The sound of steel and buzzing magic echoes through the night sky.

Fire burns the ground as floods put them out. The earth shatters underneath the combatants and lightning strikes down many foes.

A full scale war between two factions takes place. Each of them is trying to slaughter the other side and achieve victory over one another.

At the heart of the clash, the two leaders are in an all out brawl. The area is cleared of life and the ground. They stand in the center of a massive crater they both made due to the pressure of their attacks.

"Hah! Is that all there is to the great King?!" Says a man with unkempt hair and a beard that wraps around his chin. He dons a massive white and gold armor that looks impossible to move in, and he sports a shield in his left hand while carrying a greatsword in his other.

"I'm just getting started. Also, King's a better name than HeroicForge998." King starts laughing uncontrollably as he mocks his opponents name. King is a man that stands tall above the other, with a clean and sharp face. His hair is long but well kept, and his armor consists of fur and leather that seems more for design than protection.

"Well, the name Hero was taken alright! You know how hard it is to get a good name." HeroicForge998 snaps back at King.

"If you were as early as you are egotistical. Get a life!"

"Says you, shut in!" 

"Fuck you! I told you that in confidence!" Reeling back his left arm, King charges a massive blow to HeroicForge998's shield, knocking him back.

King leaps into the air and slams on top of Heroicforge998 body and proceeds to batter the shield. A flurry of blows continues to strike at near light speed movements that pinpoints one spot on the shield.

"You think you can break my shield by hitting it a couple times!" Heroic- . . . Hero speaks with great arrogance.

"Who the fuck do you think you are? A semi-popular demon king in a semi-popular anime!"

"Huh?" Hero has never been more confused.

King continues to bash away at Hero's shield. Each blow causes the crater to widen and deepen. Eventually, Hero is teleported from King's grasp back to his head commander's side. 

"Damnit! You!" King points at the commander, "Bring him back down SirAssMaster!"

SirAssMaster face reddens, "That's not my name asshole! It's SirBlastMaster."

"You guys have dumb names anyway." King plants his foot onto the ground and dashes forward towards AssMaster at a speed greater than lightning. "Pick a new one in character creation you fuck!" With a single strike, King connects his fist to Ass' face, landing a critical strike.

AssMaster's face is blown off as his body falls down. The body turns into virtual data that gets levitated into the sky.

"Now it's just you and me again!" King slams his fists together.

"Shut up you mutt. You have gotten way too broken. That has got to be reportable or breaking some sort of coding. You're hacking, definitely."

"Hacking? Really?" King looks mildly disappointed. "That's what a loser would say.

From behind the Hero, a figure appears. It is a shadowy form that has no face or body.

"It's time for your downfall King! You think I waged a guild war on you just for the sake of doing it?"

Confusion falls over King's face as he is stuck there in wonder of what was happening. "What do you mean?"

Hero exclaims out over the entire battlefield, "A certain God of this game wants you gone for good. I simply am taking on this role to finally achieve rank one in this game and massive bonuses."

As Hero is stuck in his own fantasies, the shadowy being waves his hand, and he grants Hero and his army powers that have never been seen.

King stares at Hero noticing this power. "This is some type of admin abuse huh? The hell is this?" King calls an admin but to no response.

Hero cackles like a maniac as his power grows. "HAHA! This is your end, you son of a bitch!" Hero charges at King and starts chanting his most powerful spell. A skill that enlarges his blade and enchants it with the Holy aspect.

With open hands, King gets in a stance to receive this blow. As he does, he activates a spell called . A dome of fire burns out twenty meters around King.

Once Hero's sword enters the dome of fire, a shadowy essence wraps around the enlarged greatsword. This shadow starts to consume the fire as the sword cuts through, allowing his sword to easily bypass the dome of fire.

"You cheatin' bast-" Within a mere moment, the sword slices through the King. 

. . .

[You Died]

. . .

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇

"DAMNIT!!!!" A screen of my defeat hovers right in front of my face.

I lay down in an empty and dark space. The floor is like glass and reflects my body like a mirror.

"I died huh?"

Upon realizing this defeat, I sat up.

I start to reminisce about life and how I came to get to where I'm at currently.

From a normal family, to its downfall. A thriving mixed martial arts career, to being condemned and falling into retirement. The time I spent after trying to escape in the only method I knew of, gaming.

Return to Magic was a hot selling VRMMO that came out in 2036. Everyone was blown away by its realism and the freedom that came with it. It opened the doors to many people, including me. Once a shell of myself, I could immerse myself in a game where I chose my destiny, not be defined by it.

Now that my character was killed, I will have to go through the reincarnation process. It was a hardcore game that promoted perma-death rules. However in some cases, one could bring themselves back but be reset to level one. The catch was that a person kept a percent of their stats, so someone could theoretically continue to infinitely grow in this game if they had enough resources.

Reincarnation scrolls were tough to find and make, so being able to get one was already difficult as is. Most players, however, didn't know of the secrets I did.

In a library, one can learn about mythical beasts within the game. These beasts, upon consumption or absorption, had a myth that would allow you to steal their immortal skill.

So, I did that. I took a skill from one of these mythical beasts and was able to be granted the same skill as a reincarnation scroll. What would set me apart though, is that if my theory is accurate, I should be able to permanently reincarnate.

I bet the Admins didn't think a player would just sit at a library all day to research, but when you have no life but what's in the game, that's what you do.

I confidently laid in that mirror space and awaited my reincarnation.

. . .

Five hours passed by with not a single notification. "I'll sleep it off then."

. . .

As time flew by, I even remembered my whole life's story in that time. 

As a kid, I was in a fairly normal household. I had a mother, father and a little sister. We had normal family activities and normal days. There were tough events in our lives, but nothing we couldn't surpass.

Until my parents split up to solve their issues that followed them to adulthood. I had to take care of my sister on my own for a while. Eventually, I grew up and got into MMA. It was a big part of my life before since I loved to fight, then I made it a career.

Using my success in the field, I was easily able to take care of my sister and myself till she was old enough to leave.

A bit after that, I met someone through my career and fell in love. To me this woman was my world. I did everything for her.

Tears started to stream down my face in remembrance. I stopped myself from thought since I couldn't continue to think more once my head veered off in that direction.

I opened my eyes and I was still in the space before, but instead of the [You Died] screen, it was [Good Morning!].

A confused look showers my face.

"Good . . morning?"

The screen glitched out and the world around me lit up.

A smiley face appeared above me with a voice that rang deep into my being. "It seems you've died, and I had a bet on you."

A bet? On me? Why? "W-what do you mean by that? Who are you? What's going on and do the admins not know that I'm stuck here?"

"That's a lot of questions that I really can't answer yet. Let's just say that you are in the digital space between life and death, simply put."

I stop and stare at him, still confused as ever.

"I also managed to halt your reincarnation for a little bit. See time here doesn't flow in the same manner as your world and the world you were just in. This is for your sake as well."

"Why though? Can you not tell me?"

"Unfortunately, I cannot. If I was to give you any more information, it'd break a contract that's set upon me. So just bear with the minimal information for now, you will soon know why that is." The face disappeared and before I could collect my thoughts, the glass floor below me shattered.

My body dropped as I began sinking in an abyss with no knowledge of why.

I could only stay there and begin to let fate take its course. My life isn't my own, it's always been that way, so this instance isn't anything surprising.

. . .

Stupid Admins!