A small white crystal shone in his eyes. It appeared to be a distance away from him, covered in haze. Like it was there and not there at the same time.
He reached for it
"Breathe." It commanded.
Then Dillon awoke.
He didn't feel like himself. He tried to move his arm, but it didn't feel like his own. It jerked and stopped at the smallest movement.
First confusion, then realization.
'I'm dead?' He thought blankly, 'Then how am I thinking?'
If they killed him, then how was he here? He remembered, clear as day, those flashing lights and their inhuman speed. There was no way that all happened in his head… right?
'Maybe I'm crazy.'
That seemed to be the most likely explanation.
He tried sitting up, but his body protested against him. Not in a 'Oh, I'm so tired' kind of way. He physically felt it. An arm lifted without his guidance, and his leg slammed deeper into the wet soil he found himself in.
'What the hell is happening?'
Finally, his head fell back into the soil and lay there.
It felt weird, being this close to soil and grass. Dillon didn't usually 'touch' grass, and he felt uncomfortable being so close to the dirt. One could only imagine how much germs lay there, but for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to care.
'I just wanna go home, man…'
[Ding!]
[New Objective Set- Return to Planer Earth!]
A screen popped up in front of him, and the last wave of memories after he was struck down appeared in his mind.
He wanted to be surprised, but honestly, he felt too exhausted at this point. It was a 'system', like in the novels he read from time to time. He usually didn't like those books very much and was more into history, but here he was, living it.
[Overcome the Finalities]
[First Objective: Ruler of Elgross; Planet of the Spirits]
Those were the last two screens he saw before.
'Elgross… is that what this place is called? One of those men mentioned it too.'
As soon as he thought that, waves of memories and flickering images appeared in his mind.
'Fuuuuck!'
It hurt. Hurt even worse than when his body disobeyed. He had to rest for a minute or two more to regain his bearing.
Then, the memories set in and completely assimilated
His memories depicted a place called Elgross. It was a planet where spirits and humans existed alongside each other and needed the other to survive. A symbiotic relationship, so to speak.
Without the humans, spirits would fade into nonexistence after a short period. And humans would have gone extinct if spirits didn't help them in combat, crafting, development and the like.
People could control all sorts of different phenomena, summon majestic weapons out of thin air, and affect reality on large scales with their bare hands.
This body, his body, belonged to a boy called Melchior or Mel as people knew him. He was sort of similar to Dillon. A loser. He was pushed around and disregarded every single day because he didn't even have a spirit. In this world, that made him less than trash.
It was sad, but this person was gone now. Whatever remnant soul or muscle memory could not dictate his life.
'I am you now. Allow me to be you,' He said to the body.
Dillon didn't know who he was talking to or whether the person heard him, but he tried to lift a hand up afterwards. It didn't feel any different at first.
But then it moved… and without the jerking or stopping. It actually moved.
He quickly got to his feet and dusted the sand off his brown cotton clothes. There was a small hole poking out of the chest area, causing the night wind to brush against the patch of skin.
"I need to get out of here quickly," he muttered, rubbing the skin there. It felt smooth.
He was in a forest and large trees stood around. It was dark and only a few rays of moonlight pierced through the canopy of leaves, but that was enough to notice the path leading out.
Dillon got onto the cobblestone path and began his trek out of the forest just when he heard a voice.
"Clyde, you idiot! How'd you think to bury a person without bringing a shove along?" The person grunted.
Two silhouettes rapidly moved down the path, about seeing him, but he saw them before they noticed him. Dillon rolled to the floor without thinking and lay there.
"Hey, in my defence, I knew we'd figure it out!" a second voice called out, "And besides, the loser is dead now."
"Yeah, no shit, but people from the town could have discovered his body. Especially the Watchers!"
Clyde laughed, "Watchers this, Watchers that. They're a myth for all we know. And even if they weren't, they didn't find the body. We got to the town and grabbed the shovel, and now we're all back here! You really need to see the positive in things, Andy. Makuna Hatata!"
Andy glared.
"Why the hell would I see the positive in a preventable problem?"
Their footsteps gradually approached Dillon before settling in front of his 'collapsed' body. He put two and two together and realized that they were the ones that killed the previous Dillon.
"Huh? Did his body move?" Andy muttered, squinting in the darkness.
"Eh, it was probably the wind or something. Come on, let's quickly bury this fella, then get back to our warm and cosy beds!"
"Yeah,"
And without warning, the shovel hit the ground with a crisp sound. The blade of the shove slightly grazed his skin, causing Dillon to almost scream out and blow his cover.
The digging continued, and they were alarmingly fast so it would be any time from now that they would finish.
"Ugh, this is exhausting. Wish we could just toss it in a lake or something…"
"Shut it, Clyde. Just focus on the task at hand."
Short conversations like this happened between Clyde and Andy. And Dillon kept stopping to hear them.
'Shit, what am I doing? I can't just sit here and let them bury me alive…'
[Ding]
[Short-term Objective set- Escape Certain Doom!
Rewards: None
Remarks: You're on your own for this one!]
[WARNING: The next Death is IRREVERSIBLE!]
As soon as that happened, Dillon suddenly felt two pairs of hands lifting him up, and about to lower him down into the hole.
'I have to move now!'
So, he swiftly shot up and got out of their unaware clutches before they could even react.
"He moved?"
"It's a ghost?"
Dillon landed on the soil and took to his feet immediately after. The two boys stood in utter disbelief for a good minute before the realization kicked into their systems.
"QUICK YOU IDIOT, AFTER HIM!"