The first thing that Arden could see when he opened his eyes, was a room that reminded him of his grandparents living room, which is to say that it was a large room with a table in the center, and a bunch of small shelves around the room, with most of them having an ugly vase sitting on top of it. Sitting at the table was a man with a long beard, who was looking at him rather impatiently, and was clearly wanting him to sit down at the table across from him, or so Arden assumed since he had been gesturing at a chair across from him the whole time he was looking around the room. Only after Arden sat down at the table the old man finally decided to grace Arden’s ears with his voice.

* “Now that you’ve finally finished standing around staring we can finally begin talking business. (Old Man)

Arden, not knowing what was going on, began to ask questions to the old man

* “Where am I, and who are you” (Arden)

* “Right now, your sitting in a room that I made in my own realm, which I brought you to because I was curious on how your soul was floating in the void without dissolving. And because you asked so nicely, my name is Frank, and I am a being that you would refer to as a god.” (Frank)

* “Wait a minute, is your name really Frank.” (Arden)

* “Of course, it is, do you have a problem with my name?”

* “No, it’s just… Never mind.”(Arden)

* “Anyhow, why don’t we get down to business, shall we.”

* “Sure, what do you want to know.” (Arden)

* “What I really want to know is how a mortal soul managed to survive in the void, but I know you probably can’t answer that, so instead, I’ll just ask you what the last thing you remember from before you died.”

* “Wait a minute, I died! And if I died, then how am I even speaking to you right now?” (Arden)

* “That’s not even important. Now tell me what you last remembered before you died.”

Because Arden was starting to get the impression that Frank was losing his patience based on the way he was talking, and the slight glare that Frank gave him when he went of topic. Because he noticed, he decided to be compliant and just answer his questions

* “The last thing that I remembered was this weird crack in the air and then a sudden flash of black. The next thing that I knew was being here.” (Arden)

* “Interesting. Now I must ask, but you didn’t happen to be on any remote mountain, far away from civilization, would you?”

* “Yeah I was. I decided to go hiking on some mountains before I went back to college, why did you ask?” (Arden)

* “sigh. Well at least now I know what happened.”

* “Would you mind telling me how I died.” (Arden)

* “Well it’s a long story, all about politics between me and other gods, as well as many great battles between them. But telling you that will take way too long, so I’ll just tell you the short version. Basically, me and the god of your world had little kerfuffle and you got killed in the aftermath of one of our attacks. Oops.

* “What do you mean ‘Oops’ you literally killed me and al you have to say is Oops!” (Arden)

* “What do you want me to say, ‘sorry I killed you, I promise never to do it again and I’ll never do anything bad again to repent’? Sorry kid, but the only reason that your even here right now and not in heaven or wherever you were supposed to go, is because I found your soul just floating in the void and took an interest in it.

* “You could have at least be nicer about this. And also, I want some sort of compensation for you killing me.” (Arden)

* “Sigh. Look how about I just reincarnate you on one of the worlds I own, that way I can monitor you to see if anything interesting happens, and you get to have a new life. It will be a win-win situation for both of us. I'll even let you decide on what kind of world you want to be on."

* "This sounds too good to be true, what's the catch, because I know that you aren't a very nice person, what with how little you cared about killing me." (Arden)

* "Well you see, because of the time that your soul spent in the void, it changed on a quantitative level, and you probably won't be a human when you are born onto whatever world you chose. What I stand to gain is learning about why your soul could even exist in the void, as well as what you eventually end up as."

* "Alright I'll give it a try. Also, can I chose a world that is like a game with levels and skills and stats?" (Arden)

* "Sure, I have a few worlds that are like that. Are you ready to go? Well your ready enough I guess, so bye.”

* "Wait a moment I still ha...

Before he could finish his sentence, a hole appeared directly beneath him, dropping him down into the world he would reincarnate into. The last thing that he could remember was a screen saying this.

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Welcome to the world of Arialis