"Huh, where am i?" Ray questioned, not recognizing this place at all.
"I recall pressing the button, so that must mean I'm dead." A feeling of satisfaction washed over him. Having fufilled his goal of enacting revenge.
"Where is this place?" Looking round, there was just darkness. No buildings, no sky, no fire, nothing. Just a dark emoty space, that somehow he could see.
'This isn't hell right?' It didn't fit the location of hell. As it was mostly depicted hell was a barren wasteland, engulfed in flames. Filled with the souls of the damned, and unrighteous.
Though he didn't believe in such fantasies, there was still the underlying question.
'where did one go after death?'
"I never really thought about it until now, but this place definitely sucks"
Staring at his hands, they were white and transparent. Almost like the ghostly images present online.
'I'm floating, but where to? There doesn't seem to be a soecific destination.' Attempting to stand straight, he spun instead.
"Great. Just what i needed." After several failed attempts, he finally managed to pull it off.
"That was entertaining." A voice pulled him from his thoughts. Looking, there were none other present.
"Who said that?"
"It is i~"
"Tsk.. i who? If you're one of my victims i killed, then at least have some respect and say your name before haunting me." Ray said, clearly annoyed by the omnious voice.
"Cocky.. just how i like it." The voice chuckled, causing the dark space to shake. Shifting ray off balance, spinning blindly.
"Are you trying to kill me again!" Ray fumed regaining balance.
"Something like that. Is it working?" The omnious voice asked, to which ray rolled his eyes.
"Please, don't tell me I'm going to be stuck with you for eternity as punishment."
Now that he'd confirmed he was truly dead, it felt strange. And the fact that his soul wasn't sent to hell, worried him more.
"You're wondering why your soul is trapped here?" The voice asked startling ray.
"You can hear my thoughts?" The latter asked, still dumbfounded.
"Of course. Since our souls are now linked, we're basically one.'
"First of all eww.. what the hell man." Ray barfed refraining from puking.
"Jeez such a drama queen..."
"And second what do you mean by our souls are linked?" He had an idea what the voice meant, but it still felt so unreal.
Like something out of a fantasy novel.
"Well.. as you can tell, you're dead. But in truth you're not really dead."
"Think of it like this.. when a person dies, the body which is a vessel becomes inhabitable for the soul. Therefore leading to the extraction and ascension, to the hall of judgement."
"Where the so called righteous souls are sent to heaven, and the deemed damned souls to hell."
Listening to him, Ray's expression was filled with shock. Sure he'd read and heard tales of heaven and hell. But now this strange voice confirmed it, excited him a lot.
"But, why am i here? I should be awauting judgement."
"Yes.. but i chose you as my descendant."
'Descendant?' Ray thought, attuned with such concept. 'Is that what he meant earlier by soul link?'
It was still all so confusing to ray, hearing the strange voice.
"Who are you?" Ray calmly asked again. The only possibility he could think of, that made sense was this voice, was god.
"I'm not that old fart. Don't ever refer to me as him!" His tone was high pitched, laced with anger. And in response the dark space shook violently.
"Ok.. ok.. jeez~ you don't have to be so grumpy." Ray chuckled mischievously, earning a scoff from the voice.
"Your concern shouldn't be on my identity but what lies ahead." The deep voice spoke, in a dramatic tone. Making ray raise a brow.
"Which is?"
"A second chance."
'Rumble!!'
As if like a command, the dark space began rattling. Shifting and twisting uncontrollably, sending ray in a series of mind gobbling spins.
"What's happening?" Ray frowned, unable to maintain balance. As he was being pulled back, by an opposing force.
"You're being reincarnated." The voice vaguely answered.
"Reincarnated." Ray repeated with wide eyes. He was just processing his death, and now he was going to be rebirth?
"Are you shitting me? I never asked for a second chance! I happily died and want it to remain so!" He yelled, struggling to stay in place. But the force was stronger, yanking fragments of his soul into a black hole behind.
"Are all humans this ungrateful? Tsk.. it's no reason your kind dies quickly." The voice spoke with a mocking snarl. Making Ray's blood boil even more.
Helpless, he couldn't do a thing as his soul was being dragged into the black hole.
"Remember! The soul is the life force of a living thing. Destroy that and the person dies permanently."
"The hell are you talking about!?" Ray yelled not understanding a word.
"To destroy a soul one must sacrifice a portion of his own soul. But be warned, the world you're going to is nothing compared to the former."
Those were the last words ray heard, before his soul was completely sucked into the vortex.
...
Somewhere in a plain field with few trees, laid something out of a horror story. Lifeless corpses of soldiers both male and female, killed in gruesome ways scattered on the floor. Some oddly stacked together, forming small piles.
Dried blood, tainting parts of the ground red. Alongside some weapons partly destroyed.
"Argh!" A young man's eye abruptly opened. Sitting up straight, he fell. An overwhelming pain assulting his brain.
'Where am i?' He wondered, not familiar in the slightest with this place. Gritting his teeth, he managed to sit up straight.
"What happened here~' his face went pale the next second, staring at the mounted pikes of bodies. Their faces void of life, bodies pale as gray. Drained completely of blood.
From the outlook, it was clear a dreaded battle took place. But it seemed more like a massacre.
[Welcome to planet Nemesis]
Lost in his thoughts, a strange holographic screen popped up in his view.
'W-what is this?' He'd tried touching the screen, but his hand simply phased through.
[Negative! User cannot physically interact with the system.]
The words written were in green with a dark background.
"System? What's going-" he wasn't opportuned to finish his next set of words, a surge of pain struck his head. Followed by a series of memories, flooding in like waves.
"Argh!" He screamed rolling on the floor. It was nothing like he'd ever imagined. Just when he thought he was going to pass out, the pain eased.
Then memories from the past, slowly downloaded complete.
"I-i remember now." Ray panted sitting up straight. "So i really did reincarnate." He softly uttered staring at his hands.
They weren't his, well at least not the one's he used on earth. More thicker and adding a bit of density.
Scooting over to a half destroyed shield, he checked his reflection.
"That bastard really got me reincarnated."
Having a second chance at life after death was considered a myth. Mainly because it was scientifically impossible, to keep a body artificially running.
The body being made up of a series of connecting nerves, formed the system. Which is powered by blood pumped from the heart, transfered through veins and energy. Supplying the whole human system with enough current to operate.
But there were theories and trails, which all ended in failure. Eventually, the idea was considered impossible to achieve.
'He said he wasn't God. Could he be a different god or perhaps a demi god?'
He couldn't begin to factuate how he was brought back to life. But he recalled the strange voice, emphasizing on the soul.
"My head hurts." It was a complex process to start imaging. And this wasn't the best of locations to do so.
"Damn! Somebody got an upgrade." He chuckled, examining his facual features. Unlike before, his short dark hair was somewhat longer. Reaching about his shoulder length.
Having a much thicker fiber. His face was also better shaped than before. Not unique in a stand out noticeable way, but slightly above average.
"Sighs.. at least i got green eyes." Shrugging, he attempted to stand on his feet.
"No good, i can't feel my legs." It still felt weird calling it 'his', as the sensation of transmigrating to another body was odd.
'Come on damnit!' Inserting strength into his legs, he stumbled to his feet. Looking around he saw he was in a forest, surrounded by dead corpses.
'These bodies, they aren't a day old.' Although the bodies were pale and dried out, he could tell this catastrophe occured recently from the blood.
'Not a single scratch.' Examining himself, there wasn't a single injury or scratch. Which was weird.
"Wait a minute.. was he pretending to be dead?" That was the suitable option he leaned towards.
"But isn't the other party meant to also die?" He was lost about this whole transmigration theory. Deciding to drop it for now.
[Intruder is within your proximity.]
"Huh?" Ray's expression changed, seeing the sudden message. He didn't have time to think, when a spear struck his chest.