I opened my eyes and found myself surrounded by a purple mist. A moment later, I recalled what happened to me: I was kidnapped. Again! However, in defense of Kalistra, I doubt she ever expected a giant skeletal hand to emerge from a portal and grab me. So here was the sixty-four thousand dollar question: Where was I?

I rose to my feet and started walking. Clearly, I had entered another plane, or else I wouldn't have lost consciousness. When Lord Bane took me to his home on the Plane of Fire, I lost consciousness. When Roen and his wife brought me to Gaea's Inner Sanctum, I also lost consciousness. When Morpheus brought me to the Dream Land, again I lost consciousness. Losing consciousness seemed to be a running theme whenever I traveled to a different plane. Considering that I was kidnapped by a giant skeleton, I wouldn't be surprised if I had entered the underworld.

It was as if I was stuck in a perpetual damsel-in-distress role, with a sex exchange. If that was the case, then what was my female knight in shining armor coming to my rescue? Alas, I couldn't rely on my companions to rescue me. They were preoccupied with fighting off those big, mean hounds. It would be amusing to see if Kalistra would turn into a berserker again. Probably not, though, because I doubted that her personal dealings with canines were as traumatic as her interactions with wererats. After all, they had killed her mother when Kalistra was a young child.

*SLAP* I smacked myself. Focus, Larry, focus! Thinking about that unreliable, bloodthirsty, mean cat girl wasn't going to help me escape from here. No, I could only depend on myself to return home. Somehow. As the old proverbial phrase said, "God helps those who help themselves."

However, I had to say that this particular plane was not very pleasant. The ground below my feet was rocky and uneven as if it was formed from cooled lava. It was hazy and hot; I was very tempted to disrobe. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if I was near a volcano. Finally, a gust of wind blew by and the haze slowly dissipated, offering me a better view of my environment. Yup, I was right. I was standing at the base of a volcano. The sky above was a deep violet color with zero stars. Whoever brought me here had to be around. Thus, I decided to break the ice. "Hello! Can we talk?" I yelled.

In response, the ground started to shudder. A giant skeleton suddenly appeared to my left. It was a good three-stories tall!

My eyes dropped to its hand. Yup, it was big enough to grab a person. This was indeed the skeleton that had kidnapped me. I noticed something small sitting on the giant skeleton's right shoulder. I squinted my eyes and finally made out a small figure of a faery! What was a faery doing in this place?

The faery fluttered its bright purple wings and flew! The faery had dark blue skin, purple lips, dark red hair, and bright green colored eyes. She was wearing a white dress and a black crown. She held a scepter which emitted a strong magical aura. If we ignored her color scheme, this faery reminded me of Gaea! Finally, the faery hovered in front of me with her eyes parallel to mine.

I had a strong suspicion that I was in the presence of divinity. I gingerly activated my Spirit Sense. I discovered that her spiritual aura was so intense and powerful that it delivered a jolt of pain into my mind! "-10 Health." I bowed deeply to her and ignored my throbbing headache.

"Oh, my, my, my! Aren't you a polite one?" the faery mused in a light delicate voice. She was aware that I had foolishly tried to sense her and the faery decided to reciprocate my politeness by not mentioning it. I was already in plenty of trouble with her. A small breach of etiquette wasn't worth mentioning.

"My name is Lawrence Eugene Mulligan," I introduced myself.

"Yes, and you're a Player Character," she nodded. "You may call me Keras."

I decided to make a gamble. "Are you by chance related to Gaea?" I asked politely.

The faery fluttered her wings and she laughed. "Yes, we are sisters, born to godhood at the same time," Keras replied and winked at me. "In fact, we are often mistaken for twins." She laughed again.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Despite her outward appearance, Keras seemed to have a pleasant personality. Thus, I was growing confident that I could negotiate with her for my return home. "Goddess, why did you bring me to this place?" I decided to cut to the chase because my companions were dealing with a bunch of hellions and they could use my help. Furthermore, the giant skeleton kidnapped me at the same time that those hellions appeared. Thus, it was reasonable to assume that Keras had sent them to attack my companions. She brought me here for a reason. And it wasn't out of the goodness of her black heart.

I had no doubt that the hellions were defeated already. However, I was concerned that Keras may send more minions to attack us. Therefore, I needed to figure out a way to convince the Goddess to leave us alone. That usually meant fulfilling a quest for her.

The divine faery wagged a finger at me. "I brought you to Hades because you were being a very naughty boy." She shook her head.

"How so?" I frowned at both her admonishment and also the mention of Hades because this meant that Keras was the Goddess of the Underworld. In other words, Keras was the Goddess of Death and the polar opposite of Gaea, the Goddess of Life. Swell. Considering that I was a servant of Gaea, Keras could technically treat me as an enemy and make my life miserable. If she didn't kill me first.

"You destroyed my servant," she replied.

"Servant?" I tilted my head for a moment as I tried to understand what she was referring to. Ah! "You mean the Soul Reaper was your minion?"

"Indeed," Keras nodded. "Let's review what happened, shall we?" The faery held up her scepter and a beam of black light shot out of it. A breach started to form within the air approximately ten feet away from us. Blackness within the breach solidified and images started playing on the de facto screen.

Keras started narrating what appeared onscreen. "When my Soul Reaper encountered your party, my minion did not attack you. Instead, it started floating away. Peacefully. However, your barbaric elves refused to allow my minion to leave. Instead, they started attacking it, forcing my creature to defend itself. And then you personally delivered the killing blow." The screen slowly dissipated. The Goddess folded her arms across her chest. "Now, what do you have to say for yourself?" Her green eyes started glowing brighter.

"We were on a mission to investigate why the graves have been disturbed and the bodies went missing. When I saw your Soul Reaper claim a soul from a risen zombie, I realized that your minion was the cause," I explained calmly. "I admit that we did attack first. However, we could not allow the creature to continue what it was doing in the cemetery."

"Silly mortals," Keras shook her head. "A Soul Reaper's mission is to remove the restless spirits in the mortal world. My minion would have left you alone if you didn't attack it. It was no threat to your precious city. The Mayor of Bristol was foolish to give you this quest. If the restless spirits remain, then they will attract more restless spirits and soon you will be facing an undead horde in your city. As the Goddess of Death, I would be blamed for the destructive behavior of these mindless hordes and for disturbing the balance between Order and Chaos. That's why I sent down my Soul Reaper to take care of the problem first."

In other words, I screwed up big time! "I'm sorry!" I bowed deeply to the Goddess.

The faery sighed. "Look, I appreciate your willingness to apologize. But it's not enough. Soul Reapers are expensive to raise because they require enormous spiritual energy. I'm going to assign you a mission to capture enough spiritual energy to revive the Soul Reaper that you had killed. This is fair, no?"

"I'll do it," I replied with more confidence than I really had at the moment. I already expected this Goddess to assign me a quest. The question, though, was whether she would be satisfied with just that. I may as well address the issue now. "Goddess, are you going to brand me?" I asked tepidly.

Keras laughed. "How foolish and arrogant you are, Lawrence!" The divine faery shook her head. "Not every God or Goddess will want to give you their divine mark," she replied as she wagged her finger at me. "Besides, you've already been marked by my sister, Gaea. If I were to mark you as well, then it would cause problems for your body because our energies will cancel each other out," she continued. "That being said, I will need to give you an incentive to complete your assignment. First, I'll give you a way to collect the spiritual energy." She snapped her fingers and a small, black orb hovered in front of me.

I looked at the item and its caption read, "Soul Collector. Charge: 0/1000."

"Notice that the charge is currently 0/1,000? As you collect spiritual energy, the charge count will start to increase. When the orb is fully charged, your assignment will be completed," Keras explained.

I reached out with my left hand and grabbed the artifact. It felt cold to the touch. "ACQUIRED: Soul Collector, soul-bound. -100 Reputation, -200 XP." I winced at the loss of reputation and experience. On the other hand, I had received 500 XP for killing the Soul Reaper and thus, I was still ahead in terms of experience. "How do I collect spiritual energy with this item?" I asked.

Keras smiled. "It's very simple. You need to defeat undead creatures. As you destroy them, their restless spirits will be released from their physical shells. The Soul Collector will automatically reel them in and convert the spirits into energy." Suddenly, the Goddess raised her scepter and pointed its tip at me!

A black bolt of energy struck me in the heart and I felt a coldness around it. Then, the coldness spread throughout my entire body, accompanied by enormous pain! "ARGH!" I screamed out as my body convulsed on the ground involuntarily. When my body stopped moving, I gasped for air. While the pain was gone, my body somehow felt different to me. "What did you do to me?" I demanded to know.

The divine faery offered me a wicked smile. "Check your notifications," she replied.

My eyes focused on the messages and they read: "Temporary Condition INFLICTED: Cursed by Keras. -50% Health. Duration: 6:23:59." My jaw dropped when I immediately brought up my player character screen and confirmed that my Health had dropped by half! "Why did you curse me?" I yelled at her. I felt a panic attack coming and took deep breaths.

"You need proper motivation to complete this task," Keras replied in a sweet and innocent tone of voice.

I clenched my fists as my anger grew. The main benefit of becoming a Fighter was the high health. Then, I became a dual-class Fighter/Mage for access to secular magic. The higher health was an enormous advantage for a spellcaster. By cutting my health in half, Keras had wiped out my character building strategy. It was a severe punishment from her and arguably more than I deserved. I opened my mouth to demand that my curse be removed.

But suddenly, the giant skeleton stirred and walked closer to Keras. The ground shuddered at its movement.

The minor earthquake caused my body to sway off-balance; the immediate danger forced me to ignore the curse. For now. I stared into the divine faery's eyes and saw no mercy from her. I realized that it was pointless for me to ask her to remove the curse. The very act of asking her would lessen my stature in her eyes. Fine! I will take the punishment and deal with it! "Can I go back now, Goddess?" I asked harshly. My anger seeped into my voice. Even with the giant skeleton hovering over the two of us, I was not going to back away from her in fear.

"Popo, please take him home," Keras commanded. She was secretly pleased with me for refusing to back away from her fearsome pet. It was truly a shame that I had been claimed by Gaea!

The giant skeleton grabbed me and then its hand went through a newly formed portal.

When my body entered the portal, I lost consciousness.