Chapter 1 – Coldness

I woke up in the dark, numb.

"Again you?" a tired and intimidating voice spoke with pauses that resonated in my head.

By listening to it I recovered my memory, or rather: that of my soul.

It was in the precinct of God, the deceased appeared here to be reincarnated.

There was no possibility of disappearing. If they were not kept in check, the universe would collapse; or that explanation sold me the other time.

My soul was shaped like a semi-transparent floating grayish shiny jellyfish with four tentacles. He told me that each one carries a different color that represents them, being able to read their past.

The landscape was illuminated thanks to my shine; Snow covered both the meadow I was in and the mountains that surrounded it. Near me, an oak tree stood out a few meters tall in the center.

The sky was a dome made up of metal plates of the same color as the night, at a maximum height of 400 meters; At first glance, the limits were not clear.

Effortlessly, the place conveyed loneliness.

"I know I have to reincarnate, but can't I do it in another race with superpowers or something interesting? I don't mean that your tastes are bad…, or maybe they are."

"There is another method… that I am not in favor of; It would be like losing a child." Insecurely, I imagined the worst. He knew that rational beings carried souls; But I realized something that made me happy. "Why… so happy?"

"If I stop being your son, I would lose my soul and I could rest forever."

"It is impossible for me; It's hard to lose a child…, you wouldn't understand the feeling… of a mother," her excused, trying to change me mind.

"More than a mother, like a father… What is that method about?" I insisted to my superior.

"You would be transported… to another universe."

"How would it be different?"

"For you this is normal…; but in some there are powers or magic…, others are 2D with or without powers…, others with different races…, ...another in which everything is decided through games…, another without planets and life is sounds. There is variety," he listed tiredly.

"The games one is tempting; but there will be geniuses in them, it would not be profitable for me."

"...I'll ask rest," he revealed belatedly as if something had grated on him.

"To the rest? I thought you were the one and only. It's like I'm looking for a job."

"I'll be right back."

"I'll wait for you here, with tentacles on the ground and crossed tentacles, instead of feet and arms."

His voice stopped resonating as if it were a radio frequency; The sound of the landscape became intense and lonely: there was no soul, except for me.

My current appearance allowed me to fly, it was strange but simple. Curiosity killed the jellyfish; I flew to the roof, which I could not cross. I deduced that the dome was so that we wouldn't escape.

I saw a faint light in the forest. I resumed my position and it didn't take long for me to return.

"Some didn't accept you… because of your color. You have the ones from… this list."

"They will be racists! What problem do they have!?" I raised my little tentacles expressing my frustration. A silence appeared on both sides. "It was a joke," I clarified.

There was something strange, he returned to a young woman who appeared to be over eighteen and who was praying with her hands. Her face was impassive.

His whitish hair was short and straight; Her left eye was black and her right eye was white; Behind her, on the left, she had a black wing with sky blue tipped feathers and wore a black fleece tunic with a hood that conveyed warmth.

"Excuse me, boss, she is a goddess? Is she the only one who accepted me? If so, she would be delighted to go to her universe. That sounded romantic…" I asked with the intention of talking.

"So…" the young woman spoke, "do you prefer to stay? What you see… in front of you…" The voice that resonated in my head continued its sentence: "And this voice…, we are the same entity" she clarified with a reserved smile. Not to mention the aforementioned pauses, it was serene but lacking in vividness. "Sorry for showing off; I will need to be like this… to take you with the rest," she mentioned with the real one.

"I prefer this, before I seemed paranoid."

It snowed, she turned his back on me and prayed.

"Let's finish…" She sounded sad. From my position, her hair covered her eyes; Drops slid down her cheek as if snow had melted on them.

…Where does the snow come in from?

I looked at the ceiling, but it didn't make sense.

Magically, a writing appeared floating in front of me; It was a list:

«Universe of stuffed animals with powers

Coffee maid universe

Universe soundlessness

Universe of thermal baths

Vague universe

Universe of demon kings

Universe amusement parks

Universe of ==========»

"Only these? The names don't help, it makes you think that they don't take their work seriously…"

One was so crossed out that it looked like it was done in anger. Looking at it again and again, it stopped snowing and my goddess looked at me:

"Have you decided?… Have a week."

"Could I visit them? It would help me choose."

"Yes…" She approached and placed both hands on each side of my soul gently; as if it were a ball, she brought her forehead to mine and closed her eyes.

His being bathed me in affection: it was relaxing, so much so that I wanted to stop time. It was so warm like it was touching my soul, never better said.

Removing my hands, an intense pain in my chest left me exhausted.

"Pain??" I thought out loud. As if I had closed eyes, I opened them; Without realizing it, she was looking at the ground. I saw some arms trying not to fall, or rather I noticed that they were mine trying to avoid eating the ground. "I have a body?" I raised my head, calmly, towards my goddess.

She was agitated and moved her hands to my neck as if she wanted to strangle me, but she stopped. I was paralyzed upon witnessing her change of attitude; she calmed down and spoke normally:

"I have turned your soul… into a body."

I got up and removed the snow from my clothes, while I took a look: I wearing an outfit similar to she, and on my right wrist I had a crystalline shackle.

We had same size, but I a hair smaller.

"What is this?" I mentioned showing the shackle.

"It's like being in my care… Follow me." Tired, she looked away.

"Is it that easy to become a slave?" I joked without waiting for a response.

Walking, I noticed that she was barefoot: I could barely hear her footsteps. I was going to ask her, worried, if he was cold; but first I looked at my feet…, I was also barefoot…

"...Don't you feel cold?" I asked discreetly so that she would realize more than anything about my situation.

"I feel it just like you… but I'm used to it…"

…I'm not! You are God! Realize, please!…

At least the robe was warm, I would survive.

"Don't worry… You can't die…," she remembered almost reluctantly. We wouldn't look at each other again until we finished the walk.

After a while, we entered the mountain; The plates that started from the ground were increasingly better appreciated.

Near the wall, a stone tunnel jutted out of the mountain; It was so close to the plates that it must be the exit.

At the entrance there was a shed door with an old frame and some lighted candelabras. To the right, two standing torches illuminated a pile of earth with small stones: it was like the grave of an animal.

"Before," she closed his eyes, pray and the list she showed previously appeared, shrunk it and transferred it onto a piece of paper. She caught it out of the air and handed it to me. "You will need it."

I had the feeling that she would abandon me.