- "I don't want to die! Not now! I still have too many questions that need answers. Please, someone. Do something. Help!" He screamed with all his lungs.
The sight, however beautiful and magnificent, gave no more emotion than fear to Isaac. A visceral fear and a lack. He had just started to discover the very source of reality and the world, he had so many questions to ask and answer. And yet he was going to die so easily?
"Bullshit!" he said reflexively.
As he was busy looking around, looking for anything that might help him, his eyes then fell on a female figure. It was a young woman, probably in her twenties like him, her face refined and white, almost pale. Blond hair blowing violently in the wind due to the fall, just like her white dress, with a calm and serene expression punctuated by an equally serene smile.
She then began to open her mouth, seeming to say a few words. Despite the sound of the wind as they fell, the words she spoke miraculously reached Isaac's ears.
- "Greetings, Excellency." She said simply keeping her smile. "I hope you had a relaxing Other World vacation," she continued, not really paying attention to the panic on Isaac's face. "All systems are stable and nominal."
She then placed a little time of silence before resuming.
- "As you ordered us, here is your message." She then began to approach Isaac as if nothing had happened and came to place her hand, palm open facing him.
A blue window then appeared again with the icon of a speaker before a man's voice started ringing in Isaac's mind. A voice he had never heard, deep and low but with an excited and even happy intonation.
"You must be wondering what you are doing here and what just happened to you. And that makes perfect sense."
The message appeared to be a message addressed to Isaac by probably the Admin.
"I'm not going to make a long, boring speech. Frankly, I'm pretty bored. So I'll leave my job to you. Take care of Falanx! Or not ..."
"It's up to you! After all, this world is now your world. You can do whatever you want to it. You are in control."
Isaac's face showed a confused expression mixed with fear.
"I let you discover this world and your abilities. I also leave you the freedom to seek the answers to your questions yourself. Consider this an adventure."
"I left you a lot of surprises. In this world as in others for that matter."
A little silence fell for a few moments before the voice resumed.
"I just winked at you. But you probably haven't seen it, since it's a voice recording. Anyway. With that, I'll leave you. I left messages scattered around the world for you to discover, kind of like memories. Some don't really make sense, they're just notes to myself, so don't care.
"Either way, have fun! As the Vulcans often said: Live long and prosper. Ha haha!"
The window suddenly disappeared and Isaac's mind cleared a little more, then resuming the situation where it was.
"The ground ... THE GROUND !!!!"
He then turned to the young woman and began to open his mouth to yell at her to stop his fall, but too late.
The sound of the explosion echoed throughout the plain and a huge crater 10 meters in radius appeared in the earth. A huge cloud of dust then rose, obscuring the view that could be seen of the crater.
Behind the dust, in the center of the crater, was a red liquid strewn everywhere, forming a scarlet puddle mixed with white fragments here and there.
Isaac had neither the time to say anything nor the opportunity to suffer. Everything had happened so quickly that from moment to moment, the world before his eyes had passed from ground to darkness, then from darkness to light.
Then, again, his vision cleared and the silhouette of the plain reappeared, the dust still making it impossible to make out much. In front of him was a new window.
[System] Forced save point defined.
[System] Major physical damage detected.
[System] 100% compromised bodily integrity.
[System] Death confirmed.
The window had appeared in front of what appeared to be Isaac's mind. A white and slightly transparent representation of his body floating in the air, incapable of the slightest movement. Isaac could not formulate any words or sounds. Not because he couldn't, just because he didn't know what to do. Mouth agape and shocked, he looked at his body, or at least what was left of it.
- "I am dead ?" Three words that sounded totally ridiculous after everything he had just experienced. He couldn't believe it. "I am dead..."
The words he had just spoken rang like a bell, unable to think of anything else until a voice pulled him out of his trance.
- "Yes. You are dead. Do you want to reappear?" Asked the blond haired young woman floating in the air a little above Isaac, her smile still on her face.
- "Reappear?" He asked in turn, a little lost.
She chuckled before pointing her finger at a new window Isaac hadn't noticed that had just appeared above the first.
[System] Would you like to respawn at your last save point? [Y / N]
Isaac widened his eyes slightly and pressed Y with thought, having no hand or body to speak of. Immediately following his action, the two windows were replaced with a new one.
[System] Reconstruction of the body envelope in progress ...
[System] Loading of profile data completed.
[System] Sequence initialized ...
"I wonder what happens if I press No" he wondered while refusing to do so, at least not for now. "It's already a miracle that I can resuscitate, we are not going to take any risks now".
Before him, the blood, flesh, tissues, vessels and bones that once made up his body began to dissipate in white smoke. Gradually, the once dust-covered crater was covered by a thick white fog that suddenly began to contract.
Then, after a few minutes, the cloud took the form of a figure Isaac had never seen before, a body with white skin, pure and soft. Long brown hair flowing along his shoulder and back, sky blue eyes and a soft face that gave him a noble and warm look.
But above all, Isaac immediately noticed his ears. Long, pointed ears. "It's... me? Wait, it's... an elf! It's an elf!" he thought excitedly.
The fog continued slowly, rebuilding the body and the figure. Once at the hips, a thought then occurred to Isaac.
- "Wait ... my clothes."
He then thought again about when his clothes got vaporized as he stepped into the light and immediately looked away. "Why am I looking away? It's my body!" he thought without being able to turn around.
Either way, even if he still had his clothes on when he arrived, they surely wouldn't have survived the fall.
Moments later, a beep sounded and the window popped up.
[System] Reconstruction of the body shell completed.
[System] Connection of the spiritual field ...
The sphere of energy that Isaac seemed to be suddenly got sucked into the newly created body, which began to move.
He blinked a few times, seeming to get used to it again, and looked at his hands and feet.
- "I'm alive... ?" he simply said.
[System] You have found 1 [Admin Message].
[System] Reading message ...
The Admin's deep voice began to echo through Isaac's mind again. This time, with a mocking and slightly annoying intonation.
- "HA! You're dead. Cheh, as they say."
[System] End of message.
[System] You have unlocked 1 new entry (s).
[System] Loading penalties for [Death] ...
"Sanctions?" he thought when suddenly a powerful pain gripped his scalp and forced him to squat, his hands on his temples emitting small squeals of pain.