PAIN.
He was falling.
PAIN.
It was falling.
PAIN.
Someone screamed.
PAIN.
It opened its eyes.
PAIN.
Something fell across it, something warm, with four limbs and hair on its head. Colorful cloth covered its torso, along with two arms and two legs. Its eyes were unfocused, and a sticky red liquid leaked from a gash across its face.
PAIN.
What was the Thing? What was it?
PAIN.
It hit the ground.
----------------------------------------
It woke up.
Surrounding it, was nothing. Not emptyiness, or a void. Those could be perceived. It was surrounded by nothing. As if everything outside of itself was just static, or white noise. It could acknowledge it, but there was no way to truly understand every part. Only it existed, in this place, if it even counted as a place.
What had happened? It had been... traveling... somewhere. Flying. But not by its own power. Something was carrying it, and others. An artificial thing, of metal and lightning, that rode the winds like a bird. Full of plush seats and marvels of engineering, a true testament to the glory of invention. And it had failed. Something had hit them. A flash, a roar of noise, a current of heat and PAIN running through its body.
The PAIN. It had damaged the travel thing. It had torn a rent in the side of the metal monster, baring the clouds to its passengers. The wind ripped the strange creatures out of their seats and into the sky. Loose objects had been sent flying, one smashing into its head. That was where the fuzzy feeling in its memory had come from.
Then the falling.
Then the scream.
Then the ground.
It decided then that it didn't like the strange creatures. No, it hated them. It knew not how or why, but those things must have been behind the PAIN. They had been the only ones there. They must have caused it. Yes, it hated the creatures, with every shred of its torn-up mind. But with that hate, came fear.
What if the creatures followed it? What if they weren't done? What if they wanted it to feel the PAIN again?
PLEASE NO PLEASE NOT AGAIN PLEASE PLEASE PLEA-
It stopped thinking about the creatures. That would do no good until it was strong enough to get its revenge.
And so, it went back to floating in the nothing. It was a simple drifting feeling, like being suspended in water. A pressure around it, but not too strong. A reassurance, not a threat. The nothing was cold. If it had bones, the chill would have seeped into them by now. Instead, it was another anchor. Something to focus on that wasn't the raging anger or the desperate clawing fear that threatened to consume it at the through of the PAIN coursing through it again, burning its body and shattering its mind agai-
No. It had to just focus on the nothing, and it would all be alright. There were none of the Hated here. They wouldn't find it here. Nothing would, with any luck.
Something found it.
A portion of the nothing pulled back into a true void, a space that could be filled. And a moment later, it was.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
*DING
[HELLO, NEW SOUL! WELCOME TO PURGATORY. YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN TO LIVE AGAIN!]
[IN A MOMENT, YOU WILL BE GIVEN A CHOICE OF VESSELS TO START YOUR NEW LIFE IN!]
[THE WORLD OF DINVERU IS TREACHEROUS, BUT YOU WILL HAVE A CHANCE TO PREVAIL THROUGH EITHER THE CLASS OR EVOLUTION SYSTEM, DEPENDING ON YOUR VESSEL.]
[PRESENTING OPTIONS...]
OPTION 1: Civilised race: Be reborn into a civilized life of your race of choice, raised in a life of comfort, and become a great Hero, Saint, or any other magnificent Class. The world is up for the taking, and armed with your previous knowledge, you are ready to collect.
OPTION 2: Monster: Be reborn into a struggle of claws and teeth as a monster of your choice. Use the Evolution System to grow from your struggles, and gain power beyond imagination. Meet the goals of your Evolution to grow into a higher form, with new mutations and fierce determination. Become the strongest there is.
It recoiled from the sound. A voice that was not a voice had invaded its very mind, and its sight that was not sight found ethereal text within the small pocket of the void. These things were new. New was dangerous. New held the chance for PAIN.
It lashed out at the text with its mind, shoving its anger forward like a blade. It hit the lowest chunk before all the text shimmered and changed.
*DING
[YOU HAVE CHOSEN OPTION 2: Monster. INSTALLING EVOLUTION SYSTEM...]
[EVOLTION SYSTEM INSTALLED.]
[PRESENTING MONSTER ARCHETYPES...]
OPTION 1: Beast: Start your life as a mundane beast, and grow your strength by overcoming your enhanced peers. With a foundation set in reality, this archetype boasts simplicity and ease of development. Above-average strength is countered by a lack of specialization in magic.
OPTION 2: Myth: Start your life as a creature of myth, and prove yourself worthy of the legends that define you. This archetype looks to blend the physical and magical, although its success is less than certain. Usually incredibly specified into one element or strength.
OPTION 3: Undead: Start your death as an undead form of a civilized race. This archetype allows a partial mix of the Class and Evolution Systems, at the cost of losing many functions of each. Conquer in death that which you could not defeat in life.
OPTION 4: Elemental: Start your life as a paragon of a natural element. Embody a force of nature and its power. This archetype is the face of specialization and lives up to the stereotype. Boasts extreme strength when in its element and crippling vulnerability when outside of it.
OPTION 5: Spirit: Start your existence as a being that defies such notions as flesh or blood. Renounce the physical altogether, and become a pure specter of mana. This archetype excels at spellcasting but is weak to any trivial magical defense.
OPTION 6: Swarm: Start your life as a collective of beings connected by a hive mind. This archetype has the capability of immense power but gives up all progression. The swarm can only grow by gaining members, and the Evolution System is almost entirely disabled.
OPTION 7: Horror: Start your life as a being that gives the strongest of warriors nightmares. This archetype sacrifices any veneer of intelligence in exchange for control over forces that should never be tampered with. Give in to the rage, and kill. Kill everything you can before they catch you.
OPTION 8: Construct: Start your existence as a being of unnatural life. Stone is your flesh, mana is your blood. This archetype boasts extreme durability in exchange for an extreme dependence on mana. Your life and power are tied to your mana.
It recoiled again. But this time, it did not hit the wall of sound and text. That had only made it grow last time. Instead, it inspected the meaning of this new presence in the sea of nothing. The results were... Interesting.
The text was offering it power. And letting it pick just how that power was manifested. But what to pick?
Swarm and Horror were tossed aside immediately. Its mind was already fractured, it didn't want anything to change what was left. The text seemed to think that its shreds of memory were an advantage, so it would try and keep hold of them. Even if having the memories of the Hated and the PAIN burned.
Beast held promise at first. But in the end, it was just what its description said. Mundane. Not weak by any means, but commonplace. Predictable. It couldn't be predictable. It had to hide from the Hated. And besides that, the text also claimed a lack of 'magic', whatever that was. It sounded like another kind of power, so lacking that would be bad.
Myth was much the same as beast, but with a small amount of magic mixed in. Magic seemed important, and the grandiose nature of the description was good, but the 'success is less than certain' part made it shy away from the archetype.
Both undead and construct were out, for opposite reasons. Undead seemed too independent. The Evolution System seemed like it was the main way of gaining power, so having only a fraction of its function would be terrible, even if it gained whatever a Class was. Construct was too dependent on 'mana'. Simple as that.
Spirit and Elemental seemed very similar. One just had more specialization. In the end, that was what made its choice. Spirit seemed too simple to be viable, and staying in whatever element it chose wouldn't be too hard. And so, it made its selection.
*DING
[YOU HAVE CHOSEN OPTION 4: Elemental. CREATING VESSEL...]
[VESSEL CREATED.]
[INSERTING SOUL...]
The void disappeared, as did the text and the nothing. It moved, with an actual body this time. It was standing on something soft and slightly damp. A warm light fell open its body. Ambient noise littered the air.
It had been reborn.