[https://imgur.com/aLAhzIG.png][https://imgur.com/aLAhzIG]

"Ah..."

My voice rasps.

I can feel myself fading in my hospital bed. It's going to happen again.

For months now, my body has been failing me; my consciousness has been constantly lost. I'll be in the middle of breakfast and wake up face-first into my eggs. I can't keep food down after spells like this, and I wake up unfamiliar with my surroundings for the first minute, so I have panic attacks that result in vomiting as well. I couldn't stay awake during lectures at college, and my aforementioned panic attacks once conscious would cause a scene. I had to stop driving because it was too dangerous with how often I was losing consciousness, and to have it happen behind the wheel would be too dangerous not only for myself, but for anybody I could possibly hit while out of action.

I went to doctors as constantly as I could afford, but was dismissed just as often. Though once they had taken notice of my unique case, it seemed almost as though it was too late, or just plain didn't matter; they were as clueless as me. Brain scans, MRIs, sleep studies, "wake" studies, every test they could relevantly run came back invariably blank; all they could gather was the obvious. My heartbeat would slow, my brain activity would dim, and it would be as though I'd nearly died every time. It only got worse as time went on. I'd enter comatose states for hours at a time, barely breathing on the worst of them. I was finally admitted to the hospital two weeks ago, considering this has gone on for two months now. It's safer, sure, for me to lose consciousness in the safety of a medical environment, so possible impact trauma has been mitigated... But even so, doctors can't find anything wrong with me.

In short, I'm wasting their time and suffering all the same.

All that being said, it's happening again, but for some reason, it's incredibly slow this time.

Before me a television mounted on the wall plays a daytime show I wasn't paying attention to. A nurse was doing a routine check on my vitals, but now she's transfixed by the patient monitor sitting beside my bed. She's about to call for a doctor, but my focus dims before I can check to see if she actually does get someone.

Ah...

I really hope I don't wake up.

This has been a hassle from start to finish.

My college career was looking pretty good for a starving artist, but here I am withering away.

I really, really hope it's over. It was all pretty much for naught. Ah, they won't try to resuscitate me, will they?

As I'm drifting off, I'm considering what's happened since I was admitted to the hospital. My dad visited pretty much every day, but my mom never once showed her face. I live out of town, so I get the struggle of coming to visit, but it really was a shame that she confirmed my suspicions that my mother never gave a damn about me. I wasn't the perfect child, but dad's presence reminded me that not once was her absence my fault. My dad was staying in a hotel while this all happened, but today was the last day he could afford being in town, so he left for his home a few hours ago. I don't have a lot of friends, never went out with anyone and never made an impact on my school that gave anybody reason to start a support campaign for me or anything of the sort, so nobody else has visited.

Ah... Yeah, it's over.

I lost consciousness.

As soon as I lose touch with the world around me, I find myself awake once more, and just like waking from a dream I don't remember, I can't recall who I am, much less where. Although, this time as my recollections come trailing by the minute mark, I'm realizing bit by bit that I'm no longer in the hospital bed I was previously in. In fact, as my memories come back in their entirety, my senses do too -- and I can't smell that insufferable disinfectant smell anymore. I can't feel the stiff medical garb I was in. I can't see that lame midday TV show in front of me.

Instead, a girl of petite build stands over me.

Beneath me is what feels like a puddle of water, but when I look up the 'puddle' goes for as far as I can see. Little blue and red roses float on the surface in random areas, as though there were a current unknown to me. The girl standing over me is wearing a pluming yet short white dress, she has a head of incredibly long hair and her eyes are shut delicately. Her hands are clasped, as though in prayer, and bizarrely, she's glowing. Massive crystalline structures dot the endless expanse around us, translucent and dimly glowing from an inner source of energy.

I'm dreaming?

That's all I can suppose. I sit up and gather myself, covering my breasts as the girl's eyes open, focusing on my visage before her, still nude as a babe.

Her expression changes from solemn focus to absolute surprise and elation.

"It--?! It worked! Finally!"

"Wh--?"

The girl throws herself at me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders and squeezing me tight against her body, tears welling in her vibrant blue eyes.

It's painful.

It hurts, but I don't try to pull away.

"I've been trying to summon you for so long! This time, it finally worked!" She says, sensing my confusion, but none of her words dispel my fog. It probably made it a bit worse, in fact. "I... I can't believe it! I've failed so many times to summon you, and it finally worked! This is amazing!"

"Ho-hold on!" I sputter, pushing her off with force I hadn't anticipated to be so strong. She flies back a touch, plopping on her bum with a wet splash. A few islands of roses float in opposite directions to her impact, and I'm left in silence. She doesn't say anything further, perhaps respecting my confusion, waiting for me to speak. My lips quiver, and I feel the bizarrest I've ever felt. I don't feel hungry or sick like I usually do. I feel the most awake I've ever felt. This doesn't feel like a dream, but what else could it be? It must be a lucid kind. I can't wrap my head around it. "... Where... Where am I?"

There's a moment of quiet as the girl picks herself up. She's smiling wide, proud of her work. I grimace, wanting an answer sooner than later. Finally, she parts her lips. "You are in my domain."

"Okay..." I say apprehensively, and with the last bits of patience I have. "Where is... your domain?"

"It is neither in your world or the next."

Riddles. I hate them. I speak through my teeth, struggling to remain calm.

"What are you talking about?" I almost say 'take me home,' but I stop myself, finding an odd realization; wherever I am, I don't want to go back to that hospital bed. The girl seems to be deeply considering where to begin here.

"... It's a lot to explain, I think... Do you -- do you 'play video games'?"

"... I mean, yeah."

"Oh! Then this might be easy. You've been what your kind calls 'summoned,' or better yet, brought through a portal to my realm."

"... Uh."

I recognize the concept, I do, but I can't accept it, not yet. Instead, I sit up in the puddle that expands the entire space we're in, and cross my legs applesauce. I scratch my head in irritation, feeling a tickle in my brain where this is beginning to come together. It's a dark place, really, where we are. There's only the illumination of the crystals to give me a clear view of this girl's body. It's bright enough to counter the blackness, but I still feel as though where I am isn't somewhere human. At this point though, it's pretty clear I'm right -- this place isn't human.

"... A portal to your realm." I mutter, and I'm grasping at straws. "You're... a video game character?"

"No, not at all! I'm very real!" She insists, cheeks puffing indignantly.

"Then what are you?"

"Ah, I'm... well... a god!"

"You're kidding me," I immediately say, flat out, no thought put into it. I bring a hand to my face to cover it in exasperation, and despite it having been on the floor of this place, it's far from wet. In fact, it's quite dry, as though none of the puddle clung to it initially.

"It's best compared to... um... an 'isekai' situation?"

"Ise... Isekai?" I repeat. I've watched enough anime to know where this is going, if that's the case. "... No."

"No?" The girl innocently worries, parroting me. Maybe I wasn't clear enough.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"I'm not helping you save the world."

She freezes, like a deer in headlights.

"... I-I-I-I didn't even say a-a-a-anything like that yet!"

"'Yet,' huh?" I leer. "Right. What did you summon me for then?"

Put on the spot, the girl immediately tenses up. Her gaze squiggles off nervously to the side, and she tries to look innocent.

"I-I-I summoned you because..."

"... Because...?"

"... B-because I'm..."

"... You're....?"

She really wanted to stay dignified looking, huh? She hadn't made a good first start at it, and even now, her beaded sweat forming on her brow tells me she's nowhere near prepared to handle the pressure I've put on her.

"... Because I'm... a f-failure."

"Excuse me?"

The girl deflates, the tension from drawing out her response ultimately draining her to the point of buckling her knees, plopping harmlessly into the shallow puddle beneath her.

"... I'm a failure," she mumbles, curling up a touch, hugging her knees. "... I've failed the universe I watch over."

I open my mouth to say something, but her dejected look shuts me up. Instead, I choose to listen to her plight. It's ultimately my loss, I'm sure, but I can't just tell someone so defeated that I don't care about their problems. I wasn't born heartless.

"... I've only watched over this universe for 100 years, and it's already headed for doom."

"So the universe is only 100 years old, and you've already failed?"

"N-no! I inherited it from my creator, s-so, it's existed for quite some time. In fact, in terms of time, it's existed for about as long as your world has..."

"So you messed it all up in only 100 years time. All your creator's hard work?"

"Urk!" She gulps, clearly tearing up. She bites her lip and I feel a sort of guilt being so straight forward with her. "... Y-yes..." She finally says.

"You're kind of bad at this godhood thing, from the sounds of it..."

"... G-... Gwaaahhh!" The girl wails, covering her face with her hands.

I'm not sure what she was gambling for out of me, but I'm rather sure she didn't anticipate for me to tap into her ploy and drag her through the mud like I did just now. It's pitiful, truly pitiful, but...

"... Ugh..." I grunt.

I can't say I'm not intrigued by how this whole situation came to be. I'm also stuck here, as far as I can tell...

I sit up a bit, water easily dripping off of me and leaving my nude body dry. I scoot up and close the distance between me and her and sigh. I place a tender hand on top of her head, and begin trying to sooth the sobbing girl with a series of rubs. She accepts them rather hungrily without realizing it, her eyes opening and staring at the watery floor while I make an effort to bring her back to her senses.

"... So you've messed it up to the point of no return," I say, summarizing what we've covered. "And... you need... me... to fix things?"

She nods silently.

"... Why me?"

"I was able to connect to you far better than anybody else in your world, let alone any others. It took a bunch of tries, but... for my universe, I can't give up... So I didn't!"

"A bunch of tries?"

"Yeah... I had to grab at your soul a bunch, but I kept missing."

It's not so hard for me to connect the dots now that I'm feeling self-aware.

"... Ah... So that's why I was suffering so heavily," I breathe. "You really should be more careful... I could have died."

"... Um..."

"... What?"

"... The thing is..."

"Oh, for goodness' sake," I mutter, piecing together this new detail too. "You snatched my soul right from my body this time, didn't you? I actually died..."

"I-it's just how the process works! A soul can't be in two places at once! I-I-I'm really sorry I couldn't ask for permission...!"

I grimace and feel like she's going to cry again, but instead I find her arms wrapping around my torso. Her embrace is incredibly tight, and she buries her face in my breasts. For her, my nudity is a tertiary thing. I find it tertiary as well, though, considering the gravity of things at hand, and let off a sigh, wrapping my arms around her in an effort to keep her calm. After all, I kind of get it.

"... You've been alone on this whole thing? Owning a universe, running it, pulling the strings?"

I can't say I relate fully to a god, but I have lived a difficult life. My father worked practically 24/7, and my mother, while present in me and my siblings' life at first, did nothing of benefit to any of us. I was stuck as the eldest getting everyone up for school, dressed for the day, fed and in bed by an amicable time, with no thanks. To top it off, just like the girl buried in my bosom right now, I didn't do a swell job at running what I'd been put in charge of. My little brother took his own life a few months ago... And I blame my absence fully for it. Admittedly, my world wasn't so great considering what I had lived with. College was my final big break, and look how that ended. Motherless, brotherless, and now, dead.

So, I guess I understood it.

"... Yeah," she answers my query, and I find myself wrapping my arms a bit tighter around her. "I've been all alone."

I shut my eyes.

"... I see."

Pity. I took pity, and that was my major downfall. I know I said I wouldn't help her save her world, but now that I understood her situation, I felt compelled to do something. Looking down at the plume of white hair that sat on the head buried in my chest, I sucked in a long sigh and shut my eyes once again.

"... Alright," I finally say, and the girl looks up at me. "First of all, tell me your name."

"My n-name? Sure, it's... It's Vestin."

"... Vestin," I repeat, and the name feels good to say. I consider my words next. I'd be lying if I told you I didn't already have a plan, but it's entirely pawned from a popular show I watched before I got sick. I'm not original by any means. "... I'll do it, under one condition."

"Y-you'll save the world?"

"I'll try. But under one condition."

"Yes!" She answers, flying off of me and clasping her hands once more in elated pleading. "What is it?!"

"You're coming with me."

"Huh?"

"You're coming with me to save the world. In person. You're not having someone clean up your mess while you sit back and relax. You need to take responsibility."

"... A-ah..." She seems put on the spot, but not averse to the idea. In fact, she seems to be a little encouraged. "... So things aren't hopeless..."

"They aren't, but I'm not doing this alone. Do you think you can fulfill that? In exchange for my life like this, you have to endure this with me."

"..." She's silent for a moment. She grows a sort of resolve on her expression as time passes. "I can do that," Vestin says. "I'd have to change a few things, but... We can do it."

"That's what I like to hear."

Vestin smiles, and it's precious. It's a smile so pure and genuine, and I can't imagine what horrors might come from her mistakes that haunt that smile. While I have a more neutral disposition right now, I can't help but feel kinship with this goddess, and the worry that follows is heavy. From the show I watched, the goddess is entirely unprepared for life in the world she runs; I can only hope Vestin is a little more prepared.

"Allow me a moment to organize things in Lumenis, and we'll be good to start."

"Lumenis?"

"Oh! Yeah, that's the name of the planet we'll be inhabiting. It's the only planet with intelligence on it, and the only one that's really relevant to the problem at hand. Y-you'll know what I mean soon enough."

"I see," I say, and allow her to focus. She shuts her eyes and seems to do nothing for a long while, taking on a soft white glow. As she's seemingly unresponsive, I get up and move around for the first time. I touch a crystal and it's warm, almost like it's alive beneath my touch. I really should have demanded clothes, but I'm sure those will come next. In the meantime, I'm growing more and more anxious to see what could be so bad about this world.

"It's an organization," she finally says, and it looks like I'm finally going to get some exposition. "The Aetherum Ascendance Guild, or AAG. They've existed since the Middle Ages to prevent beasts and other magical anomalies from threatening civilization. When I came into possession of the universe, they received a new leader, and they've changed the organization for the worst. It's just me and those in the inner circle that know the leader is aiming for world domination... And the only reason I know is because I was able to see everything back then."

"You can't see anymore?"

"... N-no," Vestin says nervously, and I sense another curveball coming my way. "... My magic isn't very... strong anymore. I had to use all my concentration to summon you."

"Great. Got it," I say.

"What? Y-you're not disappointed, or overwhelmed?"

"I'm dead. I've got what you're dealing to me, and that's it. I'll have to figure everything out later."

"... Y-you're too calm."

"Thanks, it's the state of denial. I'm just rolling with it now."

Vestin lets off a sigh. After another moment, she settles from what she was doing, and that faint glow dissipates.

"Alright. We'll be entering the AAG as new adventurers, together like you asked. I've given ourselves identities on Lumenis; you are now called Marie, and I will be your combat partner, Vesti -- which is a pretty common name there. We just have to get into the AAG through an assessment they conduct."

"And our skills are?"

"... S-skills?"

"Yes, like, do we have skills for combat? Are we capable? I assume this is a magical universe, do we possess magic?"

"U-um!" Looks like Vestin hadn't thought of that. "O-one sec..."

She glows again, but looks markedly more nervous. I remain silent for some time.

"U-u-um..." She mumbles. "We... We'll only have about a week and a half to master our skills before the test."

"And they are...?" I push.

"Well, wh-what do you want to be?"

"You didn't even have that thought out?"

"... No..." She admits.

I sigh, and pat her head.

"What magic does the bad guy use?"

"Light magic..." She mumbles.

"Then, I'll take dark magic. That exists, right?"

"D-dark?! Are... Are you sure?"

"What's the worst that could happen? I'll need a polar opposite to defeat the big bad, I'm sure."

"W-well... There is a certain kind of dark magic I think you'd excel at. I'll set you with that..."

"Sounds great," I say, not wishing to push her for further details. She sounds pretty confident this time. She looks encouraged by my positivity. She's so easily swayed...

"Alright. Are you ready to drop in?"

"Yeah. By your count."

She puffs up in pride at being able to start us off. Her small hands ball up into enthused fists, and she sucks in a breath.

"Okay. I’ll count, yeah! Ready? One... Two... Three!"

On three, a bright flash envelops my senses, and I feel myself leave behind the little realm Vestin has. It counts as the beginning of my adventure, but somehow, I feel like we forgot something in our little first time meet. Maybe even a lot of things. But I'm in no position to pick and choose now.