Felix knew for a fact that the afterlife existed. Hell, he had even broken into Purgatory eighteen years ago. But unless he was having some sort of early onset dementia, an endless void was definitely not where he was supposed to go after dying.

He tried wading around on the off chance that he was in some sort of obsidian liquid, only to find that he had no hands— No. He did not even have a body. A twang of self-pity stung Felix. He was already beginning to miss being alive.

“Felix Apollo Pagonis.”

Felix widened his non-existent eyes as the voice boomed all around him. It came from no particular direction, and sounded more like the void itself was speaking. Not that that surprised him, though. It was the fact that the voice addressed his father’s name as well.

A glowing doorway materialised in front of him. Light would have flooded out as well, but it seemed contained by some sort of unknown magic.

“You are unafraid. Good. I need a favour from you,” the voice continued.

“Tempted as I am to ask what’s in it for me, I’m going to have to clarify some things first,” Felix projected his thoughts to the void. “Who the hell are you and what am I doing here?”

“I am Janus. God of beginnings and ends, entrances and exits, gateways and archways. Your world has ended, but you have not, thanks to me. I have halted your death and brought you here for a special purpose. Accept, and I will send you on your way. Refuse, and your destiny will resume its path.”

“Not much of a choice for a dying man, is it?” Felix muttered. “What would you have me do?”

There was a brief pause as if Janus was taken aback by his response.

“As a god of change, I possess the power to reset your universe; to give it a second chance. However, that power is vested in the two books I possess. The Summer Solstice and the Winter Solstice. They are lost to me; scattered across the multiverse. I am a god; I cannot intervene in the mortal realm for too long. That is why I have chosen you to aid me in recovering my lost power.”

It was Felix’s turn to pause. Throughout his life, he had always been warned about tampering with the natural order, lest he tipped the precarious balance holding reality together. To receive an offer to do just that from not just any god, but one that most Metas worshipped, was conflicting, to say the least.

But what more could he lose? His world was doomed. His life was over. How could he possibly screw things up more so than he already had? Why shouldn’t he seize this chance to correct everything wrong with his world?

“What’s the catch?” he asked hesitantly.

“You must stay alive at all costs,” the god replied. “With my diminished powers, I can only send you to another world once. If you die there, there will be no resurrections this time. Both of us only have one shot. Do you accept, Felix Pagonis?”

“Staying alive… Sounds easy enough. Very well, I accept.”

A gentle warmth flooded Felix’s soul as an incorporeal outline of his body flashed a few times. He would have lost his nerve there and then, if he still had any. But as it was, he settled for hovering in darkness until Janus was done with whatever he was doing to his soul.

“I have marked your life force. You now have the ability to sense whenever you are near one of the solstices. Once you have found both books, you will hold the power to command the rebirth of worlds, and I will summon you back to my side.”

The glowing door burned brighter as Felix felt himself being dragged towards it.

“I now return to you your power and your body,” Janus commanded authoritatively. “With my blessing and the power vested in me, I now send you through the rift between worlds. Fair travels, Felix Pagonis. May you succeed in your mission.”

And then Felix was falling. Or at least, it felt like he was. There was no direction in this place, after all. Threads of latent memories brushed across his body as he soared through the seemingly infinite void. Some were familiar, although others were not. Felix wondered if these were not actually memories, but possibilities that only occurred in other worlds.

“You will be a god among mortals. Don’t let life tell you any different.”

He stretched out his hand, trying to grasp the wispy ‘memory’ that only flowed through his fingertips. More streams of unfamiliar memories collided with him.

“You’re just a man who raised me. We’re not family.”

“I’m scared. Don’t let them take me away.”

“Three A! Class Three A! Not three-eight! How’re we going to finish so many pies?”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Orpheus! Marcia!” Felix struggled vainly, trying to get a hold of them. “No, stay with me! Don’t go! Don’t leave me, please…”

Light assaulted him from behind once more. He turned his body around, shielding his eyes with his hands as the glare intensified sharply.

“Oooh shit!” Felix yelled, feeling his body tumble through the doorway.

And then he slammed face-first into hard, mahogany dirt.

~ ~ ~

Felix pried his eyes open, expecting to see the glowing door, but it had already vanished without a trace. Spitting out the bitter-tasting dust, he pushed himself off the ground and spun around in a slow circle.

The familiar purple hue stared back at him as he took his time to soak in his surroundings. Everything else also looked pretty much the same, except for the swarm of drones practically covering the sky.

He heaved a sigh of relief; at least Janus had sent him to a universe similar enough to his own. The man clutched his slightly throbbing chest; his soul was resonating with what he could only assume was one of the Solstices. So all he had to do was start searching for one miserable book on an entire planet—

“Shit, shit, shit… You there, sir! Please, you must help me!”

A mass of brown crashed into Felix from the side. His body jerked back and forth as a pair of hands shook him roughly. Felix brushed them off, but the man was persistent.

“Please help me! You’re not dressed in robes. You’re a Meta, aren’t you?” The man’s heterochromatic eyes were wild with panic. “Please tell those Grave Markers that you were the one who gave me the spellcraft! Please, just this once! I’ll pay you for your trouble, I swear!”

Felix furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “What spellcraft? What’s a Grave Marker—”

Another group of men, presumably the ‘Grave Markers’ this guy was so afraid of, showed themselves. They were all dressed in brown leather jackets, not so different from the one the frightened man was wearing, and covered in enough silver to make a metal detector malfunction.

“Nowhere else to run, ya slippery bastard.” The largest of the men pried Heterochromatic man off Felix’s body, before stomping on his stomach. “I told you to stop running, didn’t I?”

Large man was kicking him repeatedly now. “Don’t! You! Know! I! Fucking! Hate! Cardio?!”

He stopped for a moment to wipe the sweat from his forehead as the rest of the men pinned the squirming heterochromatic man to the ground. Felix watched silently as the leader brought a knife to his neck.

“Now I’m going to ask you this one time, ya gob-suckling shite.” The man’s voice was barely audible, but it dripped with venom all the same. “Who gave you our spellcraft?”

Felix’s eyes widened in shock as the gob-suckling shite pointed at him.

“It’s not yours, I swear!” the heterochromatic man yelped desperately. “It’s just a regular tome; this Meta here gave it to me. I didn’t steal your goods! I really didn’t!”

“A Meta, eh?” The leader stared at him for a while, before signalling for his men to let go. “Fair enough, Metas can’t utilise spellcrafts anyway.”

Heterochromatic man coughed and sputtered for a moment. “Thank you, Lucius. Thank you… If you will excuse me—”

Lucius cut him off with another punch to the gut.

“I’m not done with you, Savvos.” He dragged the screaming man up by his hair. “You’re a little blabbermouth, aren’t you? You’re coming back with us.”

“W—Wha—? What’d I do? What’d I do?!” Savvos’ legs kicked the air frantically. “I ain’t done nothing wrong, Lucius! No, don’t take me there! Think of all the spellcrafts I’ve peddled for you. If your boss kills me, you’ll lose your customers!”

Lucius shoved Savvos towards his lackeys, who tied him up with a magic lasso.

“Do you seriously think I give a shit about what she wants?” He pulled out a wand and cast a teleportation portal. “This is personal. You’ll catch on.”

“Wait.” Felix stepped forward as a huge part of him screamed in protest.

The last thing he wanted was to be involved in an inter-dimensional gang squabble. But if this gang peddled in spellcrafts, there was a high chance they would’ve at least heard of the two Solstice books. It was a long shot, but it was still better than searching every single corner of this world.

“Who the fuck are you?” Lucius snarled, stepping forward threateningly. “You want what he’s having too?”

“Take me to your boss.”

There was a flash of steel, and Felix found his right eye staring straight into Lucius’ pocket knife.

“And why, in the ever-loving fuck, would I do that?” the man growled.

“Because you don’t know how I’m acquainted with Savvos here, and your boss is going to want to have that information as well.” Felix folded his arms boldly as a faint trace of pink flickered in his irises. “And between you and I, you haven’t really been earning her favour recently, have you?”

“How’d you know— Listen here, you little rut. If you’re playing any games—”

“—Your boss will deal with me anyway.” Felix smiled slightly. “You have everything to gain, and I… have everything to lose.”

There was a brief moment of contemplation before Lucius put his knife down. Warmth stung Felix’s wrists as he felt a magic lasso wrap around them. The familiar rumble of a warp portal opening drifted to his ears as the gang walked through one by one.

Felix smirked, withdrawing his telepathic contact from the man’s mind.