I couldn't make sense of what was happening. A few seconds ago, I had been on fire; now I was sitting on a bed with a status window, something that looked like it was ripped straight from a game, hovering in front of me.
Is this a joke? Some kind of bad fever dream?
Another window shimmered into existence, this one carrying words that froze me in place. It was as if time stopped, just to honor the weight of the words.
[The Goddess of Life and Death has chosen you to represent her and humanity in the "Celestial Battlefield"]
I swear I've heard about this "Celestial Battlefield" before, I just don't remember.
Celestial Battlefield
Celestial Battlefield
I searched my memory until something clicked, and what I found wasn't good.
"Fuck!" I was loud enough to wake up the neighbors, if I even had any.
I really do have the worst luck
I got reincarnated, but got thrown into a world where everyone wants to kill each other.
Back when I was around 10, and my despicable parents were still alive, there was a book they read to me as a bedtime story. You guessed it right, that's where I read about the celestial arena.
Anyway, if it were any other god, I might've shed a single tear of joy. But the Goddess of Life and Death? That was the worst-case scenario
To get why, you first need to understand what the "Celestial battlefield" was.
The 15 gods who ruled the universe had decided to make all 6 sentient races fight a divine war against each other to determine which race would sit on top of the world.
Each race had three patron gods.
The human race had the God of Storms, the Goddess of Light, and the God of Survival.
The elves had the Goddess of Nature, the God of mana, and the God of Prosperity.
The dwarves had the God of Technology, the God of Metal, and the Goddess of Innovation.
The demons had the God of War, the Goddess of Darkness, and the Goddess of Curses.
The vampires had the Goddess of Blood, the God of the Night, and the Goddess of Magic.
Beastmen had the God of the Hunt, the Goddess of the Moon, and the Goddess of Lust.
I said 15, but really there are a total of 16, but the Goddess of Life and Death doesn't count, after all, she isn't a paltry god, she's a Cardinal, a being born at the beginning of the universe. She chose 15 mortals and made them gods to serve their respective races, but those stupid gods had a different idea.
They made their races fight each other in a millennium-long war.
Mortals hate her because we're stupid enough to blame her for all our misery. The gods hate her because they're terrified of her. And me? Well… now she's decided I'm her champion.
Lucky me.
She never interfered in others' business, so if the other races and their patrons found out she had finally chosen an apostle? All hell would break loose. And I would be the unlucky bastard stuck in the middle of all of it.
Still... out of trillions of souls, she picked me. Guess that makes me pretty damn special.
---
I was still staring at the damn status screen, half expecting to be set on fire again.
Instead, another glowing window flickered beside me, cause nothing says trouble better than some glowing shit.
[Initializing... System creation initiated]
[Downloading memories... System activated]
{Hello, Sebastian.}
A voice rang in my head, androgynous, calm, and... smug?
Yeah, it was smug.
A system? Maybe my luck isn't as bad as I think.
"So what are you supposed to be? My fairy godmother?"
{I am you, or rather a refined, superior, more handsome version of you. I was born with the sole purpose of serving you.}
"Handsome, you don't even have a body."
I let out a laugh. "I haven't even been in this world for more than an hour, and the universe decided that me, the paragon of perfection, needed a babysitter? What a joke."
{Sebastian, if only I could tell you that the universe decided it needed protection from you.}
The system ignored me
{Sebastian, do u want me to upload the memories of the body you now inhabit?}
"You can do that?"
{Sebastian, my purpose is to serve you. I can do anything with your body... as long as you allow it.}
"That sounded wrong. System, are you a pervert?"
{Permission granted?}
"Sure, do it."
{There will be small side effects that may include nausea, slight pain, and a temporary existential crisis.}
{Permission granted?}
What an annoying system
"System, are you trying to piss me off?"
{Permission confirmed. Initiating upload.}
The moment the words reached my skull, all hell broke loose.
I didn't even have time to scream before my vision extinguished. Flashes of light, faces I hadn't seen before today. Tears I never shed, emotions I never felt. They slammed into me, one after the other. Too fast, too real.
The memories weren't just shown to me; they were forced into me. Like someone was tracing every nerve in my brain with a thousand rusted knives.
I dropped to the floor, squeezing my head, thrashing as foam came out of my mouth.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The scream tore out of me before I could stop it, but it didn't even touch the surface of the pain I was feeling. My eyes were wet as tears fell freely, and my brain felt like the sun.
It wasn't just memories; there were all the emotions too. The system's voice echoed in the back of my mind. It was cheerful as if he was happy seeing me suffer.
{Upload at 12%. Please endure.}
"TWELVE!" I gasped, choking on the air. "What the FU..."
Another wave of pain slammed into me before I could finish, and for a second, the world went black.
---
{Upload at 99%}
The pain had long since shattered my sense of self.
It was no longer just physical; it was as if my soul had been torn in half, one half set on fire, the other decorated with glass.
Every thought, every memory, every breath I took was bringing me closer to the edge of madness.
I wasn't Sebastian Vale
I wasn't Sebastian Nekros
I wasn't anything.
For a single horrifying moment, I was nothing but raw consciousness.
And then...
{Upload complete.}
Silence
I collapsed, twitching faintly, my body heaving like a broken machine trying to restart.