3 Prologue: The End of the Tunnel

"I want to live.."

"I want to live.."

"I want to-"

"Okay," I interrupted. "I get your point."

The sound stopped, and she began to toss the orb up and down like a baseball without a trace of the serious demeanor she had shown mere moments before.

"I put quite a bit of work into all of this, you know? Had to pull your soul with a ***** and reconstruct your body from bottom up."

There was the static again. "What?"

"Oh, let me remove the restriction."

She stopped playing with the orb, and tightly gripped it in her hand. Cracks spread over its surface, and I felt something inside of me tearing.

"Like a bandaid," she cooed. Then with one hard squeeze the orb shattered, glass shards dissipating in the air.

The thing inside of me fully tore, and the white expanse glowed brighter for a moment, then returned to normal.

"Now you're well and truly dead." She grinned.

"What, what just happened?"

She crossed her legs. "All souls have a little ban, so-to-speak, just to make sure there's no cross-contamination across worlds. I just lifted that ban"

"Then what you were saying earlier.."

"A spell. I trapped your soul with a spell to bring it here." She stretched her hands out like a cat. "And what a pain that was. Do you know how tedious it is to piece together ashes?"

Really? She had ruined my life, disintegrated me, and now she was COMPLAINING about disintegrating me. A vein popped in my forehead - I didn't ask to be lasered to pseudo-heaven by a sociopathic immortal!

"Am I supposed to bow down you crazy bit-"

"Careful now." The air froze, and an enormous pressure shut my mouth. "I tolerated it the first few times, but let's not make a habit of rudeness, yes? I'm proud of my work, but I've never been one to cling on to a failed project."

Her eyes bored into me, and I remembered that past the childish attitude and otherworldly beauty, there was a higher power sitting in front of me. I recalled the sheer pain I experienced right before my death, and the utter emptiness in her gaze seemed to be warning me.

The weight disappeared and she continued. "Anyways, here I thought I'd get at least a thank you, but instead, what do you do?" She jumped off her platform and started boxing the air. "Bam bam!"

Watching her cutely punch nothing with little whooshes of breath made the earlier terror seem like a bad dream.

"I.." I shook off my fear. "Stop toying with me, why am I here?"

"Even when it's so much fun?" She pouted. "Well, obviously to fulfill your wish."

"My wish?"

"You said it yourself: you want to live. So, this beautiful, wonderful and charming goddess has decided to give you a fresh start."

I stared at her dumbly. "Pardon?"

She spread her arms out wide. "I'm going to send you to another world! You'll have a whole new family to replace your old one, and you can live like a prince!".

I heard a pin drop.

"Plus." She skipped towards me. "There'll be magic and swords. Isn't that cool? Isn't that amazing?"

She spun around, her dress twirling like an umbrella, and looked at me expectantly. "Well?"

I paused. A reincarnation into a world ripped straight from a fantasy novel, and what's more, into a well-off family. I would be able to use supernatural powers that had never existed in my previous life, and live with a golden spoon in my mouth. For all intents and purposes, it wasn't a bad apology - I knew people who would kill for this opportunity.

"Can I.." I paused. "Can I just ask a question?"

"Yes, ask anything you want!" She leaned towards me eagerly, her eyes dancing with anticipation.

"Who…"

"Yes?"

Her face was within arms-length now.

"Asked?"

I swung at her and a gong rang out into the air. Did it hit this time? I ignored the pain from reinjuring my already hurt hand and looked to see the results.

No luck. She stared at me surprised, a barrier shining no more than an inch away from her face.

"Fuck. You've definitely got fast refl-".

A tremendous force slammed me to the ground as the air was propelled from my lungs. I laid there like roadkill, my head barely turned upwards enough to be able to see her frowning down at me.

"I thought I warned you already. Are you deaf, I suppose?"

She nudged my cheek with her foot, and then kicked me straight in the stomach. Vomit threatened to burst from my mouth, but I couldn't open it. I couldn't move.

"I suppose you want me to send you to be with your family. Must be the only explanation for this..' She scrunched her nose. "Distasteful behavior."

"But have you ever fathomed that I could just keep you here forever? Store you as a pet to play with, to torture. Don't you humans have this thing called solitary confinement? "

She put her foot on my head.

"They say a month is enough time to lose your mind. I wonder how long you'd last? A month, maybe a year. But what about decades, centuries, millennia?" Her foot pushed my face to the ground, and I could hear my nose break. "Don't worry, I'll live for a very, very long time."

"Eat.." Liquid dribbled from the corners of my mouth. "shit."

She laughed. "Huh. You remind me of him."

What? I couldn't think as the pressure intensified.

"Well, I suppose that could've gone better, but no use crying about spilled milk." She glanced around. "Won't be needing this anymore."

I started to float in the air as I heard a rumble, and then, my surroundings shuddered. The white expanse warped and pale liquid exploded out in geysers from the ground. With a deep creak, the fissures collapsed to reveal what they were covering.

Pure darkness encompassed my vision, and I realized - I was in space.

I drifted towards the goddess, and my head was turned to face her. She sat on a singular remaining piece of platform, face still as she clutched her knee to her chest.

"However, I do hope you stay so annoyingly stubborn, since it might be the one quality that'll keep you alive."

Ah, the cold was beginning to freeze my skin.

She twirled her hair around her finger. "I'll still send the gift I had planned, if you were worried."

I couldn't breathe, there was no air.

"Well then."

My body spun backwards, and far off, I saw blips of light flurrying in a stream across the dark wasteland.

"Good luck."

And the goddess sent me on my way.