Chapter 6: Reincarnation?

"...What are you doing?!"

I took off my heavy armor and the holy deer got increasingly annoyed.

I forgot to reply. That's because I couldn't help but be mesmerized by the array of floating flame's standing side by side forming a line behind her. There's at least 20. The flame's varied in size. Other's appear miniscule and some appear large. I gazed upon them and I noticed they had an average height, just above my leg's. With the darkness around us, I can't help but be distracted by this light show.

"Hey. I'm talking to you." She scratched my hand.

"huh... Oh, yeah?" I turned towards her and broke from my trance.

"I said. What are you doing here?" She narrowed her eye's and tilted her antler's.

"Oh. I entered the hole and I ended up here. If I didn't come here then I would've died along that shattering world." I nodded.

It was a simple act of survival really.

"You... What are you talking about?" She spread her hind legs.

"What?" My brow furrowed.

"You don't understand..." She said, "That was your only way home!"

"My only way home?" I take a step back.

"When that world shattered. You were supposed to come with it. After that you'll return a month into the past before the war started." She explained. I turned silent.

That feeling, I feel like I just lost my family forever. Unfortunately that might be the case. A month before the war started huh? Just about the time we declared war. I guess I could've said my goodbye's before I died.

"S-so... What happens now?" I breath hard, "Can't you do it again?"

"...No. I don't have access to it any more. There were no copies of it. The timeline in that world is so unique it'll take googol's for a single copy to take place." She gazed into the darkness.

"...W-well what about the hole? You said something had gone wrong?" A bead of sweat glide's down my cheek.

"That's true." She closed her eyes. "It was an anomaly. But it didn't interfere with your transmission. I didn't bother to take action because you'd still get transported either way. But yet. Your stubbornness led to this." She scolded me.

"N-no...no way." I broke into a cold sweat.

I looked down at my finger's and noticed that the tip's are slowly fading into nothing and it'll eventually reach my body.

I guess it was my own stupidity that killed my chance in the end. So I guess I die for real now. I wonder what she meant by the timeline of my world. Does that mean there's more world's out there than mine? If so what are they like? Damn it I need to know before I die.

"Hey. Can I ask a question?" I raised my left hand which is already half transparent.

"Sure. You are a dying man anyways."

Wow, her personality turned scowl. It's like I killed her parents or something. Eh I guess I deserve it after all I came into this of my own volition and against her commands. "What are those floating flame's behind you?" I pointed with my invisible fingers.

"Hmm... Do you want the long or short end?" She muttered.

"Keep it short please." I held out my invisible hand.

I'm rapidly deteriorating. My feet didn't start disappearing yet so I guess It's only from the hand's. It doesn't hurt like you think it will, it just feel's like you've just been amputated, recovered, amputated, recovered over and over again.

"Think of them as the burning essence of life." She threw out, "Basically, the body of the flame is the vessel reflecting the person. Each person has a larger or smaller flame depending on their vitality in life. Some are born with bigger flame's than the ordinary. It also enhances their overall abilities later in life. It's also a set rule that these flames shrink and burn out in old age. That's why other's are as miniscule as a rice grain." She explained.

Ok to summarize what she just said, people are born with flames burning constantly within them. People born with bigger flames are typically talented people. In old age these flames burn out. So that does that mean that a person like Targun has a raging fire festival within him? I'm pretty sure I have a big flame too.

"But to the exception of blue flames." She made another hand appear and snapped the finger's. A blue flame ignites in the middle and even though it look's like its in a violent blaze, it's movement's have a calming pattern to it.

"These. Never burn out. They are to stay burning forever in their size until the person die's from an external force." She took a small portion of the blue flame and held it up her clasp.

So those people are technically immortal? I was consumed in my thoughts while she moved towards me and put it to my chest. The flame was sucked inside my torso.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"Ah..." It didn't hurt. It felt like I swallowed with my chest.

"Oh...That explains why you didn't immediately fade into nothing and managed to tell an entire story." She put her hoof to my chest and I watched her pull out a bright blue flame, It stretched until it was pulled out entirely and it stood atop her hoof elegantly.

"Wait. Ack!" I gripped my stomach.

Hold on did she just take my flame? Before I knew it my arm's were gone, my feet have disappeared. I couldn't gather my thought's fast enough. If this keeps up I'll vanish forever.

"Eh? Clumsy me, here. You can have some." she gave a small part of it like she owned it, that's my life you're toying with lady!

My body up to my knee regrew but I was still an armless fellow. This... This animal, if I could just strangle her...

"Hey!" She heard my threat.

"Haa... I don't care anymore. You finally showed your true colors." I glared at her.

"Hmm? Oh I know how to cheer you up." Her ear's sprung up as I stayed silent.

"I can resurrect your body onto a similar world. In return... I live rent free in your head." A hand pointing upwards appeared before her and it disappeared after she was done.

"What?" I sat there, absolutely dumbfounded by that offer. What is she interested in me now? Like don't worry you'll always be in my mind rent free! Rrrkk... It make's me physically and mentally cringe, if I could just fold my body I would.

"Rude. Anyways, will you accept it or not?" She made a floating question mark above her antlers.

"...Pft... It's not like I have a choice do I? if I deny then the sweet release of death can finally take me away from this sadistic beast, but if I accept then I'll have to live the rest of my life in terror." I fwipped my hair back and laughed. "So I think I'll-"

"What? Are you serious? I wont even be there most of the time, you know? Besides don't you want to live in a new world with a fun twist?" The offer becomes more shady.

"What's the twist." I straightforwardly questioned.

" U-uh... It's nothing major really..." She glanced away and shook her antlers.

"Bite." I chomped on her hoof.

"Ah... F-fine!" She moane- She let out a noise before admitting.

"Talk." I pulled away, I've only got my thigh's now soon enough I won't be able to even sit anymore.

"Theres... mag-..nd...mon..ers. and stuff." She whispered. Chomp.

"Ahn!... There's magic and monsters and stuff! Just stop!" She laid limply on the ground and out of breath somehow.

Magic and monster's? What is that? A fairy tale? Targun was quite the bookworm and fed me when my interest in fantasy grew. So I knew a few magic implement's but I don't know anything else. And all I knew about monster's were that they're mythological creature's made from humanities deepest terror's.

"Don't ask anymore! I don't know anything else!" She begged.

"You deserved that." I sat up once again, albeit losing my balance slowly.

"I-I don't mind." She sat up with her 4 legs folded neatly.

What's wrong with her, seriously?

After consulting with her for a long while, we were now apparently in a limbo called the 'The storage of Azula'. Countless flames are spotted in this plane, I crawled but most of the time we flew in this dimension. She was finding a vessel that could suit my blue flame, We aimed for just around the same age when I died, 28. But then it turned 17, into 11 and then eventually we spotted a tiny blue flame in the crowd's of burning orange. That blue flame hosted the body of an 8-year old boy, his name was Richard Benedict.

He had brown hair with strands of white and a weak body, he was poisoned and is chronically ill. Bedridden for month's his blue flame is the only reason he's still alive. His parent's couldn't afford a doctor and they didn't know any 'healing' spells.

"Hey... Wait you don't mean... " I stared at the weak boy within the flame.

"You could save him you know." She looked down on me.

She's right. I could save him. My influx of blue flame could revitalize his body. But I'd have to possess his body in order to do so. According to the holy deer, our consciousness could fight and that the bigger flame has the right to take over the body. But there's a small chance of symbiosis, I'll aim for that.

"Are you ready?" She absorbed the blue flame within my body. I instantly grew my arm's back but I was sucked inside the kid's flame as well.

"Goodluck." Her voice echoed within our space.

In this dimension, I see a kid gazing blankly into who-knows where. The description matches with his biography. He had disheveled brown hair with tidbits of white, his body looks fragile yet he's standing up. Behind him is his tiny blue flame, it glowed weakly and followed him whenever he turned his back. I also had my blue flame behind me, it was raging, it was excited. The kid noticed but didn't do anything.

"Hey." I called out to him and I of course didn't expect an answer.

But he turned his back against me and started walking away. Perhaps he wanted to be alone.

"Wait. Come back!" I reached out to him and he actually stopped in his track's.

"Thank you...uh... Is it fine if we talk?" I asked and he shrugged his shoulder's like a 'maybe'. "I'm glad." I ran to him.

I put my hand on his shoulder and I caught a glimpse of his face. He had a melancholic frown and grey eye's same as mine. Somehow I felt like this face was familiar to me somehow. I can't put my finger on it but I feel like I could reciprocate that feeling. Oh. Right. I remember now. That face. It was the same as mine all those year's ago. When she died I felt a massive hole tear me open. I felt like no one would understand my pain, but thanks to a special someone I got out of that phase and stood proudly. If I met a person that had experienced a similar situation as me. Then I think I'd like a warm hug. And so I did.

I crouched, wrapped my arm's around him. Brought him close and put his head above my shoulder and I rested mine on his as well. Soon enough I heard the dam break. He slowly sobbed and then cried on my shoulder as he gripped on my shirt. We stayed there for a while until he calmed down. I patted his back and pulled away and stared into his eye's one last time. He had dried tear's but I saw a faint glow through those grey tinted eye's.

I watched the tips of his finger's start to fade and then it climbed to his arm's, his feet eventually turned transparent as well. I hugged him one last time. At this point he bore a content smile.

"It's alright. There's nothing to fear." I patted the back of his head as the body that I was holding was gone.

"Thank...you...Sir." His voice was faint but I heard all of it.

From his chin to the last strand of hair the only thing he left was his floating blue flame. I grasped it which was warm to the touch. I was able to pull it and it was sucked into my torso. But then I fell to my knee's. My heart started pumping fast. I broke into a panic. It took me a while to gain my composure. I sat there before standing up.

"Richard. You were a tough person." I calmly talked to myself.

"Aw. That was such a heart felt moment." Speak of the devil.

"Right... Wait what happens now?" I asked the darkness.

"I don't know. His physical body need's a flame you know? Either way it's up to you if you want to possess him." She muttered.

I see. Without the host of a flame, it's bodily function's come to a halt and the body will die. So in the end I'll have to live his life. I'll hide under the name of Richard Benedict for a while. That kid has some gut's. And with another audible snap of the finger's coming from above, I was pulled upwards, and then my body started to convulse, I looked up and I saw the ocean's surface get closer and closer.

"Eh?" I vaguely hear a person.

I feel heavily fatigued right now. I'm so weak. I can't open my eye's. Breathing is even difficult. It's like a heavy weight was pressed onto my body. Just gather the strength...

Just a little bit more...