*
The first thing he noticed was the silence.
Not the mechanical humming kind that hospitals had. This was pure... vast, like sound itself knew this place was sacred.
Then came the chimes.
Not music exactly, just soft, golden tones that echoed in the space around him, like an unseen choir was tuning celestial instruments. Glowing contraptions drifted lazily through the white expanse: cubes spinning on invisible axes, glyphs floating midair, threads of light weaving themselves into symbols too complex to understand.
He blinked.
'Wait... I blinked?'
His eyes were open, his hands weren't trembling and he was... standing?
That realization hit like a truck. He stumbled, almost collapsing out of sheer surprise, flailing his arms like a baby deer on ice.
He caught his reflection in one of the glowing panels. No IV lines, no bruises and no withered limbs. For the first time ever, his skin looked... alive.
'And nothing hurts anymore,' he thought.
Just as the awe began to settle in, a shimmer of light gathered ahead of him. Three figures emerged; tall and radiant, their bodies shaped like silhouettes of pure light.
One of them groaned.
"#×*≠+... That's the fifth one this century. We're screwed if the Archs find out."
Another replied, voice bored and echoing slightly.
"Hey, I wasn't on soul duty today. This one's on you."
The boy stared at them, eyes trembling at the sight. "Uh… what's going on?"
The tallest figure winced.
"Great. Its mind survived. Now we can't just get rid of it."
Flan blinked. "It? Did you just call me an it? I'll have you know I'm—"
"We don't have time for this," snapped the third one, turning sharply to the others. "Let's just slip him into one of the overflow worlds and wipe his index number from the registry."
The first two made disapproving noises.
"You want to sneak into the Control Room?"
"Risky. Very risky," the other added.
"Wait, hold on," the boy said, waving his hands. "Soul registry? Control room? Other worlds?"
A slow smile crept across his face.
"Wait—is this like..." His words jumbled into each other in excitement. He took a deep breath, calming himself down. "I mean... what you guys are saying... does this mean I'm being reincarnated?"
One of the light-beings hissed through their teeth. "I'm not breaking into the control room for this thing." It grunted. " #×*≠+, this is why we run diagnostics before unsealing memory traces."
Another sighed. "We either wipe him clean or put him somewhere quiet. But I am not getting reassigned to the Soul Emotion office. You know they don't get holidays?"
"Heard they don't even get chairs."
Meanwhile, Flan was practically vibrating with excitement. All the anime he ever binged. All those late nights fantasizing about magic, swords, and taverns filled with rowdy adventurers.
It was happening... It was actually happening.
The figures finished their debate and stepped forward. One of them held a strange mask of glass and light.
"Put this over its eyes. I don't want to clean up soul slop if it looks at one of the divine instruments."
They slipped the strange device over his face, and suddenly the world turned dark.
"Now listen carefully," one of them said, sterner. "Don't speak and don't think too hard. Just walk."
The silence stretched as they guided him through unseen corridors. He could feel something like air... or perhaps time, brushing past him.
And then, after what felt like minutes or lifetimes:
"You don't have many options," said a voice beside him. "Do you want to go to a world similar to your old one, or..."
"Magic," he blurted.
He calmed down, and cleared his throat. "I mean… uh, a world with magic, please."
There was a long silence. Then more of those chiming choir sounds, like a heavenly fax machine processing his request.
"One magic world coming up," a voice said.
"For both our sake's," another added, "never speak of this day to anyone. Ever."
Before he could ask anything else, the world around him dissolved.
[Manual allocation of soul host into world 3452C…]
[Body parameters: Randomized]
[Soul integrity… 74%. Acceptable.]
[Analyzing emotional imprints…]
[System synthesis in progress…]
Time fractured. Heat and cold intertwined becoming something... more. And there was a noise... like screaming stars.
And then:
[You have received a random system from the soul series.]
[Warning: The soul series is experimental, and may be unstable. Do not use without divine supervision.]
[Proceed anyway?]
Before he could answer, a voice...calm, mechanical, and eerily familiar...whispered:
"Proceed."
Light exploded in his skull, and his entire being sunk into darkness.
*
[System interface updating...]
[Update complete!]
[The Soul-Merging is now active.]