Seymour, who is now known as Hurt, was a powerhouse who achieved Saint's realm.
He was one of the magicians who was distinguished for his spatial magic and along with his companion researched creating portals and other things.
A Saint realm powerhouse could live around 400 and 500 years.
Seymour who was able to live for 400 years tried his best to break through the Supreme realm but all his effort was for naught.
Rather than breaking through, he suffered a backlash due to which all his hopes were lost.
He had dedicated all his life to studies and research and didn't want to die without enjoying his life.
He didn't want to die due to old age and that's why he tried to increase his lifespan in other ways.
He looked for mystical herbs, natural treasures, artifacts, potions and clues for anything that could extend his life and return his youth but he found nothing.
One day while he was travelling, he heard a village boy asking an elder about the soul.
Where does the soul come from and where did it go after a person dies?
The topic aroused his curiosity and he started to think about it.
What was the soul? Can there be living things without souls? What was it made of?
Many useless questions like this rang in his mind but these useless things interested him greatly and he started to focus on them.
In his research, he found that the soul is the thing that gives the typical characteristic to a person, it is the very essence that differentiates an individual from another which was endowed with basic attributes of living things that mould and adapt to one current vessel known as a living body.
Everyone had a different soul and he was struck by the versatility of the soul.
Does a soul born again and again live in a vessel and if it does then how many lifetimes can a person live?
He wasn't able to uncover what happened to the soul after a person dies and only knew from the holy book that the bad soul assembled in Hell while the good one went to Heaven under Goddess's guidance to restart new life.
An outrageous thought came into his mind. He thought of using space laws to trap a soul after a person dies and transfer the soul to another person's body.
He knew the ideas were quite childish and illogical but wasn't the very concept of soul and living things illogical from the beginning?
Why does the soul need to go to heaven or hell instead of going to another person directly? He wanted to try but he wasn't courageous enough to do this.
He engrossed himself in the research day and night. He didn't care about breaking the taboo of uncovering something he shouldn't have after all he was already near the end of his life.
Being a Saint realm powerhouse, he already had a certain understanding of the soul and his research dived further into the secret of one's essence.
Even though he discovered many things, he wasn't able to make ground-making discoveries that could change the whole world until one day, a tragedy happened.
One day when he was experimenting with the laws and soul force by drawing out his soul, a loud explosion occurred nearby his place which broke his concentration.
The backlash was quite severe and he lost control over the soul force which increased and spread throughout the place.
The pressure from a Saint realm powerhouse was enough to crush a Transcendent rank and wipe out half of the city.
Soon after this, his consciousness faded into darkness and after an unknown amount of time, as he woke up, he found himself in the body of a 12-year-old boy.
He was delighted to find himself in a new body but more than that he was horrified to witness the tragic scene in front of him.
Everyone around him died and the whole place had become deserted. He wanted to live but not at the cost of killing many.
He felt guilty and thought of ending his life but the thoughts were halted when he found the cause of the explosion that interrupted him.
He found their presence, those disgusting scums.
Creatures of Dark.
They were planning to form a sacrificial altar around this place and sacrifice all the people.
After that, he vowed to kill them to take revenge and for that, he needed to grow stronger.
At first, he thought that his soul had been transferred but later he came to know that his and Hurt's soul had been intertwined into one.
Both their memories and personalities had been mixed and when he searched for his own body, he found it lying lifeless in the lab.
From that day, he lived Hurt and used all his knowledge to grow stronger. He first wiped out those vile creatures and after growing old, he entered the Academy to start his new life.
But living among a bunch of kids jumping like monkeys annoyed him to death so he always maintained a cold face.
Alex blinked his eyes with a sceptical look after hearing the story.
He was sure that the soul swap didn't happen because of Seymour's stupid accidents and there were many things into it.
Hurt laughed bitterly seeing his reaction.
"You don't believe me, don't you?"
"Did you think this happened due to that accident? You are too conceited for an old man who lived for 500 years, old man?" Alex snickered.
"What do you mean?"Hurt asked with an uneasy expression.
" Do you even know the meaning of sacrificial Altar?"
"The Sacrificial Altar sucks the soul of living beings and offers to the God Of Darkness, "Hurt replied.
Alex nodded and explained, "When you are engrossed in the experiment, The Sacrificial Altar might be pulling the souls around the area and at that time, the wide-area spell might have clashed with you causing the pressure to explode and damage the spell along with the altar."
"Your soul might have been damaged badly and was on the verge of being pulled. At the same time, the others who might be on their way to sacrifice might have returned to their bodies due to this."
"Your damaged soul wasn't able to fit inside your body and might have mixed with that kid's name Hurt."
Hurt felt that the ground beneath his feet had sunk after hearing Alex's analysis.
"Old man, this all happened due to some coincidences and you don't have any part in it. If soul swapping was as easy as it sounds then there would be a ton of like that." Alex snorted.
Alex stared at Hurt's melancholy expression and tried to reassure him"You don't need to be disheartened. Just live this new life properly old man."
Hurt was pleased by Alex's words but the term old man pierced his heart like an arrow.
"What old man? You are even older than me? A person of your calibre might have lived for a thousand years. In terms of age, you might be my ancestor?"
Alex gritted his teeth in anger and spoke emphasising each word.
"I am not an old man and this is my real age. My soul is studier because I was accidentally hit by lightning and blessed by Goddess. All the blood you have seen was due to the Goddess Of War."
"Don't think too much."
"My existence is something, which that little brain of yours can't muster the courage to acknowledge."
"My existence is beyond your understanding."
