Dead Dragon's Combat Manual

Chapter 4: Earning Reincarnation

Alex's body and soul, which was suddenly struck by lightning, fell deep into an abyss-like rift as it passed straight through the its original realm.

If one was ask how this accident had occurred, there was probably no religion formed on Earth that could answer. Whether it was an occurrence like a godly miracle or holy blessing was unknown to all who witnessed it.

No, maybe blessing is the wrong way to describe it, since it was more like a curse brought by the devil himself.

One could say that he was banished from his original realm's cycle of reincarnation and was forced into the endless void between dimensions.

His eyes opened lifelessly as he looked at the empty space surrounding him, a feeling of exhaustion overcame his ethereal body, but he forced himself awake to look around his new 'body'.

'Where am I?' Alex thought as he looked around. He didn't know what was life after death due to his lack of forethought on such a deep topic.

His current circumstances were beyond his own life's knowledge and comprehension so he gave up trying to understand the empty space around him in order to think more calmly.

He felt extremely depressed and exhausted. After a long time of not being able to come up with a good explanation for his circumstances, he decided to sleep off his worries.

Alex didn't really care about the afterlife nor was he interested in the empty void around his new 'body'.

He slept soundly for an unknown amount of time while the depression in his heart slowly lightened as a result.

Once his emotions calmed down, he opened his eyes to look around again.

Even though he couldn't count how long, he knew some time had passed before he awoke from his slumber.

It was then after sorting out the emotions in his heart did he have the bravery to face the reality regarding what had happened to him when he was still alive. He stopped laying down in the empty void and sat straight.

'Hmm... I died... There is no doubt about it. The heart in my chest is still and without motion. Wait...! Is my lack of heartbeat the only thing strange?' He thought to himself as he floated in the colourless void with crossed legs.

A sharp light appeared in his eyes as he looked as his ethereal body closely.

He had the outline of himself before he died but didn't have the physical flesh and blood of a living human being.

It was more like his body was only the image of the person he once was before he died by his father's hands.

"Father...!" He called out while looking around but was responded with a deathly silence. Not even an echo could be heard from the void around him.

Alex felt aggrieved. He thought that his father would've also entered the void he was in yet found that there was nothing but silent desolation.

He also felt lonely from solitude... but as time passed, nothing changed..

In the spare time he had in the lifeless void, he decided to reflect on himself by training Tai Chi, a style of martial arts he mastered in the country of China.

It was a style of martial arts he used as a base for his self-created hybrid style: Harmonic Dragon's Angelic Halo.

He didn't throw any punches into the space around him because doing so would have no meaning. Instead he used a meditation form he learnt from Tai Chi to maintain his spiritual health.

Tai Chi itself was a martial art that improved the health of both mind and body so he usually practiced it in his free time. It had normally allowed him to calm his thoughts and cultivate his mental strength back to what it originally was while he was on Earth.