Defenders (edited)

After the murder, I decided to sit down next to the corpse for a while. Before going on the road, I need to think about what I plan to do in this world at all.

First of all, I came here to restore my soul. With these thoughts, I summoned the soul and began to examine it. It was completely shattered, small fragments, copying the colors of an even smaller core, flying around it. It constantly changed color between beige, red and ivory, trying to connect the fragments, absorbing and using external energy for this, but nothing worked. If they did succeed, then the restored soul would be the size of a thumbnail.

Inside each of the fragments there were very small sections, like honeycombs, each of which seemed to be playing fragments of memories that I had accumulated over a thousand years of life. At the site of the fractures between the fragments, the memories lost their clarity very much, becoming incomprehensible, forgotten.

Secondly, since my house from the past world was destroyed, I will have to live here, and it will be better if I create a new Cult in which they will worship not a certain doctrine, but specifically myself. When a person prays, he gives a small part of his soul in the form of energy to the object of worship, which can be useful.

I looked at the corpse again, and then with one sharp movement I tore out his heart. The soul has not yet had time to leave the body, so I called it, comparing it with my own.

It was white, and so was the core. The memories were complete, but the soul itself was much smaller than mine, the size of the floor of the little finger nail, which directly indicated the relatively young age of the soul.

In my world, after a strong weakening of magic, souls also weakened very much. Those who were born after this tragedy had souls that could easily fall apart after death and turn into energy. I was lucky in this regard, I was born before the disaster.

I brought the little soul closer to mine, after which I began to absorb it. At first, the absorbed pieces of the white soul swirled around my fragments, I could observe the life of this person. His thoughts, his friends and family, his knowledge about this world, his attitude to things. All this flashed before my eyes. I focused on his understanding of this world.

Gradually, the soul turned into pure energy, which either enveloped the fragments, trying to glue them together, or went straight to the core, slightly strengthening and increasing it.

Unfortunately, it was not possible to glue the fragments together at all, but the strengthened core began to attract them to itself a little better. The core of the white soul began to disintegrate, losing the outer layer of memories, eventually turning into a drop of highly concentrated soul energy, which was also absorbed, strengthening my core a little more.

Just a drop in the ocean. Although I felt a little better, but this is clearly not enough. I definitely need the help of a specialist soul mage, otherwise, just absorbing other people's souls, I will not achieve the necessary treatment.

Noctua mentioned official mages. Perhaps if I can join them, then I will have the opportunity to meet a strong soul mage?

According to the man's memories, the city church recruits people into the police forces and a certain program of Defenders to fight heretics and bandits.

Noctua is a heretic, if there are mages among her people, then the police and Defenders will also have them. That's just considering my incomprehensible personality, the chance to join them immediately is minimal. But I seem to have an idea.

I stood up and looked towards the settlement again. But I need to get into the city, and it will be better to avoid the settlement of lumberjacks. I'll have to make a small circle to get around it and not collide with the residents. There are not more than a hundred of them in the town, they will be very suspicious of visitors.

***

The lumberjacks, as it turned out, had freight wagons loaded with timber harvested for the city, and one coachman passing by offered to give me a ride to the city.

We didn't talk much, except for the sake of decency. After about 10 minutes we entered the city, but there was no checkpoint or walls surrounding it. They were only on a hill from the west, on which a beautiful mansion of a local aristocrat was located.

The city itself did not look very attractive: dirty, damp and smelly. Dilapidated huts filled the street, cattle lived on the site along with the residents.

When we started to leave these slums, the view was decorated with more or less neat two-story houses, the atmosphere of trade reigned throughout the local quarter. Touts were heard advertising their goods, the smell of delicious food came from all over the place, stalls and shops were everywhere.

Very soon the cart reached the point of delivery of wood and I said goodbye to the coachman. I went to the center of the city, where the church and the police building were located.

This part of the city was called the Empress Quarter. It was a street in one of the four districts of the city – Centrofold.

The street looked well-groomed, in its very center there was a fountain, to the left of it there was a church, to which a paved road led.

The building was made in the Gothic style, the roofs were blue and the walls were white. Its two spires, on which the bells were located, rose high into the sky, showing their greatness to mere mortals.

The church itself had two buildings: one elongated and quite high, was the venue for services, and the other, slightly smaller, with fewer windows, was for something else. Acolytes were cleaning up around both of them.

Entering the main building of the church, I noticed the stained glass windows that symbolized the creation of this world.

Here on one window there is a round black spot, similar to a black hole or a black sun, then four entities appear near it. One in the form of the same spot, but orange-golden in color with outgoing lines. This is a painted sun, but it still gives off some kind of majestic and warm aura.

The other creature was more like the moon, which was framed by two rings diagonally. They seemed to consist entirely of water. They were somewhat similar to the rings of Saturn, although they were located differently.

The third deity was like a green-colored planet, from which strong gusts of wind emanated. There was a spot on the planet itself that looked like an eye with a pupil, as if looking at the interior of a church.

The fourth deity was the most unusual and least resembled a cosmic body. This creature was a large deformed ball with outgoing lines, similar to unfinished limbs, on the surface of the 'planet' itself there were many eyes and mouths.

The following scenes show the destruction of the black spot, the creation of an Earth-type planet in its place, and the subsequent departure of the four entities.

There weren't many people in the church today, and it looks like I was late for the sermon. Now the communion ritual was taking place and people were given food: yellow apples, water, green onions and bread. Each product designates its own God.

I sat down at the church pew, pouring some soul energy into my eyes to activate spiritual vision. With its help, I can see the human condition, otherworldly entities, the power of magic – aura.

There were no mages among the parishioners. The spot where the soul was located, they burned very dimly. For most priests, on the contrary, it is quite bright.

Looking at myself, I realized that my aura burns quite brightly even despite the weakness of my soul.

It's time to move on to the plan. I got up and went to the priest near the confessional.

"Hello, my son," he greeted.

"Good afternoon, Father," I replied, "I need a confession."

The priest nodded, then entered his booth in the confessional, inviting me to another.

"Father, I encountered something very terrifying today," I said. "It was a woman with steel skin, the same wings instead of arms and paws instead of legs."

I decided to reveal some information about Noctua, realizing that the priest would be able to understand what was what. As for Noctua herself, I didn't trust her at all, and I didn't consider myself noble anyway, so I wasn't afraid of her anger if she found out who had revealed her.

"Go on, my son," the priest's tone became serious. "How and where did you meet her?"

"It was in the forest, I heard a song. I got closer and closer until I got to her," I replied. "At some point, she jerked her wing and I flew back. I've been feeling a dull ache in my heart ever since."

To Awaken an ordinary person and make him a mage, you need to exert a magical influence on his soul. Now I have given the priest a direct hint of Awakening. I hope that I will be assigned to the mages, if not, then I will have to start again, but in a different body, because otherwise I may be forcibly placed under surveillance.

"What happened after that, my son?" the priest asked. "Did she try to hurt you in any other way?"

"I don't remember, Father," I replied. "It seems she just flew away."

"I understand you, my son," the priest replied calmly. "Come out and follow me."

We went to the door to the left of the confessional, where the annex was located.

Inside, it looked like a reception: people were sitting here, waiting for their turn at the reception desk; police officers with badges and shoulder straps were standing here, guarding the room.

Near the door through which we passed, there was a staircase to the second floor. Climbing up it, we found ourselves in an empty corridor, reaching the last door, the priest knocked, and after receiving an answer went inside, leading me behind him.

The room was small, about six by six meters and looked ascetic, even uninhabited. There was only one window in the room, in front of which was a simple wooden table, at which sat a figure in a robe with a hood pulled over their head, which made it difficult to see their face. There was also an altar with icons and candles in the far left corner.

"Good afternoon, sister Isabella," the priest said, addressing the woman sitting at the table. "Today, at confession, this faithful man told me something that could be dangerous for the city. Please listen to him."

The woman got up from her seat, pushing the hood back a little. She looked thin, and her clothes were different from the clothes of Catholic nuns: a cloak divided into 4 sections with the words – "Flesh", "Water", "Sun", "Wind" – which could cover the whole body; a hood was sewn to this very cloak, from under which strands escaped gray hair. Behind the cloak, again, the nun's robe was hidden.

I told her the same thing I had told the priest before. The nun looked at me long and hard, probably using spiritual vision, then nodded.

"Come to me, my son," she said in her senile voice, "I will bless you."

I listened to her and came closer. When I was next to her, she raised her left palm up, after which she cast a spell, "Goodness Light."

From this distance, I could see her face. It looked thin, even the cheekbones bulged. Her lips were dry and thin, too, her nose was small and hooked, wrinkles and slightly sagging skin had long settled on her face, but her brown eyes looked at me with sincere sadness.

"Thank you, Mother Isabella," I said to the nun. I really felt myself a little better.

"The woman you're talking about was once one of the leaders of a heretical cult that decided to unleash a holy war in the city," the nun dedicated me, sitting down back at the table. "When they lost, the remnants of their forces fled to the forest. What happened to you is called Awakening."

The woman was silent for a while, after which she continued with a sigh, "now you have the opportunity to use specific abilities both in combat and in everyday life. It's called magic. We usually punish non-certified magicians very severely, but since you were forcibly Awakened, we will take you into custody."

"I won't be able to live a normal life anymore? Is it possible to reverse this process?" I asked the question, pretending to be alarmed on my face and in my voice.

"Your life will change, but not necessarily for the worse. It's impossible to change anything. In any case, you will have to join one of the special Defender teams made up of the Awakened, and I have one option in mind – the Deathbringers. It is a team of three very experienced and strong mages, they will help you and teach you everything. At first you will have to check in with me about your condition every three days, but that's later. Right now you must visit the police station and register."

She sighed heavily again.

"It will be a hard road for you," she said sympathetically. "May the Great Ones bless you."

"Praise the Great Ones!" said the priest, standing in the doorway.

"Praise the Great Ones!" I carelessly repeated after him.

Then she nodded to the priest to accompany me.