In the white void of nothingness, Jack had just regained consciousness. Around him, there was nothing. Above him, below him, and in every other direction possible, he only saw white mist.

He tried to move, but nothing moved. Now that he thought about it, he could not move, nor see anything. The white mist he thought was around him might not actually be there, since he did not have any sensory organs. In fact, he did not have a body to begin with!

It was only his consciousness that remained.

‘Did I die?’ he thought.

Thoughts kept going through his mind as time passed. He asked for forgiveness, he asked to meet his parents once more. After sadness, came regret. Although his life was fulfilling, it was not fulfilling at the same time. He regrated not making friends. He regrated not having ambition. He regrated not trying harder.

Next came hope. Hope of how his life would have been if he tried something different.

He lived through countless repetitions of his life with a single small change to see how things would turn out in his mind.

This number went from a few, to a few hundred, to a few thousand. There were so many things he could change that time flew by and he had already lost count of how many times he replayed his own life. He had already completed all major and minor changes in his overall life, and had moved onto random guesses like ‘What if I won a $100000 lottery’, and ‘What if Bill Gates adopted me’.

Time passed and he finally ran out of things to change. He could not change anything anymore.

Madness began to come over him and soon his mind was filled with random sentences. Sentences were broken down into words, and words into letters. Soon, nothing but sounds filled his mind.

Then, all of a sudden, nothing. Silence reigned in his mind. It was a state of being he had never reached before. A state of peace reached only after going through hell and beyond.

He could not feel it, but the whiteness around him began to ripple outward with him as the centre. Completely unknown to him, a mysterious hand reached out for him, and without knowing it, grabbed his consciousness.

[Ah! #2831573 is a success! You have reached enlightenment child. You will be able to succeed my position now!]

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

Said the owner of the blindingly white hand, hidden in more white fog.

Suddenly, a black hand reached out for Jack’s consciousness from nowhere, bringing a black mist along with it.

The owner of the white hand screamed in an unknown voice.

[Why are you here L*c*f*r!]

[Why are you so angry M*t*tron. I’m here for that of course.] said the owner of the black hand through the black fog as the hand grabbed at Jack’s consciousness.

[NO! He will inherit my position! Leave him and leave E**n. Go back to the depths of H**l!]

[Kuku. No. The child will come with me. It has died already and belongs to me.]

[He does not! He did not die in this world and belongs anywhere he wished to be.]

The black fog clashed with the white fog as the hands were stuck in a fierce stage of equilibrium.

Suddenly, a third hand descended upon the two of them. This was not a white nor black hand. It was the hand of a woman. Half black and half white. In a soothing voice, the woman, larger than the owners of the two hands combined, spoke.

[Now, now. Do not fight over something as trivial as this. Give it to me.]

The two hands let go of Jack’s consciousness immediately and the woman grabbed it. She then lifted her hand back up enough for her to inspect it, pulling Jack’s consciousness out of the sphere of black and white fog, into an empty void.

[Rather marvellous workmanship you have here M*t*tron. But it will not spare you, nor take your place in the 10,000-year punishment. Anyway, your punishment is almost over. Just hold out for another 30 years or so and your father will release you both.]

With that, the woman pulled back her hand, before throwing Jack’s consciousness. Into the void of nothingness, he went, moving past unimaginable distances every second.

The sheer speed causing fragments of Jack’s consciousness to crumble away and get left behind, leaving a trail behind him.

Just as the last bits of his being were about to fade, he stopped moving. A new hand stretched out to him. This hand was that of a man, clearly a lot larger than any of the beings from before.

The indistinct being looked at Jack’s destroyed consciousness for a moment.

[Sigh. Those brats did that to you? And the ‘she’ went ahead and threw you into ****? Sigh. ‘She’ probably knew I would find you.]

He muttered as he reached out with his other hand and pulled.

All the broken-off parts of Jack returned immediately and formed Jack once more. The man thought for a moment and then pulled out faint energy from nowhere, as though he was creating energy itself, and injected it into Jack’s consciousness.

[There, you should be able to live with that. I added some of your un-enlightened self into the mix to give you some instincts. This much should be enough.]

With this much, the man covered Jack in some unknown force-field and aimed him to a distinct star some distance away, shining like a beacon in the empty void.

The man hesitated for a moment.

[You came from there. I’ll send you somewhere else.]

The man then aimed jack at another, more distant star before throwing him. The speed he was thrown at was infinitely faster than when he was thrown by the woman, and he reached his destination in an instant and smashed into the star.

The force-field around him met the star’s surface, and caused an opening to appear in the star, allowing Jack to pass into it, while the force-field melded into the star as compensation for a one-way trip.