Slam! The sound of Kane's head hitting steel bars rang out in the air. Kane curled up into a ball, cradling his head.
"Sh**, are you serious? Which idiot said that souls can phase through matter!?"
As he nursed his wounds, the sound of a gate closing rang out behind him. Turning around, Kane searched for the source of the noise, but any trace of his captor was lost to him. Confused, he searched his surroundings.
He was in a dark gloomy room, with experimental equipment and strange devices scattered all throughout the place. Kane's soul shuddered as he noticed several vats with floating corpses inside. Some vats were filled with normal-looking humans, but others looked like strange hybrids with no directional sense of evolution. Some of these corpses gave off a disjointed, disgusting vibe, while others gave off the sense of a sharp knife.
The worst part of the experience was that he sat in a palm-sized cage on one of the many, experimental tables. Looking at his cage, Kane frowned.
[How the hell can I fit in such a small cage? Last time I checked, my soul was human-sized.]
He didn't know much about souls, but he guessed the problem was with the cage and not him. Rubbing his head, he nodded.
[Yeah it's gotta be the cage.]
On close inspection, the cage glowed with a faint red light, not dissimilar to his previous divine protection.
"How do I get out of here?"
Kane said to no one in particular.
"You can't."
Kane whipped his head around in fright, but as he did, his hand bumped into the bars. Instantly, a pain similar to when he hit his head, shot through his body.
"Ah f*** that hurts!"
Clutching his hand, Kane fell to the floor quite comically. "Pfft." At the sound of the laugh, Kane turned his head to look accusingly at the person who had surprised him. He was surprised to see a young girl around the age of 10 looking down at him.
[A girl? She couldn't be the kidnapper could she?]
Suspiciously, he stood up and asked.
"What do you mean I can't?"
Smiling playfully, the girl responded.
"The cage you're sitting in has a soul-capturing formation around it. Any attempt to leave will result in immense pain, as you've no doubt noticed."
Kane frowned, this little girl's speech was more like that of an adult. However, there was a more pressing topic to address.
"A formation? Like the kind cultivators use?"
The girl tilted her head curiously, "Cultivators? Do you mean magi? I didn't know that the common people had started calling us cultivators."
[Oh sh** this is bad.]
As a genius in his past life, Kane had plenty of time to kill because of his average lifestyle. As a result, he had read a copious amount of webnovels. That's why when he heard the word magi, his soul turned pale. Magi were similar to cultivators but they primarily used spells. The higher the cultivation the stronger the spells. However, magus worlds are incredibly vicious. He knew that if he didn't escape soon he would be subjected to a lifetime of experiments.
"Oh never mind what I said before. Are you a magus?"
The girl nodded enthusiastically.
"I'm just an acolyte now, but father says that soon I'll be the greatest magus that ever lived."
He smiled on the surface, but inwardly laughed at her
[I've read countless books. A mere acolyte can't possibly defeat all the magi in this world.]
If he was correct, a peak magus could even conquer a dimension. This little girl stood no chance. Seeing how naive she was, Kane hatched a plan.
"Hey, little girl, what's your name?"
The girl smiled sweetly, "It's Violet."
"Well, Violet, we're friends right?"
Violet looked at Kane with an amused expression.
"Well, I suppose so."
Kane nodded as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Anyways, since we're friends, I'll tell you about my story."
And so, Kane told her the long sad story of the boy called Sho. With lots of theatrics of course.
"... and then right when I'm about to head to heaven, a giant hand comes out of nowhere and throws me into this cage! All I want is to go to heaven and be happy!"
When his story was completed, even Kane couldn't help but wipe some tears from his eyes. When he turned to Violet, he was pleased to see that she also had tears in her eyes.
"That's so sad! I'm sure that in your new life here, you'll be much happier."
At those words, Kane's smile froze.
"What do you mean? Don't you want to set me free?"
The girl wiped her tears and looked at Kan's soul confusedly.
"What do you mean? Dad said that he's going to help make you into Violet's servant."
[F*** no! I don't want to be a slave!]
"W-wait a moment, wouldn't I be happier if you just let me go to heaven? I have a family there!"
Violet who was already back to her normal self, smiled.
"Don't worry. Dad said that after you become my servant you won't remember anything! You don't have to be sad."
Hearing this, Kane nearly fainted.
[Who the hell would be happy to lose their memories!! Your whole family wants to lose their memories!!!!]