When I heard the ethereal woman's words, I pondered what they might mean for a moment.
However, whatever they were offering me couldn't possibly be worse than what I had already been experiencing.
"If by, 'release me from this world' you mean kill me, please do. I crave nothing but death." I replied without emotion.
The beautiful woman leaned closer to me, resting a delicate hand upon my cheek. The warmth reminded me of my mother, and I could no longer hold back my tears as the memories of her death replayed through my mind.
"Oh my poor child, I could never kill you. You are a part of me now, just as I am a part of you." She said, her voice soothing my quaking heart.
I had no idea what this beautiful ghost was going on about, but I wished they would hurry up and get on with it.
"Please be patient with me, for it has been a while since I have done this." she said as if reading my mind.
"This will hurt for a bit, but do not fret as it will be over quickly." she added.
Without warning, I could feel my entire body become engulfed in searing flames. The flames were golden in appearance, and they burned my body with an intensity that made me scream.
It wasn't unbearable though, for the many weeks of torture I had undergone had long since numbed my sense of pain to the state it was now.
Nonetheless, it was still indeed painful. The flames seemed to burn my very essence, but before I could even sort out what was happening I could feel myself floating upwards.
I was much smaller than I should have been though, and when I looked down I saw that my entire body had turned white and translucent.
It was as if I had become a ghost!
When I looked down I became speechless, for I could see my own body laying down on the medical bed from a third person perspective. Even more concerning was the fact that my entire body was engulfed in brilliant flames, slowly charring it black from the heat.
I looked over to the side of the room to see the enforcer who was watching me frantically run over in shock.
He evidently didn't know what to do, and quickly fled the room to get help.
The ethereal woman looked at me, beckoning me to follow her. I didn't know how, but I floated towards her as if by instinct.
"I have freed your soul from your body, allowing you to traverse freely. It is a shame you must lose this body so young in your life, but bodies are merely temporary." she said, confusing me even further.
I decided to speak up, "I know that you're trying to help me, and I don't want to sound ungrateful, but can you please explain what the hell is going on?"
The woman smiled, "I will explain everything in time."
I watched as the woman, or maybe it was more correct to call them an entity, opened what seemed to be a portal out of thin air above my now charred corpse.
The portal shimmered with a phantasmal appearance. I could see nothing but whiteness past its depths, and I wondered what was behind it.
"Stay close, my child. These dimensional passages are volatile." she said.
Not knowing what to say to that, I floated behind the woman as I followed her through the strange portal.
As we entered I could feel my senses overcome with thousands of new sensations. I saw colors that I didn't know existed, and I could swear that I was even able to taste sounds for a brief moment.
Eventually, my vision stabilized and I could see that I was now floating in some type of strange realm.
It looked almost like I was in space, with millions of bright stars surrounding me. There were vibrant colors flashing past us at the speed of light, but I couldn't tell if we were moving or if the space around us was moving.
"Where even are we?" I asked, completely blown away by what I was seeing.
The beautiful figure smiled, "We are in a dimensional passageway. Passages like these connect the various worlds scattered throughout the cosmos."
She looked back at me, "Forgive me for not introducing myself, you can call me Celeste."
'Celeste' then made a motion towards the stars that were rapidly flying past us.
"Everything you see here is part of my domain. I have avatars stationed on all of my major worlds, yours being one of the few exceptions."
This made little sense to me, "Avatars? Do you mean like other bodies?" I asked.
"In a sense." she replied.
Celeste seemed melancholic, falling into a short silence before continuing.
"The world that you resided on was one of my first ones, and I was just learning how to control my powers. Many thousands of years ago, I walked among men and granted them boons and blessings that served to elevate your entire species."
She continued, "Every man, woman, and child was blessed with eternal youth, and the power of never-death."
My eyes widened, "So everyone on Earth basically had superpowers at some point?"
Celeste laughed lightly, her laugh sounded like heavenly bells.
"I suppose you could put it that way. However, I quickly discovered that humans were greedy, more so than any other race I have watched over."
I smiled wryly, not surprised one bit to hear that.
"Some humans wanted to horde over my power for themselves, and did not wish to share it with the rest of humanity. They devised a scheme to trap me, you see. I am unable to make harmful actions against those who I have given blessings to. With this knowledge in hand, they were able to successfully kill my avatar." she said, great sadness apparent in her tone.
"Damn, those ungrateful bastards!" I exclaimed. It really was typical of humans to ruin something good for everyone just to benefit a few.
Celeste merely sighed, "Indeed. Following my avatar's death, the humans seized my corpse, partaking of my flesh and blood to give themselves immense power. Since my avatar was also no longer present in your world, my blessings also disappeared from every other human."
Celeste's story was starting to make sense now, and it explained why the average human was completely unaware such powers even existed.
I eventually made the connection between the fountain of life, and Celeste's corpse.
"So, after you died, those greedy pigs must have turned your body into that fountain of life."
Celeste nodded, "That's right. Just drinking my essence is enough to prolong one's life by hundreds of years. Fortunately, I can still control the blessings bestowed upon those who take in my essence to some degree."
She continued "I've prevented humans from gaining true immortality, but the powers they are still able to receive are enough for their goals."
"True immortality, huh? That sounds pretty neat." I said.
"That's actually the blessing that I had given you. You are the first person who has taken in my essence in two thousand years that I have deemed worthy of it." Celeste said absentmindedly.
That actually made a lot of sense. The only people who could afford to get their hands on that miracle water were likely morally corrupt billionaires.
"So, what now? Since I'm now a ghost, is there some type of afterlife that I'm supposed to go to?" I asked, wondering what we were even doing in this 'dimensional passage.'
"In your world, you humans have a term called 'reincarnation.' That is more-or-less what happens to your soul after your body perishes. You are actually not dead at all, and you're already in the process of reincarnating now." Celeste replied
Reincarnation, right. I remembered seeing stories about that in various light novels and anime, the main character would normally die in some horrific way and then wake up in a different world as a baby.
Is that what was going to happen to me? However, when I thought back to my now dead parents, I couldn't bring myself to start my life again in an entirely different world.
"What if I don't want to reincarnate?" I asked abruptly.
Celeste seemed shocked to hear that, she had undoubtedly never heard anyone say that before.
"This is not something that I can control, your soul will be whisked away to some other body whether you wish it to or not. The only thing that I can control is where your soul will end up." she replied.
Well, when she put it like that, I figured I would rather be reincarnated by this goddess' own hands than end up in the body of some grasshopper.
"I actually have a request for you, but you are free to deny it if you so choose to." Celeste suddenly said.
"A request? What could a god possibly want from me?" I asked, chuckling ruefully.