The darkness was different this time. More like a warm blanket holding you tight than an empty void. For Daemon it felt like for the first time in a long time he could finally relax. Accepting the darkness instead of fighting it. While he lay there, he began to order his thoughts and memories. What happened to me after the accident? I have all the weird memories, are those dreams? I remember going home after talking with Reno, walking towards the station, and then… I can’t remember.

Putting these thoughts on the back burner for now, he turned his attention to his current situation. He couldn’t sense anything. Am I dead? Is this what it feels like to be dead? What about reincarnation, heaven, and hell. Surely it’s not an eternity of nothingness.

He didn’t know for how long he had been in this state. He tried counting seconds but stopped after losing count. He still felt his heart beating, but he couldn’t breathe. He didn’t get thirsty or hungry. He felt pretty good apart from his never-changing surroundings.

What felt like an eternity later, he finally felt a change. He couldn’t describe it but it was as if the nothingness stopped existing and he was somewhere else. Stretching, he tried to use his muscles to stand up. Standing up, he opened his eyes. He was in a hallway of a temple of sorts. Murals depicting glowing humanoids with all sorts of creatures at their feet in worship. He felt pressure in his mind whenever he looked at the glowing humanoids so he focussed on the scenes around them

On one mural, Daemon saw an endless row of people in front of a glowing humanoid. The people were receiving all sorts of items. Hammers, needles, bows, swords, and Daemon even saw someone getting a crown placed on their head.

Slowly wandering through the halls he finally came across what seemed to be the main room. Giant columns, big enough around for ten people supported a high ceiling. Blue flames burned in braziers on the wall. Daemon slowly entered the room, noticing there were no murals here. Walking towards the back of the room, he saw that light entered through an enormous glass stained window showing the glowing humanoids. Daemon was not entirely sure what they were doing but concluded they must be the gods of whoever build this place.

Ignoring the pressure in his mind, he studied the gods more closely. They were all different. Some were human, but most looked like something from old mythology and fantasy. There were some more common looks with pointed ears like elves and shorter dwarflike ones with big beards. But looking more closely he also saw big winged beasts and giant trees that seemed too big to be real. The detail on the window was even greater than the murals and Daemon couldn’t believe something like this could be made by a human.

Letting his gaze drift upwards across the window he noticed the higher he went, the stronger the glow was. All the way at the top it felt like he was staring directly at the sun. Squinting his eyes, he could see an image of what looked like an exceptionally tall man with two curved horns sprouting out of his forehead. When Daemon looked at the man, the hairs in his neck immediately stood up, and the pressure in his mind increased a hundredfold.

Quickly averting his gaze, Daemon started studying the rest of the window intently. He recognized some other forms the gods took like centaurs, sirens, and imps. He felt like he could stare at the window forever and be content, but his curiosity eventually drove him to think about where he was. Turning around, he could only just suppress a scared squeal as someone was standing in the doorway. A tall man, dressed in what reminded Daemon the most of a toga worn in ancient Rome. The toga was dark red and an ethereal blue belt around the waist held it in place. The man had piercing blue eyes and his head was entirely bald. And on his forehead the were two big, curved horns.