4 Chapter 4: Rebirth (1)

The bright blue flash of light that occurred when the reactor detonated no longer shown in Jalim's eyes. There was only darkness.

The pain that wracked his body no longer made him wince. There was nothing there he could feel.

But most importantly, the shackles he always felt in his mind was no longer there. There was freedom.

When he was a child and discovered to be an Esper, the Saliam government did to him what they did to all their Espers, they made them into minions that served the Republic. While they did not take away their ability to think or their full freedom of their mind, they did something to ensure their loyalty.

All orders given were followed without complaint. All injuries were to be expected. Their servitude was not an option. Normal Salian people would have questioned these acts if the Espers did not have their naturally apathetic faces. Most just assumed that this was how they were. They thought that the Espers of other races were the rogues and invalids.

But the Espers and the other powers knew. The Salian Espers were nothing more than slaves who had to fight for their government and could have been thrown away at any moment. But with his death, Jalim felt something he had never thought he would feel.

Freedom

'This feels amazing. To no longer feel like someone is always in my mind. Like it is my own. They had taken this feeling from me my whole life?'

When he thought about that, there was anger in his mind. But he knew that there was nothing he could do about it. He was dead. And even if he was not, he could not beat the entire republic by himself.

'But I would not be alone. Sunia would have fought with me. At least she is like me now, free.'

His best and only friend was dead. But he was not sad for her. He was ecstatic instead. Because she could feel the exact same freedom that he was feeling at that moment.

They were no longer war dogs who fought in battles they did not care about or against forces that were not truly their enemies. The only reason why the pair ever fought so hard together was to ensure that they lived another day.

'But that's the past. We are now free! Haha!'

Jalim was so busy celebrating that he did not notice the changes that were going on at first. He did not notice that his new body was slowly forming. He was gaining organs, muscles, bones, limbs.

It took him over 3 months before he finally noticed. And not because of what he saw. His eyes did not work yet. It was instead because of what he heard.

"&&^^!@#$%(**&," came a femine voice. It seemed gentle and almost like a whisper.

"$$&&**%%%**" replied a masculine voice. It seemed like he was talking to the woman who spoke before.

The duo continued to exchange dialogue while Jalim was confused over his current situation.

'I'm not dead? Was I captured? Maybe these are a foreign species from deep in the planet that came out due to our detonations,' he thought was the most likely conclusion. But after giving it a few more moments of thought, he threw that hypothesis away.

'But my body should have been completely destroyed. How would they have been able to recover me? There has to be some sort of explanation.'

He tried to move or use his body but he felt like it was barely his own. Just trying to move his arms an inch would leave him exhausted. The limbs also felt wrong. His whole body did.

"They might be experimenting on me. Either way, it does not seem like they know I am awake. I can't do much now except using this as a chance to let my body recover and try to understand their language.'

And so he did. For the next 7 months, Jalim waited patiently while also listening as much as he could. At first, he found it difficult. But after 3 months, he was able to understand some words. Within 6 months, he was able to understand most of the language. After the full seven months, he was not afraid of fo being able to communicate with his captors.

At least that is what he thought of them at first. But after understanding their language, he came to 2 very scary conclusions.

The first was that the people were treating him as one of their younglings. Whether they had stolen his brain and implanted it into one of their offspring's body, he was not sure. But it seemed like they would not do him harm.

This was scary because he had never heard of such of thing. Sure, some people had uploaded their minds into the net to try and survive death or had linked their minds to separate bodies but all those were done while alive. He had never heard of anyone being able to link or transfer the mind of a destroyed brain into a new body.

The second option was even scarier than the first. He had somehow been reincarnated into a new species. This was scary because the other option was at least possible. Maybe the Sulian Republic backed up his mind somewhere or the creatures had technology beyond what he had ever seen before. It was at least theoretically possible.

But reincarnation? This was something he had only heard about from the stories that Sunia read. This was completely impossible. But he would soon have his answer.

Jalim could hear screaming and felt his body being pushed along a passageway. He heard many people comforting and encouraging a woman. It seemed like she was giving birth.

Even with this, Jalim was still in denial. But it would not last for much longer. For he could see a light in front of his eyes. The light was blinding to him who had only known darkness for the past 10 months.

When he was able to see again, he saw several people standing around him. They seemed like people from one of the low tech worlds he had visited before. But before he could continue observing, he felt a swat on his behind and subconsciously let out this sound.

"Wahhhhhh!"