At eleven o'clock at night a young man, though that was hard to tell with his lifestyle. He was gathering the courage to leave work and brave the rain and cold outside. The man stood at an average height, his build was thin almost to the point of causing concern among his coworkers, bones almost exposed to the light of day when one took the time to look with a critical eye. His hair, one could clearly see that at one point or another had been thick and black as night, the last evidence of such, being the fading darks spots hidden under the matt of knots and other wise thin hair. Green eyes became illuminated with every flash of lightning, a person could almost see the intensity those eyes once held. As the light faded with the lightning, the man's eyes became closer to reality, all the way until the only light one could see inside his eyes were the far off street lights reflecting back.

With a breath the man began walking at a fast pace, his hand clenching and unclenching getting ready to open the door and use whatever was left of his more athletic youth to get home. The door swung open right as the man was about to grab it, his momentary hesitation brought forth punishment in the form of the biting cold wind and the lashing of water droplets on his face, each drop being just as if not colder than the wind. His will wavered just for a moment longer before his body began moving with or without any desire to do so. The man's feet sank into the wet gravel of the parking lot. He was still able to grab enough traction to start running, the man reigned in his body's decision to madly rush and started breathing in a rhythmic fashion upping the oxygen levels in his body. Internally the man was begging that the last two years of abusing his lungs with cigarettes and not exercising wouldn’t catch up to him today.

He made it as far as one might expect before the burning pain in his lungs, sides, even his legs, started crawling their way into his mind like seeds of self doubt trying to tell him that he wasn’t going to make it home tonight. These seeds found themselves in an overcrowded garden of a psyche, and this garden was not only overcrowded it was down right hostile to newcomers, soon these relatively weak doubts about his physical capabilities slid right off him, leaving him no better mentally or physically. 'Gods I’ll never touch a cigarette again if I make it home.’ The man kept repeating this over and over again, making every attempt to cement this idea inside his psyche.

Even with these obstacles apperating from nature herself the young man was able to make his way safely to his block, and then to the front step of his apartment, those flashes of all illuminating light brought forth many shadows from their dark hiding places... Except those truly horrid beings who feared the light. Now a normal man would never feel that they had any chance of meeting those types of peoples or more aptly monsters, but there are times when bad things happen to good people, when good things happen to bad people, and bad things happening to average people who never wanted to be a part of the chaos normally involved with any of those situations.

A large man was sitting in an unmarked sedan, his face cold and impassive, gray eyes that never wavered off his target being one of two remarkable features on the man, the other being the truly remarkable amount of experience the man had in his line of work. Only noticeable by careful inspection of his breathing and how calm he was considering what he was about to do. In his hand was a coffee he slowly sipped from the cup, waiting for something; on his lap sat a gun.

The large man’s target walked into the apartment and with a fluid motion unfitting of any man his size he sat the coffee down and was already getting out of the car before the seemingly rhythmic lighting strikes in the distance. And with large strides he soon was standing at the doorway of a young man's apartment. He took a moment to put leather gloves on his hands before knocking on the door.

‘Why is somebody knocking at this hour? Can’t they see that some of us have bigger issues than telling them that of course I couldn’t be interested in buying anything? I'm already about to lose my whole home from this storm!’ "Fine I ought to check it out just in case it's someone who needs help." With these thoughts of helping his fellow man he was off to his front door with a slightly less dampered speed about him.

His green eyes couldn’t make out heads or tails of who was knocking even the lightning seemingly found its match, being unable to illuminate the doorway. Thinking little of this the young man's hand had already begun opening the door. In the instance he had opened the door just a sliver he felt the hair on his body stand on end his mind fully catching onto the pieces of the puzzle just a little too late to be of any use.

He felt himself be pushed back falling onto the ground, a dark silhouette finally becoming apparent in the brief flashes of light. Any man can want to stand up when their life is on the line, when the promised meeting with death and anything else beyond our mortal understanding is near; many could force out a few moments of struggle but that is what separates a man driven by a desire to be free of his fears, and a man so wholly consumed that his own fears drive his continued existence and demand, nay would never settle for less than total mutually assured destruction when threatened. Be that by something inward like their host trying to oust them or externally like the dark figure trying to end all of their existences.

And now finally under the promise of a final resolution to the continued battle between man and fear. Only now does the broken and shattered mind of the man and his fears finally come to a shaky and rather un orthodox peace. The pale lifeless eyes of the young man gained a much more permanent light, muscles only now recovering from their earlier strain felt themselves called upon for a much more pressing task. And if ever there was a time that he needed to become something greater than what he was meant for, today was not the day. As the silhouetted man raised his arm and suddenly a bright flash, brighter than even the lightning outside, it sent the young man's ears ringing and his body hurling back into the ground.

The large man stood still for a moment as sounds began rushing back to fill the void, before turning and closing the door. He then walked up to the dying man laying on the ground; he looked silently before a cold voice rang through the night. His voice was garbled and not understandable; he raised the gun again and fired two more shots to the prone man's head and chest.

All that light and will to fight extinguished without a trace if it wasn’t already being put out by the first round to his chest. ‘All of the work I’d put into just living till now, ruined with nothing to show for it but my body laying inside a building that I don’t own and with the person who killed me probably going through the few possessions that I do own.’ And like that a man's life was cut short before it even truly began. All of those long repressed thoughts and feelings that a human collects all their life began to disappear alongside the young man's life. It found itself unable to latch onto its host's departing spirit, but that didn’t stop it from leaving its mark on the young man's spirit as it left his body, trying desperately to continue surviving as all things do.

The soul soon was dropped off into the void by the ancient soul channels. Acting almost as if a river going down from the mountains into the ocean. In this void all mortal souls go here to be broken down into the smallest most basic building block of sorts. Pure energy, collected and refined over the course of all entities lives, each action causing either a loss or gain to this cosmic point balance. Inside this rolling, boiling, and turning mass of nothingness a single soul begins to stir into consciousness, ‘where am I?’ it thought before flashes of a past life started surfacing flashes of lightning followed by the all encompassing glow of death, the freezing temperatures inside these flashes caused the green sphere to start showing signs of getting cold, something rather odd about the situation considering that the coldest of colds would do nothing to a soul, but such is the way of reliving your last moments. No matter the creature they would be hard pressed to find joy in their final moments.

“Who was that, why were there two people, is there anything I can do to get back?’ questions filtering back through the soul's mind being discarded and repurposed faster than even a super computer due to the lack of physical limitations here in this space, and like a gun signaling a start to a race, the slow spread of corruption began it’s march, more than baseless worries started burrowing into the soul's being. The first worry is of being alone, something so hardwired into the human race that it can almost be considered normal for them to start to worry. All the easier for the corruption to start influencing young beings into believing these stray thoughts to be their own.

If this was the entirety of the previous mass of corruption the little soul would have stood no chance. Ending it’s story before it even had a chance to start. But this was no grand corruption going against a babe, no this was a fledgling corruption with none of the experience and benefits of being in a doubt filled host. This was a soul so thoroughly damaged by corruption that as soon as this corruption attempted to latch hold they simply fell back into the void, dying almost immediately without a host. Even with the death of these fledgling corruptions, wormlike and with no chance of survival without a host, the soul was able to feel them attempting to find respite from the harsh dimension they and all their kin come from.

Flashes of memories not from the perspective of a living being going through the motions of living but of the soul when it was housed inside, flashes of when these same wormlike beings dug through it passing through the host body like there wasn’t even a protective barrier at all. They quickly outnumbered any attempt to defend itself. They bent the soul to his will and forced it to act as a perfect house from all threats. The soul watched it’s bubbly host turn into almost a soulless husk, forced to not thrive or even attempt to reach greatness but to instead live out in mediocrity never feeling that they could be greater only doing the bare minimum to survive, and keep these worm like beings alive and allow them to grow fat off the energy produced by their host body.

Inside these memories the soul learned the host’s name Raymond. He knew that the only way to make up for his failure as a soul. Would be to take the name Raymond. He learned through these memories that a soul's job was to nurture, provide stability, and to protect to its host in exchange for a way out of the void. It was his job to protect his host from corruption but had failed. And now these worms felt it a perfect opportunity to attempt to get to him again just as before, so that his next host would end up the same way… The now named soul screamed out in anger “No! I won’t let you ruin anyone else! You won’t use me as some sick carrier into a host.” And like that the worms had to fight to even get in, now the soul was aware of the threat of these corruptive beings, they were worse than the worms their bodies took shape from. As their worklike forms started thrashing against the will of the soul they would soon break down into motes of the same corruptive energy that they were made up of. It took dozens of their combined efforts to get even their fat shovel shaped face into the barrier…

Raymond knew something was wrong he could feel it after the first couple waves of the corrupt beings they stopped throwing themselves against the barrier, instead choosing to circle close to the barrier, dying in droves but yet they still persisted in circling the barrier. After what must have been hundreds of these work creatures dying there was a thick cloud of their remains. And only one single worm, who was not burning outside the barrier. Rather it began absorbing the dust surrounding it. Growing into a ball of condensed corruption. He could tell this thing would act like an egg bringing forth a new type of corrupt being, one that would have no trouble breaching the admittedly weak shield. Raymond knew that he wasn’t strong enough to push back more than the worklike corruption. digging deep into his memories and attempted to find out a way to move in the void…

The “egg” had grown over the few minutes that he had been focusing inside, he found nothing but had wasted valuable time. With his only hope extinguished his thinking turned to ways to take the corrupted being out before it was born, or at least cripple it so that it wouldn’t be an easy victory for the thing. He wanted to smash the egg but found once again the inability to move avoided him. Necessity trumped any desire, and so thinking on how he could move in this empty void. ‘There's nothing for me to push against to propel me in any direction let alone in a specific direction, those worms were able to move weren’t they? They seemed to not move their bodies at all meaning it’s not dependent on physically moving it must be based on will.’ Coming to this conclusion began willing itself as hard as he could towards the egg. Only to find that his speed was far too slow, plans yet again smashed into dust upon first encounter with the enemy. Seeing his speed did make more sense as to why the worms were so slow in the first place, he was only just faster than the worms and so realizing that speed here was based on will power. He knew somehow that the thing born from the egg would be much faster than he. ‘I won’t be able to reach the egg in time to do anything. I'll end up running face first into its mouth if I do try, I need to get away from that thing.’ And so he began pushing himself away from the egg, already promising to hunt the being down once he was strong enough to do so.

Soon he was far away, he couldn’t tell for sure but he thought himself safe for now. He continued moving still but now was less frantic about doing so. He started taking stock of his situation. ‘My body is riddled with holes, entire chunks of me are missing, thankfully I still have some of the basic rules of this place from before I was hosted by that poor boy.’ Shrugging off the negative thoughts, ‘I’ll need to heal and there are only two ways to heal here, the first is time, and the second is by absorbing other souls. Most of them aren’t intelligent like I am, so that won’t harm anything.’ Raymond pondered what method would be better while spending time alone would result in him being at full strength he didn’t feel comfortable with his odds of beating whatever might have been born from that egg. But if he spent his time here while also consuming any souls that had lost their ability to think, then he could get double the results. And like that in the spirit of getting even with the corruption Raymond began tracking souls. Also known as wandering the great expanse between dimensions.

Noticing some of the smaller holes had begun healing over the course of his journey. His regeneration speed was increased by finding soul mottes, and consuming them whenever possible. But he knew he’d need this strength to take down his current target. A blue soul, looking down at the little thing, he wondered if it was intelligent like him. He had no real way of knowing so he descended like a hungry predator onto the blue soul. Only upon getting closer did he see the geometrical shapes on the inside of the soul, starting to get a sense that these meant something important, but a knowing that he needed to be stronger so he enveloped the soul, before willing himself to absorb the soul. He felt no resistance; he felt that some of his more basic abilities were fixed almost immediately. Like chains falling off while swimming. This included the memories of what those symbols meant, they were talents that these souls would give to their host to make their chance of getting a host better. And now he would be able to provide a lesser version of that same thing. He could feel the cycling geometric shapes flowing around his surface. having no time to ponder if doing this was the right thing, he’d already done it and so if he was to be judged he would freely admit to being guilty..

spending his time floating aimlessly in the void, the newly increased speeds propelled him to new heights of efficiency. Soon he found a second soul, this one only slightly smaller than himself. Seeing this he slowed down and came to the souls side, gently touching the outside shell. Testing to see if there was will behind the shield or if it was a hollow defence. There was push back, backing off knowing that the soul would be able to survive without his presence and not having the ability to talk or hear anything the other soul might have said made him all the more eager to leave the area. And almost like he was getting better at finding souls he met the third one in his lifetime, and the second one in such a short amount of time. This soul was almost as damaged as himself was, it had no shield and such a thing was almost suicide considering the new understanding, this soul was exactly like him it hadn’t realized the threat of the corruption until it was too late. All that was left was for this soul to be allowed to find a host and the corruption would follow after, taking over the host and the soul.

propelling himself towards the hollow thing serving as an ark to protect the corruption from the hostile void. Soon he was upon the thing and completely surrounded the soul, filling every crack and crevice, this held until he felt the corruption trying to escape, to eat their way into him. He was unwilling to let this happen, and so drew up the power he had gained from the blue soul. Geometric shapes formed and pierced into the corruption, some being pierced by acute triangles, by the sharp edges of squares, or even slowly forced onto the blunt faces of oval pillars. And with each and every one of them being killed, cracking open the husk of a soul, letting the corruption begin dispersing into the void. waiting for a moment to give respect to the poor soul who had most definitely suffered before being left in this state, but he knew that dying was better than forcing such a fate onto any mortal being. Feeling like respect had been paid in full, he began consuming the remains of the husk.

It did very little for regaining any of his original form, but it did feel better, it made it seem his actions were the right thing and stopping anyone else from going through life already handicapped before they had a chance to fight. starting to move again feeling like a weight had been lifted from himself. Soon the reason the corruption had been sitting in that spot. There was a well deeper into the void, not even a far distance from where the husk had been. Piecing together what this was, this was a one way tunnel into the mortal plane, to getting a new host, to leaving the dark loneliness of the void behind. Suddenly his will was dragged into a fight against his instincts from freezing himself in place and waiting… ‘Waiting for what.’ He wondered as his will pulled himself from the hypnotic pull the well had on him. And soon he was floating into yet more new territory inside the void.

He saw wonders of how souls were transported into the void. By great channels invisible and intangible most of the time only to light up like a great maw into direct sunlight. Suddenly seeing a bright light made sense for people who nearly died but had been brought back from the brink. Feeling that absorbing souls right as they joined the void would make him no better than the corruption. But he knew these souls would radiate outwards into the void trying to find a well. So his searches began bearing more fruit. He found souls whose passions about a specific facet of life were manifested by ethereal flames burning away corruption before it even had a chance to infect them. and would bring that passion and defence to their host allowing them to fulfil themselves to their greatest potential… That is if he didn’t know that a soul had to be greater than what they started out to survive in that place. New discoveries found, like souls who acted in a similar way to himself but were larger than anything imaginable, they were so large in fact that there were doubts they could even fit inside one of the wells. And so many oddities were passed by or absorb into himself, that he soon found himself healed to full and still growing larger. He promised that he wouldn’t allow himself to grow to the size of those larger souls or else there would have been no purpose to doing all of this. And he wouldn’t be able to use what he’d done to benefit a host.

This thought scared himself, spending eternity in this void unable to find companionship ever again. Forced from his lax attitude, and so with newfound conviction he began moving on the hunt once again. He almost lost himself many times as the corruption became harder to avoid as his size grew. His understanding of that he still couldn’t fight one of those beings from the eggs also grew; he after all was only the combined will of a few dozen still while there must have been hundreds of those corrupt beings had formed and somehow compressed into something greater. That last bit was the thing that piqued his interest after all a seemingly all encompassing law he had found was that absorbing another soul would always result in a loss of the abilities, and it wasn’t as if he’s gained every bit of them or he’d have been healed up after the first three souls he absorbed. So there must be something important about condensing ones form down to improve the quality of the abilities present.

And so he stopped his constant feeding frenzy, the smaller wormlike beings no longer even bothered to attempt to get him and they lacked the intelligence to gather in large numbers to form another egg. Soon learning why they had done so originally was because he had been almost hollowed out and so it had created a frenzy to be the first one to get some of the evidently free real estate. Now as such a large soul that the only remaining threats in the void were whatever might have been inside the eggs, and the hulking vacuum cleaners that wondered at a slow pace, as if even their surly great amount of will power struggled to push their mass and girth with any sort of speed.

And for a second time he willed a halt in his feeding frenzy allowed him to finally start thinking up a plan. He now had the memories of at most twenty-eight souls not counting his original memories. Using these memories he could tell that there were multiple worlds, possibly even universes with different rules, worlds with magic and worlds that people absorbed the world's energy till they could lift mountains and live for centuries longer than possible, he’d seen worlds were technology was so interwoven with their DNA that baseline babies in that world could outsmart the smartest humans in his old world. And he’d even seen races that weren’t human at all. All of these different perspectives made Raymond take a lot less time than it previously would have taken to come up with a solution. after taking in pure soul energy, this energy was what made up the energies those “cultivators” used to lift mountains and do all sorts of other great feats. They also made up the energies that mages used and called magic. These energies they used were the processed down version of soul energy it somehow contained a great deal of the original power soul energy seemed to contain, but it was missing parts of it. And the two energies were even different from each other in some way that wasn't clear to him no matter how hard he tried.

Realizing that the energy he’d been absorbing was so powerful had been humbling, but it also had been tantalizing in ways he hadn’t yet experienced in any of his different memories. He felt himself desire to wield magic like mages, he desired to allow his host to live for centuries to be able to accomplish all their goals. feeling himself change with this new mental state, it wasn’t a bad change it was that he was different, he understood that he would lose most if not all of his memories when he went to the next life, his host would be no better than anyone else simply because he was providing only watered down versions of what other souls would be able to make a host a great person regardless of what world they went to. Not wanting to make his host average after sacrificing so many souls that would have made great people. He needed to be able to provide something greater.

And so knowing just where to start, he started expanding his will outwards farther than he’d ever done before, soon he was stretched thin, and with his new form he started willing the stray mottes of energy into himself and like this he noticed a sizable increase in the amount of energy he was absorbing. Once he had absorbed as much energy as his form could hold. He’d seen through his memories that the humans would take in energy and using special exercise they would force this energy into one single point from there all the energy they gathered would naturally fall into this single point. But he didn’t have to do some special exercise due to having this energy all under his will, and so he began forcing his new found density to its limits and for the first time there was a sensation of pain, he knew he should stop but for some reason he was unable to do so. He continued forcing all that energy into a smaller and smaller point. A buzzing started becoming audible even without ears this was the first sound he had heard as even his memories were without sound. This buzzing became more and more violent the more condensed he was forcing himself to become. And as if the energy needed to go somewhere it began coursing through the individual talents he had absorbed. Each time they reached a limit they would become stronger, but somehow wasn’t getting closer to forming a single point of energy. Raymond was back down to his original size but now his abilities were much stronger. His reduced size might have meant that his will power would have been reduced but instead he found himself able to move faster than ever before. Feeling that for once he would be able to benefit his next host and when he found that host he would finally do right by the man named Raymond.

Fin--