In his rather long life Ash had experienced alot of things, pain, grief, despair, hopelessness and even love.
But death was definitely a new experience.
At first everything became quiet, it wasn't just the absence of noise,it was the absence of pain, feelings, thoughts, things that shackled a person for as long as they lived.
He felt his soul slip out of his mortal vessel and for a moment, It all became clear, cause and effect, pain and suffering, the meaning of life but it was all too vast, too vast to grasp a solid understanding in a single moment.
And then his soul dissipated into a rain of sparks as he felt his entire existence being pulled by an unseen force far away from earth into the far reaches of space towards a place beyond their world.
On his long journey, he realised a great many things.
First of all, the universe wasn't has empty has the humans on his planet thought, it was teeming with life in one form or the other whether it were planets that seemed to be overtaken by strange plants or planets inhabited by disturbing creatures he could never describe.
He came across hundreds of life infested planet, phased through spheres of annihilating flames and saw beings beyond human understanding that preferred to remain unseen.
He perceived and observed the beginning and the end of worlds, the collapse and the birth of stars and even the event horizon of a collapsing galaxy which was stunning yet terrifying.
The second thing he realised was that nothing was ever completely still, the universe was always in motion, everything was always marching to their inevitable end.
Even the planet he had called his own would one day end, the people would die, the plants would wither, the seas would dry and the sky would vanish.
Hell, even the sun could just explode.
The last thing he realised was how small and insignificant, the human race and their petty conflicts were in the face of the intricate canvas that was the universe.
He laughed and the ethereal lights that made up his soul gleamered.
How foolish they were, how naive they were to think they were the centre of the world.
Even he who was praised has the war hero was less than dust.
But still it was all so beautiful that if one were to stare into it's makings once, he would never be able to look away, he would be mesmerised for all eternity.
The world itself was a miracle by design or by chance.
And he thought, If death was this nice, I should've died a long time ago.
....
The further he went the more his thoughts became scattered, his memories of earth had become foggy, by now he could barely remember who he was, all he knew was that he was dead.
He would sometimes see other souls, flying through the darkness like shooting stars or arrows of light.
And he would think, how long had he been flying through the darkness and how much longer would have to fly while watching the cycle of creation and rebirth repeat itself.
Forever maybe.
As the gaps in his memories grew, he forgot who he was and why he was here, he even thought he was being punished for his sins.
But what sins. He could never remember.
Not knowing who he was, what he was, where he was going and if there was evening anything else except for the velvety darkness.
Those endless questions gave way to uncertainty and the fear of the unknown, crushing his mind.
He was lost and all that he was would soon disappear, leaving behind something hollow or a ghost of what he had been.
But just as the ethereal lights of his soul dimed, the endles darkness was illuminated by ghostly blue lights, He looked ahead and saw a sea of light being fed into a dark gaping hole in the fabric of existence.
Was that were he was headed? He shuddered at the thought.
But still he welcomed it, it was death after all, inevitable and inescapable death.
And so he was thrust into the sea of ethereal light then fed into the maw of death.
Finally his long journey had come to an end.
...
There were twelve souls sealed in a golden chalice above a bottomless abyss surrounded by towering beings of shadow, each represented by a twisted halo of light.
The shadows stared into the golden chalice which were filled with ethereal beings of light and asked a question.
Do you want to live
The souls answered "yes"
Do you accept our conditions
The souls answered 'yes'
The beings of light asked these questions over and over again until something inexplicable happened, one by one each soul were ripped from the golden chalice then thrust into a sky of showering stars.
And as each soul became a star, the beings made them a solemn promise and asked a wistful wish.