“I thought I was already dead. I was expecting some river or a dark tunnel, just in case. Maybe even the bony reaper with a scythe. Wait—I’m a skeleton myself! So instead of her, shouldn’t someone made of skin and muscle come for me? And what kind of tool would they carry? This is all so strange… But then—why am I still alive?!”

  When the blinding light from Sem’s self-destruction faded, I saw an enormous wasteland. Nothing remained—no houses, no people, no grass, no trees, no fields. Even the clouds had vanished from the sky, revealing a breathtaking view of the stars. Alas, my body—or rather, my bones—was gone too. I was now just a floating spark in the air.

  Maybe this was a hallucination, or some final death-throes of the mind? Soon my soul would fully dissolve, and I’d vanish into nothingness. Or perhaps my guide was simply late? That wouldn’t be proper—skipping out on duty like that. Tsk-tsk. They might get fined or lose their bonus. Wait—what kind of bonus does a soul-guide even get? Hard to imagine. A day off, maybe?

  And so I kept hovering here. Nothing interesting happened. Nothing new. I tried to move somewhere or do something—but alas, nothing worked. No hands, no feet—nothing at all. Was I doomed to stare at the same empty landscape forever? What if something grew here? Would I have to watch the insides of a tree sprout? That’d be even more boring. What a nightmare.

  While pondering my fate, I noticed something beginning to form around me. Gradually, they took shape—faint points of light in the air, as if someone had dripped pure radiance into the void. There were about a hundred of them, each shimmering slightly differently. Like stars in the night sky: seemingly identical at first glance, but upon closer look, one was a bit larger or smaller, another more red or blue—each with its own aura, its own unique hue.

  As I studied them, I saw they’d begun to drift—each shifting slightly sideways. From my vantage point, it looked as if they moved clockwise. Again. And again. With every passing moment, they spun faster and faster, spiraling inward. They transformed from dots into thin slits, then into long streaks. Their numbers grew until they merged into glowing rings. The light they gave off didn’t blind—it simply illuminated everything around me.

  “It was so beautiful,” I thought—when suddenly I heard a familiar voice:

  — “We wanted… adventurers… to hear their… story of our lives… thank you.”

  As the last word sounded, one of the sparks drifted close and fused with my light. Distant memories of a hard but happy life flared within me. I felt calm. At peace.

  Then another ring approached, and a second voice reached me:

  — “Remember… I have a gift… we’re the exception… not so fast… be careful.”

  This light merged with mine too, filling me with memories: a shelter, children, logical streams of thought, conversations by the fire, love for friends.

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  Immediately after, the other rings began converging far more quickly. I started to understand what was happening—and now awaited the next voice.

  — “The man who sold his liver… went wherever his eyes led… pork skewers… Fiend!”

  Fragmented images, flickering scenes of a life. So you died too. You really did have wonderful jokes.

  More voices blended into a hum—soon indistinguishable, overlapping:

  — “The guard wakes early… Money guarantees a good life… Mama! Where are you, Mama?… I saved no one. Again I overslept… Life is… Buy me food… I haven’t given up yet… Vera! She’s with you… The field overgrew again… Amazing… What… Scary… Who… We… I…”

  Emotions, feelings, experiences, ideas—poured into me like a flood. My consciousness dissolved. I felt as if I’d fallen asleep—yet I was still here.

  Time flowed like a river frozen over: a thick, impenetrable ice sheet on the surface, but beneath it, the current never stopped. It always moves—even when you don’t notice, even when you don’t want it to.

  “What comes next? Who am I? Who was I? And who will I be? Ah, does it even matter anymore? Time to do something—no use lying around. Time to go.”

  Was there light all around me—or was I the light? But even that eventually dimmed… and then came darkness.

  Was I falling—or had I always been lying here? I needed a body. I felt bones. Progress, at least.

  Was it truly only darkness all around? No—there were stars. I could even make out constellations. And there—those two familiar moons.

  — “Going to lie there much longer?” A familiar voice interrupted my thoughts.

  “Yes—that’s the voice of that stunningly beautiful, terrifying girl with red hair.”

  — “Why ‘terrifying’ right away?” came the reply.

  “Well, obviously—people that beautiful don’t exist. So you must be some demon or god. And you’re reading my thoughts, too.”

  — “You weren’t exactly hiding them. Are you just going to keep lying there?”

  I lifted my head from the ground and looked myself over. White, smooth, perfectly aligned bones. Tall grass all around. And night.

  “A skeleton. Well, that’s not bad.”

  — “Wasn’t I on that barren crater? The one left by the explosion?” I asked the girl sitting on a tree branch nearby.

  — “You were. But it grew over. About a hundred years ago.”

  — “A hundred years?! I’ve been lying here for a century?!” I couldn’t believe it.

  — “No. You’ve only been here for about ten minutes—since your body reformed,” she replied, swinging her legs back and forth. “But your soul has been here for ten full years.”

  — “My soul? So everything I saw and heard was real?”

  — “I don’t know what you heard—but ten years and twelve days have passed since that boy incinerated everything here. Somehow, incredibly, your soul didn’t vanish immediately. Instead, it held the souls of the dead in place—like lost travelers gathered around a campfire.”

  — “Maybe it was Granny’s wish…”

  — “I don’t know. But you didn’t just keep them from fading—you absorbed them in their pure form, weakened as they were by that boy’s fire. Something drew them to you and kept them from dissolving into the endless stream of shared thoughts and desires.”

  — “Sem… Lerry… Berry…”

  — “They were all drawn to you. Under pressure and force, they collapsed into something new. You consumed countless souls—insignificant, weak, strong, immensely powerful. Most likely, they haven’t fully disappeared yet—but they’re little more than old ideas and memories now. Though it took you all those years, you’ve become something new—something that has never existed in this world before. I’ll be watching you. I hope you won’t disappoint me~”

  With that, the girl vanished like mist at dawn.

  I remained seated in the grass, realizing I’d have to start my journal anew. And the first entry would read:

  Day 0.

  I’ve awakened in a strange, uncharted world. All I have is my faithful, sturdy skeleton — and within me, countless fragments of bound souls. What should I even call this?

  Ah—of course.

  This is Soul Reincarnation!