Death is a patient Bastard.

A ruinously tenacious and sneaky little thief.

They wait for you in the moments of serenity.

When you think to yourself that everything in life is going well and that you're on top of it all.

Oh sure Death will let you win a few times. Evade their traps, beat the poison they stuck in your flesh and veins.

But sooner or later Death sticks you in a glass booth and all you can do is sit there and stare while the truck comes barreling you down.

“Oh you have got to be shitting me.”

You Died

And then I was in the void.

An achingly large place, with a pervasive sense of endless vastness. A crushing overwhelming darkness, with the eyes of millions seeming to stare into my soul.

Illuminated solely by the words proclaiming my death. It all served to make me more than a little incensed.

The eyes while unseen were judging. Weighing all that I had ever done in my life and found me wanting.

I could feel it in their stares.

So yeah Death is a bastard. But at least they’ve a sense for the classics. Dark void and nothing but the burning embers and words that marked the closing of my existence.

“Obviously. You ran me over with a fucking truck. Couldn’t let me have my victory ehh you boney bastard?” I hissed at the words, couldn’t help it really. Too much pent up rage from a life spent from one sick bed to another. “What now? I get launched into oblivion? Get sent off to the inferno? What!”

The “You Died” sign abruptly broke apart swirling about in a cloud of embers before spending themselves once more to reform into:

You Are Unworthy

“Gee thanks, any other words of wisdom you galactic void?!” Maybe insulting what was probably responsible for my fate wasn’t the best idea. But it wasn’t like they could make my existence any more hellish then my last one had been.

I think I was annoying Death or whoever was controlling the words because rather then the flamboyant display from before this time the words were simple stamped out and replaced with:

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Become Worthy

Like someone slamming a brick down and destroying lines written in the sand.

“Alright I’ll bite the bullet, how! How do I become “Worthy”?! My entire life has been a series of struggles to exist since day one! How do I become worthy when nothing in my life, let me live it long enough to try!” I demanded, I really had tried. But it’s hard to live a life worth living when you're going from one hospital bed to the next. Cancer to attempted suicide I’d run the gambit, only to get run down by a semi.

And once more the words devolved into a ball of embers, spending themselves to write:

Try No More

“Try no more? Try no more! I never even got to try to begin with! What do you mean try no- hey! Where’d you go!” I demanded as the words that had been my only sense of light and the void in which I stood became… less…

Gone were the eyes and their judging stares, gone was the endlessly crushing pervasiveness of the void.

Now there was only the crushing darkness of a grave.

I could feel it closing in all around me. As hard as rock, and as cold as any untouched stone.

Left to languish in the dark and damp.

Fuck that.

I wasn’t going to sit in the dark and die.

Against the walls of my grave I crashed. Struck out at the unyielding stone with my firsts and seething rage.

I beat at the stone until my hands broke and bleed, my warm blood slicking down my arms from the ruined flesh, and when my hands stopped doing anything more than making wet slapping noises, I forced my fingers into the right shapes and used my nails to scraped at the wall until they ripped off.

And when my hands felt healed enough, I started the whole process again.

Over and over until with a loud CRUNCH!

The wall of my tomb broke away.

Air! Fresh and glorious air!

Breathing deeply, I let myself drown in the feeling of accomplishment. I had survived, and broken out of my tomb. At least partially.

Reaching out, clawed hands scrabbled at the stone of my prison as I worked to free myself.

Whatever I was. I wasn’t human anymore.

There was no light to see by, yet I could see my hands perfectly fine, though everything was this odd kind of greyscale like a camera on night vision just without the green tint. Long spindly things each tipped by rough chipped claw-like fingernails.

Most likely damaged from my escape.

Prying at the edge of the stone, I finally broke away enough of my prison to wiggle out of, and slipped free into a dark wet cave.

Impacting the stone floor below, I groaned in pain as my body made a wet splatting noise against the floor.

It was cold, and smelled of decay.

Groaning, I slowly sat up and inspected myself for the first time. Long spindly fingers and wide strong palms met long wiry arms already corded with muscle over smooth skin.

Thin shoulders (from what I could tell) and smooth flat pecs. No real breasts sadly but I did at the least have nipples, and a flat stomach that led into an equally thin waist.

Good news! I was still female. A quick dip of a finger confirmed at least that much. Though I’d have to… explore myself later…

And long thin legs that ended in oddly large feet (also clawed), god I hope I wasn’t some sort of cave Hobbit.

Reaching up to my head revealed a patch of rough wiry hair a couple inches long, and long dexterous ears.

I had a sneaking suspicion of my new species but would wait to confirm that.

First things first.

I was tired of sitting on the cold wet floor! I wanted to stand up and walk.

It’d be the first time in 5 years that I’d be able to. Ya know without having a nurse or some such yell at me for trying.

Standing took more effort then I’m proud to admit to.

Long awkward legs, met a mind that hadn’t had to walk in half a decade made for rather awkward and stumbly movements.

But eventually I figured it out, I didn’t exactly trust myself to make it more than a few steps. But I was standing!

And then the other shoe decided to drop. And it showed up in my life with a happy little

Ping!

Congratulations!

By crawling your way to your feet and standing you have confirmed that you are alive!

Welcome to the world!

Consume the weak to grow stronger!

“Oh fuck you Death! You did not fucking Isakai me into a video game!”