True Magician

Chapter 42

The Clock Tower.

It had been about an hour since my arrival in Zelretch's office. Polumna had had a nice chat with Death about something and left us. And now, me, Zelretch, and Death were just sitting and reviewing amongst ourselves. The vampire and I were doing it, and the embodied concept was staring at me without blinking, which looked creepy, to say the least.

There was no point in getting agitated over the concept's last words, so I had to just chock it up and deal with it. After a while, I calmed down and decided to distract Death from the conversation. After all, I wondered what had stirred her up to such an extent. And I think the presence of an interdimensional vampire would be helpful.

- You still haven't told me exactly what my magic did," I began, drawing Death's attention to me. "What was it that piqued your interest to the point where you wanted to dissect me?

- Hmm... Really? - She said thoughtfully, to which I nodded briefly, and Zelretch perked up his ears - Remember what I said about your soul?

- That it was like a black hole? - I began to remember.

- That's right. When you used your magic on that man, your soul touched him. That man's soul was, how shall I put it... infected by yours. Like a virus, to put it simply. I even looked at his soul, and found that a small part of it had changed. A tiny, almost imperceptible change, but a change nonetheless.

- And what does this change mean? - Zelretch asked with intrigue in his voice.

- Normally, I am the one who claims the soul of every living thing. That is the law of the universe. But the Heaven's Touch rewrites that law. That tiny altered part of the soul that my boyfriend influenced is no longer mine, but his.

I froze and scrutinized her face, looking for any sign of a lie, because the very idea of such consequences of altering someone else's soul is utter nonsense.

Back in DxD, when I was experimenting with 3rd magic, I'd learned that the soul was the purest bundle of energy that no one could change. No one at all, except herself. Well, under normal circumstances, I mean. Even the most evil and ruthless being still has a pure soul.

It can be compared to a man and his clothes. Any soul is pure, innocent and unchanging, as a person does not change, regardless of circumstances. And behavior, character, emotions, ambitions and the like are clothes.

And the only one who can accomplish this feat is the owner of the Heaven's Touch. I thought there were no serious consequences, but as it turns out, there are.

You'll say what's the big deal, but alas, there is a big deal.

Suppose I resurrect someone. Let's take this particular situation as an example, as this is the most common use of 3rd magic. Considering what the embodied concept of death said, the soul of the person I resurrect will no longer belong to the world and its Textures... but to me.

Again, the soul is the purest blob of energy. A tremendous energy that has many uses if you get it.

The question then becomes, why does the world allow a 3rd Magician to exist? The answer is, he has to deal with it. Every world has its own metaphorical "Well of Souls" where all souls in principle are stored, and the Magician is a leech stuck to the well itself. And any opposition to this is a risk of damaging the vault, leading to the destruction of the world.

In short, every True Magician is a parasite, clinging to some branch of the universe and drawing power from there.

Ophis is the embodiment of "infinity", or "nothingness", or "nothingness", and she considers me a kind of relative, since I draw my power for Negation of Nothingness from the same source as she does.