Kon died as he lived, consuming far too much energy drinks. He had been downing his fourth for the day, still tired from the overnight shift a few hours earlier. But, university required his attention so here he was, trying to stay awake in a boring lecture about chemical bonds.

  A dull pain bloom in his chest, he grimaced but pushed it down, just more to deal with he thought to himself, the pain having been a recent companion after a rather bad heart palpitation. The doctors had told him to get rest but how exactly could he rest? He needed to work to live and he couldn't not go to university, he was paying a damn fortune to attend so he wasn't about to waste even a single cent.

  The pain throbbed in his chest as some dark spots gathered in the corner of his vision. He blinked them away, wondering if he should get a optometrists to check it out but pushed that thought away. He would never be able to afford the appointment, let alone whatever slop they told him would fix it.

  He rubbed at his face, feeling the dark circles beneath his eyes, they were getting worse. Having deepened and leaving his looking permanently bone dead tired. He sighed, dreaming of laying his head upon a pillow and sleeping, how what he wouldn't give. The black spot had come back and he blinked rapidly to clear them again.

  They didn't leave, a slight frown formed on his lips as he rubbed at his eyes. The black spots grew some more as the pain in his chest suddenly flared up, he gasped, rubbed his chest as sweat beaded upon his forehead.

  "What the f-" Kon mutter but couldn't finish the sentence as suddenly his veins felt like it was on fire. He gritted his teeth as he drew air in sharply. His eyes unfocused as he slumped forward onto the desk. The world and voice of the professor speaking seemed to fade into the background as his awareness tunnelled into the pain lancing through his chest.

  The spots grew rapidly, working to consume his vision as he struggled to breath, his body heavy and tired like someone had dropped an anvil upon his back. His gasping grew attention and he barely noticed the sounds of the professors lecture ceased and concerned voices suddenly surrounded him.

  Something shook his arm but he barely felt it. A deep numbness falling over his body. The sensation of heat and cold flared across his body in burst. His heartbeat sounded like a drum in his ears and he felt like everything was coming from a room away.

  Then the encroaching darkness devoured him. A sense of detaching overwhelmed him and he found himself falling.

  The sensation of movement was apparent, but the direction made no sense. It like was he was falling upward, sideways and in all other directions at once. His eyes opened, revealing a sight more perplexing, he was falling through a dust cloud, a massive vibrant mass of something that made a headache form in his brain.

  He brought a hand up to cradle his head but nothing responded. His blinked, trying to look down but only managed to look at the section of the cloud below him. But he couldn't see his body, he drew in a breath, but the sensation of air entering and the rising of his chest did not register. It was like he was formless.

  A sudden twist in his gut hit him as he 'looked' around, only to find he could see behind him and in front at the same time. Kon felt his mind start to unravel as he saw in all directions, as he saw that he had no body. As he saw the cloud was no made up of dust but of strange glowing orbs. Wisps that were all moving downward. Some were larger and most were shades of white, red and blue. There was a strange lack of any dark colours like black or grey.

  The reason behind the lack of dark colour eluded him but one thing that didn't was that they were moving. The direction was hard to grasp, all of the wisps, including himself moved at the same time, at the same pace, making it hard to determine from his frame of reference that he was moving at all. No it was the massive lack of something far below.

  It evaded description but appeared as the absence of something. Not a black hole but a visible rend in reality that seemed to be sucking everything towards it. The speed at which he was approaching it was also alarming. In the short span of time he had since becoming aware in this place the rend that had been a faint glimmer in the far off distance had grown close enough that he could see into it. And within was the image of a curving tunnel of distorted space. It was the spitting image of those sci-fi movies about wormholes.

  But even thought Kon couldn't tell exactly what was through this rend a deep sense of wrongness filled him at the sight. But struggle as he tried, all he could do was watch. So what he did, the rend grew closer, the wisps in front of him drew up to the rend and seemed to curve into and through it before vanishing from his view. The process repeated, space being played with like dough as thousands if not millions of those orbs, or souls if one made assumptions were sucked in.

  Then came Kon's turn. He felt scared, but he couldn't identify why. It was irrational, he was dead, what was there to be scared of? Yet as the rend loomed before him, a gaping hole in reality that fear tripled, then it happen, so rapidly he didn't quite catch it.

  One moment he was flying towards the rend, the next he was... somewhere. It appeared like a large open space. Hundreds of the wisps floated around him, and a massive figure with the head of a bird was spitting out strange sounds that felt rhythmic, almost like a chant. The figure reached out, plucking souls at seemingly random from those that floated before it and bringing them to the bubbling pot of a dark fleshy looking substance.

  Kon's attention was almost trapped on the sight as the figure grabbed a chunk of these flesh and shoved the soul, a wispy green thing into the mass. Its chanting grew in volume as the lump rippled and formed a very similar creature to the one chanting over it.

  It was shaped like a man, with two arms and two legs. But it had the limbs of a bird, thin and with a scale-like hide. Talons with wicked claws graced its hands and feet, the rest of it was similar to a bird, with feathers a dark blue, almost a black colour covering its torso. A tail made of long feathers jutting out its rear. Compared to its body however, its head was very different. The head was an ugly thing, blunt scaled and brute-like with large jaws and a stubby snout built for crushing things between its jaws.

  The figure threw the creature forward, the thing hitting the stones and laying there a moment before pulling itself up. It moved unsteady and with an awkward gait. Like its didn't know how to use its body yet. As it moved it grew rapidly, until it was about half as tall as the strange bird headed figure. It quickly lumbered towards a large almost cave-like opening on the far wall of the chamber.

  Kon's attention was divided between watching the creature and watching the bird headed figure. Thankfully in his soul state his vision wasn't limited to the usual two eyes. The creature ran towards the opening, a dreadful shriek escaping its maw as it threw itself towards some threat. It didn't last long, a long a gleaming blade emerged from the dark to made a ruin of its throat.

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  The creature crumbled as its jugular was cut clearly in two. It clutched at the ruin of its throat for a bit before emitting a final gurgle and falling still. The bird headed figure let out a sound similar to frustration and reached for another soul.

  This time it was Kon, try as he might he could do nothing but watch as the figure's hand reached for him. A blackened limb with three digits, all ending in wicked looking points. The digits closed around him and dragged him towards the bubbling pot.

  The figure scooped a handful of the fleshly substance as it had before. Up close the mass was a writhing collection of skin, bones and muscles. All impossible mashed together. Fur and other many types of hair were visible within the soup of organic matter along with what appeared to be teeth.

  Those thought however escaped him as the figure shoved him into the mass within its other hand. A brief sensation of drowning filled him before suddenly he could feel again. The figure's chanting suddenly entered actual ears and he drew in breath. The welcoming sensation of drawing in breath almost enough to make the awareness of the otherness of his new body not too bad.

  He threw open his eyes, momentarily surprising the figure. It seems it didn't expect him to become aware so quickly. It spoke, its words suddenly making sense.

  "Good, now stall them-"

  The thing didn't get the rest of its words out as the gleaming blade carved through the hand holding Kon. He felt to the floor along with the hand, as he pulled himself up he noticed that he was growing in real time. The hand which held him a moment ago having grown smaller.

  He used his new limbs to push himself up, the desire to know who, or what was welding the blade and if they were a threat made him push aside the distant awareness that he wasn't human.

  It was a knight, the classical description of a knight, gleaming amour that gave out a sense of power. The figure had its blade sunken deep into the bird headed figures chest and from the look of outrage on the figures face it didn't seem to like it. It started to roar, a strange stirring in the air as it drew in a deep breath. But an arrow flew from nowhere and slammed into its throat. Cutting of its roar.

  It gurgled, a strange golden yet black fluid seeping from its wounds. It stared with hatred at another figure. Kon followed its gaze to what can only be described as a elf. The classical elf with a massive bow in nothing but a slim outfit. He didn't get to stare in surprise for long, as with a wet almost foul crunching sound the knight grabbed the hilt of his sword and pulled up.

  The effect was immediate, the figures eyes bulged as the blade slowly moved up, and up.

  "Wait! Wait! I can offer you anything! Anything at all JUST ST-"

  The knight rip his blade upwards, ripping it up and through the creature throat. It let out a gargled mess of sounds as it attempted to speak and failed with its ruined throat. The knight not stopping swung the blade downward and severed the figures head in one cut.

  The head seemed to hang there, defining gravity before it slowly slid down and hit the ground with a wet squelch. The knight stabbed his blade into the head as if making sure it was dead. Kon couldn't find a reason why, the knight had already cut the figure's head off. Surely that was enough to kill it. It was then he felt the cold steel pressing against the back of his skull.

  His body tensed, the fur on his.. fur? Kon shivered as he finally took a look at himself, he had similar structure to the previous creature, limbs like a birds but instead of feathers covering his body he had fur. A deep blue and thick coat of fur. The pressure of a blade against his neck halted any thoughts as he shivered.

  He distantly wondered if this was a record of the shortest reincarnation. To be rebored only to get stabbed shortly after. He stayed put. The threat of the blade enough to keep him laying on the floor where he had fallen when the knight had cut the figure's hand off. The knight pulled his blade from the skull of the figure, cleaning it before sheathing it on his back. The knight turned to look at Kon, his gaze impossible to tell behind the gleaming helm.

  A voice, smooth and almost heavenly sounded out behind Kon.

  "Hm, what should we do with this one? The [GOD] that made it is dead so it won't be doing much anytime soon."

  The elf's words were strange, it was like he knew what they were saying yet didn't. The word god also sounded odd. Like it was being spoken by someone else. The knight walked over, standing over Kon as it seemed to consider him. The knights voice was deep, was filled with a sense of battle

  "A [GOD MADE] goes for quite the sum of gold on the slave market... you still have the [COLLAR]?"

  The elf huffed at the knights words, moving around behind Kon as she rummaged in what was likely a pack of some kind.

  "Of course, you really think I'd just throw away something like that? Far too many scum that need a leash to behave."

  Suddenly a cold and hard object hit the back of his neck before a metallic click echoed out. Kon raised a hand as he looked down to see what they had called a collar around his neck. The colour was dull and the metal had an oddly smooth texture.

  He pulled at it and was rewarded with a shock. His limbs twitched as the current ran through them before stopping. Leaving him panting. The elf laughed and he felt a soft blow against the back of his head.

  "Struggle all you want once a [COLLAR] is on it doesn't come off. Not without some help."

  The elf said, suddenly clicking her fingers.

  "Get up."

  The command seemed to register in his body before it hit his mind, leaving him blinking as he quickly got up off the ground. The sound of shifting metal echoed as the knight suddenly handed Kon a large leather pack.

  "Here, be useful."

  The duo started to walk towards the dark opening in the wall of the chamber where they'd killed what sounded like a god. But Kon wasn't sure, the word sounded... wrong. His thoughts were interrupted as the elf called out another command.

  "Hurry up you damn bird-brained thing!"

  He jolted at the words, a small current shocking him. He clutching at the leather pack as he jogged after the already retreating duo. The current stopped the moment he caught up. Their pace was brisk but soon he was walking just behind the two.

  They passed sites of death, bits of creature strew everywhere, heads, organs scattered like rocks. Kon saw one of the creatures, one far bulker then the rest having been split in two. Some had been pinned to the rock by arrows and some were just missing their head. A red stain on the walls behind them. The sheer amount of death made Kon feel ill. He'd never considered himself weak when he was alive, or well. When he was alive before but the sight of so much carnage was enough to make him feel like puking.

  But the scenes quickly changed, for the first time since arriving here, Kon saw light. Up ahead the stone tunnel seemed to bend to the right, a faint golden glow streaking in from the passage. The duo walked around the corner, leaving him to quickly catch up to them. Stepping around the corner Kon was forced to blink as the light blinded him, it was almost forceful in its intensity. He halted his steps as he adjusted before stopping entirely.

  He was outside, the ruins of a temple, covered in plants and crumbling rocks spread outward before him. The duo of the elf and knight stood before two creatures similar to a horse, but far larger and stockier. The knight grabbed the saddle and hefted himself up. Kon stood at the entire to the temple for a moment before quickly jogged towards the duo as the elf sent an annoyed look towards him.

  Upon arriving the elf grabbed the pack of his hands before grabbing Kon himself, lifting him up with ease and dumping him onto the seat of her ride. She jump up after him. Grabbing the reins and snapping them with a soft cry. The horse-beast let out a neigh before starting to trod forward. The knight doing the same as the two moved in formation next to each other.

  Kon held onto the horse with all his strength, the uncomfortable ride at the back of his mind as he rubbed his throat, feeling the collar sitting on his neck. His mind was heavy, thoughts scattered and mixed. He was still reeling from dying, although the experience felt strangely muted. Same with everything he experienced while a soul.

  But the thought weighing the heaviest was what now? The knight had spoken about a slave market, calling him a god made. The knowledge of his fate suddenly dawned on him. He was going to be sold as a slave, he had died then gotten sucked into a rend in space before being made into... whatever he was by something called a [GOD]. He shudder, a sudden feeling of despair overcoming him.

  "Fuck"

  Kon muttered to nobody but himself.