'What is this place? Why is it so dark? What happened? Hang on… Did I die?!" Theodore thought to himself. He tried speaking, but no sound came out, no matter how hard he tried. 'I did die! Holy shit! Am I in Hell?'
Theodore Nevan found himself inside a vast expanse of endless darkness that went on endlessly in all directions. There was no light, no air and no gravity — Theodore was just floating there, with no destination in mind and, even if he had one, he had no way of reaching it. Not that he'd have one, anyway, considering he had no idea where he was.
It took a couple of moments for Theordore's eyes to adjust to the darkness surrounding him. As he did, he decided to reflect back on how he even found himself in this situation to begin with. If he remembered correctly, he was just returning home from work…
[A Few Moments Prior]:
[Dallas, TX]:
[22:42 PM CST]:
Theodore Had just gotten off a twelve hour shift at work. He worked as a Creative Director for a leading architectural and design firm; he was the youngest Creative Director of his position in the Dallas area, at only 23 years old.
Theodore always worked hard for everything he earned. He grew up in a lower middle class family that was closer to being poor than they were to actual middle class society. Still, though, the Nevans were very big on education, as are many African American families found in the South.
Perhaps that is why Theodore graduated high school at 14, though that was mostly possible because he was home-schooled for most of his academic life, which was probably for the best, honestly. He graduated college at the age of 17, with a Master's in both Design and Business Management. He found that wasting 8 hours in public school, listening to a lecture he could read in under an hour to be boring and counter productive, as well as an affront to his creative geniusness.
Typically, Theodore tried not to overwork himself — Working over 8+ hours in brainpower was not good for his creative juices. That said, the project the company was currently working on required much more attention than the others were giving it given its importance.
That's why Theodore had stopped by the gas station to get a god-awful cup of gas station coffee at half past 10 at night. He had planned to pull an overnighter at his home, where he would work some more on the project, get ahead. He knew that if they didn't meet the quota and deadline, the company would miss out on a golden opportunity.
Because there weren't any parking spaces left at the gas station, Theodore decided to park his beat down jeep in the parking lot across the street, and walk his way in.
He made his way inside, got his coffee, paid for it and then left. He had gotten a cinnamon milk, heavy on the milk. He didn't care if he was lactose intolerant – he was getting his milk. Besides, who else is going to smell his toots aside from himself? He lives alone, in a small, one-bedroom apartment, no one else lives with him.
As he exited the store and crossed the street, what Theodore didn't know was that he wasn't going to make it back to his beat up jeep. For no sooner had he began crossing the road had the sound of a truck's horn sound out.
HONK! HONK!
Theodore looked up to see… Well, he saw stars, that's for sure. One moment he was walking, and the next his soul had been kindly separated from his physical shell… If getting ran over by an 18 Wheeler was a kindness.
Next thing he knew, he was in his current predicament.
[Present]:
Theodore was still floating in the vast darkness of his environment. He's been floating for well over 30 minutes. Though, considering time was relative, he wasn't too sure if that's how it would equate to Earth time, but he didn't too much care.
He was slowly losing his shit. He tried distracting himself with visualized architectural plans he could come up with and different designs that never saw the light of day despite their beauty, but even that eventually wasn't enough to keep him sane.
Just as the vast isolationism was about to get him to blow a gasket, he felt a sudden jolt — a pull, as if his being — a single ball of light and energy, likely his soul — was being attracted to some, unseen magnet.
'What the Hell?' Theodore thought, still not able to speak.
Then the pull got stronger. And stronger. Suddenly, Theodore was moving, his environment shifting and shifting by the milliseconds. Eventually, Theodore found himself inside a strange place — an office of sorts.
He stiid before a busy office of drawers, desks and cabinets, papers everywhere and strange human-like beings with black, red or white hair, beautiful and handsome features and elongated fangs. They all — men and women – wore business suits — All of them were busy on the computers and typewriters on their desks, or checking important documents passed to them by the other, or were on the phone discussing important business discussions.
"Welcome to Truck-Kun Services, where yesterday's sacrifices are tomorrow's ho's," came a voice behind the high desk before Theodore. It belonged to a pale red-haired vampire, or, at least, Theodore guessed they were vampires, anyway. He didn't have a lot to go on aside from their fangs and pale skin. "How may I complete your ritualistically sacrificed experience for you?"
"Um….," Theodore blinked a few times. He was drawing a blank. "What?"
"How can I help you?" the lady said slowly, as if Theodore were slow.
"I…um," Theodore was still so lost at the moment. He felt stupid, but he was still stuck on the fact that he was ritualistically sacrificed via truck paste. 'I don't eve know what the hell is going on!'
The receptionist, understanding Theodore's thoughts from his wordless expression, looked over the lens of her spectacles, skeptical of Theodore's IQ level. "Oh, so we have a dumbass? I'll explain it to you slowly, yes? Ok, so you died, your soul was ritualistically sacrificed to Truck-kun, praise her most unholy name. Hooray! Now you get to reincarnate. Please choose your three wishes, so that I may get the paperwork over and done with. Afterwards, you shall be on your way. Any questions?"
"I–," Theodore began, finger raised.
"Good," the receptionist interrupted, her hands still typing on her typewriter as she spoke. "You get three wishes, as every person would. I would advise—."
Just as the receptionist was about to finish and Theodore would've asked more questions, a door opened behind him and all noise in the office died off immediately, as two people walked in.
The first was a girl — a loli, really, with red eyes that seemed to notice everything and velvety hair that cascaded down to a face of beautiful pale skin. She wore a crimson flowing dress and red high heels and blood drop earrings. She radiated a powerful and mysterious aura.
The other was a boy, frozen in perpetual adolescence — He had red, dreaded hair, dark skin and a 5 ft 8 height. He wore a fancy black vest over a red button down and a pair of black fancy black slacks. He wore red fancy shoes and had a very expensive-looking watch on the wrist, his sleeves rolled up. The aura around him was daunting — He picked up on even the slightest of movement as if he were the predator and everyone else around him were prey.
Suddenly, everyone in the office stopped what they were doing, stood up and bowed. "We greet Lady Truck-Kun and her apprentice, Sir Korey Eubeleus!"
Theodore, lost for a moment, eyed the two newcomers, his gaze locking with the one he presumed to be Truck-Kun. A moment passed between the two, and Theodore could've sworn she was reading his soul, her eyes like the deep abyss itself.
Giggling, the loli spoke "Oh, I like you. Because I like you, I'll give you 5 wishes, instead of 3."
This threw Theodore off. 'Alright, cool,' he thought to himself. Who was he to look a gift horse in the face and doubt the universe's obvious favor towards him. He was awesome, he deserved this, anyway. [If you haven't guessed it, our MC is a bit of a Narcissist] "Dope, I'm all for it."
To which truck-Kun only giggled more.
"But Lady Truck-Kun, regulations state—," the receptionist from earlier began.
To which Truck-kun suddenly gave her a dark look, causing the receptionist to look even more paler than before somehow. "Screw regulations. Some rules are made to be broken every once in a while. Besides, I have a feeling about this one. He'll do nicely."
"Y-ys, Lady Truck-Kun," the receptionist bowed respectively. Then she turned to Theodore. "Have you decided on your wishes, soul?"
Theodore blinked a few times, thinking it over before nodding, he's read enough novels concerning reincarnation to understand what he needs to wish for. And, with 5 wishes, he legitimately could not fail this.
"First thing I want is the highest form of Ability Absorption possible."
The receptionist typed this in. "Granted."
"Second," Theodore stated, thinking things through. "A Superior System made to help me become stronger and help regulate my powers. Also, third, I want an Absolute Synthesis ability that I can use to fuse similar abilities, objects and things together to form into stronger versions of themselves."
"Superior System is granted," the receptionist granted. "An Absolute skill is tricky, as it requires clearance—."
"I'll allow it," Truck-kun stated, giggling with twinkling eyes.
Korey, like he had since this moment, maintained his silence. Theodore was beginning to wonder if he was mute, but, considering he isn't using sign language, Theodore wasn't too sure he was.
"Y-yes, my lady," the receptionist said. "Next wish?"
"The highest tier of Bloodline Assimilation ability you have," said Theodore. "And, finally, a Protected and Untethered Destiny. I don't want to be controlled by gods, which I assume are real, considering—," Theodore gestured to Truck-Kun, who merely giggled and nodded.
Seeing the approval, the receptionist typed the final wishes in. "Granted and… granted. Please step onto the platform so your wishes can be disbursed."
The receptionist gestured to a circular platform Theodore hadn't noticed prior — It was white and encircled with runes of power, glowing with magic power.
Theodore walked up to it, standing on top of it, as a cylinder-like tube of glass-like material descended from the ceiling, encasing and locking him in.
What came next was excruciating. A blinding light flashed as pain erupted in Theodore's being. He felt foreign power burn itself into his being, imprinting itself on his very soul. It went on for mere moments, but felt like a lifetime.
When the pain subsided, his vision still blurry, but clearing, the sight of Truck-kun against the glass-like cylinder caught his attention, her voice barely audible through the glass. "--uo will… seeing these two… They're… Primordials… don't…iss them off, ok?"
Then, Theodore was jolted away, his environment vanishing and shifting once more.