For some, death is a sad occasion as they part with everyone they held dear in their life, while for others it is a happy occasion as they finally get to rest from a lifetime of hard work and effort.
For me, however, death was… chatty.
"So anyway I told that eggplant man with a cheese grated chin that if he wants to impress me he better offer up half the souls in the universe, or he has zero chance with me and guess what. The idiot actually went and started going at it! Isn't that hilarious?"
For the past little while, I have been sitting in an almost endless black void, conversing with a woman with a skull for a head. I wish I would know exactly how long it has been, but unfortunately I don't seem to have a watch on me.
"That's cool and all, but I have some questions…" I say, trying to put a stop to the woman for what feels like the hundredth time, only to be interrupted as she shrugs in an exaggerated manner.
"Yeah, yeah, I know what you want to ask. Look I'm generally not against dating bald men, I mean there are trillions of them in my domain alone who look great but if you are already purple from head to toe and look like THAT, maybe trying on a wig would at least save your looks a little don't you agree?"
"That's not what I wanted to ask…" I say, residing to my fate of having to listen to the next rant by this strange woman in front of me.
"Oh it isn't?" The skull headed woman asked, sounding genuinely surprised. "I thought it would have been, oh well ask away then. I'm all ears, or well, skull with no ears actually, but I can still hear just fine."
The woman leaned back on the beanie bag she had conjured up for herself to sit on when she first arrived here and summoned a glass of some sort of drink with a little umbrella to sip on while waiting. Before she had the chance to start with her next rant and cut me off, I quickly spit out the questions I've been trying to get out ever since she arrived.
"Right, to start off with. Where the fuck am I, and why am I here?" I rattle off the most important questions in my mind.
Ever since I arrived here, my memory has been extremely blurry to the point where I can't even remember my own name, yet I feel calm. One would think they would be in a panic when they wake up in an endless void with a skull headed woman rambling at them about their job of managing the domain of the dead, but strangely I feel none of that.
"Oh? You are obviously in my domain right now." The woman says simply in-between her sips, as if she didn't just drop a bombshell on me that I'm basically dead. "As for why you are here. Well, obviously you died. You were at home when a truck was picked up by a tornado and flew through your wall, crushing you like a pancake. I promised The One Above All that I'd hold you here until he arrived but ever since he was sapped of his power he has been a bit slow so it might take awhi- Oh wait he is arriving just now, great timing!"
Huh?
The One Above All?
Am I in the marvel universe? Wait, why can I remember that but nothing else about myself? Does this mean the eggplant man she was talking about was… never mind, I don't even wanna think about that right now. Let's just focus on the big G himself, who is apparently coming to see me.
I direct my gaze into the darkness, just as Death had done, and wait patiently. Only a few seconds after I do so, a ripple in space appears and an old man with a cane and slouched back paces through it. He wasn't towering or radiant, no divine aura or blinding light, just an older man with silver hair slicked neatly back wearing a soft looking beige sweater over a collared shirt and tinted glasses covering his eyes.
He looked like a weak old man that needed help from passerbys to cross the road, not the strongest being in the universe.
"Umm…" How do I react to this? Should I kneel or something?
"Well, it was nice talking to you, but he will be taking over now." Death said, pulling me out of my confusion. "I'll give you two some space. Don't be in a hurry back to my domain in your next life, you hear me. Talk to you later."
With those parting words, she did a swirl and covered her whole body with her cape before disappearing into the void, leaving the old man and I alone in the void.
Turning to look back at the old man, he was already staring at me. He gave off a warm energy and, once again to reiterate, did not give off the feeling of an all powerful god at all.
"So…" I start, unsure what I should be saying or doing. I am answered by a warm smile.
"Reo right?" He says, slowly wobbling toward me with the cane supporting his body. "We were quite lucky to get a soul as compatible as yours just as we needed one."
"A compatible soul?" I question. Compatible for what exactly? "And I can't exactly remember my name, so if you say it's Reo then it must be that."
"Right, right, it seems your memories are not all there. A common occurrence that happens after death." TOAA says as he plops himself down on the same beanie bag that Death had been using just a moment ago. "I know you probably have a lot of questions on how someone like me is reduced to such a sorry state and why you are here before me, so let me get started."
I just stand and stare. There is not much else for me to do, not like I can just walk away into the endless void or would even want to do that. Might as well hear the old bloke- I mean the all powerful God out.
"I wasn't always like this, in fact, this weakness of mine is quite a recent situation that has developed due to poor judgment and a series of bad decisions." He says, leaning over to pick up the glass of liquid Death left behind, only to spit it out after taking a single sip.
"Bleh, disgusting… Anyway, our multiverse has been under threat for a while now, as The One Below All has been summoning dangerous dimensions that threaten the very reality of our existence to invade. For a long time even by my lifespan standards, I along with other beings like Death you already met have been fighting against him and these dimensions. Unfortunately, for both me and everyone else, The One Below All managed to outsmart me and sap most of my power, leaving me greatly weakened and unable to break into his dimensions by myself anymore." The One Above All finished his explanation with a sigh.
I nod along to his words as I process what was said.
"Sucks I guess?" What else was I supposed to say?
My bland answer was met by a laugh from The One Above All. "Yes, you are quite right. It does indeed suck. Without us being able to interfere The One Below All will keep summoning up more universes to invade us and before long our world as we know it will come to an end."
He suddenly got more serious and stared directly into my eyes. It felt as though he was looking through me and sent shivers through my body.
"That is, unless we do something about it." He said, "I mentioned how your soul was compatible but not what it would be compatible for, right?"
"Dear god, you are going to sacrifice me in some ritual to gain your power back!" My eyes go wide as I point at the old man in a dramatic manner with a gasp. Sorry, I don't do well under pressure and tend to say something stupid.
"What? No!" His serious demeanor was broken as quickly as it appeared at my statement. "You are going to save us all. I along with beings like The Living Tribunal, Death and countless others have all sacrificed parts of our power to create something truly extraordinary to help fight back against The One Below All. A system."
The God finished his explanation as he narrowed his eyes at me, "We could just bind it to one of us, but we wouldn't be able to get the most out of it as none of us are fully compatible. Finding someone who could make full use of it has not been easy, but finally we discovered you, a perfect soul for the job."
I nod. "So you want to bind this system to me and then what? Have me go and fight the guy who is now the literal strongest guy in the universe or multiverse or whatever? Sounds like a solid plan."
"I may not be powerful, but I can still sense the sarcasm from you" The One Above All laughed. "And no, that's not the goal here, at least not the short term one. The system wouldn't grant you immediate power but, but instead the opportunity to grow stronger while you clear out these invaders. You will be sent to merge together with a suitable body on earth, where you will have plenty of opportunities to grow stronger and find allies to help you out. What do you say?"
"I don't think I have much of a choice here. From what Death told me I already died in my previous life as is evident by the fact that I am in her domain. I'm not really sure how the afterlife works, but if I get to have another go, then I don't see why I wouldn't take it." I shrug.
Surprisingly, I am not stressed about this in the least. I once heard a bomb defusal squad member say that his work was the least stressful one in the world. He either defuses the bomb and everything is fine, or he fails, and it is no longer his problem. I will approach this new life the same way. I either get stronger and survive or I fail, and it is no longer my problem.
"That's great to hear, boy." The One Above All says, "Before I send you off, do you want me to restore all your memories from your previous life? I don't know how much you remember right now, but surely they would come in use."
"If you can, could you just give me any information that would be useful like what I knew about fictiona- or I suppose other worlds like Marvel and leave out anything regarding my personal life and family? Bringing along that baggage and being sad about what was lost would probably only get me depressed." I request.
I was close to calling this a fictional world but considering I am here now that would mean it is real right? Are other universes from comics or anime also real somewhere, I wonder?
"I can do that for you, yes." The One Above All smiles at me and nods. "Now, then, I suppose that is everything. If you really need something from me or the others, then Galacta has been chosen as your system administrator, and she has ways to reach out to us. She will explain more about the system to you once you arrive in your new body. Bye bye and good luck now!"
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Author notes: Man, the last time I uploaded anything was back in… 2022.
If there are any who read Incomplete System in Marvel, I actually had about 40 chapters written ahead of time only for the files to get corrupted somehow, which kinda demotivated me. I've written a whole bunch of stuff both fanfic and original (totaling near 500k words) since then but got too much of a perfectionist attitude and never uploaded any of it.
Taking a different approach here and just uploading as I write, so I wouldn't stop myself from uploading and writing simply from the fact that it could be better.