The World History

Three months had passed since Xeric transmigrated into the mortal realm.

Emerging from a thatched hut nestled deep within the dense Juda Jungle, he surveyed his surroundings. This remote sanctuary belonged to Gareth, the pervy sage as Xeric often called him, who rarely stayed in one place, constantly journeying across the realm in search of knowledge.

But Xeric really doubted that, he had wanted to trade meat with food crops in Ravenwoods one day when he saw Gareth flirting with two women inside one of the barns.

The great Juda Jungle bordered Ravenwoods, lying on the outskirts of Valoria City in the Drakonis Kingdom, the heart of the mortal realm.

Gareth was one of the few phantomancers to ever attain the rank of a Soul Sage.

It was a hot afternoon, Xeric was just waking up because he fought a phantasm the previous evening, a high-ranking one that took a toll on his body, this was Gareth way of training him.

He bent in front of a big basin full of water and started washing his face, splattering the lukewarm water over his face, Xeric waited a while for the troubled water in the basin to settle then he checked his reflection.

"I'm indeed beautiful," he said in admiration, his azure eyes glinting in the water reflection, the body he was transmigrated into was indeed a work of art, lean tone muscles, short silvery unruly hair, he was about six feet tall, and he looked in his early twenties.

He went to sit on a small stool in front of the hut and started recalling everything that he had learnt about the realm for the past three months.

500 years ago when the mortal realm was almost brought to its knees during a war against the phantasms that spans fifty years, mortals managed to fight for this long without going into extinction due to their overwhelming number, the only advantage they had over the phantasms, Emperor Ironwood, the gifted one, the first and only Soul Sovereign, was forced to sacrifice himself to create the scythe of souls, an heavenly relic, which was used to defeat the phantasms and their warlord, a Soul Titan.

Phantasms are beings that are primarily souls, they differ from mortal souls because they are immortal beings with human form and live in a different world, the phantasm realm.

Although they have human form, another thing that makes them different is that they can't be killed with physical attack because they are primarily souls, for something that couldn't be defeated with physical attack, the war managed to last that long without extinction of the mortals due to humans overwhelming numbers, even so, countless mortal souls was lost.

Phantasm consumes human souls to evolve, the human souls they consume are souls that are yet to enter the afterlife immediately when the person dies or the ones that didn't go due to regret or some lingering affections.

Phantasms also trick mortals into their death so that they can consume their souls, so in this case, a partner should be conscious, their lover could end up being a phantasm who was after their soul, a lost soul is also doomed if they fail to enter afterlife when the person is dead, they faced the grim fate of being consumed by this relentless entities.

When phantasms have consumed enough souls to make them evolve, they become Soul Titans.

There are seven Soul Titans that rule the phantasm realm, and power is absolute in this realm!

Compared to the mortal realm, the strong trample upon the weak, in some different cases, the weak may flock together to protect themselves from the strong, nevertheless, the hierarchy is based on power.

In the mortal realm, during the Fifty Years War, five hundred years ago when one of the Soul Titans and some phantasms were annihilated and others were driven away by the sacrifice of Emperor Ironwood, some humans developed the ability to manipulate soul energy, this was the after-effects of fighting phantasms for years, they can now channel their soul energy to any part of their body for supernatural abilities, channeling the soul energy into the eyes would also make them differentiate phantasms from mortals, they could also sense soul energy aura, a spiritual pressure that soul energy exudes.

These humans are called the phantomancers, five hundred years had passed, but the mortal realm wasn't completely free from phantasms, as long as they long to evolve by feeding on lost souls, they wouldn't leave the mortal realm alone, the phantomancers were charged with the duty of the protectors of mortal realm. Schools, adventure guilds, and barracks were created, to all who could manipulate their soul energy, the pinnacle of mortals.

Adventurers explore ruins that were left undeveloped since five hundred years ago when war ravaged between mortals and phantasms, this ruins are rich in precious and useful crystals called soul crystals.

Five hundred years ago, whenever a phantasm was defeated, they refused to fade into nothingness, instead, in their cunningness, they became soul crystals, even till the present day when phantomancers defeat phantasms, the phantasm souls would disappear into nearest ruins, and turned into soul crystals where their fellow kind were, accumulating over time and swearing to resurrect once again when they all merge.

That was why in ruins, two soul crystals could be seen sticking together, it was the phantasms trying to merge together into one, when two soul crystals merge fully, they become one and bigger in size, but the process wasn't always feasible.

When the process fails, phantasms are left with two choices, it was either they fade into nothingness for good or they become a body of water called a soul pool, however, they always choose the latter.

But mortals weren't naive, adventurers explore ruins to harvest these soul crystals and draw soul water from the soul pool.

When soul crystals are imbued with soul energy, the soul crystals can be used to convert soul energy into different energy sources, for example, the light crystal will act as a light source when imbued with soul energy, and the heat crystals would emit heat and could be used for cooking. Some are used in combat, like the earth crystal which could be used to create a stone barrier from the earth, flight crystal which could be used for flight and many others.

When soul water is drawn from the soul pool, and imbued with soul energy, it can heal any injury and cure any sickness, they can even regenerate lost body parts, they are sold and used as healing portions in infirmaries.

This was how mortals got back at the cunning phantasms.

These resources harvested by adventurers from ruins are called relics.

They are ranked according to their rareness, qualities, and the ruins they are found in.

Their ranks:

Common

Earthly

Heavenly

The ranks.

In the phantasm realm, The seven Soul Titans ruled the realm while their name corresponded to their ranks, this shows the level they value hierarchy of power even though they rule the realm together:

Primus of the Primordial.

Eternal Secundus.

Mystic Tertius.

Celestial Quartus.

Abyssal Quintus.

Radiant Sextus.

Nocturnal Septimus.

The ranks of inferior phantasms:

Ethereal Wisp

Wraithling

Banshee

Poltergeist Lord

Specter

Shadowmancer

Wraith Monarch

The more souls each consumed, the more they advanced through the ranks while gaining new devastating techniques attuned to their state of being.

In the mortal realm, there are five ranks among phantomancers:

Soul caster: one becomes a soul caster when one starts to understand and harness the soul energy.

Expert: A soul caster that has mastered their soul energy.

Archon: A master of soul energy who comprehends the very essence of their soul.

Soul Sage: They have supreme control over their soul energy and can send lost souls to the afterlife whether they like it or not.

They are rare.

Soul Sovereign: Supreme control over their soul, they are also called Soul Masters, they can extract souls from lesser beings to increase the amount of their soul, this process is very complicated as it requires filtering away foreign entities like emotions and consciousness from the soul, and they can also send lost souls to the afterlife whether the soul like it or not.

They are super rare.

Note: lesser beings here mean all creatures except phantomancers and phantasms, they can't extract the soul of lost souls. Lost souls mean people that have died but their souls refused to go to the afterlife.

Each phantomancer possesses an inherent secret technique that is uniquely attuned to their soul.

After a while, Xeric stood and entered the thatched hut, bringing out three ruby crystals of irregular shapes, he looked at them with wonder, heat-type soul crystals, when imbued with soul energy, it can generate heat that could be used for cooking.

"Much like an electric cooker" Xeric looked with wonder, he had known how to use his soul energy since the first day he transmigrated, Xeric wondered maybe it had something to do with the experience the body had, it was an easy process for him, but he was still a soul caster, the last rank.

Xeric arranged the crystals on a thick iron sheet, he entered the hut and brought out a cauldron, adding some stones among the ruby crystals, and he balanced the cauldron on them.

"Alright, let me warm this soup"

Xeric crouched and stretched his right hand on the ruby crystals below, he breathed in and out, and something started manifesting on his hand, it was his soul aura drifting across his hand, but red in colour, whenever a phantomancer imbued any part or region of their body with soul energy, the aura manifested at the region, it takes the colour of their soul, in this case, red was the colour of Xeric's soul.

Xeric looked at it and smiled, the red aura started leaking into the soul crystal Xeric stretched at, it started glowing bright red, he could feel the heat of the soul crystal, he did the same to the other two and went to sit on a small stool, if he overflow the crystal with soul energy, they will shatter, after a while, steam was escaping from the cauldron.

Xeric approached it and opened the lid, steam drifted out at once and the red soup aroma filled his nose. He looked greedily at the meat inside the steaming soup.

Xeric had grown accustomed to eating every type of meat, since Gareth hadn't let him out of the forest for the past few months, the creatures had served as food for his tummy.

"I don't know fox meat is delicious like this" Xeric eyes feast greedily at the meat as he reminisced the sensation he felt the previous night when he hunted a fox for dinner.

He peered at the soul crystals, their light was becoming dimmer by the minute, and after a while, they stopped glowing.

"They can only cook for ten minutes"

"Anyway, thanks for the food!"

Xeric licked his lips and started feasting.

"UUUUUUHHH!"

Xeric belched.

Litters of thin bones were now around the cauldron, he had just savoured the meat of a fox.

"I'm bored, the phantasms hadn't been coming lately" Xeric muttered.

"That grumpy old man won't let me go out and explore this wonderful world, the ruins, I wish to explore the ruins"

"Well, I'm not lonely" he contorted his face in raw defiance of his feelings.

"Tsk!"

"Or should I sneak out?"

"That cranky old man"

Xeric dismissed the idea, he knew he couldn't escape Gareth, even if Gareth was at the end of the earth or in another realm, he could appear in a second beside him, Xeric knew it was related to Gareth's secret technique, but he had never explained it to him.

Even though Gareth looked in his mid-thirties, Xeric called him an old man because Gareth claimed he had lived for five hundred years, he heard it once from him that it was related to his supreme art, soul immortality.

Normally, the rank from Archon to Soul Sovereign only possessed a secret technique, but when a phantomancer reached Soul Sovereign, they gained Supreme art, but Gareth had already possessed a Supreme art at the rank of a Soul Sage.

Xeric reasoned that if Gareth had wanted to become a Soul Sovereign, he would have become it, but it was because he was slacking off and flirting around. Gareth had once told him that a Soul Sovereign isn't something a Soul Sage could dream of becoming on a whim.

"Idiot! Be thankful that we keep you company"

A cheeky voice of a girl child chimed in.