Serpent's Age

The sound of rushing water was deafening.

Starry skies stretched around a single river, completely around. There was no ground. No earth.

Nothing.

Nothing except the luminescent water, and the sparking sky. It was as if space and time were condensed and all of the fabric of the universe was folded around this single gentle river.

The water was bright. Bright and green. Yellow orbs of various sizes bobbed and rocked in the river's gentle flow. Large bright orbs overpowered the light of the stars, and small orbs floated along peacefully, unbothered by the occasional bump or turn. As the floating balls travelled downstream, wherever, or whenever that was, the miniscule imperfections and bruises faded with the cleansing water's soft embrace.

Every so often, within the darker spots on the orbs, a memory would appear: a smiling face, a glorious triumph, a bloody death. When the water reached these spots those memories would be cleansed and those orbs, or rather, souls, would float down the river in order to be reborn.

Quickly, a small wisp of a soul rocketed down the river, it was no bigger than a marble, a mere grain of sand compared to the colossal orbs that moseyed on down the river. Despite its size, that small soul was brighter and purer than the rest.

The small soul sped forward. No particular reason for it, but... all that was clear was the soul was nearing its destination:

A waterfall.

All that was left to do was to fly over the edge, and the little soul would return to the land of the living. Hopefully this time it wouldn't be born as whatever pathetic creature spat this soul out when it died.

It was supposed to be easy...

A simple moment...

Go over the waterfall and be reborn...

Millions of souls have reincarnated without fail. Right?

Then why was that small soul flying away from that waterfall?

Why, it was the lonely old fisherman sitting just before the waterfall of course!

He had seen a little soul he liked. One that may solve his problem. A very important problem.

Yes...

"Finally!!!" the fisherman cried.

Fisherman...

Fisher-man...

Well, he certainly was fishing, but "man" would not be accurate to describe him.

He had pale skin, a sharp nose, shaggy hair... All of these things seem normal right? Yes. Except that he had an extra pair of arms and long pointy ears. He also wore a fake beard for some reason. His long upper arms held the fishing pole which had captured the hyperactive little soul, and his lower arms held a large tackle box, which would occasionally tremble within his hands.

"Now I can cure my eternal boredom!"

Yes... he had stolen a soul from the river of reincarnation just to cure his boredom.

He walked a few steps away from his fishing spot, enough so that the souls could not just jump back into the pale green waters. As he looked down at himself he realized how ridiculous he looked.

"What the hell am I doing... I look like my grandpa." he said as he tore off his outfit.

Conveniently he seemed to have forgotten about his ramblings several hours before that he must: "Look the part to act the part" and "Get in character".

Now that he had removed his awful costume he focused his attention onto the tackle box, and set it on the ground.

"Hohoho! Finally~" He clapped his hands together and opened the box to reveal twenty bright souls of varying color. Methodically he removed each individual soul from the box and lined them up one by one. He then held his upper hands together.

"Extract"

After squeezing his palms tightly and sweating a small amount he pulled his palms apart and twenty golden cards spread out before him, floating in the air.

"Sweet. They look exactly how I remember them looking."

He pondered deeply looking at each individual card, and each soul. Each card would eventually match with a specific soul of his choosing, as he had no need for them any longer. Plus, he just wanted to see what would happen when these twenty are introduced.

Since he didn't want to meddle too much with the world of the living, he wanted to make sure that they matched perfectly. Though his judgment of what matched with what was entirely arbitrary.

"The bat just has to have the blood ability... of course, it's pretty much obvious. Maybe it'll evolve into some cool vampire or maybe become a superhero."

"Horse? Chariot? It just makes sense!"

...

Finally, all that was left was a single golden card, and a miniscule soul. The being picked up the small soul in his cupped hands and with a third hand pinched a small piece off of the already tiny soul.

He rolled the small piece into a ball and drew dozens of golden symbols in the air rapidly with his one free hand, his immense magical talent became clear as the symbols flew forward one by one to orbit around the small soul piece, once six full rings had formed around the soul fragment, the entity spoke in an imperious voice:

"Six Ringed Seal: Origin System!"

The rings swelled out before crushing themselves around the piece of soul. The being looked back at the little soul affectionately.

"Sorry little buddy. Here you can take it back... I made some improvements that may help you in the next life. And sorry about my naming sense, I know it's cringy. Oh don't forget this!"

He grabbed the card out of the air and pressed it against the small soul. His four hands worked simultaneously pushing hard against the void and drawing complex purple symbols. Again, his booming voice echoed:

"Unbreakable Seal: Bind and Lock!"

The card exploded outwards into particles of light before every particle beamed straight towards the small soul, forming and unbreakable and eternal bond.

The entity picked up the small soul, and tossed it over the edge of the waterfall, where at the bottom, a blooming and magnificently blue and green world hung perfectly. He cupped two of his hands around his mouth and yelled after the small soul.

"Good luck! Try not to die too early!"

He took his hands away from his mouth.

"Finally some quality entertainment... At least hopefully... I mean? At least a few should make it out of twenty."

The small soul tumbled down the waterfall occasionally bumping into another soul midair, if air was even up that high. As the soul approached the world below, everything around it suddenly began turning white gradually, and a small green rectangle appeared while the surroundings transitioned to white.

[Initializing Reincarnation...]

[Searching for viable hosts...]

[Perfect match located!]

[Redirecting soul...]

Within that bright soul, the first memory formed.

Blackness. Darkness. Complete Abyss...

It was warm. Comfortable. Nothing to see, and nothing to do.

It was boring.

Move... Move... Move!

One small thought emerged from the newly reincarnated soul. It was a simple one. The little soul wanted to explore. To see things. To move. Move away from this dark nothingness. There was warmth. Yes. There was food. Yes, in the form of some viscous fluid. But... there was nothing to see. No adventures. Nothing. It had to move. To escape. There must be more. There had to be.

Suddenly, the wish to move abruptly came true.

This was it!

Movement!

There wasn't much to it. Just a simple muscle twitch.

The movement wouldn't stop though.

How did one stop moving? Why, roughly of course!

CRASH

A well placed obstacle halted the movement of the dark chamber, introducing a new concept... light! The chamber had shattered against a large pillar of bark, and from the rubble wiggled the smallest snake ever to be seen.

[Reincarnation successful!]

[Species: Small Lesser Green Snake]

The miniscule snake glanced upwards at the hill it happened to have rolled down while within the egg, as well as the strange green box with weird symbols on it, and it slithered in the other direction in search of adventure.