Chapter 03

/ In a place /

'Am I not dead?' After some reflection on the fact that he is not dead, the voice continued.

'What is this place, I didn't get struck by lightning to save this little girl?' The voice was obviously Shin... or what's left of it.

Indeed, as he turned his head around trying to understand where he was, he could notice that he was in a dark place, but not totally because the surroundings around him seemed to be lit up with a green light.

This place was really big, in fact it seemed infinitely big, endless.

A great emptiness in fact.

Always in reflection, Shin wanted to put his hand on his chin, a well known reflective pose that he often does by reflexes.

'Unh...' But he soon realized that he couldn't move his hand, he couldn't control it. Or rather as if he couldn't.

Curious, really curious, and a little afraid of what he might see, he lowered his eyes and quickly opened them wide.

'WHAAAAAAAT'

Having lowered his eyes, all he could see was complete blackness, nothing. It didn't take a genius with an IQ of 150 to understand the meaning.

HE HAS NO MORE ARMS!

Seeing this fact, he suddenly saw something else in his field of vision... or rather he didn't see something in his field of vision that is coherent if we accept the previous events.

HE HAS NO MORE LEGS EITHER!

In fact, he quickly noticed that he had no body at all! He was quite shocked by these revelations.

After a few minutes of calm and recovery, he tried to understand what he was because, in itself, he was still alive even without a body as he can think rationally.

'I don't have a body but I can still think and I don't have a voice either since you can't hear anything in this space. For a normal person, he might doubt and not understand, but for a person like me who could be called "otaku" and who has read a lot of novels, fan fiction and manga, I think I have my own idea.'

'I guess I'm a soul. And looking at the ray of that green light all around me, I guess I am the center of it and I am the one who is illuminating. So my soul could just be represented by a ball of light, but it wouldn't light up green... maybe a ball of green light?'

By carefully inspecting the light he emits, Shin was able to notice ripples, ripples produced by the effect of heat like when you are in a desert.

'Considering these ripples, I will then be a flame? Having your soul represented by a green flame is pretty cool if I have to say. Also considering the ray that I illuminate in this infinite space, my soul must be either very big or very powerful so very hot. I guess?'

Shin nodded his head at his conclusion so that credible and now after answering the "what" question, it remains only the "where" and "how" questions.

For the question "how" it got here, it's a bit complicated to know. He assumes that after being struck by lightning he died and that somehow the lightning brought him here. Given the appearance of the lightning and the bizarre things produced by the lightning's accompaniment such as the bizarre weather and the slowing down of time, it wouldn't surprise him.

And for the question "where"

'Knowing that I'm sure I'm dead, either it's life after death so not much fun, maybe hell? Or as in a lot of fanfiction, maybe it's what we call "Emptiness" or "Nothingness". Other than that I don't really know what it could be.'

Shin thought about the question but didn't find any other answer that would fit a place like this.

'If it's the "Void" or "Nothingness", maybe I just have to wait like in the novels, fanfiction and a god will come after noticing me or I'll be given a system.'

But as they say, it's beautiful to dream.

Shin continued to imagine things after all he had the time. But after a great imagination of various things, he remembered a certain type of fanfiction he had already read.

The fanfictions where the mc was transported to an empty universe and became a god to create and manage his own universe.

By remembering this, Shin knew that he wasn't in a fanfiction or even that he had that kind of luck but it gave him an idea of the answer to the "where" question.

'Maybe I'm in a universe or more precisely in space.'

As he said this answer, which was of course in his head, a phenomenon quickly occurred in front of him, or rather above him.

A huge vortex radiating multiple colors, like lightning, opened and lit up the place with a myriad of colors making the place breathtakingly beautiful.

Shin was really surprised, he didn't expect something worthy of a fantasy novel to happen before his eyes.

Now he had a great expectation about this vortex, you could even see his eyes shining full of stars... if he still had eyes as he is a flame now, a real human torch.

He was really wondering what would happen, a god would come out of this vortex?

As he wondered, the vortex continued to expand with the myriad of colors spinning like a whirlwind, illuminating this place even more.

The vortex pulsed with unimaginable power that could annihilate a universe but had a majestic and divine presence. As if it was the embodiment of the universe itself.

Shin was stunned by this phenomenon of unbelievable beauty. In spite of the size and terrifying power in front of him, he was not afraid.

The vortex that continued to unleash mad power began to pulsate as the myriads of swirling colors eventually met the center.

Eventually reaching the center, the myriad colors began to change color to green, spreading from the center to the extremities to become a complete emerald green.

The green color continued to circulate until a small flame appeared in the center. The more the green color circulated, the larger the flame became as if the green color was feeding the flame.

As the flame grew larger, it lit up more and more the dark space in which Shin was located.

The green flame and all the green color joining it soothed Shin's spirit, making it lighter. It gave a majestic and respectable presence and seemed to be the source of all existing life.

For Shin, the flame did not give an effect of baking heat but a quiet, restful effect. It made him think only of the good moments of his life and eradicated the bad ones, giving him only positive feelings.

A few minutes passed, the flame seemed to have reached its climax as the vortex convulsed in a fast and strong way to give place behind the flame to the crackling of nascent lightning.

The crackles quickly became rumbles and the small lightning strands quickly grew into frightening and powerful lightning.

The lightning caused rumbles as if God was angry and slammed in crazy and destructive ways.

All this continued for several seconds, only to stop suddenly.

The vortex stopped moving, the lightning stopped moving, the rumbling stopped and the flame stopped moving, no more movement.

This strange reaction puzzled Shin. With all this phenomenon, he was expecting the descent of a God or some incredible things but all stopped.

Shin thought that it was going to start again for something even bigger.

But after a few seconds, a few minutes, nothing. A dead silence.

It made Shin a little bitter to know that all this had happened for nothing. He tried to put it into perspective by saying that maybe he should wait more but most of the fanfictions or novels he read in which the mc had to wait, it was for thousands or even millions of years and although this was interpreted as "passable", he doubts that he will still be sane by then.

Thinking about it all, it did nothing but make him feel more anxious while there was still impatience and expectation.

Shin tried to talk as much as he could because he knew that if he just had to endure the silence, he would quickly go crazy.

But thank you mother luck, as time and movement was stopped, a rumbling roar that made the dark space tremble could be heard, followed by a loud clacking that could make you deaf emitted by lightning.

In the vortex that was still stopped, the lightning could be seen again crackling and clapping behind the green flame.

The lightning eventually formed a lightning of normal appearance but with a power accompanied by an incomparable pressure that moved quickly in the direction of Shin.

'Again?!' Shin thought of seeing another flash of lightning.

Halfway through its run, the green flame began to move again as it began to ripple.

Eventually it spread over the lightning, intertwining with it and merging to form a flash of fire.

'Serious. A flash of fire?!' Shin thought to himself as he thought he would be killed forever, no reincarnation, no heaven or hell.

The lightning finally touched Shin's soul, represented by a green flame, causing him immense physical and mental pain, making him fall unconscious.

When the lightning touched Shin, the flames that intertwined with him then transferred to Shin's soul and finally merged to become one.