Leon had devoured countless novels. Gods, realms, cosmic entities… he had read it all. So the moment those voices echoed in the dark, his mind made the most obvious guess.
"Like gods…"
He attempted to speak, but his voice refused to form. The realm didn't need his question—his thoughts alone were enough.
Leon knew these beings were omnipotent. Or so he assumed.
"We are not gods," the voices corrected, calm but absolute."We are the origin. The architects of universes… and the ones who unmake them. You could say gods are merely our creations."
They paused.
Not for drama, but deliberation.
A second passed before the answer arrived.
"You stand in the Realm of Beginning—beyond all world boundaries."
Leon should have felt enlightened.
Instead, he felt lost.
How did a normal human soul drift past the universe's edge and land before its origin?
He looked down.
Golden radiance flowed from his body like liquid starlight, streaked faintly with obsidian shadows swirling inside it.
"There are only two paths after death," one voice explained."Reincarnation… or damnation."
Leon waited for the verdict.
But it wasn't coming.
"Your soul was neutral," they continued."Neither condemned nor chosen. The first of its kind since the universe began. And with no laws to judge it, your fate was handed to us."
Leon whispered inward:
"Neutral? How?"
"We do not know," they admitted."At the universe's birth, we vowed never to peer inside a soul's core. Even absolute beings must obey the laws they forge."
Leon blinked slowly.
These beings weren't gods… but they obeyed rules like mortals obey gravity.
Strange.
Suspicious, even.
Then came the question he truly cared about:
"So what will you do with me?"
"Nothing," they replied."A neutral soul cannot be erased, rewritten, or forced. The choice is yours, child of equilibrium."
Leon was speechless.
Not metaphorically this time—literally.
He felt like the protagonist of a fantasy novel being offered cheats by higher beings.
He inhaled.
And wished.
"Send me back to Earth. To a time before my parents died. Before my sister suffered."
He loved fantasy. Magic. Adventure.
But more than all of that…
He loved them.
"We cannot," the voices refused gently but firmly."Your family has already re-entered the cycle. Laws cannot bend for a single soul, neutral or not."
Leon felt his heart crack again.
Even faceless cosmic beings couldn't repair what was already rewritten by existence.
But before disappointment could root itself fully, they added:
"However… we can send you to a world where your family still lives."
Leon froze.
Alternate realities. Multiversal theory. Infinite possibilities. Humanity knew the hypothesis—but these beings spoke of it as fact.
It was real.
He swallowed the tremor in his voice-less throat.
"Then what about me? Would another Leon exist there too?"
"We will send you to a reality where Leon Admist dies the moment before your arrival," they explained."Your soul will merge with his before reincarnation claims him."
"That won't break nature's law?"
"No," they answered."His death is already written. We are not altering fate—only filling a vacancy."
Leon processed it all in silence.
Ten seconds of thought in a timeless realm.
Then his curiosity returned, cautious but alive:
"Is this world like Earth?"
"It is named Atara," they replied."It carries mana. A soul-core system. Other intelligent species. Monsters. Empires. A planet one hundred times larger in radius than your Earth."
Leon felt the spark of the otaku inside him twitch awake.
A world where his family was alive… and magic was real?
Two dreams overlapping.
He almost sounded eager when he thought:
"Fine. I'll go. But will I get any special ability?"
"We cannot grant you power unfairly," they warned."But we will seed your soul with a skill that awakens at age fifteen. Your body there reaches that threshold in one week."
A tiny spark of light shot into his chest.
No sensation. No transformation.
Yet.
And the moment he agreed—
The golden glow disintegrated like drifting embers.
Pain.
Leon awakened screaming internally.
His skull felt like it was being split by a warhammer. His body refused to obey him. He wasn't sure if he had reincarnated or simply been deceived.
Then the pain shifted.
Intensified.
Erupted.
Every nerve ignited. Bones felt pulverized. Skin felt flayed. A torment that made his death wound feel merciful in comparison.
Thirty seconds of agony.
Thirty seconds of endurance.
His mind survived only because his will was stubborn enough to insult destiny itself.
When the pain finally ebbed, he breathed heavily.
But this time—his lungs, his voice, his body, all obeyed again.
"I can move… normally."
He opened his eyes.
Blood covered the floor. A dagger rested near his neck. The previous Leon had died by accident—slipping while cleaning his blade, falling onto it in the silence of midnight.
No misery. No tragedy.
A life lived fully, ended foolishly.
Leon whispered to the empty room, eyes still wet from inherited memories:
"At least you got fifteen good years, buddy."
He then absorbed the rest—the world's history, its races, its empires, its coin system, the destruction of ancient domains, the sealed demon god, the vanished dragons, the brutal hierarchy of nobles…
Everything.
His excitement flickered again, tinted now with a vein of fury at incomplete explanations.
He looked toward the silent sky outside the wooden Victorian-styled window and hissed:
"You cosmic bastards could've at least mentioned the demon god trying to conquer this world."
A rant muffled only by the fact that his new family was still asleep.
Then his eyes landed on a folded letter resting at the edge of the bed.
He ignored it—for now.
There was still a problem in his room to deal with first.