The afterlife? WHAT!? HOW!? DID THOSE ELVES SNEAK UP ON ME!! HOW DARE THEY!!!
While I stew in rage for a while, Stella just lets me get it out of my system. I try to lash out with some lightning and it fails. It doesn’t even activate, crashing my raging train of thought enough for me to realize that there is not anything I can do as I don’t feel the mana I’ve gotten so familiar with lately. This revelation just stumps me long enough for Stella to continue.
“I did not expect to see you so soon again. Your arrival here is quite opportune since it forces the other gods to make a decision with how to handle the souls of you players, which are all different mixes of your old souls from Earth and your new souls of Arcadium. There is also a problem in that Danievil did not want to reveal your existence to the rest of the pantheon, which I am now going to do so that I can pressure the others.”
“I wasn’t expecting to see you as soon again either.” I quip back, while trying to comprehend her words.
“Speak of the devil and she shall arrive. It seems she discovered your untimely death and wants to speak with you.”
“I can’t see her.” I state after looking around and not finding her.
“I am not letting her in until I have conveyed what I need to you.”
Wait, I thought Danievil was a goddess. Can Stella just forcefully keep her out?
“And what do you need to convey to me?”
“Your cause of death and what lies ahead.”
“And how did I die? Was it the Elves?!” I ask, feeling my temper rise again.
“No. Absorbing such a large amount of foreign mana as you did caused your death. The elves you encountered are in fact terrified of you and are currently having a celebration to honor the lives of the people you killed.”
“And for what lies ahead, it depends on a few things, but it will remain undecided until I force the others to make a decision, or give me the authority to deal with you like they did with the rest of the souls.”
Excess mana killed me? That’s possible? How?
As my mind spins in circles trying once again to comprehend the fact that I’m no longer alive, a familiar appears in front of me and lifts me in a hug.
“Danievil, if you do not attend the meeting I will note down your disinterest in the topic and we will start without you.” Stella jumps on her arrival to push her agenda.
“Who put you in charge? And you are here as well, does that mean you don’t care?” She shoots back with a slightly accusatory tone, deviating slightly from her regal tone.
“I am attending the meeting. I do not understand why you inhabit a mortal shell, when you, in fact, are not mortal. It severely limits your existence.” Stella answers with the same powerful and uncaring voice.
“I can’t just alter the way I think. I was a mortal for the majority of my existence, how can you just discard your corporeal body?”
“I had to do it as someone needed to properly care for this world,especially since the rest of you just kept on treating it as a game. I have done more to maintain and run this world than the rest of you combined. While the rest of you played around and talked with the players, I made the afterlife. It is entirely necessary for life to not go extinct, yet none of you felt the need to even consider it. The only other deity that has done as much as me is Unity, and it does not even think independently.” Stella fired back with some deep seated annoyance making its presence known in her voice.
Danievil just stared at her and put me down, opening her mouth, but not saying anything.
“Now, go partake in the meeting. Anna will still be here afterwards since her future relies on the decision being made. The others seem content with giving me the authority to deal with player souls, since that means they do not have to deal with it. So just get it over with and let me do what is necessary.” Stella says with some finality, and Danievil disappears.
Despite the short duration of the conversation, it was hard to follow along, and based on Danievils expression, there was more going between them than I heard. It’s also scary to know that there is a meeting deciding your fate, and apparently the deity in charge of your fate is annoyed.
I just slowly turn to face her while trying to unravel the implications. Could I at least get her to tell me the likely outcome? Timidly I ask her what the likely future holds.
“There are a few options, with the most likely being healing your body just enough to not be fatal, and reinserting your soul. Mainly because nobody is near you and Danievil wants that. The other options are reincarnation with or without your memories, with the same body or a new one, or becoming a spirit or angel. Both spirits and angels are intended to be the assistants of us gods, but incorporeal and corporeal, respectively.”
That’s more options than I thought there would be, and the most likely scenario is the best one, though it’s kinda disheartening to know that my opinion didn’t weigh in. She mentioned healing just enough to not be fatal, but how much is that? How badly did I break my body? And in response to me asking, a tear in space appears, just like the first time I met her. Except this time, the material world is seen through it.
In the middle of the tear, my body lies limply in the center of a destroyed landscape. My fur is singed all over, and lots of small craters litter the area around. The cause of both is obvious as strong magenta lightning bolts regularly strike out from my body, damaging both it and whatever it hits.
To add insult to injury, well I guess add insult to mortality, it has started to rain. I don’t know what to feel right now. On one hand, it’s MY dead body, but on the other hand, it’s not the one I grew up in.
Since moving towards the tear doesn’t get me any closer, so I just stay still. I don’t know how long I stayed like that, just that I lost count of the number of lightning bolts after forty seven.
At some point, Danievil returned and hugged me from behind, though I just kept on staring at my corpse.
“You ok?” she asks me in a slightly concerned voice.
“I’m dead. I would classify that as not ok.” I say back in a voice as despondent as I’m starting to feel.
“Well, the meeting concluded and it was decided to give Stella the authority in this matter. I have petitioned her to revive you, and she agreed to do so this time. But you will have to wait until your body is discharged, since doing it now would just lead to your death again.” She calmly informs me of my upcoming revival.
After that we just sat there watching the discharging of my body, and at some point the tear closed and everything went black.
OW! Everything hurts.
I try to sit up, but I’m unable to. Opening my eyes reveals that it’s still raining and with a concerted effort, I manage to roll over and crawl over to my bed. After laying on the wet ground for a while to recuperate, I manage to push through the pain enough to lift myself up onto the bed, before I promptly pass out.
I awaken a few times just long enough to reposition myself, and at some point I awaken enough to realize that I’m unbelievably thirsty. Trying to access my inventory, yields nothing. Opening my eyes shows the sun shining brightly in the middle of a clear blue sky.
This time I managed to sit up straight and survey the now quite damaged clearing. Even one of the legs of my canopy is melted and deformed. The abominite is sitting near the center of destruction and is almost a perfect pale white, with only a small hint of magenta.
With a thundering headache I manage to get up and stumble over to the lake. When I bend down to drink some of the water, I fall over. It probably takes me a minute to gather the strength to put my hands down and lift my head out of the water.
The slightly dirty freshwater lake is probably the BEST water I have ever drank. After savoring the hydrating feeling for a while my mind clears enough to recognise the burn marks on my arms.
Despite feeling down about my ruined fur, I take a second round of delightful water before walking slightly more steadily back to the bed, promptly falling down onto it.
After recuperating from the treacherous journey to the water for a while, I start to think of the consequences of, and reason for my inability to access my inventory. Turns out I just have very little mana in my body, and it is slowly gaining more. Too slowly, but it’s only a matter of time until I can access the food my body desperately craves.
The solution is simple, just sleep until there is enough mana. After that, I simply relax my body and fall asleep.
I very much like how death is being handles in this story. I wonder to what extent it goes to the people native to this world, but it's clear those elves from before are staying dead.