In a pure white divine hall with clouds drifting lazily and celestial music echoing in the background, two beings were locked in an intense stare-down.
One was a soul, confused, annoyed, and very, very dead. The other was a towering god, his divine aura so overwhelming that it could probably vaporize galaxies.
"So you died. My bad… teehee~"
The god did a little head tilt and made a cute anime girl noise. Something that didn't match the stature of the being who was built like a warrior with statuesque like muscle and bearing like a king.
"So I did. Haha." The soul smiled faintly.
The next second, his smile snapped. "…Don't screw with me."
"This is injustice, I demand you send me back. That bitch, how could she do that to me? How could she lie so blatantly? God, I ask you to send me back; I must take revenge."
The towering figure with a blindfold, as described by the soul, was none other than the God.
"Huh? It didn't work? But based on your memories and your preferences in life, I thought making cute anime girl noise would work. Anyway, I told you it can't be done. A soul once dead has no choice but to return to the Cycle of Reincarnation." The god consoled in a surprisingly soothing HR voice.
"But don't worry, I will make sure that in your next life, you are treated well for all of your misfortunes. We value your feedback".
"Feedback?" The soul's eye twitched. "I don't want a damn five star reincarnation experience, I want revenge! This is your fault in the first place!"
That shut the god up. Indeed, it was his fault. One of his warriors who he had given his blessing to, had turned evil and set off a series of catastrophes that managed to get a pure soul from a different world killed.
The chances of it happening were so astronomically low that even the God himself was surprised. Statistically speaking, the odds of that were like getting hit by lightning while winning the lottery during an alien invasion.
Nonetheless, it was true that the man died due to one of his mistakes, as such he needed to make up for it.
"What you are asking is impossible. Besides, your body has already been torn to shreds, even if I return you back to Earth, there is no vessel to harbor your soul. But don't be discouraged, since it is my fault, I will make a once in a lifetime exception and reincarnate you in a 'Sword and Magic World' with 'Special Powers'. You like that kind of stuff, don't you?".
The soul paused. This… was dangerously close to his lifelong fantasy. He'd watched so many isekai anime that he practically had a PhD in reincarnation tropes.
"Ahem, I'm listening. So you want to send me to a sword and fantasy world?" He cleared his throat, trying to act calm.
"That's right." The god nodded like a salesman about to close a deal. "A world overrun by demons. Humanity is basically on its last legs. There's magic, demi humans, dragons, swords, the whole checklist. Oh, and... hm? Wait, why do you look like that?"
The god looked at the soul, who was currently making an aghast face.
"You… are you just sending me there to die again? That sounds like a horror MMO with permadeath."
"But I will give you special powers to fight the forces of evil.."
"Can those special powers help me to power creep the forces of the Demon Lord?"…
The god was flummoxed and took out his dictionary of 'Weebology' to look for the term.
"I see" The latter put down his nonexistent glasses and nodded his head "So what you are saying is you want new and overpowered skills that would allow you to easily defeat your enemies?"…
"Exactly!" the soul nodded proudly. "If I'm reincarnating, I'm not going in there as some random extra. Protagonist Armor, that is the minimum requirement for my reincarnation. You don't want to mistreat me again, right?"
The god fell silent, their expression unreadable. Finally, after a while, they nodded their head, seemingly coming to some decision.
"Alright, I will make this once in a god time exception. As it is my fault, I will make up for it with all my power".
"Did you just make that phrase up?"
"Shh, let me finish the cool speech."
All of a sudden, thunder began to roll, storm clouds appeared out of nowhere and the entire celestial realm took on an almost ethereal look.
[I, Dioanax the Lord of the Divine Wrath, Ruler of Light and Titan of War, grant him my authority. He can use all my skills, knowledge and power to execute evil on my behalf. Now then, human state your name?]…
"Eh?" the soul who didn't expect such a presentation of power was in a daze for a moment.
"Um, give me one. I will discard my previous name since it will only cause me trauma in the future" he said after thinking for a while.
[Hehe, wise choice. Then as you wish, I Dioanax will give you a Divine Name. Reinhardt… that shall be your name from this point on].
The god declared with its divine authority. At the same moment, divine light started falling down on the soul, basking it with its glow.
"Thank you… god"? Before Reinhardt even had the time to thank Dioanax, he was sent off from the celestial realm, onwards towards his new life, a new journey.
[Remember, you can do anything with the authority I granted you but never turn to the side of evil. That is the only thing I won't allow]
Dioanax's voice carried a deep hatred and abhorrence for the evil.
With those last few words, everything turned white. The next moment Reinhardt opened his eyes, he expected himself to be reborn as a baby, watching the wooden ceiling and his beautiful mother and father. However, nothing of that sort happened. When he opened his eyes, he saw a lavish ceiling, extravagant decorations and a king size bed.
The room was empty other than him lying on the bed.
"Hm? So I start off not as a baby but as a fully grown man? Shouldn't this be something you explain to me before sending me here first god?" Reinhardt muttered looking at his hands and legs.
"I must say, this body is so thin and malnourished. Is it suffering from some illness?"
At that instant, divine letters appeared in his head and his weak fragile body was basked in a golden light.
[Ruler of Light's Eternal Vitality has been activated].
[Lord of Divine Wrath's Indomitable spirit has been activated].
[Curse of the Demon Lord has been removed].
When the golden light faded, Reinhardt saw that his body was no longer malnourished; no, far from it, he had all the muscles and mass that even a model from his past life could not ask for. The figure that he saw in the mirror was so perfect to the extreme that even he was finding it difficult to believe.