Chương 3: Chapter 2 - The World Engine

Kiara expected there to be pain, but there wasn't. In fact, the pain in her stomach was gone, too. What happened? Had Lord Grivalt blinded her? She instinctively tried feeling her eyes, but her hand wouldn't move. It wasn't like before, where she wasn't able to move, instead it felt like she no longer even had a hand to move. She started to freak out, and tried to feel her arm with her other hand to see what was the matter, but then realized she didn't have her other hand either. Or arms.

Or a body, for that matter. She couldn't see or hear anything, couldn't feel anything. It was oddly kind of peaceful, if she hadn't been freaking out. And then, unbidden, words appeared in her mind. They weren't her own thoughts, and she didn't have any eyes to see anything with, but there they were, all the same. She concluded that the words must have appeared in her mind, as they were in text format and she could read them. But how did her mind still work without a brain? She was a bit confused by that.

She read the words: Entity: Kiara Dunsun Species: Human Age: 23 Status: Deceased That line hit her on an emotional level. So she had died? She continued reading the text: Congratulations! You died. You have shed the shackles of mortality, and can now proceed to the next phase of existence. Please take your time, and then confirm when you are ready to proceed. Kiara sat there for quite a while, trying to wrap her head around what was happening. She was dead, which explained the lack of a body.

It was also a logical conclusion to her encounter with Lord Grivalt. Now, having met the man, she realized that was really the only way that scenario would have ever ended. And to top that off, there was an after-life? And now this… what? This… entity seemed to be communicating with her mind, allowing her to decide when she was ready to take that next step. Well, as much as she hated to admit it, things were probably better this way.

She had already got her family in enough trouble, having her gone would likely be the best thing for them. They might even manage to get their servitude sentence lessened, or even remitted, now that she wasn't around to cause any more trouble. She sighed mentally and accepted her fate. She directed her thoughts at the text and implied that she was ready to continue on her eternal journey. The text immediately responded to her: Commencing transition to the after-life. Processing… Error. Please try again. Try again?

Kiara furrowed her eyebrows, and confirmed once again that she was ready to move on. Once again, the text responded: Commencing transition to the after-life. Processing… Error. Please try again. She laughed to herself. Not audibly, of course, as she didn't have a body, but mentally… she laughed pretty hard. I can't even die properly! It seemed she had broken eternity itself. She tried again a few times, but got the same result. Eventually she gave up and just sat there. There wasn't really much else she could do.

Was this how she would spend eternity? She could see herself getting bored very quickly. At least she wasn't uncomfortable at all. After what seemed like an hour, although she wasn't sure how accurate her time perception was in this void, a new message appeared: Afterlife unavailable. You are not on the schedule for death at this time. You will be returned to your body. Commencing resurrection. Processing… The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Error.

Your original body has been destroyed. Resurrection would exceed the bounds of perceived feasibility for the people on this planet. Evaluating options… A suitable replacement body has been located. We apologize for the inconvenience! Please take your time, and then confirm when you are ready to proceed. Kiara was dumbfounded. Her mind was blown. She honestly had no idea what to think. What was even happening? Was she being offered a chance at a new life? What did that mean? What was a replacement body?

Would she be reborn as an infant again? In response to her line of thoughts, a visual was shown to her. Projected into her mind the same way the words had been, but this time it was a visual of a deserted battlefield. To her, it was as if she was there, seeing the battlefield in first person, floating above it. Dead bodies littered the ground, a smokey haze filled the air. Obvious signs of powerful magic could be seen, accompanied by an endless sea of corpses. A massive battle had been fought here recently.

Areas of the ground were completely scorched, burned by potent magic. Massive gashes were littered sporadically around the area, where some mage had unleashed a particularly potent ability. Off in the distance, arcs of lightning could be seen, as if someone had started up a small thunderstorm, then forgot to turn it off before they left. In one area, a few of the dead bodies floated lazily above the ground, for reasons unknown to Kiara, other than 'Magic'.

The focus of the visual scene was a young woman, obviously dead. She had long, brown hair, where Kiara's was… err… had been dirty blond. The dead young woman in front of her had obviously been a soldier that died in the battle. She looked to be around the same age as Kiara, but her facial features were distinctly different from Kiara's own.

More text accompanied the visual scene, explaining the situation: Replacement Body: Shian Yountal Age: 24 Species: Human Status: Deceased Shian has no family, and most of her colleagues died in this battle. You can return to this host body, and no one will be around to witness the reincarnation. Since Shian doesn't have any close family or friends to identify her, the chances of anyone discovering that a reincarnation has taken place is minimal. This is a viable replacement body. Would you like to proceed?

Kiara paused. Had she been able to communicate just now with whatever entity was providing her this information? It seemed to have respond to her thoughts. What if… Rather than accepting the prompt, she once again sent out a thought question into the void. Who are you? You are currently interfacing with the World Engine. Hmm…. that was enigmatic. What are you? The World Engine. Wow. Just wow.

Admittedly, this was Kiara's first time ever interacting with a World Engine, whatever that was, but she wondered if this one was a bit dull. Maybe this was its first time being in charge of something like this, a trial run of sorts? Then again, she certainly had never ran a world before, who was she to say this one was doing a bad job? It didn't seem to want to carry on a conversation with her, but she wasn't going to give up that easily. She decided on the polite approach.

Hello, World Engine, nice to meet you, I am Kiara. What is your purpose? To ensure the proscribed laws that govern this planet's existence are maintained, and help transition deceased souls to the next phase of their existence. What kind of an answer was that? Just what was she dealing with here? What laws do you maintain? What kinds of laws govern the existence of this planet?

Laws that govern the reality that is experienced on this planet, including the motion of the planet around its parent star, its attraction to other celestial bodies in space, laws of thermodynamics, conservation of energy, gravity, laws of thaumaturgical connection, and others. Kiara had no idea what the World Engine was talking about. Maybe it was just making stuff up to sound smart. Not a bad tactic, when it held all the cards in this situation. It did worry her though, that it was referring to 'this planet'.

Was it in charge of multiple planets? Is this battlefield that I'm seeing on the same planet I was living on? It is. Then why can't I just go back to my original body? Residents of this planet believe resurrection to be impossible for someone in your position, and with your original body being destroyed, there is no feasible way to explain your return other than resurrection. A suitable replacement body has been found, would you like to proceed? Kiara didn't have any desire to go anywhere at the present moment.

She loved to learn, and had never had access to so much knowledge before. She'd read all of the books available to her in the small village she was raised in, but that was an admittedly small number. Interacting with the World Engine was helping her mind expand faster than she'd ever thought possible! Not yet. First, a few more questions. If I wasn't scheduled to die, then how come I died? Processing… Your death is not yet scheduled. It is not possible for you to die. Kiara let out a mental sigh of exasperation.

Well I did die, you said so yourself. So what's going on? Processing… Error. Anomaly detected. Running full diagnostic. And that was it. No matter what Kiara did, she couldn't get the World Engine to respond to her again. She tried everything she could think of, but to no avail. She even tried accepting the previous prompt to reincarnate in Shian's body, but the World Engine was completely unresponsive. Resigned to her fate, she settled in and waited.