It was night in the forest, birds moved through the dark , hunting insects by sound. Something large was stalking through the undergrowth to the east. Dead leaves covered the ground in deep damp layers, muffling everything.
The trees were old enough that their roots had broken through the soil and risen back up, and the moss on everything was thick and very green.
In the shadow of a boulder near the base of a rocky outcrop, inside a small alcove carved by time into the stone, a body lay completely still.
Then it twitched, then again as shade opened his eyes. Everywhere was dark, he stared at the ceiling of the alcove for a long moment, blinking slowly.
"Am I dead?" His voice echoed off stone, he looked around. The distant sound of something being eaten alive in the undergrowth. "Is this heaven?"
A pause.
" Nah that shits not possible, I'm in hell." He considered that. "But where's the fire? That's very anticlimactic."
Then it all came back at once, the cave, the system warning, the skin peeling, hi prosthetic sliding off the bone. The dark coming in from the edges.
He sat up, his arms held his weight. Both of them. He used them to push himself upright and they worked just fine, and he stayed there for a moment very confused.
His vision in the dark was sharp. Much sharper than it should have been. He had done night operations before, recon in total blackout. He had never seen like this.
Suddenly a foul disgusting smell suddenly hit. He stumbled, immediately crawling out of the alcove, and rushed out under the moonlight.
Then he suddenly stopped. It could hear in 8D, 4K Pro Max, sound of insects scuttling around, birds, predators hunting. "Ah, damn, they caught somebody, oh he's dinner".
And he'd finally outside the cave. He took a deep breath and could smell the laws of things. His nose was wonderful. He felt like a Basset hound with a target.
Everything was rushing in all at once. He could smell color and sound at the same time. It was a euphoric feeling. As he looked down in the moonlight, and saw his hands.
He looked at his hands and counted. He counted again,ten fingers. "Okay," he said carefully. "I'm dreaming." He pinched himself. "Shit."
He felt joy rise up in his chest like a swelling dam. He didn't like that, cause usually disaster followed.
Don't fall for it, that fucker could have my mind somewhere pleasant while doing some orochimaru shit to me.
He clenched his fist again, he could feel it. He unclenched then clenched again. The sensation was real and complete.
He looked down, he had an actual leg, flesh and bone and attached to his body. He moved it, up, back, up again before wriggling his toes. He could feel his toes.
He touched his face, it was smooth with no exposed bone. No caverns where the explosion had taken parts of his face. He could easily move his jaw.
Turning his neck before he cleared his throat. Speaking as his voice came out without the rasp, without sounding like Solomon Grundy and a sprinkle of darkseid.
He ran his hands down from his chest and felt no scars then further down, before he stopped. He checked again to be sure then tears started running down his face.
"Shit," he whispered. Then louder. "Shit." He brought his hands up and pressed them over his face, shoulders shaking. "Man." A long unsteady breath. "Shit, man. I missed you. I missed you, man."
He cried until he was done. Then he wiped his face, took a long breath, and opened the system.
A message was waiting.
YOUR FIRST STEP IS COMPLETE.
You have escaped. But you are not yet beyond danger.
Your mission: find the Shards of the Heart of Darkness. Rejoin the six fragments and return me to my former power.
That is your mission. I will not be able to speak with you as I did before. I used the last of my available power to preserve you in this moment. I have nothing more to give you now.
So enjoy yourself and live the life you could not live before. Experience and explore, this is your second life, and it belongs entirely to you. Complete my mission as you go.
— Nolthar, God of Darkness and Destruction
P.S. Happy Birthday.
Shade stared at the last line for a long time.
Then he closed the menu, sat back against the stone, and laughed. The sound disappearing into the dark forest.
"You absolute bastard, I'll do your little side quest. But I'm gonna engage in every any vice I can . My mission is to finally live and enjoy my new life. But I need to wash up and find what to do drink."
He found the river by sound first, then by smell, then by sight as the trees thinned slightly and the moonlight found the water.
He waded in without ceremony. The cold hit him immediately, standing waist deep and working at the grime that covered him. There was a considerable amount of it.
The cave had not been clean and neither was his death, and the combination had produced a layer of biological material on his skin that he chose not to examine.
He scrubbed at it with his hands, dunked himself fully twice, came back up and did it again.
He washed his clothes separately, beating them against a flat rock the way he'd seen done in anime, working the grime out as best he could with river water and determination.
He wrung them out and draped them over a low branch on the bank, spread wide to catch whatever air was moving through the trees.Then he stood on the bank and let the night air dry him.
The forest was still doing its business around him. Things living and dying, hunting and hiding. He listened to it with his ears and found that he could separate the sounds in ways he couldn't before.
He could track individual movements through the undergrowth, could distinguish between the rustling of a small animal and something larger.
Suddenly he felt a reaction from the joined forced of the cold stream and the night air.
He was hard.
Shade finally decided to test something ge always wanted to do. He began running his hand up his pelneez. It was larger than he expected.
This made him fucking ecstatic.
Enjoying the sensation he muttered to himself " Kira noir, Sophie rain, miss B nasty, come on, come ONNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!"
A jolt of electricity passed through his entire body as he blacked out again for the second time in one day.
A few hours later shade woke up and washed again before checking his surroundings. It wasn't a dream this whole time.
He was surprised at the fact nothing tried to eat his naked ass, unconscious on the bank. He would have been a lovely snack.
Checking his body closely he noticed he was perfect like a greek god. There no fat on his body, only lean muscle. Turning back to his pressing matters at hand he went to get dressed.
His clothes were dry enough. He pulled them back on, ran his hands through his hair, and went back to the alcove.
The smell hit him before he reached it. "Yuck, this place smells like a redittor mods room."
He held his breath, reached in, retrieved the duffel bag, and backed out as quickly as he could manage with dignity.
He slung the bag over his shoulder and checked the contents, everything was still there.
He looked in the other direction. The world. The whole of it, open and unknown and entirely his to move through however he chose.
Nolthar had said enjoy yourself, he fucking intended to. "Alright," Shade said to no one in particular, rolling his shoulders once. "Let's go ruin someone's day."