Reborn in Another World: I Became a God

The cocoon shattered with a sound like ice crystals plunging into boiling water, ripping the silence apart.

Raine Crow plummeted from midair, his knees slamming hard onto the obsidian altar. Pain shot through his entire body. Instinctively, he pressed his hand to his left chest—only to feel something unfamiliar and unyielding. The crystal that had once been embedded in his flesh had transformed into an intricate silver breastplate, its surface etched with vein-like ribbons of green that seemed to pulse with life.

"This can't be…" Selina's voice cracked and hoarse, sounding like a dying crone. She collapsed among the blooming silver flowers, her once-noble white robe slackly draped over her hunching form. Her prized holy-silver prosthetic was unraveling—metal joints sprouting thorny vines that curled around it with alarming speed.

Raine tried to speak, but found his throat clogged as if full of roots. He coughed violently, expelling a tangle of green fibrous strands—and realized even his saliva carried tiny plant seeds. Before him, the blind elf knelt, her cloudy eyes now shimmering with an eerie silver gleam.

"Though the corruption was cleansed, its true cost has only just begun," she murmured, her dried-bark fingers brushing his forehead, where something writhed beneath his skin. "The Seed of Life is remolding you, forging you into a new vessel."

At the altar's center, a newly cleansed heart hovered under the moonlight. No longer rotting or human-shaped, it resembled a living sculpture woven from crystal and vines. With each beat, it released silvery spores like fine dust, swirling in the air.

"You think it's over?" Malcolm's echoing voice rasped, thick with resentment. "The Abyssal Council—" His translucent form shredded apart under unseen force, releasing countless shrieking bats that scattered into the night.

Raine's vision fractured. His left eye saw the chaos before him—the panicked inquisitors, metal weapons flowering with vines, the green luminescence pulsing beneath his skin. His right eye perceived another reality—the glowing tendrils extending from his back, branching across the continent's lifeforms. He could hear an injured stag's heartbeat from miles away... and the fragile breath of the old elf kneeling before him.

"Steady your breath." The elf pressed a vial of purple liquid to his lips. "Your soul is attuning to the resonance of divinity."

The elixir's burn in his throat yanked him back to harsh reality. He realized he was clutching Selina's wrist, green energy pouring from her into his crystal core—and the wrinkles on her face deepened before his eyes.

Raine recoiled, his grip loosening, as Selina's pendant shattered. The dull green crystal jetting skyward flew into his chest, merging as if drawn by a tide.

A surge of alien energy flooded his body. At the edge of his left vision, memories flickered:

Twelve gnome craftsmen implanting green crystal shards into infants' chests in a subterranean altar;

A young Selina kneeling before the pope, receiving her holy-silver limb;

Malcolm embedding a shadow-larva in his own right eye…

"Half-breed child…" the elf's sigh echoed in his mind. "You were created as an abomination to be erased, yet a god has chosen you… I cannot see your future."

Her words sent a shock through his spine. His skin tore open as twelve jade-energy vines burst from his back, curling around the newborn heart and embedding it within the breastplate's core. The obsidian floor beneath them trembled as the forest's plants glowed in unison.

Selina crawled toward her fallen holy blade, fingers trembling toward its hilt—only for her to stiffen. Her flesh began to petrify, transforming into wood, until she stood motionless, an effigy blooming with silver flowers. The remaining inquisitors stumbled back in horror, one collapsing as his heretic detector violently exploded—green flames swallowing him whole.

But Raine's attention could not linger.

"Time is running out." The elf helped him stand, her hand brushing along the vines on his back. "You must reach the elven sanctuary by the next full moon… and complete your final transformation."

Raine tried to speak—but found he no longer recognized human speech. What poured from his lips was an ancient elven incantation, flowing like a mountain stream. Even more terrifying—his recollection of Earth faded, the white hallways of the medical school dissolving into runic patterns and tree ring symbols.

A single vine reached out and curled around the leather notebook left by Gray Weasel, lifting it to him. The anatomical sketches he had drawn in a past life twisted and reformed into eldritch runes describing life magic. At the bottom of the page, beside the original date, a new line appeared:

"When your memories fade, heed the voice of your heart."

Raine looked down. The crystal heart's rhythm pulsed steadily at 120 beats per minute, each pulse shimmering with silvery light. He understood Gray Weasel's last warning—this number was more than a limit; it was an anchor, the only thread between his two lives.

A distant horn sounded from the forest's heart. The elf's face turned pale. "Damn it, Church reinforcements have arrived." She snapped her sandalwood staff, pressing its glowing splinter to Raine's forehead. "Remember, no matter what happens—"

Her words were cut short as a holy-light arrow pierced her frail chest. No blood flowed; instead, silver mycelia sprouted and spread across the wound.

Raine watched the old elf, and the vines around him exploded with growth, weaving an impenetrable cocoon of green around them. Through the fibrous barrier, he saw the entire knight order advancing. A tall priest stood at their front, wielding a crystal-embedded longbow. Three black-robed figures perched in the treetops, their shadows twisted beyond mortal shapes.

"Listen…" the elf whispered, "The Mother Tree is calling you…"

In the next instant, the vine cocoon shattered by an unseen force. At the last moment, Raine shoved the elf into nearby brush before a holy-light arrow struck his shoulder. Oddly, the arrow dissolved upon contact, merging with his heart as a strand of silver light.

The priest pulled off his helmet, revealing a face startlingly similar to Selina's. "In the name of God, purify this heretic!"

As he chanted, Raine felt an ancient instinct surge within. The vines curled into a bow shape; from his crystal heart, a bolt of energy formed. Upon release, time seemed to freeze—he saw the life-force of all surrounding plants surge in rejoicing.

The bolt struck the priest's brow—and yet caused no harm. Instead, the green crystal embedded there was purified, turning clear as pristine water. The priest staggered back, touching his forehead in disbelief. "This… this isn't purification… it's…"

"A Gift." Raine whispered in Elvish. As the word left his mouth, the vines on his back withered and snapped. He collapsed among the silver blossoms, consciousness slipping into darkness.