1 Chapter 1: Prologue

'Where is this?'

A one-year-old child could be seen floating in a blue space, with his surroundings filled with many strange things. Shido didn't know how to describe it in words.

"Who am I?" He asked himself.

He didn't know much; he only knew his name and his age. He didn't know where he was, what he was, or why he was here. He knew nothing, as though his memories were wiped clean.

Unlike his body, his mind didn't belong to a one-year-old, but he wasn't very old either.

He observed his surroundings and sucked in a deep breath. He was amazed at the wonders of this place.

His surroundings seemed to have several different planet-like orbs floating in the air, and at first glance, the void appears to stretch on infinitely. On each planet-like globes, various things were present. Some had ring-like structures surrounding them. Some had a colossal ship stuck on the orb, while others looked like a virus, with crystalline spike-like structure covering the orb's surface.

No orbs had the same design, structures, or decorations, and yet, despite the many differences in each sphere, they all shared one common similarity.

There was a path.

A path that connected each orb to another, from one sphere to the next globe. Through space, through water, through the land, the trail was seemingly infinite.

They looked like paths from planet to planet, yet they weren't planets. The entire space seemed as though they were one, all different yet similar. There were all interconnected. That was what Shido could feel. What he instinctively felt. They were all one.

He started walking in one direction. He felt that it didn't matter. No matter which direction he walked, he sensed that he would reach his goal eventually. He walked and walked and walked. Strangely, for a one-year-old body, he didn't get tired. Shido speculated that it might be due to the strange environment.

He looked towards his left and saw a colossal structure shaped like a pretzel spinning around. The pretzel itself wasn't much, but what caught the attention of Shido was that it was currently producing some sort of yellow substance.

"Reiryoku." He heard a voice rang out in his head.

"Who!" Shido looked around him, trying to find out where the voice came from but to no avail. 'Reiryoku? Is it what that pretzel is producing?' He wondered.

Floating and flying seemed like second nature to Shido. It was as though he had flown all his life. He flew towards the pretzel and touched the substance it was producing. He felt a familiar feeling from the substance before realizing that it was all around the environment, only significantly denser.

The Reiryoku produced by the pretzel was so dense when he scooped it up, it felt like slime, with viscosity thicker than magma. Yet, unlike magma or slime, Reiryoku wasn't solid or liquid. It felt...gaseous.

He could feel it being absorbed into his body, strengthening it. It wasn't by much, but it made him feel refreshed and reinvigorating. He could feel his very being strengthened.

After finishing inspecting the effects of Reiryoku, he looked towards the right of the path and saw another pretzel, giving off the same feeling as the first. Losing his interest, he continued on his way.

He didn't stop walking. For an unknown period of time, he continued walking alone. He didn't feel the need to eat, sleep or do his business. He just continued walking. After three years, he stopped counting the time since his body never grew. Due to that, Shido instinctively knew that the concept of time didn't exist here. It could have been a few seconds since he started walking, or it could have already been a few centuries. Shido didn't know, but since it didn't affect him in any way, he ignored it.

Being in a one-year-old body didn't help much; his legs were much shorter compared to an adult's, causing his walking speed to decrease. But he didn't mind it. In fact, he enjoyed it. Everywhere he looked, there was a different scene. He could see other people walking as well. They were either very handsome or beautiful, with not a single flaw, both on their faces or physique at first glance. It was as though they were forbidden from being ugly.

Some walked the opposite direction, some followed the same direction, but no one talked.

He tried attracting some of their attention by talking and making some noise, but no one so much as look at him, much less replied to him.

Since nobody stepped forward to talk to him, he wouldn't do so either. He ignored everyone as he made his own way.

His surroundings turned more and more colorful as he continued walking. It was a dark blue when he first started, with almost nothing except the Reiryoku producing pretzel. On the way, he saw a pirate ship that was nearly as big as the planet he was on. In another, he saw many rings surrounding the path, making it seem like an underground shelter.

He even passed by a town once, but everyone there was like a zombie. Beautiful and handsome zombies, but zombies nevertheless. They were just wandering around or sitting down lifelessly, without any form of communication.

The entire village was similar to a ghost town, and Shido felt chills down his spine when he was in the middle of it. Not wanting to be there any longer, he sped up his footsteps, quickly leaving the town.

He walked and walked, taking in the fantastic sights that were present in his surroundings. Not all were pretty, some were very disgusting, but they were all enjoyable.

After an unknown amount of time had passed, the path he was traveling on split into eleven different directions, each with its own gate. Similar to the rest of the entire journey, the gates were blue as well. It had a simple design; two pillars were erected from both sides of the path and joined together at the top, forming an arc above him with a different symbol etched upon it on every gate.

One had a clock, another had a crown, while one had a broom.

The eleven paths all looked the same, and if it weren't for the differing symbols present, he would have thought they were all the same.

Shido wondered about his choice.

'Which path should I choose?'

He looked at the gate with a tree symbol, then at the gate with a halberd symbol, and then at the gate with a clock. He could feel a connection from three paths not present in other gates, the gate with the clock symbol, the broom symbol, and the gun and sword symbol.

Two of the symbols were everyday items. A broom and a clock were household objects, while the gun and sword being the only weapons. Thus, Shido decided on entering the gate with the gun and sword symbol. After all, why would anyone choose a household object when you could choose a weapon?

As for the other eight, Shido felt no connection to them at all. Thus, they weren't even included in his reasoning.

However, just as he decided and stepped forward, nine of the gates disappeared, leaving behind two gates, one with a clock and another with a broom.

Shocked by the change, he stood rooted in place for a moment before continuing on his path. He understood why the two gates remained. But he did not understand why the gun and sword gate did not stay behind as well.

Still, he couldn't harp on this issue forever. Now, he had two choices: the broom or clock?

A clock's function was to tell the time; other than that, it was pretty much useless unless one was planning to throw the clock at his opponent. Once Shido had arrived at this conclusion, he knew what gate he wanted to walk through.

As soon as he walked past the gate with the broom symbol, the scenery changed. As he walked, looked at his new surrounding. Crystalline structures filled his vision with bright sparkles that shined periodically.

'They look like stars.'

He soon reached a different area where the path ended, and it extended to a vast circular platform instead.

Surrounding the platform was another layer of a walkway, leaving a gap between the two. And circling the outside layer were eleven pillars, each was taller than the gates he had walked under. On top of each pillar was a bright light that shone in different colors.

"So you have managed to arrive here, my dear child."

A majestic voice articulated from the middle white light. It sounded ancient and powerful, yet at the same time, kind and full of love.

"Child? Are you my father? I don't know how much time has passed, but I'm sure my age is way past a child now." Shido replied back after hearing his words.

"Oh...interesting. Not only have you reach here, you still have an extremely active mind to think? Interesting..." The voice continued without caring for Shido's words.

"Um...excuse me? So may I know who you are?" Shido was slightly irritated at the voice for ignoring him, but he still spoke politely. After all that time, he still kept his basic knowledge about acting in front of others. Furthermore, he could sense the dangerous power hidden behind the voice, which scared him a little.

"My dear child, I am what you call the Spirit King, ruler of Spirits and Emperor of Spirit realm." The voice continued, "What you have been walking on for the last 500,000 years is what we call the 'Trial of Will'. In this trial, spirits like you must continuously walk the path until you reach the end, which is where you currently are right now."

Hearing this, Shido was slightly surprised, but it did not faze him too much as what he saw and heard for the last 500,000 years were equally, if not more shocking than the news he heard right now. Yes, a whole 500,000 years had passed, but his mind hadn't grown much.

He couldn't comprehend what it means to have braved loneliness for 500,000 years.

Seeing his composed face and expression, the being behind the light let out a satisfied smile, though he did not show it to others. After seeing Shido finish digesting the information he got, the being continued, "You are not yet worthy to hear my name as of right now. As this is the first trial that you have completed, we shall grant you a reward, apart from the reward you have already chosen and gotten."

Shido had a massive headache as an enormous flow of information entered his brain as soon as he said this. After a while, the pain subsided, and Shido stood back up while groaning and complaining, "Urghh...this sucks. Why does information flow have to be so painful?"

"For your information, it was not only information that flowed into your brain. One of us had inserted her abilities into you, changing your entire body's internal structure. That was why it hurt that badly." The white light informed Shido.

"Anyway," The light continued on while ignoring the pained expression on his face, "Since you managed to clear the first trial, your will and consciousness have significantly improved. As such, you are eligible for first-level information about where you are. This place, or better yet known as a realm, is called the Spirit Realm. There are many other realms, but as for what other realms are, you are not yet eligible to know it.

In this realm, time flow is almost magical. The concept of time does not exist, yet it exists at the same time. You may have felt that the time you took to complete the path was short, but to others, it may be meandering and vice-versa. Only we, the eleven pillars of the Spirit realm, know the actual time flow. Only when you are strong enough will you not be able to sense the time flow.

The area you are currently in is part of a more extensive realm. Once you are taken away from this place, you will be offered two choices. The first is to live like an ordinary citizen. There is almost an uncountable number of them in the Spirit realm, so we have a classification system for them. You would know them should you choose this option. The benefit of choosing this would be to have a happy life. All spirits have a disgustingly long lifespan, and it only increases as you get stronger. As such, most spirits would choose to live life lazily, start a family somewhere, and live life simply. You wouldn't have to worry about anything, except maybe how to chase after a girl.

However, you would never be able to get stronger from then on, forcing you to live an ordinary life."

Hearing this, Shido was not tempted at all. His curiosity had peaked as he walked the trail, and he wanted to explore much more rather than just live a simple and ordinary life.

"And what's the other choice?" He asked the light. He hoped that the other choice would be more interesting than the first.

"The second choice is to be transported into a random world, where you would be given a mission to complete. There would be two outcomes: you complete the mission and come back here to attempt your second trial, or you die. If you manage to complete the mission successfully with additional results, you will be able to travel back to that world whenever you wish to do so. So, what do you choose?"

"Can I ask questions?" Shido asked, hoping to get more information.

"No, you may not. I have already told you everything you are eligible to know. Anything else would require you to complete your mission first." The light quickly denied him.

With a tick mark on his head, Shido then gritted his teeth and said, "Fine! I choose the second option! So when and where do I go?"

"Very well, your world has already been chosen for you. Your mission is to ensure peace. For more information, you would have to find out yourself as you ar-"

"As I am not eligible to ask questions now. Yes, yes. I get it." Shido interrupted.

"A rude child huh, that's a rarity." The light chuckled, "Very well. I believe that this conversation has been going on for long enough. Now, your birth mother has been waiting for you to arrive in the new realm. I have given her special permission to watch you grow up so that you would be able to have the company of a mother. Now, off you go. And always remember, you are a Spirit, and never, ever forget that."

As soon as he finished his speech, Shido found himself sucked into a portal and disappeared out of sight while wondering, 'Who on Spirit realm is my birth mother?'

*****************

Meanwhile, the beings behind the lights were watching the exchange silently.

"The world chosen was originally yours, right, Rasiel? Or would you prefer your old name, Biblical God?" A middle-aged man with flaming red hair that seemed alive spoke up.

"Ahaha, I remember that time when you first started out. You referred to yourself as 'God'. Ahahaha, even though you know that you were never truly considered one." Another man spoke up, this time a purple-haired man. He had a massive broadsword beside him and an energy barrier surrounding him.

"Shut up. I was only a level four being back then. How would I know that God truly existed back then? Even though I regret using his name now, it changes nothing." The golden-haired man, Rasiel, replied.

"But what was funny was that you actually named all your children after us. Even though you knew nothing about us in the first place. What a coincidence!" A woman spoke up this time and giggled. She had bright green hair and donned a witch attire, wearing a playful smile on her face.

"And imagine, a level four being dying to a measly being like Trihexa. Pfttt..." The red-haired man snickered.

"..."

"Well, it seemed that the world has dropped in standards, and now even a level t-"

"All right, that's enough, Sandalphon, Rasiel, Camael, Haniel." A white-haired man interrupted, "Since this child managed to awaken three legendary abilities, it shows that he has potential. Watch over him well, Haniel. Though I doubt his mother would never allow anything to him, it is still better to be safe than sorry, and you wouldn't want to anger her either. When she gets pissed, even I, the ruler of Spirits, is nothing more than an ant." He shivered as he instructed them.

"Ye...yeah...let's just ensure that we look over him, yeah?" Camael said nervously before leaving the room while the rest followed after him.

"Let's see what storm would your presence bring to the Spirit realm, Shido...."

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A/N: If you guys can't imagine the scene, just google 'Celestial Spirit World, fairy tail.' It looks exactly like that. You guys should know ten out of the eleven spirits if you are a true date a live fan. As for the eleventh, she's a bit special. Although she's not a spirit (in her original anime), she has the capacity and power to be one. I'll not reveal it now, though. I'll wait for the future to do so.

This is a preview. I'll not be posting any chapters until further notice, though it will continue to be on my Patréon. Of course, as I said, I'll be posting this for free on this website eventually, but not now.