blemishes

It turned out that sparking a fire was the most difficult part of preparing a meal in the afterlife. After confirming with the mace a thousand times that fire actually existed in this realm, Derek still couldn't figure out how to start one.

I think I might have to de-evolve a few thousand decades here and eat this thing raw,

Derek thought, eyeing the slab of meat with barely contained hunger. The thought of the creature's revolting innards from earlier did nothing to quell his appetite.

What's more, the temperature of the environment plunged just as low at night as it soared during the day. It was a freezing hellscape, and the dilapidated ruin he'd taken shelter in did nothing to keep the cold out.

He needed a fire, one way or another, or he would end up a starving popsicle by dawn. He desperately scratched two stray rocks he'd found earlier against each other, while striking up a conversation with the mace to distract himself from his gnawing hunger.

"…So you're saying the souls of all living things come to these lands?" Derek asked incredulously.

"Of course," the mace replied, pausing to adopt its most sage-like tone; it always seemed to relish proving it possessed a vast reservoir of knowledge.

It began, "Humans, animals, even plants have souls. When they're converted, they come here.

If they die here, all their sins, iniquities, hopes, pain, lust, and so on are cleansed. All these blemishes, in a way, are what define them, their power. That's what you gain when you crush a soul core. The real consciousness, the universe takes.

After that, they're spawned back into the living world as brand new, acquiring all those blemishes once again, and the process repeats itself. It's a very vicious, but effective, perpetual motion cycle. Whoever created both universes must have been really lazy."

Derek nodded, his interest piqued. The mace really did know its stuff, even Auror hadn't explained all of this to him.

"If there's anything I know about systems and cycles, it's that there are always loopholes one can exploit."

"Indeed," the mace replied, picking up on Derek's train of thought. "A good example is the case of the Damned.

You might not know this, but Overlords and above can 'judge' a soul.

'Judge,' in this case, is just a fancy word for collapsing the blemishes and the soul together. Even though the soul and its blemishes are what make up the soul core, they are still separate entities.

An Overlord, or those with higher rank, can select a blemish that their concept is familiar with and collapse it into the soul, gaining control and damning the soul forever. This method, if used by an Overlord, mostly works on newly Converted souls, since they're still new to their awareness and consciousness. Those of higher ranks than Overlords might be able to collapse the souls of experienced Converts or even Neophytes."

A bitter smile touched Derek's lips. Even though the mace didn't mention its master dabbling in such heinous acts, Derek had almost been a victim, saved only by the timely arrival of Auror.

"These Damned souls you mentioned, where do they go when they die, since their souls can't be recycled?" Derek asked.

"To be sincere, I myself once asked Ichl this question, but he said he wasn't sure."

"I see," Derek replied sullenly.

The mace didn't seem to notice Derek's sudden solemnity as it continued. "Another loophole in the system is the digesting of souls—something you are complicit in," the mace did not hide its distaste.

Derek ignored the comment, urging it to continue. So, it did.

"When you swallow a soul core, it slips into your soul instead of your stomach, as you thought. Inside, a fierce battle ensues, one you remain blissfully oblivious to. The soul with the most consciousness overcomes the one with less, and the latter becomes part of the former, never to rejoin the perpetual motion cycle."

Derek sighed, his understanding increased, but had only brought forth more questions. Icht had tried to judge his soul and subdue it, but had ended up being digested in Derek's soul instead, life was strange that way.

It all finally made sense at least to an extent, judging a soul relied solely on rank, while digesting a soul relied solely on the class.

After all no matter how heavy and dense a small stone is, it can still be wrapped up by a thin sheet of tissue.

Derek has always enjoyed learning new things, and he had determined to learn as much as he could from the aged, knowledgeable weapon, who knew when they would part ways.

"So, you mentioned earlier that even animal and plant souls make it into this realm. What differentiates them?"

"That has been a headache for researchers for decades," the mace replied, seeming to become pensive.

Derek was surprised that there were researchers even in the afterlife, but he didn't interrupt.

The mace continued. "It's generally believed that souls of animals, plants, and humans take on the rough shape of their former appearances, though there might be some discrepancies: a larger body structure, evolved new body parts, or perhaps a change of habitat."

"As for their intelligence, all plants known so far have the consciousness of a Nadir. That of animals never goes past a Banal. Only human souls have been recorded to be above the aforementioned class."

Derek was enjoying the information dump so much that he didn't even notice that it was dawn. The usual unbearable, scorching sun lit up the landscape with it's morning glow, it was now slightly manageable, but later in the day it would eventually grow to become an immolating furnace. But then, something about the atmosphere felt off.

"Morning? Wait, what? It was just dusk a few minutes ago. How…?"

Derek thought, snapping out of it, as he stood and looked through the broken hole in the wall, but the illumination felt wrong. The air was unnatural, and the source of light seemed to be right above their dwelling. The world suddenly got a dark aura around it, which created the sudden urge to flee. Derek steeled himself and began to go out to check what was happening.

But the mace's voice stopped him in his tracks. It was grim. "If you value your life, don't go out there."