Chapter 2

When I woke up everything was still dark. For a second I thought I was blind. Then I noticed a small glow coming from my chest. Looking down I could see the crystal lodged inside my chest.

Despite the bit of light coming from the crystal I couldn’t see anything around me. It was almost like there was nothing around me for the light to reflect off of. There wasn’t even a floor beneath me. For a second I thought maybe I was in space. Except there weren’t any stars.

It was impossible to know how long I floated there. There wasn’t a day or night and I didn’t get hungry or thirsty. For all I knew I could have floated there for a few years, or maybe it was just for a few days. I was sure I would have gone insane if it wasn’t for the crystal. Looking at it reminded me that there was more than just darkness around me.

“Well, aren't you interesting.” A female voice said surprising me.

The voice was so unexpected that it took me a moment before I was able to respond. “Who are you?” I finally asked.

“I’m Angelos.” The voice said.

“Hi Angelos. My name is Adam.” I said. It never hurt to be polite. Especially when you wanted something from someone. “Can you get me out of here?” I asked hoping that the answer was yes.

“Easily. But you are a soul without a body. I can’t create a body for you. Without a body the only place I could send you is hell.” She answered.

I almost accepted. At the moment I was thinking that anywhere would be better than remaining where I was. Floating in the darkness was slowly driving me insane. “Are there any other options?” I asked. If there wasn’t I’d accept being sent to hell.

There was a long pause as Angelos considered the question. “I suppose we could try to find a body that is missing a soul. It’s very rare but sometimes a soul will leave a body that is dying while the body is still alive. It means that I’ll have to fix whatever is wrong with the body though. Otherwise you would be a soul trapped in a dying body.”

“That sounds better than being sent to hell.” I said with a great deal of relief.

“What do I get in return? I will need to find you a body, fix it, and transport your soul into it.” Angelos asked. From her tone of voice I could tell that she already knew what she wanted.

I pointed to the crystal embedded in my chest. It was the only thing I could think of that she would want. “It’s the crystal you want right? I assume you can remove it without hurting me?”

“You don’t even know what the crystal is, do you?” I just shrugged. I didn’t really care what it was.

“It’s a dimensional originator. Given enough energy and the right circumstances it can create entire universes. Ones that you would be able to control and draw power from.” Angelos explained.

“I’m pretty sure these aren’t the right circumstances. Which means it’s useless for me.” I said shaking my head.

“True. It does present an opportunity though. I’m not interested in taking it from you. The power it would give me is tempting. However, first I’d have to invest a significant amount of power and time which would make me vulnerable. Inevitably one of my enemies would notice my vulnerability and attack me. On the other hand you don’t have any powerful enemies. Having the controller of a dimensional originator as a servant could be useful.” She explained.

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“So in return for getting me out of here you want me to serve you?” I asked.

“Once you are powerful enough. Eventually you will be more powerful than most gods. Or at least you will be while in a universe that you have created.” Angelos explained.

I hesitated for a moment. Mostly because I knew nothing about Angelos. Then I decided it really didn’t matter. I’d agree to anything to be free from the darkness. Of course there were limits to what orders I’d actually carry out. Agreeing to something didn’t mean I’d actually do it. For instance killing a bunch of children.

“I wouldn’t order you to do something like that.” Angelos suddenly said startling me.

“You can read my mind?” I asked even though I already knew the answer.

“I’m a powerful goddess of life and death and you are technically both.” Angelos revealed.

“Life and death?” Even in mythology I hadn’t heard of any gods that had two such contradictory domains.

“Originally I was just a goddess of death. Eventually I branched out into life also. It’s similar to the principle of yin and yang. The two are opposites but also closely linked together.” Angelos explained.

I sort of understood what she meant. Still knowing that she was a goddess of death made me hesitate. I was wise enough to know that death wasn’t necessarily evil. Like Angelos had said it was a natural part of the cycle of life. That didn’t make it good though. More often than not death was considered evil. I imagined gods and goddesses of death were also more likely to be evil.

“All true. Many gods and goddesses of death are evil. Prior to branching out into life you would have considered me evil. Right now I believe you would evaluate me as neutral. So do we have an agreement?” Angelos asked.

I had no choice but to hope she was telling me the truth. Besides, even if she was evil I would probably still accept her offer. “As long as you understand there are some lines I won’t cross.” I finally said.

Angelos laughed. “I’ve read your thoughts. You may not be evil, but you also aren’t a saint. I can promise that you won’t find any of my orders overly onerous Adam. Besides I have a number of minions that would follow any order I give. If I need to cross lines I can use them.”

I just shrugged. She was right about me not being a saint. I also wasn’t the type of person to delude myself into thinking I could stop a goddess from doing whatever she wanted. The only thing I could do was keep from getting directly involved. “So how does this work?” I asked.

“First I have to find a body for you. I’ll be right back.” Angelos said.

A few minutes later I was starting to get worried. Luckily she spoke again before I started to panic that she had abandoned me. “I think I’ve found the perfect body for your situation.” Angelos said when she returned.

I couldn’t help but shiver when she said perfect. In my experience that was rarely the case. And even when things did seem to be perfect Murphy was sure to throw you a curveball. “What is your idea of perfect?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“A young noble from one of the lesser cultivation worlds named Zhao. His clan fell to enemies recently and his core was shattered. Which sounds bad but is actually a good thing for you. You won’t be expected to fight and will be protected from most threats.” Angelos explained.

“Okay none of that is making any sense to me. What happens to the noble when I take over their body? Also what is a lesser cultivation world?” I asked.

Angelos sighed. “They had an adverse reaction to their core being shattered and their soul moved on. I’m sure you have a bunch more questions. Luckily when you take over the nobles body you will also gain all of his memories. That should answer most of your questions.”

“What about how this crystal thing works?” I asked.

Angelos looked thoughtful for a moment. “I suppose it would be inefficient for you to stumble around trying to figure out how your powers work. It’s also possible you could miss something important. I’ll create a simple spirit and link it to the dimensional originator. It will give you a series of tasks to complete to explain how your powers work. Think of it like a tutorial in a video game.”

Angelos stopped me before I could ask any other questions. “I don’t have all day to answer all the questions you probably have. Most of them will be answered by your new memories. In addition the spirit I’m creating should be able to answer basic questions. So are you willing to accept my offer? If not, I'm leaving.”

I really wanted to ask some more questions. I also really didn’t want to piss off my one chance of getting out of this place. So I just nodded. A few seconds later everything went dark.