Looking around, or at least he thought he was, there was only darkness in every direction he looked. Observing his body, Nak assumed he was indeed dead. His body is like a translucent astral projection of sorts.
"Is this the afterlife?" He questioned himself as he once again observed this void surrounding him.
"So, I'm once again thrown into solitude..." He had a tired expression as he closed his eyes letting out an exhausted sigh, "I believe they used this to torture me in the Empire, It seems I'll have to experience this again, might as well sleep."
As he shut his eyes his body began moving through the darkness, as he moved the darkness it moved around him as if it was a liquid. The area all around him began changing as things began appearing around in the black liquid.
Waking from his sleep he rubbed his face as he peeked his eyes open seeing a dim yellow light. Surprised by what he saw he tried sitting up, as he did he felt himself sink back into the darkness.
He began trying to move his arms around a bit, but they moved very slowly as if in water, yet this black stuff felt much thicker and heavier. Giving up he began looking around, there were many things in the darkness, doing their own thing, some looked human, others not so much.
"How strange..."
Observing the creatures around him, he focused on the darkness he was in, he felt something moving around in it. The creatures around him also perked up as they noticed it as well.
"~Well, I must welcome you~" As they were all trying to look under them they heard a loud voice coming from above them, It sounded deep and distorted.
"~Oh my, it seems we have enough to begin!~"
Looking up all those in the dark liquid could see a man in a white suit, yet that was all they could see, they couldn't see past the darkness of what they assumed to be the sky.
A few of the creatures tried to speak, yet they found they couldn't speak, looking up confused they noticed others in the liquid holding their throats.
"~Ah, you must have many questions.~ But worry not you'll know what you need to know when you begin the test.~"
Test?
Hearing what the assumed man said, most looked slightly confused. As he was watching the man in the sky with a curious expression on his face Nak felt something move around again from the dark liquid, as he did he was suddenly pulled into the liquid along with others.
Seeing those in the liquid get pulled under the man disappeared with a light chuckle.
Shaking his head Nak slowly stood up. Standing up he spotted several others with him on what seemed to be the shore of an island, looking behind him he saw that instead of water it was replaced with the black liquid they were just in.
Turning back around there was a forest of giant trees, as he analyzed the forest a big creature with blue skin in purple armor approached with what looked like antlers on his head with purple markings going down from his eyes to the bottom of his chin.
"Greetings! You look like the most collected one here, though I'd say that's quite common since not everyone can get accustomed to their death so quickly, especially if one were a child. Anyway, It seems I'm getting carried away, where I come from I'm called Preston, Preston the Dark Elf."
Stretching out his large hand Preston asked for a handshake. Nak who was looking up at him observed him for a few seconds before accepting his hand.
"Hello? Um, Preston? I go by Nak, I'm human. I didn't know elves got so big. Also, I'm not a child, just really short."
Nak was a bit forgetful, I mean who expects to talk to someone in the afterlife, especially to some overly tall lanky Dark Elf.
"Ah! My bad, I've never seen such a short human either, surprises come to us even after death huh?"
"Yes, it must be truly surprising for you who have died to be here, taking some random test."
A new voice joined cut short the conversation, turning their attention towards the voice they were met with a feminine figure wearing a white suit similar to the one the man with the distorted voice wore.
Once again there was some sort of darkness obscuring her face from their sight, all they could see was the darkness moving at her head in a smoke-like fashion. The woman had a staff in her hand that she was leaning on.
"Now that I've begun to gather your attention I shall now explain the process of this test, as well as what you're testing for."
Pointing towards the three individuals that were a bit away from them she continued.
"You three will be in a group, and you three," pointing at Nak, Preston, and another person covered from head to toe in dark armor sitting a bit away, "Will be in a group."
Though still confused, everyone present nodded their heads as if they understood. Everyone looked and observed their teammates before turning their attention back on the woman.
"Now this is quite the simple test, you'll just have to meet certain requirements, by beating the opponent."
"Ah yes, you have no weapons right? I guess you'll also need to find that as well. Now you're all probably asking yourselves, what is the goal of this test?" The smoke-like darkness covering he head moved around as if indicating she was moving her head, looking towards each "tester".
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"Well the answer is simple, this is something you all would want, right? Haha, the goal is reincarnation!!"
The woman shouted while stretching her arms wide open with a tinge of excitement leaking from her voice, she was about to continue before she heard someone sigh. Looking towards the direction where the sigh came from she saw Nak playing with his long hair that was still covering his head like a mop.
"Haaaa~, I was wondering what this was all about, I'd rather not be reincarnated, can you just send me back to that void or whatever it was? I'd much rather enjoy the loneliness of solitude than to be brought back to life."
Nak spoke as he looked towards the sky before looking at the woman straight where he assumed her eyes were. She paused for a second as if she were contemplating something
Hearing what he had to say those around looked at him strangely at what, from their point of view you'd be pretty stupid to not accept the chance to reincarnate, as they have all died whether they knew they died or not, they wouldn't hesitate at a chance to live again.
To reincarnate can be a chance to improve themselves, they can do the things they've never had a chance to do in their first life, they can even use their knowledge to live their lives as they please.
Or they can choose to make the same choices they did in their original world, oh you were a Demon King in your first life? How about you become one again!? The choice though is usually up to the reincarnate, as well as their situation when they are reincarnated, not everyone is sure to be in a good place. As such is the way of the world.
Now they've met someone who doesn't even want that chance, truly an anomaly to them.
"Oh... But I'm not sure I was asking? Yes, that's right! You have no choice in the matter, you will take the test whether you like it or not." The woman was acting excited about a test she wasn't even participating in, she also said that there was no choice? This somewhat distraught Nak, who just stood there and continued to listen.
"So, where I left off, let's begin this test already!" As she said this the island shook as things constructs started to rise in the forest, "Since you all were considered as giants back in your world you'd have no qualms fighting Titans right?"
"Also, your body here shouldn't limit the use of your abilities that you might've had when you were alive."
Saying this the woman clapped her hands before fading away, as she disappeared there was the splashing as something seemed to be rising from the black liquid in the distance. In the distance a bit away from the shore they stood on the liquid started rising, revealing a ginormous figure.
Rising was a blue-skinned figure, It had pieces of scaled gray armor decorating its body. Hanging from its back was another arm and its face was covered by a plain white mask with three slits on the right side that revealed the red glow of its eye.
It plunged its right arm back in the black liquid, reaching for something. It slowly started pulling its arm out as waves were being sent in every direction as it pulled a giant grey scaled sword.
Seeing the Titan pulling out the sword Preston was shocked, he's never met such a strong creature in his life, he noticed it getting into a position, seeing this he turned to his side.
"Nak, do you kno-" Cutting his sentence short, Preston found that Nak had disappeared from where he was standing. Quickly looking around he spotted him in the distance running from the Titan towards the forest.
"Oh..."
Doing the same thing he also ran towards the forest, he also looked toward their other teammate and noticed that he was also gone, nodding he looked back towards the Titan that was still charging up its attack, then the other group that was eyeing the Titan before starting to run as well.
As everyone started running the Titan's sword lit with a red light, it put its other hand on the hilt and tightened its grip and a speed hard to decipher it quickly swung its sword up like an arc.
Fwoooooosh! Crash! Crack!
The sound of the air being cut, the sound of something crashing, and the sound of something cracking sounded out all at once.
All those who were looked behind them and up at the, before looking back towards the Titan with faces full of shock and a tinge of fear. The sheer power and might this Titan just displayed in a single strike struck fear in their hearts.
There was a clean slash going through the black liquid. The shore where they were standing and some of the forest was destroyed and some trees lost their tops. And the sky, the sky was cracked!
They all thought the same thing seeing this, were they even a second late they would've been dead, if not dead then greatly injured.
The Titan who was still holding the sword up towards the sky had the arm on its back, stretched and grabbed the sword, and held it up from behind it. It paused momentarily turning its head towards the group of three and Preston, who were standing at the edge of the destruction, gawking at it. It started moving slowly in their direction.
Preston watched as the Titan began moving, turning around and forgetting about the other group, he followed Nak to a tower a bit away from where the shore was destroyed.
Arriving at the open top of the tower, he saw Nak squatting with his hands on his head, mumbling to himself with a face betraying no emotion.
Nak was confused, what was the point of this? Forcing someone to reincarnate, that's so stupid! He had the urge to curse everyone out for this annoyance.
Standing up he patted down his pants dusting them off, pants? He just now noticed he dressed up from head to legs in black clothing, a black long sleeve shirt with black cargo pants, there were no shoes though.
"At least they gave me clothes, telling us to fight these monstrosities, haaa, what a joke. What even is the point?"
Nak sighed to himself as he finally noticed Preston's presence, sitting at the edge of the tower, he looked turned his head towards the stairs, before looking at the slowly approaching Titan in the distance.
"let's wait to make a game plan when that armored guy gets here."
Preston nodded at this and sat in the center as well. After waiting for a minute their other group member came up the stairs with loud footsteps. The man in the armor seeing them sitting also sat down at the edge a bit away from Nak.
"So mop head, we'll need to look for a way to kill these Titans, It seems there will be more, though I guess we can happily say they're not the humanoid ones."
Hearing the muffled voice of the armored individual sounding a bit more feminine, Nak and Preston were a bit surprised. Waving off his surprise Nak nodded his head.
"You're correct in your assumption, maybe their reptilian Titans? Maybe insect Titans?"
Hearing his question himself both Nak and the armored individually got into their thoughts as they started to think. Preston who was these two was confused, what are they talking about, he decided to ask them a question.
"Have you two seen a creature like that before?'
"Yeah..."
"Of course."
He received a lazy response from Nak, and one in an absolute tone was heard from the armored one.
"Have you not?"
Hearing the armored person's question Preston shook his head. Both Nak and the armored one turned their heads together before Nak let out another sigh.
"Haaa, That is a problem."
"It indeed is."
Preston who was once again in the lost looked at the two's interaction with even more confusion this time, he just sat there in silence waiting for one of them to explain.
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A/N - Nak sure does sigh a lot huh. I wanted this out like an hour earlier, but know stuff happens.
I started watching World Trigger yesterday, It's really good, to be honest, don't know why nobody recommends it. I definitely recommend it.
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