I've always been curious what comes after death. That might be the reason why I'm still calm when I died and speaking of dying I'm curious over the fact that I can think and delve with my thoughts right now.
Well it's strange, indeed.
I tried opening my eyes, well it's no use. Am I in the hospital? No it's impossible since my heart was destroyed, then how can I even live right now.
A flash, as I was still mulling over my thoughts, I saw a flash of light although I don't have an eyes and right now in my vision I saw a fantastical of near impossibility in front of me.
In a blankness of space, or void.
Like a scene I always saw when I'm watching the skies from my apartment. Beside me, a three flickering flames of various colors was constantly rotating and they act as a candle for me to at least find some ease at this situation.
***
I watch the same scenario for an unknown passage of time or maybe not, because my own senses tells me that time doesn't really have a meaning here. I can't feel bored, nor even feel any pain. I just felt that I'm afloat without any direction and I can't even feel if I'm moving.
Right now I'm eying these flames in front of me. They exude some kind of energy which constantly protecting my floaty body which I could assume as my soul body. I want to them to move near me since I don't feel safe but I guess—.
As if hearing my thoughts the three flickering flames floated near me and entered inside my soul.
Hm, I don't feel anything...
A next moment something fantastical appeared in front of me. I have can't see anything earlier aside from this flames but as if I was given an eyes a totally mind-blowing scene appeared before me.
A myriad of colors, I was in space full of colorful lights constantly flickering and the beautiful aurora that I've seen before but on completely grander scale appeared in my vision. My soul exploded in grandeur as a pulling force of like an hungry beast gushed out from me absorbing these colorful lights which was going through the three flickering flames inside of my soul. My soul which acted like some kind of absorption machine was also tainted by these colorful lights. I could feel my soul being refined and from it's initial blank white color, it changed from a colorful ball of light.
As if on cue, the three flickering flames inside my soul which were actually becoming bigger than before was constantly flickering with intensity and being assimilated with my soul.
CLANG!
A bell, a very familiar sound that I've heard before I awakened.
CLANG! CLANG!
An intense quake occured as the bell rang twice with much greater intensity and the space which consist of these colorful lights cracked like a broken glass. At this moment my soul which is still absorbing these colorful lights quivered, I don't know why and I'm definitely curious but dreadful feeling that my soul felt is intensifying overtime. If I don't stop absorbing then I might actually die for real.
CRACK!
A crack in space appeared beside me and an intense force pulled me inside as everything in my vision blanked out again.
***
NEIGH!
Gasp!
A loud neigh of horses instantly woken me up from my slumber, after that a shrieked from the voices of the children filled the surrounding noise.
Opening my heavy eyelids and feeling the pain in my face after falling of what seem like a dry wooden floor that I'm currently lying down. When I fully opened up my eyes to ascertain my situation I saw an appalling scene in front of me. A bunch of children wearing ragged clothes from different ages ranging from four to seven years old was shivering at the corner of what seemed like a cage made of dark metal bars.
Leaning my hands to stand up, I was shocked when I saw my little hands and short arms. Maybe because of reading novels before, well to be exact my past life right now, I'm feeling utterly calm with my current situation. Transmigrating to a child is much better than finding myself on a baby's body. I don't know the current state of myself right now but the fact that I'm feeling intense hunger and slight pain over my body truly didn't made things easier for me as well.
And the fact that I'm inside this cage made me a prisoner too, prisoner or in fact a slave, a foreign term for me since living in the age where slavery was banned and was not being practiced in the society.
So right now I need to fully understand my own situation. And so, my abilities is a handy tool for this.
'Thought Control', extending my thoughts I felt my mind entering slow motion which I'm already used doing before but right now something change. In fact, the whole thing change as my thoughts seemed like it can extend much more than usual and if I were to quantify the speed of my thoughts, then it's a hundred times longer that before!
Well then, it's time for another one. 'Assimilate'.
Whoosh
A burst of memories entered my mind. I felt rather weird since my own soul was assimilated to this body without much resistance but then I realized that this body is actually just an empty husk without any soul the moment my soul entered this body. Looking upon these memories I know that the cause of it is because the soul of this child died two days ago.
He was named Eric same as my own name and he was born from a woman called Mirtha. I only have a vague recollection of her as she died a year after giving birth and there's no information about his father either. He was an orphan and was taken care by an elderly couple since then.
Three days ago a group of bandits attacked their village, they destroyed the houses and took their harvest at the same time they kidnapped the children and women's to sell them as a slave. Almost adults died including the old couple who took care of him. Not that I could blame them for fighting back with their lives since taking their children and wives is basically the same as taking away their own life.
"These lowlives."
These people, no they don't even deserve to be called people because they're much worst than animals. The moment I saw those similar looking eyes from those bandits to the crazy bastard who I killed and also understanding that his own reasoning to take my life for his enjoyment made my blood run cold as immense anger coursed through my mind.
As I reigned my own emotions, I heard a loud banging sound from the outside and the sheet that covered the carriage opened up.
"Hey! You brats shut your mouths or else I'll feed you all to the wolves!"
A scrawny man with a scar on his forehead shouted threatening words which prompted the children besides me to move back further at the corner of the cage and shiver with fear at the menancing words coming from the scrawny man. Though all I could hear is the last words of a dying man as I looked at him coldly.
"Huh? You dare to look at me like that?! Do you think I won't beat you up."
The scrawny man said as he took the keys hanging from his sleeves and held it in front of me. Seeing his actions I smiled and said coldly.
"Well, why don't you try mister? I'm not scared you know."
Taunted by my provocative tone he seemed to have short fuse of attitude as he hastily took his keys to open the lock of the metal bars and entered the cage.
"Well let's see now where you going brat!"
He seemed confidence with his strength as he's not using the blade attached to his waist as he slowly neared me. Well it's much convenient for me if you're so over confident though.
'Thought Control'
Time seemed slow down in motion as I felt every movement in my perception. My racing thoughts felt the tug of element that I managed to comprehend in my past life as wind coursed through my feet.
After that, I used 'Assimilate' to tap on the knowledge of the techniques and movements I learned of before and assimilated it with my body, feeling again the precise reaction and movements that I can do in my current small body made me felt the same freedom as felt before.
But this time, I'm going make sure not to die. There's so many things that I want to know, and I want to learn the origin of that phenomena, the power that was coursing to my soul right now. But the focus on hand is to appease the dead souls of the people who took care of my current body.
Whoosh
Like a gust of wind, I shoot towards the scrawny man using my small body to appear in front of him instaniously. Converging a wind blade in my hands I sliced through his neck and cut off his vocal cord and thrust my palm at his chest, as my palm came in contact with his chest a small needle from compression of wind shot through directly at his heart. I stepped aside to evade his already falling dead body.
THUD
Not a minute past, but it only took a second for the first person I killed to die when I arrive upon this world.
"Well, that's first. And, hmm?"
I looked back and I was met by countless eyes from the children who' looking at me like kind of monster. Well I guess I can't blame them from thinking such a thing since if I were to see a small kid killing a man larger than him before I might thought of him as an alien creature. But this is not something I should think right now.
"I won't care much, since we all don't have that much interactions. So if you want to survive I suggest you all to stop cowering there and start moving to live." I said.
Strangely enough judging from their gazes although we're all from the same village this group of kids doesn't know me at all. It might be because the previous kid who own this body is also an introvert and have the same personality as me when I was a child and doesn't want to socialize with others.
After all, I'm only doing these to get revenge for the person who took care of me. I'm not the type of person who wanted to become a hero for people who I don't much interactiom with.
Friend, become a much foreign term for me and I guess I need to grow as a person too and make some friends in this life.
Shaking my head and looking at the dead bandit lying beside me I took his blade and move out in the carriage.
More than an hour past, since the initial attack of the wolves in this bandit group but the howling of wolves still didn't cease to stop. Outside the carriage, sounds of blade could be heard as a group of bandits fighting with dozens of wolves occured but a scene which took all my attention is when I saw a man at the distance swinging a flaming sword could be seen.
"RAA!! Hahaha! Having nice yelping doggies!"
A large man with an eye patch on his left eye laugh boisterously while swinging his flaming sword which constantly tearing apart and wounding the pack of wolves.
"Hey boss! We've been moving here non-stop and this wolves didn't seem to be reducing at all, I think we should send out some scouts to look for the alpha!"
Hm, well right.
A pack of wolves should have a leader but waves upon waves of wolves still have been attacking the camp. If their leader is not among the attacking wolves then this constant assault wont come to stop. Aside from the ferociousness of the attacking wolves, they are much larger than the wolves from my past world and in fact they're twice or thrice as large. Also I noticed that the trees is literally as large as some of the oldest trees exist in Earth.
Well, what I'm curious about is the fact that the eye patch boss is handling it well using his flaming sword which laced with lethality as upon contact with their furs a combustion of flames occur thereafter, I assumed that it was not oil laced weapon but rather he's using a power he can fully control.
I need to observe it much closely.
Moving myself to get to the frontline I moved my small body and dexterously weaving through the tall grasses hiding myself from being seen by the other bandits. There are three carriages that the bandits owned, two contained kidnapped children's and at the forefront carriage is a carriage contained teenager girls and mostly women's. Each bandit is riding individual horses that they took from the village they robbed from.
Well I need to plan this properly.
First I need to gauge the current power of the entire bandit group. I'm pretty sure I can kill the boss when given a chance to sneak attack but right now when it's day, it's practically impossible for me to do it unless I created a perfect opportunity myself. Also, taking advantage to the fact that I can learn his skills through Comprehension is a good opportunity for me to observe some more time.
I finished scouting the squad of bandits as I noticed that the boss is the only person who's using element. So I think his squads individual skills depend on their weapon proficiency and their own ability. Before them I need to handle a much threatening person in front of me which is the boss of the bandit. As someone who can handle an awakened person who's on par with the bandit boss, I can create a chance to kill him.
But first...
***
"Hey! Mouse find the alpha of the pack, take some goons with you too!"
A bandit who's fighting nearby the boss said. Upon hearing his orders a bandit called Mouse quickly got up from his post from taking care of the horses and took some of his comrades heading to the forest where the boss of the wolves might be hiding.
"Mouse, don't you think that we should hurry up? The boss might scold us..."
"Shut up, if you don't know your work! Alpha's nose is much stronger than his underlings so we have to be careful and fully hide our scent when trying to scout ahead. If you want to die, then go there yourself!"
Mouse, said angrily to his companions. He's already angry over his uperups to order him to scout when he's relaxing as an in-charge of taking care of the horses which is the most easiest job than fighting those beast. But he knows that he can't refuse the order so he hurriedly want to finish his job and kill all those beasts.
"Huh?"
NEIGH!!!
A sound of panicked horses could be heard as even the boss who's fighting at the frontline was alerted when he heard it and looked behind to see the commotion from afar.
Not noticing a small figure of a child fully wrapped with wind came to his side to deliver a deadly and precise attack.
RIP!
A tearing of flesh could be heard as the right arm of the bandit boss who's supposedly shouldn't be able to react from the sneak attack was torn apart.
***
"Hmm?"
I initiated the plan to sneak attack the boss from his blindside, from taking advantage of the horses distracting everyone's attention. I'm quite confident of instantly killing the bandit boss but then I realize that the experience of the man before me is really deserving for his title as a boss of his bandit squad. To distract the bandit boss, I used his technique of using his elemental power to his own weapon, using the wind element to coat the nail which I got from removing it the carriage. Using my 'Comprehension' ability to easily comprehend the bandit boss ability I used the fire element to further enhance the nails from combustion for a greater fire power which took a quick work of agitating the horses. There's some weird changes occured the moment to my body I comprehended his fire element with I ignore for a moment.
Though but I'll have to investigate it later and focus on the matters on hand.
Now focusing on the bandit boss before me, who's literally eyeing me with immense anger and the fire that wrapped his sword fully exploded with powerful fire element.
BOOM!
I know this is going to be a tough fight. But I'd prefer for it to end instantly since a balanced game doesn't exist in real life. Only a moment of clash decides the winner so...
"RAH!!! HOW DARE YOU!!"
A below full of anger comes from the bandit boss as he dashed towards me with a ferocious expression. His eyes was filled with intense hatred and malice but the only thing I felt is nothing. Nothing at all, because I'm fully composed right now due to my Thought Control, which allowed me to be level headed and calmly assess his movements.
Judging from his reactions he had earlier, he must've experience countless battles which honed his senses towards danger but he completely lost his cool when he saw a child before him without any emotions from tearing apart his own arms.
'Yup, and that's the reason why you're going to die.'
Compressing the wind beneath my feet, and using my newly comprehended element to combust the air, I reached an another level of speed.
At the end only speed matters, no matter how much strength you had as long as I had sharper and much faster blade, I can take your life.
Whoosh
A head was cleanly sliced flew through the air. The head of the bandit boss who was full of enrage expression was dead. His aide who by at his side was shaking with fear as I have no need to take care of him now I focused on another enemy at hand.
Great number of wolves began appearing from the woods as a wolf ten times times larger than the other wolves appeared. It's body was crackling with lightning, a fascinating sight which made me want it to make a move quickly and let me comprehend it's element. A very dangerous thought that might cost my own life since an alarming sense of danger a was radiating from the creature before me.
GROWL...
But before it made a move a sound akin to a blaring of horn resounded. Numerous clatter of hooves and metals instantly filled the surroundings as a loud shriek of a bird was heard. Moment later a large shadow of a bird was cast over everyone as the large bird swiftly slid in front of the wolves pack pulsing with intense wind element.
What interest me though is that there's a person sitting above the eagle, adorned with a robe a white haired old man calmly look at the wolves especially at the large wolf that exudes lighting at the distance.
"A lightning wolf and sixth cycle at that. If you come to interrupt the peace of the empire, I might make a move to eliminate you. The king of your lineage should already know that a transgression against us will result for a countless of deaths to occur."
The old man touched his beard and slowly said those words as his eyes shone with power, hearing those threatening words from the old man the wolves crackling with lightning slowly backed away.
HOWL!!
At the command of their leader the rest of the wolves seemed to lost their thirst for battle as they slowly took a sprint behind the large trees in the forest. When the wolves fully disappeared the old man standing at the top of the giant eagle looked over at the carriage and finally settling his gaze over me.
"I sense a presence of mana from you. A child who can use mana and judging from the corpse of the man before you, a second circle warrior upon that. Interesting, well who might you be young child."
As I gazed up at the old man before me, I know that an opportunity had arrived. As an orphan without any status and on the way of being sold as a slave, being taken noticed by a personage who's clearly a big shot of some kind of organization might be much beneficial for me explore this world. More than anything I believe is that knowledge is a power that I needed the most because I don't know anything about this world right now and clueless about the level of power an individual before me or those powerhouse truly reached. So, according of how I act will depend my own future.
The moment I entered this world, knowing the great dangers that exist made me yearned for power and gain freedom to live without any worries in this world. I'm kind of excited what awaits for me to explore in this world.