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Reasons to Stay
Reason #001

Reason #001

Zariel woke up to the sound of a woman humming, it was a beautiful sound, like a harp suddenly gained a voice.

 When Zariel looked around all he could see was darkness, in fact it didn't even feel like he was standing on anything, he had been wearing one of his finest suits today because after millions of years he had learnt that formality was key in everything, soon he grew an obsession of anything formal, his suit was made of the highest quality fabric with a red tie and a black suede vest with a pure white shirt underneath, he had his black overcoat because of the lack of heating in his bunker, his black slippers were missing, he quite liked those, although they didn't match with his formal suit he wasn't going to wear uncomfortable shoes in his own home.

 He looked down and realised everything was missing, his tie, his shirt, his overcoat, his body. He looked like he was just another part of the darkness that surrounded him.

The humming stopped and a voice that sounded like tiny bells resounded "Hello, I see you have a name now, my servant isn't the gentlest person I know but he means well, he's just very... dedicated " The voice didn't seem to have a source, it came from everywhere and nowhere.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Zariel yelled out, turning his head in any direction to find the source of the voice.

"I am Timera, I suppose you could call me a Goddess. Although I would be lacking in some areas to fully qualify. What I want is for you to listen" Zariel realised the voice wasn't talking in the language he usually used, English, but she wasn't speaking in any of the other 6,500 languages he also knew either. What confused him even more was that he could still understand it.

"I'm listening then, it's not like I have much else to do..." He gazed around at the blackness again, there really was nothing to do other than listen.

"As you know my name is Timera, and I am the forgotten Goddess of Immortality, I am the one that gave you your gift, and before you say anything, I want you to know I am much older than you so don't complain about a measly 6 million years" Zariel shut his mouth, it was true he was about to start complaining.

"I believe you are forsaking your ability when the truth is it has given you many thing, knowledge, wealth, peace, and sometimes even happiness, I was watching when you were shot, stabbed and beaten and whenever you healed and revived I remember how glad you always felt, even after all these years and after all your cursing at me you are still afraid to die" The voice almost sounded like it was mocking him, but Zariel knew her words were true, he was still a coward and still couldn't face death but his face remained neutral. 

"You have mastered almost every important skill on your world, you have gained the knowledge that men could only dream about, of course normally this is impossible with only a human mind, you should be thanking me for giving you an almost infinite memory span, it's one of the perks of immortality"

"Why are you telling me things that I already know?"

"Because Zariel, I need you to accept who you are before I tell you your mission"

He grew frustrated, after hundreds of years of practice he had learnt on how to always maintain a poker face, even when he raised his voice his face remained neutral and he thought about the situation in a logical way, she wanted to give him a mission but she seems to be more powerful then him therefore only he can do this mission, his mood then lightened, he had found his advantage over his opponent.

"What if I refuse? What if I don't do what you ask? I'm certain you need me because I am your only option" Zariel said, smiling inside his head.

"So you think you've got a choice here? Please, don't think that I can't take back my gift and give it to someone else, I have been forgotten by the gods and by the people but all who have eternal life were granted it by me and I can take it back when I want to, the only reason I need you is because you are the most suited for the task with all the skills you have gathered" Timera said this with contempt in her voice, Zariel fell back from his offense. It was true he needed to stop hating the gift but what he hated even more was this goddess, he set aside his hate with his 'gift' and decided getting the upperhand on her was more important.

"I see you have settled, very well, I am in need of a representative in a new world, someone with my gift, keep in mind that there is only one mortal in multiverse who has my gift and that is you, I am not going to send a god to this world, I have chosen to be forgotten for reasons I cannot explain to you, in this new world you will watch over the humans and how they evolve I have given you a new name and I will give you one wish that I will fulfill to make sure this job isn't too one sided"

"One wish? so anything?"

"Within my limits"

"Very well, I wish to know everything about this new world if I am to watch over it"

"I see your pursuit of knowledge is grander than your greed, that is an easy wish, also there is something I need to tell you before you go to this new world, it has just developed"

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"What do you mean?"

"Your world says that there was an explosion that made your world come into existence right? the 'Big Bang'? Well this universe has just had it's big bang and this world has become a new Earth, although there is something in this world that was not on your Earth, I have also named this planet, Aravorain, the planet is dangerous but humans are needed on here, they need protection until they are strong enough to survive, this is the main reason I needed you specifically, because you have experience in... waiting"

"I went through hell having to wait for so long on my planet, I am the ancestor of the humans and I waited 6 million years, don't tell me I have to go through the endless boredom all over again" He said this in his calm tone, as he talked more, anger seeped in.

In the darkness a face of a woman materialised, she was the face of Timera and looked bored, yet eyes were closed and her hair was a deep black that almsot blended into the void they were in, she looked to be in her 50's but was quite beautiful.

"I assure you there will be something new in this world to keep you preoccupied, goodbye Zariel Ulyssius and report to me their development as a species and interfere is there is a threat to them, that is your only duty, do not fail me" the face smiled, it's eyes that had been closed this entire time open, they were completely empty of anything, not a single eyeball yet this didn't creep out Zariel, in fact he was more intrigued, before he asked anything he started to feel like he was falling the very next second he blacked out and...

He plunged into the darkness.

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When Zuriel awoke he was on a rock, he had his suit and slippers still on, as he looked around he saw all around his was magma and other rocks, his rock was tall and therefore not scalding hot where he was because of the lava.

Zuriel had studied the fields of science that had interested him the most, when his name was Charles Darwin he wanted to show the world how he had evolved with his kind, of course he couldn't tell people he was immortal and was there when their ancestors were just apes. Like all his other lives he pretended to grow old and pretended to die, he went onto onto other lives researching different thing and from all that he experienced he looked at his situation with a logical mind.

"Well...I'm fucked"

Magma collided with the rock he lay on, suddenly the whole broke in half, it fell, luckily, towards another rock, he jumped off and landed gracefully, Zariel had learnt a lot of martial arts and aerobics for stupid reasons, one of the reasons was to stop wrinkling his suits when he accidentally fell, he was much more graceful now but he had always hated physical activity and his stamina was insanely low.

He was resting on his new rock that was slightly shorter but still safe from too much heat and went through all the new information in his head, he knew literally everything about this world, his current co-ordinates, even what every atom's vibration frequency was, he hesitatingly thanked the goddess for his brain, if he was mortal he wouldn't survive the information load or just keep his sanity. He searched for a safe place to stay for now at located it.

Looking around he found the mountain he had seen in his thoughts, he was glad that information on the planet was what he wished for, it had a cave that went deep into the mountain and for the most part was cooler than the current temperature. He walked over to the mountain, leaping between magma streams in the black rocks and reached the cave. 

He didn't want shelter entirely to get away from the heat, in fact while he was searching for the cave he came across something interesting about the world, it had a certain particle in it that could take form if a human expended their inner energy to control it, for example if a human could use their body heat to control them they would still be using these particles but heating them up in the process.

By now Zariel had scaled the mountain and reached the cave, it was already getting dark, the time zone in this world was about 16 hours in a day, it was much shorter than Zariel was used to but he was still safe from harm now, even though he couldn't die he could still feel pain and tried to avoid as much as possible.

The cave was dark, dark enough for him not to be able to see his own hand, he had grabbed a few rocks on the way luckily with hopes of starting a fire, it reminded him of when he first found fire, it was a revelation to his tribe and they had a party that went deep into the night he remembered how they danced and how carefree they were.

 Zariel sighed at the memories knowing they were just that and he knew he could never have that again. He struck the rocks and finally a spark came out, he now noticed he had no kindling and no trees had grown on this world yet and therefore no sticks or leaves, he sighed and gave up on the dream of light, he decided to leave everything till tomorrow and just sleep in the dark tonight.

As he lied down he sighed again, he knew he would wake up with a wrinkly suit.