The Church of Isekai

Now I notice more souls are entering me – can't stop, can't re-assess, can't ponder. "Level – 7" was selected and something tells me if I can't gather enough energy to make it all the way there, the upgrade process will eat me up inside and all of the souls including mine will go toward the Cloud. Keep moving. Suddenly, I notice I don't need to feel around for bodies in the seats – I seem to feel a direction, I extend my palm there and suck in the energy. I just follow it with a bag transfer. Next row, Next row… This one doesn't feel the same. I got just a little bit of energy and the bag doesn't allow it inside. OK, skipping it. Next row, Next row… Again a strange "specimen" – getting a bit of energy and moving on. "CLICK" – "Level 3."

More souls getting in, the pain is now slightly less horrible – either I'm learning how to work around it – just like the Shaolin monks I read about – or Levels bring some kind of resistance. With my eyes still closed now, I see the little dark energy balls floating above the seats and some are starting to move toward the Cloud. I stretch my hands: "Get over here!" and some obey flowing into me – "CLICK!" – "Level 4." I see some of the balls still getting sucked into the Cloud and with a newfound self-confidence I demand "GET OVER HERE!" – they obey. Every single one. "CLICK!" – "Level 5."

I can actually open my eyes and quickly go from through the bus putting all of the bodies into the bag. The Ghosts are not seen – either they are all inside me or some have gotten into the Cloud. I'll figure it out later. Finding several bodies that I wasn't able to put into the bag. Looking at one – the boy was number one in sports – tall, muscular, smart, and not a jerk at all. His name was Dimitry. I'm looking at him and noticing that there is no "Corpse" text hanging over him. There are 9 people left out of 54 – I can't see them breathing but they are not recognized as dead so I'm leaving them alone. The "energy indicator" shows up again – about a fifth and falling. I need energy… Darn… Should have picked "promotion to Level 5," but somehow I'm sure I didn’t make a wrong choice. Probably whoever is in-charge of this whole thing is giving out a "beginner special" – I just suspect that going from Level to Level would take a lot more than 3000 units to reach the Seventh. Still where do I get the energy? Looking around – there's the Cloud, still hanging… Waiting for me, aren't you? With all the pain I just went through? I wonder if it collected the "Pain" energy the way I gather the "Necro." You'd like me to drop down and burn up inside while you mop up the souls including mine, wouldn't you? YOU! Just hanging there, probably smirking at me… I stretch out my hands at the Cloud – "GET IN HERE!"

The Cloud seems shocked as it starts moving toward me and then trying to break off. I'm seeing my energy level slowly going up as the Cloud’s trying to move out of the bus. The tunnel is still dark around us – I spread my hands and, keeping in mind the tunnel and the darkness outside, I command with never-before felt surety – "GET IN HERE!" The energy flows in. I get a "Level – 6" notification and the bus shakes. I think the Tunnel or someone controlling it is upset and hurt – it probably has been transporting these busses in a calm and orderly fashion for a while and suddenly the tiger shark has swallowed a small blender that's hurting it inside. From its point of view, it’s just unnatural! It can't be that way! It was never that way! Food can't object to being eaten! The bus accelerates, the Cloud shrinks and hides and I walk over to the one person I've overlooked so far – the bus driver.

When we were getting on the bus, the driver looked like a man in his forties sloppily dressed with a growing beer belly. What I saw now making my way to him was a large figure in a hooded robe that was hiding his face. I approached and closed my eyes noticing a large ball of energy on the seat. For some reason I felt confident yanking that robe off and what I saw underneath was a large bone lying on the seat and nothing else. The coat was basically suspended in the air on the energy emanating from that bone. My own energy indicator was going really close to ZERO and I knew I might as well take all the risks. So with the bone in my hands, I felt the energy and ordered it to enter me. The energy flooded in. The robe fell onto the seat and I picked it up and put it on. For some reason it felt right to do so. I got behind the steering wheel of the bus and closed my eyes. OK, now – let me look around. So… I got this Necromancer power. There were 54 of us, 9 are still on the seats in some kind of a non-dead state. My "Sub-dimensional storage" purse reads now "level 20, filled – 44" – everybody's body is accounted for. "Everybody, go, get your body," I hummed and then added "Offer gold or threaten force, I will not release your corpse." My life-impaired audience responded with dead silence…

Looking inside myself (I can't explain it better – that's exactly what it is), I saw these souls floating around. There were also 44 but some – probably those who got in first – were shiny and active actually talking to each other while several – probably the later arrivals – seemed paler with a few basically a barely visible outline. I've focused on one of them and a text came up "De-energized soul" with several options available near it including "re-energize." Definitely not now – I'm still draining that "driver illusion" bone and sucking in power from the tunnel, but the upgrade process is consuming the energy just as fast. The pain I've felt at the beginning subsided a lot, going from an incapacitating to a level of a bee sting – where I can walk around and react to things reasonably.

Somehow my temporary resident souls realized I'm looking at them, and turned their faces to me. A girl whom we all knew as a rather difficult person looked me in the eye and stated "You have touched me! That was inappropriate! I'll tell the principal, the teachers, and I'll file a complaint!" As everyone else stared at her, the soul of the class short jerk jumped up and screamed – “Yes, yes, he did. I saw it!!!” with so much excitement that I think if he still had his body he'd probably wet his pants, just like dogs sometimes do. For a moment I was pondering if he was meant to be born an angry chihuahua and became a human by mistake. Yes, an old me would have gone pale and shaky and would even probably be convinced to turn over his lunch money to prevent the accusations from reaching the school authorities and my parents. So there was a long silence. They were looking at me waiting to shake and squirm… I didn't. The silence continued… and continued… and continued… Until the Short Jerk lost interest and ran off to pester people around him. Another girl, probably thinking I can't hear them, whispered to the first one – "What are you doing? You know he did no such thing and, if it wasn't for him, you'd go into the Cloud and your body would rot. Besides, how are you going to file anything – you are inside of him and there are no principals where we're going." The first one replied – “Don't spoil my game – I don't need to file anything. I need him to apologize and offer to make it up to me. When he does, maybe I'll forgive him, but he'd be afraid of me. I can get him to buy me dinners and stuff and then I'd bring him to marry me.” Another girl listening to this wondered, "Marry him? He's a nerd! Look at how he's treated in class! He's a pushover – your relatives will laugh at you and him!" "That's why I want him," stated the first, "I'll do anything I want with him and he'll be all nice and polite even to my Mother. He’ll never ever dare to hit me and never leave me and my kids no matter what I do! I don't want to bring my kids up alone like my Mom. I take all of his salary, my kids will take after their Dad and be smart, and I'll teach them not to be pushovers."

The boys were listening attentively looking at the first girl and then the others. One said “Marry? She's scary.” The others laughed and warily looked at the other girls. "We are not all like that," said one, "But girls do mature faster," said I and they seemed to hear, "even as little kids they play house, wedding their dolls while we still nibble on crayons." Some of the girls nodded.

At this point I got an energy level pop-up before me rapidly going to ZERO. I came out of my meditation to see the tunnel getting lighter and the energy stream I was getting from it almost running out. The Bone Illusion Artifact was already drained. We broke through some mist and stopped at a meadow. The bus slowly dissolved – the seats, the sides, the doors, the roof – all disappeared. I desperately looked around. The 9 of my classmates who seemed to survive the ordeal were lying in the grass, but I could not recognize them. Dimitry suddenly had chainmail on him and my text identified him as "Paladin Level-1," others also changed. I was going to study the rest, but at that point my energy intake stopped and my reserves quickly ran out. My body seemed to have shot out strings in all directions trying to get energy from anywhere. I saw some flying into the forest at the end of the meadow, some into a river, some seemingly attached to bugs and flowers. I NEED ENERGY! I AM SO CLOSE! Several of those threads even jumped into the Bottomless Bag I was holding. SO CLOSE! I can see the "level progress bar" almost touching the number 7. COME ON!!!! Oh to get so close and to fail. I felt my consciousness slipping away…

I was floating above my body while it was still trying to get any energy it could from the surroundings. I wondered why are my guest souls not running away and then saw them all suspended totally de-energized next to me. Then I looked at the 9 of my mates lying in the grass under me. In addition to the Paladin my texts identified a Healer, a Holy Maiden, an Alchemist, a Tree Mage, an Artifactor – all girls – and a Guard and an Assassin – boys. The last one was a small creature wrapped in some cocoon identified as a "Pixie." I have also noticed that the bodies of the Healer and the Holy Maiden were naturally producing the energy while my threads are taking it all in. Meanwhile, I saw a large group of people marching together from the forest carrying shovels and other instruments. There seemed to be guards around them urging them forward with whips and sticks while my threads were depleting their inner reserves. The guards were identified as Level-5 and consisted of different creatures – a small hyperactive male Goblin next to a large female Troll, human guards, a Human with the head of a Wolf and a female Mage. The twenty laborers were all level-1 and also varied from Humans to Demi-Humans to strange fantasy creatures. The Mage guard ordered the group to stop and the Demi-Wolf wondered "Wow – no corpses this time?" A sigh of relief went out from the laborers. The Mage yelled – "Don't relax, lazy bums. You'll be carrying these weaklings back to the camp!" The Goblin hopped over to the Pixie, unwrapped the cocoon which turned out to be a pair of large beautiful wings, ripped them off and threw the small body of a boy away. "Look I got a pair too!!!" he hopped in joy to the Troll. At that time the Pixie convulsed in the bushes and a small ball of Necro energy appeared over him – the energy I consumed immediately. The remaining eight of my classmates were distributed among the crew. The Mage walked up to them one by one taking notes and when she approached the Healer held her palm over the unconscious girl’s chest and said, "this one has no Mana reserves – throw her out." The Goblin hopped over, picked up the Healer, and screamed – "I'll keep her! I'll have fun with her!" Then the Troll took the Healer from him and saying, “You’ll have fun with me and only me, dear,” broke the neck of the poor girl with one hand and threw the body into the nearby bushes. Everyone, including the guards, shuddered at this, lined up, and marched off. Meanwhile I did what I've done before – captured the souls of the Pixie and the Healer, de-energized them and when the Cloud appeared, latched onto it and sucked the energy out until the Cloud shrunk and ran and I heard the long and desperately awaited "CLICK" – "Level – 7."

To be or Zom (to) bie Part 4

I looked down at myself, still wearing the cloak, and saw the dreaded designation of a "corpse." That sounds kind of final. Besides, a Ghost can't just perform CPR to restore breathing and heartbeat. So how do I enable the Soul to come back and let the survivor tell "near-death experience" tales? How did Dr. Frankenstein reanimate his monster? Was it a mega-electric shock? Well, I don't have anything to build a generator with or a lightning rod. So, short of having a Necromancer.... WAIT A MINUTE! So… The Ambulance is already here! Now let me see if I can graduate from a Medical School? Necro School? Necrical School? in a matter of a second. Stare into my body… Thinking about "Soul Insertion"? "Ghost Possession"? "Body Animation"?  "Intelligent Zombie"? The text appears: "Take over this body?" – "YES!" and I feel something obstructing my view. I instinctively moved the hood away from my face with my arm and actually jumped with joy – I'm back in my body!

I managed to stand up, and the first I saw is the body of our Healer. I am sorry I became an unwilling cause of her death – it was my massive energy grab that emptied her reserves and caused that Mage to mistake her for a "dud." Of course, that Troll is a monster in more ways than one, and the whole setup seems more like a labor camp than a Fantasy Guild one reads about. Aren't the early arrivals, being the seasoned veterans, supposed to meet the new ones, train them, and then share the adventures battling monsters by day and singing by the fire at night? It seems like an elite group keeps the rest at Level 1 and lives off their labor. I bet there's someone who got to some high level, now coercing or praising his peers into recognizing him as a King among the Dukes, who in turn boss around the medium Levels. They are probably tasked with controlling the Level-1s, making sure those don't advance. I wonder what they do to those who suddenly get to Level-3? Do they get killed? Do they have an "approved" religious leader telling the laborers, that their situation is a part of the Great Balance and everyone is in a Proper Place and any attempt to rebel would void the Great Future Reward?

I'll look into this later. For now – can I do anything to restore the Healer, even if I have to make her a Zombie? Looking intensely at her and wishing for a "Body Takeover," I'm getting a notice "Takeover not possible – the body is broken." Well then, can we "repair" it? "Heal" it? Getting no feedback. I'm sorry, Kate… Yes, that was her name… The transformation changed her a lot, but for some reason I just realized whom I'm dealing with  – a friendly, smart girl always willing to lend an eraser or a book. I wonder where her soul is? Oh, they are all inside me "de-energized," but for some reason she's shining just a bit. I wonder if Healer's Souls are supposed to produce energy, and she is restoring herself now. What else can this soul do – let me look… I see texts appearing next to her – including "Level-1 Heal," "Level-2 Heal"… What if I cause her to heal her own body? Choosing "Level-2 heal," aiming it at the motionless body on the ground – nothing. Suddenly, I actually hear Kate's voice, "You can't heal the dead. Sorry. I think you'd need a Necro-Nurse to do a DEAD-fibrillation." Apparently, she had already restored herself enough to be able to speak. I wonder… How would I turn a "Nurse" into a "Necro"… Let me try something… I empty her soul (yes, that's rude), and while it's just a floating outline, I look into her and through her eyes I look at the body – now I see "Necro-Heal": "Level-1" up to "Level-7." Casting the 7th with all the strength I got, I see Kate's neck snap back into the proper alignment. I separate myself from Kate's soul, and look at her body again. The "takeover" is now available and I chose it. I see her entering her body, and I start to gently fill her with my energy. She opens her eyes. The text I see above her now read "NecroHealer."

This is big. At least I won’t be alone in this World. Also, I don’t know how would I have continued to exist knowing I have caused the death of this girl. Inadvertently, but still this is something I’d much rather not have on my conscience. Especially Kate – I knew she was friendly and smart, but I’ve never realized how funny she can be. To make a remark about a Necro-Nurse who would need to do a DEAD-fibrillation – that’s real comedy. To make that remark while knowing that her own Soul is separated from her own Body and while looking at that Body – that shows the true strength of spirit. No wonder this World has made her into a Medic – I think she has what it takes to apply the proper treatment to a wound no matter how gruesome it looks. I wonder, if it wasn’t for the Bus – would she have made it into the Medical School in our Old World? She would’ve been an excellent Doctor.

I went to fetch the body of our Pixie who was mutilated by the vicious Goblin. I saw two tiny flying girls, arranging flowers on it. They are titled as "Fairies," they look at me, giggle and fly off. I picked up the doll-sized boy and brought him back to Kate. She had already managed to sit up. I told her to please postpone the questions and see if she can repair him with a "Necro-Heal." She looked at me, then at… Constantine… that's the boy's name. I just recalled it even though he is totally unrecognizable. I saw her actually attempting to cast something and then she said, "Level-2 doesn't work…" Interesting – I was able to cast Level-7… That's probably because I AM Level-7. I don't want to get Kate out of her body again, so I put my palms on her head and looked into her. I see her looking at our poor Pixie. I focused on it through her eyes and saw what I had seen before – "Necro-Heal": "Level-1" up to "Level-7." I chose Level-7, and my energy stores started to drain to a point that I feared I'd have to re-inhabit my body like before. At that moment, Kate started to supply her own reserves and the Pixie's body had suddenly re-grown its wings. I broke my contact with Kate, looked at our "patient" directly, saw the "takeover" option, and directed Constantine’s own soul into its proper place. I supplied whatever little energy I had regained and his eyes opened. Both I and Kate sighed with relief.

Now there are three of us. I started by telling them about the bus ride and there being only 10 of us – the transformed survivors. The rest were probably rejected by the World. I don’t want to tell anything else – they have enough to take in as it is. I describe the locals having organized a raid party instead of a welcome party with cakes. Constantine asked me, "How did you hide from them?" Actually, I didn't. I was sitting motionless in the driver’s seat wearing the hooded robe – I think they've mistaken me for the illusion of the driver. They must have seen these bus drivers before and probably they have a built-in defense mechanism or the likes of the Goblin would've smashed them just for fun. I've finished my tale with "So we all are technically zombies now. I don't know if we even need to breathe or eat. I guess we probably should continue eating… Once we figure out what to do about food. Also we need to learn more about the locals. A lot more"

Suddenly, we heard a voice from a small patch of flowers: "Perhaps, I can be of help for you" and a small winged creature appeared before us with a text pop-up identifying it as a “Sprite.”

The Wise Cricket Part 5

Kate and Constantine are shifting their gaze between me and the Newcomer. I took the lead, "Hello, Mr. Friendly Sprite. We are your local neighborhood Necromancer, Necro-Healer, and The Night Squadron of the Air Force." For some reason, I decided to refrain from giving out our names. It also resolved a dilemma I had about making a joke along the lines of "Constan-TINY." I think the joke is good enough to risk making our Pixie upset, even though anyone who ever had to deal with the pigeons knows, you don't want something that can fly to be angry at you. The Sprite smiled, landed next to us, and started his tale:

– Well, I guess I have to welcome you to this place. I've heard your conversations and I have to congratulate you – your conclusions are very logical and mostly true. I got here the same way you did – by bus. I woke up before anyone, saw most of the other passengers lying dead, and, I guess, got scared, so I ran off into the bushes. In a while, I saw some of them started moving, looking around, trying to talk and then the same "Meeting Committee" showed up. Those who could move, were tied, the rest of the living were set up to be carried. Meanwhile, the laborers with shovels dug up one shallow ditch while others took anything of value from my fellow passengers' bodies and dragged them to that ditch one by one. The diggers just covered it with dirt and waited a few seconds – then the dirt would fall in and the body apparently disappear. It seems like someone who got turned into a Fairy managed to fly off. Nobody cared. After all the dead were taken care of, the raid party started back. I flew behind them, and they either didn't notice or weren't interested. I saw the newcomers lined up, and a tough-looking dude barked instructions at them. They must drink an "adaptation" potion and put on a "clan ring" that they must always wear for their own safety. They would be punished if they don't. Everyone did as they were told. After that, they got assigned to their teams. Some cook the potions, some have to go into the forest gathering ingredients, some go off to plow the fields. The last is pretty useless as there are plenty of edible things in the forest, and there's even a Gourmet Flower. That's an amazing thing – one seed basically feeds you for a day and tastes like anything you want.

Speaking of the Gifts of the Forest – not only you get the food but also every so often there are big black boxes that pop up at random places. If you open them, you get random things from there – anything from tools to clothes to potions. However, I've overheard the people at the Base Camp saying that some of these boxes come with poison inside and whoever opens the box would die. I was never able to open them – I think you need to be one of the Full-Sized to do that.

So I went back and found the Fairy from my bus. I started talking to her and noticed how she would suddenly fly up and dance in the air, giggling. Then she told me that I was boring her and just flew off to play with flowers. Then she came back demanding that I tell her that she was cute and her dress is pretty. When I did so, she flew off again. She came back twice more and then ran into some other Fairies and started dancing and laughing with them.

Another thing I saw over my time here is the Monsters that come from behind the Edge. You see, we basically live in a rather large, fenced corral here, like cattle. This meadow and the forest are basically in the middle; there's also a river and a Mountainous Ridge and that's basically it. You can walk or… fly… to the end of the meadow and run into a thin border of shimmering light. We don't know what's beyond it – I heard the people at the base telling the newcomers that if they touch the border they would die. Also, sometimes we have very strange, large creatures get through this veil – they are basically like monsters in the video games. They only want to find us, changed humans, and eat us. They usually start with the small fliers and then move on to the base camp. When that happens, about 20 of Level-1s are mobilized with a couple of higher Levels. They have special potions on their clothes that are supposed to make them invisible to the monster, but I don't think it works. I saw these hunts twice, and the monster always managed to eat someone before getting hunted down.

I think this place does something to the small fliers like me. Before I met you, I noticed that I had forgotten everything about the life before the Bus and even could not recall things I'd learned here or even what I did yesterday. Once I saw you arrive earlier, I feel everything I had lived through here started to come back. I figured you guys were on a school trip – I'm fairly sure we were on a regular city bus. So, you are good for my health, at least the mental one. Maybe this environment wants us, the small fry, not to fly off the handle by being grounded to someone full-size. So I'd like to hang around with your group. I'll show you around. There are several places you could set up camp in this forest – caves and such. So could I stay with you?