. To feel even a shred of interest in existence.
I am a unique being. Death holds no terror for me. After death, a new life always awaits, with the full preservation of my past memories. I think I was very happy about this possibility at first. I clearly remember the happiness of my second life—my first meaningful rebirth without memory loss. Back then, I believed I could conquer any peak, that I would walk with my head held high through every possible obstacle on my path toward my goal, my dream. And yes, that was true... I definitely lived my second life much better than my first. That conclusion, made at the end of the second life, is easy to recall.
As my body was dying during that second life, simply having run its course, a smile was on my face. I had corrected all my mistakes. I achieved success where I had sought it. I fulfilled all my dreams. There were no more reasons to remain in that world...
But I was reborn again, in a different world! And then again, and again, and again... This became an endless cycle that, to simplify greatly, consists of birth and death!
Initially, I tried to search for some meaning in my constant existence. Time after time, I engaged in self-realization; sometimes I was an egoist, at times I devoted myself entirely to helping others... I created and destroyed, gave life and took it away, guided humanity toward a bright future and was the cause of its destruction... But in the end, it became clear to me that nothing has meaning if the cycle is endless.
I understood that I was fed up with everything, that I was weary of the entire world, and then I began to search for my own annihilation. A death not just of the body, but of the soul itself, which keeps reincarnating over and over.
All manner of esoteric practices proved that their authors know how to lie beautifully and sell well. Most books on esotericism are a scam for gullible people, meant to fleece them of their money. Trust is, in principle, also preyed upon by those who pass themselves off as sorcerers, priests, shamans, and so on down a very long list. But I did not give up, because among this brotherhood, there were sometimes those who, upon seeing me, would collapse, foaming at the mouth, or, for example, attempting to read my lifeline, would give themselves a stroke. This gave me hope for otherworldly powers.
One day, I thought, luck smiled upon me. I was reborn into a world where Gods were real. With difficulty, I managed to secure an audience with one Deity. I believed that the creator of all things, an omnipotent being, could help me. To radically resolve the problem of the endless cycle of rebirths, but, ha-ha-ha, the "Almighty," no matter how much he puffed himself up, couldn't do anything—and he tried very hard, because I deliberately provoked his wrath by defiling all his temples and several of his daughters. He had refused to help after a simple request, and only the threat that I would repeat everything I had done, over and over through reincarnation, forced him to act. In the end, the God simply swatted me like a fly when he realized I would be reincarnating outside of his world.
I stopped counting on mysticism and put my faith in science. But even super-advanced technologies could not affect a substance as mysterious as the human soul. In all the super-developed worlds I had visited, they could, for example, colonize a different part of the universe, yet they still did not understand what the soul was. Therefore, I chose a slightly different path: eternal sleep.
Anabiosis is a state of the organism where its vital processes are so slowed down that it appears to be dead. Although that isn't actually the case. Essentially, one can achieve eternal life this way. A very peculiar kind. Because upon exiting anabiosis, the life processes would become normal again, but while in it... In anabiosis, I couldn't think. It truly would be a sleep. An eternal one. Not death, but quite close to it, for if I did not think, I would cease to exist. Conditionally. But even that kind of peace was salvation for me.
I tried to enter anabiosis several times. To me, it genuinely felt like something finally resembling death. Formally, the body was alive, yet I could not be conscious of it. I could not be conscious of anything at all. But each time, for one reason or another, my anabiosis was terminated.
Sometimes, in the world I was in, it would begin to be considered an inhuman torture if used against healthy people. There were cases where the capsule that induced the anabiosis simply broke. Unexpectedly, all safety systems failed, and a malfunction occurred. Then the body died, and I was reborn again. I was once awakened from eternal sleep due to a total war that humans had waged against each other... A stray missile might strike near my bunker, and the system would overload. Sometimes my consciousness caught that I woke from anabiosis just as the planet I was on was being destroyed...
I was stubborn. I tried again and again to make my sleep truly eternal, but even my patience has a limit... I gave up. After each rebirth, I began to die immediately, in a desperate attempt to end the damn endless cycle. I held onto a small hope that my reincarnations had a limit that would eventually run out, and after that, I myself would finally end...
But once, after a thousand bodies had already been discarded in a sabotage against life, something new scratched at my consciousness. Something I hadn't seen before.
Every time my soul is about to be born into a new vessel, I receive a small informational summary about the world I've entered. I developed a theory that, most likely, as my soul approaches a world, it passes through its info-field, absorbing the most important and distinctive features of the planet.
This time was no different from my other reincarnations. I received a brief world summary. Everything was standard, except for one thing that precisely scratched at my consciousness: "Humans have discovered psychic energy within themselves and have also learned to use it at a rudimentary level. Various variations of kinesis, that is, the control of something through the power of thought, have become available to them."
This had never happened to me before. I had never been reborn where humanity possessed supernatural powers. Only occasionally were there worlds with genuine psychics, the very ones who foamed at the mouth upon seeing me. But I was not informed about such individuals upon entering a world, which meant they were a statistical anomaly that could not truly exert a serious influence on the planet's fate. Even in the world where Gods existed, besides the Gods themselves, there were no other possessors of supernatural powers.
I decided not to die in the first minutes after birth, as I had done thousands of times before this world, in an attempt to reach the limit of reincarnations and finally know peace. Simply put, something had managed to interest me after a very long time. A meaning for this life had appeared. I wished to comprehend psychic energy.
I was definitely lucky with the place of my birth. I came into the world in some complex that was specifically studying psychic energy and trying to develop its potential in people. And I had that very energy! As well as the nascent capacity for kinesis!
And because I was a rather quiet test subject, appearing, as it were, genuinely interested in a good result, the scientists would sometimes even explain the experiments they were conducting on me.
The delight I felt when I first managed to levitate a matchstick and light it with the power of thought was overwhelming. I hadn't experienced that kind of pleasure in a very long time. It was as if I had recovered the old passion I possessed in my first few dozen reincarnations. And how shocked the scientists were when a small child lunged at them, tearfully begging them to perform more experiments to develop his gift further...
Unfortunately, either the experiments were ineffective, or every person had a limit they could reach in controlling psychic energy. I leaned toward the first option, and the scientists toward the second.
The fact was that by the sixth year of my body's life, my maximum telekinesis could only lift a matchbox, and my pyrokinesis could ignite a flame the size of a child's fist. But even this inspired me to continue diligent training, despite the lack of any visible results from it.
The same could not be said for the scientists. For them, I quickly changed from a favorite into the sample they didn't mind using for the most deadly experiments, since I wouldn't even make a good fighter, the very thing they were cultivating here, due to my insignificant gift.
As a result, during the very next experiment to increase the strength of the kinesis that had opened up in me, I simply died. But that short life granted me a new meaning for existence: I desired to conquer supernatural power.
It was something unknown to me, something new. A breath of fresh air. Conquering supernatural power became objective number one. And then... once I had studied it sufficiently, perhaps I could finally end my existence...
The childish delight was caused by the fact that I carried the power of kinesis with me into the next world. That is, the gift of controlling psychic energy was now always with me. It was only a shame that it developed extremely slowly and reluctantly. But if one world had one amazing power, another might contain something truly astonishing.
I once again began to die immediately after being born, over and over. But now, I did this not because of the foolish attempt to exhaust the reincarnation resource, but with the goal of finding a world with supernatural powers. And I found one after some time!
The new world had genuine magic! And I possessed it! Again, I could control fire, but this time not through pyrokinesis. Some other energy was being utilized, one that emanated from my very soul and was diffused throughout the world...
In my teenage years, I was lucky enough to join the ranks of the Guardians, special defenders of the universe, whose magical gift was enhanced by a special artifact. After feeling what I was capable of with that artifact, I wanted to seize it. This desire only intensified when I learned that there were actually many of these Hearts—artifacts that could amplify the magical gift. And the more of them a person held, the stronger they would ultimately become.
The chief Guardian was struck in the back, but out of pity for the young girl, I did not kill her. I only took the artifact I needed. And then my campaign of conquest across the universe began.
Unfortunately, the power and authority I gained went to my head, and eventually, the girl I had once spared roasted me to a crisp.
After that incident, I decided not to play the Lord of Darkness anymore. It always ended badly for me. The role of his right hand would suffice... I needed to act more subtly. Accumulating power from the shadows while someone else attracted all the attention...
I was already prepared for a new series of deaths to find a world with some kind of supernatural power, when the very first rebirth threw me into a suitable place.
"Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked...."