It wasn't his, but the memory flashed right before him. Helpless, he can only observe. Seth thought this must've been a dream.
A lucid dream, perhaps. Being the unmovable spectator that he is, he can only see three children running from a damp, metallic, dimly lit hallway. He heard no sounds, but he felt the vibrations. Seth felt the painful touches coming from nowhere. Suddenly, it's now a nightmare.
The children are being chased. Seth wished he could see who or what, but it doesn't matter. He watched them run towards a light. As they ran, Seth followed. As they approached the blinding light, Seth reached for it.
It all felt real, as if the memory were his.
Until everything went bright.
…
"Congratulations, you cried your way to a second chance in life, loser."
An echoing, drawn-out, purring voice prompts Seth to gain consciousness. He feels himself lying on a cold stone floor. Slowly, he opened his eyes, clearing his vision, and he found himself staring up at a Goddess.
Her bodacious figure left him off guard, his eyes tracing the curves of her exposed body. She wears a short, thin, layered nightgown with fabrics almost transparent, daring to show what it tries to hide underneath.
"What are you staring at, virgin?"
Seth continues to gaze at the Goddess, inspecting the features of her face. Lips painted in crimson red, skin as pale as the dead, and her half-lidded eyes see through inside the mind of the young man.
Suddenly, the Goddess kicks Seth in the face, which sends him flying. He ricochets like rocks skipping on the water. When he finally landed somewhere, he realized that they were in a bright, empty void of nothingness. Seth quickly stood, he did not feel pain, and he realized he was naked.
Embarrassed, he covers his precious jewels with his hands, his lips trembling. He has never been alone with a woman while naked after all.
"Who are you, where am I?!"
Seth frantically looked around, afraid of other people watching.
The Goddess levitates towards Seth. She places her hands on her hips, inspecting the young man before her. She pouts and shifts her posture, expressing an air of disapproval.
"This is what I am stuck with?"
She moans in disgust while gritting her teeth in annoyance.
"What do you mean, who are you?"
The Goddess slaps him in the face, and his head recoils to the side. She stops floating and lands on her feet. She is a few inches smaller than he is. She leans and looks at Seth, revealing her green feline-like eyes.
"I am Zela. You are now an underling!"
"What do you mean by underling? Like those with Zystems?"
"Yeah, Zystems. Weren't you listening? Keep up, come on! I will not tell you the boring details. All you have to know is that you will now have my powers! End of story. Goodbye. Next question!"
Zela punches Seth in the gut, and he stumbles and reacts as if he is in pain.
"W-what powers?!"
Seth steps back, feeling his stomach, and anger builds up within him.
Irritated, Zela raises her left hand, opens her palm, and aims directly at Seth. A burst of unseen energy flows through and suddenly detaches every limb, body part, organ, and anything in between his body, connected only by string-like, silky threads.
But it was not painful, it was rather comical. His body parts are floating in the air as if he is a toy preparing to be reassembled. Every part of him still functions, Seth screams in realization.
"This is your power, loser—our power. I grant you the power of Assembly. Detach the parts you don't like about you and attach the ones you find useful! It is pretty handy, get it? Because you can get new hands if you don't like yours."
She said while floating towards Seth's floating eyeballs and mouth.
"What do you mean?"
His voice cracks in panic, and he looks around to see his arms and legs in the air, rotating and turning overhead.
"It means if someone's brain is smart, you can replace it with your dumb brain. You're a little stupid, huh? Keep up! Want someone's arms, you got it! Spliced them off and put them to yours!"
"But why?"
Zela shakes her head.
"Who gives a hoot? Why would you ask that? Don't you ever want to change some of your body parts? You're an underling, for crying out loud! You now possess the Zystem in your veins, you are half dead and half ain't. Thus, you are an underling! But because I'm here, you gotta listen to me if you wanna live!"
"How did this happen? Why me?"
"Beats me. Being chosen is a gift, loser. You sound like you don't want it. Being an underling means the Zystem removed that tumor in you, and this is how you react? You're a stupid ingrate!"
Zela clicked her tongue in annoyance, preparing to give Seth a backhanded slap in the face.
"Wait, wait, wait! Did you just say tumor?"
"You need better ears… Yeah, yeah, I said it, so what?"
Seth appears to be thinking. He calmly tries to recall something. He remembers being in a doctor's office.
But no matter how hard he tried, his mind couldn't completely recall what happened. It simply vanishes, every grain of thought about it. But, in consolation, he remembers fragments of his encounter with the doctor.
Seth was thinking so hard that his eyeballs bulged, staring intensely into the distance.
"You know, even though I can only see your eyeballs, I know you're using your brain that hard. You look stupid, stop it now!"
Zela said, putting her hands on her hips, annoyed.
"Do you know the doctor?"
Finally, Seth speaks after a minute of silence.
"Huh?"
Taken aback, Zela pauses, staring at Seth blankly. She clears her throat before speaking.
"What the hell are you talking about? Did a doctor mess up your surgery?"
Zela laughs awkwardly as she crosses her arms. Seth did not respond, his eyes widened.
"Looks like you have unfinished business, huh? Well, the same goes for me."
Zela continues, her demeanor changing slightly but quickly reverting to annoyance again.
"Underlings and Zystem? Am I going to be reincarnated?"
Seth asked once more. He seemed too distracted to notice Zela's sudden awkwardness.
Zela clears her throat and nods.
"Right. That. Sure. Let's go with that. But you didn't die, so that's that."
Zela said, trying to regain composure.
"Am I your one and only underling?"
Seth excitedly blurted out without thinking.
Zela immediately flushes and turns red. Darting her eyes sideways, she crosses her arms and puckers his lips.
"Stupid!"
Then Zela slaps his floating eyes, and it bounces in the void like a ball.
"What the hell!"
Surprised, Seth's mouth lay open, tongue out. Experiencing a touch of dizziness. He still couldn't believe that every part of his body was floating, especially his eyeballs.
Zela catches his eye and dribbles it on the floor.
"Shut up! You don't need to ask questions, just use my powers and try to keep us alive!"
Zela does skillful dribbles, bouncing the eyeballs between her legs.
Seth screams in every bounce, his eyes squinting in the disorienting torture. But the move Zela made dared him to look under her gown. Yet, he couldn't, because the bounces are increasingly faster.
"Stop it! Stop, please!"
His floating hands flailed in the air, trying desperately to catch his eyeballs from being dribbled.
"You don't feel pain anyway. Not on this scale, at least. So, shut up! I will send you back to the Living World if you're done here!"
Zela stuck out Seth's detached tongue and pulled it like a rubber band, stretching it forcefully.
"Wait, I still have questions, so many questions! I don't even know how to use your damn powers! I only know a few things about underlings and Zystems, citizens like me couldn't be bothered reading a book because we tend to focus on our survival. Also, I was sick! So, please!"
Seth begged, but to no avail. Even though he sounded like he was about to cry, Zela continued to play with his eyeballs.
"It's better if you learn it on the job, loser!"
Zela stops dribbling and holds him between her palms and chest. She snaps her fingers, and every floating body part reassembles like magnets finding each other.
Seth finds himself normal again, standing in front of Zela. He tries to get a feel of his body.
"What do you mean? Can't you just say it now?!"
"Nope. See ya!"
Zela smirked and aimed her palm once again at Seth.
Another powerful burst sends Seth in a cascade of his consciousness, multiplying in an endless tunnel. He sees himself being shot towards a faint light. As he approaches closer, the light turns out to be a ball of fire. When he is close enough to touch it, it explodes into a vast bright nothingness.