He heard nothing. Could see nothing. Feel nothing. Could think nothing. All his existence amounted to was a vague numbness. Mich couldn't focus enough to tell how much time had passed, but then something finally happened, breaking the unfeeling stillness.
Mich felt something change. A 'pulling' sensation he felt at the centre of his being, pulling him out of the fog clouding his mind and body, letting him think and feel again. He didn't like what he felt.
'AaaaaaAaAAAAAaaAAAAAAaaaa...', Mich emerged from the fog and only felt pain. He felt a splitting headache that made it hard to think and a biting, burning pain all over his body that made him wish he was still in the fog. But he had left it now and felt the pulling sensation drag him away. He couldn't feel it very well due to all the pain he was in but it almost seemed like he was passing through some viscous membrane, before coming out the other side and falling downwards. The membrane taking away his pain and letting him think, before Mich panicked, falling.
Mich felt his body crash against something, it felt like dense stone and he wondered how he didn't break a bone or something. He looked up and saw something surprising. He saw he was on a white and black chess board-like stone platform. He landed near the edge of the platform and saw that in the middle there was a marble, gold-flecked, rectangular table with two similar marble thrones sitting at each end, with the backs of the thrones extending upwards into darkness above. In fact, Mich noticed that there wasn't anything around except the platform, table, and thrones, and something he was only just noticing as well was that there were two 'people' sitting in the thrones. Everything else was just misty darkness, as if the platform was the only thing that mattered.
Standing up and taking a step forward and looking towards the two beings, Mich broke the oppressive silence, saying "Hi, um, where am I and who are you and what just happened and, um, am I dead?" His voice cracking slightly at the end as he tried to make sense of the situation, while calming down a little after the intense pain at the same time. As soon as he stopped talking though, both beings looked towards him and he finally got a good look at them.
In the left throne sat a shrivelled old man with sunken eyes and white hair, with a matching beard that reached the table, wearing what looked like a white toga with gold embellishments. The man had wrinkles and grey patches covering every part of his exposed skin, looking like he would turn to dust at any moment. The most notable thing about the decrepit man though, were his eyes, the sunken sockets only bringing out the bright, blazing golden eyes at their centres. When the golden eyes passed over Mich he felt as if he could never hide anything in front of this old man, as if he saw everything. Mich felt the blood in his veins freeze in front of the man, until the man lightly chuckled and turned away, letting the blood in Mich's body flow again. Much more frightened at this point and fearing whatever he might see next, but compelled nonetheless, he turned to look at the other side of the table as if drawn to it.
At the other end of the table in the opposing throne, sat the most beautiful woman Mich had ever seen, wearing what looked like a black summer dress and a bright red cardigan over the top. She had straight black hair with a dark red hue reaching down to her waist. A small nose, and pointed ears poking out from her hair. Mich's eyes were drawn to the two small horns coming out from her forehead, looking as if they were carved from ebony, 'What the hell? Is she even human?' he thought 'although I suppose neither of them seem it' finally letting himself look into her eyes, eyes that stared straight back into his, and took his breath away. Her eyes were a blank, wine red colour that held no light or emotion, just like two pools of blood, threatening to drown him in their depths. Mich felt like he really was drowning, like his lungs had filled with fire and blood, he was scared but he couldn't breathe or scream.
"STOP THAT!" The old man bellowed, shaking the platform and the very surrounding space, the fire in his eyes burning brighter as Mich was almost knocked over by the force of his voice. But Mich found himself able to breathe again, and was grateful as he took in large breaths and gasped "thanks!" at the man. "Oh you're so boring you old bastard, booooring!" The woman rolled her eyes and said with voice like smooth velvet, turning and matching her gaze with the old man, visible sparks in the air between them. "Really now Mina," the man said slowly, his voice now a deep whisper "any more and the poor boy would've died and we both don't want that", the scary woman, Mina, smoothed down her hair, that had shifted from the disturbance, and glanced at Mich with barely furrowed brows, the most emotion she had shown yet, and said "Yes I suppose you're correct Gabe, but I just couldn't help myself seeing as how he took the liberty to gawk at my body". Mich, starting to understand where he went wrong and making a mental note to stick closer to 'Gabe', tried to apologise, "Ah, I'm so-" before being cut of by Mina "I don't care for your excuses, boy" she said with a light snort, a weird sight considering her almost perpetually blank face, before turning back to Gabe and ignoring Mich. Mich, now a little embarrassed and worried, also turned to look at the old man.
"Well then," Gabe began, having accepted their looks as a want to continue "I do believe that introductions are due, worry not Michael Tanner, we already know who you are." Mich, now much more worried than before, spluttered out a "what?" Before Gabe continued with a toothy grin "Well you see my name is Gabriel and I am the God of Light, and my friend over there is called Minatoshi, the Devil of the Abyss" at this point Mich had started to shudder but, after a few minutes where the only sound in the room was his heavy breathing, Mich finally managed to bring himself under control. "Why I am I here?" Was what he managed to scrape out, his voice sounding strained. "Well you see my dear boy, it all started many cycles ago, me and Mina had been at this whole 'good and evil' business for many millennia and it had gotten a little, or rather VERY, repetitive and boring. So we had decided to introduce new variables you see, but," he said with a heavy tone "they were all such disappointments...These 'Heroes' and 'Villains' just weren't interesting enough and just repeated the same actions over, and over, and OVER again. So we decided to change the game a little and let go of the steering wheel, letting The System we created affect our world without our input."
At this point Mina cut in, with something reminiscent to nostalgia on her face, "And it worked much better than expected, The System we made became an intrinsic part of the world and led to many more interesting people and 'endings'. But even then, after a few more cycles it became dull just the same. So yours truly had the best idea in eons, to introduce a new piece, so to speak" Mina said with a minute smirk. "Yes yes I know Mina you don't need to rub in that it was your idea." Gabe said with a slight edge and sourness to his voice, the glimmer in his eyes flickering. Mina's face dropped the expression like a brick.
"So, am I meant to be this new piece then?" Mich said before the atmosphere could get any more volatile. Both beings looked towards him and he felt a great pressure, they both nodded and the pressure relented and so Mich continued with a sigh "But I don't get what you want me to do exactly". The beings shared a look and explained that he only needed to do what he wanted, they'd already decided on other variables to make things more interesting, and that as someone from another world his normal reactions should be very interesting. Well only Mina said that last bit and Mich is sure it was with a sadistic tone but he couldn't tell and didn't want to bring it up.
"And so, young Michael, you are to be dropped into our world, Eao, for our entertainment. Aside from that you can do whatever you want, we won't stop you" said Gabe with a knowing look of glee that made Mich uncomfortable. "Well then I think it's time you get going brat cause we've waited for this moment enough!" spat Mina before both Gods rose to their feet.
"Wait wait don't I at least get a say in this?!" Mich screeched before taking a step back. A resounding "NO!" sounded out that shook the very space and threw Mich off the platform into the misty darkness below, the mist coiling around his body, almost pulling him down.
"Goddammit!" was the last thing he said before he saw the platform getting further and further away, darkness claiming him once again before he was reincarnated into his new home.