Death was white.

It wasn’t like a tunnel with a light at the end as the great philosophers of my world theorised, but an abyss of white.

Not blinding but nor was it dim.

So, I’m in the middle of nowhere.

As I looked at the endless whiteness, my eyes drifted to my body, or rather the lack thereof.

Frantic, I tried to move, but the whiteness seemed to restrain me, disallowing my futile attempt at movement.

I tried to speak with my nonexistent mouth but was left disappointed with the absence of sound.

So, I’m in the middle of nowhere and I can’t move.

The unending whiteness seemed rather serene, as if it were trying to alleviate me of my worries.

I found out that if I gazed intently at a random spot, an alluring feeling slowly crept into the back of my mind, as if I were being cast into a deep sleep.

Not wanting to find out what would happen if the feeling cloaked my whole mind, I looked away, trying not to stare at any single spot of whiteness for too long.

As I surveyed my surroundings, trying to come up with a course of action, my hurtling train of thought was stopped in its tracks by a slight tugging on the small of my back.

At first it was weak, as if it were a toddler, but it steadily grew more insistent and increased in strength.

The slight tugging turned into a giant hand, enveloping my torso (or where I’d imagine my torso to be) and trying to drag me to some sort of godforsaken place.

I battled with the hand for dominance for what felt like hours, or even days.

At first it seemed like I had the upper hand, after all, it was my body, but the gradual increase in strength from the hand tilted the scale away from me.

Realising the ineffectuality of my increasingly frenzied movements, I gathered all my strength in one desperate ploy for freedom.

I remembered a saying from my world,

A cornered animal is the most dangerous of all animals.

I really felt like that right now.

My gambit, however, bore no fruit, and the last vestiges of hope I had fled from me, as the hand gripped my body once more and hauled my frail body away.

I blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of my surroundings, it was then that I realised that I could move, I still didn’t have a body, but at least I could move.

Relishing the feeling of moving again, I saw that the whiteness was still prevalent, yet it seemed friendlier somehow.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

It was then that I felt a great weight on my shoulders, bearing down on me and causing me to buckle.

I hesitantly turned around, expecting to see a monster capable of wrecking buildings.

It was an eye.

A piercing blue with gold flecks sprinkled across its surface, as if it were an artist’s canvas.

A gigantic one yes, at least a few times as tall as when I had my body and just as wide.

Upon closer inspection, the eye really wasn’t an eye, but rather millions and millions of eyes, honeycombed together to create an illusion of an eye.

I tried to speak, but due to the lack of functioning body parts I couldn’t even squeak I fear, however, the way the eye stared at me made me think that even if I could speak, I might only splutter.

“Hmm, this is the first time I’ve met an Otherworlder before, I wonder who Reached so far as to pull out one of you?”

Otherworlder? Reached? And how can this… thing talk?

Without warning, the weight on my shoulders increased immensely, causing me to fall on my face, I, with difficulty, raised my eyes to see that the eye had contracted in displeasure.

“You dare call me a thing puny mortal? I am a Paragon, one of the overseers of the Beyond.”

This thi- wait I can’t call it that, it can read my thoughts.

“Oh, so you finally know your place.”

Enlightened by the immense being of power before me, I hesitantly tried flattery,

O Great and Mighty Paragon, may this puny mortal be enlightened by your endless wisdom as to where this mortal finds himself?

The eye seemed to dilate, and the weight lessened, allowing me to shakily get to my nonexistent feet.

“Well, if you asked so nicely, we are in the Beyond, I sensed a foreign presence entering this world and decided to investigate. Now, as for what I should do to you… I could absorb you. I wonder how Otherworlder tastes…”

My already hysterical mind reached a new level of hysteria when I heard this information.

Dropping all pretenses of flattery I begged,

Wait wait wait, we can talk about this can’t we, you really don’t have to eat me right now, I mean, I probably don’t even taste that goo-

“Huh? When did I say I was going to eat you?”

Like a few sec-, I mean n-nothing.

“Hmm, maybe I can spice up the plot a bit, how about I send your spirit to a body of a new host?”

A… new host?

“Yes, you’ll be, uhhh, what do they call it again? Oh, that’s right! Reincarnated. After all, your old body was completely disintegrated by the the density in the energy of this place, after all, it is one of the deepest layers of the Beyond. ”

Reincarnation? Isn’t that like one of the most overused fantasy tropes ever? And there’s the Beyond thingy again.

“Trope? What’s a trope? Anyways the Beyond is a vast region that encompasses the area that every single living being lives, hopes and dies in. It is every single species’ hope to traverse the Beyond and reach what they call their home- Sephorina.”

If my body was destroyed by the density of energy, aren’t we near the end of the Beyond?

“Hah! We might be near the End, but if you were to go any further not only would your body have disintegrated, but you’re very soul would’ve as well, only the very hardiest of species which have refined their Chaos Force in their cores to the near limit would be able to go further.”

Well, there’s more words that I don’t know, but if you’re so powerful, can’t you just leave the Beyond and go to Sepharina?

“It’s Sephorina and no, by some higher power, we have been bound to only observe the Beyond, intervening only when absolutely necessary. Now then, back to the matter at hand, would you like to travel to your host now?”

I suppose that is better than traversing this place forever so, I guess go ahead?

“That’s good now, are you ready?”

I remained quiet and the Paragon seemed to take that as a yes.

With no warning at all, I felt an agonizing burning sensation start from the bottom of my body, steadily traversing up.

When I looked down, I saw a blinding red beam slowly approaching the upper half of my body.

I tried to scream, to call for help but the Paragon seemed nonchalant, as if this was a thing that happened every day.

As the last fragments of my consciousness left me, I heard the Paragon say one last thing,

“Farewell Xanderian, make sure this life is better than your previous one.”

I widened my eyes and before I could retort, my vision turned black.