Soul Limitations

"The Duke intrigued... That's all. The rest depends on the boy," said Ekspervit, stepping away from the soul of Vallynor, who emitted strong neurotic energy. Rising twenty centimeters above the floor, he crossed his legs and closed his eyes.

"From the boy's soul, there is a huge amount of necro-energy. This will greatly limit his abilities as a mage, and he will only be able to use spells related to necromancy," noticed Karina, observing Vallynor's soul.

"Not entirely true. I would say the same thing if it weren't for the dragon's soul. You overlooked the fact that the Queen of the Forest's soul has not yet fully become part of the boy's soul, and the transformation process is already complete," interrupted Ekspervit, not even opening his eyes.

Karina first thought about what Ekspervit had said and then remained silent for a few minutes. But their conversation was interrupted by Tod and Chen, who were arguing about which was better: physical strength but a slightly ugly appearance in human terms, or a more refined look and greater adaptation to Mana but weakness in physical terms.

"Do both and try to eliminate the consequences," said Duke Mogil, tired of listening to the argument between the two, which almost ended in a fight.

"Can we do that?" asked Tod with a stupid face, looking at Chen.

"Um, why not? Let's see what happens," Chen replied.

"Let's do it," Tod reluctantly agreed, looking at the Duke.

"What are you doing here?" asked Retos slowly. The ground rose, and hundreds of bony hands came out of it, turning into stairs. When the hole grew larger, a human skull appeared from it, surrounded by blue flame. Rising two meters from the ground, all the bony hands came together, quickly breaking and decreasing, turning into a body without a skull, which quickly merged with the flying skull. The fire that only surrounded the skull spread throughout the body, and the naked, skeletal body had blue clothing.

"Retos, are you here already?" Expervait opened his eyes and looked wearily at his old friend and rival. The time for rest was over.

"Oh, Expervait, I knew you would be here. And also here are Krin, Duke Mogil, and Edward. Something interesting must be going on. Glad to see you all again," replied Retos.

"And what about us?" Tod and Chen asked in unison.

"Oh, you're here too. Sorry, I didn't notice you. I thought two zombies were devouring the body of an innocent person. So, where was I? Oh yes, Expervait, I'll need your help again. I found an interesting subject, and I will take him for examination. And then I will return him, maybe whole," said Retos, and he directed his bony hand towards Valynor's soul to take it.

But he was quickly stopped by Duke Mogil, and Retos looked at him, puzzled, waiting for an answer.

"He's my apprentice," Duke replied immediately, knowing what Retos was expecting.

"Are you serious?" Retos turned to Expervait and Krin in shock and asked, "He seriously took someone as an apprentice?"

"Yes," both answered without hesitation. When Retos heard this, he stopped, shocked. Fortunately, he did not have a flesh-and-blood face, only a bony one that did not express any emotions. And yes, the flame that enveloped his whole body almost went out. Only a small flame burned above his skull.

"Why is everyone so surprised when they find out you took an apprentice?" Duke asked helplessly, pushing Frozen Retos a little. He fell onto his back, and even levitation disappeared, causing him to hit the ground.

"Because essentially, you are the first necromancer in history. You were the first to be caught by demons and turned into a rat. You squeezed and created a genocide in hell. You destroyed all living things on several planets. And you never took anyone as an apprentice. And that's only a small part," Expervait replied.

Expervait felt relieved, knowing that Retos would be in this state for a long time. He then closed his eyes and entered a state of rest again.

Opening his eyes, Vallynor stood up. He looked around confusedly and could only see a blue-green mist that was so thick he couldn't even see his hands, which were 20 centimeters away from him.

Feeling bewildered and not understanding what was happening, he closed his eyes and tried to remember the last thing he remembered. "So, I fought that old woman, and then the transvestite. And after that, some pain. I don't feel that terrible pain that tore my soul anymore."

Realizing that the pain had subsided, he tried to remember what had happened. But all he could recall were cries of pain. "So, did someone talk to me?" he thought. But then he decided to stop trying to remember and instead look around to understand where he was.

Choosing a direction, he walked straight ahead. It had been at least five minutes, if not ten, and out of boredom, he began to count each step. At first, he walked normally, then began to run, and eventually started to jump and count in rhythm.

But it quickly became tiresome for him. Looking down at the ground, he suddenly felt like he had already seen this place. The ground was even without any blemishes.

"Let's fix this stupid mistake," thought Vallynor, and he raised his hand to cast the simplest spell: a fireball. How cliché! As soon as he finished casting the spell, he didn't see any fire, no matter where he threw it. "Where's the fire?" he asked in surprise, looking at his hand. Did he do something wrong, or was he a blind idiot who couldn't see?

Holding both hands in front of his eyes, he loudly and clearly cast the spell. But nothing happened. Then he tried casting the spell to summon the dead, but it didn't work either.

When he tried to summon the spiritual hands for his own benefit, they appeared. Only they came out of the ground and were directed at his back. Like those of famous villains.

"Hmm..." he looked at the ground, various thoughts and guesses arising in his head. And finally, he could explain everything that had happened. I lost all my plans. My soul is destroyed, and my body is no longer mine. This is probably the afterlife. Or, rather, a world created by my soul, mind, or something else. And here I am. But everything I know doesn't seem to match reality.

While he was walking back and forth, lost in thought, he didn't even notice how the green and blue mist dispersed, revealing a huge hole.

This huge hole continued to expand until it almost reached Vallynor. Then he noticed it and understood that it was getting wider. He didn't hesitate for a second, and he quickly turned to run away.

But even looking at his feet, he saw that everything had plunged into darkness. What happened to the ground? Only then did he realize that he had lost his footing on the ground and began to fall into darkness.

"Aaaah, I hate heights!" he screamed and cursed, staring into the infinite darkness. He looked at it for a long time and shouted the noblest words he could think of, wondering what to do.

In his thoughts, Vallynor had the idea to use a spell that worked while the others suffered defeat. He quickly read the spell, trying not to interrupt it, shouting instead of the words "faster, bitch." When he finished, Vallynor felt that the spell had worked and that he could even control them. But he still couldn't understand where they were. As if they had come out of the ground again?

Giving up, he began to come up with another plan. But no matter what he came up with, he was defeated every time. Is this the end? And I so wanted to become a great necromancer and a terrifying mage, to have a harem of thousands of beauties, living and dead. Knowing what kind of women they are, it's better to leave the girls to the undead. Of course, only after the problem with the smell is solved, as well as the fact that they are cold and indifferent, not even making weak moans, It reminds me of those sex dolls from my world who had the same problems. Somewhere on the forum, I read that you could inhabit a demon in a doll. I immediately tried to summon one, or rather, a succubus. Of course, nothing happened. But the next day, the doll caught fire nicely. It's a good thing I kept it in the bathroom, where it's always wet from the shower. I was too lazy to wash and hang up the wet towels and mat.

While Vallynor was recalling his shameful moments, thousands of images appeared before his eyes, each showing a moment in life from his point of view. Or rather, all the moments of Vallynor's life.

"What?... These are moments from my life. About the third witcher, and this is a series about the witcher, the second season. And these are memories from school. About movements against the authorities and their attempts to reduce the population. Hmm, the entrance of a witch, because of which he died." - Vallynor looked at his memories. Sometimes he could see black images or distortions. He immediately realized that these memories had already been lost.

Recalling his past, he looked at different moments of his life. But suddenly he saw a strange scene of himself fighting with a beautiful guy using different spells.

"Was I a wizard in my past life? Nonsense. This is an old woman. Could this memory not belong to me? But how come I don't remember starting the merging process? Hmmm." - Vallynor couldn't understand how this happened. He looked around, and wherever he looked, he saw parts of his memories as well as others'.

It all seemed to him as if he were inside the crown of a tree, and all memories were the tree's leaves. As soon as he compared everything to the tree, everything changed before his eyes in a flash. And a giant tree appeared before him, with balls of memories instead of leaves.

"As soon as I thought about and compared everything to the tree with a crown, it immediately changed. And what if..."—remembering how he saw moments of his life all around him, everything changed back to its original form in an instant.

"No, it's more confusing and unclear that way," she said, comparing everything again to the tree. Everything became a tree again.

Looking at the tree, she was surprised to see that some branches had different colors, one of which was very familiar to her—dark green, like the color that enveloped the transvestite when they met in the past. Following the branch, she noticed balls filled with memories.

However, these memories belonged to someone else, namely the old woman's youngest son.

Looking at the tree, she climbed up it and approached the balls filled with her enemy's memories. Touching the first ball, everything around her darkened. It reminded her of when she tried to choose the right memories to create a grimoire.

In front of her eyes, she saw a picture of herself slowly moving through dark and cold corridors, holding the head of a handsome guy with whom she had fought before. Opening an old door, she entered and saw a beautiful girl dressed in a white dress. Two white wings were growing from her back.

"An angel? If she had a halo, she would definitely be an angel. And she's beautiful," she thought, throwing her brother's head on the table.

"You're fast, as we agreed," the girl said, smiling when the man entered the room.

"Here's my brother's head."

"You are fast, but we still have a lot of work to do. When we finish, we will take you with us. In the meantime, you must destroy the rest of your family and consume their souls. This way you will prolong your time until the fall," she continued, smiling, and headed towards the door.

"Where is the flask?" The old woman's son asked, outraged. What's his name? I'm tired of thinking of him as the old woman's son and so on.

"Here it is," she said, holding up a flask of murky water. Mocking him, she threw it at him and said, "Good thing you remembered. Otherwise, your essence in the form of poison would have destroyed your already wounded soul soon."

"Shut up," he said, catching the flask like a wounded beast. After looking carefully at the liquid, he calmed down.

"Next time, bring two heads." She turned around, raised her hand, and the severed head flew straight into her hands. In moments, the head disappeared, and the girl herself disappeared, leaving the son of the queen of the forest alone.

Sitting on the floor, he raised the flask to his eyes and looked closely at the liquid. Thick, viscous, and yellow in color. He opened the flask and drank the liquid. After setting the flask down, he threw it at the wall.

"Forgive me, but I don't want to disappear. It's not right," he said.

***

Upon awakening, Vallynor looked at the sphere of memories he had just held in his hands. It repeated the same moment he had already seen, but without sound.

"Did this guy betray his family because he was dying? But then why didn't the old woman help him?" he thought.

He looked at the other spheres, hoping to find more information, but most of them were related to food or murders. Eventually, he found one sphere with the image of a beautiful girl's face, which spoke—or rather, it was the face of the old woman. She was older but looked like a sexy twenty-year-old beauty.

Without much thought, he reached for the sphere, and everything became hazy in his eyes.

"Son, soon the enemy will attack us. The enemy is cunning and has sealed all the ways so that no one can escape. Those who are currently performing tasks, your older brothers and sisters, cannot return, even if they know who they really are," the mother said, slowly stroking her youngest son's head with pity. "Forgive me. I gave you life, but you have acquired the power of a poison that destroys your soul. Now that everything has turned out this way, I can no longer receive the divine antidote from the goddess. Soon you will experience ancient pains. I want to ask you: what will you choose—a painful life or an easy death? You still have plenty of time to think it over. But it pains me to realize that I will lose another child," she said, turning and leaving, leaving her youngest son alone.

When Nivisipi disappeared, the son turned and whispered quietly, "Can't you, or don't you want to?"

Vallynor, waking up, became curious and started looking for other memory spheres. Not finding anything interesting, he chose the first one that came to hand.

Shrouded in darkness, he woke up during the battle. Watching, he was able to see how the youngest son of the old woman killed his enemies with cunning methods.

"This is going to take a while," he thought.

***

Alexander was fighting fallen creatures, and in addition, the roots of the forest were attacking him. But the battles only seemed to be getting more complicated for him without him noticing. It was slowly getting simpler. At first, Alexander did not notice this until he saw how the roots, which were supposed to attack him, surrounded the mountain. Or rather, the Queen of the Forest's house and the place where Vallynor is currently located Only the fallen creatures did not stop attacking until they were completely destroyed.

"Father?" Alexander asked.

"Yes, I noticed. No new fallen creatures are coming," he replied, cutting the last enemy into pieces. Alexander took a precious red stone from his ring and directed his mana toward it. The stone brightly lit up, and invisible threads came out of it. These invisible threads, like a magnet, attracted the souls of the fallen creatures, even those that had already separated two kilometers away. And it quickly took them into the precious stone.

"Was this new invention created by Caesar and Gabriel?" one of the soldiers asked.

"You're right, son. This cursed gem will capture the souls of the recently killed fallen creatures, so they can't be resurrected again," the father replied.

"Interesting," thought the young lion, turning to his soldiers. He yelled at one of them to catch one of the fallen creatures and throw it onto the roots and branches that surrounded the mountain. Then he turned back to his father, drawing his sword. "While we wait, why don't we settle our disagreements?"

"As always, impatient," Alexander replied, grabbing his swords and intensifying his gaze, then rushing at his son like lightning.

Lia, who was drinking wine in the sky, suddenly stopped and spilled her wine on the ground. Dissatisfied, she said, "This wine has lost its pleasant taste. I will punish you for not storing my things properly." Raising her hand up, black mist in the form of tentacles came out of her fingers, which entered the crack.

"How dare you blame me? I sealed it at -14 degrees, stopping time. Aaaaaa, aaaaaa, I'm sorry, my lady," the culprit exclaimed fearfully.

"You were supposed to seal it at -13 degrees, not -14. I must punish you more severely," Lia replied sharply.

"Aaaaaaaa, you disgusting creature... Spare me, I beg of you," the culprit apologized.

While Lia was trying to control her wayward servant, who was shouting, cursing, and so on, she took out another glass bottle and poured white wine into an empty glass. After tasting it, she nodded and looked at the two lions fighting with swords. The youngest lion fiercely and quickly attacked the enemy, while Alexander mostly defended himself from his son's attacks, like a trainer evaluating his pupil.

"I can't understand, Vallynor. How can you fight each other? You should be bound by blood ties more than anyone else," Lia said as she tasted the wine, watching the battle for a while as if it were a game. But the longer she watched, the more she couldn't understand why they were doing this or what was happening in their minds and hearts.

"Lia, you won't understand. As a man, the sword is the true weapon, and the family defender must know how to use it. Until you create your own family and have children, you won't be able to understand me. And don't call me a barbarian. For you, knightly titles are a joke." Alexander slowly explained his point of view while defending himself.

"Lady Lia, this clash is not just a battle between son and father but also a clash between two men, two forces with opposite views. I want what my father wants, but I also want to show that my point of view is right and my father's is wrong," the young lion explained.

"So I need to create a family. If I find him, I will definitely try," Lia muttered thoughtfully, staring blankly at the battles.

"Hahaha, how pathetic. Do you want to create a family? Your future husband will kill himself rather than spend one night with you," Tini said, laughing as Lia was lost in thought. She couldn't gloat over this witch.

"How brave. I will be the best wife. And you will suffer long and painfully," Lia continued.

"Ahhh, who pulled my tongue? Ahhh..." Tini quickly regretted what he said, but in reality, he meant that he opened his mouth.

Alexander, watching from the sidelines, raised an eyebrow and wondered if Lia would really make a good wife. Nonsense. But it's better to stay silent and keep his thoughts to himself.

"Don't get distracted, Father." While Alexander watched Lia, his son took the opportunity and injured his hand.

Alexander looked at the wound, which had started bleeding quickly. He squeezed his muscles and directed magic into his body, quickly healing the wound and parrying his son's unexpected attack.

"You've gotten better, but I haven't just been lying on the couch this whole time," Alexander replied.

"Oh, I thought you were running around on Caesar's orders. Show me what you're capable of, Father. Whoever wins gets the boy," the son declared.

"No one will take him until I allow it," Lia quickly corrected the boy, tormenting her servant.

"I'm sorry, but you..." the son began.

"No need..." Alexander quickly tried to stop his son from doing something he would soon regret. But Lia was faster. Black threads entered Alexander's son's body, and he stopped, falling to the ground.

"You're starting to really irritate me. Let's see you experience a little horror," Lia smirked, crossing her arms over her chest. She was lost in thought and forgot about Tini.

"You said you would be a good wife. But you didn't even want to listen to the boy. What will you do when you and your so-called husband have disagreements? I can't even imagine what it will be like when you argue," Alexander said.

"Are you finished?" Lia asked.

"Oh, no. Spare me; forgive me. Ahhhhhhh," Alexander replied, scared.

"Well, that's how this battle ends. You can take Moldova, sir. And we'll wait for him to wake up," the fallen monarch said, looking at his master and shouting an order to a few soldiers. After that, he looked at Alexander but quickly turned and left.

***

Vallynor woke up from another memory of battles. He was tired of looking at them, so he stopped touching each ball. Instead, he looked at the whole tree.

The tree was very big and full of branches with balls. After thinking for a while, he decided to climb to the center of the tree and see if there was anything there.

Slowly climbing the branches, he left behind the branches painted in dark green. Not knowing how much time had passed, he climbed up to the very center of the crown. While Vallynor was suffering and climbing, he had a question. Baring his arms, he looked at both of his hands and saw two tattoos on them. Thinking, he immediately called the Necronomicon, but the second recently created grimoire could not be summoned.

This gave rise to new questions. While he was pondering, Vallynor decided to take a break and think. As he looked down, he saw parts of a ball sticking out from under his feet. The ball had an unusual shape and was possibly of enormous size. Without much thought, he touched it, and everything became cloudy and disappeared.