2 Chapter 1 - Introduction and acquaintance with a gift from the distant past

So, I was right, and it was HURT, so I quickly passed out. When I awoke, I did not feel pain, and it pleased me. But, after some time, I also realized that something else was missing, namely, my body. For the translucent, lightly luminous thing, repeating the human contour, cannot be one. But this is not particularly pleased. Looking around better, I realized my situation, namely, I am a ghostly silhouette, hanging in a gray void.

So, it looks like I'm either dead or close to it. And, perhaps, this is how people feel on the verge of life and death. And here before eyes appeared:

≫ System calibration is in progress

And away we go. Before my eyes, the text in a slightly familiar language began to appear and change quickly, and the body (or, most likely, the soul) began to feel strange, and after examining myself, I noticed that some places are glowing with a multi-colored light. And this effect came up to the head, and now a kaleidoscope of different colors is visible before my eyes, and the text also goes on top of this. It lasted for quite a long time, but at first the light presentation ended, and after that, the text began to take on a meaningful and familiar look. And so:

≪ Calibration finished

≪ You are welcomed by the adaptive system of spiritual development ArcAnima, the creator of which is your past incarnation. Further details in the introductory report.≫

Hello, the future me. My name is Leon Astores, and I am the Master of the East European Guild of Mages, which most likely does not exist anymore, because when a decent piece of continent tears off the planet and teleports it into the void with an accompanying explosion, you will not envy the nearby territories. And now, I am the only living person on this piece of the continent, located in space, preparing to go to the only inhabited world that I found. And if you read it, then partly I succeeded. But let's start from the beginning, to clarify the situation.

In 1908, according to the old calculation, a meteorite fell to Earth, measuring about seven kilometers, namely, to the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula. His fall caused a huge explosion, and also awakened volcanoes in the southern part of the peninsula, making the entire peninsula not the most pleasant place to live. But besides death and destruction, the meteorite brought something else, because it consisted mostly of crystallized mana, which, when it fell, began to disperse in the atmosphere. Fifty years later, when all the effects caused by the meteorite subsided, and also after two world wars, the effect of mana on living organisms began to manifest itself. Some animals and plants mutated, children with inexplicable abilities began to be born, and weak psychics and clairvoyants were no longer considered charlatans. The time was hectic - post-war, so then a lot of people got on the table with scientists. And the scientists did not eat their bread for nothing, they found out that the fallen meteorite provoked the awakening of a very weak magic shell in a large part of the population. But over time and a change of two or three generations, the effects of mana accumulated, which led to a more visible effect of mana on the material world. Basically, in the form of spontaneous emissions of mana in children with large reserves of this mana. Scientists also found that the magical background, which was the most dense near the epicenter of the fall of the meteorite, will only increase. And they, together with the rulers of the states, decided that since they could not stop it, they should take the lead. Boarding schools were established at the bases of research institutes, where children were taken with a strong gift and a reserve of magical energy, trained them, and also investigated magic. As is already clear, training and research were conducted with a very large bias towards the military field. Of the children were preparing live guns for the conduct of hostilities. This lasted for about twenty years, until a group of magicians rebelled and made a revolution, using the slaughter of those who disagree with the freedom and independence of magicians. Subsequently, a small war, magicians separated from the direct influence of the government and founded the first guild of magicians, with the location of the headquarters in western Poland.

As time went on, counting years began to lead from the fall of a meteorite (from P.M.). Magic has become more familiar to people, magicians themselves developed their mystical art, two more guilds opened in China and America. It also became clear that electronics, for a very short time, live in the hands of a strong mage or in places full of mana, for example, in a place where there is a large concentration of magicians. So, very soon such a branch of magic appeared as an artifactor - with it the magicians, at first, tried to replace the favorite and familiar electronic devices.

And now, in the eighty-eighth year from the Fall of the Meteorite, I was born in the family of an artifactor and healer. They called me in honor of my grandfather, who came from Italy - Leon. Since the parents had professions that required relatively small amounts of mana, but good control, their son had an average amount of mana, but just jewelry control. First, studying at home with his parents, and later and in the guild, by the age of forty I became a master of two areas of magic: artifactors and healing.

And so! Since holy place is never empty. Five hundred gods came to Earth in the world, with relatively recently born magic, which had no patrons and gods, in one hundred and thirtieth year from P.M. young gods without a specific area of ​​worship - Moonlan and Mivor. They settled on the planet, occupying certain territories. So, Tiatzhar lived mainly in North America, Fuzukhi in southwest Asia, Munlan in South America, Mivor in Africa, and Zion settled in Europe.

For trained magicians, virtually nothing has changed, "Well, gods, well, they work wonders, you think strong magicians can do this, too." But for very weak gifted people, who are practically no different from ordinary people, and for ordinary people, gods were gods. They worshiped, they prayed, they built temples, especially fanatical, even sacrifices were made.

The most active were the young gods who settled in the territories with a very favorable population for them. Being born magicians in settlements in these territories, could become for the local population, with an equal chance, as respected shamans-leaders-local gods, and be burned at the stake as the devil's offspring. And when the young gods came, they did not lose time in vain, they put things in order and started building religions, with them at the head. God in our territory was the most useful, as he shared some knowledge, not for free, of course, but at a reasonable price, in the form of mana.

Fourteen years passed, during which I studied the Magic of Souls and the Magic of Space, and of a few other directions. And since everything in the world has the opposite side: light has darkness, fire has water, and so do gods have demons. At first, their arrival was invisible. The first came the petty demons and demons, they created for themselves to help the undead and attacked remote villages. But we sometimes spontaneously, in the old cemeteries, the undead rose more. So, with the attacks quickly ended and did not attach them much importance. But as it turned out, it was only intelligence, and the demons, hiding, began preparations for the invasion. The foundation of which served, still deserted, from the sometimes erupting volcanoes, is south of the Iberian Peninsula. Five months later, we heard rumors about the disappearance of entire villages, and after a couple of days, the demons opened a steady breakthrough in Inferno, through which a wave of evil spirits surged. After three days, the demons were stopped, but this was done, at the cost of destroying most cities in southwestern Europe, and the deaths of civilians, the military, and magicians.

But the demon invasion did not end there. The war with demons lasted for more than eighteen years, during which, the demons first built a stationary portal to Hell, for a steady supply of reinforcements, and later began to seize more poorly protected areas, such as Africa, Oceania and South America. The local population resisted, but quickly retreated, allowing the demons to build, three more weaker portals. And from that moment on, demons became a problem for the whole Earth, and not just Europe. Over time, the magicians prepared, and with the support and help of the Gods, people began to fight back, and then even to attack. Thus, the Asian Guild, with the support of the goddess Fuzuhi, destroyed the portal in Oceania. Having become pleased, they nursed on demons even more, thinking that the war could soon be ended. Even the gods descended to Earth, because by helping people to win, they show their strength and acquire more and more admirers.

Everything was going well, until such time as Demon Lords appeared during the battle for South America, comparable in strength to the gods, and when storming the portal, Fuzukhi was not killed. As a result of the battle: the demons, two Demon Lords, were killed, another escaped, but promised to return. The portal is closed. And the people - a bunch of people and magicians were killed, including the archmage of our guild, one goddess died, and later we learned that Thiatjar left Earth, refusing to fight anymore.

Zion was the strongest god, and he calmly reacted to this, saying that he hadn't expected anything else from the shopkeeper, and was surprised that he hadn't washed off, even earlier, as soon as the smell of fried was. Zion, applying his knowledge of magic, brought down spells that killed demons in droves. But he also fell from the hands of the Demon Prince, with five horns in the form of a crown and a red crystal in his forehead. Zion before his death, however, took him with him, along with another Demon Lord. This happened when the portal in Africa was closed, the second largest portal.

And again we lost the archmage and god. When I became a senior in the guild, they offered me to take the place of the archmage, but I refused, citing the fact that it was wartime, and I mostly own non-combat skills. So, they agreed that I would be an assistant and an adviser to the new archmage, who had been made a young, distinguished, and recently became a combat master, a magician. Being an assistant archmage, I helped to disassemble the consequences of the battle.hit a few things. Namely: the upper half of the Demon-Prince skull with the remaining three horns and a red crystal in the middle; the upper half of the spear-staff of Zion with a blue crystal at the top; as well as a pyramid made of an unknown metal with purple veins, which was found at the site of the destruction of the portal. After the death of the Demon Prince, the demons fell silent for a whole year, which gave us time to prepare for the final battle, and I had time to investigate the objects found. So, the red crystal turned out to be the third eye, in which there was a lot of demonic energy and which, little by little, was generated. The surplus was released outside. In the blue crystal there was a divine energy and there was also some kind of magical structure in it, in which I dismantled only what it is there. But the most interesting was the pyramid. Its peculiarity was the material - an alloy of various magic metals, as well as an unknown demonic additive, which gives the alloy a useful property of transmitting energy over great distances. Here's how it works: when boiling an alloy, demons use magic metals that carry energy well, store it, and also generate it. After that, they add some substance from the world of demons, and begin to pour mana into the alloy. The substance synchronizes energy in metals, and also creates a single subspace for energy storage. Owing to all this, if you divide the smelted metal into one large part and several smaller ones, while putting most of it into a place saturated with mana, where mana will be absorbed into the alloy, or saturate it manually, then fragments can pull energy at long distances. Except that this energy turns out to be too unstable and heavy in control. Although, surprisingly, it has a neutral color, in general, ideal for powering stationary portals.

And while studying, I noticed the influence of objects on each other. The demonic crystal was pulling energy from the pyramid and began to grow. The divine crystal also absorbed energy, and it went on energizing the magical structure, the effect of which I did not notice at first, until I had folded all three objects. The energized blue crystal began to evaporate the red demonic, and an aura of strange energy arose. Later, checking the effect of this aura on the captured demons showed that this aura neutralizes the magic of the demons, and the demons themselves in this aura are very uncomfortable. She killed some weak demons altogether. In general, I made of them an anti-demonic amulet, connecting all the parts so that they worked to produce this aura.

And now, it is time for the last battle. On the side of people - two gods, almost all the magicians of the Earth, a lot of ordinary people. And on the side of the demons there are three Demon Lords, one of whom has already gone three times from death, running off, and a bunch of demons, of different claws and hornedness. The army of people was divided into two parts: one part was to be connected by combat and destroy the demons, and the second to close the portal. The gods should have destroyed the Demon Lords whenever possible.

I was in the second group, but the battle went on with varying success: first the people crowded the demons, then the Demon Lords entered the battle and pushed the people back, and then the gods took over the lords, and the initiative went again to the people. I broke with the second group to the portal.

I teleported for short distances while dodging, used my most destructive artifacts on demons, healed myself and magicians for injuries. The aura of the amulet protected me from demonic spells, dispelling them.

We were already close to the portal, when from behind, in the direction of the first group headed by the archmage, there was a huge explosion directed towards the demons, which immediately destroyed a quarter of the army of evil. This is on the one hand good, but on the other, it was a last chance spell, developed by one of the past archmage. And they knew him, mostly acting archmage. It was draped in the aura of the magician, and fed by a large amount of mana, prana and emotions. All this turned into a directed explosion, based on the Elements of Destruction. Anything that gets into the center of the explosion, breaks up into atoms. But the price of this spell is the inability to conjure, from a couple of years to a complete loss of the gift, as well as shortening the lifetime, which in principle can be restored, plus, after this spell, the ability to feel emotions for an indefinite period is lost.

And many people understood what it means, because against simple demons, such spells do not apply. Most likely, the archmage saw that the gods were starting to lose, and decided to help the most powerful that he had. Therefore, we hurried, and broke into the building with the portal. Inside the building, on the ceiling, hung a huge rhombus with purple streaks, around which were four luminous blue crystals, with their points directed downwards, right on the arch with the active portal.

As soon as we wanted to start destroying the portal, the Demon Lord flew into the hall, starting to break through to it. Mages began to stand in his way, but he, even being wounded, scattered them very quickly. ti was just me. Demon, uses the same spell, how he cleared his way from other magicians, and it does not work because of the amulet. Without losing my time, I put the spatial barrier as fast as possible and began to power it as strong as possible, starting to draw energy even from the pyramid. While the demon was breaking through the barrier, I recognized him - it was the same Demon Lord who participated in each battle for the portals, and always survived, escaping, while the other lords fought to the last. And when I thought that the demon would break through the barrier, there appeared those from whom he escaped, namely, the two gods Moonlan and Mivur. Both were battered, one had his left hand missing, and the other had a huge wound crossing his right eye. But despite this, both of these gods are just burning with the desire to kill the demon.

The demon-Lord, having failed to break through the barrier, realized his position and, shouting "I will take you with me!" First threw a spell at the ceiling, and then attacked the gods. And after a couple of seconds an explosion occurred.

I do not know how much I stayed in the blackout, but when I woke up at night, on the street, under a clear sky, the first thing I felt was a wild pain. Especially in the chest, as well as from the chest went a feeling of power. Having coped with the pain and healing, I began to look around. There was devastation around, I was on a hill in the center of a small circle, about four meters in diameter, which the explosion did not touch. Having examined myself, I noticed the reason for the strange sensations in my chest, namely the lilac glowing circle fused into the flesh. Having touched him, I realized that I feel him as an integral part of my body.

Several days passed after my awakening, and this time was enough for me to find out exactly what happened during the explosion.

The demon lord threw a spell that destabilized the rhombus drive, causing the destruction of the metal and the subsequent explosion that killed both the demon and the gods. Particles of this metal, kept in touch for some time, and managed to absorb the energy of two gods and demon, but failed to process it into neutral, so that a large amount of the gods' energy, demon and neutral energy stored in the accumulator, went through the energy link to the only piece that had survived this metal, namely in my amulet. I, before the explosion, kept the barrier so as not to miss the demon, and I kept him on the last gasp. Mana ended, and I pulled the energy from where I could, and the energy flowed into me also from the amulet. So, during the explosion, I kept the barrier, and the energy in the amulet, began to arrive quickly. Well, I sent it to maintain and strengthen the barrier. Later, I began to feel pain, because a continuous stream of energy passed through me. The pain kept growing, and especially when the energy of gods and demons poured into me. Unable to bear the pain, I began to heal myself in the hope of alleviating it, while at the same time maintaining the barrier. I kept the barrier, treating myself, but the pain was growing, but I continued, because if I let go of the barrier, then most likely I would die. When the flow of energy dried up, I was in a deranged state, as in a trance, I kept the barrier and treated myself until I fainted.

Now, having checked myself, I discovered changes in the energy industry, the aura swelled, the energy began to resemble such a one, if I were a quarter demon, a quarter god, and half a man. In my former amulet, and now in a molded circle on my chest, ba-hion was discovered - energy that makes God a god. And since I have never been a god and I don't have a ninth shell of the soul, where it should be stored, energy was accumulated on a physical carrier - that is, in the melt of a demonic crystal, along with the blue crystal of Zion.

After a couple of months, having worn out and examined the territory, I understood the reason why the sun does not rise. But because there is no sun here. I was in the void of space, on a small island, about three thousand kilometers in size. Having explored this island, I did not find sentient beings, apart from some mutated animals famous for their vitality.

In general, I began to think how I got here and how to get out of here. Fully exploring the place near the portal. I discovered underground emptiness from a vein of a magical mineral accumulator, which adjoined to the remnants of a vein of magical ore, capable of generating mana. I also found a huge cave in which, most likely, there was a huge fragment of a meteorite consisting of crystallized mana. During the recent explosion, four blue crystals, in which energy was stored, for the stable operation of the spatial portal and which were connected to the veins of the crystals and ore, were released by feedback, sufficiently Spatial energy to transform the neutral energy accumulated all the time in the veins energy for spatial displacement. Far from this island has not moved, just fell into some of the parallel realities. So, you can try to return to Earth. The problem was the distance, because after finding out in a few days, even though the Earth is here, I am in the distant past by the time. So far away that in this place, the Milky Way galaxy, has not yet flown. And I, by echo in the infosphere and the astral, learned that all the nearest parallel realities to which I can reach, all have the same time frame as this one. That is, nevertheless, I was moved very far, both in space and in time. And it's good that I stayed alive. And then, such movements, without specifying any parameters, and indeed, one can say uncontrollable, most often lead to the dispersal of the displaced object, throughout the Spatio-Temporal Continuum.

So, it is necessary to work with what is. And having learned from echoes in the information field and the astral, the approximate direction of the galaxy, I decided to get there myself. But just so far, I do not know how to open portals. So, I had to use other methods.

Having become cheerful, I decided to make a plan, and better a few. And later, putting them together so that if one plan failed, then another one entered into action. So, first, I began to notice that the number of ba-hioni is gradually decreasing. Therefore, I decided to spend it, and make myself a superstructure of the soul, similar to what the gods gave, to some of their apostles and priests. Since I was a master in artifactors, healing, soul magic and spatial magic, well, I also understood a little about the directions adjacent to them. He then seated himself in meditation, made himself a superstructure of the soul, finished only seven years later, having spent all the b-hion and creating a whole system of spiritual artifacts. The basis of which, sewn into the core of the soul.

The system had unlimited potential in development. After spending time, you can easily deal with opponents, the level of God Zion or Demon Prince. But, in time, I just limited. It is not known how long the light spatial barrier will hold the atmosphere of life on the island. Of course, for the last seven and a half years I have not felt hunger, but having caught and roasted a mutant little animal, I understood how I was hungry and ate genocide for the mutants during the day and ate them. Oh, that would be another hunger to satisfy ...

For another three years, I collected a capsule-ship, for traveling through Dark Space and Hyperspace. I did everything to achieve my goal safely: I collected all the metal from the island, some used it as material for building a ship, and some with heavy metals such as plutonium or uranium, I used fuel as a fuel for splitting matter. Magic made the protection of the ship, and the life support system for me. I called my System of spiritual superstructures the Ark of the Soul. After all, it should help me, in case of death of the body, achieve the goal, and if possible save the memory. But even in the event that so many years pass (here, for the sake of interest, I will place the counter of years in order to know exactly the past tense: one hundred ten thousand six hundred fourteen years), that the protection will not help and my soul will begin to crumble, I have embedded the System Basis in the Core shell Soul. So, the future I do not have to start a new life from scratch, every time after death.

And now, after three weeks, the spatial barrier fell, and the atmosphere on the island began to evaporate. I sat in the ship, took off low, and activated the ritual, which began to transform the island's matter into energy and power the ritual of opening the Hyperspace Gate, which, however, can only slightly shorten the distance to the galaxy, because there is practically no hyperspace in the Dark Space.

When enough energy arrived, a hole was formed in space. Having flown into it, the ship, using the tracking system, found the Earth and headed towards it. And I, before going to stasis, just in case, make up this message. I hope the future I will read this letter with nostalgia. Well, or what is also not excluded, the future I will not remember anything, and from this message learns the history of the origin of the System and the history of its past incarnation.

≪ End of message≫