Alan Ward didn't see the truck.
One second he was crossing the street with his earphones in, thinking about leftover pizza, and the next, there was a blaring horn, the screech of tires, and then—Nothing.
Just silence.
He didn't feel the impact. Didn't feel his body hitting the ground. He didn't feel anything at all.
When he opened his eyes, he wasn't lying on the road or in a hospital bed. He wasn't in pain. He wasn't even breathing.
He was floating in a vast, dark space.
"What the hell..."
He looked around, heart pounding in his chest, but he had no body. He couldn't see his arms, couldn't feel his legs. Just a drifting consciousness, suspended in emptiness.
"Is this a dream?" he whispered.
No response. Just more silence.
Then, he started to fall. Or rise. It was impossible to tell. Direction didn't exist here. A deep panic slowly began to take hold.
"Okay... okay, calm down," he muttered, trying to steady his thoughts. "I probably hit my head. This is a coma or something. This isn't real."
That was when the voice spoke.
"You are not dreaming."
Alan froze.
The voice was calm, deep, and clear. It didn't come from anywhere. It just was, as if the entire space around him had decided to speak.
"Who are you?" Alan asked, trying to sound braver than he felt.
"I am the one who created your soul."
Alan's throat tightened, though he didn't really have one. "So... God?"
"You may call me that."
A pause. Then Alan laughed nervously. "Right. Of course. This is it then. I'm dead."
"You are."
The words hit like a hammer.
No more family.
No more friends.
No more anything.
"Your soul..." the voice continued, "Your soul remained whole."
"Great. So what now? Heaven? Hell?"
"Neither. You have a choice."
That made Alan pause. "A choice?"
"You may move on. Or, A second life in a different world."
Alan blinked. "Like... reincarnation?"
"Yes. But this second life comes with conditions."
He didn't respond right away. His mind was still trying to wrap around everything. He was dead. In a void. Talking to something calling itself God. And now he was being offered a second life?
He bit back the instinct to scream and focused instead. "What kind of conditions?"
"You will go to a world different from your own. A world that is broken. You must fix it."
"Fix it?" Alan repeated.
"You will understand when you arrive. Your mission is to bring change. Defeat what must be defeated."
This was getting weirder by the second. "And if I say no?"
"Then you will pass on. Peacefully."
Alan hesitated. He didn't know what came after death. He didn't want to. But being erased? Forgotten? That scared him more than anything else.
"Do I get any help?"
"You will be stronger than most. Magic will not harm your soul. You will not suffer their limits. That is your gift. But everything else, you must discover on your own."
Alan frowned. "Wait. Magic? Limits? What are you talking about?"
"You will see."
"That's not an answer."
"I don't have enough time to explain in detail."
Alan gritted his teeth. "So I just show up in some mystery world, stronger than average, with no idea how anything works, and I'm supposed to take down a broken system or something?"
"Yes."
He wanted to ask more. But something about the way the voice spoke… calm, patient, final… it told him that this was all he was going to get.
He let out a long, tired breath.
"Alright. I'll do it."
"Very well. From now on, you are no longer Alan Ward of Earth. You are a soul with purpose. Remember this."
A strange warmth began to spread through him.
"You may not kill any Human. That is my only law. Break it, and your second life ends."
"What?"
But before he could protest, the light consumed him.
The void shattered.
And he was alive again.