''Speak''
'Thought'
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~Ryu POV~
Staring down at my chest, I can see the claws of the bastard in front of me, piercing me through the chest, and I can feel that I have something missing, probably my heart.
Trying to hold it in, I cannot help but cough out blood while simultaneously hearing the laughter of the demon in front of me echoing through the night.
"Oops~I thought you were going to be stronger than this. Look like I was wrong~" The ugly bastard said in front of me while giggling madly.
I didn't say anything, no, more like I can't do anything, and right now, I can feel my consciousness slipping away.
'Dammit... I guess this is it.' That was my lost thought, and the next thing that greeted me was darkness.
.
.
.
.
.
Also, I thought.
The first thing I noticed is that I am alive, or I'm still conscious, floating in the endless black space with no light at all, and yet I can feel and see my own body just fine, even with no light.
'I'm getting a big feeling of deja vu right now.' I thought before looking around, trying to find something, trying to see something.
But then, as per instinct, my arm quickly moved toward my neck to feel whether or not that collar was still around my neck.
And to my surprise.
"Why the fuck is it still there?" I mutter, "I thought I would be free from it the moment I died?"
"That's where you are wrong, child. Soul and body don't work like that." A voice suddenly rings out from behind me, a very similar voice that I know very well.
"Mary?" I ask while quickly turning around and seeing Mary standing behind me. "No, your not Mary... Who the fuck are you?"
"I am many things, and I had many names you know and don't know." Mary(?) said while floating down toward me.
Seeing the being in front of me, I cannot help but think back to what that bald bitch told me before chucking me out of the universe.
"Are you one of those... conceptual beings... thing?" I ask her
"Yes and no, I am them, but I am also much more than that." That being said, the moment I blink my eyes, the being in front of me now has the same appearance as Bram. "As I said, I am many things and can be anything."
I can only stare at Bram(?) in front of me, who only looks at me with a small smile, something totally out of place on the stoic face of Bram that I had come to acquaintance with within the past years.
"Fine, whatever; I remember another weirdo like you saying you don't have a form or something along those lines, so I don't care what you look like." I said, "But what I do care about is what, no, to be more specific, why are you here?"
"Ah, to the point, I see. That is what I love to see. As you might remember, you had been tossed into a different universe, a universe belonging to me. Not only that, not even half an hour in, you had been killed by one of my... creations." said Mary(?)
Oh great, now she is back to being Mary. Can't she stay with the same appearance?
"Oh, I absolutely can, and I will. After all, I do prefer staying as a woman." Mary(?)
Of course, she can read my mind with no problem. Can't a man have his privacy in his head?
"Don't worry; I'm not going to keep doing it. You can keep your thought to yourself." Mary(?) said, "Now, as for I am here, it is pretty complicated. Not to mention, you probably want to know why your collar is still there."
I nodded slightly while looking at the being in front of me. I can feel this conversation is going to be very long.
"Let's answer the collar question first. You see, that collar of yours did not connect to your body but to your very soul itself, which results in your body also affecting your body. After all, a soul and body are the same, and you cannot have one without the another."
"Really? Are you saying this thing would still be around my neck even if I died?" I immediately ask after hearing the being explanation.
"Yes, sadly, There is truly no way to get riddle that on your own without your outside help." Mary(?) said, "Now, back to why I am here.
You see, since you died in my universe, you would usually go to heaven or hell, but considering your past action, you probably know where you are going. But I can't let you do that, or to be more specific. I cannot let you go to hell."
"Wait, why? What's wrong with going to hell?" I ask, but when I think about it, "I feel something is wrong with my last question."
"That is where it gets complicated. When imagining a universe like a story, each universe tells it won a different kind of story from the beginning to the very end; everyone has a script, and everyone follows it. Nobody inside the universe can go against the script, no matter what; only those who create the script can genuinely change the script.
But there is an exception, and nobody in the universe can change the script; however, those who come from different universes? Those people can easily change the script of the story in that universe.
Usually, this would be fine because most of the universe is connected, meaning that even if they go to a different universe, they are technically still following their script.
However, as you can probably guess by now, the universe you come from and my universe are not connected. When that happens, it can cause many problems in the script, creating an error and potentially breaking the universe.
Of course, it is fine as long as the change is not significant, those people can continue to move on with their life, but when they do something drastic, the owner of the universe must make a change to the universe, to their script to make sure that the universe itself will not break.
This is usually how things work; after all, they are all sort of reincarnators who are reborn into a different universe because someone wanted them to or simply by pure chance—creating all-new scripts to that said universe.
But you, you are different. Usually, I would change my script after seeing someone decide to intrude on my universe.
However, you are far from ordinary.
Being his representation and avatar, it gives you so much leeway. It makes it impossible to write a new script for my universe, considering you will keep erasing it as long as you exist. Usually, I cannot intervene with my universe because of the rule I had placed there, but you are an exception because you are not from here. So the moment you died, I took my chance and brought you here.
Which is why I am here. Make sure you would not go too far into my universe and break it in the process."
"Ok... I'm not going to say I understand all that, but from what I can gather, you want me out of this universe because my existence would cause it to break, am I right?"
"In laymen's terms? Yes, I want you out to somewhere different that is anywhere but here."
"So you sending me back?"
"Unfortunately, no, I cannot; the owner of your universes or multiverse are very strict when it comes to rule, and I already talked to him about whether I can send you back or not, which he refused because he only wants you to come back by your power and will, not from the outside help."
Not going to lie; I blanked out after she said no; I guess I'm not going back to my universe anytime soon.
"But you don't have to worry about not getting back to your universe. I had been trying to make a deal with other owners of universes, but most of them refuse to let you in their universe, of course, but I do find a universe that would accept you.
Not only that, the said owner of that universe would take off that collars of yours if you do a sure thing for him, and he would then send you to another universe that can make you return to your original universe."
"So... let me get this straight, you will send me to another universe, where if I do what the owner of the universe wants, that person would get the riddle of this collar, THEN send me to another universe that can help me get back to my universe. Am I getting this correct?"
"Yes, yes you are."
"Ok, but why can't you take off this collar now?" I cannot but ask the being in front of me.
"Why should I?" Mary(?) said with a smirk on her face.
Of course, she would say that.
"I don't have a choice now, would I?" I said before sighing.
"You're right. So I guess you will accept it?"
"Yes, just do it; I will go back to my universe and kill that bald bitch no matter how long it takes."
"Very good, then this is a goodbye then." Mary(?) said while a portal opened behind Ryu, "Step into that portal, and you will be in that universe, and good luck."
I only hummed as a response, but before I stepped into that portal, I decided to ask her a single question.
"Can you at least tell me what I will be doing?"
Mary(?) raised her eyebrow for a second before answering while raising her hand.
"Well, there is one thing that I can tell you." Mary(?) said before I felt an invisible force pushing me inside the portal, "I hope you like going on vacation on an island~."
That was the last thing I heard from her, and before I knew it, I had been quickly pushing into the portal to another universe.