Have you ever questioned your existence?

Why am I here? How did I get here? Who am I? What am I?

Children often ask many 'why' questions. However, unless a child is particularly precocious, they may not ponder too deeply on such a subject even if they stumble upon it during their routine 'why' questions to their parents. Rather, it is adults and older teenagers that have been around for a sufficient amount of time that have such lovely existential thoughts creep into their heads.

Regardless of whether it's small children, teenagers, or adults, the process can always be said to be gradual. It is never an abrupt state of awareness. Instead, after existing for some time as though it is perfectly normal, it is then that one begins to ponder.

This of course should be a given. After all, the truly young aren't developed enough cognitively to have even simple thoughts as mere babies, at the starting point of existence. Then, the early thoughts must involve learning in a sense how to think. Words and nonverbal language are acquired as a means to communicate and navigate early life. It'd be fairly unthinkable to begin a nice session of intense philosophical quandary after the morning lesson covering the alphabet.

If given some thought, one might come to appreciate this fortunate outcome. It would be remarkably unpleasant, downright displeasing, to find oneself suddenly coming into existence with full cognitive function yet possessing no knowledge of anything.

This being the case, one lucky skeleton managed to avoid a mental catastrophe. At least for him, the state of having absolutely no knowledge did not apply.

***

***

***

What Lysandra and the others failed to see as they were baffled by the transformations their enemies were undergoing, was one skeleton at the back collapsed on the floor.

He didn't receive an abundance of darkness energy as his fellow counterparts did.

No, he gained something else. Something incredibly more profound.

He was no longer a controlled puppet of a necromancer, a collection of crystallized energy forming a vessel suitable for battle.

Inside him budded his very own soul. He became sentient.

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

What is the first thing a newborn existence does upon entry into the world?

An infant of a human or demon will likely begin crying. Other less sentient and more instinctual animals might learn to move on their own and find food in a matter of hours.

The first action the skeleton took as his first thoughts flooded his mind was to continue lying down.

The transformations of the beings that seemed familiar to him, the entry of the foreign entities, and the ensuing battle between them were all registered by him as he lay on the floor.

Naturally, this information wasn't processed with eyes or ears. His skeletal head didn't need to look up to perceive the conflict.

Instead, signals within the darkness energy that his bones were made of interacted with signals in the energy around him. They communicated to him the surfaces and forms of his surroundings. He could 'see' everything in the room he was in by focusing. In fact, if he wanted to, he'd be able to see even further than that.

Such 'sights' would occasionally be interrupted by 'sounds' of clashes and screams. The vibrations created unique ripples of energy that his signaling interpreted. If he concentrated, he'd be able to distinguish all of the unique 'sights' and 'sounds' simultaneously. But he was feeling slightly overwhelmed by the different sensory inputs he was experiencing for the very first time.

Strangely, he could associate meanings with these different observations.

'The humans are battling Skeletal Knights and Zombie Knights.'

'They are being killed.'

'I am located underground with walls of dirt surrounding me.'

His thoughts were full of knowledge no newborn would normally possess. Names and descriptions of phenomena he had never before encountered came to him naturally.

He even recognized the words used by the humans before their ultimate demise.

This, however, was not what was unusual to him.

After all, if someone gained amnesia and woke up, they too would be in a similar situation.

With no memory of past existence, yet a fundamental understanding of reality, they wouldn't question the understanding itself. They'd question the lack of memory.

'Why am I here? How did I get here? Who am I? What am I?'

Those kinds of questions.

What was most peculiar to him was that he could in fact tell that he was a skeleton. Only, as far as he knew, skeletons were not sentient beings.

'Did someone make me into a skeleton? Who was I before then? Why would they do such a thing?'

Such thoughts predominated his mind.

'Hmm?'

It seemed he had no time to ponder. One of the Zombie Knights was looking over at him.

The first thought to enter his head was to run. He didn't know why he was there and who was friend or foe. It was a purely instinctual response out of fear of the unknown.

But ultimately, he just sat up. For some reason, he felt they were not his enemies. It wasn't that he felt close to them as fellow undead. Instead, he felt a sense of kinship deep down towards their summoners, the demons.

'Was I a demon before?'

He questioned internally as the Zombie Knight approached him.

"That's odd… you didn't upgrade? I definitely sent out enough energy to advance all of you."

The Zombie Knight was looking down at him full of curiosity as it spoke to itself. To be more accurate, the demon controlling it used it to speak as it assessed what it perceived to be an anomaly.

"More importantly…" Its voice began to trail off.

"Why are you not responding to any of my commands?"

Again, it wasn't actually a question to be answered. The demon was just frustratedly mumbling to itself through the Zombie Knight. It had yet to recognize the new lifeform before it.

"Uh, I can feel the signals you're sending to me, but I can't say I'm comfortable being controlled."

"…"

"…"

"Did you just talk?!"