Ori and the Spirits Within: Revitalized

Chapter 26: Rekindle

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"Mmmmmm... A-Auuugh..."

God... wh-what the hell...?

What's... What's happening...?

Dazed and confused, he gradually woke up from a draining slumber and slowly opened his eyes, but... there was nothing to see. All that surrounded him was a dark void as black as night, including the ground he was lying upon. He groaned from a painful headache he had woken up with and reached up to feel his head... which is when he caught a glimpse of his beige hand and dark cloak.

I'm... I'm human again...?

As his body slowly became more awake, Vini quietly picked himself off the invisible ground, gazing around at the darkness that engulfed him. He felt his chest and face, certain that he was in his human form. He wasn't sure what was going on. The last thing he remembered was being in the shrine with Ori and Sein, knowing that the crystal that kept his soul together was going to break. Then Ori threw him across the room, and... he was knocked unconscious.

Did... Did I die? The crystal broke, didn't it? So... is this the afterlife or something?

Vini began walking in random directions, unsure of what this place was. However, he didn't seem to be alone in this void as his eyes caught a glimpse of a figure standing in the distance. With nothing else surrounding him, Vini quickly decided to walk towards them... but once he got close enough, he realized it was a mistake. What stood in the distance was a shadowy figure hovering slightly in mid-air, its form and face resembling his own...

N... No... No... N-Not again...

He slowly backed away from it, but the shadow began to hover towards him. Fearing a similar torture from the Soul Scape if they caught him, Vini turned and quickly ran away from the shadow, only for it to speed towards the fleeing human, its speed outpacing the human. Vini became frantic, seeing no place to dodge or avoid the rapidly approaching shadow. But just as the shadow was about to grab him, the void suddenly glowed with a blinding, white light, making Vini shelter his eyes. The light also began vaporizing the shadow chasing him, turning it to dust.

It took a while for his eyes to adjust to the blinding light, but once they did, Vini found himself in a... peculiar place. He was surrounded by these odd trees, their bark colored light brown and their leaves tinted red. He noticed he was standing in the middle of a tiny creek, his boots displacing the water as it moved downstream. He looked up at the sky, bright blue with tiny clouds peppering the canvas. He quickly moved out of the water and onto the green grass, scratching his head in confusion...

Needless to say, the human was baffled by his current circumstances...

This... This can't be the afterlife... right? I mean, no one really knows what happens after death, so it could be. But why would the afterlife look like this? I... I just don't get it...

As Vini pondered the current state of affairs, he saw a small pathway leading deeper into this unknown forest. He knew he wasn't going to get any answers by sitting around and thinking, so he decided to follow the trail. It was only a few minutes before he reached a clearing in the forest, gazing at a... rather calming vista.

Vini walked into an expansive field, the blades of green grass spanning hundreds of yards in every direction. He noticed pockets of flowers across the field, consisting mostly of bright yellow and deep blue ones that sparkled with light. On his left, he saw a large lake with two small waterfalls pouring water into it. Looking beyond the lake, he saw a red mountain range, the stone, and rock towering over the rest of the land. As he looked right, he saw the white spires of light in the distance, floating in mid-air and circling around a large, stone temple. He could also see a couple floating islands in the distance, one with a tall blue tower standing on it...