no time for settling in

it'd been a few hours since I was reincarnated, all the memories that were given to me answered many questions, why I was here, who I was supposed to be, how to act and speak, and most importantly, why me.

all of those questions were given answers, and with my newly gained cold heart and quick acceptance, those answers were enough for now, but what wasn't enough for now was my nonexistent knowledge of this world, I needed to know what's going on here if I was going to do anything.

and God wanted me to either raise an army to take over the world or fight against that same army that someone else would raise for the same purpose.

this truly was a headache.

it was like choosing to be a hero or villain in video games.

normally it would have taken me hours to choose, but one choice far outweighed the other in terms of consequences, and one choice allowed me to live peacefully afterwards, so that one was the obvious choice.

"the path of good has been chosen, remember, just because you won't end the world doesn't mean you have to be kind."(God) spoke, confirming the choice I've made and getting across the point of, "don't act like a hero."

his words made sense when consulting the memories placed in my mind, I was brought here to entertain God, I'm here to make things interesting, and interesting was starting now, he was making sure of it.

"I will send you tasks to do, quests, do these and you will gain power, fail them and you will receive consequences, nothing personal, you just need motivation not to fail."(God) spoke once more, further adding to what I'd now be doing.

(sigh)...looks like I won't be relaxing anytime soon. I thought to myself as through the girl's eyes I observed an older woman approaching, alerting me and drawing my focus.

"Natalie, you are required in the church of winds in the neighboring country, please depart quickly, within the next hour, and remember, do not open the seal."(older woman) ordered the girl, whose name is Natalie, apparently.

suddenly, in that very moment the older woman finished speaking, I got my very first task.

[break free from the seal to save the life of Natalie, if successful you gain the ability to read minds, if you fail you are sealed within someone else, and a portion of your power is taken away, only to be regained through cultivating it back]

before my very eyes floated a video game quest screen, its words clear.

"yes mother, I shall leave at once."(Natalie) said as she bowed slightly.

after hearing those words and seeing the bow the older woman left, leaving us alone in the hall.

"child, she seems unusually uptight."(Granularr) I said, trying to at least act like the screen hadn't affected me.

"no, she's just stressed, the church of winds has been losing people and profit left and right."(Natalie) informed, her voice serious and solemn.

"I am the lord of dark, child, not some errand boy, I will not be assisting this."(Granularr) I said, falling back on the memories of how I'm supposed to act.

Natalie sighed and mumbled something quietly as she began walking to her room, packing a small leather bag quickly and beginning to leave the temple, how I'd known what we were in confuses me, no image ever said what it was.

but for now, it didn't matter, the quest did, I needed to be on watch, that's why I can't help with some errand, I need to be vigilant, and the only way to do that was to go over all of the memories about danger I was given.

---

hours later Natalie pov.....

we'd been on the road for quite some time now, and unusually Granularr was quiet, he hadn't uttered a single word since we'd left the temple.

it was worrying as ever since this morning he had been unusually quiet.

"system, scan the holy seal."(Natalie) I ordered, a screen confirmed my request and began the process, and only moments later I received my answer.

[seal is at full power, undamaged, almost back at the power it was 1,000 years ago]

my stomach dropped as I read the words.

no wonder he's been silent!

---

we'd been walking down this road for hours, and during that time I'd successfully integrated more images, gaining even more knowledge and understanding of what I could do and how I am able to do it, for one, I am the lord of dark, a mage born with sole mastery over the element of darkness, no other mage in this world possesses nearly as much control or proficiency with the element.

that's probably because I somehow became the source of dark magic and darkness in general, I somehow forced myself to become a magical pillar source, killing the old one and claiming many benefits.

of course the other magical pillars were not content with this, fire, earth, wind, water, gravity, time, and their leader, the pillar of cosmic magic.

each of these band together to fight me, of course not having any time to do so as I'd already been sealed away by holy women, ending the war I'd started in the magic world.

but this came at an unforeseen consequence, there were no longer any mages who could control the darkness element, as without the source the magic dwindled in the land and became nothing more than the shadows they cast on their own.

truly what I had inherited was a cluster fuck, I had to find a way to appease the other pillars of magic and prevent a war, then I had to fight an army I had summoned into existence to prevent a different war.

and to do both I needed to gather and increase all my power, something I was shown how to do, the only downside is that it leaves me cut off from the girl and I couldn't do that until after I'd completed the quest, losing power and changing sealers would only be a set back.

a setback I could not afford, I'd only been in this life for barely two days, and I've changed so much, if I fail this then I might become unrecognizable, something I've been dreading since the first changes began.

sure the consequence was losing power, but the images, the memories, I'd been relying on, those painted a different picture of how I'd be affected by losing power, it was not pretty.