The curtains of my life came to a close, and I had lived a short life full of misery; I was born weak and died without accomplishing anything, and the men I trusted the most stabbed me in the back.
My consciousness drifted into darkness. I could see the faces of my murders enjoying the hearts of my brother and mother. I tried to speak, but no sound or movement could get through the darkness. I closed my eyes to rest, but this place wouldn't let me, and the clothes covering my body had faded.
It had been a long time since I got here, or at least I thought it had. I didn't have a sense of time, but I could still feel the pain in my neck. I began to pray while my eyes were open, wishing to sleep. Unfortunately, no one answered my prayers, and my body's temperature began to rise. A wave of cold air penetrated my naked form. I lay there in the void of darkness, and the only thing I could feel was the movement of my eyes.
How long had I not slept? I didn't know how long I had been in this shit hole, my once-innocent soul beginning to corrupt. I cursed the Gods of Life for giving me a horrible end. They gave me a life full of hunger and misery. I had never tasted the fruits of life and had always struggled to stay alive.
I was in the middle of cursing the Gods when a beam of light hit my eyes. The darkness I called home began to fade. A moment later, a boat appeared in front of me, and riding the ship was an older man. He wore a conical hat and tunic and had a crooked nose and hideous face. The older man got out of the boat and teleported beside me, then put his hands into my mouth and grabbed something from inside me. It looked like a coin. He lifted my body onto the boat and steered off.
My soul started to drift again, but the speed with which my body moved increased to that of a shooting star, until it stopped in front of a gate. Then a woman's voice ringed out.
"Charon, bring him to me."
The older man nodded his head as the gate began to open. A rotten smell leaked out, and unimaginable fear took over me. The man strode in and moved faster than before, and after a while, the boat stopped in front of a dark cave surrounded by dark mist. The man grabbed my soul and got off the ship. Then he entered the cave, and the atmosphere inside was chaos.
A shadow of a woman dressed in black sat on a throne. The man stopped his approach and kneeled, paying his respect, then spoke in a pleasing tone.
"Mother, what do you want from this human's soul?"
"It's none of your business—you can leave now."
The man put down my soul and left without another word. He'd called the woman mother, but I couldn't figure out how a beautiful woman like her could birth this ugly man. After while she stared me down and lifted her hand, black mist escaped the tips of her finger, running straight into me. The wound left behind by the knife healed instantly, and I was able to form a question.
"Who are you?"
"Poor child, you have been through a lot. Let's get you fixed."
The black mist once again approached me, but this time was peaceful. It surrounded my soul, and what seemed like magic from the fog entered me. My soul began to shake , and my former body began to resurrect. A moment later, my body was complete. I once again asked the same question, but this time I made sure not to piss off this Goddess.
"I can tell you're not a normal woman—you have unknown powers and can bring people from death, so I wish to know who you are, Goddess."
"You assumed. right. I'm the Goddess of the Night, Nyx."
The Goddess spoke little, but her words carried a lot of weight. Still, something didn't make sense to me. Why did this Goddess save me? The Gods I knew of don't do charities, and this Goddess looked anything but pleasant.
She spoke again, this time in a disgraceful tone.
"Interesting—you're indeed right. We Gods don't hand out charities, but I need your help to save my family."
"I have no powers to help you, Goddess. I have lost everything, and I have nothing to give you."
"In my eyes, you are more potent than the king of Gods, and it's not what you have but what's inside your soul."
I didn't understand the Goddess's words. Was she pranking me? I had mighty power inside of me? It seemed impossible, but some part of me wished she was right.
"What kind of power is inside of me?"
"My husband and I were born in chaos before the creation of the universe. We were born with 50 percent of chaos in our bodies. My husband and I have the powers of darkness, but the mess in your body is ridiculous, and every moment your heart beats, it sends fear to my stomach."
"I had never heard of chaos, and also, I'm a human—"
Before I finished my sentence, the Goddess launched an attack. The surrounding dark energy began to choke me, but to my surprise, it didn't hurt me. It tickled me instead.
"Fascinating. An average human can't even stand in front of a God, but you can block my attack."
"Goddess, what do you want from me?"
"Recently, the old Gods are being killed, and unknown Gods have emerged; my husband was killed not long ago, but before he died, he left a prophecy. It described the end of my family but also said the only way we could survive is if we left our legacies behind to a human."
She stared at me. "I have searched for a human who's strong enough to inherit the powers of my family, but unfortunately no human was strong enough to inherit a drop."
This goddess was desperate to save her family, and I wanted a power—whatever the outcome, it was a win for me.
"I will help you, on two conditions."
She read my thoughts almost before I formed them. "You want to consume all the powers of my family? interesting."
"Yes. And also, I want to reincarnate to a different world."
"You will inherit the powers of my family, and also, I will reincarnate you into Erebus, the world of my husband."
The Goddess pulled out a black stone from the air and launched it toward me. The stone stopped and hovered in front of me, and symbols began to appear inside it.
"Pick the symbol that will represent your identity."
All the symbols looked great, but one caught my eye—it was a symbol of a man sleeping comfortably in a dark cave, and all I wanted right now is to sleep peacefully.
"I choose this one."
The Goddess began to laugh. "Today, I shall bestow you the powers of my family. This power is too dangerous to consume at once, or else your soul will explode instantly. The first symbol you choose will be enough for now. I will also assign you a spirit of a system, who will help you control your powers in the future."
After she spoke, my eyes began to close, and little by little, I started to sleep. But before I lost consciousness, I heard the Goddess's last words.
"I wish you luck, Inheritor Of Darkness."