I am a good man, my name is Axel Wolf. I have lived a good life, always doing what I felt was the right thing to do. That's probably how I ended up in the situation that I am in right now.
Lying broken on the ground with multiple fatal injuries all over my body. My blood pooled around my body in a macabre scene. I couldn't help but lament over my circumstances a bit.
All I did was try to help a young woman that seemed to be getting harassed by some thugs. I remember the look on her face twisting from terror to sneering in contempt.
It was at that point I understood this was all a set up. Before I could do anything I remember being hit over the head with something that put me into a daze. I tried to reorient myself and defend but they came at me too fast and too hard.
I could do nothing to defend myself as they stabbed, punched, kicked, and smashed my body with crude weapons made from junk. Now I am here clinging to the last bits of my life. Right in front of me the young woman was crouched down. I stared at her in disgust that human being could be like this. So twisted and demented.
It wasn't my first time dealing with the scum of society. It was the first time however I had been put into a situation like this and now it seemed to be my last as well.
"You really are a dumb piece of shit you know that? We have been watching you for months now trying to figure out who has been stopping our guys from bringing in the new merchandise. Turns out you just have some sort of hero complex when in reality your just trash. Tell you what dumb ass, live with more distrust in your next life. The world will always chew up people like you and spit them out into the trash heap just like where I am going to leave your body after this. But first I think that..."
Her voice started to fade as my vision started to turn black. I am dying and I know that. The only thing I can think about right now though is how dumb I was to try and help this girl. Now I am dying because just like she said I did have a bit of a hero complex.
When I saw someone needing help, I generally would go and help without a second thought. And now it is killing me to do so, literally. I thought to myself just as everything completely faded,' I don't want to die. I want to live and learn from this mistake. Please...anyone...anything... I don't want to die...'
***
When I came to I was disoriented. Slowly looking around myself I found that I was in a white expanse that seemed to have no end. I was sitting at a circular table with 3 other people.
As I looked at the three of them, they too were staring back at me. There was one other guy besides myself the last two were woman. I realized something while looking at all of them. their figures were indistinct almost fuzzy. The more I concentrated on them the less I could see of them.
"Don't concentrate to hard you will get a headache buddy." The guy said with a plain tone. With out waiting for me to respond he continued. "For some reason I believe we are all dead everyone can agree to that right?"
Seeing everyone nod their indistinct heads the guy continued. "So I have a feeling that some being has brought our souls here for some reason."
"Oh like those fantasy novels right where some goddess will pull the worthy souls and send them to save a world?" Asked one of the ladies. You could sense her excitement about the prospect.
"Yes that is exca-"
"Not entirely right I summoned you for a reason yes but it isn't to save any world I can tell you that right now."
While I was listening to the guy talk to the lady, I suddenly saw the most beautiful woman ever silently appear in the empty chair next to mine and give me a wink before she cut off the guys words with her own. This startled the guy and girl who were conversing. Myself and the other lady seemed to have been the only ones that noticed her appear.
"Whaaaa..." The lady screamed at being startled by the new voice which brought a chuckle out of the rest of us.
The newcomer smile when she realized she finally had everyone attention. When she saw everyone waiting for her to speak she did not disappoint.
"Yes I summoned you for a reason, but before I explain I ask that you all keep quiet and listen to me while I explain everything because there is a lot to get through and not much time."
She scanned the four of us after speaking and we all nodded knowing what this beautiful woman had to say was probably something extremely important to us.
"Good, now where to begin, ah yes, I summoned you all here because you have all made an impression on me. I am Supreme Goddess Ayla, my main powers are over life and death. Myself and the Pantheon of gods that I rule over have been trying to make sure that worthy souls are given good reincarnations into one of the higher worlds I govern. You four have all come from different lower worlds that are inside of the domain that my Pantheon governs over. You have all made an impact on your world whether it was large or small good or evil you all made an impact. I will be sending you all to a higher world that has already awakened. Your choices you make, in the new world I will send the four of you to, will be completely up to you no matter the route you choose to take. I will not interfere at all. Now I will also be giving you each a total of three blessings of your choice. You need to keep in mind the blessing that I will be giving you have all come from the gods and goddesses in my pantheon. Now if you would please take this time to search through the blessings you each want. You should be able to see them all now in front of you."
As she had said we could see the blessings on a list that appeared on a floating screen that materialized in front of us. As I looked through the blessings, I could see the hundreds if not thousands of choices.
I could hear the other three people muttering to themselves but it seemed like their was static on their voices making it so I couldn't clearly hear what they were saying. Sighing internally I started to look through the blessing we could choose from.
[ Blessing that are available.
*Notice all blessing choices are final, please choose wisely as your choice cannot be altered after chosen.*
Blessing of Battle
Blessing of Love
Blessing of Apples
Blessing of Astral
Blessing of Void
Blessing of Contracts
Blessing of Shapeshifting
Blessing of Justice
Blessing of...]
As I was looking through the blessings I noticed that some of them seemed to be a bit skewed away from what one would think could be a blessing. 'But I am no god, I cant really judge something that I have no concept of.'
While thinking to myself I was startled by the sound of Ayla's voice as she spoke again.
"By the way the amount of blessings you can see on your screen has been directly affected by the choices you made in your last world. If you made an impression on a god they would be the one to activate the possibility of you gaining their blessing. The blessings you can see are options given to you by the different gods in my Pantheon that you have gained the approval of. The more blessings you can see means the more gods that have taken notice of you."
Startled by what she implied with her words I looked again to see the number of blessings I could possibly get and what I saw left me astounded.
[Total number of possible blessings:999,999,999]
Literal millions upon millions of blessings. To be honest I was taken aback by the sheer number of gods that seem to have taken notice of me. I looked over to the goddess just to see her looking at me with a smile so beautiful I fell into a slight daze for a second. I woke up when I heard her voice but this time it seemed only I was able to hear her.
"Axel Wolf do no make a choice yet. You are a bit special so we need to talk after the other three have chosen."
With a nod of my head I indicated that I understood what she had said to which she sent me another brilliant smile. After around what seemed like thirty minutes the other three seemed to have chosen there blessings as the screens disappeared from in front of them.
To make it seem like I was still choosing I continued to browse through all of my options. After waiting for a couple of minutes the guy seemed to have lost his patience.
"Dude just fucking pick already, you couldn't have more blessings to choose from then I did. We are trying to get this show on the road already. I mean fuck man I had over one thousand to go through and I am done. So what is your excuse?"
Before I could say anything the bubbly girls spoke up.
"Wow over one thousand I only had seven hundred. Huh, how many did you have?"
She quickly praised the man and then turned to the other girl to ask her how many blessing she had to go through and other girl hesitated for a moment before saying the number she had to choose from.
"I had one thousand to go through as well."
The bubbly girl started bouncing in her seat, while the guy seemed visibly astonished. His body shuddered before he quicky changed his focus to me.
"Come on and choose already, I don't care if you have trash blessings or not just choose some so we can go." Turning towards the two ladies he spoke up with a smug confidence in his voice. "Ladies why don't we plan to meet up in the world. It would be a great opportunity for us to get to know each other better."
His arrogance was grating on my nerves but I kept myself from commenting on his disgusting behavior. Just as the guy was going to continue talking again, the goddess spoke leaving them stunned.
"You three can be moved to the same area if you so choose. Axel Wolf on the other hand will not be transported with you."
When the guy spoke again you could hear his contempt for me and the joy he found at having the two women transported with him.
"Good, I don't need trash around me anyways. I mean look at him so indecisive and slow at everything. This guy will probably be dead in a matter of minutes. But ladies what do you say shall we support each other on this crazy journey called our second lives?"
Both ladies answered in the affirmative and they asked the goddess to send them now and she agreed. With a wave of her hand she sent them all to the new world they were going to be living in. As the guy was fading he looked over at Axel and flipped him off while saying," later trash. My name is Blaze Kleftman remember it because you will be kneeling in front of me before to long."
With those last words the three completely disappeared from the goddesses domain.
"Damn, that guy was insufferable. I kind of feel bad for sending those two girls with him, but they requested so. Anyways with the blessings those two chose they should be safe."
"Excuse me Goddess Ayla, can you help me with me choosing my blessings now. There are almost one billion choices so I am a bit lost."
She placed her hand in front of her lips she giggled a bit before smiling at me again.
"Of course, it isn't often that the gods see someone with as much potential as you Axel. You are different from the others. The actions and decisions you made on your last world greatly affected the world and made it a better place."
She paused letting her words sink into my head but I asked something because I was confused.
"Goddess Ayla, I don't understand. I just helped the people I saw in need or just needed a helping hand. I didn't do anything special. I am just a normal guy how could I have made a big impact?"
"Axel, you did more then you realize. You personally saved 6,786 men women and children from falling into the hands of human traffickers. You save 15,987 animals who needed help. You protected 976 women and helped them gain the courage to leave their abusive relationships. Through the charity work you did you gave over 20,000 different families a home to live in, mind you, you may not have given it to them directly the homes you spent your time and hard work on building with those crews did help them. Lastly the group of people that killed you, they found their downfall due to your death. You may not have realized it but you were very loved and celebrated on your world as a real life hero."
I was dumbstruck by her words. Hero? Me? I don't know about that.
"If you say so. You are the goddess here I am just a normal mortal man."
She smiled at my words and just gestured to my screen.
"So here is what I am going to do for you Axel. I will take and merge these 999,999,999 blessings into three super blessing. I will also give you another...hmmm....cheat as you would say. Everyone on the world I am sending you to have systems. I will give you a special system. One that I think will make things easier for you. It is called the ____ system and it will take the form of what it feel is best for you. I hope you truly enjoy your new life Axel. By the way when you wake up don't freak out just take a deep breath. Before opening your eyes, wait for the system to come online and help you."
A little breathless by the generosity of the goddess in front of me I couldn't help but look at her in reverence. Bowing my head in respect I spoke the truth I felt in my heart.
"I may not understand all of this but I appreciate your kindness and generosity towards me. I may not ever be able to repay this big of a favor, but in the future if you need my help in something, as long as it doesn't break my morals I will do my all to assist you."
Suddenly she was in front of me. The table and chairs were gone and the goddess was less then two inches away from touching my chest with her breast. She reached out and cupped my face lifting it to look into my eyes. She spoke softly and slowly making sure I heard each word.
"Axel Wolf, you are an amazing man. Please don't doubt that. I am giving these to you to show my gratitude for the things you have done. I know that life was hard for you but I wanted you to know that I am always watching you."
Without giving me time to think she leaned in and planted her lips on mine. The feeling was like nothing I have ever felt before. So heavenly soft and full of care and affection. It blew my mind and I didn't understand where this was coming from but I would be a fool to not accept the kiss of a literal goddess. After a few moments she pulled back for a second before leaving three small pecks against my lips.
"Mmm, there we go now you should understand you are special to me, and the other gods see you as someone special too but, I care about you the most."
As she said this my vision started to fade to black. Before I fully faded away I reached out with my hand and gently brushed against her cheek.
***
AYLA POV
As I watched Axels soul fade into the next world I felt a bit sad inside. That was my first kiss and I just gave it to someone who wont become strong enough to see me for at least the next 10,000 years.
"Shit...I miss him already..."
***
Axel POV
After fading from Ayla's dimension, it felt like just a second before I almost opened my eyes. Thankfully at the last second I remembered what Ayla had said and kept them closed. I waited for what seemed like forever but in reality it was probably like ten minutes before I finally heard it.
[DING]