Fallen into the darkness for who knew how long, Charlotte thought she were dead for sure. But then, her brain jolted awake.
"Thoughts? How ..."
She were still thinking, still processing, still being her. And she could hear her heart bumping viscous blood around her body, could feel the soft wind caressing her skin and hairs and could touch a wet surface beneath. She immediately got up and took a look at her surrounding.
"Where am I ?" Muttered Charlotte as she casted her gaze across the environment.
A pristine lake, stretching to places far beyond the horizon, lay beneath her feet and an everchanging sky filled with colorful noises and swirling patterns fills up her entire sight. She was standing on a mirror-like surface, something impossible in her mind. The space is both calming and chaotic, a paradox only described in those sci-fi books and novels in her past life.
In front of such impossible scenery, she thought that it was the heaven often told to her by other members of the church where her mother used to take her to. In front of such confliction, she felt so tiny, so insignificant, like an ant looking up the finger crushing it. She then reflected on what she had done in life to get to this location, this fictitious plane and whether or not she should stay put or walk away.
While Charlotte was lost in her thought, the sky started to shift, twisted and bent beyond what was normally possible and its color turned to a vibrant red. Only after a few minutes did she notice the red water reflected the sky above and her sweat turned cold as she could instinctively feel something's, or someone's gaze landing onto her. She frantically turned around and around, trying to locate the source of her discomfort to no avail.
Suddenly, the lake she was standing on split open, throwing her high up in the air, much higher then she could survive. She closed her eyes, awaiting the impending death but no matter how long she counted in her head, that fate never came.
" Open your eyes, little one. "
A whisper directed at her was filled with an irresistible allure, forced Charlotte to open wide her ruby eyes. She became awestruck with what she was seeing. An impossibly tall and thin being, with scarlet skin and eyes adorning the outside. Looking downward, she could see an uncountable number of snake heads and tails coiling into a pile underneath the being's body, with one being the floor she was standing on. On each of the snakes' bodies outgrown countless limbs and tubes, oozing out red blood and transparent plasma. High above its head are halos interlocking into square. The smell of blood and flesh oozes out from any surface area in open air.
"What are you ... ???"
The snakes collective hissed back, but she could understand them clearly
"A Sovereign Being, little Charlotte, is what I am, simple as that. "
" Did you read my memory? " Inquired the girl as curiosity took a better part of her.
" No silly, why should I read YOUR memory when it has become MY memory. Everything belonging to you has been sacrificed in the past already. They have all become mine, so why the distinction here? "
Befuddled with such response, her head ran down memory lane, looking for any weird event taken place during her objectively miserable past life.
"The fire ... Was it then?" Asked the girl, hoping she was wrong, but the response drenched her hope in tar.
"So you do remember... Interesting, interesting, interesting ... What was it that your mother said before the sacrifice"
"You will become something greater than all of us, you will stride further down the path of power than anyone could ever imagine." A curt answer, spoken with a monotonous voice came from the girl. She was still stuck in the past, replaying the memory to find more clues, more information
"The lives of all those people, and yours. To come to this dimension and be graced with my presence, isn't it joyous? "
The girl remained silent, urging the being to continue with her eyes for a period of time.
"What a boring person you are, but I will continue. Some of my relics, have been destroyed in another world and their 'radiation' has affected the intelligent race there, gifting them 'quirks'. "
" Quirks ? Sounds familiar (I will remember it later). So what do you want me to do in that world? "
" Let bygone be bygone, I do not wish for you to hunt and collect the quirks back. The incident has introduced variables, variables that attract the Storyteller to guide the fate. But such operation creates friction with the natural flow of destinies and the "
After listening to the being, the girl nodded her head and asked whether or not she must enter that world and do its biddings.
"No, no, no, dear, what I want you to do, is to become the heaviest stone thrown into a tranquil lake. I want your ripples to drown out all other ripples. I want you to collect the most chaos energy. "
" Why me for such purpos? Can you just descend and collect the energy yourself? "
To answer the girl's question, the being opened up its chest to show a dark hole with tissues, blood vessels and bones, with some bones being carved with glowing symbols.
"There are other beside me in all planes of existence. The last war drained almost all energy and I need more to recover. What you are seeing is pact, limitations on direct interventions and many more. "
"Will there be others like me? Will they fight for more presence? Will ..."
The girl asking these questions was now flushing red from excitement and anticipation. At last, she could continue her lifelong mission according to the belief ingrained in every fiber of her being. Her head was already thinking, planning, orchestrating something, to somehow fulfilled that goal. Seeing such fanatical behaviors, the being quickly command, making her fall asleep on top of a chai coming from nowhere. It begun by creating a cut along Charlotte's head, opened up her skull like opening a can of sardine and start operating directly onto her brain. All through the process, the girl slept with a serene expression.
"I appreciate the fanatism, but for the upcoming quest, such thing is only a hinder. I need someone who lurks in the dark, not a walking advertiser. "
Thought the being as it finished the last modifications on the girl's brain.
The snake tail Charlotte was standing on started rumbling, and just before it let her drop to her death a second time, she manage to squeeze in a last question.
"What is your name?!"
"Remember me, darling, as ████████████████ , The Sovereign of Flesh and Sin"
And just like that, Charlotte experienced her second death on the same day.