Chapter 28: Primordial
"What... what the hell..." Fumiko muttered with a trembling tone as she slowly sat up.
"I thought I died."
Moments ago, she had briefly felt the feeling of her body slamming into the concrete sideways, her vision turning dark.
And now, all she could see was a white plane stretching endlessly around her.
"Where... am I?" she stammered, her consciousness slowly returning.
After a bit, she rose to her feet with unsteady movements.
She brought her hand to her temple to steady her aching head, then froze halfway.
She saw her hand had turned almost as pale as that of a ghost.
No, more than that.
It was just as transparent, as well.
Her entire body was.
"I'm... a ghost." she muttered through trembling lips.
She drowned the scream that threatened to tear from her throat as she struggled to calm herself down.
After several minutes had passed, she studied herself again.
"This... This is perfectly fine. In fact, It's the expected outcome."
In truth, she didn't expect something as nonsensical as souls to exist – but she took in her new reality with composure anyways.
A moment later, her eyes suddenly widened as she realised an afterlife must also exist as well, for souls to live.
She gulped slightly.
She wouldn't exactly say she had lived a righteous life.
If there was indeed an afterlife based on one of the more popular religions, she vaguely understood where she would be going.
She gritted her teeth at the thought.
She despised the fact that there was nothing she could do to control her fate here.
She briefly thought of escaping this place, but quickly abandoned such a nonsensical fear response.
It was impossible for her to be brought back to life.
Just then, something in her peripheral vision caught her attention.
She looked to her side as she noticed a massive white structure, resembling the exquisitely carved foot of a statue.
Fumiko's mind reeled slightly, although she was unsure why.
'What's a statue doing in the afterlife?' she thought in puzzlement.
"How odd." She muttered to herself with a frown as she stepped closer to it, studying the statue's foot intently.
She wasn't that intimidated by its enormous size, considering how much she'd gone through today.
She decided to try gleaning any clue about her current circumstances.
She desperately hoped this place wasn't simply an afterlife where she would spend the rest of eternity all by herself.
A moment later, a strange sound echoed in the endless white void.
The sound of rattling chains.
She frantically searched around, wondering who else was here.
"Who's there!"
No other sounds came for several minutes.
Eventually, Fumiko let out a disappointed sigh as she turned back to the statue's foot.
Just then, a strange thought suddenly came to her, causing her to pause.
In all the time she had spent studying the enormous foot in front of her – why hadn't she tried to see the full form of this statue?
Was it because it was a lone detached foot in this desolate white expanse? No, That didn't seem to be the case.
So, why hadn't she looked up yet? Past the limb in front of her.
For some reason, it felt like her mind had been instinctively stopping her from doing just that for the past several minutes.
She didn't like the idea of her instincts controlling her.
Slowly, she stepped back from the foot, until she could see most of it.
Then, against her better judgement, she turned her gaze upwards.
Her eyes widened a moment later.
"...."
"...."
"Ahhhhhhhh!!"
"Wh—what?" She shouted in shock as she fell back, unable to compose herself like before.
The thing in front of her had shocked her more than anything she had ever experienced in her life.
It was no statue.
Before her, loomed a massive pristine white humanoid figure, easily the size of a tall mountain.
The being seemed to be staring down at her curiously, as if watching a child's whims.
She wasn't actually sure, since she could not see what would be considered its face.
It was as if its features had been corrupted and obscured from view by a strange fog.
The entity's right arm rested calmly on the knee of the leg she had just been studying moments before.
Its left seemed to be missing, as if broken off from the statue-like entity before her, at some point.
The most striking feature about the being – and also the most terrifying – was the gaping hole at the center of the enormous entity's chest.
It was somewhat similar to a void of endless darkness, seemingly collapsing into itself repeatedly.
Fumiko wasn't sure she had the words to describe this entity.
The only thing that came to her mind was.
'a god'
'I'm standing before a god'
Fumiko panicked inwardly, unsure of what to do.
Her face betrayed her thoughts, forcing her usually calm expression to showcase how frightened she truly was.
She wanted to scream.
She wanted to run.
But she somehow knew that would be useless in front of this entity.
This was the being that had brought Fumiko to this strange place.
A memory of a line she'd once heard appeared in her mind.
'thou shall not look at the face of a god.'
She turned her gaze downward in a panic as she gathered herself with fearful breaths.
Then, she bowed deeply.
She had no idea why she was doing this.
All she knew was that it felt right.
"..."
{Rise child. There's no need for that.}
A powerful and unfathomable voice suddenly reached Fumiko's ears.
'No, that's not it! That voice... it was in my mind' she thought in shock and horror.
The being said nothing else as it simply watched her, as if waiting for her to speak first.
Fumiko clenched her fists tightly after gathering enough courage to rise to her feet.
Then, she glanced at the being.
She looked around again, with the best calm expression she could muster at the moment.
"W-where are we? Is this heaven... or is this hell?"
"Is this simply a different afterlife of some other religion?"
The towering figure looming before her remained silent for several moments, as if considering its words.
'No, no, that's not possible. A being like this wouldn't need to do something like that.' She thought, scolding herself inwardly.
Finally, its voice came again.
This time, she could hear it clearly as the words flowed directly into her confused mind.
{This is my domain. It is neither the heavens nor the hell you are referring to. It is also not a place that can be considered an afterlife.}
{I brought your vengeful soul here after your tragic end.}
{I am also not a god. Like you seem to have convinced yourself that I am.}
Fumiko's eyes widened again as she realised that not only could this being transmit words into her mind.
It could also read her thoughts like an open book, as well.
{My identity, is unnecessary for now.}
{As for my name.}
{As of recent, I suppose I'm referred to, as the Primordial.}