A Zombie's Path to Power

Lifting his head from the parchment, Azel scowled. The map documenting the mountain range was entirely unhelpful. Not only did everything around him look the same, the map was so faded with age that it was practically impossible to read it.

Dragons-breath was a herb that only grew at incredibly high altitudes, so Azel had spent maybe a day now circling around the cliffs in an attempt to find some sort of trail upwards that he could climb. And yet slowly a doubt was starting to crawl its way into his mind.

What if the trail was long gone? After all, the map was rather old, and Azel did not doubt that it was definitely out of date. Would that mean Azel would have to scale the mountain normally? He had some trouble just climbing the cliffs up to where he was now, and despite the zombie's unnatural endurance he understood that climbing to the summit would be impossible.

Of course, at the same time he had to make a decision soon. The zombie's hunger was growing and, even though he still had just under a week of time before his mana ran out, this trip could potentially go on forever if he just continued wandering around.

Giving in to his fears, Azel pressed his body against the steep mountain wall and begun feeling around for a hand hold. The range itself was primarily made from limestone, which was classified as a soft rock, so if he really wanted Azel had no doubt he could punch holes into the side of the mountain.

But this was going to be a test of endurance, the zombie was on a strict budget of four days worth of mana, if he pushed himself to far he may run out of energy halfway there. Azel didn't want to end up as a red stain on the side of the cliffs, so he would have to rely on the natural grips instead.

Finally finding what seemed like a suitable path upwards for himself, Azel begun climbing. Even without mana his body was naturally athletic, so the zombie had little trouble heaving himself around.

Of course, looking upwards and seeing the length way to go, Azel felt his face screw up in annoyance. In a strange way it was funny, usually you were supposed to avoid looking down when doing this kind of thing, but looking up was almost as bad.

Thinking back to what Gryphon told him about magic, Azel pondered for a moment. Every soul, in there own way, is attuned to the world. But because of the uniqueness of each soul, the way their magic showed itself would be unique as well.

Perhaps a calm steady individual would have an easier time manipulating water, whilst a passionate easily angered person would find fire easier...

Azel's greatest issue with this is that he himself did not have a "true personality". His general actions and habits were all influenced by the people around him, so how would his magic manifest?

Thinking further, the zombie had a sudden thought. If the soul was directly connected to someone's ego, and Azel didn't have a ego, did he have a soul? Or maybe, his soul in some kind of growth process?

Despite being resurrected, Azel had no real memories, habits or thoughts connected with this body. Azel hadn't thought about it before but was he always... "Azel"? Maybe he was a completely new individual who just happened to start anew in a corpse?

But that couldn't be right either. After all, even if he lacked personal memories, his general knowledge was still there. The zombie was aware of concepts, sciences and even what mana contracts were.

"So what exactly am I?" Murmured Azel aloud, "A person with a soul, a monster or something in between?"

Thrown out of his thoughts by a sudden loose rock, He scrambled to stop himself from falling. Grunting, Azel looked up. The next outcrop was just a few more meters above him, he could rest there for a moment.

…But then he wouldn't even be a quarter of the way up, and there was no guarantee that there would be more spots neatly dotted up the mountain for him to rest. At some point, probably sooner than later, Azel was going to have to start increasing the amount of mana his body consumed.

The supernatural strength it provided was going to be the difference between life or death right now. Of course, if he used too much there was no guarantee that he would make it back with his sanity intact.

"Damn this hunger, damn this map and damn Gryphon for sending me on this ridiculous mission!" yelled Azel to no one in particular as he pulled himself onto the outcrop and stretched out in exasperation.

<---o--->

Before all, the darkness watched. The darkness had no choice in the matter, of course, there was nothing else to do. The darkness watched, listened and learnt from that nothing around him.

First, it taught itself language. Not the language we know, not a language of words and nuance. The darkness taught itself to think in a strange mess of symbols and vague emotions, anyone else looking in wouldn't be able to understand at all. Luckily, there no one else.

Then, the darkness begun testing the limits of the world it found itself in. There was a before, now and an after. There was a here, over-there and a nowhere. There was the darkness... and there was nothing.

And then, after an inconceivable amount of time, the darkness found something else. Something unlike itself. The darkness found a brilliant light. And in this brilliant light the darkness saw hundreds of billions of creatures.

They were dynamic in ways unlike the darkness. They aged and changed, the darkness did not. They birthed new life and perished, the darkness did not. And for the first time in its existence, the darkness felt joy.

Because it had been so bored before these little creatures. But now it was not.