The Afterlife

5.6K 113 7
                                    

I opened my eyes to realize I was in a gray room, very much not my own. But I also realized I wasn't on my bed, nor did I recognize the empty space that seemed to go on forever. I did feel a surface under my back, but I couldn't tell what it was.
'Did I die?'
I sat up and immediately looked around to find an androgynous figure sitting in a chair made of clouds staring at me. It was very obvious they were the one to bring me here. It took a couple seconds of staring at each other before the figure spoke: "Hello, my child."
The figure's voice made me comfortable as I turned towards them, still sitting on the floor. I also felt compelled to say something back.
"Hi, I assume you're a deity, right?"
"Yes, I am a Deity, but I am not just some simple god. I was culminated from pieces of multiple other gods by The One, and set as the Soul Director. I direct and control souls through their life to their end, and control how they incarnate. I will normally incarnate someone as a new person and they will essentially become different from what their past was. To simplify what I am, I am the deity of life, death, and reincarnation."
".....That explains why I seem to be here, but now how I got here. How did I get here?"
The figure shifted and their face showed slight anger.
"I brought you here here because I killed you. You did die."

'I died? By their hands? Am I going to be forced to be entertainment for gods to watch? Or was my death just because they were bored?' I squinted my eyes, staring at the Deity. 'I can't tell if they are evil or not, it might be because of them being a combination of multiple gods, right? They could be influenced by that and want me to fight them. Oh God, is this a normal fantasy isekai story I'm about to go through? I guess I can do it, but I still don't know what they want.'

"So why did you-"
"I killed you for multiple reasons, don't think I killed you for some petty reason like entertainment."
"You can hear my thoughts, wait forget that...... Can I know the reasons?"
"Of course you can know them. Just know that you are the cause of all of these." The figure got visibly angrier. 'What did they mean, I was the cause? Did I do something my life that would be the cause of it? I don't remember doing anything that would cause a literal god to kill me, so what could they be?'
"The first reason is, I personally altered your past self to become who you are. You were a passion project of mine, as you would call it. I made you specifically so that with the knowledge of ideas and concepts from the world around you in your mind, you could essentially create anything."
"I was a passion project of a god? That doesn't explain much other than my creativity."
They scowled a little. "The second reason was that I gave you more autonomy over your life, you didn't have as many restrictions as the billions of others around you. I wasn't controlling you for most of your life, and expected more than laziness and no motive to do anything! I was expecting you to take over the world with what you came up with, but you did nothing!"
I winced at that. 'I remember doing almost nothing, but I was about to do something before I fell asleep.'
"No, you were not going to." The Soul Director stood up quickly, surprising me. "That leads me to reason number three! I foresaw your future, what my project was going to do, and you know what I saw, my... little project? I SAW NOTHING! YOU WOULD END UP DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WITH YOUR LIFE!" While they were saying this, they walked angrily over to where I was sitting and stopped right in front of me. They then lifted my head up to look directly into my eyes, and I finally realized I couldn't move my body.
As we started into each other's eyes, they spoke "You, as my project, will do great things, but I realized that without any incentive to do anything, you would have wasted your life away. And that is exactly why I chose to kill you."
"You...... I can't say anything to that....."
"I know. Which is why I'm going to send you to a different world. You will keep your memories, my project, and you WILL have the incentive to do something. Otherwise, you'll die. And I won't give you a second chance."
I could feel the fear eminating off of them and accumulating inside of me, and I tried to back away, but I couldn't, not only because me not being able to move my body, but also because of their grip on my face. And they could clearly see the fear in my eyes, and let go of me, immediately going back to sit down on the throne of clouds.

"Now that you, my child, know the reasons of your death, I want you to have fun."
Wow. Their entire demeanor changed from ready to kill to calm and collected in a matter of seconds. The fear was still obvious because I realized I was shaking a little. I felt like my parents just yelled at me, and it was a horrible feeling. But, 'want me to have fun'?
"Yes, I want you to have fun. The world you were born in was one that affected you more than I thought, which was the cause of your anxiety, introversion, and unwillingness to go outside of your comfort zone. So, while the things I said before are true, I want you to still have fun. Living for hundreds of millions of years makes you a bit tired of normal, repeating the same person over and over again. So you would end up trying things, like side projects, like you, to spice it up, make the world change for better or for worse. Without a little bit of change, everything is boring."
While shaking a little, I thought about what they said. I realized that if I was in the situation, I would have been just as mad at my own creation doing nothing as they were. I noticed I stopped shaking and spoke.
"I'm sorry I didn't do anything, I truly am. If I had known all of this before, I would've done something about it, but...."
"Do not worry, my child. It was the world you were in that caused it. It does seem that we've come to an understanding about your death, and it was somewhat wrong of me to get angry at you for it. So, I will send you to another world so you can have fun." They smiled at me.
"Thank you..." A tear rolled down my face, and I realized they really care about me. It's not as if I didn't have people who cared about me before, and I always cried when I people showed they really cared about me. It always makes me cry.
They came back to me slowly and kneeled down, wiping the tear off my face, and said: "You don't have to thank me, it's just what I do." And they smiled.
They went back to their throne, and I decided to get a little closer to them, completely forgetting that I wasn't able to move just a little bit ago. I sat on the ground still, but only a couple feet away rather than the 30-ish feet before.
"While I don't like some things about you, there is a couple things I do like."
That piqued my interest. What could they like about me?
"What do you like about how I turned out? Obviously it's something I'm blanking on at the moment, so what do you like?"
They smiled at me. "I like how you don't care about people's backgrounds that much. Although you would be wary of an ex-murderer due to them being a, you know, but you wouldn't care as much about the rest of it. While working on the people of the world, I did also notice race wars and all that. I learned that you, my child, wouldn't care about anything other than how they act towards you and their personality."
"Thank you for the compliment."
They continued to smile, and stopped smiling for a second before they returned to smiling.
"I'm sorry my child, but the other gods are bothering me to get back to work, but I'll say a couple things before sending you off. This world you're going to is going to try to kill you if you let your guard down. Youll be inhabiting an already existing person's body, and will replace them essentially. I will tell you that you can indeed still have fun if you try, and have that as your motive, have fun while surviving this new world."
I stood up and was ready to say 'thank you' again, but was stopped.
"I do have to inform you though. You will only get this one life before coming back to see me." They smirked. "If you haven't done anything before then, I will have to restart the project with another version of you. So, Alekz, my child, live this one life you have to the fullest, and change this world you're going to appear in as much as you want, dont mind any preconceptions of where you are and do what you want. But to something with your life rather than nothing please."
I smiled crookedly. The message was nice and all, but the smirk during them saying I only had one life before seeing them again was a bit evil looking.
"Now go, my child, and create your vision of this new world! And then turn it into reality!" I could see a faint smile as I was surrounded by light, and then everything went black.

And then I woke up.

One Piece: Overlord Buggy, The BluesWhere stories live. Discover now