An endless stream of bodiless souls suddenly looked towards the grey sky in unison. Most of the souls were normally completely lost in apathy, but the huge gathering of power above them drew even the most faded souls out of the stupor they had been in for countless years. The endless rivers of faint and almost formless grey figures always managed to shuffle forward despite their apathy, but now those trillions of faint figures had come to a halt. The surrounding area, which looked like a desert covered in grey ash, had also grown quiet.

Among the endless stream of souls stood hundreds of large beings of titanic proportions. These black canine-faced Titans also lifted their faces towards the phenomenon above them and growled in both fear and frustration. The evenly spaced beings that looked like enormous gods of death all spread their hands towards the sky and attempted to shield the apathetic souls from the power appearing above them. As a result of their efforts, a pale grey shield of transparent energy spread above the countless souls, although cracks started to appear almost as soon as it was formed. With sweat and panting effort, the Titans managed to repair those cracks, though they knew the repairs would not last long.

Above them, a soul unlike any of the others appeared. The soul that seemed to appear from nowhere was hundreds of times larger than the already enormous Titans, and it seemed to glow with power. The odd thing was that unlike the grey souls that stretched out below, the soul seemed to be split in two with one side being white and the other side black. After fully materializing, the soul seemed to shiver a bit before starting to grow smaller. From an enormous blob of power, the soul seemed to condense into a tiny ball the size of a fist, and the oppressive pressure that had pressed on those below seemed to vanish. The ball glowed like a tiny sun in the dreary grey sky for a moment before flashing towards the direction all the souls below were shuffling, and the Titans breathed a bit more easily.

The ball of glowing power traveled with a speed that defied all senses, but the distance it had to travel still meant it took a fairly long time for it to arrive at a palace large enough to compete with the largest metropolises of the biggest hive worlds, and the palace made of grey jade was taking in that constant river of apathetic souls that had been trudging along below the flying ball of power. All those countless souls stepped into the palace, but none of them walked out. Despite its size, the palace was not needlessly elaborate or decorated. It carried a solemn presence, and it carried it well.

The palace didn’t need guards, but a row of the hyena-faced Titans kept watch anyway. The Titans all looked towards the rapidly approaching soul, but none of them was stupid enough to make a move against it. They knew the soul could crush all of them despite their nature as death gods. While all other souls were guided to rooms for judgment by robed individuals that showed no features under their shadowy hoods, no guide came to meet the soul. Nor did it need one. Without hesitation, the soul flew towards the tallest spire of the palace and the only place that actually looked decorated.

Inside the spire was a large and open chamber where an old humanoid man with a long and thin beard leaned on a large and heavy book. The old man looked towards the soul as it flew into the chamber, and the man’s seemingly bottomless black eyes bored into it. Unlike the others, this being was not afraid. Not because it could fight the soul that had just arrived, but because he knew the soul. “Karma. You’re back.” The old man stated.

“You know I was never a fan of that name, Tian’Zun.” The soul replied with a changing voice that made it hard to tell any details of the speaker. The voice could belong to a man or a woman, an adult or a child, or it could even be the cries of a phoenix or the roars of a dragon. Truthfully the soul had been all those things at some point. All those and many more.

“And yet it’s one of your True Names. One of the few you don’t completely detest. I could’ve used one of the more popular and less flattering ones, like Reaper or Cataclysm.” The old man pointed out. A soul usually had a single True Name, but some souls seemed to gather enough Names to forget most of them. The one in front of him was one of the worst in that regard.

“True. And I do thank you for staying away from the really vile ones. Still, we aren’t here to debate names. That brings us to the obvious question. Why am I here, despite the burden my mere presence puts on the place? You don’t invite my kind here too often, and it’s been several lifetimes since I was called here last. Usually, you just fast-track our reincarnation without any of us even seeing the River of Souls.” The soul inquired. The soul had lived enough lives to forget most of them, yet it could still remember the number of times it had been called here.

“There’s a problem with your next reincarnation. Or to be more specific, there’s a problem with your soul.” The old man stated. He had not even bothered to open the book in front of him. This soul was not here to be judged. Even as the Head Judge, he wasn’t capable of judging the soul in question. Or at least he wasn't capable of enforcing his judgment.

“My soul seemed fine when I arrived. More than fine. And I don’t remember facing anyone capable of attacking my soul in my previous life, not to mention someone capable of harming it.” The soul stated, speaking as if the glowing ball of power in front of the man was just a small part of the whole soul.

“That’s not the problem. In fact, the problem is the opposite. Your soul has grown too powerful. We can’t find any suitable vessels for it anymore, not to mention all the other ridiculous benefits you have accrued in your previous lives.” The old man grumbled.

“That shouldn’t be much of a problem though. I rarely make use of most of my gifts and I’m not in the habit of upsetting the balance of the universes I’m reincarnated to, unlike most of my kind.” The soul seemed a little confused.

The old man had to admit the soul was correct in this. Many of the beings that reincarnated multiple times tended to destabilize the universes they were reincarnated to with the gifts and knowledge they had gathered over their previous lives. In that respect, the soul in front of him was very different. This soul usually didn’t try to become the ruler of the universes it entered, nor did it upend the established order for its own pleasure and entertainment. Usually, it lived rather quiet and short lives, despite having abilities that eclipsed other reincarnators completely and having the ability to become effectively immortal with ease. In fact, it was a source of amusement among the judges that this supremely powerful soul often decided to live lives of complete peace and quiet. Not that it always did so. It had earned those unflattering True Names for a reason. When you lived enough lives, eventually you’d run into trouble.

“It’s not a matter of behavior. The cold hard fact is that nearly all universes are unable to handle the pressure from your soul being born there. You almost broke the River of Souls when you arrived as you mentioned. You should also realize this. Your last life was as a World Dragon, and still, the body could barely maintain your presence. Your options are getting slim. That's why you're here." The old man explained.

“No.” The soul denied firmly. It knew exactly what the judge was about to suggest.

“You have no choice. You’ve repeatedly told us not to reincarnate you in that universe, but now it’s the only option left for you. I warned you about this the last time we met. And we had to come to the same conclusion. Only this time there are no other options. It’s time for you to go home.” The old man stated gently but firmly. The universe in question was the one where the soul had been originally born. It was a universe where reincarnators congregated and the one that housed some of the most powerful beings in the entire multiverse, so it was at a much higher level than any other universe and could easily house more powerful souls. The universe didn’t have many reincarnators at the same time, but where normal universes had one or two at a time at most, this one could have several dozen even during quiet times.

“No. Every time you reincarnate me there, things go to hell, both for me and for that place. I end up suffering and that universe faces another cataclysm that I need to fix by giving up something or someone I love. I’ve grown tired of it. That universe just seems to hate me.” The soul had horrid memories of the universe in question. It had been forced to reincarnate there before. At first, the judges had done it without asking, until the soul had shown them the error of their ways. Now they were polite enough to ask at least.

Its first life had ended miserably at the hands of one of the reincarnators, though the soul had not known that at first. Knowledge of reincarnators was not widely available after all, not even in that universe. It had taken several lifetimes for the soul to figure out that her original killer had been one as well. The suffering and loss it had gone through were not something easy to swallow. It had returned a handful of times, and every time things had ended badly. Not because the soul didn’t have the ability to defend itself anymore. No, it had that ability and more to spare. Yet somehow it always got pulled into the maelstroms that often appeared at the hands of the reincarnators that had egos that could rival the most narcissistic deities. That meant the soul didn’t get the opportunity to live the life of peace and quiet that it enjoyed.

“I already told you. You don’t have a choice. We have a rare opportunity. There’s a vessel capable of withstanding your soul and most of your gifts being born very soon. The next time such an opportunity arises might be millions of years from now, if ever, and even then you’d still be stuck with that universe. That means this might be the last life you live. You should make the most of it.” The man stated firmly.

The soul wanted to argue but it knew that the Head Judge would not lie. He might not tell everything, and the soul knew there was likely more here than it was being told, but what the man said was almost certainly true. “Fine. Just don’t be too surprised if the whole universe ends up burnt to the ground. And obscure my True Names. I don’t need any reincarnators seeking revenge from some past life where I humiliated them.”

“Agreed.” The old man quickly accepted the terms before a beam of light fell on the soul and took it away. Once the soul was gone, he released a long sigh. Now he was afraid. The soul would be angry at him. He had not lied. That wouldn’t save him though. Karma’s wrath was legendary. That’s why the soul asked its True Names to be obscured. Reincarnators could often create items and techniques to find out someone’s True Name after all.

Every being was born with a True Name, but most of those names where inconsequential. True Names came in several varieties though. Names that were recognized by enough people carried power. Names that carried a genuine meaning and were recognized not only by mortals, but gods, entire universes, and most importantly the other reincarnators became something more. Reincarnators carried those names to other universes, often cursing the Name of the one that had killed them. The most powerful and widely recognized names became something unique that only a single soul could possess. The soul that had left carried a few of those unique names. Karma was one of them. The name the judge feared the most at the moment was Wrath. The soul carried the name of one of the deadly sins, and it had earned that name in spades. The threat about burning an entire universe was not something made purely in jest.

“Is it done?” A female deity asked as she walked into the chamber holding a hand on her bulging belly.

“It is. And may your soul burn for having forced me into this. You do realize that even if things go as you’ve planned, Karma will likely take revenge. You may have doomed the entire River of Souls.” The old man truly looked his age as he leaned back on his chair.

“That’s a risk we have to take. You know as well as I do that He needs to be stopped, and the only one truly capable of doing that is Karma. Someone will have to take His place as well, and I think we’d both prefer Karma over any of the other options. Can you imagine any of the reincarnators you’ve sent into that universe in His position? Your precious River of Souls would truly burn then. And likely for no other reason than for spite. Despite Karma’s sins, the soul is both black and white in equal measure. There will be balance again.” The goddess claimed with conviction.

“You’re hardly a neutral judge of character.” The old man pointed out.

“Nepotism is hard to avoid even at my level.” The goddess smiled and rubbed her belly again. “But I notice you didn’t say I was wrong.”

He did not. He might be afraid, but he was also resolved. He had agreed to this path of action, even if the goddess next to him had forced his hand. Sometimes there were no good choices.