I knew I was dead but I couldn't feel sadness. I couldn't feel anything or sense anything. Even thinking came at great effort. I wish I could describe the feeling as floating but honestly, it was nothing.

There was only one concept to describe it. [無] (mu) - nothing.

I could remember how I died. The struggle with my former advisor. No, even if I was still alive or somehow come back to life, I'm done with him. He failed as a person when he tried to kill me. He failed as a scientist when he tried to destroy knowledge. He failed as a professor when he assaulted his pupil.

I was sure he'd died too. He was hurt more than me in the first lightning bolt and the second one struck between us.

And then I sensed the presence of clouds. A soft breeze. Blue sky above me and fluffy white clouds shining under the sunlight below. Strangely, I couldn't perceive the sun. It wasn't sighted but the image was in my mind. I had no eyes.

After I finished this thought, a presence grew before me and occupied all my attention. A man with heroic proportions, chiseled muscles, wearing a colorful tunic with embroidered scenes of agriculture and weather. A braided brown beard like a tapestry, broad and well-groomed, that reached his stomach. Wavy hair that floated in the wind. Bronze armlets on his wrists, drawing the attention to his strong hands. He wore leather sandals that wrapped around his thick ankles.

My first impression was that he was a Greek god but he wasn't greek. He looked more middle-eastern. Turkish or Iranian but he felt even older than the Greek gods.

That god, because he could only be a god, laughed. A hearty guffaw that reverberated over the clouds.

"Greetings, Sandra. And welcome to my domain."

After he spoke my mind cleared up more. I could make coherent thoughts with some effort. I knew I was dead and the entity before me was a mighty god. While I couldn't pin a name to the face, he seemed a god of thunder and agriculture like many others. Maybe thor.

He didn't have a Chris Hemsworth vibe and wasn't overly handsome. He was more imposing, his face was like a clay sculpture given life. His eyes were dark and his gaze could pierce mountains. Heavy, thick eyebrows decorated a strong and solid forehead.

"I can sense your confusion. My name is Tarhun. Like most gods, I had many names. Teshub, Tarhunz, Tarhunna, Taru. And yes, there are many deities of thunder like the one portrayed by the actor you thought of. Thunder is a mighty concept and we gods are nothing but concept incarnate."

It meant he could read my thoughts. "Why am I here?" I asked him.

"You were about to be murdered by a cultist of one of my many rivals. While we lost most of our influence on Earth, a god is never really gone. As long as there's someone that remembers us, someone that whispers our name, we never lose contact with the world."

Nice way to look cool and say a lot of things without conveying much. So the old gods were gone but not really gone. It meant there were hundreds of them around.

"Thousands. On your Earth and other worlds."

Okay. It still didn't explain why we were having that conversation or how I was so calm even though I died. I mean, I died. Expired. Why?

"Unfettered from your mortal coil, these worries are irrelevant. You no longer have flesh, hormones. Instincts. You still have emotion and reason but you are now on a higher level of existence. And your spirit already went through a century of purification. You lost all attachment to your previous existence."

It was still creepy that I couldn't have some privacy. But I smelled some bullshit there. If wanting to go back to Earth, to have Theresa's babies, and to finish getting my degree wasn't attachment, what was? And a century? Really? Did it mean everyone I knew was dead? Gone? DId human civilization even existed anymore? I had a feeling of deep sorrow for the loss of my loved ones. Ojii-chan. Mom, dad. Theresa. Even Ivan and Joshua. All gone.

As if to mock my grief, Tarhun smiled and laughed. His boastful mirth once again stirred all clouds for as far as I could perceive.

"You want to live. To breathe air and suffer. To toil under the sun. Because of that, you are a precious existence, Sandra Hikari Kinoshita Rinaldi."

For some strange reason, the grief was gone. And I didn't miss it. Still, the pieces did not fit. There was something else. If gods were real, why didn't they interfere with the world more? What Tarhun wasn't telling me?

"Who said we didn't try? But once one of us descends on the mortal realm, we are bound by its laws. Do you know what happened to the last two emissaries that went to your world?"

I'll go with no. I wouldn't dare point out who were the last two divine beings that came to Earth.

His smirk told me I did the right choice. "One died nailed to a piece of wood, his flank cut open by a soldier's spear. The other, poisoned by his own peers for petty reasons."

Oh. These two. It meant there were no others after them, in the last two millennia. Funny how that left the one that created the biggest religious Asian group out.

"It is because that one wasn't a divine emissary. He was a man that attainted divinity thorough his own enlightenment."

A girl needs her privacy. It was very annoying to have him in my head. Not that I had ahead, but yeah. Tarhun needed to get out of my head, fast. Or I'd lose it. What do you want from me, Tarhun? I bet you wouldn't waste your time with a lowly human soul if you didn't want something from me.

"You are correct," He told me. He didn't say what was correct though. I had a thousand thoughts. Which one was correct. He ignored me. "We cannot manifest on Earth anymore. Yet I was allowed to smite the agent of my enemy. You were in the wrong spot at the right time and died. I wronged you and we are having this conversation to make amends."

Just beam me up, Scotty. Send me back home, to Earth. Right after I died. I don't even mind if you send me naked, like Schwarzenegger in Terminator.

"I know you paid attention to what I said. I cannot send you a century back in time and I cannot interfere with Earth any more than what I already did."

I guess they didn't make omnipotent gods in the ancient ages. Even Christopher Reeve could fix it for me. Just fly around and spin the Earth backward.

"What I can do is to send you to live in one of the worlds I am still strong. I can grant you powers."

This god was harder to get information from than a Zen master. Earth was out of the picture. I felt sad at the thought and then didn't. Was my mind being manipulated? Tarhun kept strangely silent at that. I'd have sighed If I had lungs. So a mental sigh. Eye roll too to show how annoyed I was. Couldn't he give me a form in his realm? I bet he could. But he wanted me to be dissociated from my self-image, I bet on that.

No answer. Was he giving me room to think? To decide? To grab at his offer like a shipwrecked girl would grab at a floating door? Who was I, Kate Winslet? Paint me like one of your Babylonian girls, Tarhun.

"Not Babylonian. I was truly worshipped by the Hittites and Akkadians."

Oh. Sorry I wasn't paying much attention to the history class that taught about bronze-age civilizations.

It was useless. I was there, trapped in the fabled isekai trope. I didn't have the honor of meeting truck-sama. But before I could decide, I needed to know how was the world he was sending me to. I didn't want any place too violent. Also, no 'go kill the demon king' stuff. If possible I wanted to live a peaceful life.

"The world I have in mind has low magic. It means the monsters are only stronger and evolved animals. No fantasy races either, only humans."

What about technology? What about societies? Was it a world with constant war?"

"They are currently at a stage you'd call lower-middle-age. And while there are wars, they are not constant. Most of the time, peace reigns."

Lower middle ages. That was bad. It meant no sanitation, no technology, superstition, female oppression.

"But also no dragons rampaging the countryside, no magical monsters like vampires, undead, or evil magicians destroying cities with meteors."

Take out the danger, take out the wonder. Can't have on without the other. No elves, gnomes, fairies. No dragons, vampires, warlocks. Tarhun wasn't making it easy on me. I knew he wanted something from me but the thought eluded me. As if my mind didn't want to think about it. Or something else was making me. My chips were on the latter.

But I had to give it to him. Tarhun had the best poker face.

Not like I had much choice, did I?

"I summoned you here now because the timing is right to send you there. To another world with stronger magic, we would have to wait for... a long time. Your spirit might not resist the void for too long. What did you call it? [無] (mu) - nothing."

I wonder if he will keep listening to all my thoughts once I am out of here.

"Only if you sincerely pray to me. I can hear your thoughts because you are in my divine domain. Once you are made flesh again, you will be on your own."

I could feel the clarity of thought vanishing from me. Slowly. I needed to decide. Did I? Why did I want to go back to life? I...

"Focus. Your weak human spirit cannot stand in my Holy presence for too long. You must decide. Go to this world or fade."

I didn't want to fade. I wanted to live.

"Good. I shall send you to that world then."

No. Wait. There was something about power. And why was I feeling this pressure? It was unnatural. Was Tarhun messing with me? He was. Not. Yes. Living in another world. Would I keep my knowledge?

"Yes. You will return to life with all the memories of your previous life. I will also send you all the items you had with you in your previous life."

That was a big problem. I had no way to carry that much stuff. It was five bags of things. And worse yet, what would I do when one of these items break?

"Then it is decided. Your first powers. The ability to store in an extradimensional space the items from Earth, and a power to repair them if they are in storage or on your person."

I felt sleepy. Was I running out of time? What about diseases? Parasites? Poison? Injury? The lack of medical facilities? It was a given I would be hurt, just a matter of when.

"Immunity to all and any diseases and parasites. Against poison, I can't grant you immunity but you will suffer half of the effect for only half the time. Regarding injury, I can make it so you will only take half damage from any wound. And I'll enchant your body so it will restore itself to its pristine state given enough time."

That's plenty of minor powers. What was going on, was it Tarhun's discount bin of reincarnation powers?

"I'll also repair your eyes."

There's nothing wrong with my eyes. My glasses protected them from damage and radiation and my nearsightedness allowed me to see minute details way better than a normal human.

"I'll make your eyes invulnerable and grant you the power to see minute details on objects."

I sighed. Mentally. Tarhun the God of Telemarketing. If you decide to reincarnate now, I'll also throw in this awesome power! I imagined him as Jim Carey in The Mask doing that telemarketing stunt.

"Those are minor gifts I grant you. Reincarnating through divine power will unlock the true power of your soul."

And that was what, exactly?

"That is for you to discover. As I said, You are special, Sandra."

Me and God, we were on a first-name basis. I wonder what was the catch.

"I need you to declare that you and I have no outstanding debt once you reincarnate."

And there it was. Why he was being 'so kind' - spiritual air quotes version - to me. He owed me because he killed me, an innocent bystander, on his act of vengeance against the agent of his enemy. My advisor. The agent, not the enemy.

This meant that once I discharged his debt, he could just smite me away and forget it ever happened.

"If you want, we can seal a covenant of non-aggression. I vow to never harm you either directly or through my agents, and you vow to do the same."

The negotiations were inexistent. This covenant was also very convenient for him. It meant I could not seek revenge for killing me. He didn't answer but I could see the corners of his mouth rise slightly.

If not for the debt he owed me, a debt I couldn't discharge while in spirit form for some reason, he wouldn't even waste his divine sight on my soul. I was rather powerless in this negotiation. Regardless, my drive to live was stronger.

Agreed. Send me to that world with the powers we negotiated and with your non-aggression covenant. Once I certify that you did your side of the bargain, I'll release you from the debt.

His voice boomed so loudly I was blown away from his realm.

"SO SHALL IT BE."

Ominous.

And there was I, tumbling through the dimensions toward my new life. As I went away from his influence and suppression, I knew I did a bad deal. I could ask for much more but it was too late. I wasn't Penn or Teller but Tarhun had fooled me.