Master of Time

Chapter 216: The Samara Karmic Cycle

The spell is not as simple as Kozak had made it out to be, but with his entire memory downloaded into the mainframe of Legion, I now know everything there is to know about the spell.

I also know about the Karmic Cycle. Or more correctly to say, the Samara Karmic Cycle.

It is, in the simplest term, the reincarnation cycle of Hinduism, where souls are not actually created or destroyed, but more like being recycled endlessly in a loop.

Normally, a soul would continue to reincarnate into a new life and body at the end of each cycle while heavens and hells are just stopping places in between.

No. It is better to consider heavens and hells as separate realities or realms, allowing those who have died in the mortal planes to reincarnate as lowly devils or angels, depending on their overall karma at the time.

Heavens and hells are considered to be immortal plane of existence. It is in contrast to the moral plane that Early and Azula and the entire physical universe are inhabiting.

Now that is interesting. Very interesting.

Beyond mortal and immortal planes, there are ageless planes, timeless planes, endless planes, as well as boundless planes. There is likely more beyond that, but this is all Kozak know at the moment.

He also knows that being from higher planes do descend to lower planes once in a while, thus causing untold destruction in their wake simply due to their presence and aura alone.

Gods are considered denizens from immortal planes. They are born immortal with great power as well as physical prowess. They do not age once they reach maturity, and when existing in their native state and reality, it is nigh impossible to kill them.

Zeus mentions something about this invulnerability, but despite that, he managed to kill all his fellow Olympians. That is quite a feat in itself to be honest.

Higher than Gods are True Gods, also known as Divine Beings. They are usually originating from ageless plane of existence. They are not born, and therefore they do not have an age, thus they are known as ageless.

Dragon God Ingra is probably considered as an ageless being just from his power alone. He can destroy Gods as if they are ants, and from what Eliana had told me, he seems to not know how he had actually come into existence.

Great power and simply existing without an origin are signs of an ageless beings from what Kozak can understand. Impossible to kill too due to their invulnerability to almost everything.

Beyond ageless is known as timeless. Timeless beings exist outside the normal flow of time and space, and therefore, they are not affected by time or space itself. That is all Kozak now about them as those who had met one does not live to talk about it.

Their presence alone causes space and time distortion. Reality also warped around them as all physical laws and natural states do not apply to them. In other word, they are sentient blackholes.

Destructive naturally. Great. Let stay away from these.

Kozak does not know anything tangible about Endless or Boundless being aside from their name, but he could have a good guess. I could too. Omnipotent beings obviously. Immortal. Invulnerable.

Yeah. Okay. Let stay the hell away from them too.

Strangely enough, Kozak does not know about the Aspects and Primordial, at least about their actions and inactions.

It is actually due to the Aspects and Primordial that the Samara Karmic Cycle exists for the mortal and immortal planes in the first place. That mean it is also due to them that souls exist as well.

This kind of make sense as entities and beings from ageless and beyond do not have a soul themselves.

They simply exist in a soulless state, and transcending into this soulless state for immortals is the very first step towards agelessness. That is actually the goal of many in heaven and hell.

To finally surpass their immortality and finally reach true divinity.

Kozak knows a lot about hell as he was a devil before this mortal life. Hell is considered a realm as it is an endless landscape, stretching unendingly into the cosmos and beyond.

There is no such thing as outer space for hell, and the ground just keep going on forever and ever into the abyss below. Despite multiple realities of the multiverse, there is only one heaven and hell, as they are realms not realities.

Realms are more infinite the universes. Does that even make any sense? Not really to me since infinity is not really a quantitative amount. It just means a big number that no one really wants to count.

And as to the reason why Kozak got sent to hell and transformed or reborn into a devil despite being a good person in his life as a sailor of 17th or so century, it is due to his overall karma.

He was something akin to a mass murderer in one of his previous lives, so his overall karma is heavily on the negative side. I say akin to one, but not actually one because everyone is a mass murderer in a war.

Killing anyone regardless of what is considered negative karma. That includes self-defense as well, so the sensible thing is do not fight back and simply die in order to gain positive karma, but if one already has plenty of positive karma, it is better to fight back with the intention to kill to gain negative karma.

Why is that important? Well. It is due to a balance. One cannot have too much positive karma and too little negative karma, as it will result in either heaven or hell. Neither is a good destination after death.

But balancing karma is exceedingly difficult, as Kozak has not balance out his karma yet despite living through countless of lifetimes already. He would need to balance it out fully before he can break free from the reincarnation cycle and enter the spiritual realm.

Spiritual realms are similar to heavens and hells, but they exist for those with relatively neutral karma, which feels a lot like Buddhism, where followers attempt to reach Nirvana. But sadly, those followers gain way too much positive karma, thus they will always go to heaven instead.

That is kind of ironic, and from the look of it, Christianity seems to be the most correct path. That is, if you want to get to heaven, you have to do good. You will get there eventually, as soon as your overall karma goes into the positive.

Of course, getting into heaven does not free one from the Samara Karmic Cycle, as being immortal in heaven or hell does not mean one cannot die.

As a matter of fact, Kozak got himself killed before he could become a devil of any importance in hell.

This is why he is now a moral again. The cycle goes from mortal to immortal to mortal before repeating again. Being devils and angels mean having to fight to remain alive. Only those truly powerful can stay as immortal beings, climbing towards ageless beings.

Speaking of hell and heaven, there is something called Hellion Pillars and Heavenly Hosts.

As a devil, Kozak knows there are 72 Hellion Pillars in all of hell. They are basically Demonic Gods who control all of hell. They are the closest devils that reach accession, stepping into the ageless plane.

Once they do, another devil will take their place, becoming the next pillar. There can only be 72 pillars at any time. The same with the amounts of Heavenly Hosts.

And that is all Kozak knows about them. He has never seen any of the pillars before, and he would not unless he has reached a substantial amount of demonic power.

Killing and devouring demons as well as other devils seem to increase their demonic power the fastest.

Devouring angels work too, thus the real reason for a war between heaven and hell. Neither side has gained any real advantage over the other due to the difficulty of annexing heaven or hell. Devils cannot restore their demonic power while in heaven.

The same in reverse for angels, thus annexing heaven or hell is considered suicidal. By raiding it seems to be fine. Plenty of raids every now and then, and with infinite landscape, it is really hard to defend.

Interesting.

But what does all of this mean for me exactly? Well, I have a soul, and since I have reincarnated, I must become an angel or a devil before this mortal life.

It is reasonable to assume so, as having a soul means that I am part of the Samara Karmic Cycle. There might be an exception as I am an Aspect, and as an Aspect, I can create souls.

Well, I did create a soul for myself when I reincarnated, but in order to reborn into the mortal planes, I must have lived in the immortal planes. All of this are hypothetical though, and I can confirm it soon enough.

There is one more thing that I have learned from Kozak. Soulmate, for lack of better word.

Soul actually created in pair by Aspects and Primordial, like yin and yang. Everything must be in balance and remained in balance, obviously.

As that is the case, Kozak is looking for his soulmate. He assumes it to be the girl that he has never had the chance to say goodbye due to his untimely death.

That is plausible as souls tend to seek out their soulmate, which people assume to be fate or destiny.

The death of the soul will also result in the death of its counterpart too, as both souls are faces of the same coin. Of course, reaching the ageless plane will make this point moot.

It is interesting to know that I have a soulmate out there somewhere. I might have already met her or him but did not know it. I hope it is not him, but it is likely not. In any case, it is good to know.

And that is everything that Kozak knows about the soul. He has gained all of this knowledge thanks to the Power of Reincarnation. Apparently, he is a Power User, but not in the same thread as Zephyr.

It is more like Zeus, as Kozak is not the original wielder of the Power.

He actually acquired as a devil, thus allowing him to keep the memory of his past life. Just one as those other ones were before he acquired the Power of Reincarnation.

That Power does not only allow him to keep his memory, but as well as his power and whatever ability he managed to acquire in his past life. In other word, the more lifetime that he has lived through, the more powerful that he would become.

If Kozak had died and reincarnated before he actually gained anything useful, it would consider a waste of a lifetime. That is probably why he does not fear death, but he still wanted to continue to live, just so he can become as strong as he can.

The Power of Reincarnation also lets Kozak jump from one cycle to another, thus not needing to reborn in the same reality again. Basically, he is a serial isekai, gaining more cheats the more he reincarnated.

Destroying his soul will stop that from happening, but destroying a soul is not really that simple. They are quite indestructible, and even someone could, they would have to think twice about it.

This is because souls are more or less property of the Aspects and Primordial. As such, destroying soul will only invite their wrath. Of course, some idiots still do.

As for why Aspects and Primordial allows immortal to reach ageless state, thus becoming soulless in a sense, I am unsure. Kozak does not even question this part, seemingly accept it as the way things are.

I do not, obviously. Everything happens should happen for a reason.

In any case, Legion has finished preparing the magical chamber for me. It takes longer than usual since Legion has to upgrade himself with new knowledges from my mind.

This Legion is a dumb-down copy of the original Legion, and I have already made quite a lot of scientific and magical progress with the real Legion back in the prime reality.

With all of my knowledge, this Legion should be as good as the actual Legion.

Even so, I still keep all of the primary and secondary directives in place for Azulian Legion. Cannot have him go off and do his own thing with the resource of an entire universe at his disposal.

The improvement in Hyper Space technology should allows him to spread out into the galaxy and the universe at an even fast pace. No other lifeform is disconcerting as the prime reality does have aliens out there.

Most probably waiting for me to come and pick them up to restart the Galactic Empire. I had promised them that I would, and I will keep my promise. It will be called Hydra Imperium, however. Do not want to retread old path.

My time as an evil Galactic Emperor is over. I will just be an evil Overlord now. It is probably mean the same thing, but hey, new title feels newer. It is probably a placebo effect.

I chuckle to myself as I head into the magical chamber. The magical incantation circle is created exactly to Kozak, as it is not a standard magical circle. There are some demonic designs incorporate into it, as he was a devil before this life.

In any case, it should not be a problem, but I did put in some failsafe should something happen to me while I am dreaming about my past life. Or past lives.

Even though I will not gain any ability or power from those past lives of mine, I will gain knowledge as well as greater understanding of the wider existence.

Maybe the real reason to why I was dead in the first place. Now that would be awesome.