Eccentric Wizard

Chapter 1: Prologue (New)

Beta read by Shigiya and DOOMRAIDER.

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Whoever said that the afterlife is a peaceful haven, filled with everything we could ever desire was a bloody liar.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGHHH!!!!"

The pain filled screeches reached my ears, the sound of my neighbor, a soul who once used to be a guy called Henry. From the stories he used to tell me back when he was sane, the man was a World War 1 foot soldier who died while fighting in the battle of Verdun.

Great guy, really swell… that was only if we ignored his past, the many instants of rapes he committed back when he stood amongst the living. 

"Have you any more stories to tell me? Crimes you wish to confess, people you wish to see again, any aspiring goals and an excuse why you ended up condemned for eternity here?" I asked the guy's soul beside me, burning in what I assumed was hellfire but couldn't confirm it. There was no brimstone, lava lake, and a red-skinned guy carrying a pitchfork walking around poking us in the ass. "It's not every day I get to talk to someone from such an old time period. People like you tend to have lots to tell, though I guess that's normal considering your history."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGHHH, MAKE IT STOP!!! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP…" 

He continued to scream from the pain, the very fact that his existence was being turned to ashes was torment far surpassing anything he could have experienced in the past. 

I used to feel sorry for people like him, despite their crimes and failing… a part of me used to abhor what they were about to go through soon. But now, I felt nothing having seen it happen hundreds of not thousands of times. Seeing myself become detached to these occurrences was in itself a bone chilling realization.

My sanity itself was no longer what it used to be.

"Nothing, huh? Well, damn, Henry, you're gonna kill me with boredom here, and it's considered rude to not answer someone's question. If you're in pain… just stop burning, mate, Hahahahahaha!" 

Tethering on the brink of insanity, feeling myself becoming crazy became a reality I was forced to accept. 

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Now for why I floated beside this guy, sharing the same fate of being stuck in this black void for who knew how long… I had no clue as well. I wasn't a criminal, a tyrant or even an evil scientist sentenced to burn in hellfire.

"I don't even know if this is hell or something else." 

Basically, I was a long-time resident in this dark void. Hell, Underworld, Niflheim or whatever you wanted to call it, I have been here for a very long time.

Every few years, someone would come by, like Henry here. At first, they would be fine, and even talk normally to me, have a conversation about our past lives—bits and pieces of my life, that is, if I was in the mood for it—and continue bonding. And indeed, the soul that came would slowly go insane with time and, for some unknown reasons, begin burning with a hellish blue flame.

I remembered when I first saw this, terror flooded my being. Thought about how I would be the next to be burned alive by the demonic-looking flames.

Fortunately, it never happened.

As to why I was left unharmed, I stopped questioning it after a few hundred people got burned afterward.