Soul Shard Captor [BL] - Volume 1: Aris the Soother

Chapter 2 - My entire life is a lie!!!

And then, like a kettle that had reached a boiling point, the disembodied voice burst out, "I know, right?! Those stinky little humans stole every word that made sense and passed it off as their own!!"

What imposing atmosphere? The speaker's grand and aloof manner simply got fed to the dogs!!

The voice didn't even pause to take in a breath, only getting more agitated the more it spoke, "I clearly told them they should include plagiarism in the list of deathly sins, but noooo, 'Blackie, that is already included under theft' they said! And look at what happened! Just look!"

Noah indeed looked, but besides darkness... he couldn't see a thing. ╮(╯∀╰)╭

"And do you know what the worst thing about it is?!?"– the voice didn't wait for a response –"Apparently pilfering every word wasn't enough, they even added in a bunch of nonsense!! The Holy Scripture had been butchered!! Simply butchered beyond recognition!!!"

Noah's righteous indignation faltered, and suddenly he felt a bit bad for this unfortunate... deity?

He spoke up, "Uh... it... it isn't that bad? I'm sure that most people with a brain can tell the truth apart from the nonsense. I mean, no one stones non-virgins nowadays..." (; ﾟ 3ﾟ )~♪

The voice snorted derisively, obviously unconvinced yet unwilling to continue this undoubtedly painful topic. "Back to what I was saying, "– it cleared its throat –"As a worldborn, your soul and body have been included in our periodic scans, and due to the most recent results, we've decided to pick you up. As per regulations, we've sent you through a specialized procedure you worldborn call ascension"– the voice halted, then added under its breath –"...or was it rebirth?"

Apparently, the person it was directing the question to wasn't clear on the correct terminology either, because soon after, the voice continued, "Ahem, at any rate, you were intercepted midway through the procedure and brought here instead of sending you off to reincarnation."

Noah didn't quite understand who he was speaking to and what the mentioned scan was, but... "Wait, wait, wait, wait! Reincarnation?! Um, senior, you've got the wrong soul! This one is getting off at Haven!"

A heavy silence enveloped the empty space again, this time lasting even longer than the previous one.

"Uh... I don't know how to tell you this, but..."

Noah suddenly got a very bad feeling, "Is there something wrong with my soul?!"

"Heavens, no! Your soul is 100% perfect! Perfectly in line with what the Bureau has been looking for, that is," the voice refuted.

Having himself called perfect, ah, Noah felt a bit shy. (⁄ ⁄>⁄ ▽ ⁄<⁄ ⁄)

But his bashfulness didn't last long, for soon enough, he caught onto the point that he had previously missed, "The Bureau?"

Noah's limpid eyes narrowed, "Wait... you are not God! You... who exactly are you?", Noah looked around himself skeptically, as if he could see through the thick veil of darkness to the entity hiding within.

"My name is BLK-043, and I am a highly advanced artificial intelligence working for the World and Soul Management Bureau. You may call me Black."

Black didn't wait for Noah to respond, "Cradle, the world you used to live in, is but one small world among countless other worlds that exist in this multiverse, all of which are under our management.

"Well...we call them worlds, but they are more like universes, planes of existence, dimensions of space- ahem, what I'm trying to say is, the Bureau is the highest and most powerful organization in existence that manages all worlds and souls in the multiverse. We are the good guys in charge of rebirth, reincarnation, karmic retribution, stabilization of new worlds, preventing worlds from collapsing, and other tasks of utmost importance!"