I’ve Been Summoned...?

Sora didn't know that he would die today.

He didn't feel sadness. But he didn't feel happy, either. Just... nothing. When was the last time he ever felt something truly, other than emptiness and pain?

But he hoped that at least his death wasn't in vain, that in the end, the police arrested the man and the blonde woman was able to get away safely. That his life had one last bit of usefulness before the end. And this must be it.

As the cold water surged into his lungs, every single nerve ending in Sora's body was lit aflame, painful and excruciating.

He couldn't swim to the surface, his limbs were heavy like rocks, paralysed. He's pretty sure that the stab wound on his chest was fatal, too.

Sora could only watch helplessly as he sunk deeper, submerged in total darkness. Visions fade in and out through his eyes, ghosts of the past, memories of his early childhood.

It's pitiful, really, that in his entire 24 years of life on Earth he never had a single person he could call a friend.

People at the orphanage treated him like garbage, and some others on the sidelines purposely turned a blind eye because it was convenient. They didn't intervene with the abuse because they couldn't care less about what happened to him.

In the end, he could only fend for himself. Could only rely on himself. Sora was sick and tired of waiting for a saviour. Those don't exist.

He was never adopted, and at 18 he was kicked out of the orphanage. Sora happily left, feeling like things were looking up, now that he had more freedom… but those feelings didn't last long, and everything went downhill quickly afterwards.

Sora won't get into the details. Too many things happened, but the main one was when conned into a dead end job that paid the bare minimum wage to its employees, unable to leave because apparently it was mentioned in the 'contract' that he'd signed before he started that he had to work underneath the company for a set number of years.

It was utter bullsh*t, Sora fumed, searching his apartment for the document. He could've sworn that it never said anything about that.

Until… he found the one sentence. It was vague, ambiguous, and could easily be glossed over, and Sora was so angry at himself for not noticing it.

He felt cheated, as did many others. The company was very obviously scamming people, and though many had issued reports, no one was doing anything about it. And so Sora was stuck in a job that he hated.

He doesn't want to dwell on it anymore. He's dying, and yet all he can think about are his mistakes, his regrets. Were there any happy memories at all?

In fact, there were. And those were when Sora was heavily immersed in 'Moon Valour'.

Moon Valour was one of Sora's favourite VR games, and he played it whenever he went to the Internet cafe opposite his apartment.

He absolutely adored it, games were his escape, his asylum in another world, far away from the cold bitter truth of his reality.

Because in them, he could be who he wanted and do what he wanted, and especially the one thing he loved the most, he could be stronger.

People pushed him around and stepped all over him because Sora was weak, and had no presence.

But in games, he could reconstruct himself, give himself an entirely new identity. His in-game character would be more powerful than the real him. More confident than the real him will ever be.

The world inside Moon Valour was everything Sora longed for and more. What would it be like, he wondered, to live inside a world with magic? Where mythical beasts roamed the sky, a village town bustled with life and people setting off on their adventures, and everyday was filled with something new to explore and discover?

If such a place existed, then Sora wished more than anything, that he could go there.

Sora gazed up at the surface one more time before he closed his eyes, accepting his fate. He felt himself drifting away, consciousness fading, slipping underneath the veil of darkness.

*****

"Is he the one?" A velvety voice asked.

"I'm not sure, let me check his profile... Full name is Sora Arcane Regis, born on September 1st, aged 24… yep, he's the one they're asking for. And died right on time, too." A deep unknown voice supplied.

When Sora opened his eyes, he was confused. In front of him was the galaxy, vast and endless, and for a moment he was scared he'd float away into space if it weren't for the circle of golden light holding him down underneath his feet.

Where was he…? He swore that he had died drowning in a river, just now.

Sora turned to his left side curiously, seeing two figures dressed in long dark blue robes trimmed with gold, the clothing extremely similar to those ancient dynasty tv shows he'd used to watch.

The one on the left had silver hair tied up in a ponytail, feline-like eyes sparkling with intrigue. And the one on the right had emerald hair that reached their waist, features expressionless and apathetic.

They looked androgynous- Sora couldn't tell what gender they were, if they even had one. It was clear to see that they were otherworldly, a soft glow emitting from their figures, a slight shiny pearlescent shimmer to their pale skin.

Sora tilted his head. He had so many unanswered questions. First of all- who are they, and where is he?

"Ah! Hi there, Sora!" the silver haired being smiled upon noticing him staring at them. They walked up to the circle of gold light enthusiastically, and the green haired one just sighed.

"Your soul has been summoned. The Council of Gods is waiting for you. We're here to take you to them." They chirped.

Sora blinked.

...What?