I was dreaming. I knew that I was dreaming, because I found myself standing in front of the ruins of the 4th Chernobyl reactor, screaming at the liquidators not to touch anything metal once they went in. I was there only briefly, to help direct the rescue efforts, but the memory had burned into my mind and haunted me ever since. I was far too important to USSR to be allowed in Chernobyl for more than a few days, but my knowledge of radiation sickness and my proximity to Ukraine had made me... useful.

I looked at the lines of masked Liquidators in front of me. Many of them were wearing paper masks and army coats, as if that could protect them from ionizing radiation that was pouring from the maw of hell that they would soon walk into. From the "radiation exposure" studies conducted in Semipalatinsk decades ago, I knew their future. I knew that many of the men in front of me wouldn't make it alive from this place. I knew that some of them would die from horrific radiation burns in agony over the passing weeks while others would slowly pass into eternal night as their cells became afflicted with growth disorders, replicating without stopping.

Once again, I saw a long line of buses filled with evacuated citizens pass by me with the words "to be disposed" written on them. Contrary to to the terrifying label, the people weren't the ones being "disposed", it was the buses. Soon they would fill massive vehicle graveyards on the outskirts of the city, the metal composing them too irradiated to be of use.

The people being evacuated from Chernobyl looked tense. I couldn't look at their faces. They weren't told that they were never coming back to their homes. They had left almost everything behind, including pets, toys, tools, furniture, electronics and clothes...

All of their worldly possessions were now cursed, poisoned for a thousand years.

Their lives were thrown in to chaos by the incompetence of the Soviet atomic engineers running a test on 26 April 1986...

The ruins of the 4th reactor building loomed in front of me, a monstrous megastructure torn asunder by the explosion. It whispered to me of our failures, of destruction and death we had wrought, unleashed upon ourselves through our foolishness.

When I looked up at the sky above the 4th reactor building, I saw the spire of ions there. A shimmer of deadly blue radiation pierced, sliced the heavens. It wasn't there in real life when I stood there that day, but my nightmare had painted this horrific vision. Ashes rained from the sky. A supercell storm spun around the shimmer with a deep, unnerving rumble. I tried not to cry, tried not to inhale the ashes that were once people.

The ruin pulsated, grew in front of me, getting closer and bigger. I realized that I was being rushed towards it on an a ghostly, barely visible, white chariot pulled forward by the 4th horseman of the apocalypse. The white horse beneath its rider whinnied with a screech, sounding like metal grinding on metal. Death turned her pale, sunken face towards me, silver eyes peering into my soul.

"How... interesting. Show me more," Death sang with a chilling, inhuman voice. Her frost-covered arm reached out and touched my hand.

Her hand felt cold. Colder than glacier ice, colder than the void of space, colder than absolute zero. I screamed, unable to break away from the life-consuming chill that rushed towards my heart.

“What are we going to do, Cass?” My father’s voice cut into my nightmare, waking me up. Damn it. I forgot what it was like to sleep! Forgot that the horrors of Chernobyl haunted my dreams. I started to cry. Mom hugged me, singing a song the words of which I could not understand. For some reason Universal translator couldn't pick it up. Perhaps the language was more complex than the one used by the people of Skyisle?

The strange song calmed my nerves, chased the nightmare away.

“I don’t know, Georgi. The Equality Overseer might find out eventually… he might try to take him away from us.” There was bitterness in my mom’s voice as she whispered the words back to dad.

“I’ll have to speak to the Elders. The Crafters Guild might be able to stand up against the Overseer. We have rights! The Equality Order is relatively new in terms of...”

I looked at the blurry faces of my parents. Not being able to see clearly was starting to annoy me.

I dove into the [Mindspace]. Various screens lit up in front of me. I looked at my System status. A message was waiting for me there:

[1 new skill slot gained!]

Name:

Dante Alan Skyisle

Age:

1 day old [since birth]

Species & Subtype:

male - human - newborn

Level:

7

Experience:

1540/3200

Health:

7/7

Stamina:

7/7

Mana:

7/7

Mana regen:

7 m/hr

Strength:

0

Agility:

0

Dexterity:

0

Vitality:

3

Charisma:

0

Magic:

1

Luck:

0

Intelligence:

164

Wisdom:

0

Soul:

73

Skills:

[ Modify - Create - Life LV 77]

[ Mindspace LV 40 ]

[ Universal Comprehension LV 1]

[Info-tether LV 18]

[Soul Devourer LV 1] [______________] [______________]

Vows:

Sacrifice of: [Destruction], [Infoscope] & [Transient Soul]

Affliction: Soul Hunter's kiss

Investiture points:

35

Not bad. Also, argh. The [Soul Devourer] skill was still there. Annoying. I looked down at my arm where Death had touched me. The silver cracks were there, shimmering on my skin like icy veins. I had healed Delta, but not myself. The infection felt like it was getting stronger with every Level up. Or maybe that was just my imagination? I had no Infoscope, no way to scan it properly, so I decided to ignore it for now.

I turned on a screen that showed a visual of my body.

This wasn’t the most recent scan of my body, since I no longer had my Infoscope but it was close enough for what I wanted to do. Close enough that I could form a spell and attach it to my brain. I could no longer form the Infoscope, but I could create a new spell based on the Omnicode word [Visualize]. I set out to design [Observe mana] spell formations that would allow me to see the world without relying on my toddler eyes.

A few days flew by. Delta still didn’t show up. I was beginning to get concerned about her fate. Hopefully she didn’t drift into a spell-dismantling rune and get herself killed.

I spent most of my time designing myself magic-eyes with which I could finally see the faces of my parents and the interiors of our house.

Soon enough I was able to add [Observe mana LV 0] to my skills.

It worked pretty well and soon enough and through it via a screen on Bessie, I was able to enjoy the interiors of our cottage.

The insides of my new home reminded me of a Hobbiton dwelling from Tolkien’s fantasy series. A lot of the doors and windows were round or had round edges. The roof of the living room had a curve to it and was supported by old, thick wooden beams.

The building had to be a few hundred years old as far as I could tell. During the evenings dad lit up the large fireplace in the living room. It provided plentiful warmth to the house, casting a lovely orange glow.

Staring at the homely, crackling fire instantly made me fall asleep.

I woke up crying and mom had to soothe me. I couldn't even recollect my dream this time, but it was probably awful. I had indeed seen far too many man-made horrors as Nikola Tesla had prophesied in 1947 in his famous "you may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension" quote.

This was a rather unexpected downside to abandoning my [Transient Soul] skill - my soul was now fully fused to my body and that meant that I could no longer function 24/7 and required sleep.

My body fell asleep pretty often, considering that I was an infant.

Thankfully, I had memorized the [Transient Soul] skill as a fractal pattern, before I sacrificed it. Maybe, I could disassemble it into its constituent parts and remodel it and figure out which bit of it allowed me to stay awake forever as a soul?

It was something to do other than sleep.

It's been seven days. No Delta. No Infoscope.

. . .

“Ding! Ding! Ding!” A doorbell jingled loudly, fully waking me from my nap.

“Now, who could that be... this late in the evening?” Dad rumbled, getting up from the couch. He had just returned from the mill and didn't have a chance to change yet. His thick, leather boots thumped towards the front entrance of our house. He opened the round door leading to the hallway and then the round door leading outside.

“Yes?”

A tall, lanky, dangerous-looking wizard loomed in the doorway. He wore a long, dark, spotted robe. A gray-blue scarf was wrapped around his entire face, mirror goggles covering up the eyes. A large, black, witch-style hat loomed at the top of his head. His insides buzzed ominously.

I gulped.