The rift was kind of trippy. I was flung through space and time as the fractals quickly flashed past and I was encased in a tunnel of light. I kept pushing as the light purple of Psyche’s realm was quickly replaced by the black of Thanatos.

I was worried for a moment, until I recalled Psyche’s words about how I would never be taken again. I sped through the tunnel, the dark quickly getting brighter as the end of the tunnel grew near. Somehow, I instinctively knew to head for the light as the glow grew brighter and brighter.

Suddenly, with an almost electric sensation, I found myself on all fours, panting with exhaustion from crossing the veil between the realms. It was then when I realized that I had a humanoid form again. I collapsed, rolling on my back to lie down, but as I did so, I felt something beneath me. When I put too much pressure down that same something quickly protested with a jolt of pain. I sat up in a flash, nursing my back.

When I did so, my eyes widened as I felt something connected to my back. I reached around, former exhaustion nearly forgotten, as I turned around to confirm my suspicions.

There they were, a quartet of butterfly wings reminiscent of Psyche’s, albeit less detailed. They were large and a deep purple, properly proportioned to my body as I discovered after looking over myself some more.

As I did so, I slowly became aware of another weird sensation. It was like I had another nose, except I could smell weird chemical smells, additionally, I could feel the wind playing with something attached to my head, tugging this way and that.

I reached up to my head and took hold of the antennae up there, I stared at them for a while, trying to understand the sensations they were giving me. It was like another sense, except it just sharpened the senses I already had.

As I put them back, I noticed my hair. It was, of course, purple. I came to the conclusion that the girl who I’d seen back in Psyche’s realm was me, or at least the new me after having reincarnated.

If so, then I was lucky indeed. I could tell instinctively that my wings would work, and let me fly, and with some practice, I was able to move my antennae. This is crazy, I thought to myself. I'm really alive again. 

I panicked slightly when I realized I couldn’t hear Psyche anymore. I called her name over and over again in my new voice, which was melodic and bright. But I couldn’t hear her no matter how hard I tried.

After a few minutes of this, I figured that the trip to the mortal realm might have something to do with why I couldn’t hear her. So after a while, I decided to continue onwards with the expectation that I’d be able to hear her eventually, and decided to enjoy this new life that I had been granted.

I looked around properly for the first time in my new life. I was sitting in a field. Flowers stretched out as far as the eye could see, and where I was, a clump of lily-of-the-valley in the shape of a butterfly grew freely. 

I reached to my chest in glee, grinning as I felt a beating pulse that signified I had blood pumping through my body once more. I walked, marveling at how I could move freely, then started running, my joyous yells echoing through the field.

I didn’t know how long I had run for, but I was interrupted in my thoughts by a ding! Noise followed by the phrase [+1 Body]. I looked around, before realizing it must've been a System message. 

Now, how to access the System? I wondered. If it was anything like the books I had read on earth, then all I would have to do was say the word “Status”. I promptly did so, but nothing happened. I stared at my hand, willing it to appear, but to no avail.

I kept trying to access the system for a while, before the sound of giggling resonated in my mind. [Hehehe, that's not how you do it at all!] Psyche said in my head.

I smiled, at last I could hear Psyche again. I was worried that the transport could’ve blocked me from being able to talk to her, and was hoping that the solution lay in the system, but now that I could hear her again, I was relieved.

[You know Psyche, when I first met you I thought that you were all serious, but you really aren't at all] I sent back mischievously, knowing how she had tried to act all high and mighty with all her that motherly bullshit, but really she was just a girl, same as me.

Really, if anything, she managed to prove that even with the immense gap in power between us, Psyche was still a person with emotions, same as anyone. No one deserved to be isolated for as long as she had been, and now that she had some means of interacting with the mortal realm, she must've been giddy with excitement.

[Hey!] She exclaimed, [I’ll have you know that I’m actually very serious by the way!] 

I chuckled. “Sure you are,” I said aloud.

She responded again. [If you keep this up I won't tell you how to access the System.] she grumbled. I smiled again, I could imagine her pouting from all the way in her realm.

I did want to access the System though, so I stopped teasing her. [Alright then, you’re very serious,] I told her. 

[Good!] she said, her tone letting me know she was amused. [You can access the System for the first time by thinking “System: Status” and from there you should be able to change the opening command if you want.]

I smiled again. System: Status! I commanded, and before my eyes, a glowing purple box appeared in front of me. 

It shone with an ethereal purple light, and bordering it were dozens of little butterflies.

[Status:]

[Personal Information:]

[Name: Cynthia]

[Titles: Interdimensional, Avatar of Soul]

[Race: Avatar (Psyche)]

[Age: 0]

[Class: -]

[Level: 1]

[Rank: Iron]

[Attributes:]

[Body: 11]

[Mind: 10]

[Soul: EX]

[Skills:]

[Soul Immortal, Flight, Telepathy, Soul Siphon, Butterfly Born, Soul Blast]

Woah, I thought, that's awesome! I didn’t change the way to open the status menu, but the ‘System:’ prefix made me wonder if there were any other commands in the system.

[There are,] Psyche replied when I asked, [but most of them aren’t usable by mortals, even you can't use most of them. You can however ask the system for basic information by using the command “System: Identify” and then focusing on whatever you want to identify. Just know that this will only show the name and level of another person, unless they have a title equipped, and everything can feel when Identify is used on it.]

I thanked her, before using Identify on all my skills.

The basic ones like Flight and Telepathy were as expected. I sort of figured that I had those skills, given my ability to speak with Psyche, as well as having a quartet of giant butterfly wings on my back.

It was the other skills that gave me pause however.

Soul Siphon sounded scary, and it was. It allowed me to take [Soul] from people and use it to empower myself or others, or even use it to boost my magic. Not that I had to of course, my own [Soul] was apparently infinite. A gift from Psyche. I thought it seemed crazy overpowered, but apparently other Avatars had even more bonkers powers, so there's that I guess.

Soul Blast looked pretty OP as well. It allowed me to fire a bolt of pure soul energy, an entirely offensive attack.

It was the last two skills that really made my eyes almost pop out of my head. What I understood was that Butterfly Born basically meant that I was just a bunch of butterflies forming a body, and that I could do some crazy stuff with that. Soul Immortal however was the coolest thing I had seen so far. When I read the description I thought it must be wrong, because it was just that awesome. It meant that even if I died, due to being pumped full of soul by Psyche, I would never truly die. Instead, I would reform in Psyche’s realm, and after some time, I would be able to return again to the mortal realm.

This news was game changing. It meant that I would never again have to cower behind some shelf and watch as a poor boy was bullied by teens, it meant that if a situation escalated like it did at the servo, then I didn’t have to fear for my life.

I could finally go out and help people, with my newfound powers and immortality, I could bring hope to more than just a few animals, I could start to save people as well!

Of course, I wasn’t at that level yet, after Identifying the rest of my status, I found that while [Soul] was the amount of magic somebody had, and while I seemed to have the same amount of magic as a god, it was [Mind] that allowed me to use it, as well as controlling things like perception and thought. [Body], meanwhile, was similarly important, as it regulated how strong my magic was, as well as other important things like my strength and stamina, and health.

As it stood, my stats, with the exception of [Soul] seemed to be around the average for level 1. Meaning that I really was fairly weak really, which was quite rubbish in my belief. 

But from what I understood, I had the rest of my seemingly immortal life to raise my stats, and maybe even one day I could ascend and join Psyche in her realm. I don’t really know why I was so fixated upon that, but I decided that I wouldn’t let her sit alone up there anymore, and that would be my end goal. Psyche giggled again and called me a fool for trying. 

I took this in good nature however and laughed, my voice echoing in this vast new open world.

So with some pep in my walk, and with a voice in my head, I set off in a random direction, off to find civilization, and hopefully level and meet lots of awesome people as I traveled the world.

PurpleMonarch

And so ends the prologue!

Thanks for sticking around to get here, your comments and support really mean the world to me. Truly thank you all for being such a welcoming community! 

Yours truly,
- Monarch