Something was wrong. Rudeus looked down at his hands, they were the hands that he had been accustomed to for so long, after 74 years he had met his fate and turned the curtains with a bow, no regrets, well maybe some, but not worth mentioning to Hitogami, the man god. The last thing he remembered was fading away into the infinite void, a white void that slowly started to shift and became more and more black. Like the stage lights were being turned off. And then he saw his hands clearly, but their was no source of light anywhere. Then he began to see specks of light, they began to pop up one after the other, they weren't like stars though which was a beautiful chaotic cluster, these specks of light were lined up neatly, rows and rows of them each the exact same size and brightness. It was like looking into an infinity mirror in every direction and the further out each set of light was the dimmer it got, no not dimmer, just farther away than the previous pare. Infinity in all its glory.
"Wow! I have to say you sure lived a full life Rudeus!" An unknown entity shouted at him. It was neither the voice of a man or woman but a cluster of them speaking in unison. But yet it referred to itself as an individual.
Rudeus was snapped out of his trance, he couldn't blame himself, he was looking at infinity after all.
"Who is there?" Rudeus asked but the voice echoed his question, it then was followed by laughter, not joyful or evil, but it had a hint of annoyance in the laughter.
"I mean seriously, do you know how many people I actually allow to come here and they ask that question, I have half a mind to dump you and send you to the afterlife after a stupid question like that. And I thought you were smart! Come on ask a better question!" They voice egged Rudeus on, almost pleading with him to entertain it.
After a moment of silence Rudeus responded with "I hope I was amusing."
The voice didn't respond for a moment, and then.
"Yes, yes you were, after all at first I had a little pity for you but you made a good life, exactly what a reincarnations purpose is. A second chance before judgement."
"So you are responsible for my reincarnation?" Rudeus concluded.
"Ding ding ding ding! And the winner is Rudeus Greyrat! Give a hand me!" The voice cheered, almost like a parent that was proud of a child for doing a trick the child deemed difficult to preform, but at the same time was easy for the adult.
"If I have figured that out can I now ask you the more basic questions?" Rudeus asked impatiently.
"No need to ask, I will answer the who, what, when, where, and why. But you might find the information a little bit harder to chew than most textbooks. With that though lets get the who out of the way. I have many names, religions like to try and pin me down, the closest they have gotten to my vastness is calling me alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. But they never realized that infinity has no beginning or end, it always has been, always will be. And that is who I am." The voice stated in an annoyed manner, it didn't seem to like religion that much.
"Why do you hate religion that much?"
"Hate it?" The voice asked before it could start answering the what and where. "Well if I had to tell you, I only hate religion when they try to control people, give a dollar and god will send you a blessing, things like that. It may have value to a person, but to me its just valuable to the person receiving it, and those bastards enjoy the greed while taking advantage of the desperate, something I detest. But then there is the other side that tries to get people to become better versions of themselves, help them rise out of the gutter. Things like that. So I have mixed views on religion, as I do on lots of things. If I had to give religion a base rule to stand by, it's just to be a good person."
"But good is subjective." Rudeus responded.
"There is the individual perspective, then the infinite perspective, or my perspective. I'm apart of everything, including everyone, therefore the masses and the individual in there heart of hearts know on a fundamental principal what is the good, better, and best thing to do. It's good reason to rob a shop to feed your hungry daughter, a better thing to do is to beg to be hired while working on yourself, and the best thing to do is avoid falling down that road to begin with."
"However that is not fair, you delt those cards, some try to make the most of a terrible start!" Rudeus shouted angrily.
"Hahaha, that's what a guy with brittle bones said to me, but I can be good, and cruel, I'm not one or the other all the time though, that is why I allowed reincarnation to be a thing." The voice revealed.
"So my life….." Rudeus began to say
"Was absolute shit at the start yes, I allow reincarnation for all who have led a life of regret. And yes before you ask that includes even people like Stalin, Hitler and countless others, but they have been through hundreds of thousands of reincarnations but yet they never seem to learn, instead they just try to change their tactics to conquer the world and end right back at the start."
"So then why am I here? I have no regrets, I got to live a life struggle yes in the world I woke up in but I lived a good full life!" Rudeus stated without remorse.
"Well I will be honest AND blunt on that one, I got a little selfish, I don't want your story to end just yet, it's so juicy! I would like to give you a third chance, get back on that roller coaster, play in the sandbox one more time before you have to head home so to speak. While you may not want to change anything from a few moments ago, I will admit walking away from Hitogami without looking back was cooler than walking away from a slow motion explosion." The being laughed hysterically.
"Has anyone else come to where I am now?"
"A little bit of where and what I see, as expected of Quagmire. Yes an infinite number, who do you think all these voices are?"
"So how did these voices get here, how did things start!? How did you start?"
"No, no, no. There has never been a start or an end, there is the here and now yes but there has never been a beginning or end. That might confuse you, but hey that's infinity for you, it can be a bit of a bitch to wrap your head around."
"In other words try to keep my head from exploding?" Rudeus asked realizing it was pointless to try and comprehend.
"Yep."
One word, nothing more, which gave ways…
"To endless more openers yes, trust me kid I'm apart of you, I know what you are thinking… 99% of the time, although I would say the closest people who have gotten to my, or I should say our power is Doctor Manhattan and the Demon King Akuto Sai. Those guys realized a while ago that life was a huge sandbox and their answer to that realization was instead of using a small plastic toy shovel, to instead use and excavator and bulldozer." The voice stated without a care in the void.
Wait those names are familiar, they were names from comic books and anime.
"Oh yeah before you ask me the follow up question. Wait those people exist!? The answer is yes, yes they do. Firstly since people are apart of me they have my powers, when someone makes a fantasy, however slim the possibility, even if it's a googolplexian to one, it still happens. That is one of the benefits of infinity. Secondly the exception to that is when you can live that fantasy, that is what I am allowing you to do, and I want to see what you bring to the sandbox, will it be a bulldozer, a bomb, or are you just going to play on the jungle gym. Personally I hope you realize just how vast the possibilities are. So do we have a deal?"
Rudeus thought on this, putting his fingers to his chin for a few minutes. It was true, there were many things he wanted to correct, the teleportation incident was the biggest thing of all. If he could stop that from happening then the entire world would be affected most likely for the best. To start with Eris's and Sylphiettes family would be alive and well, but that also left the possibility that Sylphiette would not save Ariel like in Rudeus's previous life. The result of this would be Orsteds plans would be delayed or outright destroyed in his desire to destroy Hitogami and he would have to go through another time loop to make preparations and correct the mistakes. But Rudeus could prepare for this too. Where Rudeus floated right now was on a similar if not greater level than Orsted stood at when looking at how things could and should play out in his favor. To that end and perspective Rudeus could help. And he had to admit he was a bit giddy at the thought of how vast the sandbox looked now, thinking back to what the entity had called infinity. Rudeus looked up, as if to stand triumphant and announce his decision.
"I accept!"
"That's the answer we wanted! That is the answer I wanted! And that is the answer you have given Rudeus Greyrat! So the show must go on! And it will, until you are ready to close the curtains you will be the director of your play and when to bow! So go now Rudeus!" The voice called out. "It's time to wake up Rudeus!" That final line was not in the vast booming voice of countless people but the soft, if not tired voice of Zenith.
Rudeus eyes opened in an instant was flooded with a yellow light, the lights of many candles and a fireplace as he saw his second mother, and holding him was his second father, Paul. Tears of joy immediately swelled within Rudeus as he reached out to Paul and Zenith. He had just been born as a baby again, it was not unexpected for a baby to cry. He looked into the corner of his eyes and saw Lilia the maid with a faint smile on her face, although it was obvious it was with a hint of jealousy about Zeniths and Pauls relationship. Paul then began to make funny faces and Rudeus laughed joyfully for the first time in his new life.
After several hours of being introduced to the house, shown around the interior, he was then given a meal from his mother and put to bed. A polite introduction as a guest in this house and as a new member in the family. But Rudeus could not sleep one bit, he was too excited. He needed to start with a stride and every day counted. Some questions were plaguing his mind though. The being, what would he call it? He didn't get allot of information from it, just infinity and that reincarnation was a thing not exclusively reserved for a person like Rudeus. Infinity, was it possible to tap into? Those lights were each a different universe and in those universes countless outcomes, furthermore what terrified him was the many dark stories, they were real, the haunted ghost stories he heard as a kid to the horror movies like Alien and Saw, they were real too because as long as it was a possibility it would exist. On the lighter side of the story allot of Rudeus's favorite anime exist, such as Dragon Ball Z, fairy tail, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, One Piece etc. Rudeus smiled but he was getting ahead of himself.
'If I could reach into those worlds and find a way to pull what I wanted I could have allot of fun with that.' Rudeus thought. He would call the universe the sandbox, and each one of those universes was one individual sandbox, that was what the being had called infinity after all so Rudeus would do the same. Speaking of Rudeus should find an appropriate name for the being. Those were objectives and thought for later, right now his current objective was multiplying and growing his mana. It was true his mana in his previous life was nothing to scoff at, after all he gave Orsted a challenge with his abilities, but that didn't mean there wasn't room for improvement.
Rudeus focused putting his tiny fat baby hands in the air as he began to concentrate, he would summon a water ball. The feeling of a tingling fire that started from his feet and worked its way to his finger tips, then a tiny bead of water began to form and it fell on his forehead. Rudeus began to sweat a little, it was like trying to walk again. The bead broke apart and was a failure to be a full water ball but at least he summoned a little bit of water. Several hours later he managed a perfectly sphered water ball. It floated and then fell onto him with a splash. He would either have to cry to get Zenith to change his soaking towel that wrapped around his body or he would endure it. Rudeus then realized he had used allot of his beginning energy to summon a water ball and faded away into unconsciousness and sleep.
The next few days were followed with repetition, he had managed to crawl out onto an open window when Zenith and Paul thought he was sleeping during the day as he summoned multiple water balls, his magic was growing and improving. If he kept doing this while increasing the difficulty as he worked his way up to the more advanced spells he could multiply his magical capacity exponentially.
Rudeus did have another question on his mind though. Hitogami was alive in this world and he worried that without Orsteds blessing and bracelet that Hitogami would either try to contact him, or he would notice that Rudeus could not be controlled and that he would try and get rid the boy to keep another piece of the chest board from interfering in his games.
Rudeus had also come up for a simply name for the being, referring to the entity as Friend. A simple name but he was in debt to his Friend for giving him the chance to start over again, if not for the selfish reason of being entertained. The days and months were slow, every day was filled with secret training. Rudeus could now do intermediate difficulty of all levels of magic, including his favorite spell Rock Bullet, but he would try experimenting with new techniques and try to find the perfect balance of an attack and defense magic. Soon he would be able to do advanced levels of magic but Rudeus would have to wait until then, he didn't want any of his family to notice because he still wanted to meet Roxy. Gravity manipulation and teleportation were subjects Rudeus wanted to improve upon as soon as possible though and they required allot of energy to complete at first.
Rudeus looked at a small doll and outstretched his hand, he had to visualize gravity as stretchy blanket, the larger the mass of an object, the more it would sink into the blanket. His hand was anti-gravity, pushing against the blanket and the object lifting it up.
Days passed by as he continued to work on this, it didn't help when Lilia thought Rudeus wanted the doll but whenever Lilia left the room to continue her duties he threw the doll to the ground and kept trying. One day he did it. The doll floated, now it was just a matter of controlling it's direction. Space existed in x, y, and z, he just had to get the blanket to push in a direction of those three factors to get the doll to move in the direction he wanted. Soon it began to move in the direction he wanted.
Then Rudeus began to practice on another object like a rock, using gravity to increase it's density while it still held the same level of weight. At this point Rudeus had pushed himself to the brink of unconsciousness over one hundred times, his mana had multiplied far beyond his expectations.
Rudeus kept repeating the rice fable to himself everyday while doing his daily magical exercises. If he had one grain of rice and multiplied it on day one by a factor or two, and he kept doing that, by the ninth day he would have 256 grains of rice, on the twelfth day he would have 2048 grains of rice, the thirteenth doubled that amount, as the days went by the number would double, and double. By the thirtieth day Rudeus would have 536,870,912 grains of rice. The origin of the rice lesson was based in India, he had heard the story during his elementary years of school as a teaching of mathematics and the value of compound interest that could be used in business. If Rudeus kept multiplying his mana, soon he would be able to move a mountain with a flick of his finger, which started as a simple grain of rice would soon be a pillar of rice reaching toward the heavens.
Soon spring, summer, fall, then winter came and went. It had been two years. Rudeus was able to fly, move, compress, and shatter boulders or any of the landscape with ease. He was able to control and play in the sandbox a little better.
'If only the past me could see me now' Rudeus chuckled to himself. He did his flying at night as to not disturb his parents or get them suspicious.
'But I should still keep pushing myself, multiply and grow. My mana shouldn't have the capacity to grow by the time I am ten, so if I keep multiplying my magic one mountain will turn into two the next day. And soon I can move one world and then two the next day.' Rudeus chuckled to himself. He would find a way into that infinity again, it didn't matter where it began or ended, only that it existed, and Rudeus would grasp it.
And then it happened. On the day he turned two and a half, and like a light shining down from above in a moment of pure inspiration Rudeus discovered a new form of magic. Alteration. He could manipulate the atoms and the bonds they made. He first made hydrogen, the most basic element with the lightest atomic weight. He did this by separating the oxygen from the hydrogen using gravity magic. A pool of water turned from a puddle into a gas in an instant. Then with a little bit of hesitation Rudeus threw a fireball at the gas. It exploded in a ball of fire instantly with a loud woosh.
'I can manipulate the world at a subatomic level. I can grab each particle of sand in the sandbox!' Rudeus thought to himself. This was beyond the level any magician had gotten to. While not grand in scale like Divine magic, which had the power to change continents, it was still powerful.
Rudeus began to keep a journal with himself, similar to his previous version, the difference was his ideas. He included so many and experimented with a numerous amount to see if they would work.
One day he broke his finger by using magic to try and bend the bone, warping it without breaking, instead it just snapped. He held in a scream as hard as he could to not alert Paul or Zenith who would surely be crying over him as any parent should for a baby. When the pain began to subside and become more manageable he used healing magic and the bone snapped back in place. That was just a small example of the things that he had done wrong, trial and error was the name of the game after all. Later on though he could increase the density of his own bones, his intention was to make them neigh unbreakable, he then grew there size using a combination of healing and alteration magic. It was the same thing as using a trash compactor with allot of trash and empty space, compressing it, and then putting more trash in.
Come to think of it he had allot of ideas from full metal alchemist, if he could manipulate atoms at the subatomic level, and as time grew he could be more precise about it, then he could create an invincible shield for himself much like the sin of greed had. Using a structure of carbon atoms to surround his body making his skin unbreakable. The human body was composed of allot of carbon, Rudeus just had to arrange it in the right spots. He kept failing but he would keep trying.
In the meantime there was something else on Rudeus's mind. He was thinking to the summoning of Nanahoshi. She didn't age but she wanted to return to Japan, however the most that Rudeus and her had been able to summon was a seedless watermelon. With the information Rudeus had now all he had to do was find a way to bridge the connection between infinite and the japan he originated from to return her. WAY easier said than done. But this was one of his life's biggest regrets was to not fulfill his promise to Nanahoshi. To begin with he would start with teleportation magic, then summoning, and work his way up from there. Nanahoshi mainly used magic circles and crystals filled with mana since she herself could not summon mana from her body. Speaking of Rudeus would try his best to prevent the teleportation incident but he would still make preparations if his plan failed.
He started his experiments in a cliffside during the dead of night, a long distance from his home but with the ability of flight it was minute or so for him. Flight still felt spectacular every time he performed it.
The cave was simple enough. Every time he entered he closed the entrance with earth and foliage using magic, leaving a small hole for air to flow through, then he opened the chimney, allowing carbon dioxide to escape out of the top of the mountain.
Two magical circles, both the size of an adults hand that were carved into the ground. Rudeus had pricked his finger and let blood fill the edges of the circle. A teleportation circle was comprised of the mathematical formula where A needed to trade places with B, but in order to bridge that gap C had to be a factor. C needed to be made of the same composition of chemicals on both sides and rich in mana in order to hold both hands of A and B to get them to swap places. Rudeus place the doll he had originally used gravity magic on, placing the doll on circle A and then fueled both circles with mana. One of the circles was complete, which was circle B. the circle on A needed to be completed in order for the spell to work. There were two ways to do that, not supply the circle with mana until needed, or leave a small space to be filled or drawn in on the circle. Magical circles worked allot like circuitry and electronics, once the circuit was complete and power supplied, it would preform the desired affect if built and done correctly.
Rudeus using a small vile of his blood pored a few drops into circle A and the connection was made, the circuit was complete. In a flash the doll moved from side A to side B. He smiled at his success. Now he had to find out where his limit was. Distance was the greatest factor when it came to teleportation and it's difficulty. It took months of Rudeus poring his mana into Nanahoshi's magical circles to summon something as simple as a seedless watermelon. However his powers were far greater than his previous life in this world. By the time he turned ten Rudeus hoped to have enough power to send her back.
Rudeus's plan was, if things played out well, to make a magical circle of teleportation in Boreas castle when he was teaching Eris. That way he would pore energy into the circle, continue his experiments among other things.
'Eris?' The thought alone sent shivers down his spine at the thought of her. She had been the one to show him love for the first time in his life and she had a special place in his heart for that. He was both filled with anxiety and longing at seeing her again. This of course included his desire to see Sylphie and Roxy but Eris was a wild card filled with adventure.
Shaking his thoughts from his head he went back to his home and fell back to sleep in his cradle. Good timing too, Paul was just about to wake up for his morning training.
"My Lady I think that the young master is sleeping too much." Lilia commented.
'Concerned for my wellbeing huh?' Rudeus though as he was awoken from his late nap in the day. 'If anything you need to get some more sleep, you push yourself too hard sometimes, in the meantime I'm up all night practicing and training myself.'
Rudeus's thoughts went unheard as Zenith responded while holding her son in her arms. "Please, Rudeus is just growing in strength."
"But he hasn't spoken a single word yet and he is almost three."
'I guess that's a perfect time as any.' Rudeus thought turning his head toward his mother. "Momma, I love you!"
Zenith was so shocked she almost dropped her baby in surprised. Lilia wasn't doing any well either as she let out a shriek, which was surprising based on her normally stoic composure. Paul didn't help much to calm down either as he burst through the door shirtless and in a sheet of sweat from his daily sword routines.
"What's wrong?!" Paul shouted.
"Rudeus spoke his first words!" Zenith shouted for joy after getting over her initial shock.
"Oh really? What did he say?"
"I said, momma I love you!" Rudeus stated again.
This earned him another joyous response. In the end they concluded Rudeus was holding back on them, waiting for a good moment to say those words, which was true. Lilia however was as superstitious as ever.
Then the day came. Time to blow up a wall.
"Well here goes, time to meet Roxy." Rudeus outstretched his arm and fired off an intermediate level of water ball, destroying apart of the house as the water ball rocketed toward the horizon leaving behind a rainbow. The following response was as expected, how it had played out for the first time. Zenith wanted to teach her son magic, Paul wanted to train him in the way of the sword, and Lilia was the compromise and told him to do sword training in the morning with his father and magic training with a tutor in the evening.
'In the mean time I have another thing to prepare for.' Rudeus thought.
That night in his cave he was working on making a monster. A literal monster.
'If my powers continue to grow soon I won't be able to hide them from people like Roxy and Eris and I don't want to push them away by being intimidated by my powers and strength, so I will make someone who can use my full magical powers for me, a puppet with no soul, and a reflection of terror.'
He had drawn the design he was looking for based off of several horror movies and villains from comic books. The being in the drawings was eight feet tall, covered by tattered rags, its arms wrapped in bandages and its fingers long, sharp, and bony like those of a witches hand. The rags looked like a robe and a cloak. The cloaks hood was concealing the eyes of the monster but it had a wicked smile as large and evil as he could make it, it's teeth would be pointed and be caked and dripping with blood, its tongue grey, sickly, and long with a fork in it like a snake. It's skin would be a pale white like the moonlight. And the cloaks color would be black. Overtime Rudeus would give the monster several improvements such as magical artifacts to be better effective in combat but that was when he had access to more supplies and materials but for now he gave it a second pare of arms which attached on the shoulder blades, they had three joints in them and were long, its looked like praying mantis arms but composed of white skin and bones for the sharp ends of the arms. He could summon it using teleportation circles, he already had the power poured into several circles of magic to summon the monster.
As for what the monster would be composed of, it was mainly Rudeus's own blood, and the bodies of pigs and cows. Rudeus had used alteration magic to mold the flesh, tissue, organs, arteries, veins, and bones into the desired shapes. He gathered the supplies over a period of several months to not awaken suspicion among the neighbors in the country side, it wasn't uncommon for an animal or two to go missing per month, presumed to be eaten by wild wolves in the forests.
The cherry on top was the monster would float, its robes billowing well below it's feet concealing them like a silent phantom. He would use gravity magic to control it's movement and flight. One of the most important pieces would be using a magical crystal and putting as much of his mana as he could into it, this would allow him to control the creature from long distances if needed.
And then there was the experimental phase of the plan. Getting the monster to use magic. Rudeus couldn't just get the monster to outstretch it's palm and unleash a rain of fire. He needed a direct connection to his soul in order to pilot that.
Then It clicked to him. His soul could be a magical circle, all he had to do was make the monster apart of the connection. Days turned into weeks, Roxy would be here soon and Rudeus would have a schedule that was too packed for him to do his nightly retreats so time was of the essence. And then it moved, well Rudeus controlled it using gravitational magic but it moved and Rudeus was looking through it's eyes. Looking at his long, bone like fingers and flipping his hand over he saw the palm of his hand, it was greasy and pale.
'Perfect.' Rudeus gave himself a high five, literally, the monster outstretched his hand and Rudeus gave him a high five.
Magic was easy too. Since this monster was a link to Rudeus's soul it could use magic. But when he severed the link the monster stopped moving and all it's muscles lost tension, as if killed instantly, it's heart stopped beating. It turns out a soul no matter how small is required in order for flesh to live, after all the atoms in a dead man and living man are the same.
Rudeus had to keep the creature in a state of preservation in order to keep the monster from rotting when it wasn't in use. He cast the purest form of ice magic, it's tomb would be cold until it was told to rise. The coffin of ice was standing up and placed above a teleportation circle. All Rudeus had to do was complete circle B on his side and the monster would be summoned to his side. This circle would have to be placed in a predetermined location, if Rudeus summoned the monster to his side he would be cursed and cast out by the town. This monster could not be linked to him. So he would place a vile of his blood right next to an incomplete circle. The circle would already be filled with mana and ready for the circle to the be completed. Rudeus's blood was easy to pinpoint as it had his magical essence in it, all he had to do was use gravity magic to push the blood and make the vile spill it's contents and the beast would be summoned.
There was one drawback though. His attention was split from his boy body and monster body. Multitasking was a bitch and that case proved true when puppeteering the monster when connected with it. He could start to focus on his monsters actions more when he was either asleep or unconscious with the predetermined intention to wake up as the monster. The only minor drawback of this was he still woke up sleepy in his boy body once he was done using the monsters body.
After months of work his latest project was complete and he was still multiplying his magic, using almost all of it to put into his magical circle and the phantom that lurked in the mountain.
'Now let's just think of a name for you.' Rudeus thought. This was his last day in the cave, the monster would call this place his home now and it would be undiscovered until needed.
"I know! I shall call you Hollow, you shall speak in the third person, spreading your name throughout the land hahaha." Rudeus laughed. He then flew out of the cave, sealed it, and departed before the day broke.
And while Rudeus wasn't aware he would need to use his inner demon sooner than later.
