The fantasy worlds he had seen in the stories he read all seemed quite unfair, Asper Shinomura thought. Many abilities or talents were squarely locked behind your birth and couldn't be obtained otherwise no matter how hard you tried. He had wished if he were to ever be in such a world, that he could break those limits imposed on him.

Turns out, that chance would come to him, though not exactly the way he intended, as fate is fickle.

Never having been one to complain, Asper had thought long and hard in his last moments. While all the people he knew or who knew him were going to be able to live nice, long lives, he was here, on the side of the road, bleeding out to death.

'God damn it- how is this fair? I know I never cared and just continued on in those stories I read, but for a random truck to just come out of no where and kill me on my way home for no reason?' Though the thoughts were ridiculous, they were his last.

[Hello?]

[Is anyone there?]

In the abyss of what seemed to be infinite darkness, Asper thought this was what it felt like to ascend to the next plane, whatever that may be, but his soul was not moving. It was still, and then:

"Hello"

A tall, emaciated, but still immediately divine figure appeared in front of him.
 
[Who's there? Who are you?]

"I am God, or rather, one of them."

[What do you mean?]

"There are multiple gods, that's all there is to it. Now to the point, I am a special god. I have a unique ability that the other gods did not want to see developed, I'd like to pass it on to you and send you to another world. Unfortunately, giving it to you would be quite useless as it is and as you are."

[Why? Would your power not be helpful in another world I don't know?]

"Well, you didn't live long enough to rise or sink towards any special planes of existence, but though you had a neutral disposition, you seemed to have an interest in the idea of special forms of 'theft', so I, the Goddess of Thievery appeared over the others."

"To answer your other question, the other gods would be able to trace my power to you and definitely dispose of you before you could grow properly. So, to be able to get my revenge, I'm going to fine-tune my ability to be different. Although it'll be much weaker at the start, that won't be as much of a problem for you as it was me since I couldn't risk having my status toppled by other gods just for a better foundation on my abilities."

[So if I accept your power, I get caught in this godly power struggle?]

"You don't need to become a god, and I don't have any specific guidelines, you can do anything you want with my power. They won't even detect you until you are powerful enough to easily destroy them anyways. I only need you to eventually take revenge on the other gods that betrayed me."

[Who would that be though? I need to know my future enemies.]

"Your main targets are the twin ruler Goddesses, Arthea and Somire. Seeing my potential, I was hunted until I became like how you see me now. Also, although they weren't after me, almost every other god was complicit so they're guilty as well. Fate had it in itself to fuck you over too, so let's help each other out here, how about it?"

[What power would I be getting in exchange though?]

"Theft, as my title implies. Though it will not be physical objects, no. You'll work with the things you've always found intriguing, blood and souls. I'll even throw in some of my will to help guide you. I'll call it uh.. the Birthright Theft System."

'Whelp, couldn't hurt', Asper thought.
'Not like it'll get any worse'

[Sure, I'll be in your care then, where will I be reincarnating to?]

"The world of Heisel, according to your memories, it is a 'basic fantasy world'."

Not questioning the fact God knew about all his "special interests", Asper quickly accepted.

[Alright that's great, will there be others I can travel to?]

"With a god's power, of course. You can travel to any you imagine, though you'll need to gather a lot more power for that, so it's just this one for now."

[That's fine, thanks err-?]

"Noitra."

Closing her eyes, Noitra drew out the physical manifestation of her power, condensed it, and forced it down Asper's throat.

Pushing him away from the temporary spiritual dimension, her heart was immediately pierced by a spear of purple light.

"Remember your promise."