Paul__Michaels

  Emil was a man born in Germany. He was a 31-year-old engineer and an avid climber. And during one of his annual climbing trips to the Greek isnd of Kalymnos. He and his friend were in the middle of a multi-pitch sport climb when a storm came rolling in out of nowhere. It was so bad that Emil and his friend decided the best option was to try replying down the route even though they were about 400 meters up the cliff face. Left with little choice, they managed to make it down the first 100-meter repel.

  But the storm wouldn't let up, and they started getting waterlogged.

  "Shyt! Emil?! Can you tell if the rope is stuck on the wall? I'm having trouble seeing where the ends of the ropes went!" yelled Martin as he tossed down the rope out after getting the anchors set for the next 100 meters to repel.

  "Nah! This damn storm is making it impossible to see anything! Should we try and wait out the storm?!" Emil yelled back to his friend as his voice was getting drowned out by the howling wind and pounding rain. Their harnesses and slings were the only things keeping them on the cliff wall.

  *THUNDER! BOOM!*

  "We can't stay here and wait out this storm! We got to move! I can take the next repel!" Martin yelled over to Emil, who was only inches away from him.

  "I'll get this one, Martin! You'll get the next two repels! And you'll be buying me a month's supply of beer after we get out of this fucking mess!" Emil yelled back, the rain pounding down on his body.

  The storm intensified while Emil attached his bey device to the rope and detached his slings from the bolts in the wall.

  "Martin! Were the next set of anchors to the right of us?!" Yelled Emil.

  "Da! Yes! I believe that they were!" Martin replied back to his friend as he looked down at him.

  Emil nodded and started repelling down the rope, fighting the elements as he descended the cliff. Thanks to the heavy rain and wind gusts, he couldn't see. He got so distracted and battered by the elements that he lowered himself past the next set of anchors.

  Emil noticed at the st second and stopped.

  "WHOA! FUCK!" Emil yelled as there was only 100 cm of rope left.

  'I almost repelled off the rope! Shit! That means I went past the anchors! Dammit! I can't see shit!... Wait... I see the anchors! But they are 5 meters above me! Maybe if I can swing into the crack, I can climb back up there!' Emil thought as he tried to swing over to the wall, but the wind was making it hard for him to control himself.

  He took a deep breath and leaned over to the side to gain as much momentum as possible. He swung his left arm out to get his hand in the crack of the wall and then brought his right arm around to hold onto the rope. He felt the rope catch on something above him.

  'I did it! I made it! Now to get up to the anchors and–' Emil's thoughts were interrupted as his left hand slipped off the wall and swung out into the air again as his bey device slipped down the rest of the rope until he repelled off the end. Falling the rest of the way down to his unfortunate death.

  ***

  Everything went dark for Emil.

  'Well, shit. I guess I died doing what I loved. But I was hoping to live a little longer, though,' Emil thought to himself.

  Everything was so dark in the afterlife. He was surprised he could still have cognitive thought as he floated in the void.

  'Hmm? Well, it doesn't surprise me that the afterlife is pitch bck. But I wasn't expecting it to be so warm and liquidy. I mean, I'm gd I am still me and haven't faded into nothingness or whatever is supposed to happen to the dead... But why am I the only one here? Maybe this is hell? Like, I'll go insane because of boredom? I guess I'll find out sooner or ter." Emil thought to himself as he was surrounded by darkness in what seemed like days.

  In the midst of the unending expanse of liquid nothingness, a realization struck him.

  'Wait. Am I dead or alive? No... I can't be alive!' Emil thought in shock. 'I can feel my limbs all of a sudden? But I feel like I'm stuck in a tight pce. Damn! I can't move!'

  Emil's daily routine was an enigmatic voyage through a byrinth of perplexity, a relentless quest to decipher the enigma that enshrouded his existence. There were fleeting moments when he pondered if this surreal experience epitomized his interpretation of the afterlife: ensnared in a cryptic, obsidian cocoon, inexplicably drawing breath from the surrounding aqueous realm.

  'This is so freaking weird. I wonder if I'll lose my sanity at some point... I'm weirdly still calm about all this, even after all this time. How long have I been in the afterlife? Pff! Only god knows at this point... I wonder if being stuck in here has given me inner peace?' Emil wondered.

  As time passed in the afterlife, Emil started to observe peculiar occurrences in his surroundings. Occasionally, he felt an unusual energy coursing through his body, as though he was being scanned by an unseen force, and at times, he could faintly discern muffled voices in the background.

  'Yep! I think I'm losing my mind! Damn... and here I thought I found inner peace. Maybe I can figure out what I did wrong. I mean, I got all the time in the afterlife.' Emil concluded that this would be the rest of his existence.

  Emil had been suspended in his new routine for what felt like an eternity. Languishing in the darkness, he was consumed by a profound sense of boredom, with no respite in sight. His world seemed to contract with each passing day, leaving him feeling increasingly confined. Suddenly, he perceived a subtle change as the liquid surrounding him began to recede, offering a glimmer of change in his stagnant existence.

  'What the hell is going on?!' Emil thought while he started to feel uneasy. That's when he felt the fleshy walls enclosed around him.

  'God dammit! I'm going to be crushed alive! Wait! But I died already!' Emil's panic started to kick into high gear now as he tried to fight back against the walls, but he was too weak to fight back.

  The fleshy walls went from rexed to contracting to rexed again. This went on for hours, as that process repeated repeatedly while the intervals seemed to be happening quicker. That was when Emil felt his head getting really cmped down on.

  'Am I going to die in the afterlife? Is this hell? Oh fuck! My head is getting squeezed so hard! It hurts!' Emil thought.

  The squeezing continued on his body as Emil's head pushed through this tight fleshy canal until his head was able to pop out of its tomb first. He saw a bright, blurry light coming towards him, but his body got stuck by the fleshy vice. Keeping him from escaping.

  'Oh, God! I can't breathe?! I CAN'T BREATHE?!' Emil tried to yell as the blinding light made it impossible to see. He could also hear muffled sounds of people talking loudly and a woman screaming in pain. But he couldn't focus on that as his body was being crushed.

  Just when he thought all hope was lost, his body finally got pushed out as he felt something with huge hands catch him. Emil began to feel really cold and still couldn't breathe.

  'Someone! Anyone! Help?! I can't breathe!' Emil wanted to yell out but couldn't because of the fluids in his lungs.

  That is when Emil was held upside down and spped on the butt. Which dislodged the fluids in his lungs, which made him scream like... a baby?

  'Who are you?! What have you done to me?! Why is everything so cold?! Answer me?!' That was what Emil wanted to say, but what everyone heard was.

  "Wwwwaaaaa! Wwwwaaaaa!" Cried, Emil.

  ***

  "Your Highness! It's a boy!" excimed the royal doctor as he held the newborn prince in his hands.

  King Cyndre was overjoyed to see the new heir to the throne. After all the heartache of his wife's miscarriages. She finally was able to give birth to a child who looked healthy. And was even a little more handsome than they had expected.

  "You have done well, Rianna. It appears our son will grow up to be a fine young man." King Cyndre thought as he took the baby from his trusted doctor.

  "Cyndre?! Let me see him! Please!" Queen Rianna demanded to hold her son as she y in her bed.

  Cyndre smiled as he walked over to her bedside and handed the baby to his queen. "Here you go, my love, your son," he said as he watched the queen look in awe at their son.

  "He's adorable! *Sniff* I feared something would go wrong with the pregnancy, but everything turned out perfectly for us. The goddess heard my prayers!" she cried as she cuddled her newborn in her arms.

  "That wasn't your fault, Rianna. Stop demeaning yourself... You're a perfect woman, a perfect Queen, and now a perfect mother. Your son will grow up to be a great king for this nation, just like his father," Cyndre said as he watched his wife hold their newborn.

  "I'm sorry, Cyndre. I shouldn't dwell on the past. But I can't help it sometimes..." Rianna replied as she stroked her son's hair.

  "It's alright, my love. We've come too far for that to define us. Rest now... The midwives will be by your side until you are ready to move around again. Your son needs you," Cyndre said as he kissed his wife's forehead.

  "I know what I shall name him," Rianna said as she looked down into her son's golden eyes.

  "Oh? So, you did have a name in mind. What is going to be the name of the next prince?" Cyndre asked as he smirked at his wife.

  "Quinus... His name will be Quinus..." Rianna said as she looked back to Cyndre.

  "It's a fine name worthy of a king... Now rest, my love. You need to recover yourself. Quinus will need his mother, so rest." He said.

  Rianna smiled as she id back down and held her son close to her chest as she drifted off to sleep.

  The people who were there all had a sigh of relief as the Queen gave birth to the next heir to the throne. Emil was reincarnated into the world of Tertius. He couldn't comprehend what had happened to him as he couldn't see or understand the nguage anyone was speaking. His reincarnation was something he didn't consider, as he still thought he was in the afterlife. That was not until the second week of being alive that it occurred to him that he was a newborn.

  'I WAS REINCARNATED?! This is insane! I-I wish I could see something. But my damn eyes just don't work! It's sooo frustrating!' Quinus thought as id there in a bassinet.

  All he could do was what every other newborn could do, which was eat, sleep, shit, and cry.

  ***

  Shortly after Quinus came into the world, a buzz rippled through the bustling streets of Tairal, the capital city.

  Tarial, a bustling city situated in the heart of The Fiafyr Kingdom, was home to the esteemed Divalo Manor. Nestled on the fringes of the city, this grand estate was where Duke Aric spent his days poring over a myriad of documents in his opulent study. Suddenly, the tranquility of the room was shattered as one of his butlers burst in, breathless and agitated.

  "Lord Aric! The news came yesterday! Queen Rianna gave birth to a boy!" He said with worry as he rushed over to his master.

  "What!? It survived?!" Aric shouted in shock.

  "I'm afraid so, my Lord. I got word from one of our men on the inside of the pace." The servant then looked up at his master.

  "Impossible! That poison was supposed to make her infertile. That alchemist said that in a rare chance of birth, the child should be weak and deformed." Aric asked as he sat back in his chair.

  The servant shook his head. "Not exactly, my lord. The queen gave birth to a healthy baby boy. She named him Quinus!"

  Aric stood up as he paced around the room. "How is that possible? If Rianna gave birth to such a healthy boy, then does that mean he's a demi-god?"

  "My Lord, I don't know the details. But it would be wise if his Lordship were to ensure that the prince isn't as healthy as they say he is. After all, if he was born from a Corialis woman, then he might not be as powerful as we believe him to be." The servant said as he bowed his head.

  "I couldn't care less that she's a foreign noble. That child carries my brother's blood, and if he inherits his father's golden eyes, it will completely alter my pns for the future of Fiafyr. Who among our people in the pace could handle the boy?"

  Aric, the firstborn son of the royal family, cked the striking golden eyes that distinguished his father and younger brother, Cyndre. This physical difference led to doubts about his legitimacy among the royal court, casting a shadow over his rightful cim to the throne. When his younger brother, endowed with the family's golden eyes, was born, the nobles swiftly decred him the crown prince, further solidifying Aric's exclusion from the line of succession.

  Aric may have been stripped of his royal title, but he had always harbored aspirations of passing on the throne to his son. However, with the arrival of Quinus, his long-cherished ambition was now in peril.

  "I believe that most of your insiders are footmen and a few maids, your Lordship. Most likely, the servants aren't as skilled in combat. I don't think we can sneak any guards into the pace without anyone noticing."

  "What about a wet nurse? If we can get someone capable enough to care for a child, then maybe she can also watch over the prince. Then, when no one is looking, she can kill the child, and Marcus will be the front-runner for the throne again..."

  "That is one possibility, your Lordship. I'll look into it right away." The servant said as he bowed his head.

  The butler turned on his heels to face the door and hurried to leave.

  As the door closed Duke Aric was left there only. And in a fit of rage, he grabbed his desk and flipped it over, sending papers flying everywhere.

  "RAH! That alchemist failed me! If he had just done his job properly, then the queen wouldn't have given birth to a legitimate child. He has ruined everything! My pns for the throne of Fiafyr will go to hell because of this! Why must the fates always conspire against me!?"

  He stormed out of the room and smmed the door behind him.

  "I guess I'll have to get rid of the alchemist myself!" He yelled as he walked past the servant.

  Aric went to see a surprised alchemist. He didn't have a chance to expin himself before his head was separated from his body and tossed aside.