Clap clap clap clap clap.

The repeated and rapid sound of a single pair of hands clapping filled the ears of the formerly unconscious people.

“Wakey wakey! Time to get up! Rise and shine!” a feminine voice grates and forces eyes to pop open.

“Can’t have you all sleeping the day away now. MOVE!” that last word filled with power that compels limbs to react and the five people scramble to their feet.

Or at least what they consider feet. The five of them start glancing around a white-ish void and can only really feel the presence of other humans nearby. All at once they start babbling.

“What happened? I was driving home in the rain.” Spoke Paul. He tried patting himself and only got back a feeling of static interference.

“It wasn’t raining. It hadn’t rained since yesterday.” called out Francis. Who tried stretching his neck but didn’t get the satisfying pop he was expecting.

“Is this really happening? Have my dreams come true?” Said Hugh, staring straight forward apparently dumbstruck.

“Ah, this is a dream. Makes sense” nodded Tim. Attempting to cross his arms which refused to lock into place.

Mark was quiet and took the time to look around at his surroundings, trying to see anything of interest in the void.

“The light was green! I had the right of way!” Said Paul. His voice taking on a strained tone.

“I only looked away for a moment. That shouldn’t have happened.” Francis muttered.

“Just like one of my Japanese animé’s” Whispered Hugh, unable to stop himself.

“OK quiet down now.” said the feminine voice, who’s controlling words made the general hubbub of the five die down. “Yeeeesh, seems like the transition did a number on you guys. Four out of five not salvageable it seems. But you work with what you got is a motto. Lets ease into this a bit softer.”

The five points of view that represented the humans were drawn towards a phenomenon of pink motes of light coalescing into a woman. Her hair, vibrant shining gold. Her skin, unblemished marble. Her features, perfectly symmetrical and terrifyingly beautiful. Her clothes, floating strips of pink silk. But most striking of all, her eyes, the same colour as the void as if looking through an empty mask.

The woman, the goddess, seemed to float down towards the five. Her foot alighted on nothing, which quickly became the ground as her feet took up weight. The goddess was a giant who towered over everyone there. She gracefully knelt and stretched forward getting down on hands and knees, then elbows, before finally getting low enough to rest her head on her hands and her hands flat on the newly created floor. Bringing her face close to the five humans on the floor.

“You guys are just so adorable. Happy to have you all here.” Her gaze flew over all of them as they were trapped in place.

“...” the tiniest murmur of noise escaped from Hugh.

“eh? What was that?” The goddess cocked her head to the side bringing a perfect ear towards the five. “Oh right! Told you guys to quiet down, that and I have ears for the moment. Ahem, speak normally, I command you.”

Like a volume knob going from 1 to 5, Hugh finished his question. “Oh goddess, why have you brought us here?” He sounded eager.

The other four turned their attention to this man called Hugh. He seemed to know what was going on.

“So glad at least one of you has a head on their shoulders.” The goddess got a far away look in her eyes for a moment. “Hah, in more ways than one.” She eyed Hugh directly. “OK you’re the leader then. This is a pretty simple thing. You gotta kill God. That’s why I brought you here.”

There was a pause as the five of them took a moment.

Paul was first to react. “We can’t do that! You’re too big!”

The goddess shot Paul an annoyed look. “Not me. The other God. The god of the place I’m going to send you to.”

Tim was the next person to speak up. “I’m not sure I can do that. I’ve never killed anyone before.”

“Not sure you can kill God.” Rumbled Mark. His voice measured and steady.

“Yeah I agree with that!” Francis interjected. “Ain’t that some kind of philosophical quandary? Some real Nietzsche type thing?”

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“Send us to?” Tim felt the question get smoothed over.

“Shsssshhhhh.” the goddess leaned over a bit and flapped her hand. “Such inconsequential questions. I’m certain you’ll figure it out.”

“Wait, what was that you said about four of five?” questioned Paul.

The goddess blinked. “Oh right, you mortals are all about those flesh suits. OK let me just rip that bandage off.” Her gaze focused on them intensely. “Plant what you think are your feet firmly on the ground. Then twist what you think is your body to look over what you think is your shoulder.”

For four of the humans, following her specific instructions, twisted their forms. The featureless white-ish void shifting darker in gradient as their point of view rotated behind. To each they see a mangled and bloody corpse. The horrific result of vehicular impacts. Where unfeeling steel met yielding flesh in an uncaring and violent manner.

Hugh, had a slightly different reaction by saying “Oh god, I really did let myself go, didn’t I?”

Tim tore his vision away from the impact crater. “Let yourself go?”

“Ah yeah...” Hugh felt embarrassed. “It’s uh... an Elvis situation.”

If any of the other four had teeth, they would have sucked air in through them.

“so uh... how about you guys? I only see myself back there.” Hugh asked.

“Car accident.” Paul

“Truck accident.” Mark

“Distracted driving.” Francis

“Flying truck.” Paul. Which caused the rest of them to stare. “I looked up and there it was.”

The goddess gave a tiny golf clap that dragged everyone's attention back to her.

“As you can tell, things didn’t really end well. So here’s how its going to go. One Rejuvenation and Remake, the rest get replacements. Got it?”

“Not in the slightest.” Said Mark.

“Too bad! Lets see what we got for you four!” as the goddess reached far to her left and pinched some of the white-ish nothing which formed into a standing coat rack. Pulling to the right, the empty rack rocketed past before slowing until the end comes to a stop with a single empty hanger swinging on it.

“Ah, well. That rack gets used pretty often. I’ll have it restocked for next time. Let’s try another!” A second pull, and a second empty rack. A frown crosses the goddesses face. A third pull rockets a third empty rack which crashes into the first two sending them careening off into the void.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth racks met similar fates due to an increasingly frustrated goddess. But the seventh had a bit of weight attached. This one came out with a wobble that wasn’t present in the previous six racks. As it slowed to a stop there was a squeaky creak coming from a bad wheel that increased in volume over time. As The rack finally finished moving it proudly displayed four wildly different skin suits.

“Aha! I knew there were a few leftover. Lets see what we got to work with.” The goddess poked and prodded the four suits which caused a luminescent moth to flutter out and up. “We got a set of mark five suits, a human, a halfling, a dwarf, and an elf. Who wants what?”

The goddesses expectant face was met with stunned silence.

“OK what the hell is going on with all this?” exclaimed Francis. “Everything here is moving too fast!”

“Yeah! We need more information to make good decisions!” Agreed Paul.

“Listen.” Hugh motioned for their attention. “I’ve read all about this situation.”

“You’ve ‘read’ about this? This specific situation we find ourselves in? This is NORMAL for you?” an increasingly frantic Tim almost shouted.

“Yeah, the gist of it is this. We died, goddess over there is bringing our souls?” Hugh looked for confirmation from the goddess who nodded. “To a new world of fantasy and magic, you heard the names for those suits. Where we need to gain the power to kill god, as she said before.”

“So first we get a suit, then we get the power, then we kill god.” Mark listed. “I don’t particularly like this.”

“Oh getting the power will probably be the easy part.” Mark continued. “I bet there’s a system of some kind that’ll smooth out gaining power. Not going to need to hit the gym for months on end to build muscle, that kind of thing.”

“I knew making you the leader would be the correct choice.” The goddess smiled. “You’ve got the gist of it. So to make it simple, a body and a class, which is the [Power] by the way, for each of you. Transport to the new world, and then you kill God. Easy peasy right?”

“What classes oh magnificent goddess?” Hugh appeased.

With a grin at the compliment which quickly turned into a look of contemplation. “For you there, I will bestow upon you something custom. Something that will mesh well with your newly rejuvenated body. The [Power] down there is at mark 23 in general, so I’ll give you a sneak peak at the mark 24 power set. I bestow upon you the [Spell Blade] class. A combination class that will give you many powerful options. With which to complete your mission.”

The white-ish eyes of the goddess tracked to the other four. “Unfortunately the mark five suits really can only make use of the mark five [Power]. So the four options I’ve got are [Fighter], [Rogue], [Cleric], and [Wizard]. You’ll be supporting Mark here for the most part. Those classes are ancient in comparison.”

Paul got excited. “a Wizard! I could be an elf Wizard! I call dibs!”

“You recognize those ‘classes’?” Asked Francis.

“Oh yeah, used to play it all the time in high school.” Nodded Paul. “Wizard does magic, Fighter punches things with swords. Rogue is the sneaky beaky one, and Cleric is the healer.”

“Well, I suppose I should stick with what I know. Give me that Rogue class.” Francis said.

“Pair it with the halfling and you’ll be golden.” Paul added and Francis nodded in agreement.

“I’d prefer the healer if that’s alright with you Mark?” Tim asked.

“I’ve no real preference, and this Fighter sounds straight forward.” Mark intoned. “One less thing to think about. Which of those suits would be best Paul?”

“Oh that’s easy.” Paul pointed at the two in turn. “Human for the Fighter, keeping it simple. And Dwarf for the Cleric, they’re classics all of us will be.”

The goddess interrupted them “It sounds like you’ve all made your choices. The only thing left is to put on your suits and you’ll be on your way.”

The four humans each moved towards the suits. Each of them looking like a hollowed out and flattened bag of skin. Paul grabbed the tallest its skin fair and covered entirely in a thin layer of hair. Francis took the shortest it’s skin looking like parchment. Mark found his to be roughly the same height as he normally was. Tim felt his to be rough and coarse.

“This won’t hurt, will it?” Hugh asked as the others took a moment find what appears to be zippers and started filling out the suits.

The goddess chuckled before saying “Oh sweetie, it’s magic. Of course it’s going to hurt.”