"h.e.l.lo, Arimane"In front of me, there was an old man, with bright eyes and white hair. His long beard also attracted attention a lot. I was in a white, illuminated s.p.a.ce. There was nothing here except the old man and strangely, I didn"t even know if I was standing or not. I couldn"t even see my body, but I knew that I could move it if I wanted to.
"h.e.l.lo… I suppose"
I gave a slightly confused answer on purpose. That was enough for me to convey my confusion. The old man returned me a faint smile and resumed.
"Allow me to present myself, from your standing, I am one of the G.o.ds who stand above your world, and I announce you that you"re deceased"
"..." I didn"t say anything. I was busy thinking about the situation. I am dead. Okay. But I don"t remember how I died. My last memory places me at home. That"s all. I am not stupid enough to think that this is a dream. I know perfectly how a mind feels when it is awake.
Strangely, I"ve always been like this, unbelievable and incredible things didn"t mean much to me. And even right now, I am not excited nor afraid. If I am dead, then so be it. It"s not like I have a strong will to continue living. I"ve already spent all of it.
"How did I die?" I asked. I was more curious about the cause of my death than anything else. I was quite old, but I don"t think I died because of it.
"Well, *cough*, I was playing at "Lightning catch" with other G.o.ds and I accidentally killed you by letting fall a lightning on your house." He said smiling
"..." One more time I didn"t say anything. This time, I was slightly irritated. How do you kill a human while playing a game? And what the h.e.l.l is this "Lightning catch"? Do you throw lightning at each other like s...o...b..a.l.l.s or something? And what the f.u.c.k is that smile supposed to mean? Are you proud of yourself?
I kept my mouth closed but stared at the G.o.d in front of me. After a few seconds, I sighed.
"Doesn"t matter. Tell me why I"m here"
"Oh, you forgave me, thank you" The G.o.d smiled and breathed in relief.
"What? How the h.e.l.l do you want me to forgive you? Hurry up and talk, old man"
"O-old man? I mean, yeah, I am, but you"re 134 years old yourself, you know? You"re an old man too…"
The G.o.d stopped halfway through because he felt the mood gradually changing on the other side.
By the way, Arimane is really 134 years old, but he is still a normal human. It"s just that his world has now enough technology to keep a man alive past the 100 years old line. The record of longevity in that world is 168 years old.
The G.o.d forced a cough "Sorry. I"ll talk now. So, I killed you, to redeem myself I will send you to another world with your current memories. I will also create a body for you that is the exact copy your own at its prime age. And I"m sorry, I can"t reincarnate you in your world because your soul imprint has already been destroyed"
I nodded "I see, what is a soul imprint?" I asked in curiosity
"You can call it an ident.i.ty. When you were born, an imprint was created from your soul and was listed in what you could call the "register" of your world. When you died your soul-imprint was transferred to the "dead-list". In fact, now, you are kind of banned from your world. In normal cases, the soul of the one who died is transformed into divine or magic energy, but there are rare cases when the soul is reincarnated after being purged of its memories. But I retrieved yours to reincarnate you personally and without erasing your memories. I succeeded only because you have a great soul, you know? Of course, I can only do that because I am going to send you to another world where your soul imprint is not registered, so not in the "blacklist". Even I cannot oppose that rule. This kind of rule is what we G.o.ds call "Original World Laws", OWL"s to be short. It"s even a mystery for us. Well, the setting is that they were created by the original G.o.d. Nowadays, not a single G.o.d is the ruler of others but we all, quite like you humans who worship divinities, we believe in the Original G.o.d, the creator. Well, that"s all, do you have another question?"
"(He just said "setting", right?)" I thought but didn"t say it aloud and answered while shaking my head "No, you said quite enough already"
The G.o.d laughed "Indeed"
"Where will you send me?" I asked
"I"ll send you to a world where there is magic, not like your world, if you want, you can call it a world of swords and magic" He said while laughing
"Magic, huh? Quite a fantasy you give me" I smiled
"Yes, well, magic exists in almost all worlds, you know? Yours is one of the rare worlds which are without magic circuits and so, without magic. It"s because of that too that the influence of the G.o.ds is really limited in your world and it"s because of this that I almost failed to bring you here."
"Oh, is that so" I nodded
"When I will send you to the other world, I"ll transplant you some knowledge on magic and others miscellaneous things. After that, it will be up to you to gain a more profound understanding of it. And in bonus, I will allow you to take something from your world with you"
"Something from my world, huh?" I hesitated and suddenly thought of something "If in the future, I have to fight, then I want my sword"
"Your sword? You have a sword? In your era?" The G.o.d closed his eyes, after two seconds, a katana appeared in front of him. The old man smiled "This?"
"(As expected from a G.o.d)" I thought
"Yes, it"s that" I took the katana and observed it. Its length approached one meter. The scabbard was black with a gray inscription of a wolf on it. I unsheathed it. The blade was of a beautiful silver and the blade seemed very sharp. I always liked all kind of sharp weapons, but my favorite type is this type of j.a.panese sword because I specialize in quick and one-hit killing attacks.
When he saw the blade, the G.o.d"s eyes glinted "Ooh, It"s a very good sword. For a human world without magic at least"
I smiled wryly "Thanks for that"
The G.o.d saw my reaction "Is it perhaps you who forged this sword?"
"Yes, of course, I wouldn"t have it otherwise, I forged it almost a hundred years ago, it"s quite a relic now" I smiled "The scabbard and handle are made of t.i.tanium, the blade is made of refined and transformed sapphire, thanks to the technology of my world"
The G.o.d looked dumbfounded at the sword "Sapphire? Who in his right mind would use a precious stone to forge a weapon? Without even mentioning what kind of refinement sapphire would need to work as a weapon"
"Well, I happened to find a seam and it all happened with the flow" I said
"…It"s quite a masterpiece. Blacksmiths G.o.ds would praise you. Does it have a name?"
"Yes, its name is "Karma"" I answered
"Ooh, that"s an interesting name, wait, I"ll do something for you" The G.o.d smiled and pointed at my sword with his finger. Soon the katana transformed into a bright light which entered in my chest.
"I bounded it to your soul. It comes with the ability to call it whenever you want, and add a possibility for the weapon to evolve in st.u.r.diness, sharpness along with your soul and even to change its form at will. And even more, if the weapon breaks at some time it will find rest in your soul and repair itself, and even the maintenance is unnecessary. Your sword seems to have seen a lot, it"s like it was giving killing intent on his own, this weapon will become fearsome if nurtured with your soul"
"It"s really good, thanks" I was really overjoyed; this soul binding was a great thing "(Although his explanation sounded like an advertising)"
"Glad you like it. Well, I think it"s time" Suddenly, a white door frame appeared behind me. I looked at it, then turned toward the G.o.d and paused.
"Before going, can I hit you once? Even though I"m not sure if I have a body right now"
The G.o.d smiled "No, but if you can reach G.o.dhood then come and try"
Without being able to say anything in return, the white tunnel was forced on me and I was sent out in the other world.
************************************************
After Arimane left the white s.p.a.ce, a person appeared like mist behind the G.o.d. It was an outstanding woman with black hair and mesmerizing red eyes. One look at her and no one would ever forget her figure.
"You were serious? Do you think he can reach G.o.dhood?" Her pleasant voice rezoned. She was looking sternly at the old G.o.d.
The old man turned back to look at her with a serious face "Yes. His soul is terrifying. Even if we combined the souls of ten G.o.ds, I think we could only barely be on par with half of his. In fact, I chose to reincarnate him because his soul was so powerful that I feared it would destroy his own world. I think that if this guy just enters a world with magic circuits, then he can already become one of the strongest humans in existence and possibly one of the strongest G.o.ds. It doesn"t end here, even what he did as a simple human gives me gooseb.u.mps"
"What?" The beautiful woman revealed a surprised expression.
The old man laughed "Let"s see how far this fearful human will go"
"And here I was wondering why the G.o.d of Order retrieved the soul of a human. Do you understand what this means? If he came to be too strong we"ll have to kill him. A human is too much of an insecurity. We G.o.ds cannot let a threat like that step into the G.o.dhood" The woman said.
"Yeah, I know, but it"s only true if he wouldn"t already be an existence to which we cannot do anything" The old G.o.d"s eyes flashed with a strange light.
"What..." The woman looked at the old man with strange eyes "What are you planning? Your domain is order, what happened for you to break the cycle of life and death? You could have just retrieved his soul and destroyed it"
The old man grinned "Zesta, I represent order, but it means that I also represent the opposite. When the world is in disorder then I will be there to change it, when the world is in order then I will be there to protect it. Tell me, do you think the world right now is in order?" He glanced at the woman called Zesta and said.
The latter trembled, hearing his words "… Then, what are you trying to repair?"
"I am one of the oldest G.o.ds but myself don"t know if I"m born from order or disorder, good or evil. But right now, I can see that something is not in order with this plane, and I think this human will help me to repair it" The old G.o.d said
"Is the disorder you"re talking about related to Heaven?" Zesta asked. The old G.o.d stayed silent and just smiled "I hope you know what you"re doing, Azes" She turned back and disappeared like mist.
The old G.o.d, Azes, was left alone in the white s.p.a.ce looking at where Arimane left. His countenance was nothing like the att.i.tude he showed in front of latter.