Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 1: Well, That’s Unfortunate.

A man was driving home from visiting family. His carriage was not magical yet propelled itself at speeds greater than any horse by two fold. His artifact, a small tablet capable of communicating across vast distances vibrated, informing him of a recently received message. He looked down at it to read the note that had just crossed miles in under a second.

At his speed he covered a hundred feet before his eyes could return to the road. During that one fleeting second an animal decided that that was the time to cross the road. As he looked up he saw the deer just before impact “OH SHI…” A crunch of glass and bone. A squeal of rubber. Then spinning as the carriage tumbled. By then he was already dead.

The deer, from the impact at such speeds, lost its legs to the front of the carriage. Its body impacted the glass forward facing window with enough force to plow through it and into the man’s head. Breaking his neck and killing him instantly.

His next conscious thought was not what one would expect. It was not of heaven nor hell, not of nothingness nor purgatory. It was a white room with a pair of young blonde twins lounging in pillow chairs. The brother’s eyes were green and blue and the sister’s brown and red. Their eyes were not simply a shade of these colors. No, they WERE those colors. The entirety of the concept of those colors were trapped in the twins' eyes. Their blonde hair was much the same. Every yellow was trapped in each strand as if the color was distilled into an ink. An ink that was then painted in space that just happened to exist in the place where their hair should be. For a mortal it was headache inducing. The mortal mind was not meant to perceive these things.

“Welcome child to our domain. You are here because you died.” The sister of the two said in a child-like voice.

The man, who would later become the Lord of Darkness itself, unbeknownst to any in the room, snapped out of his stupor at the words. He took a deep breath and looked down at his hand that he could now see through. “Well, that’s unfortunate.”

“Hahaha…” The sister laughed with a voice like wind chimes on a summer day “Well Zei you lost. I told you those would be his first words.”

The brother with a sigh and a voice that had yet to deepen replied: “Yes Rei. You win. I was almost certain his first statement would be,” He deepened his voice and made a serious face, “Fuck” then he chuckled to himself and returned his voice to his normal angelic, sweet, and slightly high pitch it normally was. “But it appears your guess was better than mine. After all, divination can never truly be one hundred percent accurate.”

The sister, Rei, smiled cheekily to herself then returned her attention to the man standing before them. He was an average height for his world with average looks and nearly black hair and eyes. He was still clothed in the garb he died in, a black shirt, blue jean pants, and black shoes. All in all unassuming and average yet her and her brother had a job to do.

“Well mortal, you died because a god from our realm decided to go on a vacation to yours. His presence caused that deer to prematurely cross the road right in front of you. He then had to make amends. Normally it would be as simple as resurrecting you and sending you on your way with some token of apology. However, there were witnesses so that was out of the question. Our existence in other planes MUST be kept a secret to mortals of Earth as a whole.” She explained casually as if it was just another errand to be done before the day was done.

The man looked at her with the same blank expression that had adorned his face since his entrance. “So what now? You said I’m dead. Is my soul being judged or something?”

“No.” The brother, Zei chimed in. “Your soul is to live out the rest of its natural time. In our world however, not yours.” He shifted in his chair. “You get to decide how we, the twin divinities of reincarnation, will recycle your soul.” He took a deep breath locking eyes with the mortal. “Do you want to stay dead?”

“What do you mean?” The man replied. Intrigue, concern, and confusion all wrapped into one in his voice yet very little of it reached his face.

“Well, we can recycle your soul completely. You, as you are, will end. Cease to be. Turned into energy for the next you to be born as a babe. A babe to some random pair of humans somewhere.” Rei continued “Alternatively we can leave you as you are, maybe take some of your memories and use them to give you power in this world that will be new to you. In this instance you may change your body as we will have to create a new one anyway.”

The man looked down in contemplation for a short while, the gods not disturbing him as they quite literally had all the time in the world. Then he spoke as he looked up “What kind of power?” He had already decided what memories he wanted to keep. “What kind of power, if I only want to remember my family’s names and how I feel about them? Well, I guess I would like to remember what little combat I know and I guess one thing about people in general.”

“Oh, and what is that one thing?” The sister asked leaning in like she was about to receive a little gossip on another god.

“That people are evil the more power they have over others. The strongest man in the world may be the kindest but the ruler of it WILL not be,” He stated with steel in his voice and conviction in his heart. Conviction to use whatever power he attained to make others’ lives better instead of worse, as so many in power have throughout his world’s history.

“Hahaha I like this one brother,” Rei giggled. “Magic. That is what you will receive. Mortals from this world can have magic from many sources, study, bloodline, or natural magic anomalies. It happens often enough. However, their connection to the mana of their world is weak. You, amusing mortal, in exchange for your memories will have a strong connection to one type of mana specifically. This will prevent you from even using the other types of mana. However, the mana in your body will refill in a matter of minutes , maybe even seconds where the others will take hours.”

“That sounds incredible. What type of magic will I be able to use? Fire? Ice? Earth?” The man asked with some excitement reaching his face and eyes.

“What do you think brother?” Rei asked, turning to Zei.

“Black mana. It fits him don’t you think? Shadow and Death. Of course necromancy will be out of his reach because it requires more than just dark mana and Death is not as straightforward as it might seem.” Zei replied with a smile almost wicked.

“Indeed black it is. Darkness. Shadow. Death. That will be what you use. He who has come back from the dead. Who died in the dark. Who never left his own shadow. In addition to the memories you wished to keep you will also remember how you died and your time here with us. Now think of how you wish your new body to be.” Rei commanded as her face turned serious. Her eyes boring into the man.

The man gulped, closed his eyes and focused. His Hair would be as long as it could be and still be able to hide it all under a helmet, if he brushed it back. He absently did just that as he thought about what else he wanted to change. Nose smoothed slightly, jaw sharpened, all hair not on his head reduced to little more than fuzz. He removed the facial hair too while he was at it. Straightened his back and defined his muscles. Tweaked his skeleton to hold his muscles, now also larger but small enough to hide should he need to, properly and efficiently. Perfect skin of course. ‘Who doesn’t want perfect skin? And any more hair than necessary is just a pain to keep clean. I don’t know what environment I’ll end up in.’ he thought. Then he made his pupils silver and his hair a pure black without a hint of color.

“Alright, how do I look?” He asked flashing Rei a grin.

Rei in her part ignored him and turned to her brother, “ He took that rather well considering, don’t you agree?”

“Indeed. But to answer your question mortal, you look better even if those eyes will stand out a bit. Fare thee well mortal. I doubt we will meet again but in the infinite multiverse of possibilities one can never say for certain.” Zei remarked as he smiled a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

The man locked eyes with both the twins in turn and gave a short bow. “Thank…” Next thing he knew everything was dark and cold.