With a gasp, Citrissa shot up. Gulping in huge amounts of air as if she was hyperventilating.
What happened? She was just hit by a semi. She shouldn't be alive right now.
But she was. She felt very much alive and the stabbing ache in her chest with the throbbing pain inside her head made it evident that she wasn't dead.
With a groan, she tried standing up. She felt as if she was shot in the chest by a rifle. It ached and as if that wasn't bad enough, whenever she took in a breath of air, the pain would shoot through her lungs and travel down her spine like it was transmitting itself to all of her limbs.
Once she got to her feet, she sighed out.
She started to observe her surroundings. She definitely wasn't in a hospital. She looked to be at the bottom of a cliff. The forest before her stood like a foreboding giant. The leaves rustled while there was no wind complementing the eerie silence.
Looking up, she saw a cliff that looked as if it had recently been through a tremendous landslide.
For some reason, the sight brought a pang to her heart. She gasped while she clutched her chest.
The feeling was strange. Like it didn't belong to her. What was happening?
Looking down, she was able to see her hands clutching her chest. They were spotted with blood and rough with calluses that were not her own.
She was hit by a semi in the middle of the road, but woke up in a forest. In unfamiliar clothes and in an unfamiliar body that didn't feel like her own.
It was to much to take in. She was only a ballet dancer that worked as waitress at a coffee shop to earn a bit of money.
The only time she had seen blood was when she was ten when her parents where driving home from one of her recitals and a deer popped up out of nowhere.
To avoid hitting it, her father swerved. It was late at night and dark. Her father couldn't see and drove into a deep ditch. When she had opened her eyes, the front of the car was crushed and all that was left of her parents was mangled up body's made of flesh, blood and bones.
The sight of blood from that point on made her queasy and faint.
She was about to pass out at the sight of blood covering her but was suddenly interrupted when a bludgeoning pain wrecked her brain.
She felt as if her skull was cracked open and then being stuffed full of fiber glass.
Images flashed before her eyes as her body underwent an explosion of emotions one after another until she felt as her body was overwhelmed and about to be sapped of all the energy she had.
Falling to the ground, she clutched her head while her fingernails dug into the dirt in a desperate attempt to steady herself.
She felt as if hours had passed while the pain wrecked her body and tormented her mind with memories that didn't belong to her.
Left breathless and without any strength to support her body, she laid there silently. Her back raising up and down in rhythmic patterns.
When she opened her eyes, they had changed. They looked bolder, and steady.
Slowly, she rose herself from the ground.
The memories she had just attained were those that belonged to Jevelyn. Within this small body of hers, two women with two lifetimes of memories combined.
Jevelyn had died. But her body held all her experiences and emotions.
The sadness and unfairness she felt when she was an orphan living a tortured life on the streets and the pride and resentment she had when she was a living power capable of leveling small cities.
Jevelyn hated the world she lived in. Hated the filth she saw in the people around her.
The stupid logic that the people in this world followed made her burn with rage and hatred. That hatred fueled her determination to move forward to where she was just before she died.
And while Jevelyn held the power and determination, Citrissa held the discipline and knowledge that Jevelyn never got when she was in a young and growing phase proper for learning.
These two people created who she was now. And even though Jevelyn was gone, Citrissa could still feel a part of her inside her.
Looking around her, she assessed the situation with a whole new set of eyes.
Seeing as her only way out of here was through the forest or back up the cliff, she decided to sit down and sort out her memories.
Finding a bolder, she sat down calmly and closed her eyes to think.
The world she was in was called Coelestis. Coelestis had five realms or to a person from a modern world like herself, five continents.
Each realm had their own territories. Like states in a country. But each one had a monarchy leading them. For instance, the Quintus realm she was in had three monarchies. Each ruled over a certain amount of states or territories.
It was like this for every realm or a continent.
The weakest, or most populated continent was the continent she was currently on. The Quintus realm. People of this realm were usually weak against every other realm.
The next realm was the Quartus. It had three monarchies as well. But was many times stronger than the Quintus realm. Apart from that, they were pretty similar.
The next realm was Tertium known for its vast amount of land that was not ruled by a monarch, but guilds, hidden sects and vast amounts of businessmen. If you ever had the desire to visit this realm, it was known as common sense that you would have to have deep pockets and an eye for business and danger.
Secundi was the next realm that was known as a place full of treasures and abundant terrain used by alchemists to grow their herbs and mountain ranges abundant in essence and ores. Ruled by two monarchies, they coexisted as one of the most peaceful realms in terms of warfare. But the dangers were just as equally abundant as the vast treasures when it came to the natural 'beauty' of the place. Just stepping foot there could lead to an untimely death.
The last continent was Primis. Not much was known about this mysterious realm. It is told that only people who have mastered the art of essence gathering could enter this land and live. Being untouched by people, it was a legendary place told to hold treasures more abundant than Secundi.
Each of these continents was stronger than the last while Primis was the strongest, Quintus was the weakest.
And that brought her to the arts of essence.
Unlike the earth that Citrissa lived on, the world of Coelestis had a substance called essence. Like in novels she had read before in her previous world, essence was equivalent to mana or chi.
People in this world refined essence into soul. The way of refinement was taking up a path to cultivate and finding a cultivation method that resonated with your soul stone.
But finding a cultivation method that resonated with one's soul stone was rare and scarce. Only one out of a hundred thousand could find one they could have an affinity with.
You could still cultivate with different methods but it wouldn't be nearly as effective as one you resonated with. But, people in this world would prefer to say that not finding one was normal and finding one was equivalent to doing less to get more.
For every person who practiced in essence gathering or essence cultivating, there were ten ranks. Each rank had eight sub ranks known as grades
The ranks are as listed:
Novice Cultivator
Rookie Cultivator
Beginner Cultivator
Skilled Cultivator
Intermediate Cultivator
Experienced Cultivator
Advanced Cultivator
Senior Cultivator
Expert Cultivator
Celestial Cultivator
Jevelyn was never able to find a cultivation method she could resonate with, but even then, from where she started, she clawed her way up the ranks.
She had made it to Advanced Cultivator of the third level.
And the reason being, she had one of the most tenacious personalities of anyone in all five realms. She want just cruel to others, but was cruel to herself.
But when she had made it to Intermediate Cultivator, she took a turn down a path that betrayed her cultivation method. She fell into the dark arts. A cultivation method practiced upon the blood of others.
Citrissa lifted up her hand and looked at the blood that had dried to flakes upon her skin.
Jevelyn had gotten so far to fall in such a way.
After Jevelyn shattered her soul stone, she terminated all her cultivation and her life. Everything that was bound to her by a soul pact either died or was released.
The only reason that she was alive right now was because a new soul had inhibited the body. And with a new soul, a new soul stone was formed.
But there was never a free lunch in this world. Or any world for that matter.
With a new soul stone, she could start over and choose the right path from now on for both of them. But her soul stone, was as weak as a new born babies.
And right now, she was trapped between a deserted forest and a crumbling cliff.