At the beginning of The Afterlife, there was only one layer. The residents of this time called it the ‘Nexus’. It was where lost souls lived new lives. It was just one of the progressive stages in the cycle of life. Souls would gather here, finding material bodies for their next life, then move on once that body perished.

But one day, someone all-powerful appeared and created rules for The Afterlife. He gave mortal bodies the ability to stop aging and certain animals intelligence. He made it so that lost souls that arrived in The Afterlife would live forever in their mortal bodies. If they died, their soul would simply be tied to its body for eternity. Because of this new rule, people could not continue the Cycle of Life and instead chose to spend centuries in The Afterlife, losing their minds and filling up the world’s limited land mass. It was then that people began to search for new land and places that they hadn’t explored before.

Luckily for them, triplets Bata, Nata and Rata were born as the second most powerful beings in the world at that time. Each wanting to help the situation, they created more layers and improved on Nexus. Bata dug out a world below Nexus named Hell, a harsh environment that tested the capabilities of its inhabitants with powerful monsters. Nata created biomes and natural cycles in Nexus, and Rata created Heaven, a peaceful place in the clouds filled with rare materials and stunning creatures. Because the three couldn’t determine how to distribute each person into the different layers, they left it up to chance to decide, much like many other important matters in The Afterlife. Nata, having not expended all of his power, created a large tower from Hell, to Nexus, to Heaven and above, connecting everyone together.

For a few thousand years, people of all forms came to live near the tower and created civilisations. These grew and grew, in and around the tower until yet again another being with power on another scale arrived. Defying Bata, Nata and Rata, who were now gods in each of their domains, it added an additional set of rules and changes for The Afterlife. It closed off the lower layers to the higher layers and created a game system for every single item and person, connecting them to the very tower which held the worlds together. It split the parts of the tower into 27 floors, each with stages and tests people had to complete to go further up and promised power, money, status and even rebirth if any individual could meet it on the top of the tower. Because of this, The Afterlife grew apart, until it was recognised as three individual parts, Hell, Nexus and Heaven, each with their own civilizations and problems.

~Extract from The History of The Afterlife~

* * *

I didn’t expect to ever wake up again, yet here I was, awake in a very dark space. I had died. A terrible, stupid death, if I said so myself, yet I could still manage to think quite clearly for someone who had been beaten to death by criminals.

“Greetings, Ikite Katora”

I attempted to whirl my head around me to see where the words had come from but, just like as if I were in a dream, I couldn’t move.

“You are probably feeling very confused.”

Damn right, mysterious voice.

“You died twenty-three seconds ago and your soul is currently moving on to the next life. However, as your brain was not damaged in any way, your memories and personality will be carried on into your next life.”

So that was how I could think. Interesting.

“As the rules of The Afterlife dictate, your memories and personality will be locked and asleep inside your next mortal body until you have fully developed a separate personality. This is to ensure that your character does not get too many advantages. You will be allowed to see your next body’s profile before you leave this dream.”

I was going to live another life? I wondered what The Afterlife was and if I really got to live again. It was practically a reincarnation, although I wondered what it would be like to have two separate personalities. Perhaps this time I would get a chance to live a life longer than sixteen years.

An image popped up in the dark space. It was some sort of screen, with words on it.

Profile

Name Ikite Race Descended Human Class Scavenger/Diplomat Status Peasant of Hell Family Name Dorau Age Unavailable Strengths Diplomacy, Running, Fast Reflexes, Curiosity Weaknesses Thinking, Engineering, Curiosity Perks

Aligned Perception, Extension

Statistics

Unavailable

As I read the profile, I found myself filling up with questions. What was a descended human? How was my class decided if I hadn’t been born there yet? How were my skills and weaknesses decided if I hadn’t been born yet? What was Hell? How was curiosity both a skill and a weakness? What were perks? What were my statistics and how were they unavailable?I tried speaking, but found that I was incapable of doing that. Probably because I no longer had a body and was just a consciousness. However, the voice must have sensed my curiosity because it spoke yet again.

“You will understand everything once you fully merge with your next life’s soul. For now, get some sleep.”

I mentally growled in anger at this voice as it hadn’t answered any of my questions, instead raising some more! I calmed myself and thought about what would happen now.

Luckily for me, I didn't have to think for long because the darkness seized me a few moments later.

* * *

“Oi, Ikite! Come over here, I need you for something!”

My mother’s loud voice boomed outside the small cottage that we lived in. I was out in the paddock, herding the buffalo into the pen for milking. The buffalo were one of the only types of livestock to be able to survive in the harsh environments of Hell.

“Coming, just give me a second!” I shouted back to my mother.

My mother and I lived on a small farm in the outskirts of the nation Wata in Hell’s domain. It was a peaceful lifestyle, but hard work. The majority of people who lived in a ‘higher’ domain like Nexus or Heaven would say that living in Hell was… well hell, but I disagree.

Apart from the absence of what those people call sunlight, the un-farmable ground, the thousands of things that could kill you and the constant warfare of humanoids against monsters, it was pretty nice to live in. I had never gone up to Nexus before, or Heaven for that matter, as it wasn’t allowed until I cleared all the floors up to it.

Although today was my eighteenth birthday, my mother had kept me busy with chores around the farm. I had just about finished milking the buffalos that we owned when she called me inside the cottage. Her voice sounded urgent, so I took off my gloves and briskly walked inside.

Our cottage was quite small, but made out of hardened mud. My mother and I weren’t exactly poor, as we had everything we needed to survive the harsh climates of Hell, but we weren’t rich either. Our cottage was snug and cozy, with two small bedrooms and a common room. My mother had always been a hoarder, so the interior of our house was filled with tools, rusted weapons and furniture with missing legs.

“What’s going on, ma?”

She jumped a little and gave me a weird look, like she wasn’t expecting me.

“You’re here early.”

I cocked my head sideways in confusion. Hadn’t she called me? It was then that I realised she was trying to disguise a small pile of neatly folded garments accompanied by a pair of lavish looking leather boots behind her.

“Ma… Are those for me?”

I pointed towards the boots and clothes quizzically.

“Well who else do you think can wear them?”

She frowned a bit and I mentally recoiled, wondering when I insulted her. Her face then broke into a grin and she grabbed me by the arm.

“Happy Birthday Ikite! Go and try them on!”

I realised that she had just been pulling my arm and I smiled in delight.

“Yes ma’am!”

I walked into my bedroom with my new clothes in one hand and felt like I had a million gold coins in the other.

It had been a long time since I had been gifted with a new set of clothes, mainly because the buffalo that we farmed didn’t have the ideal skin to make clothing out of. Ma must have bought these from the clothes maker in town.

I quickly changed out of my current working clothes into the new set and examined myself in the mirror.

The tunic itself was a grey colour with a simple left breast pocket. It felt nothing like the scratchy, crude shirt I had been wearing before which was made out of the buffalo’s hide. Instead, it weighed very little and I could barely feel it on me. Although it was very thin, the tunic was surprisingly warm and snug for it didn’t wrap around or constrict my movement at all. Comfortable, I supposed, but not very protective.

The trousers were a different story. Ankle-high, brown and thick, I felt like even a wild cat wouldn’t have been able to tear through it.

I was absentmindedly wondering what material they were made out of, when I realised that there wasn’t a hole for my tail. I reached the conclusion that this pair of trousers were made for a human, not a descended one like me.

“Oh well” I said out loud. I guess I couldn’t have everything.

A short tail, slightly red skin and two small horns on the back of the neck were the only differences separating descended humans and humans from each other.

Lastly, the boots. If I studied them closely enough, I could see little patches of small white dots contrasting the black. They felt unnaturally light and seemed to wrap around my feet and lower leg quite tightly, obscuring a section of my trousers. I checked myself in the mirror one last time before walking out to show my mother.

Like I was in a parade, I strutted outside to where my mother was fiddling with something on the table. Suddenly, I realised that the boots I wore didn’t make the familiar ‘clip clop’ sound on the cobblestone floor. Not wanting to alarm my mother, I cleared my throat softly to announce my presence.

“Ikite, my lovely son, you look so handsome!”

Although my mother wasn’t an unhappy person, it had been a while since I last saw her this happy. The last time I saw her this happy was before my father was conscripted to the army.

It took a few minutes of fussing about before she remembered she had been doing something previously.

“Ah yes, I have one last present for you!”

She held out a beautiful black belt made out of buffalo skin towards me. I took it in my hands carefully and examined it closely. A small, hard-leather pouch was attached to the exterior of the belt, filled with a few dozen dart-like objects.

“What are these for?” I asked as I held them out to her.

“Those are combat darts, which you are supposed to shoot out of a pipe to hunt animals. You can make the pipe yourself with any materials. Since you’re now eighteen, I’m going to let you go out and hunt by yourself.”

I nodded in understanding and looked down at the belt once more, happy that my mother was finally letting me have some new privileges.

Suddenly, my vision disappeared and a feminine voice filled my head which said.

“Initiating phase one of awakening.”

For a few seconds, nothing happened. It was in those seconds that I realised I could no longer feel my body. I tried to speak, but no words came out of my mouth.

“Really?” I thought to myself. “Why did this have to happen on my birthday of all days? What had I done in my past life to get this kind of bad luck?-”

“Merging souls. You may feel a little discomfort and some headaches while going through this process.”

The female voice had returned, and as I wondered what she meant, I felt my mind filling with images and thoughts that were not my own. Someone else's memories and personality had been crammed inside my head, making it impossible for me to think properly.

Then all of a sudden, we were one.