Anomaly.

Anomaly? How can anything be considered an anomaly in a world where there is such a thing as magic? Be that as it may, the little observant spirit was suddenly roused. It noticed a strange phenomenon in my Abode: the whirling and condensing of mana outside of me and my mana circulatory system. This has never happened before.

After a while, the space in the center of the anomaly collapsed and tore, and a soul came out. It definitely used to belong to a human being, but he's a little different from the rest of the humans. More lonely than the most unsociable hermit. A stranger to everyone, but on a whim. Loved by family, surrounded by friendly people and recognized by a friend, yet hated by everyone in the... world of emptyness? This man's life was made up of contradictions. He himself believes that this is wrong, but refuses to change this.

Yes, this strong soul is definitely a true anomaly.

— That was rude. I must correct you: I was not lonely. Even my emotions at that moment were fake, as I wanted to keep my sanity by creating feelings and thoughts. And I wanted to change this, but he has not.

— Explain.

— As I said earlier, the gradual merging of the two minds, including knowledge, memories, thoughts, desires... and feelings as well. Let me continue.

My thoughts have now completely shifted from the state of "geyser and waterfall at the same time" to "quiet stream" state. The worst thing that can happen to me is the loss of the ability to think normally. Finally, I can calmly consider my hypotheses about future events, but it is better to think quickly, before it is too late!

So, we have:

1) The unreality that surrounds me, without time, space, and a material point to move around.

2) The "light at the end of the tunnel" that inexplicably happened to be under me and pulling me towards it.

Not enough data for hypotheses. But if I'd been hit by a truck, it would have made a lot more sense. Although, "light" can already be considered a point... Okay, the assumptions themselves:

1) I will be met by some deity, it will give me cheats and send me to save the world from villainous evil.

2) I was summoned to another world for the same purpose, but everything will go wrong, I've seen this before.

3) No one summoned me, I'll just be reborn as a baby, but I'll have to save the world from evil.

The main thing here is not to fall into the trap called "to have a harem, but to remain an OP virgin". In fact, the third option sounds good. I have already seen and read so much of this that I can be called a professional in such matters!

Man, I used to call it "light", but it's just some kind of white hole. And now, as I got closer, it lookes like a gap in the paper, but the paper is darker than black. Oh, shit, I'm almost touching it. If only it didn't hurt! I can't squint, but the bright light doesn't hurt my eyes, because I don't have any. Phew, what a relief! Ouch. It's like I went through a crack in the wall, and I got a little scratched. Let's see what we've got here.

*THUMP-THUMP, THUMP-THUMP, THUMP-THUMP...*

I can't see a damn thing. An eerie pulse. What a pity. Maybe in this life I would have had a good, well, or at least a normal father. [1] I can feel people looking at me, but I can't feel my body. I should greet the local deity, but how do I speak? Maybe I should "think loudly", as then? Wait, someone little is looking at me. I think a friendly "Hello!" would be fine.

— I welcome you to my Abode.

Oh, they beat me to it. But this is not that little thing: the voice does not fit at all. In fact, if we talk about the voice, I can't even determine the gender. This is not like the Observer, whose telepathic voice was so neutral it had to use its mortal body's one. But here and now... The voice is impossible to determine. Being polite will help me. In something, for sure, will help me!

— I am sorry for the unexpected visit. Can you tell me where I am now? And is there a "now" here? You see, I lost my sense of space and time while I was Nowhere.

— Answer my questions first.

I don't think it is impudent. After all, I am an uninvited guest here.

Ask your questions already! What are you waiting for? Ahh, I see.

— I agree to answer your questions.

— Who are you?

How many times will I be asked about this, the many times I will answer the same.

— It ceased to be significant after my death.

— No, it hasn't, and it never will. The life of every being is equally important to me and to the balance of the world. Who are you?

"Balance of the world", ha! I am the one who violated it!

— Do you really want to know?

— I do.

— I forgot my name, I forgot most of the memories of my experiences with my family. I am the one who is indirectly responsible for the death of a enormous number of people. Everyone hates me, and I hate everyone. Got it?

— Lie. If you think that you are guilty of this because of your helplessness, then you disappoint me. Human, you are full of contradictions. It is impossible to do everything right without making sacrifices, but you were determined to go along the path of less losses. And your friend thought so, but was wrong.

Too pretentious for me.

My "vision" cleared. It's quite bright here. WOAH. This thing is huge! I can't determine its shape or size, as if it is resisting it. The little one who looked at me first was a small, translucent ball, the same indeterminate color as the big thing.

— Yeah, yeah. "It's not your fault," they said. "It was an accident!" they said to me and to him. Let it be so, let it remain so... In the end, one's life is measured by those we've changed. What is your next question?

— How did you come to be out of the mana circulatory system?

— I don't know...

— Okay. Now, I will answer your questions.

Eh? Just like that? I don't even know what kind of system this is! Ah, whatever. It is more important to find out who my conversationalist is.

— What are you?

— I am the Heart of the World. I exist for a very long time, continuously fulfilling my role.

Hm, now it became clear to me what kind of "mana circulatory" system It was talking about. But it is better to learn more.

— Explain to me the structure of your system in all its details.

— In details? It won't be easy. [2] After death, at the end of the life cycle, the subject's soul leaves the physical body and goes to me through the mana veins. Inside me, the soul disintegrates into particles that travel along the aorta of mana to the surface, to the Tree of Worldbearing. There the particles are "digested" and released from the beautiful flowers that are whiter than white, in the form of life energy for the biosphere and mana for the manasphere of the planet. The life energy is spent on the very emergence of life. An intelligent organism acquires a soul immediately after birth.

if the particles of the evil soul do not reach the roots of the Tree of Worldbearing, they are being directed through the mana arteries to special geological formations that resemble simple caves (or a network of many caves), where they are concentrated in their deepest parts, synthesizing the core of the dungeon. Instead of passing through the souls and returning them, it absorbs the life energy, which it then distributes unevenly throughout the dungeon, giving birth to monsters without a soul and will, but with the instinct to kill for the life energy for the core of their mother dungeon. Some of this energy distributed by the core can reach the surface, which has serious consequences for its inhabitants, including not only world races, but also monsters born naturally.

|This took longer than expected due to the persistent additional questions.|

— Well, that was informative. So I am in a spherical cavity inside the core of the planet, which is called the Abode of the Heart.

But I haven't found out much yet.

Dungeons? Monsters? Tree? World races?

So many interesting things! It will be better if I do without "spoilers" from the Heart. However, do researches again... Hell, no! I will just enjoy a quiet and peaceful life in another world. Exactly. May be...

Hmm...

— Heart, did you know that I am from the another world?

— That was obvious.

— ...

Shame on me. It's a good thing I don't have ears right now. They would have turned into red warning lights. Obvious was that...? I need to do a better job of keeping this fact a secret from the local people.

— And do you want to know about my world?

— No. I don't care about a world that never existed.

Rude. Wait, what do you mean "never existed"? I don't care neither. I do not want to know, because in any case, it will not be very pleasant for me.

Oh, I got it. «Something exists as long as I can observe it», uh-huh.

— That was rude. I was slowly dying at a young age, you know!

— Do you regret your death?

— I have no regrets. It's not in my DNA. I do not care about anything what happened there after my death.

— *...THUMP-THUMP, THUMP-THUMP, THUMP-THUMP...*

Yeah, I can be rude, too. Oh, the little spirit has come to me. Is there something it wants to say? Maybe I can interact with it by "drawing out" my soul?

*Poke*

Oh, no, not again! The Observer's last memories came flooding back to me. I see the events that took place after my death.

Well, now I am really regretting it: the entire human population of the Earth died out in just thirty months. This was the best case, and at the worst, humanity would have lasted six months.

The Big Bounce went as usual. Yes, my home universe collapsed, but that doesn't mean it never existed! Wait, Heart said it knew about my origin from another world, but denied its existence? It contradicts itself. Complete nonsense! Ah, so that's what it was trying to tell me... Shame on me.

And here is the most interesting thing. Yeah, just like I thought. The Observer could do it! He saved mana from annihilation. Sacrificed itself, but could... I don't feel proud of him.

Every experiment has a result. This was your result, Observer. You tried to break the order of the empirical cycle. Fool.

Where did all the dark mana from Theia go...?

— You have preserved all the most important things that remain of the Observer. Thank you for that, little spirit.

The orb of energy shrank and quickly flew away from me towards the Heart. Is it afraid of me? Well, this is understandable: I said a lot to the Observer, but I could not apologize, and I am not going to apologize to "this" semblance of it.

Are there any other spirits? Like, the epitomes of the elements, or something like that? An unfair hierarchy?

— Tell me more about spirits.

— Okay, I will tell you.

|some time later|

This world is even stranger than it first seemed!

I've known enough about spirits:

1) There are many types of spirits. No, THERE ARE REALLY A LOT OF THEM.

2) Spirits have a gradation in power and a hierarchy associated with this gradation, as well as with the type of spirit itself. Spirit can ascend to the next gradation under certain conditions.

3) Strong spirits can work together with weak ones, which is different from my idea of hierarchy.

4) In addition to the standard elemental spirits (earth, water, fire, and so on), there are advanced spirits: atmospheric, hydrospheric and lithospheric (Warning to myself: do not confuse them with tectonic ones!). Biospheric ones can cause biochemical reactions to instantly kill an animal or plant, as well as accelerate their growth. Very cautious, the rarest and most stealthy.

5) Even more powerful spirits can control physical interactions, create powerful electromagnetic field, accumulate electrical charge, and generate electric current. Some are able to form plasma in all its manifestations: flame, lightning, arc discharge... There are some that can manipulate the endocrine system to cause different sensations in animals. All of them are also very stealthy and cautious.

6) In addition to natural, advanced, and higher spirits, there are ghosts and craft spirits that are not included in these categories. A craft spirit is born when the master puts a piece of his soul into his work. I've heard it somewhere before, but I can't remember where. Each of them has the features of several elemental spirits at once. For example, the spirit of blacksmithing can build a fire and inflate it to higher temperatures, purify metal from impurities, and apply additional force to the hammer in the hands of the blacksmith. There are also spirits of war, hunt, art, and so on.

7) There was once an evil spirit named Apocalypse, but it was sealed. A thousand years ago, he was defeated by some powerful exorcist from the exorcist dynasty. Well, I don't care about that. When the Apocalypse will release itself (and I'm sure it will), that won't be my problem. Ha, word "apocalypse" means "revelation". So, Apocalypse was too revealing.

8) The Heart of the World is the top of the spirit hierarchy because it consists of the purest mana. No, seriously. Even in the Observer's memories, only he was purer than the Heart. HOW?!

9) There are less than three hundred people in the entire world who know about the existence of the observation spirits, not counting me and the Heart. Nine of the spirits have made an everlasting contract with the rulers of the nine nations, three in subjection to the Heart. With them, it can see the surface from orbit, and monitor its Abode at the same time.

10) My soul has a resemblance to the entities of the spiritual nature, as I have Observer's pure mana as the basis of my soul. Do they think I'm one of them? Nah, that's crazy.

— Thanks for the information. Heart, can I use one of the observation spirits to inspect the surface?

— If it agrees to.

Wow, the second ball of energy appeared right in front of me! It's a little bigger than the first one. It went right through me! That was unexpected. What was even more unexpected was that it immediately disappeared.

— You can do it.

— Okay... How?

— *...THUMP-THUMP, THUMP-THUMP, THUMP-THUMP...*

— ...

An awkward silence hasn't lasted long: my point of view shifted abruptly to the orbit!

Damn, that's high! What happened to the planet? Why does it look like the Earth just switched to the Oligocene? However, it seems that the "World Flood", as it was on Earth, will not occur here, as the Black, Caspian and Azov Seas are here. This is good. Perhaps the world looks like this, because of the presence of mana, strong creatures and advanced spirits. The prevented collision of the protoplanets should have affected the speed of the planet's rotation around the Sun and its own axis... I'll have to get used to the new calendar.

Okay, enough thinking, I want to enjoy the beauty of this new world.

|twelve seconds later|

— Heart, I've seen enough, I am satisfied. [3]

My point of view shifted to the Abode of the Heart. The second observation spirit appeared in front of me again.

— Thank you, too.

It shrank even more than the first one, and immediately flew through the ceiling of the Abode. I'm not surprised.

— Strong soul, what will you do now?

— It really bothers me that you are addressing me like this. Although it is understandable: I did not tell you my name, as I forgot it.

— I can give you a new name, if you would like.

I wonder if there is anything in this world more full of honor than accepting a name from the Heart of the World itself? Perhaps I will keep the intrigue of why everyone calls me "strong soul".

— I would be honored.

(At this moment, the Heart was recalling the various names that belonged to the souls that were passing through it. Though, his name should sound strong, as his soul does.)

— Human, I, the Heart of the World, name you Edmund. From now on, and forever, it will be your name.