Prologue

Prologue

Waking up, I can feel myself laying down on what appears to be grass. Confused, I quickly sit up to check my surroundings when a fiery pain strikes my mind causing me to grab my head and clench my teeth. It feels almost as if my mind is having a planet shoved into it. After a few moments, the pain subsides and I'm surprised when my mind feels clearer and I'm able to remember what happened and why I'm here.

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As it turned out my name was Matthew Kine and I had apparently died, though I won't go into too many details I'll just say that I wasn't happy living my life. Anyway, after I died I realized that not only was I now a grey glowing ball of light but I was also lost in the dark. The dark was cold, too cold. It felt as if every fiber of my being was being stripped bare the longer I stayed there. Eventually, after what felt like millennia, I began to notice that the pain was somewhat lessening, I also noticed that the grey color was gone and now I was a blindingly bright ball of light. A short while after I noticed that, I also noticed the cold that had tortured my existence for so long was now receding and being replaced by a subtle warmth.

Before I could question what the warmth was or why I wasn't grey anymore, I felt something softly wrap around me before pulling me away. What came next was a confusing light show as I found myself being pulled through the cosmos at a speed I honestly couldn't comprehend. As quickly as I started, it stopped and now I found myself in a cozy room. Looking around, I could see it was like one of those studies the rich have. It had a fireplace, some bookshelves, and an atmosphere that just made you want to relax. To the right of the fireplace was a dark wood desk with an overstuffed chair in front of it and a normal office chair behind it. None of this really caught my eye, however, what did is the man sitting in the chair behind the desk. He was old but kindly looking with long white hair and a short white beard. His eyes seemed to contain the endless cosmos and I was stuck staring into them before he spoke.

"Welcome, child. Please take a seat so we can have a talk." His voice was deep and compelling and if I didn't already wanna speak with him already, I would have now.

"Thank you, Sir. I can imagine I know what's going on but I wouldn't like to assume anything. I'm Matthew, a pleasure to meet you." I replied as I felt myself morph from what I can assume was my soul, into a humanoid body and I sank into the overstuffed chair.

"Hoho, so formal now. It's a bit different from how you were when you were alive wouldn't you say?"

That actually brought me up short because from what my memories are telling me, he's right. While I was usually polite in most of what I did, I wasn't usually as polite as I was just now. I took a moment to think over everything that's happened since my last memory of Earth. I died, yes, then it was the dark and after that, the cold. That's it. It was the cold, all the pain, the color-changing, the torment. That's the only explanation. My eyes widened as I came to that conclusion and I looked up sharply to see the old man looking at me with a knowing smile.

"Yes, child. The pain and torment you went through was because of me. I apologize but it was necessary to clean you of your past life's influence, or corruption as some would call it."

"So is that the reason I went from a grey to a bright white by the time I felt the warmth?" I asked after taking a moment to think over what changed about me from then until now.

"Yes, it is. The grey was the corruption and other dark influences that affected your life. Luckily you weren't too far gone and I was able to cleanse you and turn your soul into one of the most powerful and pure there is. Just undermine in fact."

"I see, while I do appreciate the great deed you have done for me I must ask, who are you and what can I do for you?"

"Of course. Your religions have many names for me, though most call me God. You're right to assume I have done this for a reason, it's nothing sinister or anything. Truthfully I've brought you here because I heard every prayer you sent up. Every time you begged to be brought away from your world, every time you felt out of place I've felt and seen it all, and honestly, you were correct. You were marked at birth to either join our ranks or replace one of us when we move on as a cosmic entity. That marking took a part of your soul and stored it away which is why you always felt incomplete or out of place. Once your life ended, you were sent here where I reside as the Overseer of this Multiverse. Anyway, long story short, before you become one of us you're allowed a vacation/training trip. You'll be taking it in my multiverse and you'll be able to visit the worlds of everything you've seen created and probably more."

I sat there for a moment in contemplation over what I was just told. At first, I was angry, angry that the reason I was never truly happy or felt out of place was due to someone or something coming along and snatched a part of me away. As I continued to think, however, I realized that this was what I've always wanted. Yeah, sure I'll be forced to oversee an entire multiverse but haven't I always wanted that? Haven't I always wanted to visit the worlds I've found my imagination in? My anger quickly died down and was replaced by contentment and joy, so I smiled.

"I thank you for this then. It has brought me a happiness I've ever so rarely felt. Though I must ask, where is the rest of my soul?"

"Good question. I'm glad that you've kept such a calm mind through all of this. That's what happens when you're truly allowed to be yourself. To answer your question, the rest of your soul is now being used as the seed for your multiverse and you'll be able to absorb it when you decide you are done with your vacation."

"That's actually quite exciting. Thank you for being honest and telling me everything. May we continue?"

"Haha, of course, young man. As I said, you'll be coming to my multiverse so there are a few things I'll need to know to ensure everything is all set. Also before we begin I'll let you know that you won't find anyone else who has reincarnated or transmigrated unless it was part of the original timeline. Now then, let's begin. First question, where would you like to go?"

I took a few moments as I thought of every place I'd ever wanted to go. There was Star Trek, Stargate, Star Wars, GoT, just about every fantasy world I've ever seen or read about, to be honest. However, I quickly calmed down from that short excitement and realized that the one I truly wanted to visit right now, was the Mass Effect Universe. While I don't know everything about it, I remember the joy it brought me as well as just about every other emotion available. Of course, my slight infatuation with Tali had absolutely nothing to do with it. At all.

"I've decided Sir. I'd like to go to the Mass Effect Universe about 5 years before the events of the first Mass Effect. I'd also like to be placed on a habitable planet far from the reach of civilized space."

"Excellent decision. It shall be so. Alright, now with that out of the way, let's move on. You will be able to keep your memories obviously, however, would you like to reincarnate or transmigrate?"

"I would like to transmigrate please, as well, I'd also like to use a character creation ability to make my body before I go."

"Very well, it's your vacation after all. I am also going to give you three gifts, though I must warn you that you may not enjoy yourself too much if you go over the top."

"That's alright, thank you again. I guess I'll go with my first wish, which will be a system that has a status sheet, map, inventory, and store. It will not be sentient but more like an assistant AI. In fact, have it so that it is an assistant AI and can be used as such. For my second wish, I'd like the store to sell everything in existence. That includes skills, bloodlines, pills, etc. Also, I want to have unlimited funds to purchase items from the store. For my final wish, I want everything within the store to have absolutely no drawbacks. The items and skills will be cleansed so that no curses or defects are within them."

The old man, or God I guess, looks at me for a moment before laughing uproariously. It takes him at least a few minutes before he's able to calm down. While I'm not sure exactly what he's laughing at, it causes me to chuckle a bit as well. Finally, he stops and begins speaking.

"Apologies my boy, the other overseers and I had a bet running on what you would choose and I won. Haha. Oh, it's great to have inside information. Anyway, your wishes shall be granted of course. I've also added a recycling feature to the shop that will allow you to get rid of anything you purchased should you not want it anymore. Very well lad, is there anything else you'd like to ask before I send you on your way?"

"No, not at the moment. I'm sure I need only but ask in the future and you'd help. Thank you again. I'm ready to go to the creation area now."

"Goodbye boy, enjoy yourself out there."

With that, he waved his hand and I was suddenly thrown through the starry sky again. This time the trip was shorter than before and I was with a white room that had a mirror in front of my soul form. I stared at myself for a while before a screen appeared in my vision.

[Please select a name]

"Julius Kai Starborne"

[Name selected]

[Please select a race, or create your own]

[Error. Race Selection unavailable]

[Please select appearance]

Surprised at being unable to select my own race, I wait for a while as the mirror is covered by a mist that twists and turns. After a few moments the mist shifts and coalesced into a humanoid appearance that looks incredibly similar to my old body. Looking at the top of the mirror I see my details that clue me in to what I am, and I must say that I'm surprised.

[Status]

Name: Julius Kai Starborne

Race: High God

Age: N/A

Sex: Male

Title: God of Creation, Transmigrator

Level: N/A

I can only assume that most of it says not-applicable because I haven't actually been created yet. Though I'm incredibly surprised by my race. I had never heard of High God before and I can't help but think about what exactly it means. While thinking about it, however, I received a message from the old man in the form of a letter that popped into existence beside me. Grabbing it, I read it quickly.

"Child, I made you a High God as I figured you weren't as overpowered as you should be… Okay, that was a joke, I know what you actually wanted and decided this would be best. As a High God, you have no duties aside from helping people to the best of your abilities within your chosen domain. You are the only High God within my Multiverse and thus are second only to me. All other Gods and Celestial Beings have been informed of your existence so make sure you stop in and say hello. Anyway, enjoy yourself, son, I'll see you when you're done or there's a need for messages."

Once I finished reading the message I can't help but furrow my brows as my wish for unlimited funds to purchase from the store seemed to be unnecessary, I quickly disregarded that though because it honestly doesn't matter to me. It'll allow for many different things within each of the universe's I visit anyway.

Looking back at the mirror I thought for a moment before my image began to shift. I began sculpting my body as if it were clay. I raised my height to be about 6'2" with wide shoulders and a narrow waist. I gave myself a strong but sharp jaw with eyes the color of pitch-black like the abyss with what could only be described as galaxies swirling within them. My hair was lengthened to my middle back and was the same as my eyes, abyss-dark, shone with the stars in the sky, and ended in a dark blue at the tips. My body was well proportioned with the skeletal and muscular systems individually strengthened to be as strong as steel. My body had an almost-zero percent body-fat ratio and was neither too strong nor too slim, essentially I now had the body that would make Adonis proud. As a final touch, because it's something I've always wanted, I added two wings onto my back. Each wing was about 3m long when fully extended and resembled Angel wings. The wings themselves were pure white, feathered and when strengthened could be as strong as the strongest metals in existence.

With all of the important parts completed, I finalized my choices and the view in the mirror changed allowing me to select what clothing I wanted to wear. Not too concerned about it, I selected a set of pure white robes along with boots and a mask that covers my face and is enchanted to never fall off and allows me to both breathe and see perfectly. The robes had gold trim around the edges and an embroidered Golden-Eastern Dragon that went across the shoulders. Of course, the robes were enchanted with Self-Cleaning, Self-Repair, and Self-Storage if I ever decided to change my form into something the robes can't fit, as well as other defensive enchantments. Along with my normal clothing, I also decided that I should also get myself something that actually looks like armor so I can somewhat blend into society when I get there. Looking through the list of options, I grabbed a necklace with a pendant of two dragons around a longsword. The pendant was actually loaded with millions and millions of nanites that when released solidified into scaled armor that covered my entire body in color-shifting metal that was incredibly strong while maintaining its flexibility. The armor was almost skin-tight and clung to the body as it covered from my toes, up just under my jawline, covering my neck and chin, along with just under my ears and over the top of my spinal cord. All along the scaled suit, larger and heavier armor began to appear. The chest, arms, legs, and feet began to grow out and honestly looked like the War Master Armor that was full black and gold with the visor being a dark reflective silver. The extra armor was also color-shifting but set to black at the moment, the chest had the same symbol as the pendant engraved into it. The part covering the top of my spinal-cord had a thick band that allowed the suit of armor to deploy or retract the helmet.

Moving on with that, I selected to accept and before I knew it, instead of the mirror showing me what I will look like, it showed me as I look now. Suddenly feeling everything again shot my mind out of the stratosphere causing me to take a moment to allow it to catch up. The feeling of not knowing what was happening was quickly replaced by a burning sensation in my chest, telling me that I should probably start breathing again. I was incredibly excited now, knowing that I finally had a body again. Taking a bit to get myself accustomed to my new body and making sure everything was alright, I was able to settle down again.

[Appearance Selected]

[Please select your chosen weapons and proceed toward the training area. Once your training has been completed, you will then be moved to your destination]

Another screen appeared in front of me and showed a list of weapons from just about everywhere. There were way too many options on the list for me to even begin to look through them all. Thankfully, I noticed the search icon so I could set the parameters. It didn't take much time for me to decide what I wanted to choose first, a blade. Now a lot of people don't understand why, if you're going into a futuristic setting, you would choose a bladed weapon. It's simple because they have an unbelievable amount of uses. They can cut, slash, pierce, dig, separate, etc. Anyway, I selected two that I found to my liking. One was essentially a Lightsaber, in fact, it was a Lightsaber except the containment field was modified to resemble a katana and was about a meter long with a single cutting edge and slightly curved. Its color was one that I've never seen before as it was almost a pure white but with a mix of gold within and had a continuous bolt of gold lightning that ran across the blade. I also grabbed myself a monomolecular-blade as a knife that was enchanted to never break and always remain sharp. Finished with those, I went to the weapon section and grabbed myself a Black Widow Mk. X from the MEU, the Gjallarhorn from Destiny before they nerf'd it, some plasma grenades from Halo, the Cerberus Harrier Mk. X and the M6D Magnum from Halo as well but without the annoying hump on the front. Storing them all on my armor in their designated spots; Rifle on my back, pistol on my thigh, grenades on my abdomen area, and my blades on my hips, I moved and selected continue.

As the area around me began to twist and distort, I couldn't help the smile on my face at what was to come after I had completed my training. I had no idea how long I would be training but I did know that during it, I'd not only learn to use my newly granted powers but also all of the weapons and knowledge pertaining to them and anything else I wanted. I also had a feeling that this is when I'd truly have to come to terms with what has happened and who I am now. With that last thought on my mind and with a flash, I was gone.