How do you measure time, when time ceases to be? That’s the question I found myself asking after waking up; I’d passed out at some point in the process of pouring all of my power into Reina.

In doing so, I’d somehow transformed in my sleep; my body was now in my true form.

Though I seemed to be much smaller than I remembered, I was back to being a green scaled serpent; the scales on my back were thick, almost to the point of resembling armor plating, while the gray scales on my stomach were thin and flexible. I didn’t need to see my eyes to know they were colored bright orange and lacked pupils of any kind- I wasn’t blind in this form, far from it. It was just a side effect of my ascension.

Now, while I didn’t particularly mind being in this form, being forcibly transformed was… disorienting to say the least.

Trust me, you’ll never truly realize how much you’ll miss having a pair of hands until they’re gone.

To that end, I immediately tried to shift back into my human form. No pun intended, but it was my most handy form. However, no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t seem to get back my beloved thumbs.

After several more attempts, I resigned myself to being unarmed for the time being- though I vowed not to rest until I could pat myself on the back once again.

I finally gave my surroundings the attention they deserved and realized that the world I awoke to was somewhat familiar to me.

I was laying on a large grassy knoll overlooking the ocean. My body had been laid out in emerald colored grass that felt like laying on a pillow, and the sky was so blue it looked almost fake.

There didn’t appear to be any source of light in the sky, the sky remained bright. It cast everything in a sapphire hue that took my breath away. The ocean was crystal-clear and reflected the light from the sky beautifully, though, the waters were far from calm.

The turbulent waters crashed against short wall fashioned from white bricks; the wall couldn’t have been more than three feet high, yet no water could overcome it.

After staring at the wall for a while, I moved on and found myself gazing upon a tree at the top of the hill. The tree was barely more than a sapling, but there was a series of rainbow lights swirling around its then trunk. On the end of it singular branch, hung a crystal sphere about the size of a grape.

I climbed up the hill to sit next to the tree. It was barely taller than I was, but even so I recognized it for what it was. It was a sapling that would later grow into Yggdrasil.

It was the only thing it could be.

*Ding!*

The green tinted screen pulsated faintly, no doubt to maintain my attention. My eyes widened upon seeing the screens. For starters, aside from each ‘quest’ title being marked through, the word “complete” was stamped in bold red letters. That was something I’d never seen before.

“Erm… Okay? Status.” I muttered, feeling absolutely ridiculous about playing along.

“Oh… OH!” I exclaimed while staring at the screen.

I couldn’t believe it actually worked. The screens had never obeyed my requests. Sure, there was the odd case where it would humor me. But I had never been able to call up the screen whenever I wanted to.

I had to remind myself to focus before I started playing around with the screen. As handy as it was to call it whenever I needed to, I had other things to worry about right now.

I read through my status screen and looked at what I could do. “Could I get a description of the attributes and what they do?”

*Ding!*

Line after line of text appeared before my eyes. Each one detailing the intricacies of each stat, and what functions they controlled.

As an example, I focused on the first stat my eyes landed on, the strength stat.

I was too stupefied by the incoming information to process it at first. But after a few seconds I got my wits together and read through it multiple times to make sure I had it memorized. This was already an incredible sight, and I was giddy with excitement.

“Um… Add four points to strength, five points to endurance, two points to dexterity, six points to intelligence, and three points to charisma.” A series of chimes let me know that the changes were accepted, and this was reflected in the status screen.

I shifted my vision to the bottom, specifically at the evolution options. Twenty evolution points wasn’t a lot, I could buy either an upgrade to my eyes, an upgrade to my heat sense, or the upgrades for my fangs and venom.

Well, I knew the most important thing right now was to have a means to defend myself if the need arises. I seriously doubted I would need it, but it wasn’t like I needed to improve the others either, so I might as well go with what made me most comfortable.

I went with the fang and venom upgrades- as with before, a series of chimes let me know that the upgrades had been purchased and this was reflected on the screen.

An intense pain at the center of my body drove me into the ground. Blood and some kind of black tar-like substance poured freely from my mouth. I could hear a series of pops from inside my mouth, which only served to freak me out even more.

I writhed in pain for god knows how long before it ceased and I came back to myself. I’d been clenching my teeth so hard I thought they would break- Wait, teeth?

I ran my tongue along the ridge of my mouth and, to my surprise, found that I did have a set of strong, hook-shaped teeth, and a pair of small fangs at the forefront of my mouth, attached to my upper jaw.

I wanted to cough, even tried to force one a couple of times to no avail. Instead, I was forced to hold my mouth open, with my head tilted forward and my mouth facing the ground and wait until the tar stopped flowing- which took a surprisingly long time.

Once it did stop, I called up my status window while focusing specifically on the evolution options, the screen immediately appeared. My purchases were already reflected in the menu.

I couldn’t stop myself from grinning- or whatever approximation a snake could get to a grin.

“What’s… Where am I?” Someone muttered. The voice was small and weak, but I heard it clearly and recognized it immediately.

“Reina?” I hesitantly asked. A part of me was excited, she was alive… But another part of me was terrified that I was hallucinating. I hadn’t realized it in all the chaos, but I hadn’t seen her body since I woke up. It was just… gone.

Which begged the question, If she was alive. Where was she?

“Torga?” The voice returned, sounding slightly more real this time. “What’s going on? Where are we?” She sounded scared; on the edge of a nervous breakdown, scared.

“Reina, listen to me very carefully okay. I’ll explain everything. I promise. But I need you to keep talking so I can find you.”

“Find me? What are you talking about, you’re right in front of me. And, while I don’t mind, I have to ask. Why do you look like a snake again?”

I stopped moving immediately. I slowly twisted my head around until I was facing the tree. “Long story. Reina, are you sure I’m looking at you?”

“Yeah. You’re looking right at me.” She was sounding a bit exasperated, but it wasn’t my fault.

The only thing I was looking at was the tree… Oh shit. “Reina, sweetheart, promise you won’t freak out…”

---

Reina

---

“What kind of clusterfuck have you gotten us involved in now, Torga? And why am I a TREE??” I yelled as loud as I possibly could.

To his credit, Torga let me rant until I was satisfied. I called him every name in the book, and invented a few more on the spot, but he never wavered. He merely waited until I was done before he began speaking again.

“As I was trying to say, some stuff went down- all of reality died- and now we get to re-create everything.”

“Oh, is that all. Just the casual death of reality, and everything in it. That’s a normal Tuesday for you right, Torga?” I asked a little more forcefully than I probably should have. But I couldn’t help it, how was I meant to react to that? “Please, just this once, don’t try to protect me and tell me the truth. What happened?”

He was quiet for moment. His eyes tired, and sad.

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

I scoffed at the question. “Of course, it’s…” But there was nothing there. I tried again, reaching even further into my memories for a sign, anything beyond what was in front of me. But no matter how far back I reached, I couldn’t remember anything. “Give me a moment.”

“Absolutely. Take however long you need.”

True to his word, Torga stayed quiet while I searched for my memories. Even a scrap would do- An inkling would suffice… I was left disappointed.

“Nothing. I remember… Nothing.”

“Are you sure? Think hard, Reina. Do you truly remember nothing?”

“There’s nothing there.”

“But are you sure?”

I felt myself growing agitated. “Yes, I’m sure. You think I haven’t been trying to remember!?” I screamed. “Why do you keep asking? If I say I don’t remember, then I don’t remember.”

“You remembered me.”

His words hit me like a brick. I fell silent and tried again… I had remembered him. I remembered who I was- what I was. I remembered that I was once a human, who became an Elf after dying on earth. Information regarding myself was right there, just waiting for me to call on it.

It was everything else that I’d forgotten.

“I remember us.” I said finally. My voice quivered as the reality of my situation set in. “I only remember us.”

Torga stayed quiet until I’d calmed down enough to remember what we’d been talking about.

It was suddenly our job to rebuild the universe… Last time I checked, they didn’t teach ‘universe creation 101’ in university, nor did they sell a ‘so you survived doomsday’ for dummies book.

How were we supposed to create the universe? I could barely cook on my own without setting the house on fire, yet he just casually tells me that we’re going to be responsible for rebuilding the Yggdrasill.

“Torga, I don’t think we can do this. We’re not gods, we can’t just snap our fingers and recreate an entire universe.”

“Relax, it’ll be fine. We have all the time in the world to get a handle on things, it’s not like we’re on a time limit or anything.”

That brought me up short. I’d been so focused on what he was saying that I’d forgotten the most important question. “Torga, how long was I dead?”

Upon hearing my words, Torga froze: every light that made up his body stopped moving at the same time, and he stared straight ahead- unable or perhaps unwilling to meet my eyes… Branches… Whatever.

He remained that way for a while, almost as if someone had pressed play, the lights began to move again. “I don’t know.” He muttered. “It was… Let’s just say it was a long time and leave it at that. Okay?”

A moment of uncomfortable silence pass between us. I felt bad, I’d let my own feelings go to my head and I never once thought of what he’d been going through… The problem was, I wasn’t sure how to apologize.

It was something I’d struggled with since I was a little girl back on earth. I would get so caught up in what I was doing, so sure of myself, that I forgot to think of other opinions. A habit which has caused far more pain than I care to remember.

“So… How does this work?”

Torga gave me a look that said he knew what I was doing, but he didn’t say anything. Of course, he never did.

“Just say status-” he paused midsentence and frowned at something I couldn’t see. He shook his head quickly, then continued to speak. “And it should appear for you. Though we need to tweak how sensitive it is, otherwise, this is going to get annoying very quickly.” He said the last bit to himself.

“Status?”

Reading the pop up made everything real. I was no longer an elf, I wasn’t even humanoid, I was some type of core?

“What’s an Yggdrasill core?”