Shielded by Seals Prologue (Patreon)

Wow, took me a while, but finally getting all my ducks in a line! Going to start releasing chapters for this series, five a week, on weekdays. Almost done with the full Book 1.

For this one... the idea was to take a step away from Stats. I wanted a litrpg setting, but one that wouldn't have a ballooning Status Screen, hahaha. Let's see how long that lasts xD.

ToC: https://www.patreon.com/posts/132353583

Death.

When it took your hand, you did not mistake it.

The sensation was like a new eye opening… even as every other sense withered, leaving one in shivering darkness.

Yet when the man realized that he had died, he felt-

Relief.

Tension left his shoulders, even as his shoulders faded from memory. No more bills, no more taxes, no more sense of missing out. No more special occasions to forget, opportunities to step out and fail.

Then came guilt, because he felt relief. And sadness, because his few connections had been severed. His heart ached to think of the woman who had lived in the apartment across the hall. Fifteen years of staring at her closed door and wishing he could work up the nerve to knock. 

For the sound of her laugh, on the days the door was cracked open and he could take the invitation to say hello. 

The best part of the day. No matter what they talked about.

The man’s reminiscence continued. His sister and her son would miss him, but they only saw one another once or twice a year. Most of his life was spent with individuals in his online guild; they would wonder where he went, but the fickleness of gaming was such he’d soon be replaced.

It was only when he started thinking about the attendance at his funeral that the man felt genuinely bleak.

The thought felt acidic and the surroundings began to blur. The man knew he was moving. His senses were jumbled and confused. And the more helpless he felt, the faster he moved. So fast that he rushed past… a presence in the void. He felt kindness radiate from the presence. It stepped to the side and the man thought he heard-

After you.

A warm pulse of golden light spread out as he reached his destination.

“As expected, a man with such a firm heart… you have wandered Tartarus for almost six weeks before despair touched you.”

The man looked up at the voice. He floated in a vast white expanse. A woman smiled at him, wearing a white cloak embroidered with gold. When he looked too closely at her face, he began to get a headache, so the man looked away.

The woman produced a scroll and read from it. “Due to your exceptional dedication to the benefit of your fellow humans… well, I didn’t mean to bury the lede, but you’ve done it. Your consciousness has broken through the cycle of reincarnation. Congratulations.”

The man tilted his head to the side.

She continued to speak. “I am truly honored to have met an individual who worked themselves to the bone in pursuit of a better future for his species. Unfortunately, a single exemplary lifetime is not enough. You will be sent back into the chaos for one more round. Think of it as a trial, of sorts. Can you suppress selfish desire in the next life, as you did in this one? And also…” The woman hesitated. “Perhaps, this next lifetime will be more difficult. You came from a mundane world. In the next… well, miracles lay within the reach of the determined. Hopefully, your dedication can remain pure in the face of these temptations.”

The man scratched his cheek. Did there seem to have been some sort of mistake?

The woman could only release a helpless laugh. “...not phased in the least? Well, I suppose it is a waste of emotion to worry about problems you haven’t yet encountered and cannot control. Good luck, Osiris, in the next life.”

The woman waved her hand. As soon as the man in front of her vanished, the light in the space dimmed. The woman’s face became curiously inert. A hiss of air escaped from the side of her head… as the human skull parted and revealed a twisted spirit. It possessed no physical torso, but manifested as a pair of giant eyes and a vast mouth with countless rows of sharp teeth.

The specter concentrated and rearranged its features. “Truly, moving humans through the cycle of reincarnation without scaring them is exhausting…”

A pop pulled the specter around. A new specter appeared, with sharper eyes and a slightly smaller mouth. It nodded to the first. “I appreciate that you filled in for me. I’ll take it from here.”

The first specter nodded and popped away to the residential district. The second specter checked the reincarnation log, slipped into the human woman’s body, and restarted the vast ambient glow.

A new man appeared in front of the specter inside of the woman. He approached without hurrying, resisting the tide of despair of this place. The man had a shaved head and severe features. Yet in his expression, as the man weighed the surroundings, there was an inner peace of remarkable power. He met the environment with aplomb.

The woman consulted the scroll in front of her. “Wow, you… accomplished nothing in your life. No lingering attachments, no particular noteworthy achievements. A life that practically didn’t exist. In its own way, such aloofness is commendable.”

The new man nodded slowly. He clenched a fist. “Truly… what a single individual can accomplish, in the grand scope of the universe… is insignificant.”

Meanwhile…

*****

I felt confused.

In pursuit of the betterment of the species…?

What the hell, is she talking about all the grinding I did in Planet of Violencecraft?

…I mean, she did call me Osiris, my online nickname…

So, reincarnation, huh? Hah, is it lame that I’m getting excited? And I get to keep my memories.

So this time… I swear I’ll live a life where I cross the hallway and knock on the door.

My thoughts drifted away, swept up in a new wave of powerful light.

Just like that, I was reborn.