True Magician

Chapter 141

Heaven.

- "So, I was someone from this world?"

- "That's right."

- "Then some events happened, and before the universal reset to 'factory' settings began, you sent me to another world, keeping my memory of it, and the world backed me up and replaced me?"

- "So far, so good."

- "And you did it out of pity for the past me during these very 'some' events. It didn't affect you much, because you had omnipotence at that moment, and Alaya, who brought me back here, did your bidding and lied to my face. Did I miss anything?"

- "The sympathy you deserve, not pity. Other than that, it's exactly like that," 'Gabriel' nodded, petting the girl while I sipped my coffee and clucked my tongue.

Now the world's reaction to my 'experiment' was logical. Each soul was individual, and the world trivialized the existence of two completely identical existences. The system started to crash, but Zelretch pulled me out at the last second, and Alaia 'wiped' after me. Alaia herself was created by God as a failsafe, which is odd but acceptable given the rules of this world.

I didn't feel much of an existential crisis, because I already knew where I was, even when I didn't know the whole story. Yes, the feeling of powerlessness and the feeling of being a guinea pig were still there, but they were not as strong as expected. Rather, I was more interested in one particular question.

- "Hyodou Issei."

- "Ha-ha. Good joke," I laughed and began draining my eighth cup.

- "It's not a joke."

And when I heard him, I froze like I had never frozen before and looked at God with dazed eyes. And choked, of course.

- "I hope I heard you wrong," I said, coughing.

- "No, you didn't."

- "Wait, wait, wait, but that doesn't make sense, does it?! How could such a twisted and selfless idiot become like me?! Look at me and then look at him! We're completely different people! In fact, then why."

- "When you wanted to break my seal by force, part of your original soul began to resonate with the world, you're right about that. After all, it didn't go through the standard soul purification. That's why the world reacted the way it did. And the changes?" the smile is gone from his face, "Are you sure you want to know the reason?"

- "Yes, I'm sure," I answered firmly, and the next moment I felt my soul begin to penetrate and envelope my entire being.

It was like a contamination of cells, where my current soul was the source of the contamination, and then I grabbed my head, for memories definitely not belonging to this life began to seep in. All this was not happening under the influence of 3rd magic, no, but the power of God in front of me.

I didn't know how long the process lasted, but when the pain was gone, my stunned gaze went straight to God looking at me with some concern, just like the girl.

I believed him now, I believed in who I was before.

Hyodou Issei, or rather, the previous him.

In a flashback that was like watching a movie, I went through a familiar path. Dating Reynal, becoming a demon, crashing the wedding, and so on, including defeating Trihexa. But what happened next was what caused such a drastic change in character...

I straightened up and grinned loudly at myself, because all my assumptions about who I was before were completely wrong and too logical. In fact, it was much, MUCH more trivial and prosaic, you might say.