Chapter 2/3. [Egg.]

Rhodney was thankful that he couldn't feel fear. Screaming near this apparent deity wouldn't've been a good look. As Rhodney went to respond to the little ball, he suddenly heard the sound of shuffling. The ball shuddered with an energy that he immediately recognized as bad.

Without thinking, Rhodney leaped back seemingly on instinct. He was glad he did that. Because the way the creature expanded outward almost gave the soul the ability to scream. Without warning, the nucleus of the being shot out into thousands of flagella that wiggled out into all directions. After reaching a point around itself the bright yellow noodles spun as if grabbed by an invisible fork.

Spinning.

Spinning.

And spinning.

Until eventually the creature looked less like a medicine ball of light, and more like a big ball of string… of light. Then came the shaking. It vibrated with a vigorous Intensity. With a purpose, protrusions hit the ball with the loud sound of a fist hitting rubber. Rubber banning back into and out of the ball.

Like something was fighting.

Like something was trying to break out.

Like an egg was hatching.

He needed to get out of here! The reverence was immediately displaced by an objective. Survive! He zoomed with that same propulsion he had found before. Taking his attention away from the extra terrestrial celestial.

He flew through space, turning away from the creature. He didn't know if he could look back while he was running in this form, but he wasn't in the mood to experiment. He could've sworn he could feel his body losing steam, but he pushed whatever buttons needed to be pressed. Exhausted, all of the exhaust pipes. Full send it, he wanted to live! He kept moving forward, not looking back until… Bonk. Oh no. Bonk. No, no, no, no… He tired one more time even though he had realized what had happened.

Bonk. The loud sounds immediately sounded worse knowing that he wasn't just in an expanse of stars and clouds.

He was in a fish bowl.

A cage.

It was just a wallpaper.

And he was trapped.

The restraints of whatever was keeping him calm had slowly been peeling as he'd gotten farther and farther from the beast. And by this point he was at least 20 yards away. So it was gone by now. His breathing was loud as he desperately tried to hold onto something. His shirt? He didn't have one. A table? In space? He then settled on falling against the wall staring up at the egg that now reached a point of lunacy. Angry loud slaps of percussion that gave any creature the deep impression of the beast's hunger. BAM!BAM!BAM!BAM!

Rhodney chuckled, but nothing was funny. Some heaven this was…

The egg suddenly stops moving. Its body hung like a mangled mess of clay. Rhodney hangs on every second it just sits there.

Still.

Floating.

Like a deformed jellyfish.

He tries to breathe. It's okay. It's stopped. It can't hurt you. It won't hurt you… You're okay. He wanted to hold his knees. The breathing he'd been doing had just been him simulating the noises, but he didn't care. He tried to close his eyes, but like a fixed camera his view just stared at the scene. By the time the being started to drag its sagging, wet looking body towards him, he had already resigned his fate.

He was going to die again…

Slowly, out of the soft eggshell, a giant hand slowly started pushing its way out. A long claw of yellow light that while sharpened to a point, seemed gentle.

It… Was it humming?

It gingerly pulled its eggshell apart. Trying its best to not ruin the egg like someone who loved their wrapping paper. It pressed its head on the surface and slowly revealed itself.

It…

Hmm…

It was hard to describe.

But the being that floated out had the perfect body to match its face.

An amorphous human shape. But with none of the features. No eyes. No mouth. No eyes. Not even the bump of a nose. And an elongated head that made him think of a xenomorph. Its body made entirely out of light.

As it floated out of the egg, the being had those long claws that he saw before. Sorry, it's body is entirely one shade so they could've been sharp, long, fingers. Rhodney had no way of knowing. Its body went down to a yellow torso with no legs. Only the wisp of a tail at the bottom. It's entirely streaked light, just like the ball and the egg. Leaving an impression on the black backdrop like chalk rubbed against the sidewalk.

[To answer your question,] it talked with a slightly, deeper voice this time, but still almost robotic, [This is… my space. I use it to watch people who could be threats to the planet. I'm terribly sorry for that display, but I had to…] They stretched their arms back with no pops. Giving the imitation (or bastardization) of a stretch. [Break in the new body!] Rhodney could hear the smile on his face, but could not share in the jubilation.

"What… are you?" He asked.

[Ahh damn,] The creature's snap made a sound Rhodney didn't recognize. [I suppose introductions are in order.] It reached out its hand too fast. Its giant hand took up the entirety of the soul's vision. The young soul almost leaped out of its skin but the creature seemed unfazed. Its cheeks give slight indents where the dimples would be.

[My name is The Guardian. And I'm here to eliminate you.]

…

Just his luck huh.

By now all the proverbial film had been torn off. The film of the emotional blockers, the film of the idea that he could go to heaven. And the film of this creature being an angel. It's head cocked slightly, staring at Rhodney as he just thought of himself. His hand just hanging in empty space.

"I'm not shaking your hand." He said with all the venom he could pull.

Rhodney almost felt bad as the creature slowly put its hand down. He'd always been empathetic, being able to take apart how someone felt vs how they behaved. And for some reason it had been on a steady climb the longer he was staring at this creature. Feeling the creature's reluctance as it looked at him. Feeling its wants to comfort something younger than itself.

Sorry. He wasn't going to make this any easier for them.

It almost felt like the universe itself wanted Rhodney to die. At least he had gotten confirmation.

"So there's no heaven. No gate. Nothing."

He had somewhat understood it when he woke up in the void, but the creature's existence of The Guardian, made Rhodney throw out the entire book. He knew nothing and humans got it wrong. Least he could take solace in the fact that he got that part correct.

[You're wrong.]

The minute the creature read his mind he immediately stopped.

He didn't know how to approach this. The Guardian, whatever it was, told him that he was here to kill him. Not only that, but it had changed shape, brought his soul into a space, and read his mind.

He didn't even know why he was planning, the jerk could clearly hear him.

[Hey!]

"You know that's rude right?" He said. Nobody would appreciate having their mind read. It was one of the most basic human rights. So basic in fact, that nobody even thought to write it down.

The being scratched its head and asked, [How? We're in the middle of the space. We couldn't talk otherwise.] Rhodney frowned.

"You most likely made this place, so couldn't you just take us somewhere with air?" He asked.

The deity shook its head. Light dragging as it moved. [Not space, The Space. It's like a little pocket dimension that us higher beings use like, like,] It snapped it's fingers over and over again, trying to find the right word.

"Like an apartment?"

It snapped and pointed at me, [Exactly! Like an apartment!]

The being then waved its hand and Rhodney felt The Space's background turn into TV static.

Then, shift to a scenic part of the wood. Exotic redwoods swayed and sat as big as sky scrappers. The wind tickling Rhodney's little soul and made him laugh a little.

It felt nice.

The being had shrunken as well, keeping his otherworldly form, but shrinking down to the size of your average man. Letting the size of the forest dwarf him as well. [These spaces allow us to view anywhere at any time in the galaxy. They're how we keep an eye on all of you.]

Rhodney took a breath of the sweet air and silently thanked the creature for bringing it somewhere comforting. It didn't have to do all of this.

It could have just killed him and been done. But he could tell by its actions that it was at least trying to make his last day a good one. Even taking Rhodney to a spot he'd only seen in postcards.

The least he could do was humor the creature. Not doing so would only shorten its time, not his.

"How much have you seen?"

The being went about explaining who he was. Born as a young energy being in another realm. Being born with powers that allowed it to rise far higher than its peers. And eventually cultivating enough energy to leave its home and explore the universe. Then it got to a part of the story when he'd met the gods. By this point Rhodney was so wrapped he had sat down crisscrossed. Or, shaped his soul to mimic it, as the god had explained.

"They grabbed you," He laughed, "That's awful!"

[I swear to all the lords above they pulled out a NET Rhodney, a NET!] It's head was in its hands.

[I had never been so disrespected.]

"This was the fisher god?"

[Aye.]

"Jeez," He imagined a giant. Toes as big as continents and a human body that stretched into the cosmos. Scales trailing up from its clavicle, streatching into a giant fish head. Raising up its mighty net and ensnaring the eldritch horror like it was collecting breakfast.

[That image would make him mad,] It giggled with a smooth laugh. It swayed its hand above Rhodneys head and He felt the information of the fish god's true body trickle into its mind. The information being imported felt like drops of water being poured into the inside of his brain.

"Whoa…"

Awesome.

That ability and the image of the fish god.

Him standing proudly with his glowing purple net and his body littered with constellation tattoos.

"How many gods are there?" Rhodney asked, fully forgetting why he was so afraid.

[Almost a hundred at this point.]

Rhodney just sat in wonder. Staring up at the sky that was now turning slightly red. The evening chill softly hits his soul.

He was sad and happy.

Sad that he had to die but happy he had met the being.

It was obvious he was told by something stronger than him or had some kind of higher duty. He could tell from the growing dread of the creature. That's obviously why it was nervous. The bubbling dread made Rhodney decide something.

"Hey… you can just get it over with."

[...]

"I know you're trying to make it better for me. It's alright,"

"Will I feel nothing if you erase me?" he said.

The Guardian's silence told him that he was correct. He was okay, he had accepted death two times today, why not a third? At least it was with someone he quickly decided was a friend. He stared at the being, feeling it stare back with its faceless gaze.

"C'mon man, just d–"

[...Yknow, I was told you were going to be dangerous.] The being cut him off. [I was told that you had some of the highest power that we'd seen, and that keeping you alive would be bad.]

[But you're just a kid.]

[So I'm going to ask you a question, and depending on how you answer it, I may just let you live.]

"Live?" But he had... died.

[Our kind can't exactly die, child. That's why I was sent here to get rid of you.]

…Can't die? When Rhodney heard this info his world shook. Immortal? He looked down at his translucent body. He didn't feel immortal.

[I know you don't,] The being said, reading his mind, [But your soul has a few extra pieces that give you abilities that others don't have access to. One of those is persistence after death.]

The being looked down at its own fist and squeezed. Remembering the constant amount that it had died venturing in the stars. Remembering how sad, and lonely, and cold it had all been. Looking back at the young soul, it continued. [It was different for me. I am a full energy being that was trained from birth on soul energy, but you!] He pointed, [You're a human!]

[Not just a human, but a human born into a world without mana,] It took a breath trying to calm itself, but couldn't keep its feet fully on the ground. [You… you never had any real way to release the energy that was building up inside you, no teachers, no cultivating, no powers, no nothing, just doctors, that told you that moving would worsen your condition.]

[But they were inadvertently killing you.]

"...No," Rhodney choked out the words.

[Child, you had no chance, no kind of release on your earth would've helped you. so,] It reached down its hand to him. Rhodney reflexively grabbed it and was pulled up. The world transitioned and moved fast, he felt his feet leave the ground and began floating as the world turned full zero. No up or down. The two levitate together, without the size difference and the creature fully at his level. Back into the void.

[If I gave you another chance,] The creature started.

[Would you use it to the fullest?]

[Would you penetrate the world everyday?]

[Would you conquer, would you build!]

The creature shouted with a passion Rhodney had only seen from one other person in his life. It gave a similar speech to the one he'd seen from her. Telling him that he was going to live. To keep going. When he was younger he loved that speech. He'd embraced the person that had told him that. But in the end it was only a shallow promise. But, now. He looked up at The Guardian,

[Rhodney…If I gave you a second chance… Would you take this world by its horns?]

He screamed yes. His voice shaking the room with a violence. Green energy pouring out of him and causing the celestial to be slightly pushed back. The fish bowl shifted and shook, its body not used to taking this kind of power all at once. Space distorted around the two of them and suddenly,

Crack,

The loud crack stopped both of their passions right at that moment. Rhodney moved its head to the side and the creature looked back, seeing the giant line formed behind them. [Shit!] The creature zoomed over to the other side of his space and touched the perimeter feeling the break. Placing its hand on the wall and then just standing there in the space.

It shook with a silent rage that Rhodney immediately recognized.

Uh oh.