It hurts so much... Someone, please... Just end this already...
In the vast and empty space a single person, or what once was a person, is cursing its existence while it drifts with no goal to reach and no means to go back to where it came. Inside this dark place where even the concept of time is inexistent, it cannot know how much time has passed since it ended up here, it may be an hour, a day, a year, or even a thousand years, the simple attempt to keep track of time is a vain struggle. For many times now it thought that this place is hell itself, even though it doesn't know what has it done to deserve such suffering, even with its body already destroyed its consciousness continues alive, as if mocking its pleas for mercy or any hope of ending it, the pain only ever got worse and it would never give any rest, it doesn't even know it kept its sanity until now.
The first thing it thought when it fell into the hole is that it somehow fell into a river or an underground lake. The water was somewhat denser than normal water, maybe it was polluted or something, even then the current was so strong that it couldn't swim back to the surface, it tried to cry for help, but its voice wasn't coming out. It was completely dark, and no matter how much it tried to reach the surface the current wouldn't let it, not long after it ran out of breath. At that time it was already overcome with despair, all it could think is that it was going to drown and die, little did it know that fate had something worse prepared. Being dragged by the current, it already was out of breath, but surprisingly enough it still was conscious, and it started to be dragged to the bottom of this "river". The deeper it went the more it struggled to go up but to no avail, it was like it couldn't control its own body anymore, and any strength it could muster to swim was mercilessly denied by the current. Soon enough came the pain, the pressure on its entire body slowly started to get unbearable, its body started to give in to the pressure, and it could feel its bones cracking and its skin starting to tear up, after some time all it could think is that it hoped everything to end soon, but again like a comedian insisting on a bad joke, it didn't die even after its body was destroyed, all that remained was its conscience and the pain.
That seems to have happened so long ago that it almost doesn't even remember, the little hope that it had in the beginning, that someone would find it, that maybe it would reach the end of the "river" still alive and it would find some way out of this dark tunnel-like place, but that naive thinking was gone long ago, after all this time it was certain that this place was hell, period. It now only focused on retaining its sanity for some reason and trying to endure the pain somehow, right after it lost its body the pain turned from a type of pressure to something seeping inside it and destroying it from inside, it hurt so much more that it honestly wished the pain went back to the pressure-like pain it was before. After some time it discovered something, if it concentrated really hard and imagined that the thing seeping into was calming down like still water on a lake the pain would lessen even if just a little, unfortunately, it didn't last long, but was better than nothing. And after who knows how long it been in here, it sees a point of white for the first time since it fell, it is just a point for now but it could tell that the point is steadily growing as if getting closer to the end of a tunnel. A swirl of emotions surged inside of it at that moment, the little hope it thought was gone, "Maybe this is an exit...", but at the same time it was scared, "What if I'm wrong and the pain gets worse just like last time...", but the current paid no mind to its worries and proceeded in the direction of the point.
***
The God Realm, a place both apart and inside the world, is from where the gods watch over and maintain the world and the living beings on it. Different from what various mortals think, the god realm isn't an infinite blank place where nothing happens, far from it, it is full of nature with lush green trees growing and rivers crossing the hills in the distance, spirits of all sorts come and go enjoying the abundance of their respective elements, greater spirits go around using their power to maintain the world's ecosystem, and throughout the land, you can see various temples made of marble, precious metals, and jewelry all the while without being over luxurious or pretentious, these are the temples were each god lives and work. Even among these luxurious temples all over the realm, there is a specially big temple at the top of the biggest hill at the center of the land, the temple had huge columns made of white marble decorated with a delicate and well-thought amount of gold and onyx. The capital of the columns had statues and engravings that seemed to change every time o looked at it, depicting stories, tales, and deeds made by brave heroes of the past or even tales of other gods since every one of these events sang praise to the owner of the temple, looking around the temple one could see from the shine that even the light seemed to kneel and genuflect in respect of the divine being that lives there, the Goddess of Creation, Patroness of Light and Dark Goddess Alin.
Inside the temple, in the furthermost room, there is a beautiful seated at the table and drinking tea while being attended by an angel with two pairs of wings, the woman suddenly stops the raised teacup and looks at some place in the distance.
"Hn? That is a rare event, better fix it now"
The next moment the goddess is already nowhere to be seen leaving only a dumbfounded angel behind.
In a remote place in the realm, the figure of a woman appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Alin was looking fixedly at a random point on the horizon, then the air started to crack like thin ice, sensing the signs that the realm barrier would break, Alin came here to fix it before anything happened but just right before she circulate her power to cast the restoration spell something inside her made her wait for a little, and since one cannot dismiss the intuition of a divine being so easily Alin decided to look at the situation and judge it accordingly. The crack in the air spread faster until tiny holes and a dark place could be seen behind it, when the hole got big enough for a person to pass Alin stared in shock at what she saw. A single soul, so tattered it could disappear at any second was drifting in the void, a place that normally only divine beings like Gods and Titans could survive, and the soul was coming directly to her.
"How did you end up in there, oh Little One?"
Alin retrieved the soul before it could be further damaged by the void and closed the barrier crack, she was all the more shocked when she saw that the soul was still conscious and sane, how can it be? A lone soul is the most unprotected state of a living being and just by being near a fraction of the energy in the void while in a pure soul state the pain should be so unbearable that one should shut down its consciousness to protect its sanity. This soul not only was in the void long enough for it to be this battered but it did this while retaining its sanity, it's nothing but a miracle! Alin decided to take a look inside the memories of the soul to understand how it ended in this situation, and almost teared up when she was done doing it.
***
As it got closer and closer to the white dot it saw that it was a hole that lead to a place it could not quite see because of the brightness, but it got convinced that it was a way out of this place, for the first time in a long time it got a glimpse of hope, it would finally be able to rest. Not long after, a sudden invisible force pulled him inside the hole, and when it got a hold of what was happening it was being held in the hands of a beautiful woman that seemed to radiate light by herself. In the hands of the woman, it felt that the pain finally subsided, and with the end of the pain came together with a wave of tiredness that it never felt before making it hard to think.
The angel lady said something while it was processing the fact that the pain was gone, but the drowsiness made it really hard to focus on what she said. When it looked at the woman again to ask her to repeat it saw large teardrops falling from her golden eyes.
"M-Miss Angel... why... are you... crying?"
"Fufu! Fret not Little One, it seems that you have been through some arduous times"
The woman wiped away the tears and smiled sweetly when it expressed its concern for her. She then caressed it like a mother to its child and continued to talk.
"My dear child, you have gone through a long way to come back, so many hardships, but be relieved for I will heal your tired soul. Now sleep Little One, I pray that your next life can be filled with love and happiness!"
When the angel was done talking it could feel the drowsiness winning over it, and hearing the parting words of the lady it lost its consciousness.
"Go my child, we will meet again when the time is right..."
