I never really understood the idea of the afterlife. People had claimed to see the afterlife where they would wake up in a sweat explaining “I saw the afterlife! I saw heaven!” For me though, it never convinced me.
I wasn’t trying to be rude to the people who claimed that the afterlife was real, but I just couldn’t bring myself to believe them.
So where on earth was I?
I took a look at my surroundings. I was inside a box-shaped room but… the room looked a bit over the top? From everything to the couch that sat in front of me to the small details such as the quality of the wall I leaned upon, it all felt very high quality. The wallpaper was dark crimson, Its color was paired nicely with a dark brown wooden wall base. A calming aroma filled my nose, Within an instant, all my worries and doubts had drowned away. What stood in front of me were two large couches, one for two people and another for a single person. Their cushions were crimson velvet with not a single trace of dust on them. Their wooden designs were rich, No matter how hard I tried to think I couldn’t quite tell what culture they would’ve originated from. Even the draws that stood on the left side of the wall were highly decorated with designs. Some of the draws were left halfway open. Peeking inside I could see strange treasures and artifacts staring at me. Directly in front of the sofas was a fireplace, except that the fire was white? The fire didn’t seem to be heating up the room at all, however. I don’t think anybody told the guy that lit the fire how useless it was to even have that here.
Hang on, that stuff isn’t important right now. How did I get here? I tried to remember the past, but with each attempt, it felt like my brain was hitting a literal roadblock. Who even was I? Oh gosh, I couldn’t even remember my name.
“Ah, Another soul, Come closer would you?” A voice hushed beside me. I turned to face the voice and noticed another room I hadn’t seen prior. Perhaps it had opened up just now? That wouldn’t be too hard to believe considering that white fire existed. In the room stood a single wooden desk and chair. Unlike the furniture behind me, This desk only had a simple flower pot on its surface. Behind the desk was the only window in this entire place. The window peered out into nothing, Not black, Just nothing. The only way I could describe it is like when you close one eye. You don’t see darkness in that closed eye, you sort of see nothing and only see out of your open eye. The man sat still at the desk, staring at me with his dark eyes. His black hair was groomed and sleek. He wore a simple yet classy suit and bowtie. The man had pure white skin, it was like the ocean's surface as it shimmered. He simply had his hands clasped together as they rested on the table. “Ah, it’s you again. Despite all your changes, you're still easily recognizable.” The albino man spoke. As he spoke I could feel his eyes gazing at my forehead, not my eyes. And finally, after a few minutes of my existence, I spoke my first words. Clearly, they were very intelligent.
“Do you know where I am, Sir? Or do you have a name that you would prefer I call you by?” I humbly asked, I felt the urge to bow slightly. The man chuckled slightly as if he thought my manners were funny to him.
“You can call me the Ferryman. Hmmm… I guess since this information is useless to you, I might as well tell you. You’re in purgatory.” The Ferryman answered. Purgatory? Isn’t that hell? Or would hell be classified as its own place entirely? “I can tell you're confused, just ask around and you’ll eventually get the gist of it.” I looked around. Maybe I was missing something but the only other person in the room was the Ferryman. Before I could express my complaints he finally spoke once more. “This will be the last we will see each other, after all, you’ve finally completed it. There is no more reason for you to come back here. It was a pleasure helping you Azura.” The Ferryman caught himself before continuing. “My apologies, It’s hard to remember all these names.” He apologized while smiling at me, his head slightly tilted to the side. "Let's fix that."
The Ferryman stood up from his chair and walked to the wall on his left. As if on queue, a panel on the wall opened up and a level came to fill its place. He turned to me and smiled before switching the lever. A new panel opened up to reveal some sort of flat monitor. Like a slot machine, words started spinning on the screen until it slowed down and halted onto two words. 'Kenshin Kurokoi."
"You may be wondering what that is. That'll be your new name." With a wave of his hand, the lever and tablet-shaped monitor slid back into the wall, as if it was never there.
Questions spun around my head. It was like the butterflies in my stomach had moved to my head. I didn’t have much time to process all these questions though. In a single snap of his finger, the entire building vanished. What once remained on the other side of the window was now entirely circling me. Slowly but surely, I felt wind brushing up from under me. Was it wind? Or was it something else? The gusts only grew stronger and more chaotic. My clothes thrashed violently against the forces. The curtains of darkness ripped away from me and I was now surrounded by clouds. The realization hit me like what I was about to experience, I was falling from the sky at intense speeds. Winds started to turn and topple me. I tried to stabilize myself, I widened my arms and legs but I just kept spinning. It was like I was tumbling down a staircase while in mid-air. Oxygen started to get denser as I descended. As the clouds parted I could finally see what waits below me, an island the size of 10 football stadiums. Unfortunately, it was hard to admire the view as I plummeted to my death. Straight out of purgatory and right back into it huh? That’s when the panic set in.
I’m actually going to die here.
No! It was too early! I hadn’t even been alive for 1 minute in this world and yet I was going to die from falling? What kind of Ferryman sends their patients to their death? Is this some sort of torture chamber where he sends me back there over and over again!? What sort of new deaths awaited me next? My mouth opened and I let out a curdling scream.
“AAAAAHHH!!!~”
Not much filled my mind after that, just screaming. As the ground got closer, the blur around me got harder to distinguish. I was going to land on top of a building, And of course, the building had to be a tower with a large cone-like roof. I was about to be impaled on the world's largest spear. My eyes instinctively closed themselves as I braced for impact…
…
…
…
Nothing? The wind had stopped, I wasn’t in pain. Was I back in purgatory? I opened my eyes to see my hands. It was stupid but only now did I realise that I didn’t even have a body back at purgatory. My hands were a light color of red, they were delicate and soft. Was I a female? No, I think I could tell if I was a female. I was wearing a red tunic and a vest over top of it. My pants and shoes were nothing too fancy, just your run-of-the-mill clothing. My legs were already standing up just like I was when I awoke in purgatory. Luckily there wasn’t a gaping hole in my chest. Without thinking much I rushed outside, the door making a shimmering ‘shh’ noise as I ran past it. Just as I thought, I was in the building that I was going to fall on. I heaved a sigh of relief. The Ferryman wasn’t crazy after all.
“O-oh goodness! What happened!” A feeble voice called.
A dark skinned girl came rushing outside to follow me. As I turned to look at her, I noticed that the door that I came through, actually wasn’t a door. It was a forcefield, just barely visible thanks to its blue tint.
“What happened! Did you hear the large crash too?” The young girl looked to be in her early twenties. She had dark skin, but not the type you’d think. In better words, she was a bluish grey, in complete contrast to her radiating yellow eyes. I looked back at my hands. Despite how bizarre everything was, it didn’t seem out of the ordinary. I felt like a baby in a man's body, knowing nothing in this world.
“Hellooo~?” Her hand waving in front of my face snapped me back to reality.
“O-oh! Sorry I zoned out there.”
“So, did you hear the crash or not?”
I didn’t remember hearing a crash when I landed, and there certainly wasn’t any debris. Was it best to act dumb? Or should I just tell the truth? Perhaps if I said the latter then she could explain what the hell just happened, if there even was an explanation.
“I’m sorry, I might’ve caused that noise.” The girl raised an eyebrow as I continued. “I can’t remember anything, other than an albino man sporting a tuxedo sending me soaring down here.”
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It seemed as if something clicked inside the girl's head, because she let out an exaggerated “Oooohhh! You’re a freshie then!” She exclaimed.
“I-i’m sorry, a what?”
“Well the correct term is a Fresh-spawn. But everybody just calls ‘em freshies. Sounds kinda cute right?” She smiled, as if pronouncing the full name explained anything. It was impossible to get angry at her though, possibly because I felt sorry for the amount of questions I was about to ask.
“What’s a Fresh-Spawn?” Was my immediate question.
“Oh sorry! A fresh-spawn is somebody who just recently came to this earth, spawned if you will. If you’re about to ask why you spawned into this world, I'm the wrong person to ask. There’s a reason, and I’m sure people know it, I just don’t.”
Well that just leaves me with more questions!
“Who do I ask then?”
“Hmmm, maybe an ultra trainer? Easiest bet is just asking a Sigil knight.”
This was starting to get real repetitive.
“Ultra? Sigil Knight?”
The girl groaned as she realised what she was in store for. Clearly she had never dealt with a ‘freshie’ before. She started to pick her words carefully, optimizing how much time it’d take to explain this all so she could get on with her day.
“There are different titles- No, categories for strength. You are currently a freshie, meaning you are fresh out of the box owning no experience to your name. Above that is a base. A base class is where you only have the base knowledge of your specific class choosing.” I could tell she thought she was clever with how she worded this. “A tier above that is the Supers. This is when soldiers start to get a bit stronger. And the final tier is an Ultra. These are just categories. There are multiple classes for each category, and one of the supers is a Sigil knight, A tier above that is the Sigil Commander. And believe me, Sigil knights are the most common supers you’ll come across.”
I nodded my head in satisfaction as I listened to this all. There was only one more question I had before I went to go find a Sigil knight, and that was all the classes for each category. I doubted even she knew them all however.
“Ah, thank you. One last question before I go.” I awkwardly chuckled, sensing her frustration at this point. “Where are the Sigil knights?”
The woman pointed behind me. “Down that road. There's a risky cliff you’ll have to climb down, and then a large swim… But after that you should swim towards the shore and go to the tavern. I’ll be damned if there isn’t at least one Sigil knight in there. It also serves as a motel if you’d like to crash after the journey.”
I turned behind me and could already see what she meant by ‘risky cliff.’ The path barely even stretched 10 meters before I'd go rock climbing.
“Do you seriously climb this?” I asked. The girl let out a snort at my question.
“Of course not, I take the elevator down to the mage hideout.”
“W-why can’t I do the same?”
“Because you're not a mage, there's a barrier very similar to the one behind me. Except the barrier flings out anybody who isn’t a mage. Even if you tried, you wouldn’t be able to get through.”
I ran up to the girl and shook her hand. “Thank you, I’ll be going now.”
I should not have thanked her.
Rock climbing without safety gear was a lot harder than I thought. My once fragile hands were now covered in blood and rubble. The descent down the cliff only provided a few pit stops and poor mockeries of a ‘path.’ Normally it’s easier to climb down something than it is up something, but not in this case. Any wrong move could and would send me crashing down this cliff. I had to abuse every second of rest I got at the somewhat safer paths. My legs were shaking, partially because of fatigue and partially because of fear.
By the end of the climb easily an hour or two had passed. Thankfully I didn’t have to worry about being dirty, because I was about to take a bath. Swimming an entire lake almost seemed worse than climbing. I knew how to swim, but I wasn’t exactly confident nor had I swam for this long. It didn’t help that it was the same temperature as an ice cube. Even though I was smart by resting as much as I could before swimming this length, the fatigue was catching up with me.
Once I had finally made a pathetic crawl to the beach, I layed there for a few moments of exhaustion. I wanted to cheer in celebration of my victory, but I figured my ‘achievement’ had probably already been completed by countless other freshies. Glad I thought of that after the swim, or else I might’ve drowned myself.
Right, I needed to focus on getting to the Inn. Nobody batted an eye to the sopping wet man as I trailed my way off the shore. Specks of sand stuck to my back and hair, no doubt I would have to get a shower after this. The girls' offer to ‘crash after the journey’ seemed like it was an order from my body rather than a request.
I noticed little kids clinging to their parents, which struck me as odd. Aren’t you meant to ‘spawn’ as an adult? Does this mean that only some spawn in this world, while others are born naturally?
Upon reaching the Inn I quietly opened the door, but that didn’t matter as the bickering of the bar would’ve washed even the loudest crash. My eyes scanned around the room. Having no clue of what a Sigil Knight could look like, My best bet was to look for shining armour.
The Inn had a cozy feel to it. Unlike the fireplace back in purgatory, this one spreaded warmth throughout the room. Men gathered around circular tables cheered as beers were chugged. I thought that the room would have paid more attention to a bleeding, wet and sandy man, but apparently not. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t complaining.
Without any signs of knights in shining armour I did the only thing I could think of, ask the bartender. The man had his back turned to me as he dried some of the wet dishes.
“A-ahem, excuse me?” I made a feeble attempt at raising my voice. The old man couldn’t quite hear me over the monkeys making noise. “Excuse me!” My voice raised.
The old man perked his head up and turned around, a bit surprised. “Ah, yes?” His hoarse voice asked. He too didn’t seem to care that I was sopping wet and bleeding from my hands. Perhaps this was a normal occurrence. There was no world that I wanted to live in where this was normal.
“Do you know where a Sigil Knight is? I need to ask them some questions.”
“Some Sigil Knights eh? Some of our regulars are former Sigil Knights, if that’ll do, they’re on the table to the far left.” He motioned with his finger as he pointed to the table. The table he pointed to was the quietest out of the bunch, most of the men in their 60s, past their primes. One even had his arm missing.
“Yes, that’ll do. Thank you.” I felt the need to bow my head to the old man out of respect before making my way to the table.
Their senses were keen, because their eyes darted to me before I got 10 feet from them. They regarded me with curiosity. “Hello, I was told you were Sigil Knights?” I kept my voice quiet so as not to anger them. What a stupid thought, aren’t knights meant to be kind and caring? Why was it my first instinct to believe that they would be corrupt? Or was it just their sense of power that frightened me?
One of the men spoke up, the one with the missing arm. His brown eyes studied me with a sort of kindness that a grandfather would have. That helped to relieve my nerves. “I’m a fresh-spawn, I haven’t been around for long and I was told that some of you could help explain what’s going on?” I gingerly asked.
Another man chuckled to himself, I hoped out of nostalgia for when he was a freshie. The old man cleared his throat before speaking again. “Well, how much do you know so far? Did this person tell you a bit before redirecting you to us?”
“I know of the power system, with supers and ultras” My mind began thinking of the countless children I spotted before making my way to the bar. I needed to quench my curiosity. “I want to know why some people spawn into this world, while some are born naturally?”
The man had a light bulb ignite in his head as he came to a realization. “Oh! You're a fresh-spawn, yet you're also an adult!” He boomed, causing a slight scene as the tables looked toward sus.
“Y-yes? What about it? Is that not normal?” My voice kept quiet, hoping to divert the attention of the other tables.
“Boy, you’re an edict user!”