Atem: Now immortal unless killed but filled with despair, he dived into teaching as an escape. His double was enrolled as a student and became a strange and gloomy student. As time went by, they both lived different lives and noticed that they were developping in their own ways.

Atem: They noticed that they were no longer both 'Shen' but only the original remained 'Shen' while the double was now...Someone else. He had become an entire new existence. Shen realized he had created a new life. And, out of fear, killed it. Well, they both try to kill each other.

Atem: Anyways, more time in despair, gloomy vibes and such until one day. A man came to meet him. A previous student of his. He brought him a book. A journal from an ennemy traveller. And this journal...It recorded the reason the man was looking for the seeds. It began with a single line and this was another destiny changer.

Atem: The line was "Is the Underworld a World?"

Atem: It brought to Shen a question. Her soul did leave this world but for where? Where did her soul go? Where do they even go? From there, he began to delve into the question. In a bloody and savage way. He killed people and cut their souls to see where they went. He was unable to follow them far. He did find out that they left towards another world. But to where?

Atem: From then, he began to take an interest in exploring worlds once more. He wanted to find the Underworld. The notebook owner did not find it so he had to do it by himself. Tough luck though, it was not easy to find a single world through who knows how many. As he kept moving through worlds, he had to switch teams again and again.

Atem: He got tired of it soon and decided to create his own team. But that too ended in a rather ugly way with most of them dying. In ugly ways. He escaped at the time. After that, it became slightly difficult to find other partners... He was considered a traitor... Well, that's when he returned to his research. He believed that if he could put a restriction on the puppets...

Atem: In the end, he managed to do something unexpected by using a composite mind magic. He put a restriction onto the next puppet he created with a fragment of his soul. Since souls healed in time and he had a lot of that anyways, he could do it. And so, the new double of his had a very special Mind control on it. Something he knew he had but could not diffuse.

Atem: A simple order not to betray the original. And a guarantee as well. The original would not betray him either. It was an application of the purest forms of Mind Contract Magic. Powerful, beautiful and binding. From there, he could explore again. There were always unfortunate people who wished to enter teams and could not. He picked those. And explored.

Atem: He documented many worlds and many of his puppets died along the way. Many more of the teammates died. He could always replace both. Until after some time, a good and strong team was created with only two puppets of his in it. Of course, everyone but him ignored that they were 'him' too. That was me and Tempest. That's where my story and his begin.

Atem: We explored worlds. We stole seeds. Until we reached this world. It might be difficult to believe but this world is nothing like any other we had been to. The density of Magic here is incredibly high. And that meant that the seed here was something else too. We got betrayed by the other teammates and sealed. The attractiveness of such a power was too big. And then, we woke up not long ago.

???: Wait. Wait. You're telling me you're just another 'Shen'? And what about all that happened in the past here?

Atem: Ah~ It's tiring to explain everything~ Well, we enjoyed the place. There was a welcoming and sentient mix of races here which is rare. So we fooled around for dozens of years as we searched for the seed. This world is vaster than you imagine. So, we had wives, we had kids, we had students... We lived here.

???: Why? And what happened to searching for that girl's soul?

Atem: Because we remain men. And we are affected by boredom too. We have feelings. We had a love that had a sad ending but we lived some with good endings. In the end, you see, heart's woudns heal with time and people move on. We have not forgotten her but we have lived so long that we are not the same anymore. We are still looking for the underworld, for her. But not just her anymore.

Atem: When you live for so long, a single life's love soon become a fading memory. And yet, as living beings with feelings, we still search for love, companionship...the warmth of another. We love, we lose, we grieve and we repeat. It is the cycle of life and we keep on repeating it. Even though it hurts, it also feels good.

Atem: To love once more, the pain of loss is bearable.

???: I don't get it. Why even keep doing this? Why not just keep living somewhere? If you keep on repeating the cycle anyways?

Atem: We...We want more. We dream of becoming Gods. We want a world where we can see those we loved again.

???: Why did you not make them into puppets then? You got eternal life!

Atem: Because, dear, it is not that simple to make one. I might have made it seem easy. It is not. Creating life can't be 'easy' for anyone but Gods. And we aren't Gods.

???: There are so many contradictions in your story.

Atem: Yes. That's what happens when you live that long. You no longer know why you do things. You no longer find any reasons to what you do. You only pursue past goals regardless of their meanings.. Everything slowly but surely becomes boring and pointless. That's why we keep on interacting with others and living.

???: I- I don't get it.