Silence overtook all sense that Terrance had. Wherever he was. The silence was so profound that it consumed all of his attention. It felt as if the absence of substance was pressing forward. It was a force that demanded recognition from him. It was the same sensation that came when someone shook him while asleep.
He snapped awake as he felt an unfamiliar force tugging at his mind. It was as if someone had grabbed his deep sleep and torn it apart with a single pluck of their finger.
Opening his eyes, he immediately stared down at an endless sweeping shot of space. Stars and swirling galaxies of all kinds lay bare before him. But he noticed most importantly that there was no floor below him. He rolled over to try and reach solid ground. But he fell despite his effort.
He was transitioning from lying on his stomach to lying on his back. He was positioned slightly lower than he had been a moment ago. Reaching to his right. He felt an even lower stair.
Looking left, he didn't see anything solid. He only saw the distant universe, which had caused him to roll over just a moment ago. But he could feel his arm pressing up against something from that side. It felt like he was on a descending staircase. But a staircase to what? Looking up and to the left, he saw nothing. Which made sense because that appeared to be the top of the staircase.
Looking up and to the right, he also saw nothing. Again. Making sense. The stairs appeared to be going down in that direction. But he didn't want to take any chances with making assumptions.
When he turned his head down was when he almost tumbled down the rest of the stairs. As his eyes looked to the right and down. He saw a soft blue light emanating from a cloud of cosmic smoke. Seeing the light, he rolled over to sit on the stair.
The light was a misty blue. The light was faint enough to be clearly recognized as blue. However, the light was so faint that it could easily be mistaken for white if you didn't focus. The central figure in the light was a swirling cloud of gas. Thick purple clouds swirled together to form a shapeless mass resembling a cloud from Earth.
The swirling clouds that formed new shapes every second were alluring to see. Terrance's legs moved on their own. He walked down the invisible stairs without faltering in his movements. His eyes were glazed, and all he could focus on was the cloud.
As he stepped off the final stair, he found himself standing right next to the large purple gas mass. He was standing right next to the large purple gas mass. With Terrance so close, the large purple gas mass floated towards him. The clouds began to open. The outer shell of the cloud cracked open, revealing what had been hidden inside. A bright light poked through as more cracks formed. Once the shell of the cloud tore away, he heard a faint chuckle. And a humanoid figure came out of the cloud.
An enormous woman. The enormous woman stood at least ten feet tall. Walked out of the cloud. And sat where the cloud was previously sitting. Her skin was pale white. Her skin was so white that it reflected the light hitting it. Her skin seemed to radiate light. She wore a light blue dress that clung to the curves of her body. Glitter covered the whole thing. And her long blue hair draped down to her feet. The long strands of her hair were pooling into small puddles on the floor.
"Be not afraid, Mortal. You are in my realm now. And from here,,, you will be given new life." Her calm and soothing monotone voice made Terrance's surrounding area vibrate just from the sheer size of her voice.
It took a few seconds for the voice tremors to clear, allowing Terrance to steady himself and express his thoughts. He looked up into the woman's eyes. His scared, confused eyes looked up at her steady and calm eyes. Terrance's voice was shaky as he spoke. "W-who are you? Where am I? I was supposed to be on a date."
Terrance could feel the eyes of the woman boring back down on him. It wasn't hatred or disgust looking back at him but annoyance. "You died. But do not fret. Your old life was insignificant. And I am here to give you purpose. I am Lucila. Goddess of Conquest. You. Terrance Devon. Have a spark inside of you." She reached out to him and pressed her finger against his chest. This action caused a bright white light to shine. Terrance had just begun to process what was happening.
The bright glow from his chest interrupted all of his thoughts once again. "Huh? W-what? What are you doing?" Lucilia pulled her finger away from his chest. Dragging the light with her finger. She slowly pulled the light out of his chest. Leaving his body, the light turned into a writhing liquid form. The light flailed its tendrils uselessly while clinging to her finger.
The light leaving his body caused a squirmy sensation. As it clung to him, it was being pulled out. When it was wrenched out of him, his body shivered from head to toe. He had to fight the urge to vomit. Terrance had never felt something so disorienting in his life. He now had a fuzzy feeling around him as he stood. He had a constant feeling of unease. And I couldn't seem to shake it.
Terrance felt like a piece of himself was missing. There was a hole in his chest that prevented him from ignoring the empty feeling. "W-what did you just take? I don't feel great."
Lucila observed the light closely. Lucila watched the light as it struggled to justify its own existence outside of Terrance's body. Her eyes pierced deep past what was visible on the surface. Causing Terrance to feel the same sensation when her skin was so white that it reflected the light hitting it. She was looking at him with annoyance. Even though her eyes were focused on the white glob.
"Yes. This will serve nicely." She pinched the top of the goop, forcing it straight. She then stretched from both ends. Making it longer and longer. Until it was stretched the entire length of her wingspan. During this process Terrance could feel his nausea becoming significantly worse. "This, Terrance Devon, is your soul." She pushed her fingers together. She exerted pressure on both ends of her fingers.
"Oh… I—I think i'm gonna…" Terrance doubled over onto his knees. Feeling the urge to vomit intensifies. But he had nothing in him to vomit up. Seeing him attempting to throw up onto her lovely galactic marble floor. Lucila took the drooping doll and began balling it up into a sphere.
"And this soul will do wonders for the purposes of my needs." She now held the sphere between two fingers. Lucila pushed the glowing white sphere into Terrance's chest. Forcing a breath out of his lungs as the nauseous feeling bubbled away with the return of his soul.
Terrance doubled over onto his knees. Wheezing as he held his stomach. He slowly turned his head up to look at the woman up above him. Looking down on him with an imperious gaze. Looking through him as much as at him. "What…what are you going to do with me?"
Lucila moved to lie on her side. She rested her head on her hand while lazily looking down at him. Yet she possessed enough power to give most men heart attacks. "Your soul will be reborn as a new entity in a micro world formed from a new universe created by another god. You have the potential to be precisely what I am looking for. Even though you were using less than nothing of your soul's potential."
Terrance stood slowly. He understood almost nothing of what she said. But he honed in on what was important. "Reborn? You mean I won't be able to return back home?" After asking that question, he felt Lucila's full attention on him.
"Fool. I see now how your people treat Special level souls. And you want to go back?" The large woman floated forward off the bed of ever-changing clouds. Moving seamlessly forward through the air. No struggle or effort could be detected in her movement. Once off the bed, she shrank. She shrank from being three times his size to standing three feet taller than him. Standing at the nine-foot-tall woman. With her hair still making contact with the ground.
"I have selected you for a higher purpose. I am Lucila. Goddess of the Moon. My sister is Bruna. Goddess of the Sun. We disagree about which type of force best represents the concept of freedom. We believe that a conqueror is best suited to bestow true freedom upon themselves. Or a liberator, to bring freedom to all."
The pressure around the woman grew as she looked directly into Terrance's eye. Her stunning purple eyes deepened to look almost black. With only slight purple hues to it. Her voice shifted from the monotone drone it had been. She now had an imperious weight to her voice. "I want you to be my champion of conquest. To prove me right in my assertion that a conquer on top of the world will be the best show of freedom."
Terrance gulped at the sound of her voice deepening in tone. He could tell from her voice that there was no room for negotiation regarding what she wanted. He looked at her as he felt the possibility of going home dissolve like a napkin in water.
His hope dwindled as he looked into her pitch-black eyes. He felt something deep in his core begin to build. He experienced a feeling that he had not embraced since childhood. Like his life had a purpose. Looking down at his chest. He saw that it glowed, a bright white light piercing out of his skin.
Intellectually he couldn't explain what the light was. Why was it brilliant? He wondered what caused the light to shine at that exact moment. He did, however, understand on an instinctual level what the circumstances all meant. "This…this is my purpose."
That finally put a smile on the goddess' face. "Good. You have learned some small truth." With a flex of her hand, the light encased his entire being. Stripping him of what he had grown into on earth. Wiping the slate clean. "You shall be sent outside the normal channels. Instead of leaving your memories intact through a guide. You will be reborn directly. You will forget your old life. And your true path will be all that remains of you."
As the light reached its maximum brightness, it suddenly shut off. It shut off just as quickly. The action left a void of space in front of the goddess. His former body's imprint burned into the air. Now that she was alone, her voice lowered. "Good luck, Champion."
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If you enjoyed my story, please leave a review or comment! Please let me know if you want to see more of the Harem Pirates. And if we get to 100 stones, I'll drop the first cover story.