[Oh, dear! You are dead!]
[You have completed three quests at the same time!]
[Quest Complete: The Christmas Invasion.]
[Hidden Quest Complete: Taste of Death.]
[Hidden Quest Complete: Steps of a Myth.]
=[DW:NG]=
Luke breathed in a soft breath as his senses returned slowly. The agony of suddenly dying from the attack was still fresh on his soul and he understood now how those two felt when they died by the Sycorax Leader's whip. One of the first senses to return was touch.
He felt a soft yet coarse ground beneath his fingers and knew instantly that this wasn't Earth or anywhere he knew. It was similar to the Abyssal Sea, yet it also wasn't. It felt like a ground traveled far too often and cold as if sunlight was a foreign concept.
Then, the next sense to return was taste. Unlike the coldness surrounding him, his mouth was far too dry and he wanted to sate his thirst. It was akin to having a weakened body and suddenly devoid of full thirst, but there was something else he could tell with his body. Just like how some people have heightened senses, he could feel that there was some sort of water near where he lay.
Luke understood that, with the only two of five senses active at the moment, he was in a place where people go after they perish. He had somewhat expected to either go to Death's Office like how the player character does in RuneScape or something like in Elden Ring, yet he knew that something felt familiar about where he ended up.
"A place that felt similar to the Abyssal Sea's shoreline, yet lacks that oppressive atmosphere," Luke thought to himself as he felt another sense of his wake up. "A place where souls go when they perish, but has no true guardian. Water close to where I woke up and is placed almost suspiciously right where it is needed? Where am I?"
He did not reach out for the water, but let his mind begin to think and wonder about where he was now. That was when he felt his hearing begin to return.
When his hearing fully returned, all he could hear was a soft wailing and cries in the far distance. This made Luke understand another piece of what this place could be as the greater puzzle is determining what afterlife this place actually is. Due to all of the various religions, there are nearly as many versions of afterlives.
At first glance, there may not be much difference in the multitudes of afterlives and, thus, no eliminations of any of them. To Luke, the pieces he has so far have actually reduced quite a fair few of them.
"I can't be in Hell," Luke thought to himself as he slowly kept the pieces in mind. "Hell would be of the 'fire and brimstone' type and that usually means that there shouldn't be any water or faint cries in the distance. This means that this place is something similar to a Dark Souls or Elden Ring world."
Just as he thought this, the next sense of his to return was his sight.
With his sight returned in full, Luke got a good look at his surroundings. Around his dehydrated child body, there were some sort of blackened coarse dirt. There also happened to be a soft stream of crystalline clear water that was not that close to Luke as it seemed to be at least a dozen feet away from where he lay, yet his senses somehow tricked him into thinking it was far closer than it actually was. All around him were some sort of tall glowing mushrooms that gave off a sort of ethereal bioluminescence and illuminated the area just enough to see decently.
With his surroundings lit up enough, Luke seemed to immediately recognize where he was a chilling realization. What appeared in his vision from the System directly crushed any lingering doubts he had of where he was now.
[Area Discovered: Death's Garden.]
It was a place he designed for his game in his past life: Blood of Anima. Unlike in the Soulsborne games, Luke designed this place to be a respite from the perils of adventure and offer the soul a chance to relax and heal. Despite the spooky and eerieness of this place, Luke didn't mind how he showed up here. What made him pause in reflection was who guarded this place.
In Blood of Anima, the garden had only two beings that can appear here outside of the player character: a Wandering Soul and Death. If Luke encountered the former within the Garden, all it would do was offer a small tidbit of its mortal life to the Player and gain a small amount of experience in the relevant skill. If it was the latter, Luke would be a bit more concerned.
Luke designed Death to be a serious yet understanding guardian of the natural cycle, even made him appear as a grimdark fantasy version of a black robed ethereal spirit with a large scythe covered in ancient runes to boot, but if the Player encountered him in any way, they would only be offered the chance to end their playthrough peacefully, forcibly, or be cultivated further in the Garden.
He did have a feeling that if he did encounter Death, there would be something to worry about. After all, in the Whoniverse, there are races like the Time Lords or special beings like Jack Harkness that can cheat Death for some time.
All Luke can hope for is that he doesn't encounter Death here this time. He doesn't want to be forcibly killed and stay in the Garden forever. Not when he has other goals in mind.
As Luke slowly got up from the ground, with a soft crunching sound coming from beneath him, he realized two things. One was the full return of his remaining two senses (smelling and taste) and the other was that there was someone in front of him.
Not right in his face, but at least a couple paces away.
Luke froze in shock as the worst thing he could have encountered here was here. He saw a black robed spirit sitting in front of him on a chair made of elder wood next to a table that looked like oak. He was drinking a blue liquid from a teacup and even seemed to watch Luke the entire time. His gaze, while cold and chilling, was oddly welcoming.
Then, Death spoke to him.
"Welcome to my Garden, Lord of Anima."
=[DW:NG]=
Continued in: An Unlikely Talk.