There was nothing.
Not darkness. Darkness implied an absence of light, a space that could theoretically be filled. This was something worse. This was void. No sensation of touch, no whisper of sound, no concept of direction. I existed, sure, but only as a thought with no body to anchor it.
How long had I been here? Seconds? Centuries?
The question that kept looping through my consciousness, the only thing keeping me from dissolving into complete insanity, was simple:
"Wealth, Fame, or Power?"
I'd always thought I knew the answer. Hell, I'd built my entire life around it.
Glass towers. Penthouse views that stretched across entire cities. The weight of a platinum credit card that could buy anything except what actually mattered. I chased wealth like a dog after a car, and when I caught it, I realized I had no idea what to do with it.
So I bought fame. Paid for it, really. Threw enough money at the right people until my name became a headline, my face a brand. The roar of crowds who loved the image I sold them but wouldn't cross the street to save the real me.
Then that last night. The champagne. The bitter almond taste I'd ignored because I was too drunk on my own success to notice. The floor rushing up to meet my face. The cold tile. The realization that all my money, all my fame, all my carefully constructed empire was about to be inherited by the very bastard who'd poisoned me.
The images flickered through the void like corrupted video files. Each one a little knife.
What a complete and utter fool I'd been.
"I chased wealth first," I thought, my consciousness crystallizing around the memory of my own stupidity. "With it, I bought fame. I thought power was just what street thugs and dictators wanted. How vulgar. How pedestrian."
The laugh that bubbled up had no sound, but I felt it anyway. Bitter. Razor-edged.
"Wealth is a house built on sand. Fame is its pretty flag, waving in the wind. But power..."
The realization settled over my formless existence like a blanket of ice. Cold. Clarifying.
"Power is the bedrock. With it, you can build an empire and have all the wealth and fame you could ever desire. Without it, you're just a corpse waiting for a grave."
I'd been the corpse. Still was, probably. But if I got another shot—
A voice shattered the void.
It didn't echo because there was nothing to echo against. It simply existed, wrapping around my consciousness like warm honey poured over sharpened steel. Beautiful and dangerous in equal measure.
"My chosen champion, taken from his world far too soon."
A pause. Theatrical. Calculated.
"And for something so utterly pointless."
The word landed like a slap.
My formless existence bristled. I'd just had my grand epiphany about the nature of power and my own monumental stupidity, and this disembodied voice had the audacity to call my death pointless?
"Pointless?" The words formed without lungs, without vocal cords, pure thought made manifest. "Is that what the gods call ambition from their comfortable thrones?"
The laughter that followed was both beautiful and infuriating. Musical notes played on crystal glasses, each one designed to cut.
"Ambition? Darling, letting your guard down long enough for a rival to slip poison in your celebratory champagne isn't ambition. It's sloppy."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize perfect awareness was a requirement for mortality. Should I have tasted the arsenic better? Appreciated its bouquet?"
"You should have crushed him before he got close enough to try."
"Wonderful advice. I'll be sure to apply it to my corpse."
"Which is precisely why we're having this conversation." Her tone shifted, amusement bleeding into something more pointed. "You died because you were weak. Powerful people don't get poisoned at victory parties. They throw them for their enemies."
She had a point. I hated that she had a point.
"If you're going to pass judgment on my failures, at least have the decency to show your face."
The void responded.
Light bled into existence, not from any source but simply materializing as reality remembered how to work. Form followed function. The nothing became something, and in the center of that something stood a woman who made the concept of beauty feel inadequate.
She wasn't just attractive. She was authority given flesh. Every line of her face spoke of power so absolute that questioning it would be like arguing with gravity. A queen, a judge, a mother who could either cradle you or crush you depending on her mood. White robes draped over her frame in a way that suggested ancient statues and timeless power.
Her eyes pinned me in place even though I still didn't technically have a place to be pinned.
"I am Juno."
The name carried weight. Real, physical weight that pressed against my consciousness.
"And you, Rome Valentine, are going to fix a mistake for me."
She tilted her head, studying me the way an artist might study an interesting sculpture. A slight smile played at the corner of her mouth.
"Besides, that face of yours is far too interesting to let go to waste."
Vanity from a goddess. Somehow that felt more honest than any divine proclamation about destiny or fate.
"A mistake," I repeated. "You're a god and you need a dead mortal to fix your mistake. This should be good."
"Not my mistake, precisely." She moved, and the void moved with her, space bending to accommodate her will. "A world below this one has a counterpart of me. Fifteen years ago, she suffered a great failure. A tragedy. Her heart is still tied to that world, even though she has returned here."
The way she said tragedy made my formless existence cold. This wasn't a minor setback. This was something that had hurt a god badly enough to leave scars.
"You will be my hands. My will. You will go there and succeed where she could not."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then you'll return to the nothing. Permanently." She said it so casually, like she was discussing the weather. "But you won't refuse. You just spent an eternity in the void learning that power is the only currency that matters. I'm offering you a chance to be powerful in a way your old life never could have achieved."
She had me and we both knew it.
"To arm my champion, I will grant you a single, potent magic. A power uniquely your own."
I would have blinked if I had eyes. "One magic. Let me make sure I understand this correctly. You just called my death 'pointless' and 'sloppy.' Now you want to send me into a world I know nothing about, to fix a divine failure that hurt another version of you, with a single tool?"
"Is there a problem?"
"That isn't setting me up for success. It's setting me up for a repeat performance. "
Her expression didn't change, but something in the void shifted. Testing.
"What would you suggest?"
"If I am to be your champion, I need a proper arsenal. Two magic abilities, and three unique skills to build upon. Otherwise, you're just wasting both our times."
The silence stretched. I'd either just bargained with a goddess successfully or signed myself up for an eternity of divine punishment. Possibly both.
Then she smiled. Not the condescending amusement from before. This was genuine. Impressed, even.
"Cheeky." She stepped closer, and I could feel her presence like heat from a star. "But you are not wrong. Very well. One magic. Three unique skills. They will be woven into your soul."
"But I said two-"
"Don't push your luck."
Fair enough.
My form, such as it was, began to dissolve. Not into nothing this time, but into something. The void pulled at me, dragging me toward whatever came next. The sensation was bizarre, like being unmade and remade simultaneously.
Juno's voice followed me down.
"But a champion must prove his worth. These gifts will lie dormant. Find a Familia that will accept you. Swear yourself to a god in that lower world. Only when their blood is upon your back will my gifts awaken."
The void streaked past me in colors that shouldn't exist.
Her final words echoed as reality bent around me, pulling me toward a new world, a new life, a new chance to prove that I'd learned my lesson.
"Show them what real power looks like, Rome Valentine. Do not disappoint me again."
Then there was light, and sound, and sensation, and I stopped being a thought in the void and became something far more dangerous.
Human.
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First time writing and doing it for fun! Let me know your thoughts!