The darkness consumed him like an endless void. Never before had he felt such an odd sense of calmness, yet uncertainty.
He couldn't remember anything, just that he floated in this place where nothing could be seen.
Then, out of the utter darkness, a huge eye appeared—it was as big as an elephant. It had a black sclera, something that did not look human at all.
The expression that the eye showed was not confusion, calmness, or anger. No, it wasn't anything like that.
It was amusement—pure amusement. He could imagine the eye somehow smiling and laughing at him.
But he did not feel any malicious tension from the giant eye; it seemed odd, but the eye looked at him with a certain dose of liking, too.
"Welcome, mortal, to my little realm of darkness and silence! My name is Hastur, and I want to give you a new life, like the other souls I've given to."
Its voice was deep and loud—it was a male voice. However, the way it spoke felt like it enjoyed its job.
Hastur was amused not because it was his first time doing this job—no, he had done this countless times already.
But because, for once, he wanted to give a special opportunity to this soul. His family wasn't much interested in helping mortals or even thinking about them.
Some of his friends, however, had their mortals, whom they gave special abilities and sent to the world of their liking.
I'm not like those boring old fossils that hate any kind of fun! I will give this soul a blessing, and possibly one day... well, he will be free to choose if he wants to ascend and spend his time with me! Oooo, oh, I will be his older brother, I AM SO HAPPY!!
Hastur's inner thoughts went wild with possibilities of having a younger brother that he would spoil rotten.
He hated how serious his family was; he couldn't even tell a joke around them. The last time he did, he was slapped.
So now Hastur watched over the soul that awaited his word—a word that would decide where it would go.
Mortals came and went, each soul sent to a world randomly.
Only on rare occasions did he send a soul somewhere with a specific target; mostly, it was boom-shakalaka and poof!
And you would ask, why had this certain soul fallen to his liking?
Well, it was because this soul was aware of everything going on around her.
All of the other souls weren't aware; they were just automatic life carriers that weren't supposed to be conscious at times like these.
"You can both see and hear me, right, mortal?" Hastur spoke with amusement in his voice. It was the first time a soul this unique had come to him.
Meanwhile, the soul could hear him and see, but it wasn't sure if it could speak; it hated that it couldn't do anything but watch.
"Don't worry, my little soul, I will give you a new body, and we will move to a different realm so that we can have a proper conversation. Giving you a body in this realm would result in it being destroyed right away—pahhaha!"
Hastur couldn't contain his laughter from the pure excitement. Then, in the next moment, he blinked and shifted the world around him.
From an endless dark limbo where the souls met him for their next destination, it changed to a desert with a purple sky towering above it. It wasn't hot like a desert normally would be; instead, it was perfectly balanced in temperature.
Purple clouds moved forward like clouds normally do. No birds or other animals were in sight—just an endless desert.
"There we go, better. Now I will give you a temporary body until you choose one for yourself. But first, please let me change my form," Hastur spoke, now with confidence, but still happy for this soul.
The huge eye suddenly disappeared in a poof of smoke, and behind the smoke revealed the figure of a tall, cloaked man in a yellow cloak. His face couldn't be seen, but his presence was absolute.
With one move of his hand, he gave a temporary body made of golden light to the soul that stood before him.
"Now you may speak. I have given you the ability to think and move freely now." Hastur pointed at the soul in the glowing body of light.
The soul looked at its new body and tried to speak. "Wha... what is happening?" was the first thing it said. It was confused by everything that had happened until now—not scared, but very confused.
Hastur closed in and rested his hand on the soul's head, patting it like a parent or an older brother would pat his younger sibling.
"Don't worry about anything for now. Tell me, soul, do you remember anything from before you arrived at this place?" Hastur asked with care in his voice, unlike his family, who wouldn't even care about this soul.
The soul looked at Hastur now with a sense of safety and spoke, "N... no, I do not. I only remember the darkness and the giant eye appearing, which I assume was you? I don't know who I am or why I'm here, but can you help me out, please?"
Its voice pleaded for help. Hastur, of course, nodded and crouched to match the soul's golden figure.
"Worry not, little soul. Now I will allow you to make a new, proper body for your next life. It's not what I usually offer to other souls, but I'm making an exception for you. A blue screen will appear—don't be frightened."
The next moment, a big blue screen appeared before them, and Hastur pointed his hand toward it for the soul to approach. Approaching the screen left the soul even more confused, but it felt safe—safe with Hastur by its side.
The blue screen glowed softly. Upon reaching it with its glowing golden hand, the screen made a quiet beep sound and interacted.
The glowing hand softly touched the screen, which had one big button where it said, "START." The soul was unsure, glancing over at Hastur from the back.
"Mhm, touch that big button. Don't fret," he nodded and assured that everything would be alright. His voice was deep, but not inhuman.
Returning its gaze to the screen front, the soul touched the big button and was surprised by the new page. It was a full character creation screen, and a bare, randomized body of a man stood as the starting look.
"Every single thing here will affect how your character looks. I'm going to give you basic knowledge of human anatomy—or, speaking more clearly, about how one human should and can look, since their looks vary."
Hastur pressed his finger gently onto the soul's forehead, and a sudden spark glowed between the two, sending tons of information to the soul's head in just one nanosecond.
"Now you can choose the things you like more. Take all the time that you need for it." Hastur retreated and left the soul to create its character.
It began experimenting with hair shape, color, and other stuff that would, in the end, create its future look.
Some time later...
"Oho, I like how your character looks—young and elegant! Not just that, but also divine-looking. That silver hair is just making it perfect," Hastur spoke, seemingly very proud and amused by the character the soul created.
"What now?" the soul asked patiently, revealing a male figure of a divine-looking young man on the screen.
On the screen, the figure stood around 175 centimeters tall, with longer silver hair and two feline green eyes. His face was smooth—perfect-looking, something no human could ever possess.
And now the question would be: why wasn't it exactly human-looking?
Because Hastur made it that way.
"You won't be a human, though—even if I gave you the knowledge about their anatomy. No, you'll be something way stronger than any demon would wish to be."
Hastur leaned in and spoke seriously now, throwing aside his playful attitude. "You will be something called a New One, a being that will evolve one day to be something like me—or even bigger than that. You will be immortal. You won't age, need to eat, sleep, or even drink. When you're cut, you will regenerate. You won't even have blood like those other beings. You will be a perfect being."
His serious voice made the soul back away a little. As soon as Hastur saw that, he paused and slapped himself on the forehead.
DAMN IT, I SCARED HIM OFF!!! he yelled internally, and then immediately patted the soul. "Sorry about that, little one. I won't contain you here much longer, but I will be giving you a personal… system of sorts."
He paused and thought for a moment, then spoke, "It will be more like a way to check your powers. You will unlock powers through your journey, so it'll come in handy in keeping track of them."
Hastur cracked his fingers, and everything went numb for the soul. Its surroundings began to shift, and its eyes began to close.
"I've given you the basic knowledge about the world I'm going to send you to, and its original show. You will be retaking the main character's place. Also, since you're my thing to take care of from now on, I will be giving you a name..."
Before the soul's eyes could completely close, it heard a name.
"Your name shall be Niall!"