Soul

A rush of energy flooded Roger as he converted more and more of the foreign mana into his own.

It felt strangely easy, as if he had been made for that purpose. To take what was someone else's, and turn it into his own. 

The potency of the mana was staggering. It went beyond anything he had ever felt before, although his experience was fairly limited. 

Something Roger sensed was that it shared some kind of bond with the man he had seen in his dream. There was a link there that, although weakened by age, still held strong.

The emotions he had experienced earlier welled up inside him. The sadness, loss, anger, rage, and conviction that the man had bottled up in great amounts came all at once, threatening to make Roger collapse. His mind expanded at an alarming rate, a tide of memories and experiences crashing into him and supplanting his currently existing ones.

A moment of clarity was all it took for Roger to realize that he had done exactly what the energy had wanted. He had thought he was being cunning, using his power to absorb the foreign mana, but all he had done was lower his walls and let it rampage freely.

It flooded his body and scoured his veins, growing closer and closer to what Roger distinctly recognized as his soul. 

It was a strange thing to feel one's own soul, but here Roger was, recognizing it as his last bastion.

It was a large orb of white light burning with the strength of a star, banishing the perpetual darkness Roger had been floating in. It had appeared from nowhere, only existing when it was being acted upon, like when being attacked.

The energy streaked towards it with a terrifying speed, and was on a direct course to strike and destroy it. Fear filled Roger as he realized he could not do anything to stop it, forced to simply sit there and watch.

He recoiled as it finally collided, but instead of destroying his soul, it merged into it, being greedily absorbed by the glowing light, burning it all as fuel.

A fresh wave of pain hit Roger, but it felt more numbed than the previous times. Pain was becoming all too common for him to react to it as much as he had been.

As the wave of mana lost its strength, it slowly fizzled out, the multicolored being vanishing into the unparalleled radiance of Roger's soul. Just like that, what Roger had struggled against was easily vanquished.

'Or was it?'

Being fooled into complacency once was acceptable, but twice? That was too much to ask.

Roger was not taking any more chances with the foreign being. He had no clue who, or what, it was, but it was ancient, strong, and somehow related to his recent dream.

'None of this makes sense! Why is this happening to me? If this is what mana exhaustion is like, why didn't Lila mention it? This is too much! I just got here, and haven't been given a single break!'

He focused on his soul once more, hoping to find answers in the deepest part of his being.

'It's so… beautiful. Is that really what my soul is like? After the life I lived, it's still a work of art?'

It was incredible to witness and made Roger question a lot. He had not considered himself a good person, but his soul was still pristine. It looked like the most perfect thing he had ever laid eyes upon.

'So maybe the soul isn't about good and bad, but about strength? But is my soul very strong, or are all souls like this, just getting bigger until you reach true strength?'

It was difficult to theorize when he only had his own soul to compare things to.

He thought it felt warm to be close to it, but it was just as likely he was imagining it due to how it appeared. He had seen images of the Sun on Earth, ones before all the Dyson Spheres obstructed the natural view, and had always wondered how something so beautiful could be so big.

Now, looking at his soul, he thought something very similar.

'If I were to die, I'd want this to be my last sight.'

Roger's eyes widened as he realized what he just said,

'On second thought, oh kind and benevolent System, I take my words back. I'd much prefer to die at a very old age in a very comfortable bed. Please and thank you.'

If he had a physical body, he would've tried to hide behind something for a few hours, just to be sure the System wasn't going to try and take him up on his initial offer.

'Why couldn't I have been sent to a world run by a standup businessman who loves to reward people and help them relax for the rest of their lives…'

Momentarily lost in his self-pity, Roger almost didn't notice when his soul began to pulsate. It started out as barely a tremble but began to grow in intensity until his entire world was shaking.

Although he was not standing on any ground, Roger felt himself being thrown across the black nothingness, tossed by whatever force was acting upon his soul.

'Gods damn it, is the being back? Is my soul dying? What are you supposed to do in a situation like this?'

Roger had no idea how to approach something like this. At least the eel, tiger, and Mind Wraiths were all physical threats he could touch and fight against in a world that, albeit tentatively, followed the laws of physics. 

This, by comparison, was an almost illusionary reality that he was increasingly convinced he was making up to try and cope with the strangeness of his new life.

As his soul pulsed, it seemed to grow in size before shrinking again, repeating the process dozens of times. Each time it expanded, it seemed to be even larger, as if it was going to grow so large it would explode, destroying everything around it in a tide of energy.

Roger watched in fear as the cycle continued, his worries mounting before his soul seemed to reach critical mass and…

Stop.

Out of nowhere, his soul shrunk back to its normal size, all of the movement it had previously showcased suddenly vanishing as if it had never happened.

Roger did a double-take as he tried to figure out what exactly had just happened.

He had been expecting it to explode or unleash a wave of energy, but he hadn't even considered the notion that it would just… stop.

Despite his terror at what it could have done him, he still felt strangely disappointed.

'That was weirdly anticlimactic. Something feels wrong here.'

Minutes passed as Roger expected something to happen. Some proof that the pulsing had occurred, that he wasn't just hallucinating in some nonsense dream that didn't have to make any sense.

Even with his expectations high, nothing ended up happening. Roger was simply left there with his soul, floating in the nothingness.

Time slowly ticked by, and Roger felt a strange sense of Deja Vu. 

'Didn't I do something similar last night but in Lila's mind? I didn't see her soul there though. I wonder if the soul is something you can only see if it's your own? That might be the better alternative, that way I don't need to worry about soul attacks or the like.'

Roger blanched as he remembered he was in Avar.

Anything seemed to be possible in Avar.

'I'm adding soul magic to the top of my list of "magical things to avoid on Avar." System, you better not be taking notes!'

As he finished his thought, Roger wondered if his constant stream of thoughts was due to his lack of socialization. In the prison, he had lots of people to talk to, but here he only had Lila, who seemed to be more annoyed than intrigued by every conversation she had with him.

He couldn't help but feel disappointed at that. She was the first woman he had seen in many years, and he felt like nothing but a perpetual failure in her eyes, which seemed to wound something deep inside him.

'Those other prisoners were not lying, women really are a unique kind of danger in their own right.'

Despite the pain he felt from her actions, he still wanted her approval and companionship, even if that felt contradictory to what he should want. It was a strange hypocrisy that Roger quickly recognized, and just as quickly realized he didn't want to fall victim to.

His gaze hardened as he found himself coming to a conclusion.

Just as he was about to make a decision regarding how to approach the girl, he felt a bright light start to banish more of the darkness, although this time it was not from his soul.

Roger could feel his body begin to wake up.