Chapter 2- Awakening

Please wake up my child, I so wish you’d wake up. I’ve been waiting for you to awake from this boring realm, there’s nothing to do here and I thought if you came, you and some friends could finally put an end to the boringness of this hell.

“Who’s talking, who’s saying this?!”

Me my child, it is I, the great creator of life!

“Great creator of life? Are you god by any chance?”

God is the name I’ve been given by many of my children. I am simply the one who made life, I show no sign of changing it, when someone says that I saved their lives, I did not, I simply gave them the people to help them change.

“What happened to me? Why am I here, did I die?”

Sadly yes Zaki, you went on a field trip to a place called Tokyo, where a terrorist attack occurred, ending the lives of twenty-four students and one teacher. I hate to inform you of this, my young child, but I must ask you a simple question, I cannot stay and chat any longer as I have many more people to get to. The simple question is where you want to go. You lived a nice life Zaki, you tried your best to be the best person you could be, and that by my standards is commendable beyond a reasonable doubt. Heaven is your first choice, it’s a paradise, you get to live with the people you’ve missed for so long, any animal you lost, you can surely find in heaven. Or, would you rather go to hell? Hell isn’t like they say in what my children call the Bible, hell in a lot of ways is like heaven, except I have no ruling over what happens there, meaning I could not protect you from anyone down there, but one you might know as Satan could. Satan is one of my greatest failures, sadly I couldn’t stop him from turning over to the side of evil.

“Why would anyone choose Hell over Heaven? It seems like Heaven would be the more choosable place with it being a paradise and sunshine and rainbows.”

Well, my child, most people don’t get to choose to go down there, most people’s bodies force them to go down to hell because deep down even they know their life on Earth caused pain and suffering for others. But, I do have one more choice, this place isn’t like Heaven nor is it like Hell, this place is called Sanctuary, it’s a new project that both I, god, and the one you know as Satan put together ourselves, it’s a place a lot like the living realm, but, it seems that even us deities have problems getting people to stop going straight for power, it’s no longer safe down there. It’s worse than hell, people kill others for food and tools, they rape the women to get a slight form of satisfaction, now in this world, unlike Earth, you can come back to life, you can restart your life from the starting point, you never age, and your pain is not as strong as the real world. Don’t take death for granted though, you can still feel pain and enough pain could break a person.

“Sanctuary you say? Can I ask a question before deciding on where I want to go?”

Go ahead, my child.

“Where did the rest of my class go? Where did they all pick?”

I’m glad you asked Zaki, I’ve been wondering when you’d ask. I can tell you this, four students went to Hell, they had been burying cats to their necks and stoning them to death. Ten students went to Heaven, they wanted to see their friends and family they lost so badly that they didn’t even wait for me to explain the sanctuary. Finally, we have the remaining ten students, they all were willing to help rid the sanctuary of the demons within.

Zaki thought to himself, was he willing to help just like the rest of his friends, was he strong enough to fight and kill people for the greater good? If it meant he’d be able to make a world where people could return to their lives like on Earth with the added benefit of being able to come back to life, Zaki was willing to help.

“I’ll choose the sanctuary, I will be the eleventh student to help create a new life!”

Very well young one, before you go, I must warn you, you will no longer have that blonde hair, and those blue eyes will be gone before you know it, you might not even remain human anymore. There is a chance you can turn into anything, a bug, a dog, an elve, human, ogre, lizard person, cat person, anything that could be thought up in a fairytale, you could turn into. I ask you to remain calm and try to find your classmates. I have given special powers to your teacher Miss Tanaka. I think it was, I can’t fully remember, it’s been almost a decade since I sent her there-.

“Different race? A decade since you sent our teacher there? Special powers?”

You’d be given a random race my child, it won’t affect you in any way so don’t be scared. Time moves much faster here, while it’s been seconds here, it’s been years in that world. Don’t fret as there is no aging and with the world in complete ruins, it will take many hundreds even thousands of years to fully fix. As for her special powers, Miss Tanaka has been given stats that go way beyond that of a normal person who just got there.

“Wait what sta-”

Before Kyosuke could finish his sentence a light had started to shine above him, blinding him.

Farewell Zaki, I hope to again meet you one da-

Zaki didn’t get to hear the ending to God’s words, the words he had spoken to him meant a whole lot, he got to know a few things before being sent into an unknown world.

-What could God mean when he said stats? Like an RPG? As in one of the Isekai, that’s so popular in America and Japan? I at least hope my stats are good.

Zaki’s vision slowly got blurry and almost as soon as it got blurry, it again came back to him, he was in some sort of pod, it was filled with liquid and he was in some run-down abandoned building.

-Alright, three… Two.. ONE!

Zaki kicked as hard as he could into the pod, it was so thin that a single kick had cut it open, the fluids drained out of the pod before Zaki went to breathe oxygen for the first time in what felt like decades. Zaki looked down at himself, he was most definitely naked. That being the least of his worries he didn’t even pay any attention to it.

“Well at least I’m a guy still, I would have missed you, buddy.”

Zaki was looking down at his junk before remembering that he’s not alone in this world, he got up and decided to take a look around his surroundings. Zaki notices a bathroom straight ahead of him, hoping to finally get to use the bathroom he started on his walk over there, he failed to notice the shards of glass on the ground, and as he obliviously walked to the restroom he stepped on a piece.

“OUCH SHIT! Stupid glass, now I’m gonna die of whatever the hell diseases that this place has.”

Zaki quickly jumped over to the bathroom to wash the cut off, he took the shard of glass out of his foot, and as soon as he looked up he finally found out what God was talking about.

“WHAT THE HELL I’M NOT HUMAN!

He looked at himself in horror, the blonde hair and blue eyes God said would vanish did, but he still had eyes and hair, just now his hair was pink, and his eyes a sort of yellow color.

“My ears are pointy, I must be some sort of Elf, Alright, well now that I know I’m at least somewhat human, I can get on with finding my friends. OH, YEA! Stats, how exactly do I check my stats.”

Zaki looked down at his foot and realized something insane had happened, no longer was his foot bleeding, it had healed fully by the time it took him to fully check himself out, that was either due to high stats or the fact he was an elf and not a human.

A sudden noise catches Zaki’s attention, the sound of glass shattering and a pair of footsteps entering the building. In hopes that this person could give him some answers, Zaki found a nearby towel and put it on.

“HELLO!? MY NAME IS ZAKI LEE, I’M HERE TO HELP YOU GUYS!”

-I wonder if they can even hear me.

The footsteps stopped but Zaki could hear they just slowed down to an almost unbearable level, it must have been the ears of his elf-like body that gave him the power to hear such quiet footsteps. Zaki rushed out of the bathroom just to have his skull smashed by a club.

“AWUH, WHAT THE SHIT!”

A foot came smashing down onto Zaki’s face, he looked up and noticed the person wasn’t human either, this thing had a long skinny tail and horns, they were red and had long black hair too.

-A DEMON?!

“JUST DIE YOU SON OF A BITCH!”

The bashed and based without even thinking about who he was killing, he wasn’t killing to survive, he was killing for the fun of it, nothing about him beating Zaki to death was humane, it was simply to kill, nothing more, nothing less.

Zaki was shown the true meaning of the sanctuary as he lay there, having his head bashed in by a club that he had just noticed to be made out of bone. In a world without guns yet being created, they resulted in turning corpses into weapons, clothing, and even food. The order was easy to learn: kill, skin, take bones, eat flesh, and dispose of the body. People didn’t want to wait for food and animals were scarce, the next best thing to eating dirt was eating a human.

A mixture of sweat and blood filled the floor as the man stopped to check if Zaki was truly dead.

“W-w-w-”

Before Zaki could finish his sentence the man had finally taken a blade out and slit his vocal cords, blood danced across the floor.

-Please, don’t die, I don’t wanna die

“Hurry up and die, you bastard!”

-No, no God! I wanna live, please I don’t wan-…

The light Zaki had seen faded away and again he awoke in a pod, filled with anger he kicked it open and fell to the floor, he hit his head against the floor and screamed.

“WHAT THE HELL, WHY THE HELL WOULD GOD PUT ME IN THIS PIECE OF SHIT WORLD WHERE THE GODDAMN MOTH-”

Zaki stopped yelling, he realized that screaming wasn’t going to make him feel better, he just took a deep sigh and rolled over onto his back, he put his hand out into the air and looked at it. Blood from Zaki hitting his head against the floor already started to dry up and heal, the healing effect of an Elf was powerful, one that could help him in the future.

“If I’m an elf at this age I’m guessing I’m a few hundred years old. I hope my friends haven’t been killed yet, though I’m guessing they have. Tomoko, please tell me you killed yourself before you let them do anything to you.”

Zaki felt defeated, his second death in his life not even ten minutes into the world.

My child, try putting your hand out in front of you and swiping up, I must leave now, pretend I was never here.

“WAI-”

It was too late, before he even got to finish his word, he could hear the silence in his head come back into play, God gave him a hint, something many people probably don’t get, he needed to try it out.

“What did he say? Swipe up?”

Zaki put his hand out in front of him and swiped his hand up, a menu appeared out of thin air and a list of stats came up.

STATS FOR ZAKI LEE

STRENGTH: 1

MAGIC: 1

DEFENSE: 1

ABILITY: 1

STAMINA: 1

INTELLIGENCE: 1

MORE UNKNOWN DUE TO LOW INTELLIGENCE.

Zaki closed the menu by swiping down, he looked up into the air and saw a piece of cloth, just big enough to fit around his waist, he got up and put it on before checking his stats one last time to see if he was just seeing things. In the small text, he read a message that was only given to him, by God himself.

Note: You have the ability “Speed Level” and “Infinite Level” Since you were randomly given these abilities you will start with all of your stats at level one, good luck Zaki! -Love God

“What. The. Fu-”

***

“My lady, we have news of a new person being sent to this world!”

A man dressed in a red suit set food in front of a mysterious woman's face.

“Oh, yeah? And what might he look like?”

The woman's voice was young, but with her face covered it made it hard for even her servant to see her face. She wanted to stay hidden in case anyone infiltrated her fortress to kill her. She's come so far from where she started, almost five years ago.

“He’s an elf m’lady, he has pink hair and yellow eyes, he was taken down easily so his stats are pretty low, he wasn’t even fifty feet from his birthing pod before he was killed, I don’t think he’ll be a problem, but I will keep my eyes on him.”

The lady chuckled at the thought of another weak individual, it seems she has been waiting for someone, in particular, to show up, someone she knew would be strong, strong enough to save her from her imprisonment of being alone. She so longed for this visitor, years had gone by, and still not one sign of this person.

“You do that, thank you for this information Zei, you may have the rest of the day to yourself, I have training to do, I must get ready for the great war. I feel as if I am the only one who can stop it from killing everyone and starting this world back to square one.”

Zei the butler seemed to be happy to be around the woman, she wasn’t evil, but she also wasn’t good, there was something about her that made people respect her, something that made people fear her even.

The sanctuary was a hard place to live in, it was neither Heaven nor Hell, it was the in-between, not yet Hell, but nowhere near the paradise of Heaven, it needed a group of people to set it free, to help build a world of some form of peace, Zaki knew it, and this mysterious woman knew it too.