The Second Dragonoid's Tale

Chapter 22: A Strong Spirit

It's the strangest feeling, being conscience in death. I have no body to move, no senses at all, and no way to keep my ego from eventually slipping from my metaphorical hands without constantly trying to keep myself 'awake'. Leaving me with what remains of my thoughts, which I can barely create now. In a way, that has become my main pastime, creating thoughts to keep my ego, for lack of a better word, alive. I could have sworn that the voice I heard the first time I died would speak once more, but there was nothing.

I guess I have time to think about that. Life, death, why people are reincarnated into this world in the first place. Are dying souls picked at random and left to their fate? If that's the case, I want to have a talk with fate. Seriously, I refuse to lose myself even if I have lost my body. I could have lost more. Erebus was hurt, but if Ramiris is as smart as she thinks she is then she has the knowledge to patch him up. It's the least she can do.

***

Man, how long has it been? With nothing but my ego, it's impossible to tell how long it's been. The others will probably be worried until Erebus returns to give them the bad news. I know he'll do well under Rimuru. Not sure whether Ranga will see him as competition for Rimuru's attention or not. That attention of Rimuru's better be on governing and making sure things are going smoothly.

***

It's getting hard to create new thoughts. Wait, I feel like I said that already. Where is the voice from the last time I died? I could use a second voice, some company. I'd settle for Gabiru's company at this point. He was the lizardman... right? That's not good, I nearly forgot something. Let's see. Rimuru is a slime. Shion, Shuna, Benimaru, Souei, Hakurou, and... Kurobe are ogres- no, kijin. Right, they evolved after being named. Veldora is a True Dragon. I'm a Dragonoid. I... guess that's past tense now. I was a Dragonoid.

Honestly, I never felt like one. Not that I knew or now know what one was supposed to feel like and act. Milim, she was my best bet and now I'll never meet her on account of being dead. What was I doing again? Sigh... Did I seriously sigh mentally? Well, whatever, it's not like anyone knows I did. The afterlife is too quiet. Perhaps that's it, souls eventually give to the silent tides of the [World] and return to basic building blocks.

That's an educated guess. I do recall some of the books from Dwargon being about the building blocks of life. Granted, the title escapes me. It was something like The Theory-something-or-other of Souls.

If only I could activate [Mind Library].

Suddenly, the inner library appeared before me. I could tell instantly from the state it was in that my ego was damaged and unorganized in its fight to survive. Before me was a void in the floor, and as I looked I found that other sections of the library had their own void-holes too. Some bookshelves were on the edge of them, close to falling in. Books were scattered on the floor and some floated openly in the air.

I need to grab the important things and place them in the more intact sections.

That was easier thought than done, but it gave me work to do. A lot of mundane work to do. I started with what was beside me, moved the less important things closer to the void-holes. Some old childhood memories, school years I didn't mind losing. Slowly working my way around the library while refreshing my thoughts. Why did I almost forget things when I have [Mind Library]? And better question, why do I still have it? Aren't I dead?

***

Sometime later, the voids appeared to have grown smaller or had completely disappeared. As I walked into a different section to check the state of the void spots, I blinked to find myself submerged. Off in the distance, I could see a large creature that was distorted beyond recognition of anything I had seen. It grew smaller rapidly, as if the distance between us increased. Then with another blink I found my real eyes open as the sudden need to breathe overwhelmed me. I gasped for air as I jolted, the feeling was not too unlike how I felt when I drowned and died.