—1500 years ago—

I had finally done it. I reached the level that no human has ever accomplished before! To think the breakthrough technique was to complete the heart instead of a ring. Truly incomprehensible. It was no wonder that no human has ever set foot into this realm. With this, we might finally be able to eliminate the current Demon God.

I, Merlin, the first to become a 9th Circle Wizard, will vanquish the evil that threatens this continent.

—13 years later—

So this is the last battle... We've finally entered the Demon God's dimension. With my magical prowess, Hero Arthur's divine power, Fahris's martial prowess, and Sarah's soul arts, we were certain that we would triumph yet again.

The result—we were utterly destroyed.

That being has already far surpassed the limits of our home world. To it, me and my party was like a group of ants thinking they could take down an elephant. It was simply impossible. If only I were stronger...

I was the last man standing. My three friends have already been devoured by him. Why was I still alive? Why. Why. Why. Why? Is it to make me despair? If only...

I suddenly recalled something. Before entering the Demon God's domain, Sarah had imparted to me a forbidden skill. She had warned me not to use it unless absolutely necessary because the drawbacks from using the skill could make my soul dissipate. Either way, I was the only one still alive. If I were to die anyway, might as well go off with a bang.

I gave the surrounding magic particles the aura of death and gathered it into my body. Once my body was completely full, I used the forbidden skill on the Demon God who was leisurely glaring at me on his throne.

"SOUL SEARCH."

The moment I activated the skill, I felt my consciousness was burning, almost as if I was being scorched alive. But, my body was already in tatters, there was no fire. It was all in my mind, yet it felt so real. The previous grin the Demon God had on had disappeared and what was left was a face filled with pain and anger.

This was what I wanted to see. The blood in me started to boil and I held the sensation of wanting to close my eyes and lay at rest eternally. I knew, the moment I deactivated the skill, all efforts would have gone in vain.

After a couple days, my concentration started to weaken. Memories that weren't mine started to flow into my brain after the first day. After three days, vast amounts of knowledge about soul arts were in my brain. After five days, everything there was to know about martial arts was known to me. After the seventh day, I had lived through the lives of my companions and many others including the Demon God.

Once I started to weaken, the Demon God took the chance to seal me. I couldn't do anything.

He trapped me in an eternal void. There was nothing, you could call it pure darkness, but it wasn't that either. It was just nothing.

After a couple years had passed, I was able to fully understand the situation I was in. My physical body had long been devoured, but the Demon God had kept my soul trapped here to torture it.

That soul search ability...it seemed to be a one time usage skill. If I went through that experience again, I was sure that my soul would immediately cease existing.

—1400 years later—

I was bored. Bored of this nothingness. If this continued, I was sure that I would go insane. How long has passed? A couple years? Centuries? Millennia? Either way, I had taken the time given to me to strengthen my soul by training it with the knowledge I had obtained.

Turns out, when the Demon God devours someone, he takes all of their abilities including their skills and life experiences. Soul Search allows the soul to forcibly enters someone's soul and search their memories. At least now, I had a rough idea as to how powerful the Demon God was.

Either way, I had already lost. I can't do anything against him without a physical body. And yet, I'm still practicing Sarah's soul techniques to strengthen the power of my soul.

—87 years later—

I felt something resonate with my soul. Something was calling for me. I reached out to that voice. I didn't have arms, I was literally a blue fire in the middle of nowhere. Either way, I felt that I could somehow interact with that other existence. I didn't know what it was but I had nothing else to do anyway. When I had finally reached that silent voice, something heaven defying had occurred.

I could open my eyes! This...I finally have a physical body! But...why?

A bunch of memories flushed straight to my head.

"I see..."

It appears that this body belongs to a young man named Dray. He was constantly bullied, even the professors could only look at him with disappointment. All that had led to him killing himself by accidentally extinguishing his soul from casting a spell far above his level.

Merlin could only sigh. There were many people even back in his time that died from casting spells. What surprised him the most was that the body's magical and physical cultivation were complete garbage.

He got off the bed and headed to a vacant area that had enough magical particles passing by for him to cultivate. That vacant area was the training field.