A/N: This is my first real attempt at writing, so I'm still learning. Please be gentle. I'll likely be writing chapters at a fairly quick pace although I'll be slow with the plot, I'm good at being slow. I once ran a DnD campaign and after 80 hours the party hit level 4.
Also if you see 'text like this' it is the thoughts of the protagonist. Not sure if that is normal practice, just saying it's what I did. Thanks for reading : >
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"Hello Brandish, I'm the Goddess Beltrix. I have a proposition for you, little waif." The voice echoed in his head, an emptyness enveloped everything around him and he couldn't quite say where or what he was. "I can't think with this voice reverberating in my head!" Could a consciousness shout? Well if one could this one managed it. It appears he got a responce and the world around him became real, two bodies appeared near eachother, both somehow standing on an empty dark void. "Hello Brandish, you're dead."
Hit like a ferry carrying a freight train falling from a jet at 10,000 ft, Brandish just looked at her in front of him. Unable to process what she said he resorted to processing what she was. A 4'6" girl with long ashen hair extending to her lower back, eyes of deep hazel and a calm expression painted on her face. As if she knew exactly what he was doing she gave him a playful twirl and a somewhat sinister smile. "You know, currently I'm inside your mind so you are actually fawning over yourself mister, what a narcissistic little waif you are."
"I'm de.. dea.... de..." Stuttering at the attempt the little Goddess interjected "Dead, passed on, kicked the bucket, kaput. I'm hoping your only dead and not deaf because if your weren't listening to me before I said that I have a proposition for you!" Finally calming down Brandish could now understand what had happend, he was dead now, he must be in some other realm.
"Why do I get this feeling you're going to try and sell me afterlife insurance little miss?" Now filled with curiosity he turned to his humour to lighten the mood. "Because I am! Sort of atleast, you stand before Beltrix the Goddess of reincarnation and I have an offer for you little waif. I've seen your life Brandish, it is rare to see anyone that dedicated to anything, especially a game. My job is to look into someones life and according to their karma award them another, but you are odd. Two lives in one soul, in one you lived like a hermit ignoring everything and anything around you, garnishing your karma with apathy and negativity."
"In your other life you were opposite to that, always outgoing and friendly. If I were to judge you based on your first life you'd be reincarnated as a flea but your second life was where you truly lived. So here's my proposition, I'll reincarnate you into a world completely different from your last but it will cost you. You'll have to start from the bottom of the human world and rise up. That or I reincarnate you as something equally useful in the earth as you were previously for it. Which do you choose?"
"Obviously I choose the other world! Who would even think about choosing to stay in a world where they never fit in."
"Good choice, see you then little waif." The cute goddess waved as he was seemingly sucked back into the void, her image growing smaller and smaller until it became a distant light, tiny in contrast to the void.
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The light began to grow, becoming brighter and brighter. All that could be felt was pain, as the light grew closer and closer the pain only deepend and finally the light became the world, bodily sensations returning and pain easing "Aaaaaaaa *cough* *cough* ~crying noises~."
Hands embraced the young child as it came upon the world, the cries weren't the only sounds in the room though, but they were the only sounds the child could make out. 'I can't see, I can't see!' The baby cried louder as it tried to talk. After a few moments enough strength was mustered to allow the baby to use it's eyes, the sight that fell upon them was not a pleasant one. A middle aged man was writhing and sobbing while collapsed on the unmoving body of a middle aged woman who looked calm and asleep on the bed, the floor was coated with blood and other worse smelling bodily expulsions. The only other person in the room was out of sight to the baby, holding it and standing still, somewhat frozen by something the baby had yet to understand. 'I'm a baby?'
'I was just born, that's it. I never thought it would happen so fast, I barely even just registered it.' The baby was thinking about this bizarre situation when it finally became apparent what was wrong in this room. "Don't leave me! Not now Ves, not now! We have a child to raise Ves, you can't leave me... a child." After a while of senseless babble, moans and cries the man pulled himself up like a puppet on strings and looked towards the baby, eventually walking in it's direction and gesturing to take hold.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"It's.. it's a girl Jeral but I eh, I checked her ehh, there's a small tail.. and ehm.. how do I say this? Demo..n she's a.. demon Jeral." Still in shock the woman handed the baby to the man, she looked unnerved and agitated as she did so. The man received the baby in his arms and a shot of grief ran through him. 'Did she just call me a girl? Wait she said demon too.. a tail? I'm not human? My parents look human, no red skin or horns that I can see atleast. This man is looking at me weird, he's my father isn't he?'
"Status Check" Jeral said directly at his daughter, a blue screen materialised out of thin air infront of both him and his daughter. 'What is this? It looks like a UI straight out of Zagon, I was just born wasn't I? This is just like the game, it's in english and everything. Actually now that I think about it, my father and that woman both spoke english too, odd.'
TITLE : N/A NAME N/A LEVEL 1 RACE Human SUBRACE Demon HEALTH 100/100 MANA 100/100 ----------------------------------------------------- INTELLIGENCE 1 STRENGTH 1 WISDOM 1 AGILITY 1 DEXTERITY 1 CONSTITUTION 1 CHARISMA 1 ENDURANCE 1 ----------------------------------------------------- MAGICAL AFFINITY FIRE 0% WATER 0% EARTH 0% AIR 5% LIGHT 5% DARK 0% ORDER 0% CHAOS 10% ----------------------------------------------------- STATUS EFFECTS
Curse of the Split Soul : Born with a soul torn, allowing for multiple primary magical affinities. The mother of a child born with a torn soul will always die during the birth of the child.
Blessing of Kaw'Keth : The God of chaos has blessed this one.
The man trembled as his eyes quickly shot to the three abnormalities on the status screen. "A demon. A cursed one, why fates! Why! You took my beloved and gave me a demon!" He yelled but it all ended up fading into whimpers as he took a stronger hold onto his daughter, holding her close.
"Jeral, I've got to go. Do you want me to..." interupted by the mans firm voice from across the room, "No one learns that my newborn child is a demon. No one. Not your mom or dad, not your friends or your lovers. No one. If someone turns out to know that my daughter is a demon without them finding out for themselves I'll kill you." He stared as if straight through her, his gaze was intense and his sincerity clear. "... They will find out when she comes of age" The woman took a step back, fear in her eyes. "When the time comes I'll prepare for it. Until then I will not hear a word of this, or I will hunt you down and kill you, be sure of that." A few moments of eternity passed and the distance between the two felt so close to the woman that she was about to scream, instead some semblance of logic took hold. "I understand Jeral, I understand you fully." Her hands facing outwards at chest level, she quickly darted for the door and left.
Jeral remained in the bloodsoaked room with his daughter and dead wife. He moved over to her bedside once more, leaned in and kissed her still warm forhead. "I'm sorry Ves, I'm sorry for being away so much on the watch, I'm sorry for leaving dirty clothes scattered around, I'm sorry for going to the tavern and leaving you alone on my nights off, I'm sorry you won't be able to see our daughter grow up. I'm sorry for everything Ves, I'll make it up to you by being a better father to our beautiful daughter than I ever was as a husband to you." Tears streamed down his face, tears of pain at the loss of his wife and tears of joy at the birth of his daughter.