It hurt, a tearing, ripping. The gradual loss of feeling. A tingling that spread like a plague through my limbs. I cried, unable to speak agony overwhelming my voice.

Why me? I cried into the uncaring world, screaming voiceless to the sky above me.

I had so much left to do! I cannot die! Not now! I still wanted to live, to learn!

But nothing responded to my pleas. Nothing great or grand drew upon my dying form to whisper sweet songs. I was alone, it was so cold. So very cold. I tore my gaze from the heavens above. Dragging with great difficulty my gaze downward. Meeting the cold steel of my undoer.

It stood just a few feet away, the metal beam tainted red with my blood, the crimson hew glistening in the sun. Mere moments before I had been lively, smiling, and joyous at the job site, knowing soon I would have a nice fat paycheck to spend upon whatever I pleased, rent finally no longer demanding all I earned with my new promotion.

Yet it had been taken from me so quickly. My future was robbed. A cry came from above.

"WATCH OUT BELOW!"

I raised my head to witness it, a steel beam held up by ropes swung in the breeze. A groaning, a tearing. Then it fell. I panic, throwing myself to the side. But the beam was vast and I was small. I was caught in the chest, thrown like a doll after a child's rage. I splattered upon the ground. I lay there, out of breath. I tried to push myself up. But my legs did not respond. I turned my gaze downward, but I saw nothing, nothing but my own mangled remains. I felt my strength waning and my body slumped backward, staring at the sky.

I stayed that way as with every beat of my heart more of my life blood spurted out to spatter upon the ground. I turned my head just before my end. Wanting to witness the thing that had taken so cruelly from me my future.

A single tear rolled down my cheek as I drew still. It wasn't even damaged its form unchanged aside from the splatter of my blood upon it. I had meant nothing to it and done nothing to it.

How sad. I thought with the last of my strength. My vision faded out. The empty blackness took over my vision. I could feel my brain panic, searching for a solution. But it would find none for I even against all its attempts, just faded away, oblivion's gentle embrace lulling me to an eternal sleep.

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But as it would seem. Oblivion's embrace does not last forever and the machinations of the beyond finally took hold. I woke to a strange blackness. I blinked, only to realise I had no eyes to see, no limbs to walk, no lungs to breathe with. A moment of pure panic came upon me before the very emotions I felt were stripped away, leaving nothing but cold logic in its place.

I turned my non-existent sight upon the world around me. A blackness that seemed to thrum with a sense of being extended in all directions. A trillion silver lights floated alongside me, all different sizes and shapes. Some appeared to have more defined forms, limbs, and faces clear in the dark.

I turned my gaze inward, looking upon my own form, a simple sliver ball like many of those that floated alongside me. Without definition, without form. I look upward, or at least what appeared to be up, deduced from the fact that all of the sliver lights which I believed were souls, floated upwards. Moving toward an unknown something high above.

I saw a great light, not too dissimilar to the rumored light at the end of the tunnel people spoke about. I found myself drifting towards it. It would seem by the very law of this place one moved towards the light.

And so I drifted, moving upwards, progress is known only by the gradual increase in the size of the distant light high above. And so time passed, as much as it could when anything to gauge its passing was absent. But I knew at a minimum that I had floated in this void for a long time, longer than my mind could comprehend. A hundred years? A thousand? A hundred thousand? A million? A billion? A trillion?

I knew not, slowly slipping into a state of unawareness, a final desperate attempt to save what little sanity I had left. Slowly floating upwards.

And time passed

And passed

And passed

passed

past

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And suddenly. I was there. The blackness was gone, and soft white marble with veins of gold running through it extended in every direction. Before me was a simple fountain. It was made of a silvery substance that seemed to shiver in the light that emanated from some unknown source near me.

I floated there for a moment, confused as to what purpose this place served. Logic numb and dulled from the time that had passed, the self-imposed hibernation. Slowly faded and something I had overlooked came to the front of my attention.

It was a being that stood to the side of the great fountain. It was beyond words, the closest thing I could compare it to was an angel. A being of pure light that hurt my mind to even look upon it. As I gaze at it, frozen in a mix of awe and terror. It spoke, and its voice was even without tone or accent, yet I still gained an impression of femininity.

"Hello"

It spoke. I stared unsure of what to say back to it. But a nagging voice inside my mind told me to stay something, anything.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Hello... is this, heaven?"

I asked, blurting out the first thing that came to my mind. The being that I chose to call an angel shifted, its form lightly shaking. A soft harmonic tone seemed to caress my ears. It was laughing, I stared in wait. Unsure of what its reactions meant. Was this not heaven? And if not, where exactly was I?

"This is not heaven little soul. However, this place serves a purpose similar to the heaven you speak of."

It explained. Its body shifted as it seemed to gesture, broadly pointing at the marble around me. It waited for me to digest its words before continuing.

"This would be called a locus of reincarnation if I translated its name to your tongue."

I paused, as much as a soul could pause. Reincarnation? So this was where one went after their death. To another life. I shifted and spoke softly, feeling strangely safe near this angel.

"I see, So I'm to be reincarnated? Do I... will I remember anything once I do?"

The angel seemed to consider my question, its glowing form seemed to shake its head. I gave a sad smile, but I had long since accepted the possibility of such. The endless waiting had given me much time to think and I had come to terms with the possibility that I would end, ceasing as who I was.

"I understand, I'm ready"

The angel nodded and drew closer to me, I felt its hands upon my soul, and just as I perceived reality tense in anticipation. Something happened. I knew it more than I saw it. The white sky above seemed to ripple. Then the screaming started.

It hurt my ears, whatever a soul had in terms of ears anyway. From the sky the ripples grew in intensity, the screaming following alongside it. Then as the screaming hit a climax the sky shattered. The angel before me seemed to panic, the first real emotion I'd seen the being make. It turned to me reaching for my soul again. Likely to erase my memories and reincarnate me. It spoke in a slightly panicked voice.

"Enter the fountain, let yourself be drawn into its depths, hurry, you have little tim-"

But it did not finish its sentence. A blackened limb, as dark as the night but filled with burning angry stars ripped it away from me. A pained screech echoed around me as the angel flew back, smashing into the foundation that circled the fountain. The silver material cracked, the water within seeping out.

The blackened limb was connected to a creature of impossibility, it was akin to a bundle of grasping limbs shaped into the form of a humanoid, it lumbered towards the angel, leaving me floating there. Still processing what had just happened. The creature which I could only call a demon attacked the angel. The fight between the two beings was mind-numbing, each blow shaking my vision, each scream of pain followed by a spray of blood that seemed to twist in impossible ways.

I floated there for a few moments before noticing that the fountain was starting to take quite a lot of damage. I start moving towards the fountain, concerned that I might be prevented from reincarnation if the fountain was destroyed by the fight between the angel and demon.

I threw myself into the waters of the fountain, and I felt a chill shoot through my entire body, the first real sensation I'd felt since dying oh so long ago. The fountain's depth was deceptive, what appeared first as a thin pool of water within the fountain's bowl soon turned into an endless descent. The angel's words flashed through my mind and I let myself be pulled down.

The fountain's silver walls around me soon grew blurry and I floated in the depths of the fountain. The clear water of the fountain soon faded as well. Familiar darkness replaced it. I felt constrained, and as I felt something click, new limbs came to life, tingles and a deep bone-deep shudder running through my body as I struggled. It felt as if I was being crushed, my body forced into a fetal position.

Following instincts that whispered into my mind I threw myself at the walls of my cell. And soon I was rewarded with a cracking sound and a bright spear of light. I took this in my stride, struggling more and more. Then with a wet shattering sound I burst out of my prison and came face to face with the world.

A great furred creature stood before me. It vaguely resembled the mythical dragon, but it had key differences, its body was a pale blue, fur instead of scales covering its four-legged form. Two great blue wings lay sheathed upon its back. It let out a long drawn breath. A voice that boomed spilling from its lips

"Pathetic, what an ugly child"

I shuddered, keenly aware that I was the subject of its words. I drew my gaze downward to look at myself but another figure caught my attention. The figure was human by all rights yet, humans were not the same size as a dragon, and humans did not float with piecing blue hair that seemed to shift in non-existent winds. Humans did not emit an aura of power and strength, as if they were the incarnation of frost and biting weather.

"Yes, our first spawn is cut of lesser cloth it seems."

It spoke, its voice of biting ice and death in cold storms. I shrunk under its gaze, covering my body with my furred arms. My furred arms, I paused looking upon my limbs. They were a pale blue, fur that shimmered softly golden highlights flickering in and out of my sight as the light shifted upon them. I lowered my gaze, seeing a white-furred belly with a similar pale blue outer coat surrounding it. I had a clear humanoid form, however, I was clearly not human, the fur I had already seen covered all but certain parts of my body, my hands, and feet with a dark blue scale that boarded on black in colour. My fur also thinned at my crotch and throat. I had a long and thick tail that extended from my tailbone, I could not help but move it in awe, feeling overwhelmed by the extreme difference of my new body to my old one. As distant as the memory of that was.

The voices of my parents roused me from my focus, my father I assumed, spoke with my mother, the dragon that reminded me of the deep frost.

"We should kill it, I do not want such a stain of a spawn to live within my domain"

My father spoke, the threat of death making me panic as my mother responded.

"Truly yes, but to stain our claws with its blood"

A shudder ran through my mother's form as she paused in the middle of her sentence.

"Would be a most distasteful experience"

My father seemed to consider, his expression that of contemplating, after a moment he spoke once more.

"Yes you're right, let us banish it to the human kingdoms to the east. I wish not to have its form stain my domain with its existence"

I stared in horror at my parents. My father moved over to me, the look in his eyes not that of kindness, but just disgust. He spoke once more, his tone even, a chill seemingly bleeding into it regardless.

"Die far away from my domain spawn of mine, die and fade from memory and sight."

Then I felt a great pressure descend upon my body, and the sight of my mother and father seemed to twist. The chill I had only just noticed faded away and an acidic and iron smell assaulted my nose. I blinked once, closing my eyes to the sight of my mother and father and opening them to a field of corpses, the sky dark. I got up on unstable legs and dragged my gaze across the dead all around me, humans of all sizes and shapes lay in mangled and damaged states. Limbs missing, heads torn off. I even spied a few having been ripped completely in half.

I swallowed hard, an ever-present sense of terror and panic steeling in my gut as I took in it all. I uttered out loud with foreign lips and a tongue that felt too long and moved strangely in my mouth.

"Where the hell am I?"