"Hello Brandish, I'm the Goddess Beltrix. I have a proposition for you, little waif." The voice echoed in his head, an emptiness had enveloped everything around him and he couldn't quite say where or what he was. "I can't think with this voice in my head!" Could a consciousness shout? Well if one could then Brandish had managed it. It didn't take long before he got a response, the world around him became real and two bodies appeared near each other, both somehow standing on an empty dark void. "Hello Brandish, you're dead."
Brandish just looked at her in front of him as he felt like he had been hit by a ferry carrying a freight train falling from a jet at 10,000 ft. He was unable to process what she said so he resorted to processing what she was as that was a mcuh simpler task. She was a 4'6" girl with long ashen hair extending to her lower back, she had eyes of deep hazel and there was a calm expression painted on her face with a hint of a smirk, as if she knew exactly what he was doing. She gave him a playful twirl as her kind smile turned almost devious. "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..." Brandish was stuttering in an attempt to understand his situation when the little Goddess interjected "Dead, passed on, kicked the bucket, kaput. I'm hoping your only dead and not deaf because if you weren't listening to me before I said that I have a proposition for you!" Finally calming down after a minute of frantic thoughts Brandish understood what had happened to him, he was dead now, he must be in some other realm. He was always a man that tried to ignore difficult and stressful situations with jokes and this was the most difficult situation he had ever been in.
"Why do I get this feeling you're going to try and sell me afterlife insurance little miss?" Now filled with a mess of emotions that varied from fear to curiosity he turned to his humour to lighten the mood. "Because I am! Sort of at least, you stand before Beltrix the Goddess of reincarnation and I have an offer for you little waif. I've seen your life Brandish, do you know how rare it is to see anyone that dedicated to anything? A game of all things, I've never seen a single person dedicate so much of their time from birth to death doing something that was so far detached from their real life. 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 the opposite to that, always outgoing and friendly. If I were to judge you based on your first life you would be reincarnated as a flea but your second life was where you truly lived so I am truly perplexed. 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, I hope I won't see you again for a while little waif." The cute goddess waved to him as they both seemed to melt and drift back into the void, her image becoming smaller and more distorted as time went on until she was totally gone, Brandish felt tiny in contrast to the void. He felt lonely.
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A light appeared in front of his eyes and it quickly began to grow, becoming brighter and more intense until the void was gone and the only thing he could see was the blinding light around him. All that could be felt was pain, as the light grew closer and closer the pain only deepened and finally the light became the world, with his bodily sensations returning and pain easing he tried to talk, "aaaaaaaa *cough* *cough* ~crying noises~."
Hands embraced the young child as it came out into 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 went by the baby had mustered enough strength to open it's eyes, just enough so that it could make out some of the details of it's new world. 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, now I understand why all babies cry when they come out, that was not a nice experience.' 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.
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"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 at least. This man is looking at me weird, he's my father isn't he? That Goddess did say I would start at the bottom of the human world didn't she? I feel cheated. That's my mom isn't it? She's dead, did I cause that...' The babies mind was drifting down a melancholic path of self hatred, guilt and denial before it was snapped out of it's stupor.
"Status Check" Jeral said was gazing directly at his daughter, a blue screen materialized out of thin air infront of both him and his daughter. 'What is this? It looks like a user interface straight out of Zagon, I was just born, this is getting a bit much for my mind. 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, this is just way 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.
Jeral trembled as his eyes quickly shot to the three abnormalities on the status screen. "A demon. A cursed one, why fates! Why me! You took my beloved and gave me a demon in exchange... my daughter!" He lamented at the innocent girl with him while looking with watery eyes at his child. But it all ended up fading into whimpers as he took a stronger hold onto his daughter, holding her close, holding her gently. Unknown to Jeral there were magical affinities on the status page too but they were invisible to him, only his daughter could see them.
"Jeral, I've got to go. Do you want me to..." she was interrupted 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 know it was you. If you do anything or say anything that could harm her it will be the last thing you ever do or say, do you understand me?" He stared at her and it seemed as if his gaze went straight through her, his eyes were intense and his sincerity clear. "... They will find out when she comes of age, I won't tell anyone Jeral". The woman took a step back, fear evident in her expression. "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, you can be sure of that". A few moments of eternity passed while the distance between the two felt so close that the girl wanted to scream, that is if she wasn't suffocated by the tension in the room. Thankfully some semblance of logic took hold in her head and instead of just leaping out the nearest window she quickly and fearfully said, "I understand Jeral, I understand you fully." Her hands facing outwards at chest level, she quickly darted for the door and left the building, not looking back once.
Jeral remained in the blood soaked room with his daughter and dead wife. He moved over to her bedside once more and he leaned in to kiss her still warm forehead while holding his newborn with great care. "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'm so sorry. 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.