《Void Soul》
(Prologue) A Snap, a Crack, And a Pop
Arden was resting about halfway to the summit of MT. Everest. He was exausted, but even more than that, he was proud of himself for being able to climb as far as he did. If he was asked to describe himself in any meaningful way, he would have described himself as average. If someone had asked why, he could mention his looks, that where only slightly average at best, or he could have looked at his education, which was also average. However, he would most likely mention his talents, which were, at best, average. In fact the only thing that was above average was how much he could eat. His "talent" in eating had caused his weight to go up by about 30 lbs throught his freshman year of college. In an effort to lose all the excess weight, he decided that over the summer he would excersize as much as he could. when it neared the end of the summer, he decided to challenge himself by going mountain climbing at least halfway up the mountain. Due to all the excersize he had done, his body was in relativly good state, with him weighing 170 lbs and being simi-muscular.
And so Arden relaxed, trying to catch his breath after all themclimbing he had done throughout the day. Having reached a point where itt would get to dark to continue, he decided that he would set up a tent and sleep for the night. However halfway through the tents construction, Arden began to feel is though something was off and put down the tent and looked at his surroundings. Looking around he began noticing all sorts of incidents that didnt make any sence around him. Arden noticed how there were no noises anywhere around, from the sound of winds, animals, and even he himself was subconsciously trying to keep quiet. Arden could even feel himself shivering, as well as the goosebumbs he had and his hair standing on end.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
AS Arden gazed around, he heard a snapping noise from behind him.When he turned around, he noticed what appeared to have been a crack a few meters ahead of him. The crack seemed to be floating in the air, with what Arden could only describe asa a black light seaping out of it. Arden after only a few seconds of observing this crack could only ask himself one question.
While Arden would have greatly prefered to finish his question, or even asking other questions, he was interupted by tha cracks suddenly expanding, reaching around a foot in length. The black light that was coming out of the crack flashed, and Ardin and covered in the light, Wherever the light touched him, his skin became blackened and crumbled away rapidly. in less that a second, Ardin had died and had fallen apart into nothing. The crack continued to get larger until it had reached a meter in length, when suddenly, the crack began to shrink, absorbing everything the black light touched before, like a vacume, sucking in everything. And so, Arden''s remains and even his very soul where sucked into the crack, which shortly dissapeared with a light popping noise, sealing Arden''s soul inside the nothingness that existed there.
Within The Void
A place of eternal nothingness that decays all, streching infinetly in all directions. A place that can devour entire worlds in moments. A place that discriminates against none and ruins all equaly. A place that cannot be traveled through casually even by gods. A place that Connects all known worlds together. An area that if accesed, can allow one to travel through diferent dimensions, of which the laws of each world can greatly differ from each other in an infinite amount of ways.
This place has been know to many different worlds, and has been called by an infinite number of things. Some of the more common names it had been refered are the abyss, hell, limbo, and even heaven. The most commonly agreed apon name for this place is the Void, as nothing exists within and nothing will ever exist within it. It was this place that the soul of Arden was sucked into.
Ardens soul floated amlessly within the void, with the flames of his soul the only light in the eternal darkness. If Arden could see his soul, he would have to describe it as a Pure white marble, with flames bursting out of it in a light show of brilliant colors that could not be described with mere words. However, he would never be able to see this as when he had died, his ability to process thoughts, intelegence, and personality all dissapeared. While his soul did hold all of these, without a body to process them, it would never work. A similarexample of this would be a light socket, with all the power it needed to turn on a light, but there was no light bulb to create the light.
As time passed, the soul was continuously affected by the power of the void. the bright flames that it produced was quickly dying down to no more than a flicker, and the core of the soul began to crack, like a fragile piece of glass. It was at the point where the core could have colapsed at the slighted touch and when the flames were barely more than a spark, that a sudden metamorphosis occured within the soul. The void that has only ever been a source of destruction and decay, began seeping into the cracks on the core, which began to recover from the crackes. As the void rushed into the soul, it began to majorly alter the souls make-up.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
After the soul had been altered by the Void, it was majorly different from the way it used to be. From the outside, the chinges did not appear to obvious, other than the core being a brighter white and the flames which now seemed to have more traces of grey and black in them. On the inside of the soul, it was majorly altered. if one were to cut the soul in half, it looked as if it was the sun durring a solar eclipse, compleatly black in the center, while at the edges was a great brightness, as though it was trying to oppose the darkness within it.
After the souls transformation, the Void no longer tried to destroy the soul. In actuality, the Void treated the soul as if it was another part of it, and it helped the soul to stabalize itself. After this, the soul floated aimlessly through the Void, like a toddler would explore its surroundings. It did not take long for things to change, as there was a sudden shifting of space as another being entered the void. However, this being was not another soul, but a god useing the void to travel between realities. As the god entered, he immediately Noticed the soul, as it was the only form of radiance within the Void.
Seeing the soul, the god was as confused about the sittuation as he was excited. The god immediatly grabbed the soul, preventing if from escape. While deciding what to do with it, the god came to the conclusion he should take it to his perconal world, where he would create a temporary body for it so that he could interogate it on how it was in the Void. With his decision made, the god pushed his way through the Void, taking the soul with him. After a period of walking, the god pushed his way out of the Void and into his personal world, taking the soul with him.
A Chat with a God
The first thing that Arden could see when he opened his eyes, was a room that reminded him of his grandparents living room, which is to say that it was a large room with a table in the center, and a bunch of small shelves around the room, with most of them having an ugly vase sitting on top of it. Sitting at the table was a man with a long beard, who was looking at him rather impatiently, and was clearly wanting him to sit down at the table across from him, or so Arden assumed since he had been gesturing at a chair across from him the whole time he was looking around the room. Only after Arden sat down at the table the old man finally decided to grace Ardena€?s ears with his voice.
- a€?Now that youa€?ve finally finished standing around staring we can finally begin talking business. (Old Man)
Arden, not knowing what was going on, began to ask questions to the old man
- a€?Where am I, and who are youa€? (Arden)
- a€?Right now, your sitting in a room that I made in my own realm, which I brought you to because I was curious on how your soul was floating in the void without dissolving. And because you asked so nicely, my name is Frank, and I am a being that you would refer to as a god.a€? (Frank)
- a€?Wait a minute, is your name really Frank.a€? (Arden)
- a€?Of course, it is, do you have a problem with my name?a€?
- a€?No, ita€?s justa€| Never mind.a€?(Arden)
- a€?Anyhow, why dona€?t we get down to business, shall we.a€?
- a€?Sure, what do you want to know.a€? (Arden)
- a€?What I really want to know is how a mortal soul managed to survive in the void, but I know you probably cana€?t answer that, so instead, Ia€?ll just ask you what the last thing you remember from before you died.a€?
- a€?Wait a minute, I died! And if I died, then how am I even speaking to you right now?a€? (Arden)
- a€?Thata€?s not even important. Now tell me what you last remembered before you died.a€?
Because Arden was starting to get the impression that Frank was losing his patience based on the way he was talking, and the slight glare that Frank gave him when he went of topic. Because he noticed, he decided to be compliant and just answer his questions
- a€?The last thing that I remembered was this weird crack in the air and then a sudden flash of black. The next thing that I knew was being here.a€? (Arden)
- a€?Interesting. Now I must ask, but you didna€?t happen to be on any remote mountain, far away from civilization, would you?a€?
- a€?Yeah I was. I decided to go hiking on some mountains before I went back to college, why did you ask?a€? (Arden)
- a€?sigh. Well at least now I know what happened.a€?
- a€?Would you mind telling me how I died.a€? (Arden)
- a€?Well ita€?s a long story, all about politics between me and other gods, as well as many great battles between them. But telling you that will take way too long, so Ia€?ll just tell you the short version. Basically, me and the god of your world had little kerfuffle and you got killed in the aftermath of one of our attacks. Oops.
- a€?What do you mean a€?Oopsa€? you literally killed me and al you have to say is Oops!a€? (Arden)
- a€?What do you want me to say, a€?sorry I killed you, I promise never to do it again and Ia€?ll never do anything bad again to repenta€?? Sorry kid, but the only reason that your even here right now and not in heaven or wherever you were supposed to go, is because I found your soul just floating in the void and took an interest in it.
- a€?You could have at least be nicer about this. And also, I want some sort of compensation for you killing me.a€? (Arden)
- a€?Sigh. Look how about I just reincarnate you on one of the worlds I own, that way I can monitor you to see if anything interesting happens, and you get to have a new life. It will be a win-win situation for both of us. I''ll even let you decide on what kind of world you want to be on."?
- "This sounds too good to be true, what''s the catch, because I know that you aren''t a very nice person, what with how little you cared about killing me."? (Arden)
- "Well you see, because of the time that your soul spent in the void, it changed on a quantitative level, and you probably won''t be a human when you are born onto whatever world you chose. What I stand to gain is learning about why your soul could even exist in the void, as well as what you eventually end up as."?
- "Alright I''ll give it a try. Also, can I chose a world that is like a game with levels and skills and stats?" (Arden)
- "Sure, I have a few worlds that are like that. Are you ready to go? Well your ready enough I guess, so bye.a€?
- "Wait a moment I still ha...
Before he could finish his sentence, a hole appeared directly beneath him, dropping him down into the world he would reincarnate into. The last thing that he could remember was a screen saying this.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
| Welcome to the world of Arialis |