I didn't know how long I had been floating in the void, but it felt like it had been years. Despite my slowly deteriorating grasp of time, I still vividly remembered what happened before I got stuck in the endless black.
Sam and I were about to leave for the Halloween party when a loud noise suddenly disrupted the sounds of laughter and trick-or-treaters. The noise grew louder, drowning out all other sounds, and we exchanged a brief glance of worry before it abruptly stopped. The world fell silent, and a flash of violet light took away our vision.
The only thing I could think of was that we had been struck by lightning. The static noise and violet light just reinforced my theory even more. Running with the idea of the heavens smiting us, I could only come up with one conclusion.
I was in a coma.
I couldn't feel anything. All I could do was think. I had always read stories of people losing their grasp of reality the more untethered they became from physical sensations. Was that what was happening to me? Was I trapped in my brain for who knows how long?
Strangely enough, I didn't feel any worry or panic. You would have thought I'd be stressing out over the idea of being permanently trapped inside my head, but I wasn't. Instead, my thoughts turned to the party that Sam and I were missing.
I'm not sure how Sam managed to do it, but she was able to convince me that dressing up as a demonic chef would be a unique and creative costume idea. We put together a costume using fake blood, a cheap rubber cleaver, a slightly ripped chef's outfit, and silly pouches filled with various seasonings, which made for a pretty convincing butcher. However, Sam felt the ensemble needed something more, so we added some red face paint, fake horns, and a pair of uncomfortable contacts to complete the look.
If it weren't for the fact that she was dressed in full combat leathers, I would have complained about how annoying it was to get ready. It took us fifteen minutes to argue about bringing her oversized larp hammer, but she eventually settled on an inflated rubber one, grumbling all the while.
Sam's health limited our outings, but we always put effort into doing something special for Halloween, a holiday we both enjoyed. Even if the next day was a literal hell for her, she deserved to feel like a normal person now and again.
After a while, thoughts about Halloween and Sam went down a rabbit hole of random thoughts. I floated between ideas of cooking only with candy and what kind of food a five-star demon restaurant would serve. The food recipes started as high-class fantasy grub to an increasingly strange menu that would weird out even the hardiest of foodies.
Just as I started my breakdown of medusa hair spaghetti with kraken venom, a flash of light startled me from my thoughts. As I focused on the light, it faded to an image of a glowing stone door. When I looked closely enough, the door had endless runic symbols etched all over the surface, with occasional tiny pulses of color highlighting the lines. I couldn't make out the shapes. Every time I focused on them, they began to blur until I looked away.
Is this my brain telling me I finally snapped, or perhaps an exaggerated dramatization of me returning to the real world?
The door started to slowly open as I stayed still, waiting to see what the door would show me on the other side of the frame. I thought I braced myself for just about any possibility, but when the door opened to a barrier of gold and a yellow tentacle began to slither out, I blanked.
If some Cthulhu-esque mind eater started worming into my head to eat me, I preferred staying in the void. First, one tentacle stepped out, then two, and then five. By the time I finished counting, I was staring at thirteen rubbery appendages. They were lemon yellow with bands of neon green. The bands grew thicker and thicker until they reached the main body they were attached to.
I was right; it was some kind of annoying mindeater. Giving the sour candy-colored monster another look, I was surprised to see that it had two normal arms ending in claws instead of tentacles. The face was exactly what you'd think it'd be, with a tentacled squid head and two giant orbs of black staring at me.
The creature suddenly crossed his arms and tapped its tentacles. Huh, the abomination seemed annoyed at me for some reason. Maybe it was disappointed that it spent all the effort for that dramatic entrance just to find me floating in the dark.
"I wasn't being dramatic, whelp! That is just the door that I have to use to enter these spaces," a loud voice suddenly rang out.
Surprisingly, it sounded silky smooth, the kind of voice I would want to fall asleep to as it read me a story.
Gah! It was probably just trying to lure me in before it devoured my mind.
I wasn't sure how I was going to resist the alluring-sounding monster, but being lulled to oblivion sounded much better than screaming pain.
Being trapped with my thoughts for so long probably has made me off-kilter. Now that I thought about it, I didn't even know if I had a body. For all I knew, I was just a floating orb in the middle of nothing.
"That's exactly what you are right now. A small soul floating in a sea of nothing." The mind flayer leaned in closer and cocked its head. "Hmm, silver streaks? A high-tiered soul, eh? Hah! Zuldraea is not going to be happy having to sponsor you. I told her she couldn't afford to play around with the rituals with her low resources, but did she listen to me? No. I might as well inform her of the new debt she owes. She will make such a lovely sour face."
The silky voice started rambling, not making complete sense.
I'd hoped for something else if this was the afterlife. A rambling anthropomorphic calamari was destroying any confidence I could muster in the situation.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
From what I could understand, my chances of being in a coma were frighteningly slim. A sponsor didn't sound too bad. It seemed I got my 'blasted to oblivion restitution gifts.'
The squid man suddenly looked to his right, staring into nothingness with rapt attention. Nothing happened for a good while. The silence dragged on long enough that I could have mistaken the mind flayer for a statue.
"Uh, are you still there, Mr. Squid-man? Is everything al—" my voice cut off as a new door phased into existence.
The new door was similar in that it was made of stone, but it was darker, and the runes seemed to swirl more than the first one. The door opened silently and out stepped a man in a silver suit.
He wasn't human. Out of his head grew spiraling black horns, and there seemed to be a crimson-furred tail swinging behind him. His eyes glowed a mixture of red, orange, and gold that stood out amongst his pale skin. Waving a clawed hand, he made his way towards us. He looked older, maybe early forties, young enough but not too young.
"Why are you here and not Zuldraea? You'd have no reason to bail her out," the squid-man said accusingly.
"I managed to convince her I was doing a small favour and took the soul debt off her hands. And before you ask, let's say I'm working off a hunch. I plan on offering a deal to our new soul here," said the man. His voice was deeper but equally smooth.
"The weave hasn't even finalized his legacy yet. You have no idea if it will even be good enough for what I think you're planning on doing," scoffed the squid man.
"No worries, Eraztis, I know what I'm doing. Besides, he hasn't even accepted my offer yet, so nothing is certain," the suited man said confidently.
To that reply, Eraztis just snorted while shaking his head.
The suited man turned towards me and walked closer. I didn't feel anything from him, no aura of evil, and he wasn't looking at me like I was some snack.
I was instantly curious about what kind of deal he would offer me, and the tidbit about some Legacy had me equally excited. If getting isekaied came with perks from a god, then I wasn't going to complain. Even if Cthulhu squid and a fox demon should have blasted mental warning sirens, I didn't feel like I was in danger.
"I know you probably have a lot of questions. I can't answer everything; there are certain rules in place, and we don't have that much time. So, getting to the point, you're dead. You got hit by what we call an ether storm. Zuldraea, the goddess who was originally supposed to be here, caused the storm to breach into your realm and zapped you and your friend. Thankfully, the Grand Weave has a system in place for when this happens. You are now known as a reborn. Your original body is destroyed," he explained. After dropping the entire info dump, he paused. His shoulders slumped slightly, and he grimaced. The suited man sighed before continuing. "In order for the Grand Weave to integrate you back into our system, you will be given a new body. It's usually random, but it will, about eight times out of ten, make you a race native to the world you are being put into.
"Along with the new body, you are given a Legacy. Think of it like a brand on your soul that provides benefits to those who have it. Everybody wants to get one, and it provides a plethora of effects that help put you above everyone else. Are you with me so far?" he paused, staring at me with a strange expression.
I didn't think I could nod yes, but for the most part, I understood things so far.
He seemed to understand my thoughts and nodded before explaining further. "In addition to what the system gives you, the deity who zapped you must also provide you with a skill stone and a perk. The skill stone must be of high rarity, and the perk requires a significant amount of our power to channel. I have committed to fulfilling this obligation, regardless of whether you agree to my offer," he stated.
The strange, suited man gave me a reassuring smile. My mind briefly went blank at the mention of the skill stone and perk. I was mostly joking about the idea of being isekaied, but it looked like this "Grand Weave" was about to make those thoughts a reality.
I felt like I should be feeling something other than excitement about all this, but I didn't. This was a fantastic opportunity. People dream of precisely this sort of thing happening.
The man grinned as he waited for me to get my thoughts together. If he could indeed read my mind, then he knew he had me.
"I said the race change is usually random, but I can force it into a specific choice. I don't have any worshippers or devotees. I am not a name you see in temples; frankly, I don't want to be. I have no need for another follower or sycophant. So make no mistake, I am not asking you to become either of those things. However, I am asking you to become a… Chosen, of sorts. Don't worry. I'll be more of a mentor to you rather than a master. There are many reasons why I am doing this, and I can't explain most of them. Suffice it to say; I am doing this because it has been a long time since I had a scion. And I was told by a dear friend of mine that today there would be a soul I was looking for, and… well, here we are. If you agree, you'll take up my main species, and I'll upgrade the rarity of skill stone and perk that will be given," he said seriously.
His smile was still there, but his eyes were complex and encompassing.
I took a while to think about everything I was told. The idea of being beholden to some unknown god rubbed me the wrong way. Looking at the god, he didn't seem evil, and he did say he wasn't looking for a worshipper.
A thousand things were screaming "danger" to me in big flashing red letters… Yet, I was offered an improved boon rather than what was normally given. I had no idea what I was heading into, but I knew I would need any benefit I could get. Besides, the god wasn't some monstrosity, so the idea of becoming like him wasn't bad at all. Inner nerd me was honestly kind of giddy about becoming some fox-tailed demon-looking thing. It sure beat being a squid-man with lemon skin.
The other god glared and his tentacles writhed but he kept silent.
I looked at the demon god, deciding to stare him in the eyes, and accepted the offer.
He broke out in a huge grin, showing a look of both relief and happiness. Without saying another word, he looked at the squid-man and waited. Eraztis stared once more at the other god while they both froze like statues, neither making even a twitch.
Finally, after a brief eternity, Eraztis held up his claws palm side up. Without wasting a beat, the other god pulled out a dagger and placed his left hand over Eraztis' claw before slicing it into his own. The blood pooled out of the cut hand, forming a small congealed ball over the claw. It was a vibrant crimson mixed with streams of gold. Reaching into his suit's breast pocket, he pulled out a shimmering green crystal the size of a child's fist and placed it into the other claw.
Eraztis glided towards me with the orb made of blood and the crystal. As he stepped close enough, the silky smooth voice rang inside my head.
"DEAR NEW SOUL! THE GRAND WEAVE WELCOMES ANOTHER REBORN INTO ITS TAPESTRY. YOUR LIFE IS SET ANEW, AND ANOTHER LEGACY IS TO JOIN THE RANKS. THE SOUL DEBT OWED BY ZULDRAEA HAS BEEN PAID BY CALSTRAX. TAKE THESE BOONS, YOUNG ASCENDED. MAY YOUR THREAD WEAVE A GRAND STORY!"
The proclamation shook the void around us and made the world vibrate with each new word. Right as the vibrations reached their peak, Eraztis plunged his claws into me, causing horrific pain. Just as my vision faded in a blinding white light, I saw text appear before me.
SYSTEM INITIATED: SOUL BEING THREADED INTO THE WEAVE
SOUL REFORGING COMMENCED. BRACE THYSELF FOR IMMENSE PAIN