When Maven came to, she was sitting in front of a table in a white, featureless space.

 

Ahead was a beautiful, slender woman with pure white hair, smiling at her with dopey grin. There was kindness and concern in her eyes, but something about her smile made Maven think she wasn’t quite all there.

 

“Hello, Maven! I’m so happy we finally get to talk.”  The unknown woman said with excitement.

 

“U-um. H-hello… Where am I?” Maven asked while nervously pivoting her head to the right and left. Her body would occasionally shiver in fear, almost like an aftershock of the stabbing that she had experienced but moments ago.

 

“You’re in my Divine Realm! My name is Kannon, I’m kind of a goddess around here. Goddess of Light and Life, that’s me! Helped create the world of Avalon with my siblings and everything.”

 

“Goddess…… uh huh….. Really?” Maven asked with a dumbfounded look on her face.

 

The utter ludicrousness of the self-proclaimed goddess’ statement completely stunned Maven.

 

She looked around and all she could see was a white and featureless void, the only visible objects for miles were the two woman, a table, and some chairs. She definitely didn’t want to believe she'd met a goddess, but Maven definitely remembered dying and the woman in front of her was positively overflowing with a divine aura.

 

The gentle light exuding from the white-haired goddess' every pore calmed those around her. Maven, too, was calmed by her presence - managing to gulp down a few breaths and forcibly wrench her thoughts out of a desperate spiral of doubt.

 

 

“So… am I… dead? You said we’re in your Divine Realm, but why am I here?” Maven asked with a shaking voice, failing to speak with any calm at all.

 

Clapping in praise, the goddess said, “Indeed you’re dead! When you died in your own world, Earth I think it was, I just so happened to notice and swoop in to grab your soul and bring it here. You see, I’ve been looking for so long to find a soul with strong power that strongly aligns with my divine power.”

 

Sounds even shadier than she looks, Maven thought.

 

Kannon, as if reading Maven's mind, desperately shook and her head and quickly rattled, “No-no! I don’t mean to trick you or anything… it just seemed like such a shame to allow your soul to uneventfully fly off the circle of reincarnation and end up as a beetle, a tree, or a blanket!”

 

 

Kannon continued on like a gatling gun, “I’ve been searching for hundreds of years, across thousands of worlds, for someone like you. You have a really amazing gift you know! Even on a world with just the barest traces of mana, like Earth, you could heal and bless others with life. So I was thinking, how amazing could you be if I brought you to my world, gave you my Divine Blessing, and made it easier for you to use the abundant mana here?