Akio opened his eyes and saw nothing, at first he was confused. The surrounding area was dark as if his vision was cut off from his mind. He fidgeted around using anything he could to touch or see something but felt nothing, not even the resistance of air. He seemed to not have any body whatsoever.
'What the- ... what is going on?'
Akio who was just left sitting there and with no sense of where he was or what he had become finally felt something, more like someone out there.
'Hello? Anyone there? I'm over here!' Akio bobbled Moving as much as he could while screaming in his mind for somone
A large flame the size of a New York City building and nearly twice as wide appeared. Lighting up the..... Akio froze, all thoughts vanished. The black screen covering the area was cleared and blue and white stars were visible, close enough to see the ripples on them as they moved. Far away galaxies could be seen and large gaps in between. A large dragon figure the size of multiple galaxies could be seen at a distance. A star in front of the thing looked like an insignificant ant under a mountain
"Hello mortal, it seems you've gone in the wrong direction"
Akio looked up at the voice, it was deep and loud enough to rumble planets and air alone. But it was calm as if it was talking to his friend after a long day. The figure loomed in revealing its long scaled figure and by the time it was visable, the figure was a lot smaller. Still REAL big, but smaller.
"You souls are supposed to move on to the afterlife where it is deemed wither you will diminish or get another start."
'Wha- soul!? But I was at my house just a minute ago and a soul!? Arnt those just fictional? Also another start? As in reincarnation, like the manga stacked in my closet?'
The dragon looked a little shocked at hearing his words and a little surprised at the rush of questions. The dragon at closer inspection had no wings and dark blue scales with black patterns.
"Not quite, you were alive a few moments ago judging by the brightness of your soul. you seem to have died without outside involvement. You should've been either reincarnated or just evaporated. But seeing as to how you've gotten here is another issue" the dragon rubbed his chin. "Let me see your past" figuring he could find clues inside.
Akio felt his mind jerk with resistance as it was being searched. The dragons eyes glowed as it searched. It only lasted a couple of seconds before the dragon looked at the soul with pity.
"A world without magic or graded weapons and monsters.... how boring. It seems your just a boring lost soul out here" Akio felt as if he was now looked down on and was a little more than irritated. After all his whole life was for him too do as he pleased, seeing someone calling it a pity didn't sit well with him.
'Fuck off old man, I didn't want a fancy life or one full of action. I just wanted to settle down and enjoy things MY way' Akio puffed out his imaginary chest in his head as he tried to defend his choices.
The dragon looked at him in surprise and also some bewilderment. After all, a measly little soul was talking back to him? A dragon MANY times bigger? The dragon smirked
It has been a very long time since this dragon had talked to another living creature and it not only talked to him, but it stood up to him. Which intrigued this dragon Interest of the little one to dramatically increase
"I like you" the dragon nodded at this lost soul in front of him "why don't I give you a place to go? As well as a little gift for that courage of yours" the dragon proceeded to snag Akio with his fingernail.
Akio was shocked at how quickly this old dragon's personality did a complete turnaround and even acted happy at his insult.
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"After all it is my pride and joy" the dragon's eyes gleamed as he proceeded to tear the space In front of him as if it was a piece of wet paper and dragged him through. The other side was more or less the same but Akio could tell he was in another place as the galaxies were larger than the ones before.
'How big is this place if this thing needed to teleport to here' Akio wondered, but looking left as he was dragged around saw a very large looking sphere. Since it was obvious, he figured that was where he was heading. It looked as if it was covered in what could only be mist in his mind.
"Welcome to your new home" the dragon left him floating as he slithered around it and did a proud hands on hips LOOK AT ME pose while his face had a smouldering expression.
Akio thought that if this was his new home then he was being reincarnated but as to what this place called "pride and joy" by this old dude who was obviously some sort of big deal
'Nice yoga ball old man, I can't see what it is with all this mist in the way, it could be another lame star' Akio after seeing that the dragon enjoyed his previous confidence tried to squeeze more out of him. After all if he gave a gift for only that small insult. imagine what the possibilities were! This dragon is bound to be a god if he knows where would go and just by being how big he was.
The dragon looked at him sternly. And crossed his arms.
"Ok mister 'don't judge me for MY choices' " it said as if to mock him. The dragon dropped the pose and returned to his serious task. He waved his hand and the mist dispersed in all directions. What was revealed was a large planet with seemingly endless continents and oceans.
The dragon looked at Akio and then pondered
"What's your name mortal?" The dragon pointed at Akio with his tail which had to swirl around just to fit between the planets.
'Akio, my name is Akio' Akio directed at the dragon. He saw all of my past, why doesn't he know my name?
"Very well than Akio, my gift to you is uptoo you to decide" he recalled the statement from moments before.
He waved his fingers in a smalle circular motion and With a swirl of small stars and mist from the area. formed three small orbs each of them was a different shade of blue.
"In the left one here" he pointed towards the light blue one.
"This one contains the gift of power, while it may not be as powerful as some of the monsters on the planet immediately, its power will scale along with you. You will be born with immense strength for your level and it will remain at all times without change." He said as he moved to the next one which was slightly darker.
"This one grants you prosperity, not necessarily in wealth but in whatever is true In your heart if it is love you will receive love. If it is money you will receive money." He pointed to the last orb at the end, this one seemed to be dark violet but was surrounded by an ice-looking barrier.
"Finally my will, this orb contains part of my blessing and power which I have stored a long time ago" he looked at this orb in a longing fashion.
'So it is like a divinity right? Your a god after all so blessings are normal' Akio noted on the third one and seemingly already decided.
"Not quite little one, I'm no longer a god," he said with a sad grin on his face.
"This is from when I was a god, and I was a powerful one at that, I was the god of creation after all. I created stars and galaxies all alike and different at its foundation"
"In the realm of the gods there is no hierarchy, but rather it is based on how many believers you have. The god of life, death, light, darkness, fire, and water just to name a few."
"But the problem is, is when someone has no believers they perish from the realm of gods and are forced back into the mortal plane. As the god of creation I created all of the elements and had power over them, but lesser than the gods of the elements themselves" he chuckled as he rolled the third orb towards Akio.
"But the problem is this, let's say you use water magic and gain powers from worshiping the gods, naturally you would worship the god of water and not creation. For there are thousands of gods and only one who makes them able to be gods." He said slowly
The orb he had rolled was slowly turning into more of a stream of ice, the ice moved with itself curling like that of a blown-off firework. It pierced right through my soul, mind and seemed to pass through something else before it evaporated. My soul wanted to explode at the sudden intrusion but let it through as to not perish
"I've given you my will and have locked your memories of this moment. That is because of the rules of the realm of gods give. After all I'm an old fashion guy who wants to do things the right way. However, since I'm not a god it is just a lock, and locks can be unlocked with a key after all."
Akio who had said nothing for the past few minutes stared at him before processing the information that was laid on top of him. But with only 10 minutes of experience in this field, he couldn't quite get a hold.
'So god of creation, what do I do with what you have given me and where do I go from here?'
The old dragon looked at him softly
"You will be sent onto this world here, where people are given a system which is rather similar to what you call a menu in a video game I suppose. When you level up, naturally you will grow stronger. My blessing to you is one that can not be explained in the time you have left so I've given the basics of the menu and the world implanted into your system. To comprehend this information I will let you keep your ability to understand what is happening. It will take a while after all"
'Thank you for this, you didn't have to even stop when I called but you did. Thank you' Akio seemed to have realized that he had not only been saved by this dragon for eternity but he had been given a gift as well.
"Bah, it's no big deal. Just promise to talk to me and become my believer when you get your memories back, that will be more than enough" the old dragon said with a smile of longing, clearly missing something long ago.
"I suppose you should get ongoing now, I will await for your message, mortal"
Akio realized that the reason why he was going so fast with his explanation was because of him, his soul without a home will eventually dissipate into nothing if he had
'It's Akio and thank you once again'
Akio felt a strong pulling force and then proceeded to blackout
——-Welcome to the system of verglas———