A LIBERATOR'S JOURNEY TO DIFFERENT WORLDS

Prologue

POW!! POW!!

The guns fired, piercing the other's skull simultaneously. Just like that, two bodies fell on the floor in front of a traumatised lady. “Why? This should not have happened” she begins to cry. Two men shot each other out of rage. They won’t see the light of day in this world again.

Cj’s P.O.V

As I opened my eyes I immediately shut it from the bright light in front of me. I tried opening my eyes again but this time slowly adjusting to the brightness.

I looked around seeing nothing but pitch black. I couldn’t see anything, not even my own body. I became confused because I know I saw a light shining so bright it almost blinded me just now. “Where am I?” I wondered. It’s as if I was in a dark void that feels infinite. I walked and walked and didn’t even know what my feet was walking on. I don’t feel anything solid under my feet but I still moved forward.

“Why am I here?”

“Is this heaven? If so heaven sucks”

I continued walking and suddenly noticed something drastic. It was a tiny and dull spot of light. It was impossible not to notice it in this place full of darkness. I headed towards the light hoping that it is the key to leaving this odd place. As I ran towards it, the light wasn’t getting any bigger and it felt like I wasn’t getting closer to it in the slightest. The more I ran the more hopeless it felt to reach the light.

“What the hell is going on here?”.

Eventually I stopped running and called it quits. I didn’t see the point in running towards something I can never reach. “What now?”.

“What now indeed!” a voice echoed in my head. It sounded like a irritated geezer was speaking. Naturally I was startled and surprised, looking around at every angle to see who just spoke. “Where are you looking? You know you can’t see anything” the voice echoed again.

“Who are you? Are you close by?”. It feels like the voice was inside my head but that can’t be right. Something like that should not be possible.

“The chain of life which binds you is removed boy. Anything is possible”. Suddenly a portal opened under my feet. What on earth is happening here? Moments ago I died while killing my foe. Is this a dream or am I actually experiencing the afterlife? The portal brought me to a different location, instead of a dark void. I fell inside a space filled either grey, the atmosphere was suffocating and gloomy on top of that.

“Oww! I am confused” I said rubbing my bruised hand.

“Turn around Cj!” the voice shouted. It was the same voice from earlier but this time it was not inside my head. I turned around and saw a old man glaring at me. He wore an orange robe along with a silver crown. His grey beard is long enough to reach his stomach. Who is this man?  He looks pissed at me for some reason. Could he be god? I certainly hope he isn’t,  I don’t think I can face him.

“I can’t believe I had to be the one to bring you here. You should be ashamed” said the old man.

“Bring me where? This place looks too boring. What is the purpose for it?”.

A book appeared in the geezer’s hands out of thin air. “Cj Kyotaka. Age 24 and Gender is male. Occupations are Police Detective, Executioner and Lawyer. That must be a handful eh. You grew up in the Abandoned Zone, the poorest state in your world. It must have been tough for you”. All of a sudden this man is reading details of my life. “You did not answer my question. Leave my life story alone and tell me where we are”.

....

“They say living in the Abandoned Zone means your life is forfeited before it even begins to shine. So for you to leave the Abandoned Zone to make a name for yourself is incredibly lucky. Your were lucky to have a mother who could have taken you out of that awful place. Many wished they could have been in your shoes”. This man has no manners, he continues to talk about my life with the face of disappointment. “Hey! You can shut up now” I told him.

.....

“For most of your life you always get compared to prodigies. You try competing with them on multiple occasions but you always lose so you decided to give up on beating them. Your three years of being a Prosecutor was the best part of your life. You live in the house that your mother left behind and you were doing okay finance wise. You currently have a baby on the way who is going to be a cute boy and sad to say he will never see his father because he was too stupid. Luckily for you, you get to live a second life” said the old man.

The old man’s words lit a fire inside of me. The thought of failing as a father before I even began is so frustrating I could kill myself. Even so I did what had to be done in the heat of the moment. Let God say what he wants, not like he was there to save my family, I was.

The old man sighed at me with disappointment.  “For some reason everyone from your world are stupid than average. Is it because you all openly believe what you are told instead of using your eyes? I would really like to know?”.

“Stupid! I did nothing wrong. That guy had it coming” I said getting triggered. A second after I said that, a blue haired man fell from a portal and landed on his back just like I did. He rubbed his back looking as if he was about to cry. When the two of us locked eyes on each other we immediately recognized one another.

“You’re the guy that shot me in the head!”.

“Those are my words. Why did you shoot me?!” I asked grabbing his collar. He grabbed mines then head-butted me. “You pulled out your gun first you jerk” the guy replied.

“Fei Foster, Currently 21 years old and you’re also male. You and your family have a tradition to dye their hair blue and to where blue contacts. Bunch of weirdos. For your entire life you were always the centre of attention. Anything you attempt you master in days, you are extremely overconfident of your abilities. When you were in high school they called you The True Genius because you always had the right answer for everything. When you left school you wasted no time joining the police force solving crimes after crimes. Your favourite seems to be genocide. Unlike Cj over there you suppress your emotions until it bobble up and explode. I hope you learned your lesson. You have a girlfriend waiting for you at home, too bad she will never see you again either, stupid” the old man sighed.

“So this is how heaven looks like. That’s disappointing but still better than where I was before” said Fei.

“Tell me, would you two be willing to work together on a mission?” asked the old man.

Fei and I looked at each other remembering the bullets piercing our skulls. “No way! He’s a murderer that killed my brother” said Fei pointing at me. “I killed his brother? What is this guy talking about?” I asked while looking at the old man.  “Cj didn’t kill your friend stupid. You were fed wrong information and because of that you caused yourself and a soon to be father to die”. The old man cleared that misconception rather easy.

“Hey ease off of the word stupid. Aren’t you god? Be nicer”.

“This isn’t heaven you idiot and I’m not god. The reason why I’m calling both of you idiots because you failed the test I prepared”. While he said that the old man opened a portal before us, it leads to a different space. The space I was previously in, pitch black unable to see a thing.

“A test? What test?”. A split second before the old man replied the answer came to me. “That dark void was my doing. I trapped you there to see if you’d escape on your own without my help” the old man said.

“Both of you failed because you gave up before even reaching the dim light”.

“It felt like I was running for hours and wasn’t getting anywhere. Of course I’d give up”. I nodded in agreement with Fei’s words.  “Anyways forget that, I’m dying to know where we are” I asked strongly. “We’re in a space that I created. Nowhere special” said the old man.

“Why did you bring us here?!” Fei asked.

…

“When someone dies they are randomly sent to one of the three angels, Dymir, Theta and Beta. The first angel Dymir sends the afterlife to either up or below. Up meaning a dreamworld or down meaning an infinite punishment world. The second angel which is me Theta is responsible for solving the world’s problems by reincarnating people who died and assigning them tasks. The third Angel Beta is also responsible for reincarnating but what she does is different. When someone dies she reincarnates them into a different being and send them back to the world they came with their memories erased”. That explanation was short and sweet. For many years I hear my fellow people debating about the afterlife. Some says that heaven and hell exist, others speak of reincarnation and there are even few that believe when they die they return to the earth and become a apart of it. Trees, stars, rocks for example. There are many theories out there and I tend to give all of them a fair shot. In the end I would never know of the afterlife until I reach there myself. That’s why neglecting other’s opinions when you know yours are not concrete is just plain unfair. Each theory does come with a consequence so it’s best not to give a damn about any of them. Those who believe in Reincarnation love to waste their lives away because to them, they will just come back in the future and live a better life. Those who believe in returning back to the earth inevitably detached themselves from their surroundings and care very little about the people close to them. As for those who are fond of the idea heaven and hell, fear of death and breaking any rule is terrifying. Their of committing certain acts is basically a limiter they set on themselves which sometimes causes them to lose. Now that I have experienced death at such a young age, my mind that felt clouded at first suddenly feels open.

“You’re an angel. I expected to see wings on your back”.

 “Please elaborate more on what you do as an angel. I didn’t quite follow” said Fei scratching his head.

“You know King Zoe?” asked the old angel Theta.

“Everyone knows him. He’s the guy that slayed the dragon isn’t he. He is a myth” I stated. “It is not a myth. I assigned him to eradicate every dragon in your world. He is the reason why they are not around in your era I’d say. He died in a different world then was sent to me. I then reincarnated him at the age he chose and assigned him the job he filled out wonderfully” the old man smiled.

Fei and I looked at each other shocked by what the angel was saying. “So earlier when you asked if Cj and I were willing to work together you were planning on assigning us one of these crazy missions” said Fei. “Yes, I’ll ask again. Are you two willing to work together on a mission”

Teaming up with the guy that killed me, what is this old geezer thinking? “Hahahahahaha”. Fei and I wasted no time replying yes to the angel. “Give us the hardest job you have” said Fei. “What happens when you finish the assignment given” I asked curiously. To be honest everything that was happening was not mind blowing at all. I am not sure if it’s because I died. My mind feels lighter, feels like I am finally free. Most people thinks that they are living a free life but they are sadly mistaken. The truth is, their lives are being controlled indirectly. It is like an invisible chain wrapped around your body but you can move slightly with it. I wish I could have felt like this back in my world. Maybe then I could have saved the Abandoned Zone.

.....

“I’ll assign you another mission in a different world. That’s if you don’t die before I get a chance to” answered Theta. Fei looked ready and excited to take one of these missions the angel talked about but I still have so many questions to ask, like what is heaven like? What kind of person is god? What kind of worlds are there other than ours?!

Those questions stayed in my mind not budging. “Should I ask him?”. A book suddenly appeared in Theta’s hand again. He opened the book and started suggesting missions. “Tell me which one you’re interested in taking. Here are some simple ones” he said. Theta showed us a page in his book full of letters and characters that were beyond my comprehension. I didn’t understand a single word in that book. “Umm, I don’t understand anything on these pages” I said looking at Fei. Fei sighed and agreed “What language is this? Can you teach me?”

The old angel then slapped both of us in the face then told us to read the pages again. Rubbing my left cheek I looked into the book. I was startled to see what I thought was gibberish at first is now straight English letters and phrases. “This guy’s slap is something else”

I looked at the different missions available and one of them caught my eye. It said CLEAR A DUNGEON, difficulty level 2. I pointed at the mission and asked “ How dangerous is level 2? Everything else on this page is level 3 or higher”

“Level 2 is a fairly easy one for two people. I’d start with that one if I were you” Theta advised. Fei pointed at another mission with a slight grin on his face. “ Hehehe, I wanna do this one”. Theta and I read what he was pointing at. We looked at him as if he was crazy. “Fei please take this more seriously. That’s a level 5 assignment. You guys would fail that spectacularly especially since you have no magic” Theta stated.

“Yeah Moron, go with the easiest one to test the waters”.

“Hold on, old man did you just say magic?!”

“Yes Cj, magic does exist but just not in your world. In fact I gave magic users an assignment in your world once. They’re the reason why you people even know what magic is” said Theta.

“I have to learn magic first to do a level 5 assignment. How do I learn it? Is it even possible? Come on hurry up” Fei urged Theta.

“Calm yourself boy. Since this is your first time I’ll pick out your task. The one that Cj pointed on earlier. Clearing a dungeon sounds simple enough” said Theta. “Keep in mind that saving the world or at least making it a better place is a top priority too. No matter which mission you get”.

Old man Theta lifted up his right index finger with the top of it glowing red. He tapped on the level 2 difficulty assignment and said “Cj Coley and Fei Foster has been added”.

“One other person took this mission three months ago but that person haven’t completed it yet. I want you to work with her if you find the job too hard. She has plenty of experience” Theta advised.

“OK, clearing a dungeon is great and all but why does the dungeon need to be cleared?” I asked Theta.

“It holds the key to curing a deadly disease. That’s all I’m sharing for now”.

“It’s time I send you off now. I’m getting tired of looking at you two dumb faces. Make sure you work as a team. Remember you both killed each other so there’s no reason for senseless hatred”

“Easy for you to say old man. I still can’t believe this guy charged in my house and shot me. No matter how close we get I won’t forgive him” I thought while staring at him. Fei looked back at me and waved his hands in front of my face. “Quit staring at me. It’s creepy” said Fei.

Theta sighed and snapped his fingers. It was at that moment I remembered some very important questions I should have asked. Questions like what kind of world are we going to? How will we get there? Will we start over as babies but with our memories intact? Where’s the dungeon we’re supposed to clear? How do you even clear a dungeon? Theta must have really wanted us out of his sight if he failed to tell us so many important details.

More and more questions suddenly started flowing into my mind but it was too late. A portal appeared under us both. We fell in the portal before I got the chance to ask anything. Once the portal closed Theta sighed “ What will they do once they landed?”

Theta opened the portal again and dropped a book inside it. “This is the only time I’ll help”.

And like that Fei and I started our crazy journey. Travelling to dozens of different worlds completing tasks given to us and marking our names in history everywhere we go. “Two guys that killed each other in their previous life are about to work together. I wish I could tell my kid about this”