Sterile walls and endless silence—that is all that could be seen and heard.
It felt endless. All that could be seen in the room was a single bed and a man barely hanging on to life. If you listened closely, you could hear the raspy breathing as each breath was labored and so very painful.
The man, barely in his mid-20s, simply stared at the ceiling, trying to cope with the silence. There were no tears. There was no screaming. All he could do was focus on just trying to breathe in and out.
There were times when he questioned why his luck was such shit. When he was born, he had a family—a decently sized one too: three older siblings, two parents, and an upper-middle-class lifestyle. Nothing extravagant, but eventually, as he grew up, he noticed how empty it all was.
There were no smiles, nor was there any care. All of the children—or in this case, the entire family—was one unhappy accident. The parents didn't want their children, and they made that abundantly clear. Each of the siblings grew up without love, scrambling for any sense of security.
Each one of them, at age 18, was kicked out of the house and only given a set-up bank account with nothing in it and a used car. The sad part is that the man didn't even know if his siblings had passed or not. He tried to keep up with them, but it was inevitable that after leaving, none of them wanted to look back.
The final child wasn't born correctly. In this case, the child had a degenerative disease that slowly but surely shut down the organs within his body. It took years, but eventually, the man could no longer cope. And after going to the hospital, he found himself a permanent day, and as the bills mounted, the hospital finally contacted the parents to see if they wanted to continue paying for their services or if they wanted to pull the plug.
The doctor, barely caring about the patient's mental well-being, made that call right in front of him on speaker, and it was on that day that he heard the apathetic voices of his parents simply tell the doctor to cut the life support.
The doctor simply looked down at the man and walked away. A nurse then came in and told him, with a clinical tone, that it was going to be pulled within a few days. And so that day came, and as the door opened, the doctor came in, and as he turned off all the machinery that helped the man to breathe as well as to dispel liquids from the body, the man began to seize up as he was unable to breathe while drowning in his own spit, and the doctor simply walked out, just waiting for the man to die.
The sad part was that even in his final moments, no sound could be heard—only raspy breathing. If you looked into the man's eyes, you would find them alight with so much emotion.
The only machinery left on was the heart monitor, and as it continued to spike, and the beeping became an incessant noise, the man began to lose consciousness. However, as he did so, as if hallucinating, the man looked towards the IV drip that he had been receiving and found that it wasn't the normal color. It looked almost pink?
And before his eyes closed, he saw what looked to be wings and a hand reaching out towards him while placing some type of small square device into his chest. In that moment, the man knew no more. And as the beeping flatlined, the doctor came back and wrote down some notes on his pad and began the process toward disposing of the body.
No one would care to learn his name, and no one would come to mourn him.
....
…..
…..
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" a large angelic figure asked while staring down at the soul that had just passed.
"Buddy, when have I ever led you astray? I see real potential in this one, and besides, he's the perfect test dummy for our new system." The Voice, echoing throughout the void, resounded as if it was the epitome of knowledge and charisma.
The angel just looked towards the devilish figure and then back at the soul. "All right. However, remember these souls are not test dummies, and if anything goes wrong—"
"I know, I know. Don't worry. I've spent a lot of time working on this, and to be honest, I'm quite excited… But sadly, I'm gonna have to run. I still have to keep an eye on that nude kid running around that Marvel Multiverse we set up." The devil then seemingly opened a door from nowhere and entered it, while the angel simply held the soul within his hands, cradling it as if it was the most important thing in the world.
"I know you cannot hear me, but I want you to know… no, I simply know that you're going to enjoy this new life… find peace… find happiness… find yourself… and to be honest, I wonder what type of change you will make or if you will make any change at all. The choice is yours." And with that, the angel then combined what was left of the essence and placed it deep within the man's soul, and after subtly altering it to make sure that it could handle the power, he sent it on its way all while watching its journey. While his soul was one of many, every single soul was worth something.
The angel then retreated into the void, his wings as large as a universe, creating worlds with every single beat of the wings.
The devil, meanwhile, finished finalizing the transmigration/reincarnation, and as his red eyes shone in an excited light, his smile showed something akin to excitement.
(Dragonic Deus: The Underworld, House Of Astaroth)
(Year: November 7, 2000)
("Diodora Astaroth" POV)
Opening my eyes, I wondered what would be next. Would I be judged, or would my sentence already be made?
Rising from a bed, I looked around and found myself definitely not in that same hospital. The room was ornate. A combination of green and blue covered the walls and ceilings, all of which were inlaid with what looked to be gold.
Slowly, I got to my feet, and as I walked over to the nearby window, I looked up towards the sky and found that the color was slightly off. Instead of a normal blue, it looked like green. There were clouds, but they didn't look the same.
Looking downwards, I found myself in what seemed to be an old mansion, and for miles around I didn't see anything—just endless rock. The mansion itself was more like a castle. There was seemingly only one physical entrance, that being a large rock bridge leading towards the front gate.
The land where the castle was held was seemingly defying physics and jutting out from the mainland mass, and as I looked down, I saw a large ravine below me. There was land at the bottom, but it was very far down.
Slowly backing away from the window, I made sure to shut it, and as I found myself against the bed, I took a breath before realizing that I had started to hyperventilate. I began looking around the room, taking in my environment to focus on something else.
I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. I could feel the blood rushing through my veins, but yet I was so confused. Where was I? Who am I?
The answers to the second question came fast as I felt a spike of pain in my head as memories entered my mind. The pain lasted for a moment, and as I combed through the new memories, I found myself almost laughing.
Looking up towards the ceiling, I just sat there laughing to myself.
Picking myself back up, I made my way towards the door, and after opening it, I found no one in the hallways. The dust buildup was very evident. The mansion itself seemed to be in good shape, but it was definitely unclean.
As I made my way towards the main atrium which led to the front door, I found no one in between my room and the exit—no guards, no defenses, nothing… As I left through the door, as I walked over to the edge of the cliff and looked down towards the rocky terrain below, it was seemingly nothing for miles. And as I looked towards the green sky, I uttered my new name.
"Diodora… that name sounds familiar…" My memories mixed with me going through my thoughts, trying to make sense of it all. I thought I was going crazy. As I continued to wander through the recesses of my mind, all I saw was the same gaze that I was used to.
Apathy… indifference.
I was the son of the Lord and Lady Astaroth, younger brother to the newest Satan Beelzebub. A title like that should come with some measure of fortune, but all it did was create an endless inferiority complex. Constantly being compared to the super devil older brother. The fact that I had never managed to manifest a clan trait didn't seem to help. My demonic reserves were average for a pure-blood Devil.
My intellect impressed no one, and so I returned into myself, became reclusive, until eventually, my parents could no longer stomach my presence—a constant reminder of the fact that they had failed at creating another powerful devil… I had never even met my older brother. I wasn't even sure if he knew I existed….
All I could remember were the stares from the servants, my parents—the indifference, the mocking… the worst of all, the disconnect. I looked into their eyes and found nothing, just like them.
I wonder if this is all some bad joke—that type of situational irony that was meant to make some higher being laugh. And without even realizing it, in my hand, a large ball of energy formed, and as it got larger and larger above me, I screamed and threw it towards the nearby cliff site…
KAAABOOOOM!
A decent portion of the nearby land had been broken apart, and as I felt a small bit of weakness, I sat down and gazed over the edge… From what I could recall, I knew what type of universe I was in… Of all the places to end up. I was in titty land—at least if you were the main character, that is.
I could never really get into anime, and to be honest, the fact that someone tried to recommend High School DxD as my first anime definitely soured my taste. I could barely make it through the first and second season. I just found it kind of boring. The only real interesting parts were the Sacred Gears and the magic systems.
The only thing I've heard about myself is that I was apparently obsessed with holy women??? It's a weird dichotomy—a devil obsessed with holy women… I assume I'm some kind of second-rate antagonist that gets defeated by the main character in some nonchalant manner or through some semblance of a last-minute power-up.
I could hear almost the last embers of pride want to commit suicide at the very thought… but then my mind returned to the stronger beings—the Infinite Dragon God and Great Red… two beings so incalculable in scale that their mere existence causes great fear and almost worship.
Again, I took a deep breath, and as I looked down at my hands, I found that they were younger than before, and as I finished going through my memories, I found that yesterday was my tenth birthday… no one came to celebrate.
"I," or my previous self, wasn't very social even at social gatherings… If there was any benefit of such parties, it's that I was able to talk to others, even if it was mostly empty speech.
Trying to keep my mind off the fact that I had somehow died and came back to life as some extra with the same familial problems that I had before, I tried to come up with a plan.
From what I could recall, demonic power was very versatile albeit inefficient. You could hypothetically do almost anything; however, you would need to understand the science behind it, or at the very bare minimum understand the intent for what you want to do… To this day, it's unknown why clan traits are unique. Some attribute it to the variation of our devilish creation. Some of the more radical opinions just thought that Lucifer wanted some way to differentiate his war machines.
In my opinion, it might just have been his best attempt to spite God… (Ow!) again through creating unique powers that the big G couldn't create himself—or at least never thought to. But given the fact that he's dead, along with his betrayer of a son, we will never know the answer.
Recalling how to summon my magic crest, the symbols of my house glowed in a gold and green light, the symbols spinning as the energy gathered in my palm… However, this time, differently from my memories, the energy came through much more efficiently. Before, I could barely summon the magical circle for more than a couple of seconds before it fizzled out. Now it felt as if I was getting better by the second.
I stood up and summoned magical circles in my other hand, and from both magical circles came floating orbs of demonic power, glowing in that same gold and green light. I tried pumping as much power as I could into them both, and after a couple of seconds, I began to feel fatigued. Yet, the orbs had grown to the size of my body. I tried to condense them to increase their impact; however, upon trying to do so, they began to crackle with power, and realizing that they were about to overload, I threw them into the distance, and as they both exploded, they sent small shockwaves that covered a small part of the sky in front of me.
Taking slow breaths, I steadied myself before beginning to walk back towards the mansion. As I entered the front door, I began to explore all the other rooms. After finding no one across the small estate, a part of me wondered how they managed to keep all of this place somewhat neat—until I remembered the fact that they're able to put these things up within a couple of days.
Placing my hand against the nearby wall, I felt the demonic power emanating from the very fabric of the building. The wards were meant to keep out intruders while also keeping this place somewhat hidden, but I could even tell that these were very quickly put up.
Entering what I would assume was the kitchen area, I found that it was still stocked with food, to which I was somewhat thankful. So I began to take out some ingredients to use.
I then got to work making a basic breakfast—just some French toast and sausage, along with a glass of water. It barely took me 15 minutes, but as I was doing so, I found that my cooking style had improved. I could individually measure how to create the food as efficiently and deliciously as possible.
It was almost like a dial in my brain, asking how good I wanted the food to be. And thinking that I didn't want to ruin other food for myself, I just made it so that it was better than what I was used to. And as if my body was flying on autopilot, the process itself was almost as easy as breathing.
Placing some syrup on the French toast, along with some spices on the sausage, I could smell the progress. I wasn't exactly Gordon Ramsay in my previous life, but I was decent. But this—this was just something special.
I almost got lost in the experience, but as quickly as it began, the process finished. And after walking myself over to one of the spare dining rooms, I sat down, and with etiquette that I barely remember learning, I sat down and simply enjoyed the food. Yet, as I did so, I looked around and saw no one.
All there was was silence, and that is all there ever was… My eyes barely left my empty plate as I finished. I wondered what I should do next… and as if answering my question, a small device appeared on the table… As I tentatively reached over and grabbed it, I found that it looked similar to an iPhone, and after turning it on, I found the screen to be utterly foreign.
There were options like what my build was, and Waifu Points. The latter of which was showing that I had zero in terms of points. However, before I could go into deeper detail over whatever this build was, I found a message appear in front of me.
[Congratulations, you are the first lucky applicant to test out our new Waifu App! No, you are not hallucinating, and no, you're not insane… You see here, my new friend, you are in for the opportunity of a lifetime—or at least in your case, two lifetimes. But insensitivity aside, you have been granted a second life, but unlike most other random omnipotent beings, we don't like to leave our new friends out to dry. In a few moments, instructions will appear within your mind about your various abilities and how to use this new phone. Do not worry—no one can actually see it other than yourself and those you deem worthy. And if you're wondering if we want anything in return… that is for you to find out… Now go have some fun and enjoy kicking some ass. Trust me. It's pretty therapeutic. You should try it.]
As I finished reading the message, I felt a static shock appear on my hand, and before I could even react, I found new information again flooding my mind, and at almost an imperceptible rate, a small smile appeared on my face.
Again, I found myself laughing. My life—this new life—I was a test subject, of all things. But to be honest, I couldn't blame them. If I was in their position, I'd do the same thing. Curiosity is the damndest thing after all.
The fact I now had access to an Omniverse version of Tinder was not lost on me, but I'm not going to complain. I have to use whatever I have on hand, after all. I have a feeling I'm not going to get a third chance after this…
And as I looked at the options in this new app, there was but one thought towards my future goal: I need more power.
Through power, I shall be set free… No one shall ignore my existence ever again…
After putting the plate away, I walked outside again, and as I crossed the small rocky bridge, I found myself in front of a large mountain, and after forming a demonic crest in my hand, I began practicing… The world shall never wait for me, so I shall have to make it wait myself.
(Another new snippet for you guys basically this is an insert with Diodora Astaroth As said insertion point, this world may be slightly different as I'm going to have to fill in the blanks in some cases with some fanfic magic. And trust me, I tried to look up what his clan trait is it just doesn't exist. In addition to the fact that it's also disputed whether or not Diodora is Ajuka's Younger brother or cousin so I'm just going with younger brother. In terms of the timeline he has until 2008 so he has eight years until the main story begins. To be honest, I don't exactly know where I'm going to take this. It's just a thought that appeared in my mind, but if you guys want to comment and see where this will go. Also feel free to recommend what templates you want my character to use in the future.)