Prologue

I died.

Now you might be asking yourself, "What does that mean?" and the answer to that question is a nice middle finger pointed at your face. By the gods, what's in that sentence that makes it difficult to understand? Death can be esoteric and all, but fuck if I have to explain something like that. Well, I need to calm down a bit though. Dying is not an unusual event. Many die every day. While the feeling was not pleasant, I had no illusions of the kind that would qualify as special.

Or at least not special on the level where he could escape death. After all, no one can escape death. Although perhaps transferring my consciousness to a virtualization network emulating a completely new world would be an equally good option. Not that it kept me alive for long as even a virtual world would need physical hardware that would degrade over time. This on the remote possibility of a digital life form being considered a living being.

Ah, I'm thinking too much. I was already dead anyway. Why care, isn't it? But still, for some reason, he felt like he needed to think about this terrible place all the time.

Well, but now I needed to get out of here. This dark place got on my nerves. I was actually curious. Shouldn't this darkness accompany a certain inability to think consciously? After all, I can't feel anything. I can't breathe, hear, see or even feel tired. It was a strange feeling. Actually feeling nothing was making me ignore a lot of things. Like the fact that this darkness was literally slowly absorbing me. Ah, so that must be why I feel thinking should be indispensable! Dammit if I didn't have my brain maybe I would have already become a vegetable completely merged with this depressing darkness. I was wiser than I thought to note something like that.

How would I know? Simple. I can't remember my name anymore. Not my age. Or relatively old things. See, I have an eidetic memory. It's impossible for me to forget anything. So forgetting was a very valid tip. Anyway, I started to focus and delve into my mental palace. I had created one after watching the Sherlock Holmes series on Netflix and the main ones (Sherlock and Moriarty) owned one.

I am, as Sherlock would say, "a highly functional sociopath" and I was proud of it. My mind was my most precious possession in life and even in death it was showing its worth.

Narcissism at its best!

Anyway, I started to relive all the memories I still had over and over again in a focused and mechanized way. It needed to be chronologically too. At least the memories not related to gaining knowledge. Although... I thought you never hear a moment when I didn't learn something new. After all, I was a genius and not taking advantage of such a thing would be stupid. Remember, as a genius stupidity didn't fit me in any situation. But back to my meditation.

Little by little I recovered the newly erased memories, such as my name and such, among other useful information. I'm an heir, mind you. From one of the most respected families in Europe. Furthermore, he had an IQ of 280 (If we were to consider fiction as examples of scale, I was smarter than Viktore Von Doom) and a wealth calculated in the billions. A pretty opulent life if I had to say it myself. Would I love to be an ordinary boy? Of course not. Don't confuse me with these romance youngsters who apparently feel their lives are bad because they have access to a big bank account and a dad absent from overwork. If I wanted to be emotionally pampered I would masturbate thinking about Cristina Aguillera. After all, even silicone seals deserve attention.

Now that thought worried me. I was never lecherous like that when I was alive, but I'll just conclude that dying without losing my V-card messed with my mental health. I knew I should have accepted that madam's invitation card. Now all I can do is grieve.

Anyway, I was very happy with my lavish life. I never lacked anything. In fact, I have too many things left.

I died exactly because of it. My uncle killed me after I inherited the family fortune. Couldn't blame me. I was a genius and very capable. It was obvious who my grandfather would favor to run his business empire, okay? Couldn't live up to his own father's expectations and then come and kill me for being better? Ridiculous. Old man wouldn't be able to be happy if it were up to me. See yourself bastard. I will come out of this darkness and become an obsessive spirit to disturb you until you decide to follow me into death.

Aaah... I really wasn't resigned. The bastard really killed me. The worst would be the fact that he did it quickly and almost painlessly. As if he didn't want to make me suffer. I have to give it to himHowever. The guilty look on her face as she stabbed my heart with that massive dose of morphine really got to me. That and... I was glad I wasn't tortured before death. At least it wasn't an easy feeling to recognize. I just felt things...

Not in a good way. But I can't say it was bad either. I felt so angry that I couldn't even help but almost counteract the effect of the anesthetic. Damn it. If you're going to kill me, let me kill with decision You weren't a man for that.

My grandfather would be ashamed of that.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I was raised by my grandfather and uncle after my parents died. We got along really well. The old man was rich and the uncle was, well, a typical spoiled heir. He would inherit Grandpa's fortune in case my father died. What happened when I was 3 and my uncle was 17. He was the rightful heir.

Of course my death won't help the bastard either. I had made a will the same day Grandpa said I would be his heir. I didn't even wait for the old man to kick his ass for this. In fact, if the bastard had known that I doubt he'd have the guilty look he'd had on killing me.

Whatever it is, all money and material and physical goods would be auctioned and distributed to 400 different charities. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty bad. It was like I had predicted that the stupid one would kill me after Grandpa died.

Whatever the situation... Now I was in trouble. Although I actually recovered a lot of myself from being sucked in, the corrosion after death did exist. All I could feel (if that's the right verb to define it) was deep, utter darkness. Perhaps this is because I have no living human senses. I mean... a blind man must see this as natural. If it weren't for the absolute silence and the inexistence of a body, I would doubt that he was dead.

"What a peculiar situation" I suddenly heard a voice. This was peculiar because I hadn't heard anything since I died and had been in this place for years. If it hadn't been for my constant analysis of life through memories I would have already gone crazy. , now, little one why did you get out of your universal system?"

That question confused me.

Universal system?

"You don't know, huh?" Did the old man read my mind? The voice was like that of an old man. Not that I could see anything. But if I had to guess it was an old man talking to me now. "Well let me explain. There are infinite amounts of universes in the cosmos. These universes don't connect easily and even when it happens it's just resonance, nothing more, nothing less." The old man passed by for a while and I worried. He was the first thing I've heard since I died and time didn't understandably pass here. As far as I know, it's been here for millennia.

Please old man, keep talking. Even though what he says sounds more like one of the physics theories I heard from my professors in college. Was he seriously giving me a class? He was having mixed feelings about this. It had been years since they taught me anything and I almost always taught myself. Whatever, I was curious. So listen carefully.

"Since there are resonances, some universes receive information about other universes and begin to tell their story. Some are quite trustworthy. Others not so much. In any case, the universes are like gridded balls constantly expanding, but what do you call the space between the universes? A space on which they expand? After all, if the universe was contained, it couldn't expand right?

Anyway, that's where you are right now. In the Ether. The space between universes."

So I left my universe after death then? How curious. I wonder what that would be like. Any system errors? Or I have unconsciously fled my universe. Whatever the case, I ended up in this darkness and was not at all happy.

"I'm surprised you can maintain awareness even in your current state." He said and out of nowhere I felt a comforting warmth over me. As soon as the sensation passed and I was looking at an elegant old man floating in what I might call chaotic transparent space. I knew he was an old man. Well... Actually he was an old man who aged very well. Gray hair and deep black eyes, accompanied by a well-built body, neither too big nor too small. He was pretty good in overall appearance if I say so myself.

I had no problem admiring male beauty, see. After all, my mind doesn't allow me to be irrational. Why would I take the existence of other handsome men? Wouldn't it be redundant? Of course I don't have the homosexual impulse to see beautiful men, but I wouldn't let myself be anything less than impartial about it.

As for what was around me... I could see dozens of small spheres in the distance, which I concluded were universes. the old manwas he telling the truth or… was it an illusion the old man threw at me with that earlier wave of heat.

Even though I think about it... I had the instinctive feeling that the old man meant me no harm. See, an illogical feeling if I had to say it myself. One thing that shouldn't happen. I am rational.

Spock would be proud.

"You can speak now, little soul"

"Sorry sir, but who are you?"

"My name is Lucien Salvatore Hass Cadre," the gentleman replied smiling. "You?"

"Malakai Meyers, sir." I replied respectfully. "Lord, do you have a body? A physical body? Can I have one? I didn't want to die yet" was a hopeless request. I didn't feel there was any chance of getting more than I already received from this mysterious gentleman.

"Let me think a little. Can I glimpse your soul?"

"I think so?" Who would know? But I was dead and out of my universe. I was a naked soul. If he wants me I'm dead and if he doesn't... Then maybe it's my luck. Better hope for the best.

"Oh, but you are quite malicious, aren't you? Although their actions are more beneficial than harmful." He said thoughtfully. "We'll do it like this, I'm going to use the positive karma you've accumulated to create a body and launch it into a new universe. It would be random, but who knows."

"Positive karma?" As far as I knew I was never a good person. I wouldn't have gone out of my way to save a kid about to get hit by a truck, and I've never really felt sorry for stray cats. Even if he admitted that cats are cute.

"Ah... You don't know about the usefulness of karma? There should be rumors about this in some religion in your old world right?"

"Ah yes. Exist. It's just that I... honestly don't know where I got positive karma from. I always thought of myself as a neutral human being"

"Ah…hahahaha. You are very funny little soul..."

"Malakai." Correct.

"Yes sure. But look... your actions before death... Look... a few billion pounds constantly being used by charities across your world has created an interesting chain reaction. Thanks to your petty revenge on your uncle, the fate of your entire world has changed considerably for the better. Of course... possibly bad things have still happened and it could even change the fate of the world itself again. After all, it needed balance. Great good is always accompanied by great evil, whether immediate or late."

Now that old man was scaring me. Hell. Anyway... positive karma? I could enjoy it.

"Do I have any wishes?"

"Well…you escaped your universal reincarnation system and survived quite a while in the ether. Your soul is strong enough to withstand some of my power…" The old man began to think aloud again. "Okay... I'll give you 5 wishes and you'll need to wish your memories as using your karma the memories you have would disappear too. I will also give you part of my lineage to rebuild your body, but anything else will depend on the circumstances. I can't give you too much power or I can have problems with universal consciousness where you're going. You don't want the world you live in to turn against you, go with me"

"Thank you sir. Well... I want Arc of Embodiment as my first wish. I want my memories and I want to look like Caster Gilgamesh with magical knowledge of him but without his rotten personality. For my fourth wish... I want to be able to use chakra, meaning I want chakra pathways and coils in my body.

My last wish... I wish my uncle would live the poorest life possible. I wish he would pay for what he did to me for missing any chance of getting rich after my death. I also want to drop my name and since I'm biologically related to you... I wonder if it would be bad if I used your last name?"

"I do not see a problem. If you get strong enough to travel through the Ether we can meet again. Until then... what name do you want?

I thought about it. Malakai was a good name but I didn't intend to use it in this life again. I will be a new person.

"Castile. The surname can be thought of later. After all, your name is too big. I'll choose one of them when I'm alive.

The old man laughed at what I said and snapped his fingers as Thanos and I blacked out, this time there wasn't much conscience to cling to.