The world of Gaia was in an interesting situation.
Globally, everyone was facing the imminent conquest from the demons, your typical demonkind invasion that any reincarnation or transmigration tale beheld. Not that I was looking down on any of such stories, but sometimes I wondered why it was always so... why couldn't it be that any other species were the ones invading? But this time I couldn't even blame it on some demon king wanting to just get power and all.
I could only blame it on my desperate ally's foolish decision of wanting to meet me early in advance.
"And it better be a damn good reason as to why, since I most definitely won't be playing hero," I muttered as I continued pacing through the forest with the aid of Codex to head back into Koladar and begin my investigation.
The ancient trees of The Groove Canopy gradually thinned as I made my way toward its edge, their massive trunks standing like silent sentinels watching my departure. The dappled light that had filtered through the dense canopy above grew steadier and more consistent as the foliage became less concentrated. Ambient sounds shifted from the mysterious whispers and rustles of the deep forest to the more common chirps and calls of ordinary woodland creatures.
I kept a brisk pace, not quite running but moving with purposeful strides that ate up the distance efficiently. With each step, I allowed a carefully controlled trickle of my aura to seep outward—just enough to warn off any curious predators or territorial beasts that might consider intercepting my path. The effect was immediate and visible; small creatures scurried away at my approach, birds took flight from nearby branches, and even the larger predators I sensed lurking in the underbrush gave me a wide berth.
Once the Dark-Walkers were done with, I had headed back to the Groove Guardian's domain and confirmed the running of the first and subsequent protective barriers I had set up alongside what Yddra was maintaining subconsciously as she took a rest from the strain of being awake.
The farewell was as short as it was sad for the young princess. I still did not understand her fascination and frankly wanted to maintain a proper distance away and was not looking forward to meeting her nor her parents once more. Since I knew where exactly Yddra's body was, I could simply teleport next time when needed without going through the hassle of speaking with the Groove Guardians themselves.
A particularly aggressive quadrupedal beast—something resembling a cross between a wolf and a boar with tusks jutting from its lower jaw and six eyes arranged in a circular pattern on its skull—had emerged from the underbrush about fifty meters to my left. It had taken one look at me, sensed the minute fraction of power I was deliberately leaking, and promptly slunk away with its bristled tail between its legs. The subtle display served its purpose; I had no time or patience for meaningless confrontations with the local wildlife.
With my parting, I decided to focus on the one thing that had been bugging me but I kept at the back of my mind: my counterpart's family.
The path I traveled showed signs of increasing use as I approached the forest's edge—not a proper trail by any means, but subtle indicators that other beings occasionally traversed this route. Broken twigs, compressed soil, and the occasional scrap of fur caught on thorny bushes suggested the passage of both beasts and perhaps more intelligent creatures. I paid these signs little mind, my thoughts already racing ahead to Koladar and the mystery that awaited me there.
Normally in a reincarnation situation like mine, a person would have an identity crisis when they came to know the true procedures of the soul, information that was non-existent to anyone below an ancient god's level of power, and even for said beings, it was rare—less than 1% of them even knew the truth. And that was caused mostly due to two particular concepts, karma and causality. Despite being able to traverse the multiverse, the odds of a being, especially for those on the higher end of the strength hierarchy, to meet another of themselves—their other split soul—was rare and so small it seemed and felt impossible.
For weaker beings, however, it was almost possible, but that was also skewed since if there was even one piece of your split soul that had managed to reach higher and higher levels, it then became more and more difficult for you to come across others of your split soul.
It was the reason why my situation was so unique and an impossibility, having only split into two compared to the countless that was the norm. I easily met my other counterpart since our odds were a guaranteed 50-50, and once we merged, considering the personality rearrangement was almost non-existent, it felt more like I had been living this hidden life that I was just remembering.
The sunlight grew stronger as I approached the forest's edge, the temperature rising noticeably as I left the cool shelter of The Groove Canopy. The world beyond the trees was bathed in the harsh light of midday, the rolling landscape stretching toward Koladar visible now as a tapestry of yellowed grasslands and occasional rocky outcroppings. In the far distance, the hazy outline of the city's imposing walls shimmered in the heat.
I paused at the precise boundary where forest met plains, taking a moment to adjust my senses to the more open environment. The wind carried different scents here—dust, distant smoke from the city, the dry fragrance of sun-baked grass. The cacophony of forest sounds gave way to the more subdued whispers of wind through tall grass and the occasional cry of a hawk circling overhead.
In any case, my counterpart's family in this universe that Gaia was on was just as precious as those that I had left back in the universe that Earth was on. And right now, said family was in complete and utter deep shit.
Why? Because they were talented, capable, and had connections, and because of said family being on the 3rd rank of the political hierarchy—a duke family to be exact—they had done the impossible even on a genius and monster level of standards. We had our very own demigod, my great-grandfather, who was a monster among other monsters since he had been able to realize and teach the potential hidden in the human blood, specifically our clan's.
These events however happened close to 1830 years ago. If we consider my current bone and body age, I was around 25 years, and considering the almost 1800 years I took for isolation where I made my body in the later parts, quite a large period of time had passed. And the attack and humiliation on my family began when I was a wee little boy of 2 months.
So then, how did I know all of this as I was seething with rage?
I set off across the plains, my pace increasing until I was moving at a speed that would have appeared as a blur to any normal observer. The grass bent in my wake, creating temporary patterns that quickly righted themselves once I had passed. Small dust devils formed and dispersed in my trail, the air displacement from my movement disturbing the otherwise still atmosphere.
"My lord, despite the odds, you will need to calm down. I may not be able to give you the full story since the appropriate price is yet to be paid, but you need not approach this with haste," Codex advised as we approached the edge of the Groove Canopy.
The all-knowing dictionary of mine informed me, but of course, despite me having the answers at my fingertips, I knew the corresponding prices had to be paid. And in my situation, until I reached demigod, anything related to above my rank would cost me quite the large amount of karma and causality to be informed—a resource that I was very careful in not splurging needlessly when I could easily get what I wanted with the strength I had.
In short, because of the greed and fear of the top brass in the empire as well as the manipulation and involvement of a number of demon kings, my family and respective clan was eradicated without mercy and with only one living member who was currently imprisoned and under watch. And for the period of time that I had been "abandoned" till today, all the above have been trying to eradicate and destroy anything related to us, whether it's wiping memories, altering history, records, and even manipulating stories. Someone somewhere was purposefully messing with my family, and I wanted to know why.
The grasslands gradually gave way to more cultivated terrain as I approached Koladar—first scattered farmsteads with their patchwork fields, then more densely populated outskirts with clusters of modest dwellings. I adjusted my pace to something less conspicuous as I began encountering more people, though still moving quickly enough to attract occasional curious glances from locals.
One might wonder then, why my family and our clan? What was so special about our blood that had us hunted down?
"That is because, though you're yet to begin your own inspection, the blood you've inherited from the Vorigan clan is a unique one when it comes to energy manipulation. The first Vorigan, a being who was from the immortal realm and a tier 9 immortal, had evolved from human to an arch-human, the first ever species of human to be recorded in existence, a feat that to be honest, my lord, was unprecedented in any universe. After him, in the whole multiverse that lives, there are no arch-humans that live. For him to be one, albeit for a short while of around 1000 years, he had done much and attracted the eyes of many," Codex explained. "To that end, due to his evolution of the ancestor revolving around the body, core, and lastly soul, he perished due to his weakness—the soul—even though he had a remarkable soul comparable to some gods. But his downfall, caused by an even stronger god, had saddened me."
I skirted around a caravan of merchants heading into the city, their heavily-laden wagons creaking under the weight of goods bound for Koladar's markets. The merchants eyed me with the natural suspicion of those who made their living on the roads, but I passed them by without incident, my mind focused entirely on the revelations Codex was sharing.
"In any case, his descendants, The Vorigan Clan, had inherited the one and only perk that the ancestor had deemed necessary and important to reaching the arch-human rank: energy manipulation not through a person's core..."
"But the depths of their very body, their blood," I finished, coming into realization.
The concept, to be honest, was an interesting one, one that even my variants had not necessarily considered since their means of reaching the highest achievable evolutionary line of whatever race I'd end up into was still through the core, especially a core that was made and used an constantly forming and consuming infinite amount of primordial mana. The result would be the same, just potentially different and honestly, now that I thought about the specifics from whatever research I had obtained from my variants and the info that Codex was also providing to my sub-consciousness on the sidelines as he narrated, I could see potential for something big, something much, much larger and honestly, kind of scary if the vague conclusion I was forming even came to pass.
The walls of Koladar loomed ever closer now, their massive height casting long shadows over the road leading to the main gate. Guards in polished armor stood at attention, their eyes scanning each approaching traveler with practiced efficiency. The queue to enter the city grew denser as I approached, a mix of merchants, farmers bringing goods to market, and ordinary citizens returning from journeys.
"Indeed, with the inherent talent, gift, and technique the ancestor had developed, he had ingrained it all into his DNA and also his children's in order to ensure that, should there be any talented and thoughtful enough to explore more about themselves, they'd stumble on the treasure trove he had left them, in their very own genetic makeup..." Codex revealed the final bombshell.
And to that, I just halted at a partially forested area just outside the city walls. I mean, I had to, since right now, even whilst standing, I closed my senses and dove inside my very self, directly from my bones to the bone marrow where my blood was, seeking even deeper into my cells within said blood and successfully located my DNA—a string of intertwining structures continuing on endlessly within the space confines of my blood cells.
And lo and behold, in the single cell I had just seen, I realized after observing from different directions with my mystical senses, particularly my soul sense which was more pronounced, that that single cell with the DNA it contained had a piece of a much, much larger whole. How large?
'It's in my whole freaking body!' I thought as I focused more to not include one cell, but more and more.
And what I found left me stupefied. There was no message or anything like that, but detailed information on how to particularly manipulate energy directly with the flow of blood. But for that to happen, you must be at a certain minimum level, subsequently a minimum of A rank or equivalent depending on which world a descendant was in, and be able to control your blood, to then control energy and control the body and then the core and finally the soul.
In short, it was an idea starting from an outer perspective of growth to an inner one, where upon completion of the inner development of a being's aspect, it would cause a domino and loop effect where since the blood, then body, then core, and lastly the soul would be enhanced, the soul then enhances the core, then the body and its blood, and back and forth, ideally creating a constant and passive evolution almost effortlessly.
I emerged from my introspective trance to find that I had automatically continued walking, my body moving on instinct while my mind had been deep within my own cellular structure. The city of Koladar sprawled before me now, its massive gates standing open as streams of people flowed in and out. Guards in the ducal colors stood at attention, their eyes scanning the crowd with practiced efficiency, searching for threats or troublemakers.
"This is freaking genius, sheesh. If I thought any better, the guy might even be a vampire with this level of blood control I'm seeing being described," I commented as I retracted my gaze, not wanting to get into the specifics but making plans to do research in this field and apply it to my current situation. I continued on to the direction of Koladar.
As I approached the city gates, I subtly adjusted my appearance and aura, dampening the unconscious projection of power that might attract unwanted attention. The last thing I needed was to alert whatever forces had been responsible for my family's eradication that a Vorigan had returned. No, this required subtlety and careful investigation—at least until I had gathered enough information to act decisively.
The massive gates of Koladar loomed ahead, a testament to the city's wealth and power. Carved with intricate designs depicting the history of the empire, they stood three stories high, wide enough for ten men to walk abreast. Guards in gleaming armor flanked the entrance, their eyes watchful as they scanned each person entering the city.
"Indeed, my lord, and as such, your great-grandfather had discovered a portion of it all back when he was at A rank, around 10% of it, and increased in completion of the information left behind by the Vorigan ancestor till 20%, which was enough to allow him to be undisputedly and unmatched in whatever rank he was in. Compared to another, he was at minimum 10 times stronger, thus able to match those stronger than him, but with limits of course."
"And it's because of this that when he also got into the demigod rank, the problems began, huh?" I continued on darkly, a mixture of frustration and anger raging in me silently.
I merged into the flow of people entering the city, adopting the casual stride and posture of a returning traveler rather than a being of immense power. My senses remained alert, scanning my surroundings for any sign of unusual attention or magical surveillance as I passed beneath the shadow of the gate.
Inside, Koladar opened up like a flower—layers of the city revealing themselves as I proceeded inward. The outer districts were functional and practical: warehouses, workshops, modest dwellings for craftspeople and laborers. Further in, the architecture grew more refined, the streets wider and better maintained, the populace more finely dressed. At the heart of it all rose the ducal palace, a monument to power and privilege that dominated the skyline.
"What do you intend to do now, my lord?" Codex reproachfully asked.
"For starters, I need to get some history down. Wasting karmic and causality points on you to get said info is wasteful, so I will be visiting the library in Koladar and scanning everything, even though I know most of it will be doctored to fit a particular narrative, hidden by whatever force was behind it all," I replied.
Though I knew that it might put a target on my back, I couldn't even give a damn right now and just wanted to get to the bottom of it all. If there was anyone in my way, I did sorely apologize for their pitiful existence.
The streets of Koladar bustled with activity—merchants hawking their wares, nobles carried in palanquins, ordinary citizens going about their daily business. The air was thick with the mingled scents of food from cookshops, incense from temples, and the less pleasant odors of a densely populated urban center. Magical lights began to ignite as the afternoon waned, orbs of soft illumination hovering above the streets to guide the city's nightlife.
I moved through it all like a shadow, present but unremarkable, my purpose hidden behind a carefully constructed facade of normalcy. But beneath that mask, my mind churned with plans and possibilities, my blood—that remarkable Vorigan blood—already beginning to sing with the potential of what I had discovered.
The Great Library of Koladar would be my first destination—a repository of knowledge where, between the lines of carefully sanitized history, I might find traces of the truth. And from there... well, from there, I would follow the trail of deliberate omissions and calculated falsehoods to whoever had orchestrated my family's downfall.
Someone had made a grievous error in leaving even one Vorigan alive. They were about to discover just how grievous that error had been.