It was peaceful, for a moment.
A deaf silence and a cool chill, stagnant in the air. She could feel her heart getting weaker, and was fully aware as her lungs started closing in on themselves. A mixture of pain and bewilderment kept her dreaming.
In her dream, her beautiful figure and beautiful face were gone. As she began thinking it was turning into a nightmare, her body was replaced by a soft glowing light. There was another light moving nearby, it seemed to be coming her way.
As soon as the light stood infront of her it bluntly stated: "You are dead."
Not expecting that, Adelynn froze..
"WHAT!?" She shouted when she finally snapped back. Dead? As in, no longer alive? As in, buried or turned to ashes? As in, unable to make it to Pearl 3D's competition on Kedor?!?
Perhaps, it was strange believing someone says you're dead without any proof.. but what proof did you expect? She felt herself dying, and it's not like she commonly had dreams involving human light figures. Not believing sounded a lot more unreasonable.
But, truthfully, there was no way to accept this. There was too much happening in her life just moments ago, how can she die! Adelynn wanted to cry at this moment, but it seemed her emotions were only thoughts and she couldn't really feel anything related to them.
The light nodded, confirming she was dead and there was nothing to be done about it. "A god made an accident and killed you instead of a woman with a very similar name and wealth, who was also going to bed at that time. You can not be revived. The best I can do is reincarnate you."
Without consoling or sympathy, the spirit again bluntly stated the truth. Adelynn was only half thankful for this.. thing. She was thankful it didn't dance around the truth, or add any positive touches to her death. However, she also couldn't help but dislike how uncaring the spirit was about a god ruining someone's life!
Could this be a common occurrence? Than again, even if it is, shouldn't they still repay everyone who suffers this fate? Reincarnation may sound all nice and promising to someone who's life sucked and who hoped to make something new out of another chance, but she loved her life.
Not only her life, Adelynn loved her family and her friends. Whether or not any of her siblings gave two craps about her, she had plenty of good memories among them when they were all younger. Then, her two good friends, who knew her better than she knew herself. Even moreso her father, who she would never choose to leave behind. Could reincarnation fix that?
Obviously, the answer is no.
"What happens after I pass?" She asked. She had relatives die before, it was kind of strange to ask about what happens, as if she didn't already know.
"It will not be any different from an ordinary death. Your body will be found, and things will move forward from there."
As expected, but still a little painful.
However, she decided not to linger on this. For one reason or another, she wanted to go through with this reincarnation and forget all about her previous life. Unfortunately, she didn't realize that's not how reincarnation works.
"Alright, then let's hurry this along. You do have benefits in place for me, right? I can't imagine you 'things' would carelessly murder someone, then half-assedly give them another life. If that's correct, am I allowed to make requests?"
"Yes. Give me a second, there is something you must fill out." As the spirit said this, it conjured what looked like a piece of paper and a pencil. For bodies of light, Adelynn wasn't really sure how that made much sense.
It handed both things to her and she took the initiative to start reading and writing.
The paper included many personality quiz-like questions. It was honestly quite strange, like the spirit was trying to determine her Hogwarts house as the worst time. She was completely honest with her responses too.
As the same time, the spirit asked an additional question. "What is one thing you wish for in your next life?"
Without skipping a beat, not even looking up, Adelynn answered. "Flawless beauty."
The spirit seemed not to have expected such a quick and definite answer. It took a moment, then asked a second additional question. "What is one more thing you wish for in your next life?"
Again, Adelynn answered without a second thought. "Endless wealth."
The spirit stopped speaking again. Weren't those two things very bland compared to the billions of possibilities? Or, maybe it had gotten too used to people requesting magic and talent?
Neither of which Adelynn needed, as far as she was concerned.
These were the benefits that she wanted, so these were the ones she would get, for a suitable duration.
After returning the quiz, she let her mind wander. If she ignored thoughts of the people she would miss, there was still a lot she hated to leave behind. Even if she wasn't as accomplished as she siblings who always tried to stand out, it was rude to assume she didn't leave behind things she put great effort into.
Like Pearl 3D! VR games weren't popular on Earth anymore, instead replaced by her father's chip technology, which created a 1000% better sense of realism. That didn't stop the games that used to be very popular from becoming very pricey, though. It didn't effect Adelynn, but it did aggrieve a lot of VR lovers.
That's when Pearl 3D started advertising itself. An online platform game with servers spreading far and wide, being the most popular on Earth. It could fit the wants of almost any player.
Adelynn had long had interest in games set in the medieval era, an era only briefly mentioned in history books, but that caught her attention immediately. It was even better when fantasy elements were included.. she was often considered a bit of a weirdo for those interests, which her siblings referred to as 'board games'.
When Lalla and Lafas introduced this to her, it became her new everything for the past 10 years. Even after 10 years she fell in love with every design and participated in every events, there's no way she could miss the big competition... well, unless she died.
She sighed, at least she wouldn't remember all the good times. As she thought that, the spirit spoke up.
"Your new life is ready, are you?" It held out what Adelynn assumed was it's hand. She hesitated at that question, but quickly took it's hand and nodded.
"As long as I live happily, I'm prepared." Her words came to an end and the light of her "body" began to fade. In the blink of an eye, the spirit was left alone in the empty void.