"Hello Neo, it's been far too long."
Neo looked back to see a young girl sitting at the desk. She looked breathtakingly beautiful.
Her hair, a cascade of flowing golden strands, shimmered like sunlight, framing a face that radiated warmth and grace. Her sparkling azure eyes had two golden horizontal slits around the iris, giving her an elegant yet mysterious air seemingly holding an unfanthomable depth that seemed to whisper secrets of thousand stories.
She wore a dazzling robe of gold which seemed to glow lightly with hints of blue shimmering like azure stars.
If Annovelle was a 10, she would have been a 20.
But Neo could see that she wasn't human as a bright golden Halo hovered slightly above her head giving her an angelic presence. Her presence gave off a soothing aura which seemed to ease the tension between them.
She s
"Ha...You've grown a lot boy. I remember when you were just a baby still grasping at your mother's -." She said fondly as if recalling a sweet memory.
"Who are you?" But Neo cut her off coldly.
"Ahh yes-" She placed her hand on her ample chest, "I am the Verge Angel Celeste, Fifth Star of the Zephyr sector under the Seraphim Order. Any more questions?"
"A lot actually."
"Go on."
"First off, what am I doing here, why does this space look like my old room and more important - what is a stuck-up angel doing in my room?" Neo said calmly, his initial shock quickly fading to slight discomfort after the first few seconds.
She sighed, completely unfazed at his lack of respect while still maintaining her carefree smile.
"Well let me explain it all from the beginning.
Around sixteen years ago, I was dispatched from my post to serve my routine shift as—what you would call in your world—a guardian angel."
"But there was a problem—" instantly, her smile vanished completely, twisting into a more contemplative expression, "Immediately I crossed over into this world, I encountered a darkness like I've never seen before, a darkness so potent, it completely blocked my senses totally. I was trapped in that state for all those years."
Neo's brows furrowed in thought , what could deep darkness have to do with him, but he immediately felt a chill creep up his spine just from the thought of a darkness able to block an angel's senses.
"Well, the long and short of it is that I was trapped in that darkness for what felt like eons on end. Truth is, I only got your memories about ten minutes ago."
'Ten minutes' Neo pondered ' that's just about the time that my system became fully operational.'
"Honestly," he heard Celeste's voice from behind him on the bed."I'm surprised you could even last those sixteen years, without a guardian, you could have easily just died at birth or been killed by the demons much earlier than that or some crazy thing due to not having a guardian."
He watched her stretch lazily on the bed completely unfazed about the proposition of his death.
"Yawn. Well, that wouldn't be a problem, that actually would have been better for me, I would have been able to get out of there much earlier, once you die I'll finally be able to leave this damn earth."
Suddenly, Neo paused. He turned to look at the angel that had thrown away even the pretense of celestial grace and was curled lazily on the bed.
"You don't know?"
"Know what?"
"We're not on earth anymore." He said plainly.
Suddenly she visibly stiffened and slowly tilted her head towards him.
"Please, say that again, I don't think I heard you right."
"I said we're no longer on earth, I got reincarnated into another world" he said casually with a shrug as if stating a casual fact.
Immediately , her expression switched from casual curiously to full blown panic. She began shaking her head violently as if to dispatch the very existence of the words that she had just heard. The elegant charming angel was out of the window.
"No, no, no, this can't be happening, calm down, Celeste you can handle this."
"Sigh, what did I expect?"
Instead of listening to her mutter incomprehensibly, he quietly sat down on the desk and turned on the old desktop computer. There was just something about being in this room that reminded him of the peaceful days, before gangs and part-time jobs.
"Ahh, this sure does bring back memories."
He smiled softly, but instantly groaned wearily as the screen suddenly froze.
"Sigh, it even lags like it used to."
Celeste finally snapped out of her daze as she watched him try to navigate his old PC as a prompt suddenly popped up asking for a password.
"Hmmm, what was it again? Damn, it's been so long since I last used this thing, can't even remember the password."
Celeste looked curiously at him as he clicked in multiple random words trying to unlock the computer, even though they both knew it wasn't real. An image suddenly flashed in her vision causing her breath to hitch slightly. In it a five year old boy
"Hey boy,you know that computer isn't real right?"
"So what?"
"..."
Neo paused mid-type with his fingers slightly above the keyboard. He tilted his head slightly so his eyes were barely facing her.
"Well it's here for a reason, a reason that suits me and what suits me is to open it? Just because it's not technically real doesn't mean it's not worth noticing. Besides, I just really like video games." A small smile played on his lips at the end." Don't you?"
Celeste stared at him in disbelief.
'Seriously, I really ended up with a crazy one this time.'
She sighed softly even as a smile crept onto her lips as a flicker of hope ignited somewhere within her.
' He's crazy, but if it's him, then maybe...'
"Hey boy, move aside."
Neo raised an brow at this but moved the chair out of the way anyway.
She slowly made her way to the computer on the desk and hesitantly began to type.
Neo laughed at the way her delicate fingers fumbled over the keys but kept silent as she shot him a glare.
"What? Never worked one of these before? Don't they have these in heaven?"
"Firstly, not all we angels lounge around in heaven playing video games. Secondly, if you've done it, I can too. Remember, were connected."
This made Neo paused, if they were connected and she could really access his memories, why didn't she know about his reincarnation?
"Hey, Celiele"
"Celeste."
"Whatever, how come you could access my life but didn't know about my reincarnation."
She turned to him and shrugged.
"That's what I'd like to know too. When I tried accessing your memories from your death onwards, there seemed to be a impenetrable wall blocking me, and that goes to say, whatever blocked your memories is far stronger than me, at least at my current strength."
"..."
"Done."
As Neo peered over her shoulder at the screen, helooked to see a five-line long extensive description of Celeste .
He looked at her with a look that practically screamed 'seriously, the hell is this?'. She merely shrugged casually and clicked on the 'enter' button.
Password confirmed. The glowing neon letters glowed on the screen. Neo's expression twisted into one of utter shock at this.
Less than a breath later, the computer glowed with a soft golden light and imploded into countless golden motes that drifted lazily across the room.
[Skill: Soulscape has been unlocked.]
[You have encountered a celestial being.]
[Exp +100]
[You have encountered a guardian angel.]
[Exp +50]
[You have unlocked the soul skill: Soulscape.]
[ Please select a name for your Soulscape.]
The sudden appearance of the system momentarily surprised him, yet his eyes were quickly drawn to the exp points he had been awarded.
'Free exp, sweet. Wait, I have to decide a name?A name huh, nothing particular comes to mind—'
"Oi Celeste, you seeing this?"
"He looked back to see her sitting on the edge of the bed, her eyes half lidded as she seemed to be in a trance-like state. He noticed the golden motes converging around her, seemingly being absorbed by her.
Somehow, he could tell that she was she was absorbing were his new memories.
"Guess I can't expect some angelic guidance for this. Hmm—
[Do you wish to name your Soulscape: Apartment Zero]
[Yes/No]
[Yes]
[Designation successful]
[Soulscape has been designated: Apartment Zero]
[You may enter or exit the Soulscape at will]
[So you wish to leave Apartment Zero]
[Yes/No]
He glanced back at the angel who seemed disconnected from the world.
'I'll come back later'
[Yes]
He felt the familiar lifting feeling and opened his eyes.
Warm golden rays filtered through his eyelids as he slowly opened them.
Hovering over him, was his mother's kind face. The morning sun cast it's golden rays on her delicate features as she smiled down at him.
"Good morning my darling."
Seeing her soft smile made him smile subconsciously. He had almost forgotten how it felt to just wake up without any worries.
(Maybe this won't be so bad after all.)
Suddenly, her smile turned mischievous.
"Oh you wet yourself."
(Oh shit.)