A young adult crossed the streets, absentmindedly looking at the device clutched in his hands, overlooking the truck coming his way.

Similarly, the driver of the vehicle seemed to be occupied by another matter weighing on his mind, and when both of them finally registered each of their presences, it was far too late.

With only a few meters between the two, there was simply too little time to move away.  

With a painful screech from another commuter from afar, the two collided, and the man was sent flying, his body wreaked in pain.

Hitting the ground far away, it was this moment when the pain started to fade, along with his other senses.

At that very moment, instead of trembling in fear, or wallowing despair, he could only smile bitterly as an out-of-place thought emerged in his mind.

Staring at the papers that few out of the bag he carried, incapable of looking at any other direction because of his injuries, he could only think, 'I haven't got to congratulating that child….'

After that thought, darkness penetrated into his vision as he faded away.

Soon after, he awoke with a comfortable feeling washing over him, it as was it he was floating in an impeccably long lake, which somehow seemed warm?

Almost instinctively, he attempted to wriggle his fingers, but nothing happened, even opening his eyes were impossible, not that it was glued shut, it was not there?

Amusement and curiosity filled him, rather than the dread and fear that should have came because of his death.

Was he dead? He wasn't sure. Was he in a coma?

'No.' He thought as a weird feeling came to him.

He had never felt it before, it wasn't something he could describe, it was like someone was taking, no, sucking his memories out of him?

Slowly as time passed, his memories disappeared, from the beginning in a chronological order.

Perhaps he should have resisted, but instead, he welcomed such an act.

'Its much better to forget,' he thought, as he relinquished his whirling thoughts before succumbing to the enjoyable feeling of floating.

But before he really did lose all his memories, with only those of the last year of life he had, something foreign collided into him, no, he didn't have a body, did he?

'Wha-?' He thought, as pieces of memories hit him.

Examining the said memories, he found it to be completely different from the last memory he had, although now with only one year of memories, he knew instinctively, these memories weren't his.

Scenes flashed past his mind(?), as he registered them.

One was of him(?) crying, tightly hugging a pillow as emotions like loneliness, sadness  washed past him.

Next was one of him(?) talking to a beautiful middle aged woman, feeling smug and disgusted at the same time.

Then, it was him(?) running on all fours within in a closed enclosure, surrounded by humans behind glass walls. It's anger and desolation obvious to him.

Lastly, it was him(?) cruelly slitting the throat of a seemingly wealthy man seated on a posh chair, with only the emotion of indifference.

At the last memory, he instinctively thought, 'How disgusting.' But what he didn't realise was that as he thought of such words, he didn't feel a shred of disgust, perhaps his words only influenced by the set of morals he had in his last year of life.

With all these memories, a tinge of fear appeared, what was going on? Completely contradicting his previous behaviour, he fought the suction like feeling taking away his memories.

Focusing into what seemed to be nothing, a few sounds could be heard, no, it was voices.

'A fifth one! What's this?!' A middle aged voice could be heard, similar to the one that belonged to the second memory.

Noticing the helplessness and confusion in that man's voice, he relaxed slightly knowing he wasn't the only confused one here.

'I've died?' He muttered, instead of his precious indifference, his non-existent mind started to whirl as he thought of different possibilities.

'There's a possibility that I'm only in a coma, but then why would my memories be taken? Or is it just a illusion my mind has created to kill time?'

'Or, I've been thrown into the afterlife? But why would I take the memories of others? This isn't logical…'

'No shit, where are we?!' A childish voice complained.

—————

While the five souls were all confused at their situation, something larger was happening at the  Realm of Gods.

"Your highness Oris!" A white robed man called out, in his hands clutching onto a stack of crumpled papers.

Having just entered a room, he was greeted by the sight of 6 gods, all seated around a circular table.

Instantly, with a wave of his hands, those papers flew neatly towards the table, causing squares and rectangular shaped lights to appear floating on the tables, each carrying a block of text.

"What's this?" The man named Oris sighed, his fingers massaging his Temples as he asked, it was obvious this was something troublesome.

"In Erléi, before the souls could be cleansed and sent into their new bodies, 5 of them collided, it was a strange situation that shouldn't have happened!" The servant exclaimed, as if trying to rid himself of the crime he didn't deserve.

"If so, the body should have collapsed, so why are you here?" He said impatiently.

"The body is of a prince's! The descendent of the fallen Valkyries! With such a background, the body is extremely durable, and is barely capable of housing the five of them!"

"Then, ki—" "No, Oris, let's play a game, shall we?"

Before the god named Oris could speak, a blue haired woman who emanated charm spoke up, her eyes locked onto the presented information before her.

"….what do you suggest?" Oris asked, glancing at her rather interestedly.

"Your world has been too boring, don't you think? Let's use this child, to revive the blood of the Valkyries and maybe, we'll have a fun show to watch."

"Awaken the dormant blood in him?! Have you forgotten the Great War! Do you wish for  another repeat of that?!" A man who had kept silent bellowed, his fist smashing against the table.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"I have not, don't forget, I AM the god of knowledge, but what you don't know is that that war was caused by the farsightedness of him, none of us here will be foolish enough to make that mistake." She retorted, not looking up once from the documents as she did.

"You are the god of knowledge, not wisdom!" He shouted.

"And to think you're the god of war, no one would've  known, seeing you right now." She snorted, finally looking up.

"I've lost so many of my apprentices in that war, Felicia, you won't understand, you never participated in it." He sighed.

"That's enough, Sogis, now, Felicia, what do you suggest?" Oris asked with a smile, perhaps he himself also bored of the tranquility ensuing in this world of his.

"Let's choose one of those souls each and bless it, along with that body, this is my first time witnessing such a phenomenon, it'll be a pity if we don't get to watch such a thing enfold." She replied, picking up one of the papers on the table as the boxed light on top of it disappeared.

Touching his chin for a moment, Oris burst out in laughter as he readily agreed, "Alright, after all this world is far too boring indeed!"

Immediately after he finished, she placed the paper in her hand down and said with a smile, "This ones mine, the girl."

"Then I'll take him." A childish voice piped up, picking up the paper before him with a mysterious smile, "That conman."

"This boy's mine, his nature is really too interesting to me, though he forgotten most of it." Oris said with a laugh.

"…This one." A man clad in darkness spoke, as he pointed to one of the floating boxes.

"So, the animal's mine? I supposed it does fit me." A deep voice laughed, it's owner a man clothed in animal skin, himself carrying the ears and tail of a tiger.

Alas, everyone chose a soul for themselves, all but that God named Sogis.

Tilting his head, the animal fur clad man laughed out loud as he mocked, "Come on, stop pouting."

"I wasn't, there's no point in me choosing, they've all been taken."

"It's not like we'll mind if you chose one, ya know?"  He replied with a shrug.

"No need." Sogis spoke, leaning back onto his chair, "I'm satisfied being an onlooker, no responsibilities."

"Alright, let's have fun." The woman smiled.

At that moment, the five souls completely in the dark regarding the conversation held at the realm of gods were all studying their current situations.

The feeling was still the same, they were still floating aimlessly in a warm embrace, with any senses except for their hearing.

Right now all that they could hear was the voices of each other.

After a while each of them regained their bearing and introduced themselves to each other.

'Er, I'm James, I died by an accident.'

'My name's Justine, I died by cancer, unfortunately.'

'Keith, death by murder, some lady got rea–ally, mad at me.'

'Grr….'

'….Dominon.'

"Wait!" He shouted, isn't something strange? What's with the beast like growl?! But at least now he knew that they were all actually dead, or he's just in some really weird dream.

'Eh?'

'This…..'

"Hello! Poor misguided souls, I first would like to extend my sincerest of apologies for the predicament you're in!" A foreign voice called out.

'Another one?!'

"Fortunately not! Worry not, I'm here to provide some enlightenment." That voice spoke with an annoyingly chirpy voice.

"You're all right, all of you are actually dead, and right now all of you are in the cycle of reincarnation but due to some minor incidences, your souls have collided!"

'….convenient exposition is convenient indeed...'

"I'll wipe the tiger's memory clean, or it'll never progress in this life, but because of a request his personality will be roughly the same, please do let it experience most of your first few years of life for it to learn. Well, that's it, bye!"

'Wait a minute!' James interrupted, but the voice never stopped.

'A dream it is, then.' He sighed, amazed by his imagination.

'No no no.' The childish voice called out, 'It isn't!'

As James was caught in his thoughts, a bright light pierced into the darkness.

''''?!''''

—————

For Andrea, today was an especially bad day for her, and the city.

Amongst the 5 births, 4 resulted in stillborns, the entire city had a bad atmosphere to it as the day today was coined the day of death.

Normally, it wouldn't scare her as much, with her reputation, if she were to deliver a still born, with her status as the best midwife wielding the two ideal elements, needed for healthcare would only be affected in the slightest.

But right now, she was delivering the child of the fourth and youngest queen.

Her forehead glistened with sweat as she softly encouraged the labouring Mother, the news hadn't reached her ears yet, allowing her to focus solely on giving birth.

Normally, such an occasion would be a joyous one with many citizens waited outside of the castle, but perhaps of this queen's status, or the ominous deaths of four children, no one was present.

Finally, after a long time, the newborn was delivered, and with the wave of her hand, water appeared on the child, washing the waste stuck on him.

Holding the child up, the midwife was elated to see the rise and fall of the child's chest, but instead of the usual crying, this child stared at her, his purple eyes radiating intelligence.

Ignoring the clawing unease in her heart, she turned to congratulate the Mother, "It's a healthy boy carrying the color of royalty! Congratulations!" She beamed.

Turning the child over, she revealed the purple haired child's little wings and the feathers peeking from the back of his ears.

Covering the naked child in luxurious cloth, she handed the boy to the tired Mother.

"What shall his name be?" She asked, washing the blood off her hands.

With a tired smile, the fourth queen spoke, "Virlta."