Serena’s consciousness floated in emptiness hear five senses couldn’t feel anything “This is how death feels like” She thought.

Suddenly she heard a nostalgically familiar voice, “You are not dead yet.”

In a flash, the world brightened up all around her. She was in a meadow of beautiful flowers which extended to the horizon. She could see a person at a distance walking towards her, her silver hair fluttering like waves of an ocean.

“White, I am happy you came to see me. That means Illya came to you, now I am relieved.” Serena.

“You are calm, very calm, rather it feels like you knew I would already come.” White.

“not ‘knew’ it was a gamble, I knew you will come find me if Illya came to you, I wanted to see you one last time.” Serena spoke calmly.

“and it seems you won that gamble, I was wondering why you did not want Illya to wait till tomorrow to meet me, knowing you wanted to meet me makes me happy.”

“I sure won, By the way what do you mean I Am not dead? I am still alive?” Serena asks

“No, you are not alive. You see when a person dies their soul enters the astral realm, only then will the soul be completely disconnected from the body. In your case your consciousness was already cut off and before your soul entered the astral realm, I brought it here.” White explained.

“So, I am a soul right now?” Serena asked.

“Yes, I can not meet you in the astral realm as it is a fragile realm for souls and it can’t handle a divine entity such as myself, so I will have to wait till you go to heaven which will take a very long time so I brought you here you see that door behind you, it connects to heaven and can send you there directly.” White lectured, pointing at a golden door that appeared out of nowhere behind Serena.

It surprised Serena “A door to heaven, that sounds cliche.”

“I can make it different, but they won’t be as aesthetically pleasing.” White spoke.

Serena touched the beautiful door, admiring it. “White, what is heaven like?” she asked.

“it's quite the beautiful place, all the souls deemed worthy come there to enjoy, its like a tourist spot and souls are the tourists there. They come and enjoy to their heart's content before leaving to reincarnate again.”

“is that so…, then what is this place?” Serena asked dazed.

“this is a place I created.” White answered.

“I will go to heaven if I cross this door.” mumbled Serena.

White heard her and spoke “Yes”.

Serena looked around her, the beautiful meadows and turned to look at White she thought... feels like I have a choice again.

Suddenly she thought of something “White, how are ghosts formed if they go to the astral realm?”

White did not understand why Serena asked that question but still answered “Ghosts are the souls that deny afterlife, why they do so is not definite, the usual reason is because of resentment and regrets which is very rare.”

“but being haunted is not that uncommon.” Serena replied.

“True, but they are because of the heavy resentment of the soul which is left behind, usually souls leave their resentments and regrets to the one that caused them, it will get add up as karma and cause that person misfortune. Pure ghosts which denied afterlife itself are very rare, as denying the afterlife is the same as denying a life again. Even though they are still souls, they can’t reincarnate ever again.”

“Is that so...” replied Serena in a daze.

Like that, the door behind her slowly dissipated.

It shocked White, “what are you doing Serena, why did you deny heaven?”

“that is simple, I don’t want to reincarnate,” Serena replied calmly.

White was panicking, “Why did you do that? Souls are a fragile existence, if something happens to you in this state no one can bring you back, because of the suffering you faced and mana overuse, you as a soul are way weaker than normal souls.”

Serena placed a finger on White’s lips “I know what I am doing, I can’t go to heaven but I can stay here, or are you not okay with me being here?”

“No, but..” Serena interrupted White.

“That is all I need to know, while I am staying here who can harm me and I can always meet you here or are you saying that heaven is more beautiful and I should go there?” Serena teased White.

“How can heaven compare to what I created...  nO, that's not it don’t change the topic, Why did you deny afterlife?”

“what do you mean why? How can I leave Illya to someone who hasn’t been a parent before?” Serena spoke seriously.

“that’s harsh..” White got interrupted again

“And you, we haven’t met in a long time, just meeting me for a few minutes to exchange greetings and sending me off, is that all you want to do?” Serena spoke, squinting her eyes with a frown.

“No.” White tried to speak.

“Or, might it be that you have your goddaughter now, so you don’t need me?” Serena

“N..” White tried to speak, but now there was a palm on her mouth.

“Shut up and let me complete first, if you care about me too and not just my daughter then let me stay here with you, this time I am not leaving. Or are you saying you are not my friend anymore?” Spoke Serena seriously.

White's CPU was trying to process what she just heard... not my friend anymore?.. my friend?!

"Friend? You, me?" White confused.

"Who else is there except for you? Or are you saying I am not your friend?" Serena asked as if her entire life was a lie.

"But.. but you always use Formal speech when talking to me." White spoke, she felt wronged.

"White, I am a noble and from childhood I spoke formally because everyone around me spoke that way. I considered you as my friend the day I started addressing you 'White' instead of 'Goddess', it is not my fault for you not noticing it, today too I spoke as informally as possible but you did not notice it. Now that you know, please take care of me and my Daughter White." Serena Spoke smiling.

"That means, I already had a friend but did not notice it? " White dumbfounded, tears slipping from the corner of her eye.

They fulfilled her prophecy which first led her to her goddaughter and now it helped her realise she already had a friend.

Looking at White who started spilling tears, Serena brought White's head in her bosom and embraced her "Rather than taking care of me, looks like I will have to take care of you. You see, White I was only close to my mother, but she died when I was young and from then I was lonely, until the day you saved me and helped me find my family, my daughter Illya. You were the one who brought her into this world, you are her godmother which makes you family too. I really don't know what families are but my mother said 'a family is when the people in it are together not only in happy moments but sad moments as well' you always treated me and Illya as family and long since we considered you family too." patting White’s head.

"mmm" White nodded like a kid and lifted her face.

"I have a family and an IRL Friend" White mumbled, looking at Serena's face and smiling happily.

"Wait, What is this IRL friend??" Serena spoke suddenly, it crushed the emo mood they had going on.

"Read the mood Serena, although saying IRL poked your curiosity, couldn't you have asked about it more subtly maintaining the pleasant mood we had there?" White gob smacked at how Serena could easily destroy the mood she herself created.

"Our mood was pleasant but too cliche, to be honest its better to redo it than continue. ," Serena back to speaking calmly.

"Serena!" White did not understand how her friend's brain worked... her IQ is high but EQ seemed a bit low, wait isn't that cliche too?