"I have an offer for you Carter Pierce."
"Since this is a dream and I'll probably forget it all when I actually wake up, I'll entertain you. What's your offer?" Carter said with a smug look on his face.
"I will allow you to die from this incident. Then instead of entering the normal cycle of reincarnation in which your soul is reset, I will pluck your soul and place it into a specific newly conceived existence. Since this is a new existence, it will not have a soul yet and this life will become yours. A new life, a new family, and a new world." The voice explained without any pauses, trying to add sugared words to the end to sound more enticing.
"And what do you get out of this Mr. Voice?"
"What do I get? I will place a part of me into your soul. While you will not have me with you or any voice in your head and such, you will just be stuck with one of the seven parts that used to make up my existence. The last one that I need to pass off in order to be rid of my curse."
"A seventh of your existence? Curse? Why would I want either of those?" Carter stated in a matter of fact.
"First, you will be going to a world of a higher plane than this world Earth, and in that world, what you deem 'magic' exists. The place where I put your soul will be both supremely advantageous to you and myself as I do wish for you a successful life.
"This piece of me will not only give you advantages in learning and feeling the flow of mana of different magics, but will also provide you with a higher intellect than the already smart-ass you think you are. Just imagine how intelligent you will be!
"Second, when I say curse, you will live a hard life once again where tragedy strikes when you least expect and horrors are part of your life. However, this life leads you towards unlocking the true power of my existence that will become a part of you. Or rather I should say it will become yours rather than mine from the point you take your first breath."
"Well Mr. Voice, what else can you offer me, this seems like a pretty bad deal. I get I become a terrible person in this life and I have little chance to get away from this, but I don't want to live a life where I lose everything once again."
Carter sighed as he knew his subconscious voice was just trying to give him a glimmer of hope so that his emotions would be a little more rounded out when he woke up from this dream. He still thought the voice was part of him, so why would it not want to help him?
"Well Carter, I can tell you that you will also retain your memories. So, on top of the already high intelligence that you will be bestowed, you will have all your knowledge from this life to bring to that world. However, your emotions related to memories will be erased with the exception of your anger during particularly traumatic events. This will also mostly apply for the main three events you have experienced in this last year.
"Also, the good news is that you won't have your same hormonal brain you have now. This means that in the case your new mother breast feeds you, it's not like you will get horny or be attracted to your mother. You will experience hormones and changes to your personality as any other growing child would. Your old memories will serve one purpose and one purpose only, knowledge."
The voice explained in full detail trying not to leave anything out as this was an important matter and it would prefer to not have to speak with another mortal in order to make a deal for this particular part of itself. It was not easy to find an existence with as much resonance for this seventh piece as Carter has.
"So, what about my intelligence and memories then? If I'm so intelligent, what will my so-called new parents think when their newborn begins talking?" Carter sneered.
"Naturally there are restrictions in place. Do you think newborns have full control and functions of their muscles? And you call yourself a pre-medical student." The voice mocked.
"So yes, you may be able to learn the new language relatively quickly, and I honestly expect you to within a month or so. But do you honestly believe you'll be able to speak a single word before you can gain voluntary control over your muscles and movements?"
With this statement it almost sounded like the voice was disgusted by Carter's lack of thought before asking this question.
"Okay, I admit I didn't completely think before I said that. This deal is surprisingly getting better as you go on, however, I still don't understand what's in this for you."
"I already explained that." The voice said and Carter felt that it would roll its eyes in his face if it could.
"This is the last seventh that I need to give away before I am free of my curse. While I am bestowing you with great power, only those with enough will can endure the struggles that the flip side of the coin bestows you.
"If you can endure and wield that power built through these struggles, I dare say you could even meet with me in person one day, if you so wish. The curse doesn't necessarily transfer, so you are not exactly cursed, fate is just cruel to those who hold what was once my power in accordance to the power's trait."
As Carter continued to think about this offer, suddenly it occurred to him, this was only a seventh of his power and that most likely meant there were six others. This being the case, he decided to ask about this sooner rather than later.
"So, if I'm receiving only a seventh of your cursed power let's call it, doesn't that mean there are six others with the same power that are just as strong somewhere?"
"Yes and no. There are six others, but some are not in the world you would be born into. However, there are ways one can go to other worlds, but the individual must have enough power to transfer between them. So, you may or may not encounter one or two of the others in your world as you grow older.
"Also, each portion of my cursed power, as you say, is associated with a certain emotion per se. The power that I would bestow unto you is the strongest of these seven, but also the one that requires the most resonance to bestow and highest willpower to keep from going insane.
"That being said, I have never found another being capable of resonating more than 58% with this power, while you are close to a 93% resonance. Meaning if you wield this power and your resonance increases even more somehow, you will perfectly be able to master and wield it, making it all your own."
Each word that came from the voice that would usually cause Carter to decline his offer, was always followed up with honeyed words that tried to pull on Carter's heartstrings and furthered his desire for this power to prevent his tragic life from repeating.
"So what emotion are you bestowing me then?" Carter asked as this was something he was very curious about since he rarely showed his emotions outwardly.
"Wrath. You will become the embodiment of wrath. It may not manifest in your first 20 years of life, it may not manifest until you're 1000, but it will manifest. I cannot tell you how or when as anything related to my cursed powers is hidden from my foresight.
"You don't have to worry as you will not be extremely angry all the time or anything of the sort. You will live and feel as you have before, it's just the feeling of anger and wanting to enact your wrath will be amplified. How you dispense your 'justice' will be up to you and your moral code at the time.
"Enough of this, I'm tired of talking and offering you more knowledge than I have ever given before. Your head start is already firmly set, what will you do? Will you accept my offer or decline?
"If you decline, you will forget everything we've talked about and your fate will proceed as I've told you. If you accept, I will ensure you die in this hospital and follow through with my promises." The voice finally stayed silent for a few moments before making its final declaration.
"Decide."
To Carter it seemed like the voice was becoming more and more agitated. For the first time Carter had his doubts that this may not be a dream or his subconscious talking to him. While he felt that this possibility was low, he still felt the entire thing was a joke.
Carter decided to reply with a hint of joking and mockery.
"Fine, I accept your offer. End this life and give me a new one as per your promise. I will take your cursed power and own it, master it, and use it to rule over my destiny so that fate cannot play with me. Although, this is all a dream and it won't happen, at least I might be able to feel some of this hope when I wake up."
"Good, Carter. You will not regret this choice, or maybe you will, time will tell. Good luck to you in your next life. You will struggle, a lot, to be honest, but persevere and when you achieve your goals, maybe we will meet again.
"As a bonus for realizing I hate wasting time and accepting relatively quickly, I'll pass on to your soul one of my talents, a skill called Analyze. It will allow you to visualize what an object is and does or any bonuses it can provide, much like hovering over an item in what you call video games. I'll warn you beforehand, it doesn't work on living things, only dead or inanimate objects. As you get stronger, so will the skill. Anyway, good luck and try not to die too fast!"
With the disappearance of the voice, everything in his dream room was quiet. Carter couldn't help but think of how real the experience was and had a slight hope that maybe it was real. He suddenly felt exhausted and decided it was time to sleep even if he was already in a dream.
Darkness consumed everything around him in his eyesight and this dreamworld. His thoughts faded to nothingness.