Chapter 1 - A New Beginning

The spirit opened his eyes to what seemed to be a bright light. He looked around groggily. His head, or what was supposed to be his head, ached horribly, almost as if he was coming down with a terrible migraine.

All he could see was a ball of light in front of him. He looked around, but all he could see was darkness. He looked down, and he realized that he didn't even have a body; he was a ball of light.

"Where am I?" the spirit slowly asked.

He tried searching through his head, but he couldn't find anything relating to the current situation. In fact, he couldn't even remember anything. All he could remember was his name, Gregory.

"You are at the end of the universe." he heard a voice say.

"End of the universe? But how? Where's my body? Who are you-" Gregory started to panic, and started breathing heavily.

"Calm down. In fact, I think I'll change the setting a bit. Let's make it something your more comfortable with." the voice echoed out again.

Then he was at a lake. Or at least he seemed to be in a lake. The area around him was so beautiful it seemed as if he was inside a painting. There was water that seemed to stretch out in every direction. The sky was a clear rosy blue, and it was deathly quiet.

But the thing that caused him to be the most surprised was what was in front of him. There was a girl sitting in the water, watching him. She had a beautiful, slender body and face. Her red eyes and white hair seemed to give off the air of a demon. The way she looked at him made him feel as if he was being read like a book. She wore a long white gown that went down to her ankles.

"What's wrong? Isn't this place calmer?" the girl asked.

"What is this place-"

"It's my spirit world. You should get used to it. Soon enough, you'll be here many times." her voice was like music to his ears.

"Before you ask any questions, I must ask, do you know who or what I am?" she continued. She seemed to stare right through him.

"You are some god or supreme being that rules the world, right?" Gregory asked. He thought that was the answer; the aura around her was something otherworldly.

"Hmmmm... Correct, in a sense. I am a supreme being, but I don't care for this world. This world revolves around me and the other beings. My name is Azumi" she stood up and started to walk on the water. The water below her rippled as Azumi slowly walked next to Jim.

"But why am I here? Why am I a ball of light?" Gregory asked. He had noticed that he was still a ball of light even in this "spirit world".

"You were dead before you came to me. You shed your physical body and became a soul. Then you appeared in front of me." Azumi held out her hand, exposing her pale delicate fingers. Then, a blue ball of light came out of her hand and hovered above it for a couple of seconds before disappearing.

"Where were we originally?" Gregory asked, to which Azumi replied: "My stomach."

"Your stomach!? So I'm food to you? Am I even alive?"

"No, I couldn't eat you, which brings me to my next question. Why do you still exist?" Azumi tilted her head almost as if she was deep in thought. You could literally see a question mark on top of her head if you looked closely. If Gregory had a body, his face would be the epitome of anger.

"No matter. I'll just try eating you again." Azumi extended an open hand to him.

Gregory suddenly felt as if his body was pulled by a strong invisible force. Wisps of light started to be pulled away from his body. Gregory felt desperation, but calmed himself, as he realized he could resist the force.

"What? You can resist? Let's see you try now!"

Suddenly, Gregory was caught by Azumi's hand. He screeched out "No!' and tried to resist, but nothing happened at all. Azumi grunted, but nothing happened. Then, a blast of blue light pushed him away from her.

"You... are resistant to me?" she asked incredulously.

"Stay away!"