The First Soul (40k)

"Mortal soul, you are lucky to have met me." A large indescribable entity said.

Its form towered over the tiny mortal soul of a man whose name was once Arlow. Arlow had found himself awakened in a blurry daze to the sight in front of him: A large indescribable mass of fleshy mouths and eyes in humanoid form. It clearly was trying to make him feel comfortable while talking and his emotions felt like they were suppressed to a minimum while in its presence. Perhaps that suppression was the only thing keeping him from breaking down in fear upon gazing at it.

The entity continues to speak.

"Your soul has drifted and was lost to time from your homeworld. But you are lucky to have met me." The entity stated, while all the mouths on its body smiled reassuringly at the same time.

"I have good news. I am willing to reincarnate you into any world you so choose. Since you met me, it must be fate." The entity continued.

"I will grant you 3 wishes and reincarnate you into a world of your choice. Do you accept?" The entity asked.

Arlow felt the space around his soul form change and he felt as if he could now speak.

"Why would you do this?" Arlow asked.

"I am generous and I feel like doing an act of charity because of your condition." The entity answered.

Arlow felt a prod on his intellect at the entity's answer that he was all too familiar with. Ever since Arlow had been born, he could detect lies. The ability had helped him a lot in his life and he could always know who to trust from it. His ability must be based in his soul if he could still feel it activate in his current state. But more importantly... the giant indescribable entity had just lied.

Arlow felt a churning sensation of rising panic bubble up from his non-existent stomach. His eyes looked over the mass of mouths and eyes in front of him and a deep sense of fear set in. Thankfully, the emotional suppression on him still allowed him to function, but he knew that he was in an incredibly horrible situation that could threaten him with a fate perhaps far worse than death.

His mind turned over questions he needed to ask hurriedly, narrowing down the more essential ones. He needed more information. So he must ask.

"What's the price?" Arlow asked carefully.

"There is no price. I only want to help." The entity explained.

But Arlow once again felt the prod from his mind, indicating it had lied to him. It confirmed to him that his suppressed panic was not without reason. This indescribable being wanted something from him! His mind continued to race as he tried to form his next question to help him dig out information.

"What do you think I should wish for then?" Arlow asked.

"Hmm. I'm not sure. But I would hope that you are intelligent enough to take advantage of your situation. I won't put any limits on your wishes. The greater the wish, the more you'll get. Word your wishes carefully." The entity said, seemingly with some excitement in its voice now that Arlow was asking about the wishes it would grant him.

Arlow felt the familiar prod on his intellect when the entity mentioned 'the greater the wish, the more you'll get', marking the statement as a lie. From this, Arlow felt his suppressed panic calm down immensely. If he guessed correctly, the wishes might have some kind of transactional effect attached to them. Perhaps, even his freedom would be in jeopardy, like the cliche of those devils that take souls via contract.

'What is the point of 3 limitless wishes if a man loses his own soul? Who is truly gaining in this opportunity then?' He thought silently.

He continued to think until a single question held his attention in his mind.

'Do I have to make wishes?' he thought.

Then, the sudden clarity of that question's answer brought him something to latch onto. Something he could hope on, he might not need to make wishes. Perhaps this being isn't able to interact with him directly and only through opening the door with his wishes, would he then owe this entity recompense for them. Couldn't he just refuse its offer?

If Alrow could sweat, he would have cold sweat on his forehead from nervousness at this thought. If he was wrong, his refusal could involve his destruction. Even if he asked an innocent question to prove the truth of the answer, perhaps the entity would take more interest in him and his ability. So he needed to make his answer clear and the reasoning behind it to be something simple.

Arlow gazed back up at the indescribable entity and spoke with resolve.

"I don't want any wishes." He said.

And then, the surroundings seemed to freeze to an eerie silence. All the eyes on the entity stared at Arlow with a gaze of mixed emotions. The countless mouths hissed like a cat all at once and its somewhat calming voice from before became a cacophony of overlapping shrieks, groans, and whispers. The reality of the space around it seemed to shake and crack.

"YOU INSIGNIFIGANT CREATURE! I DARED REJECT THE POWER I WOULD GIVE YOU! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU JUST LOST?!" The entity roared with anger.

"SINCE YOU REJECT ME, I WILL MAKE SURE YOU NEVER REACH YOUR NEXT WORLD." It roared.

Then a loud ripping sound echoed throughout the area, while a large crack appeared in front of Arlow sucking him into it. The last thing he heard was a loud painful screeching coming from behind him like a wounded animal before the light around him fell dark.

...

Year ??? Time ??:??

Arlow had lost track of the time since he had been sucked into a place created by the 'wishing flesh' entity he had met. He had started counting the seconds at one point but stopped after he reached more than 1 trillion seconds. If this would be converted into years, it would be a little more than 114,155,251 years spent here.

There was nothing to do here for him, and the place was pure nothingness here. Perhaps only here could be called something similar to 'the void'. During all this time, Arlow spent reflecting on his previous life's memories or contemplating each of his actions. At one point, he encountered strange sparks and wisps of energy here. They would occasionally spawn into existence, before evaporating mere seconds after appearing.

Though later he deduced that these energies seemed to have some correlation to his own soul subsisting in this area for a long time, as the energies never appeared far from him.

He would find himself questioning his decision of enraging the entity every couple hundred years, wondering if it was worth denying the 'wishing flesh' its goals, just because he didn't want to be trapped by it. He guessed that he might have traded one form of slavery for eternal neglect in this place of nothing. These thoughts were mere contemplations for him after a while, detached from the emotions of fear and panic that once gripped him in the 'wishing flesh's' presence.

He would contemplate anything and everything he could think of, even going beyond what would be normally possible for a human soul's mind. His mental strength improved drastically from this, shaping for himself an organized mind that responded to his very will. He even felt that the swirls of energy around him were some kind of response to his mind's wish, as they would appear in greater frequency when he focused his will to action.

But he treated the reaction as nothing more than a mere interesting phenomenon, before growing bored. He had long forgotten the feeling, hope provides after a million years here. He had accepted that there would be no miracle to free him and no imagination or will could change this. He was close to dying in spirit. He was about to lose himself in the emptiness. But then, one of the swirls and sparks of energy that split from him ignited into a brilliant explosion.

And then, there was a bright light.