[Ch. 6] The Strength of the Soul

Panzram glared at the stranger smiling happily in his cell.

Panzram made no facial changes when Ryu called his name even though he thought it was strange that the man knew it. Most people didn't get to know the prisoners' names. He was either referred to by his prison number, or as the Grim Reaper.

No one dared to call him by his real name.

Panzram tapped the number on his prison jumpsuit without a noise.

Ryu's eyes lit up as he blushed. He looked away bashfully, "I mean… Prisoner 34602."

Panzram's body tensed up as he waited for this new guard to try to attack him. He didn't know how he would, but hearing the screams coming from the other cells earlier, he knew something would happen. His eyes grew dark, full of caution and hatred.

Ryu noticed this and realized immediately what he was thinking. He put on an innocent face and shook his head, "No! Please don't get the wrong idea. T-That earlier was just… Uh, well they just tried to mess with me, so I messed with them back…" Ryu stumbled trying to think of the right words, "But don't worry. I won't do that to you."

Obviously, Panzram didn't believe him. He must have done something to those men and he was next. Panzram was a person who greatly distrusted people and distrusted guards and enforcement officers even more. So why would he trust a stranger who happened to be a prison guard?

Panzram carefully sized up the man in front of him. He was smaller than the average male, didn't contain any calluses on his hands, and looked weak. However, it was clear that he was more than capable enough to be a guard since he wasn't attacked by any of the other inmates. So if it's not physical strength, then it has to be Tamashii energy.

Panzram found it humorous how the guards could be allowed their Tamashii energy, but every prisoner was forced to wear a collar to prevent their own Tamashii energy from being used.

Tamashii energy is pure energy that comes from the soul and can materialize in some form. It is only bestowed to a handful of families from birth. It is said that this energy had been a gift from the gods to the prominent families centuries ago. It was handed down in each generation, generally getting weaker as the families branched out and married into other families. Depending on the family, one could have tremendous Tamashii energy, while others could have little to none.

Tamashii energy also took the form of certain elements depending on the family. There was fire, wind, earth, water, metal, life, death, and chaos energy. One drawback to having Tamashii energy was that if you used it, your eyes would light up the color of your energy. Therefore, unless you hid your eyes, you wouldn't be able to hide that you were using it.

Fire was red, wind was white, earth was green, water was blue, metal was grey, life was golden, death was black, and chaos was purple. With each energy type, there were varying degrees to the ability one could use.

Fire energy users could control and create fire. Some could also walk through fire and never be burned. Others could use their heat to warm up their own body in order to withstand frigid temperatures.

Wind energy users could manipulate and create wind, even going as far as to control the sky itself. There were some individuals who could fly, while others could make objects or people become weightless.

Earth energy users were able to grow plants and even speak with them. Other Earth energy users could also communicate with wildlife. These users were not suited for combat and usually stuck to being merchants.

Water energy users could control the rain and any body of water. It was harder to create water, but some could do it. An even more horrifying skill was the ability to control the body's fluids. Blood and water in the body could be manipulated, but this skill was rare. As such, not many grew to fear the water users.

Metal energy users were skilled in the art of the sword. They could create top-quality swords and craft other high-quality metal objects. Some could even summon swords out of nowhere and change their shape quickly, although this was harder to accomplish. For some who trained as a metal user, their bodies became metal as well. The more they practiced, the more hardened their physique would become. While some couldn't become metal themselves, all of the Metal users seemed to be much larger in build.

Life energy users were skilled in medicine. They could heal their bodies and others. Although depending on the severity of the condition, they may not be able to completely heal them. There were also very few life users, so many families would fight over them. They were skilled medical experts and if they couldn't heal others with their abilities, they still excelled at medicine.

Death energy users were also very rare to find. However, that was because they were discriminated against and many years ago, a genocide nearly wiped them out. They were feared because they could communicate with the dead as well as control them. Many feared this ability as it was seen as the work of evil. So, they were hunted to extinction.

However, there was one energy user that was feared more than any of the others.

That would be the chaos energy users since they were able to control reality itself. The majority of the users could only create items that went against reality. One such example was an interdimensional bag. Although this required a strong chaos user, whoever made it could store several items of varying sizes.

Furthermore, they could also create illusions to trick people or drive them mad. These illusions could be easily seen through, or they could be too realistic. A strong chaos user could even trick the brain itself, allowing no room of rational thinking. They were capable of making anyone in their vicinity believe it or even those far away. They could essentially control reality itself and manipulate it to their whims.

Luckily, the chaos users are also rare to find.

During the death energy user genocide, the opposing families also sought to kill all of the chaos users. However, that only ended up causing further problems. This was because they couldn't possibly kill the strong chaos users because they could manipulate everyone around them and hide in plain sight.

The genocide single-handedly ended up making chaos users and their offspring stronger.