Hraxanthus stood up from the chair and approached Scott, who in turn also reflexively shot out of his bed, standing ramrod straight. Hraxanthus stopped right in front of Scott and held out his hand. After several seconds, Scott took the hand, his heart thumping in anticipation and fear. Was this…the so-called ‘deal with the devil’?

“It’s not. I have no interest in your soul.” Scott didn’t even know if Hraxanthus was able to read his mind when he said those words. He simply nodded and accepted the statement as truth. 

Hraxanthus gripped Scott’s hand tightly and looked straight into the man’s eyes. 

“Due to the nature of your request, I need to bend a lot of rules that usually should be left alone, even by us. Don’t worry, this has no bearing upon you. It is completely my responsibility. But you must wholeheartedly accept that there will be conditions associated with your request. Conditions that cannot be stated unless you accept it. Such is the nature of the forces I wield, and no one is exempt from that rule. Fear not. None of the conditions has anything to do with your wish, at least not directly. However, only when you accept the conditions, can they be enforced. And when they are enforced, your wish will be on the path of fulfillment. “

Another dramatic pause.

“Scott Degen. Do you accept the undisclosed conditions, forever binding, indelible, irreversible, and absolutely compulsory for your wish fulfillment?” 

Scott was done thinking at this point. He knew even if he stalled now only to ponder more about what he had to accept, it won’t change the fact that in the end acceptance was the only choice. Besides, this deity could have simply denied his wish. There was never a need to pass through so many hoops. As a result…

“I accept your conditions.” Scott declared firmly and gripped he palm in his hand a little tighter than before.

Hraxanthus let out a big smile. 

“Excellent! Scott Degen. I shall grant you your wish. You’ll be reincarnated and have a chance to exact revenge. Is this what you want?”

Scott nodded. With a voice strained with emotions of an entirely different kind that was once again threatening to burst forth, he said, “Yes, that is what I want. That is my wish.” 

“Excellent!” Hraxanthus beamed at the man. “Now that we have completed the most important part of this deal, tell me Mr. Degen. Have you played RPGs before?”

Scott was fighting hard to restrain the hope-filled exuberance from spilling out. He thought he’d heard Hraxanthus wrong. In fact he was definite that he’d heard him wrong.

“I am sorry, Mr. Hrax. I couldn’t hear your properly.”

“No worries Mr. Degen. I simply asked…whether you played RPGs before.”

Scott was stumped. Played…RPGs? He did manage to get his hands on a Rocket Propelled Grenade launcher and it was stashed somewhere. Was Hraxanthus alluding to that?

“Ah…Mr. Hrax…’playing’ RPGs? I mean I don’t have formal training in handling an RPG before, but I’ve seen videos and it is there mostly as a last measure anyway, and I wasn’t planning on using it…”

Hraxanthus silenced Scott’s rant short by raising hand and gesturing him to stop. He was really amused for some reason. 

“Mr. Degen, I fear I have conveyed the wrong message. I wasn’t asking you about your cute little weapon. The acronym that I questioned you about stands for Role-playing Games. You mentioned in your story that you and your sister loved playing a lot of video games on your computers. I wanted to know whether you, either with your sister or by yourself, played the genre of games known as Role-playing Games, or RPGs.”

This time Scott was literally lost for words. He opened his mouth a couple of times but he found out that he had no idea what to say. Dumbfounded, he kept looking at Hraxanthus in order for further clarification, or perhaps a glimmer of humour, that could put a comedic light to the question. When he found nothing of the sorts, Scott realized that yes, this question was a serious one, and Hraxanthus wasn’t going offer further details until he’d gives him an answer.

“Well. Yes…we…that is sis and I played a lot of Role-playing Games…RPGs…together. Do you want me to name some?” Scott refrained himself from asking why he was being asked such a ludicrous question. He assured himself by thinking that he wouldn’t have been asked this question out of the blue, if it wasn’t important.

The smile on Hraxanthus’ face widened. 

“That won’t be necessary. I just wanted to establish a familiar ground for you. Say…since you’re no stranger to the concept of RPGs, what do you think about a system that will reside inside you, help you perform superhuman feats, and also grow stronger as you complete tasks given by the system? Tasks in the form you are no doubt familiar with…quests. Does the idea appeal to you Mr. Degen?”

Scott was hoping for a justification about Hraxanthus’ question, not a second equally baffling question. But this time he was probably better prepared for potential absurdity. He wasn’t that fazed, although he was intrigued. A possible explanation formed in his mind. Was he going to…? No…no that is not something he wanted, or needed. Scott put a rein to his imagination and instead of making wild assumptions, he decided to play it safe. 

“I…would think such a system would be…excellent…Mr. Hrax. My sister and I were also avid fans of …forms of entertainment… called animes and web-novels, and the…concept of an all-powerful system residing inside someone is something we frequently…read about.” This time however, he couldn’t resist the obvious question. “Mr. Hrax. Are these questions relevant to my…wish?”

Instead of providing a reply, Hraxanthus drew a wide circle in the air in front of him and chanted a few illegible words. Scott’s room, the whole apartment and probably the entire building started violently shaking all of a sudden. Scott found himself landing on the bed ass-first, unable to keep balance from the suddenness of the quake. He found himself unable to breathe and instinctively cupped his throat to see if he was being choked somehow. All around him, imbalanced furnitures were crashing on the floor loudly. Scott started feeling dizzy. The constricting feeling around his throat continued to grow until he was on the floor, gasping for breathe like a drowning man. He could hear glass-panes shattering, debris flying across the room. He thought he heard footsteps outside his apartment. Probably the other tenants rushing outside fearing an earthquake. His eyelids were starting to droop. Strength was leaving his body every passing second. He was going to pass out…

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And then it all stopped.

Scott coughed and sputtered as he steadied himself on the floor by hunching on all fours. His throat was still hurting a lot but the constriction had vanished. Before he could even decide the next step to take,  he heard Hraxanthus voice. 

“I apologize for that Mr. Degen. When something of this magnitude is created, it is bound to cause some…ripple…in the surroundings.”

Scott lifted his eyes at the voice and saw Hraxanthus standing beside…an oval shape, roughly the size of a double-door. The insides of the oval was pitch black and he could see tiny multicoloured lightning sparks surrounding its circumference. The oval shape was formed right in the air beside Hraxanthus. It was like…a rift in space. Although hardened and somewhat desensitized by the mental and physical torture he’d put himself through for the better part of his life after his tragedy, Scott’s inner game-loving geek wasn’t so that lost in the grittiness of reality.  The correct phrase of the … rift that stood in front of his eyes came to his mind a split second before Hraxanthus spoke.

“This, Mr. Degen, as you might have guessed, is a portal.”

Scott nodded blankly. Of course it was a portal. A fucking portal. Well, why not. He was after all standing in front of a wish-fulfilling deity and his wish was to be reincarnated. What was so special about a portal in the grand context of things?

“My powers are endless, but this isn’t the ideal realm for it to flex its muscles. In fact, this portal took a significant portion of my power. I won’t be able to maintain it indefinitely. So Mr. Degen, if you would be so kind as to step inside the portal. Reincarnation awaits you on the other side.”

This time, Scott didn’t show any hint of hesitation. He glanced at a black duffel bag that stood in one corner of the room. As if reading his mind once again, Hraxanthus said with a chuckled. “No, Mr. Degen. You cannot take anything from this timeline to where you’re going.” Scott smiled at him and shrugged. He had to try. Oh well. In for a penny…

Scott was just about to keep his foot inside the dark rift when Hraxanthus stopped him. 

“Oh I almost forgot. How silly of me.” For the first time, Scott frowned. Not because of what Hraxanthus said. But because of the grin that crept on his lips after he said those words. That grin wasn’t derisive, or sarcastic. It was downright malicious. 

Before he could ask anything, or for that matter do anything, Scott saw Hraxanthus raise his right hand, and snap his fingers. A tingling sensation passed though Scott’s scalp. He thought he heard a humm, a whirring sound inside his brain. The sound grew in decibels instantly and became a deafening buzz and completely overwhelmed his mind. Scott was screaming and clutching his head, but he didn’t know if any sound was coming out of his lips, since the buzzing in his brain was so loud, he almost couldn’t hear his own thoughts. 

And once again, like the quake, it was gone. Scott glared accusingly at Hraxanthus, to which the latter simply snorted. Without giving Scott the chance to open his mouth, he simply pointed at the portal.

“Time’s a-wasting Mr. Degen. It’s now or never. Walk through or walk away.”

Scott sighed. Walk away ? Was that ever an option? Without willing to spend any more words with this being, Scott stepped into the portal. Immediately, he felt the sensation of being stuck in a very tight closet. He was unable to move any part of his body beyond a few inches to either side. He saw Hraxanthus give him a nod and then chant another series of syllables that made no sense to him. As soon as the words were uttered, the portal began to close from the other side, trapping Scott in a tight hole in space with nowhere to go. He couldn’t move his eyes to the sides to see what lay there, or behind him. All he could see was Hraxanthus’ frame getting cut off from all sides, inside the rapidly diminishing size of the oval in front of him. Just before it closed completely, Scott heard his annoying voice one last time. 

“It’ll take a few minutes. Brace yourself, Scott Degen. Athionia awaits your adventures.” 

The oval hole closed completely. Scott was shrouded in complete darkness. He still couldn’t move around but he found out he was not having trouble breathing.  Few minutes huh? Well whatever, at least the ‘portal’ came with oxy…

Scott was suddenly alarmed beyond all measures. That man..being…he said something. Something about Athi…Athionia? What does that mean? 

<< System installed. Name…Yet to be specified by user. System initialization commencing…>>

Scott would have spat out curses and jumped up in alarm, if he was capable of moving his mouth…or moving in general. The voice that played was directly inside his head. It was like his inner thoughts suddenly found a suitable vocal outlet. Except those weren’t his thoughts. The voice was clinical. Devoid of warmth. It could have belonged to a male, or a female. Scott couldn’t distinguish. 

Even before Scott could arrange his thoughts and even begin to make sense of the insanity he was going through, he heard the voice again. How long had it been ? Seconds?

<< System initialization failed. User’s location parameters do not match with parameters specified to System. Calculating parameters specified to System to provide User with advice for relocation…>>

This time Scott wasn’t even going to bother trying to make sense. He just gave up and waited for the voice in his head to keep on doing its thing. It was too much too soon. Scott just wanted to be reincarnated back in time. He figured the sooner he stopped arguing with the changes happening around him and just went with the flow, the sooner he’d be able to step closer towards his goal. After all, he did agree to those ‘undisclosed conditions’, didn’t he?

Scott wasn’t kept waiting for long.

<>

Athionia. Where did he hear that before? Oh right…the Hrax-guy was saying something like that. Scott wondered what it was. 

Perhaps the day had taken a real toll on his usually quick uptake on things, because it took a few seconds for him to realize that…

“Motherfucker! Athionia is not an it. It’s a place! What the fuck? Why am I being sent to Athiowhatever?  WHAT IS GOING ON?”

Providence was probably just waiting for him to finish his outburst because he suddenly felt a sensation of being yanked forcefully against his will. He had no control over his limbs or muscles, so he could only succumb to the force to wherever it seemed to be taking him. 

Scott was being tossed around. Or at least that’s what he thought because that’s how he was feeling. He really wanted to feeling to stop. His stomach was churning. He could taste bile in his mouth. 

Fortunately, his ‘ride’ came to an end before he could throw up. 

Scott was suddenly ‘ejected’ out of whatever space he was being confined in, onto a grassy field. He could see lush green saplings spreading as far as his eyes could go, occasionally accompanied by short shrubberies. In the distance he could discern a tree-line. He was in a glade, of some sorts. 

Before he could make further deductions about the environment he was in, Scott suddenly felt an unstoppable churning motion in his stomach and promptly vomited on the grass in front of him. 

In between heaves that hurled out everything his stomach bore, Scott heard the voice once again inside his head.

<>

And then, briefly afterwards.

<<… System initialization commencing…>>