When Emil reopened his eyes again, he had been transported somewhere else.
He was now in a field of long grass that barely passed the feet of his nine meter tall self, in the surroundings was a forest of trees as tall as his waist.
What was eerie though, was that everything was tinted monochrome grey, there was no other color at all.
Even the sun in the sky released a constant grey light.
"Strange.. where is this?" Emil muttered as he observed the surroundings vigilantly. [Could this place be Limbo?] He thought.
He looked at his hands and gasped. His body was faint and illusionary, he could even see through them. Although he was nude, his body was covered in a misty fog which made his body quite indiscernible. "What happened to my body!?" Emil panicked.
Feeling a little anxious, Emil reached down and managed to grip one of the tall trees. A feeling of small relief washed over him. [At least I can touch, I thought I was gonna fad away.. ]
"Hah!"
With a great pull, the grey tree was uprooted. After pulling off the various branches, Emil had fashioned himself a serviceable bludgeon.
[Won't do much to a behemoth but at least I feel a little safer.] Emil faintly smiled.
As Emil was about to explore the forest, a rustling sound came from the nearby trees.
"Who!" Emil shouted as he turned towards the direction of the noise.
From out of the dense trees, a half a meter tall rabbit pounced out.
"Come back here you damn rabbit!" An excited shout came from behind the startled rabbit.
Before the rabbit could escape, a wooden spear flew out from the trees and struck it in the head, piercing one of it's eyeballs.
"Headshot yeah haha!" A 1.8 meter tall man came out from the bushes with a gleeful expression. He was nude but illusionary and covered in a faint mist just like Emil.
The small man had reached the rabbit when he finally spotted Emil.
"Ahh!" The small man screamed in fright.
Emil clearly surprised, reached down in an attempt to grab the small man but his massive palm passed through the man like mist.
The small man gasped but as he saw Emil's palm pass through him, a strange light flickered in his eyes.
"Oh so yer one of us huh?" The small man showed a queer smile.
Emil frowned before he remarked. "One of you? Are you delusional little man?"
The small man chuckled and stared up at the towering figure. "That's right." As he observed Emil up and down he couldn't help but say. "God damn you are one big bastard!"
"You little!" Emil was angered as he waved his huge bludgeon at the small man, yet just as before, the bludgeon passed through the small man like air.
"Tsk, tsk, that won't work big man. Yer one of us see?" The small man grabbed a rock on the ground and threw it at Emil after which the rock passed through him too.
"What? Tell me small man, what's going on!" Emil shouted in frustration with a booming voice
"Don't you know big man? Yer in Limbo and just like me, yer as dead as a doornail." The small man chuckled with a big smile.
"What's that mean, what is Limbo?" Emil asked as he looked at the small man with a twitching brow.
"Look big man, I'll tell you the rules." The small man walked over to the rabbit and plunged his hand into the rabbits head. His hand passed through the skin leaving no marks at all before pulling out a faint blue light.
"Huh!?" Emil gasped as he stared at the light in the small man's hand. It was the first thing with color that he had seen in this greyish world.
The small man held up his hand and said. "See this big man? It's a soul point, one soul point to be exact." The small man then pushed the glowing ball onto his chest after which the soul point disappeared into his body.
"You can gain soul points from the various lifeforms that live in the land of Limbo, of course you can't steal or harm other dead like ourselves. Everything has to be obtained by one's own hands." The small man continued. "But caution must be taken, some of the soul beasts here are extremely dangerous and can easily kill a thousand of us wiping us out from existence, but in return they give more soul points."
"What are soul points used for?" Emil asked curiously.
"Soul points are the currency of Limbo and are used to buy things from the various primordial gods." The small man replied.
"Like what?"
"Well most importantly, reincarnation for one. Other things you can buy are innante abilities for your next life, upbringing, appearance, or keeping past life memories etc. You can also buy talents which can help you in the Limbo realm." The small man smiled.
Emil's eyes lit up brightly. "Reincarnation!? Is that the truth?"
The small man nodded. "Yes, but how much it costs is dependant."
"Dependant on what?" Emil's eyebrow raised.
"Well take me for example, I'm a mortal and it takes about 3000 points to reincarnate which is the norm for most people, for others it can be different."
"How so?" Emil asked nervously.
"Well for people who committed sins who weren't bad enough to be sent to oblivion, they'll find that the amount of soul points they need is far higher than a normal law abiding citizen like myself. For example, I came across one fellow who was wallowing in misery, after asking a few questions I found out that he needed 3 million soul points in order to reincarnate!" The small man laughed with no pity in his eyes.
"There's also strength to take into consideration, when you kick the bucket, you retain all past life strengths and abilities so the stronger you are the more soul points need to be gathered. Some strange fellows who call themselves cultivators require hundreds of thousands of soul points just to reincarnate."
Emil frowned as he muttered. "I wonder how much soul points I'll need to reincarnate.."
The small man cupped his chin as he replied. "I know how much."
"What? Tell me!" Emil said urgently.
The small man grinned as he replied. "There are several races which you can reincarnate into, yerself included. Yer a seraphim right?"
Emil nodded in astonishment. "Yes that's right! How did you know?"
The small man eyed Emil's wings and replied. "The wings and yer big ass size gave it away."
Emil glared at the small man.
The small man continued. "The seraphim are a divine god race and the points required for me to reincarnate as one cost about one billion soul points."
Emil's eyes popped out as a feeling a despar washed over him.
Seeing Emil's expression, the small man shook his head and consoled. "For you it should be different. You were originally a seraphim so it only costs one third of the price to raincarnate as one, not to mention how strong you are so it shouldn't take long for you to gather the necessary soul points."
"All you need to watch out for is the strength modifier which increases how many soul points need to be gathered."
After a moment of silence, Emil nodded thankfully as his dull expression once again brightened. "Thank you little man, tell me, what is your name?"
The small man laughed and bumped his chest enthusiastically as he replied. "You can call me Rick!"
"Rick, you can call me Emil." Emil smiled.
...
Within Nihilla's realm there was complete nothingness, only a few tables and a gorgeous bed which floated about.
At one of the tables, sat both Nihilla and Seris. Before them was several plates of sweets and pastries.
"Little sis, you sure are naughty sending that little Titan on a rampage.." Seris chuckled.
Nihilla snorted as she replied. "Seris it was you who guided that Titan to me so it's all your fault anyway." She picked up a pastry from the table and munched on it.
Seris waved her hands helplessly as she feigned ignorance. "How was I supposed to know?"
Nihilla glared at Seris while replying in an angry tone. "That titan is lucky I didn't erase it on the spot, I gave it one job to kill all life on the three heavens below and it failed! Next time I see it, i'll make sure it disappears.. "
"Little sis, I don't know why you hate life so much? If it's all gone, things would be boring right?" Seris giggled as she observed Nihilla.
Nihilla gritted her little teeth and replied. "Everything that isn't my sisters, mother or father should just disappear." Her eyes brightened as she imagined. "And then we can all live happily in the void of nothingness!"
Seris shivered at the thought. [What a crazy little sister.]
Nihilla turned her gaze towards Seris and said. "Anyway Seris, you need to stop meddling in other peoples business.. "
Seris's eyes gleamed as she chuckled. "I can't help it.. chaos is just so fun!"
"Humph.. " Nihilla harrumphed as she muttered. "Nothingness is way more fun.."