The same souls. First part. The beginning.

Introduction

Worlds have existed in the universe for billions of years, endowed with the power of creation and destruction, and the will to create and destroy. Most of them do not use their powers, preferring to spend eternity listening to the universal flow and the music of the stars. In the flow that envelops all worlds, the souls of living beings are born and return to it after death. From microscopic organisms to highly organized creatures, all souls merge in the flow into a single consciousness, losing their individuality and memories, dissolving into the memories and feelings of other souls, becoming one with them.

But there are worlds that love creating and destroying so much that once they start, they cannot stop. Terra loved life. She was not satisfied with listening to the incoherent murmur of the flow; she wanted life to boil within her. She created living beings and endowed them with the power to borrow souls from the universal flow so they could create their own kind, and she watched as this life developed. Sometimes she intervened in the course of events if she wanted to fix or adjust something, but when humans emerged among all her created beings, the development of life reached a new level of interest for their creator.

Human emotions were diverse and astonishing, and their cognitive abilities far exceeded the roles assigned to them. But Terra did not curb their potential; on the contrary, she gave them all the conditions for development. And humans did not disappoint her expectations. They manifested themselves in the most unexpected actions: from unimaginable cruelty to absolute love and self-sacrifice.

They captured the attention of their world-patron so much that she decided to create another version of her world specifically for the best of humans. Terra wanted to create an ideal environment for people, but not for all, only for those who deserved it. Copying her own image, she created a parallel reality in which a mirror-world of herself was to exist, endowed with half her powers and granting power to people who had earned it through their earthly life, to live another one in the best of worlds.

According to the creator's plan, the mirror-world was to be populated by self-pollinating plants that would generously give people their fruits year-round. The climate on the entire planet was ideally favorable for human life, all sources were perfectly clean, and the air was always fresh. At the same time, in the new world, there were no animals, no insects, no other living beings capable of posing a threat to humans. Into the created world, Terra infused her will: to select the most virtuous of humans, grant them immortal bodies, endow them with limited abilities for creation and destruction, and allow them to live in the ideal world until they grew bored.

The creator's desire to love her children even more strongly was natural, but endowing them with such enormous possibilities violated the laws of the universe, which strives for balance and equilibrium. And as soon as the mirror-world was created, in opposition to it appeared the shadow-world, which gathered everything that was contrary to Terra's desire.

Instead of a favorable climate and lush vegetation — a barren desert blazing with deadly heat; instead of clean air and ringing rivers — lava lakes and poisonous fumes; and instead of a safe environment — hungry creatures, and worse, among the creatures born to kill their own kind were those that were born to kill humans specifically. Terra's powers, half of which she wanted to give only to her beloved daughter Holara, flowed also to her evil twin sister Adana, nearly depriving their creator of all her abilities.

The original demons were as intelligent as humans, as strong as the chosen ones whom Terra wanted to settle in Holara, and capable of feeding exclusively on human flesh, blood, and souls. Realizing what had happened, Terra wanted to reverse the process, but she lacked the strength to destroy the created parallel worlds or isolate them from each other. All her magic was enough for was to endow the bloodthirsty creatures with the ability to eat a variety of food, not just human. Unfortunately, she couldn't change them all.

By the time the original demons realized they could escape their world and start hunting in another, Holara had selected and endowed with powers the best people on the planet and transferred them to herself, hoping to save at least those who deserved it. But the best people, learning what the demons were doing to their kin, did not sit idly under the protection of their paradise, but rushed to protect the weak and imperfect humans from the creatures endowed with magic and incredible strength.

Terra did not granted Adana with her will. She was created by the will of the universe and remained free from commands from above. There were not many noble people, but their ranks were still replenished, unlike the creatures, who could not reproduce. They, like the chosen humans, were deprived of the magic to summon souls from the universal flow in favor of more powerful magic of creation and destruction, which Terra had given them, and therefore could not create their own kind.

Nevertheless, the demons were as intelligent as humans and possessed all the same feelings and emotions. They lived, loved, hated, desired. And they directed their prayers to the sky, hoping to obtain what they could not achieve with their own strength. The harsh, unfriendly world, constant attacks from gods, and envy of humans who had everything the demons lacked, made the creatures cruel and selfish.

Some asked the sky for more powerful magic, others wanted to escape their world and become humans, thirds desired the death of specific enemies. All their pleas were heard unanswered by Adana, who pitied her foolish children. If only someone had wanted to continue the existence of their kind, asked to create a friend or a beloved. They might have gone extinct, but their world-patron did not want to abandon her children, no matter how imperfect they were.

When a group of demons once again pleaded for help, Adana responded and ordered them to bring her a piece of their own flesh as an offering, and then she would fulfill their desires. Adana's demands were not dictated by the bloodthirstiness of the world. Holara, creating new bodies for humans, already had their dead flesh in her hands, on the basis of which she created immortal vessels for the chosen souls. Her twin sister also needed flesh, even in small amounts, to create a body based on it and insert a soul from the flow into it.

The universal flow itself, consisting of souls, was not created by anyone and carried no one's will. It was part of the universe, but also an independent matter, inert but no less significant. A soul torn from the flow, as a rule, easily merged with the vessel allocated to it, acquiring qualities and its own will as it learned about the surrounding environment and its own body. And the will of the soul was an unyielding and independent force that neither magical beings nor world-patrons could influence.