I didn't die in some grand way.
There was no car crash.
No villain.
No final act of bravery.
I just… stopped.
That night was quiet. The kind of quiet that feels unnatural — like the world had forgotten to breathe. The old ceiling fan above me spun in slow, broken circles, whining every time it moved. My phone screen had gone black hours ago, and I didn't bother charging it. I lay still on the floor of my dim little room, numb to everything. No pain. No fear. No thought.
Just… done.
I don't remember falling asleep.
I just know I never woke up in the same world.
Darkness.
Not cold. Not suffocating. Just vast. Empty.
I was floating. I think.
There was no weight, no direction — no body.
I didn't feel my chest rise. I had no chest. No arms. No legs. No face.
Yet, I was still… there. Still me.
"So, you've arrived."
The voice came softly.
It wasn't loud, but it filled the space like wind through hollow wood. Female. Warm.
Like someone had been expecting me.
"You're not human anymore," the voice continued. "But you are alive. In a different form."
I wanted to ask who are you?
Where am I?
What happened to me?
But I had no mouth. No voice.
Only thought. Only silence.
And then — light.
It didn't come from a source. It just bloomed, like color returning to a black-and-white world. The darkness peeled back, and I felt something pulling me in. No pain. Just… transition.
The first thing I saw was sky.
But it wasn't blue.
It was a deep violet, fading into gold where twin suns hovered, stacked above the horizon like coins. Tall, silver trees surrounded me, their bark glowing faintly with symbols I couldn't understand. Giant mushroom caps shimmered like lanterns in the distance. The air smelled like a memory — sweet, familiar, yet completely alien.
I looked down at my body — or what should've been my body.
I wasn't human.
I wasn't even solid.
I was… a sphere. A floating orb of glowing, liquid light. Jelly-like. Almost alive on its own.
My heart should have panicked.
But I didn't have a heart anymore.
Then suddenly, something pinged inside my mind — like a system booting up.
[Reincarnation Complete]
Race: Unknown Soul Entity
Primary Ability: Essence Devour
Status: Level 1
Location: Eldrath
Eldrath?
I tried to move, and my form slid through the air — not walking, just willing myself forward. The motion was smooth, effortless. Too natural.
My thoughts raced: Where am I? What is this world? Why me?
But I didn't get time to think.
The earth rumbled beneath me. Leaves shook. Something — someone — was coming.
I instinctively drifted behind the root of a nearby glowing tree, my body dimming slightly. Footsteps approached — light, slow, careful.
Then she appeared.
A girl. No — not just a girl. Something more.
She wore a faded white cloak. Her long silver hair hung low, untouched by the wind. Her skin shimmered like pearl under moonlight, and across her throat ran a scar — old, deep, healed. Her eyes, though… her eyes were hollow galaxies.
She looked straight at me.
And without moving her lips, she spoke.
"You're early."
Her voice wasn't heard — it was felt. Inside my head. Gentle, but unshakable.
"You're not supposed to be here yet… but I suppose time no longer obeys the old rules."
I didn't answer. I couldn't.
"You have no name in this world. Not yet. But you were called, nonetheless. This realm — Eldrath — is dying. And it called to the only kind of soul that can survive where hope has already vanished."
I didn't understand. I didn't know who she was. Or who I was now.
"You don't need to understand," she said softly. "You just need to exist. For now."
As she stepped forward, the sky above cracked — literally split — as if glass had shattered behind the clouds. From the fracture, a low hum echoed across the valley. The light dimmed. The air thickened.
[Essence Detected]
Skill Activation: Essence Devour – Rank F
Target: Lesser Flamebeast – Dying
From the underbrush crawled a creature — burnt, trembling, on its last breath. Something in me stirred. A pull. An instinct.
I reached — not with a hand, but with will.
A thread of light extended from me, touched the creature, and in a flash, it vanished. Absorbed. Consumed. Yet I felt no guilt. No violence.
Only power.
[Essence Absorbed: Flame Core]
New Ability Gained: Spark Breath
Current Skill Level: F+
It was like the world had blinked, and I was suddenly more.
More than a soul. More than a mistake. More than forgotten.
I looked up at the girl — at the sky — at this strange, magical realm I'd been thrown into.
And for the first time in a very long time… I didn't want to go back.
Maybe I wasn't saved.
Maybe I was chosen.