“Urrrgh…” groaned a woman as she finally opened her eyes. She could not see anything from where she was, but at the very least she was neither tied up nor was she as beat up as she had been prior.

In fact, rather than feel injured or the like, she just felt sore, almost as though her whole body had been worked to the point of exhaustion and back around five or six times over and had not yet had the chance to rest. Likewise, her already overly sore body felt as though she had been in a deep sleep for over a year straight, which only added to the inconvenient feelings that coursed through her at this moment.

But, thankfully, she was no longer where she had been previously, or at least it appeared to be that way. No, she was lying on her back on top of a perfectly flat plane that seemed to be both solid and yet also made of some dark, mirrored water.

And, as if that wasn’t creepy enough, all around where she lay was a thick, heavy fog that wisped around towards her before pulling back like they were the tendrils of some gaseous being. In fact, all of this was both unnaturally creepy and yet also, somehow, a welcome sight at the same time.

If she was here and not about to deal with that asshole, then even if she was to die in a few moments, all was well. And so she lay where she lay for a few more moments, waiting for a death that would never come so long as she refused to move, until, of course, she finally did, and found out that death was nowhere near her at the moment.

She rose to her feet and tried to ignore the pain and other feelings that were assaulting her, but as she walked around in the place she had found herself in, the sensations only ever increased.

“It would be so much simpler to just lie down and die, wouldn’t it?”

A voice that sounded much too close to her own and yet also completely and unmistakably not her own came drifting in through the sea of fog.

“Fuck off.” she growled, quickly regretting saying anything as the pain of speaking assaulted her wrecked yet whole body.

“That pain… it is so great. Just lie down again and let death claim you. It would be easier, wouldn’t it?”

She didn’t give the voice a response this time and just kept wandering around despite the pain.

“And let’s say you do make it out of here and the pain and all goes away;” the voice said in a tone that was half argument and half mockery. “what then? Will you fight forever against the pain you’ll face out there in the rest of reality forever? Will you just lie down and die out there? Well?”

She didn’t want to answer, but for once the pain subsided and she found herself unable to refuse putting words to her thoughts.

“I will not die, and I won’t let those who hurt me get away with it. If I have to fight and die, then so be it. Now piss off, whatever you are.”

Rather than being met with more words, she was now met with what seemed to be distant, merry laughter.

“So, you’ll fight and kill to stay alive? You’ll swallow up any who try and harm or control you? You’ll fill the bodies of your foes with enough venom to make them rue the day that they chose to make you their enemy?”

“That’s…” she grumbled. “that’s one way to put it. Now shut up. I’ve got to find a way out of here, and you really aren’t helping.”

“Then let’s see your response to this.” the familiar yet unfamiliar voice said ominously.

Suddenly, the fog and the surface beneath her vanished, and she saw herself and that asshole back in the cabin in the woods. It was akin to watching a cinematic from a video game, and she hated every minute of what she was watching.

When those scenes ended, they transitioned to those of elsewhere, where those connected to that asshole from before used their power and influence and wealth to ruin the lives of those that sought reparations for the crimes done to her before she was killed and to so many others.

She saw the few people she actually loved be snuffed out, taking their own lives as they literally lost everything and were left both destitute and injured by a mass assault from the asshole and his ilk, and while she knew she was getting furious watching this ‘what if’ the voice seemed to be getting a kick out of watching her mood shift around.

Then, after all of that, she found herself back in the void that she had been in previously, her mood now heavily soured and her eyes filled with vindictive contempt and rage.

“Was that supposed to be your way of saying I’m already dead? That all of that already happened?” she hissed.

“Oh, my dear little one, it would have happened had so many things not changed. But before that, I must say that his words were indeed true.”

She snarled and raged against the unseen source of the voice, demanding to know what truth there was in that bastard’s words.

“You and I are alike;” said the voice, not deigning it appropriate to answer the question that had been screamed its way. “You have the vindictiveness, malice, and hate towards others that I have, and you, unlike so many others, have eyes just like mine.”

Once again, the fog pulled away, this time leaving her atop the solid yet liquid mirror and staring out at a massive snake that was leering down at her tiny body from far, far away.

“We both have eyes like a snake, and I will see that you get a better chance to use them. I grant you a drop of my blood.” the planet-sized snake purred. “And as you grow, so too shall the blood I placed within you grow until at last you are remade in a better image.”

“I don’t like where this is going…” she said as she stepped back.

“You will.” the snake asserted with a grin. “In time.”

She suddenly could not move as a single droplet of blood emerged from the planet-sized snake and forced its way into her mouth and down her throat. She tried to cough it back out, but to no avail, and shortly thereafter the pain she had been feeling before returned with a vengeance, being far more potent than it had been previously.

“Oh, I forgot to mention,” the snake said with a smirk. “this is going to hurt. A lot. But, if you survive, you’ll be something far greater than any mere human. Now, sleep, to wake again and take the world in your name. Sleep now, Lyrhea, first of your kind and origin of your peoples’ name, and be reborn. Let your old identity and name be shed, so that a new, better one, may be revealed.”