***Void Zone, Chimera, Midhold's Boarding School for Special Cases***

***Aengus***

Something slaps me and I feel my eyelids flutter as I try to cross over into the waking world, already imagining horrible revenge on whoever forced me out of Morpheus' embrace. “Wah...” I slur, trying to wake up.

“Aengus, Aengus! Get up! We will miss the graduation ceremony!” Seria's shriek right next to my ear wakes me fully and I shoot up, protecting the sensitive organ.

“Why the fuck did you do that?” I push my little finger into my ear, hoping to get rid of the strange tinnitus which she engendered by acting as a ship's horn right next to my head.

“I just had to wake you up.” She huffs. “Just what were you dreaming? Your expression was creepy and you were drooling all over the sheets.” Then Seria points towards a damp spot on the mattress where I drooled like some hill-billy.

I can't help myself and grin upon recalling the dream I had. “I asked that girl from class 'G' out, and this time she didn't run away screaming. Instead, she told me her name and this led to that and I ended up balls d-”

“Nananana!” Seria covers her ears. “Now I am glad that I didn't pull away your sheets.” She quickly dashes back to her own room.

I sigh, actually a little sad that Seria interrupted me just before the dream would likely have led to a nasty awakening. Just as Dad says, “Sometimes the consequences are worth it.”

“I didn't hear that!” Seria calls from her part of the dorm apartment. “Do you at least remember her name?”

Did I just say that out aloud? Oops. I frown. “Of course not! How could I if she never told me in real life?”

Still sleepy, I get out of bed and gaze around the room, automatically turning to the spot where I always leave my clothes on the floor when my eyes lock onto the door, quite obviously broken – again! “What did you do to my door! Haven't I told you countless times to have Dad teach you lock-picking? Mom's method is barbaric!” I look at the floor. “And where is all my stuff!”

“But Mom's method is definitely faster.” Seria returns into the room, stepping over the broken door and bringing my laundered clothes with her. With a sniff, she shoves them into my hands. “There, can't have my lazy brother embarrass me on such an important day.” She claps her hands together, urging me on. “Fast, and forget the door, sleepyhead! The Ceremony!”

Ceremony? “Oh, right!” I struggle out of my bed to get undressed, smirking when she turns around.

Once clothed, I follow Seria out of the room.

It has been a few years since the final battle with the Council. We had the first real downtime in our lives, aside from the random breakout case of the Calamity's fiends. Unluckily for us, the Spheres which were spread by the Calamity are still dormant. They didn't get activated. Though, from time to time, one of them gets set off by a foolish mortal or some idiot god who didn’t get the memo by accident.

Thankfully, those incidents aren't posing much of a threat with the new containment methods which the Arcane Community imposed on the Black Hole.

But right now all of that is of no big concern to me, because I will graduate! Freedom! Nineteen Years and Freedom! I will get full access to my memories and Seria and I can return home to the luxury of Mom's and Dad's palace!

That's what today’s ceremony is all about. Luckily Seria woke me up. If I had missed it, I would have had to wait for another year!

“What will you do when you have all of your memories back, Big Bro?” Seria asks me from the side as we slowly walk out of the dorm and across the campus.

Actually I already put a lot of thought into that. “I think I will travel the multiverse for a while! Make a name for myself, have a lot of fun! Maybe I will find a nice girl who is willing to take me! There must be someone for me out there who has no clue what getting involved with our family means.”

Seria pats my back with a pitying expression. “Yeah, at least on this planet your chances to get laid are close to zero. At least if we don't count the bitches who are just in it for the power.”

She is right. There are not many women on Chimera who are willing to marry into the royal family. Too many bad rumours about the male side of our bloodline. The recent years of our mother's exploits also didn't account for the best of reputations.

Even people close to us are repelled because they fear to be included in the rumours.

On the other hand, there are tons of guys who have an eye on Seria or our three little sisters. Luckily, the triplets haven't had any marriage proposals since their introduction party or Dad would have had an aneurysm. It's much too early, but upper society is just like that.

Hard to let go of old traditions.

At least I haven't heard of any proposals or – more likely – Dad silently swept them under the rug.

If anyone knew of the triplets, they wouldn't propose anyway. My newest siblings are Mayhem incarnate! Alone they are bearable, but in reality, they are like an explosive with three compounds. Each of them alone or two together are harmless. All three in one place are the end!

“I find it strange that you will get to join the ceremony too, Seria. You never had your memories locked in the first place because father needed you to remember. Aren't these officials a little too lax with their rules?” I scratch my chin while I walk towards the old church on the school ground which will be used for the ceremony.

It's a big and comfortable building with large and colourful glass windows which depict scenes from ancient history. To reuse a beautiful building like that after the decline of religion with the Awakening of all the gods isn't so bad.

“Hmpf! I visited this school the same as you! There is no point in excluding me from the ceremony!” Seria puffs out her chest while her tail waves left and right. “And regarding the memories, the ceremony will simply not do anything for me. That's all. The reason why I can’t remember large parts of my old life is different from yours.”

“Yeah,” I admit. Not many can say that they had their soul split into a million pieces. It’s a small miracle that Dad got her back into working order so quickly.

Seria evolved into a spitting image of our mother, just a little smaller and more feisty with her tongue. She is almost half a head shorter than her. If it wasn't for the finer and a little more girlish face, I would have trouble to tell the difference.

“What did you think about the graduation party yesterday?” Seria smirks at me.

I shrug my shoulders, remembering that the reason why I was out cold was a little pre-graduation party which our friends threw to celebrate the end of school. “It was okay I guess. Though, I drank a little too much.”

“How did it go with that girl! I know that you confessed to her,” Seria teases.

“Ah. That. She turned and ran. Honestly, you just want to poke at my misery. Would I be alone at home in my bed if she had accepted?” I let my head drop at the memory! I didn't even manage to talk to her! She already blurted some kind of excuse in my direction when I tried to strike up a conversation. “These rumours aren't fair! The guys in our family are actually less dangerous than the females!” I shake my fists at the heavens.

“Hey!” Seria cuffs me into the side. “They aren't that far off! Don't you remember that one time when you went exploring the multiverse and played with those mortals? Dad caught you in time, but their society still fell apart!”

I fold my hands in front of my chest, speaking a silent prayer for the multiverse to forgive the failings of my youth. “I admit it, it was a mistake of my youth. Although, it has to be mentioned that they provoked me. I realize now that I overreacted and I reflect on my actions.”

“And when you dismembered that guy because he tried to force himself on me?” Seria continues, reminding me of a particularly creepy fellow who followed her around throughout the whole of our fourth year at the Boarding School. When he dared to put his filthy paws on her my patience was at an end.

“I was nice,” I growl. “Father instructed me to make an example out of the first guy who would mistreat my little sisters. I was very lenient within the boundaries of his suggested… punishment.”

“They carried him in eight parts to the infirmary!” Seria gives me an accusing look. “I didn't get a single confession since that incident! Sometimes, I wonder if I should have accepted his advances just to prevent that one incident. He wasn’t that bad… kind of sweet… in a creepy way.”

“Father told me to hold a public execution and take his soul in order to demonstrate my power. So I think that I was very nice to just temporarily separate his soul from his body.” I frown while I think back to that moment. “Actually, I just gave him a gentle greeting. When I took his hand, it suddenly came off. Then I tried to reattach it and his jaw dislocated. It wasn’t my fault that he was a weakling.”

“Nonono! Stop it! I don't want to remember it! Fortunately, I had no clear view and saw just the blood spraying left and right.” Seria sighs. “In other words, you killed him. How lucky that a soul can be reattached to a dead body if it's healed fast enough. Seriously! That brutish strength! You became so similar to our mother!”

I shake my head. “I can't help it. I am not on dad's level of soul magic, yet, and Mom’s internal mana control is way easier for me to learn. So, you tell me that I shouldn't have done anything that day? He was too weak. He would have been a disgrace to our bloodline. Coming apart because I shake his hand… he wouldn't have survived a single day in our family!”

“Gods no!” She chuckles. “I was about to rip out his balls off and force-feed them to him. You showed up at just the right moment! Killing him myself would have been a serious blow to my reputation! Not to mention that he wouldn’t have survived the introduction to the rest of the family in a million years.”

Seria pats my back again while we enter the church and join the rows of students.

The ceremony itself won't be a big deal since the school already had its celebration. There will be no names and no big talk. In order to assure that there are no incidents, the church was put under a barrier which stops anyone who isn't allowed to participate.

They will hand out a small Soul-Marble, an enchanted artifact, which is able to unseal our memories.

Then the choice of whether we want the memories of some former version of ours is left to us. Either we want to continue to live as we did before, or take a look at our past life. There have been cases of serious depressions after getting those old memories back, but I already decided that I will try it.

“So, what will you do with your soul marble, Seria? Will you take a look at your former self anyway?” I smile at my little sister while we wait with the other students.

“I already told you that it won’t work for me. Anyway...” She points at the big statue of ‘Seria the Goddess’ which is standing in the middle of the dome. “Take a good look at that and tell me: How could I resist to at least try taking a look? I already have quite a few of my memories, but if possible, I want all of them!”

I nod. There is really not much to think about in her case. Her current personality was already largely influenced by the memories of her former life, so any new memories shouldn’t be too much of a shock.

The ceremony finally starts when the School’s director orders the students to be silent. A teacher starts walking past the rows of young men and women, handing out a Soul-Marble to everyone.

Most of the recipients take it and instantly use it. There are very few who resist the temptation. Upon receiving their memories, their eyes glaze over for a moment before their new personality can reassert control. I see happy and sad faces and some look a little disturbed, but there is no big breakdown until now.

Then it is Seria's and my turn. She instantly uses her soul marble as she takes it out of the basket. I just take mine and wait to see the effects on my little sister.

As expected, the effect on her isn’t as pronounced as on the others, but it seems like she got something out of it because her eyes start blinking rapidly.

After a few seconds, she turns red like a tomato. “Nooooo!” She starts wriggling in disgust.

“W- What!?” I hope she isn't one of the mental breakdown cases.

“In my previous life, I was a nudist! And a pervert!” Seria falls to her knees. “Now I also remember vividly how I ran around naked as a child… but… why were those memories blocked!”

I purse my lips. “Ah, that.”

“What!?” She looks up at me.

“I can remember you having that tendency,” I point out. “And one day, you just stopped doing it.”

“You mean…” She covers her mouth when adds two and two together.

“Yep. Almost certainly. I bet Mom had Dad block you when things got too outrageous.” I nod to myself, assured that our parents would be capable and willing to do such a thing to their own child. Capable, would be Dad in this case, and willing, that would be Mom. “I guess that Mom really wanted to bring you up as a proper lady… Ahem.” That raises some interesting questions. “Thinking about it, I guess I will refrain from taking mine.” I look down at my own Soul-Marble, feeling my determination waver.

Seria jumps to her feet. “No! You have to take yours!”

I raise an eyebrow at her feverish expression. “What do you know?”

“You have to! I took mine! Fair is fair!” Seria bulldozes into me and pushes the soul marble into my chest and the glowing marble disappears!

...daefakefpiaefnsavsvar pictures sdfowerbvwertbo knowledge sfdiubeiprbeipgep righteousness adflabrgezbrguoerbgip hero sldfuiebvsirbv laws apurebgapizerbdjfdfg equality aisrbaeuraeu peace eiuflewrzgbewrvzg...

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

‘Bam!’ ‘Bam!’ ‘Bam!’ ‘Bam!’

The sound of people whispering around me.

“P- Prince! Please stop hitting your head into the ground!”

“Dangerous!”

“His previous personality is worse than his current one?”

“The tile’s broken...”

“Those are no tiles, they are solid bedrock blocks from the Midhold Mountainrange, each at least twenty centimetres thick!”

The whispering continues, and I come back to myself, finding my sister trying her best to stop me from mutilating myself.

“Big Bro! Stop it! Your forehead is bleeding! I am sorry! It can't be that bad!?”

I look up to my little sister and scream. “I was some kind of disgusting, peace loving, and righteous, nice guy, hero-type character who never got a girl because they all left me for other more aggressive guys!”

The people around us start whispering again.

“He has a reaction like that because he was a hero?”

“As expected of a villain who suddenly finds his whole existence contradicted!”

“So he was the exact opposite of what he is now in his previous life.”

“He has to make up for something...”

“Would have been nice if his previous personality took over.”

Seria sighs and holds a hand to the back of my head while straightening my nose with the other. “You managed to break your nose, Big Bro.” Then she fixes my face with a healing spell.

I get up and take a serious look at Seria. “My travels through the multiverse will take a little longer. Tell Mom and Dad that I have to find my true identity first!”