On Death (1)
Time flows on, and the world keeps changing. The time it takes for a small village to grow into a large one, for a shallow stream to swell bit by bit into a proper river. The time for a tiny sprout to become a towering tree, only to be felled by human hands. As I wandered the world, gazing at it all while time passed, something that really caught my eye appeared.
A hazy figure that looked like a human. It didn't have a physical body, but it clearly existed there, moving about. It was quite faint, yet it retained a sliver of self-awareness. Something different from a spirit. Something terribly fragile and ephemeral.
I figured out what it was right away. There was a human corpse lying at its feet—one that looked exactly like it. It was the soul of the dead human.
"Ah... Aah..."
The soul, that of a young man, stood there blankly, murmuring faintly. As if he had no idea he'd died.
This was the first time I'd seen a soul like this... What was it? Why had it shown up now? If souls had always existed, there should be countless ones swarming this world by now. How many humans had died up to this point...?
Maybe... as humanity's intelligence gradually rose, they started pondering life, death, and souls?
Come to think of it, before, when someone died, that was it—they just died, and you buried the body in the designated spot. But lately, humans seemed to be doing something like funerals... Had a belief in the afterlife taken root? Was that it? Had faith in souls' existence started to solidify because of that?
If so, there must have been some triggering event... Hmm... If things changed so suddenly, the most recent candidate for a cause would be... the laws? No, executions under the law had been around for ages. If souls appeared because of executions, they would've shown up long ago.
Was I missing something? No clue.
Hmm... Maybe the clear presence of gods made them think about what comes after death? Or was it that solar eclipse from before? I had no idea. Too many guesses; nothing I could pin down for sure.
I approached the soul standing there dumbly.
"Aah... I... Where is this... What the..."
The man hadn't been dead long. He'd apparently slipped from a high place—his body was covered in wounds, neck broken—but it hadn't decayed much yet. Poor guy. Judging by the logging stone axe at his waist, he was probably a woodcutter out gathering firewood.
Hmm... I cautiously spoke to the man's soul.
"What is your name?"
"I... My name is..."
He reacted to my words, but couldn't properly speak about himself. Hmm... Tricky. I didn't want to just leave the body and soul here.
No choice. I gathered mana, lifted the man's broken corpse, and started moving it slowly. First, toward the nearest human village.
As the body began walking, the soul, who'd been standing blankly, started following behind it for some reason.
And so, I, the man's body, and the man's soul headed to the nearby human village.
Finding the man's family wasn't hard. As soon as we entered the village, people spotted the body and freaked out.
Rough estimate: about fifty people in the village. In a small place like this, they'd recognize one of their own.
"Oh my god! Krute! What happened to you?!"
"Someone go get Onet! Krute's a mess! Bring every herb you've got!"
The humans, not noticing my hidden presence, saw the injured-looking Krute and tried to help. But what could they do for a body that had already stopped breathing?
I withdrew the mana moving the corpse, and it collapsed limply.
"Damn it! Krute!"
"I told you not to go to the mountains the day after heavy rain! You went anyway!!"
The people carried the body into the village, and soon a loud wail echoed out. The man's family... sounded like his little sister.
"This is... our village..."
The man's soul stared blankly at the village before entering. Soon, he saw a girl clutching his body and sobbing.
"O...net... My... little sister..."
He'd forgotten everything about himself, but remembered his family. Only then did the soul seem to grasp his death, collapsing to his knees weakly.
"Am I... dead...?"
"Yes. You are dead."
"Who... are you?"
The man's soul looked at me. Empty eyes. The eyes of one facing death. What emotions lay within? Regret? Despair? Sorrow? Longing? No idea. What did the dead feel? What did one who died leaving precious family behind feel?
"Are you... a god?"
"Why do you think that?"
"I don't know. You just look like an incredibly vast being to my eyes."
Because he was a soul? Or because he'd touched death? The soul could apparently glimpse a bit of my power. Of course, not all of it. Such a frail soul would've vanished if it saw me fully. I'd suppressed my power appropriately, so maybe that's what he saw.
"If you're a god... can you revive me?"
"Dunno. Never tried."
A lie. I could rewind time and save him before death. But was that right? No idea. Repairing the body and shoving the soul back in... Never considered it. This was my first time even seeing a soul, after all.
Hmm... Wonder what would happen if I tried? Kinda curious.
"What happens to me now?"
"Beats me."
First time seeing a dead soul. No prep for handling them. No grim reapers or anything. Hadn't decided what to do with souls in this situation either.
Oh no, did I have to figure it out and make something? An afterlife? For real? What a pain...
"You don't know anything...?"
"Humans like you have faced death plenty of times—why don't you know why souls are showing up now?"
Did I need to make a heaven or something? Or reincarnation, sending souls back for rebirth? Which one? No clue.
Hmm. Either way... I'd have to bust my ass making it. Tsk.
"I don't wanna die like this... Can't leave my sister... No... I don't want to die..."
"Hmm..."
The man's soul started twitching. Was the remaining soul convulsing? Or were negative emotions warping it? The translucent soul was gradually turning black.
"Now that's an interesting phenomenon."
"Revive... me... Back to my sister...!"
"Sorry, can't do that."
The soul, blackening and swelling into a monster, lunged at me.
"Eh."
"Graaack!"
A light flick to the forehead sent its upper body flying.
"Hmm... Turned into an evil spirit, huh? Troublesome."
Did abandoned human souls turn into this? Felt like those shonen manga with death gods I'd seen before. There, evil spirits had holes in their chests.
"Guh... Graaack..."
Even with its upper body gone, the evil spirit writhed. Pretty tough to hold form after I barely touched it on purpose.
"I can't revive the already dead, but I can help you protect your sister."
"Cough... Wh-what...?"
"Simple. Make your soul her guardian spirit."
Seemed souls had some power. Enough for guardian duty, at least.
"If not, I'll have to erase you here. Your choice?"
His upper body slowly reformed, and the man just nodded faintly.
And so, after turning the first soul I met into his sister's guardian spirit and watching them bury the body, I wandered the world again.
Souls were starting to appear here and there. They didn't show up when mere animals died—only for humans and other intelligent beings. Probably because their cognitive abilities had developed.
Did the gods' existence spark thoughts on death and the afterlife? Hmm... If so, unavoidable.
The thoughts and mana of intelligent beings facing death manifesting them, maybe? Something like that.
Anyway. Leaving souls alone would fill the world with evil spirits like that. Needed a process to collect and handle them.
Alright. Time to make one! An afterlife!!