Ante

Everything crashed into him all at once.

Akira gasped as air filled his lungs and he opened his eyes. His chest was burning, and his skin was tingling. The air was cold, hurting his lungs as he inhaled. There was a smell that was somehow both crispy and sweet, and he could hear birds chirping somewhere far away. 

‘Bluegfh!’ Akira sat upright as he vomited.

He was sitting on the ground, and was surrounded by a wide field of snow, some withered trees scattered in the distance. His eyes widened as he realised what had happened.

He had died, killed by his former friend seeking revenge. But somehow, before entering the afterlife, he met a supposed “god” and was sent here. Assuming this wasn’t still a hallucination.

Akira looked around him as the sharp pain faded, before he grabbed a handful of snow. He could feel its texture as it slowly crumbled in his hand. It wasn’t a dream… I really was sent to another world! Wait!- He looked at himself in worry.Thank god. He still had his suit on, only it was now wrinkled. His rare golden-black watch was still around his right wrist, but he had lost all his other possessions. 

‘Fuck.’ He slowly said, as his body started trembling. Partly because of the cold, and partly because of his conflicting emotions.

On the one hand, he was happy. This was something he always wanted as a kid, to be brought to a different world with magical powers and mythical creatures. And isn’t that what the barbecue bird said? I was getting extraordinary powers! I only expected the transfer to be less painful.

On the other hand, he was scared shitless. Not only did he just die within the span of a minute without being able to do anything. He was also reincarnated by what seemed to him like an all-powerful being. Just its existence bombarded his mind with philosophical thoughts that freaked him out. If something this powerful has always existed, does that mean my actions don’t mean nothing? Do I even matter? Was my death a part of its plan? 

Thankfully, his existential crisis didn’t last long, he needed to focus. Because even though he was supposed to gain awesome powers, he had no idea how to use them or if he had really gotten them. On top of that, he didn’t know where he was. He could be in the middle of nowhere, incredibly far from civilization, which would be a problem.

He had not exactly tried to learn any survival skills in his past life. The thought that there was a high chance of magical monsters existing in this world didn’t help either. 

But that wasn’t even the worst part.

His bottom was wet, same with the rest of his backside, the snow he was laying on had melted and his usually perfect suit was drenched. 

‘Alright, enough thinking, what to do now?’ Akira said out loud as he stood up.

When he looked up, he saw a gray sky, the sun covered by gray clouds. ‘It’s right around noon.’

He paused.

‘I think, I guess I don’t know how this world works yet.’ There might just be some god controlling the sun, or no, time could move differently here. Damn, this is kind of exciting me!

He decided to just move in some random direction for now, perhaps he would find a settlement or meet some people nice enough to help him.

As he trudged through the snow, he realized how cold he felt. His suit already didn’t do much against the chill, considering it was summer at his time of death, but on top of that, his back had been soaked, making him feel like he was freezing.

Akira shivered as he rubbed his arms, each step he took produced a crunching sound. I swear I’m gonna get sick. If only I could get a little warmth from that bird, surely it could miss a l- ‘Clunk!’ He stopped.

He had stepped on something that sounded very little like snow, and as he tapped his shoe against the ground again, he felt something hard. ‘Huh.’ He crouched, and swept away a thin layer of snow. 

A stone slab was revealed, carved with strange symbols and weird patterns. ‘Sure looks old.’ Half of the symbols reminded him of the Latin alphabet, but there was clearly something different. I still haven’t seen any other sign of advanced life anywhere, would it hurt to spend some time investigating this old piece? While deciding whether he should investigate the area around him, he pressed the weight of his body against the stone slab.

The slab immediately gave away and the ground around collapsed with it. Snow, dirt and stone caved inward as Akira fell down with a yell. He tumbled, rolled and bumped into a bunch of things before falling on his back and groaning in pain.

‘Seems about right.’ Akira groaned, ‘First day in another world and I already screw things up.’

When he finally sat up and opened his eyes, he, again, saw darkness. Only this time, there was some light, a piece of rock was visible because of light entering through the hole he had just made. Everything else was dark, and the air smelled damp and old, reminding him of parchment. Or at least his impression of parchment, because he had never actually been in the presence of any, never mind knowing what it smells like.

When he looked around, there was a way out of the hole, but he doubted he could actually climb his way up the sharp rocks of which the path consisted.

Akira squinted his eyes, trying to look beyond the darkness in front of him, only to be met with failure. Alright, think, think, think, think! I need to somehow get out of this hole by either climbing rocks that will surely cut my hands, or by venturing into darkness in which I can’t see shit.

Both are a gamble, which is why I’m having a hard time choosing which one I like more…

Just as he was about to go for the rocks, which he had chosen because of his distaste of the dark, he thought of another idea.

‘Uhm, birdie?’ He modestly said, ‘Can you hear me?’

A familiar flame burst into being in front of him.

Akira flinched, surprised by the sudden arrival and because he was scared of being burned. However, he quickly realized that he felt nothing from the flame. There (unfortunately) wasn’t even any warmth emanating from it. 

‘Greetings, great master of rebirth and flames.’ Akira said humbly as he bowed, hoping to appease the creature in front of him.

The flames stayed silent.

‘Well, could you,’ He hesitated, ‘Maybe help me figure out what to do?’

‘You should go that way.’ A majestic voice from the flame said calmingly as a branch of flames shot out and headed for the darkness before disappearing.

‘You want me to go there?’ Akira said incredulously as he pointed at the same place the flames had gone, ‘where I can’t see anything.’

‘It’s not about me wanting it, and you don’t need to follow my orders.’ the flame expressed. ‘Even I can see that the path behind you only leads to your pityable death, even if you manage to make it out.’

‘Righto,’ Akira said in a sullen voice, ‘And how should I go about entering the deep dark scary space that you call safe? Actually, what do I even call you? I don't really want to take any advice from something I don’t know the name of. And why don’t I feel any warmth from your body? I think we both know I need some right now.’

For a moment it was quiet, causing Akira to worry he might have overstepped his boundaries and offended the flame-phoenix-faceless creature. Then the voice sighed, ‘I am known as Auren, and I am now what is called your “patron”. The reason you can’t feel anything from me is because I am not actually here, you can only see me because I am your patron, I exist in your mind only. Simply put, I am an illusion only visible to you.’

Akira stroked his chin, ‘My patron? So you’re like my sponsor? Is that what you meant when you said you’d give me powers?’

‘That is correct.’

Akira's eyes lit up at Auren's confirmation, before he thought about something, ‘So why don’t I have powers? Apart from being extremely cold and in pain, I don’t feel any different than I did before I died.’ 

‘When a contract is made between a god and a mortal, there are always clauses. These clauses usually involve negative effects but are beneficial to the contractor, the god, and are necessary for a mortal to be able to hold the powers of their contractor, otherwise they will slowly perish. I am unable to give you a clear negative effect for your power because you are not from this world, so you can't handle the power that comes with a contract. For now, a conduit is needed, something that will absorb the overbearing presence of my power so that you can wield it.’

So there are more contracts and powers throughout this world?

‘So what will my powers be?’ Akira asked, his interest piqued. ‘Will I be unable to die, or get the ability to manipulate fire, or to change into a phoenix at will?’

‘Even I won’t know what you get until you’ve claimed them, though those options are certainly plausible,’ Auren responded, ‘I can, however, give you two powers for now. I believe your body should be able to handle that much.’ Immediately after he said this,ropes made of fire erupted from the big flame, entering Akira with insane speeds as he felt his body warming up. 

Once the ropes disappeared, Auren spoke, ‘You now have a decent resistance to the cold, with your body constantly warming itself when needed. You will also have better vision in the dark.’ To Akira’s surprise, just like Auren said, Akira could now see his surroundings a lot better. He could barely make out what looked like a doorway hidden in the darkness.

‘I don’t think you will survive the next three hours without going there.’ Auren added gravely.

This alarmed Akira, ‘W-what do you mean I won’t survive the next three hours without it.’ His voice had a slight tremble. After his last experience, the thought of death terrified him.

‘Your constitution is even worse than I originally thought, your body will only manage for three hours before crumbling. You will need to find a conduit capable of handling your powers in those three hours or you’re as good as dead.’ Its voice was without care and said these things with zero care for Akira, sending a shiver down Akira’s spine. To this fucker I’m just an ant, if I die, he’ll just get someone else to make his “contract” with. 

As these thoughts surfaced in his mind, Akira also realised a big problem. ‘How am I supposed to find a conduit for divine power in three hours? It doesn’t sound like you can find those lying around.’ He exclaimed the first part a bit louder than he meant to.

Thankfully, Auren didn’t seem to care. ‘No, they are very rare even, because unlike you, denizens born in this world usually don’t need one to hold divine power. But don’t fret, you’re in luck, this is a special ruin belonging to the former emperor of this land. It wouldn’t surprise me if there are relics holding special powers hidden here.’

Auren continued before Akira could say something. ‘Even for a god like me it is tiring to have a form in the mortal realm for this long, I will be leaving now.’ It concluded its sentence with a slight drop of strength in its voice. ‘Oh, and one last tip, there will be a bunch of protections in place to keep people like you out, so you should be careful. Goodbye!’

Just like that he disappeared, leaving Akira standing alone in a cave, looking at the doorway in front of him with uncertainty.