A lone, naked figure traversed across rocky, hostile terrain in a careless manner. A single misstep would lead to a perilous tumble into jagged rocks, but the figure didn't seem to care. Climbing at a 45-degree angle, the figure did eventually stumble. It rolled through gravel and bounced off erect rocks pointing out from the gravel until its crumpled body lay still at the base of the hill.
"Kuhuh, kuh," Rigel dully coughed, ejecting some stray dirt and dust from his lungs. He didn't move for a few minutes. Suddenly, in a fit of raw anger and aggression, Rigel burst like a bomb, literally. The ground in the vicinity around him flew into the sky from the power that erupted from Rigel.
Rigel, once again as tranquil as the water of a pond early in the morning, made his way up the hill and fell over the top. He tumbled back down the backside and continued walking northeast through the arid wasteland. Each step he took embedded his feet an inch into the powdery dirt lining the surface of the ground.
Rigel, at this point, had a very clear understanding of why there was so much loose dirt in this area. He had been attacked by a many of nature's wind-based weaponry, be it dust devils, twisters, full-blown tornadoes or just very fast winds. The everlasting drought was also extremely apparent to him. He couldn't recall any moisture since the transition between grassland and… desert? He was unsure of the proper naming conventions involved.
On his trek across the continent, Rigel had seen some pretty cool things, in his opinion. Most of his time was spent mindlessly walking, but every once in a while, powerful creatures radiating regal authority appeared. He wondered if they were the so-called "Sovereigns"- category 4 beasts. The first he saw was a massive flying whale the size of a zeppelin. It wasn't very "fantasy-like"- it was just a normal looking whale- but it was undoubtedly powerful. Rigel also saw a majestic bird far, far up in the sky. He was unsure of its size or any physical features aside from color- which was a cool royal blue, but he could still feel its overwhelming authority from so far away, so he was impressed. He casually wondered if that bird was a Monad.
"Monad- a singular entity, above all others. How envious." Rigel often mused over the subject of Godbeasts, actual demigods, monads, and their respective power structures. While he had been absent-minded for most of his journey, under the surface level exhaustion and carelessness he had been thinking very hard about his current situation. Mostly unproductive, bitter thoughts, but he had seen through most of what he felt a need to do a long time ago. The Great Plains were vast and he himself wasn't in much rush to get anywhere, so he had time to ponder over nothing.
"Although," he had to wonder, "is this still the Great Plains? There are quite a few hills."
He made his way up another steeply sloped hill and perched on a large rock. He gazed deeply into the distance and analyzed the upcoming terrain. A haze of airborne dust obscured his long-distance vision, but he could still make out most of the nearby hills and valleys. He noted nothing of interest and collapsed; falling down the hill like a ragdoll.
Rigel continued walking until he approached the edge of a proper canyon.
"Wowie," he muttered sarcastically. "Practice time…"
He drew mana into his body and stretched his body across the Z plane and teleported a few feet past the opposing cliffside edge and dropped down. Upon collapsing, Rigel had a passing thought.
"Is gravity under the dominion of space, or is it an independent force? I never took physics back when I was… Me?"
Rigel groaned a bit and concentrated on his memories, to the point where he forgot to keep walking.
"I was… someone before Rigel?" He continued to talk to himself. "Rigel… Rigel. Rigel, Rigel RigelRigel. What a fucking worthless name- appropriate for such a worthless person. Is Rigel even a name? Am I even a person? Hmm. Hmm. Hmm? Hmm... I think I just wanna die."
Rigel abruptly teleported his head individually 15 feet above himself. The head fell atop Rigel's crumpled body with a soft thump. No blood oozed out of his lifeless body, but at the stump of his neck, red mush was prominent.
…
Rigel blinked and found himself in the white void once more. He sighed mournfully and said, with tears in his eyes, "Just let it end, please."
"Never," God dutifully responded. "You coward, you don't get the easy way out. Stop your whining. As broken as you are, there's no excuse for being a little bitch. Those many years ago, I told you to own a kingdom, and here you still are, pathetically wandering around without direction. What a letdown, really. I had some hopes for you. Despite your fragile mental state and low IQ, you have a real talent for mana manipulation. You even managed to break your own body with space magic. However, it seems like your fragility won out, though. Sigh, and I can't even cheat that much at this stage in the game. Stop making things difficult for me and play along. Eventually, you'll obtain everything you could possibly want, whether you realize what those things are right now or not. Snap out of it and finish your divine duty, damn it."
…
Rigel found himself lying on familiar, arid ground- back in the realm of reality. He sighed in exhaustion and felt up and around where his neck was reconnected. He felt not one flaw and felt a small amount of awe toward the deity that presumably fixed him. He also noticed that he was now dressed.
"That's a neat trick," a feminine voice suddenly said.
Rigel felt his heart jump a few inches and slowly sat upright. He looked over to the origin of the voice and saw a young girl perched on top of a small earthly protrusion. He sighed and managed to completely calm himself down in a few moments.
"Hello, little girl. Who. Are. You?" Rigel smoothly asked.
"I am Eureka, of course. Your dutiful guide and manager from the heavens. A life coach, if you will," she equally smoothly responded. She spryly hopped up and patted any loose dust off of herself, and walked over to Rigel.
Rigel only smirked momentarily before attempting wholeheartedly to kill her. He tried to take her off guard by keeping his muscles lax, and then suddenly erupted with the ferocious might of all his fire magic.
Rigel pushed an extremely fast fireball out of his hand nigh instantly, only for Eureka to calmly spin out of the way. The abstract bending of her joints and spiral movement momentarily bewildered Rigel, and allowed her to promptly kick him across the face and into the dirt he flew.
"Urgh," Rigel shuddered in pain, simply in too much pain to realize that he shouldn't have been in pain in the first place.
"That reminds me," Eureka said with a cute, childlike smile, "The One True Being wanted you to know that in expense of sending me down here to watch you, he has temporarily taken away your immortality."
Rigel felt a foreboding chill corrode his heart and felt lightheaded. He didn't get up for a few moments and took a good look at his own scenario.
"Girl," he coughed out while slowly getting up, "Protect me with your life. I am a very important demigod... and I won't die to that God's meddling. I'll play his stupid game and win what I desire, whatever it may be."
Rigel took another look at this new person, now with a new sense of awe and wonder. She was a plain looking girl, with no discernible oddities or physical quirks. She had dirty blonde hair that was kept short for a girl, just around ear length. She was short, even for a girl, maybe around 5'3". Her petite frame looked like something that would snap like a measly twig if kicked with some effort.
"Don't kid yourself, Rigel. You aren't important in the slightest- it's just against the rules for you to die now."
"Ughhhh... fuck off. I don't care about your stupid rules."
"God, you're an idiot. Shut up and think about what you're saying for a second, Rigel. You just said that you wanted to win what you desire, so you have to care about the rules, Rigel," she reprimanded in an almost childish tone, and then continued with a bit of a sweeter tone, "Please remember that communication is an important part of a balanced life, Rigel."
"STOP SAYING MY NAME!" Rigel abruptly erupted. "I am a faceless, interchangeable demigod, and nothing more. Happy?"
Eureka only responded with a silent smirk before turning towards the direction Rigel was walking.
"Let's go," she said lightly.
"...Where?"
"Where you need to be, of course."
Rigel sighed and followed behind the strange girl.
The duo walked in silence. Before Rigel even realized, the sun had set over the horizon, the great moon overhead faithfully shining down its beams in the sun's stead.
Rigel basked in the luminosity radiating from the moon, relishing the unique atmosphere provided by such a moon. While it is nice to enjoy a warm summer day, night time's mysteriousness and quasi-gloominess is certainly desirable to those in a foul mood.