Chapter 2: The Tree of Knowledge 1/2

"Now, now young one. All will be ok."

I woke up to someone gently rubbing my head. I opened my eyes to see the strange woman from before who-

I did my best impersonation of a Dark Souls character in my mad scramble to roll away from the woman, "You! You! You!" I struggled to remember what happened before everything went to black, "Zhulong! You're th- the thing that brought me back-" The words died in my throat.

"Yes, I am the one who brought you back to life," she said with a pleasant tone, hands on her chest as though she were being flattered, "To be honest..." She tapped a finger on her chin, "It's...closer to your soul wearing a new James Hartford body. Much cleaner and quicker, you understand?"

I gritted my teeth at her vagueness and felt a massive headache coming on. The… 'geas' or whatever it was was still in effect, but I felt less Stepford-wives than before. I rubbed my face to try and somehow lessen the pain. It didn't help. I don't think anything can help with world-shattering revelations.

Gods, servants, death, afterlife. All that could eat a dick...

"Alright, alright. I... died, and you're some sort of, what I assume is a god of some kind. I'm not in the original...me, just in a copy," I stopped rubbing my face and opened my eyes, "And you're going...going…holy shit."

My mouth dropped as I looked around me. I was inside the massive tree from before. If anything, the outside did not do this thing justice. It was truly titanic. I mean, I couldn't even see the ceiling. It was pitch black and endless.

A large fireplace nearby tried and failed to illuminate the damn thing. The area we were in was equally enormous. Staring up I could see staircases and doors dotting the interior of the giant tree. Animals were bounding around, looking down...Her home probably held dozens, if not hundreds of rooms, which spoke to how awe-inspiringly huge this thing was. It was like being inside The Great Deku Tree, but scaled up to the size of a skyscraper. A small missile could fly into this thing and I bet we'd only feel a slight jolt.

"Like my home?" she said, again, in an annoyingly pleasant tone. I was starting to get the impression that she didn't get much company.

"Yeah..yeah, it's giant- Back to the goddess in the tree. What do you need me for?! I'm just a bum from Detroit trying to get his degree! Not that I don't appreciate being...well, I don't know, cloned? Revived?! Regardless of what I am, you don't do that without some big reason!" I finished with a triumphant pointing of my index finger.

"Hoho, don't flatter yourself. I already explained that you are to be my brother's servant. As for why you were selected, well, anyone could have been selected with my power. I just picked certain criteria." She snapped her fingers and a clipboard suddenly appeared in front of her, "James Hartford. Age: 28?"

She looked past her clipboard to me with an incredulous look, which stayed on me for a moment. A long moment...she then started squinting at me. I groaned. What is this, a job interview?

"Haha, very funny. I look young, I get it!" Much to my frustration, I've been told countless times I don't look a day over 18. It's been a struggle to get into bars, let alone get some respect. It's hard to be taken seriously as an adult when you look like some kid.

"Remarkable! You look so young! Many a person would kill to have your youthfulness. Continuing! Personality: Quiet, reserved, and independent. Notable ability to attract people, yet consistently pushes people away due to trust issues. Athletic abilities: Average to above average at best, though wasted due to neglect. Intelligence: Highly intelligent, but lacks the confidence to fully utilize it to its maximum potential. High capability in problem-solving, with a knack for unorthodox solutions. Major self-esteem issues, though capable of-"

"Alright, enough. What am I, a trading card? Are you going to read back my whole life story?"

A smirk came across her face, "Oh, but it is such a tragic tale! Of loss, perseverance and overcoming the odds! A true und-"

"Shut up! Just get to the point!" I roared out. She could kill me and torture me all she wants, but I wasn't about to let anyone mock my life.

"Oh, very well," the clipboard disappeared from her hand, "The reason you were chosen to serve my brother are three."

She held out a hand and counted, "First, you are intelligent...enough. Second, your, well, oh so tragic background gives you the will and tenacity to survive. Even now, under my control, in my domain of power, you are trying to decide a way to overcome it. I can see it in your eyes. Truly the story of your pitiful life," she said the last part as casually someone commenting on the weather. Somehow that made it more insulting than if she had insulted me intentionally.

I thought up a hundred insults for the witch. Thank god I managed to get her to stop reading my mind.

"Third and last: you are dead." I waited a moment for her to continue, but as that moment stretched past a minute I realized she wasn't going to continue.

"Wait, seriously? Intelligence, will to survive, and death? You could find countless people with that type of checklist, both good and bad!" My brain couldn't comprehend how...stupid the criteria was.

Zhulong rolled her eyes and spoke slowly, as though I were a child, "You aren't the first person selected for this and I doubt you will be the last. Trust me when I say I am doing this for a reason. You have potential, that is all that matters."

"This is insane! You're supposed to be a god!? You pick your agents by random! Why don't you get a special forces soldier or Conor McGregor or-or anyone qualified!"

All I could do was shake my head in sheer disbelief at what I was hearing.

Her eyes flashed dangerously, literally, as her eyes flickered a brighter green, "Careful, boy. Or I will remove my geas again and you will be shaking in a puddle once more," At that I backed down. I guess she didn't like to be questioned. She would follow through with her threat if pushed too far. The geas was the only thing keeping me level-headed enough not to blabber like a fool. Or even talk back as I was. It was easy to see she was the type that liked to be in charge and have the upper hand.

Alright, time to use that to my advantage.

I bowed and spoke, "I'm sorry. I should not have spoken to you like that, Lady Zhulong." I was humoring her, but I did my damn best to seem sincere. Well, it wasn't completely an act.

If I pissed her off too much, well, I didn't want to know what more she could do to me. I had a second chance at life (as much as my head was spinning at that idea) and I wasn't going to lose it.

Lady Zhulong gave me a scrutinizing look, the type a teacher gives to a troublesome student who promises to stop misbehaving.

"I do not believe you are sincere, but I will still accept your apology."

I nodded and spoke with business in my voice, "So, I was chosen with those three criteria in mind, correct? If that's the case, what is it that you would want me to accomplish?"

The smuggest smile I ever glimpsed slowly spread across her face.

"Finally understanding your position? You are slower than most to accept your station, but it is always good to see someone realize their place in the grand scheme of things..."

Yeah, yeah. Sure. You can think what you want, lady. I had a few things running through my mind, one was how to escape my shitty predicament. Or, at least bring about a better outcome. I rather not be a slave to some strange god lady or her brother. I had to endure it until an opportunity presented itself.

Let the game begin.

I smiled, "Then please, if you may answer my question. I believe someone of your importance has better things to do than to talk to someone as lowly as me?" I cast the line…

She smiled, sitting up a little more straight from where she was resting. The so-called goddess than decided to levitate about three feet into the air, a luxurious chair suddenly materializing below her. She did the same to me without any forewarning on her part, forcing an embarrassing yelp from me. She giggled.

"You are quite the little manipulator. Somewhat effective, if crude. Make note that such transparent methods will not work in the 'field'. So to speak," I groaned. Time to change tactics.

"Alright, you got me. Look, can you at least see it from my perspective? My whole life has been upended! I'm sitting in a gigantic tree like a Keebler elf! I'm talking to a goddess who keeps messing with me! I just really, really want to be safe..." I said with an exhausted honesty.

She stared at me for a long moment. Mad eyes were replaced by sympathetic ones. She looked at her hands and, for the first moment in my crazy time here, she resembled a regular person. One with all the fears, pressures, and uncertainties anyone would or could have. She looked vulnerable.

But before I could comment on it, it was gone. As well as the mercurial woman I was dealing with since I've arrived. She, no, Lady Zhulong the Healer stared at me with all the authority and intensity a deity of her power and station should and does have. Even with the geas' calming effects pumping through my mind... I felt tiny and nervous.

Is this what it's like to meet true power?

"I am sorry for your treatment, as well as my erratic behavior. I... am not myself. From now on I will treat you properly. As I have stated before, you are not the first person; but I hope you will be the last. You see, existence is far vaster than you or any human from your world understands."

She cast her hands forward and balls of light spread out like comets flying through space. The amorphous glowing orbs swirled and rotated until they finally took shape. In front of me appeared a cosmos that looked so real I was afraid I would destroy them with the slightest touch. As I peered closer, I noticed they didn't look like planets or stars. They resembled soap bubbles, but luminous and pulsating with power.

"What you are seeing is a tiny slice of the All. You may know it as the Multiverse, but Omniverse would be more accurate. You are in but one universe in an ever-growing sea of infinite."

I could only stare in awe as the room around us disappeared as darkness swallowed us, only illuminated by the ever-expanding sea of universes. It was as though I was flying through a dark ocean filled with bioluminescent bacteria. We zoomed past bubbles that grew larger and larger. So massive I couldn't even appropriately describe it; only for them to just as quickly zoom past and shrink into infinitesimal dots and, ultimately, disappear back into the darkness. The scale of what I was seeing was making my mind malfunction.

It's one thing to read in comic books about multiverses, but to know there is one? To really and truly experience it?

Overflow Error: brain can not compute.

Zhulong must've noticed my discomfort as we slowed down to a stop. The universes shrinking to the size of bubbles again instead of planet-sized spheres. They looked like clouds of fireflies on a dark summer night.

"My duty as the Healer, as given to me by my father, is to ensure the continued existence of the All. This may sound counter-intuitive, but universes can be alive, inanimate, and all things in between. I must ensure that All stays alive and safe."

"Wait, hold up. That's impossible! It's infinite, all of this is infinite! How could anything even destroy the multiverse, omniverse, whatever?!" I waved an arm at the floating universes.

"There are creatures that roam the All, seeking power. Some are simple animals: of little intelligence, but exceeding strength..." What sounded like the loudest foghorn of all time suddenly smashed into my ears, and probably the biggest thing I will ever have the misfortune of seeing suddenly ate clouds of universes away. Its body was so big, it just stretched on and on. There wasn't an end in sight. We weren't even ants to this thing. But the worst was... I-I couldn't comprehend it.

No, I literally couldn't see or understand how it looked. It reminded me of the Four Eyes illusion, where a person's mind can't reconcile what it's staring at. I could only approximate its form to be that of a giant, demonic space(multiverse?!) whale with spider-like features. Just fucking devouring cloud after cloud of universes.

I didn't lose it at seeing the thing eat so many universes like a humpback eating krill. Not the knowledge that a universe which could hold countless intelligent life was nothing, nothing, in the face of this thing. Nor that my existence amounted to nothing in the grand scheme of things...

No, it was that this was a tiny one, and I heard an even bigger one coming up behind. And it sounded massive compared to the creature I was doing my damn best to comprehend. My stomach dropped when I realized that a mouth so vast words fail to do it justice was slowly closing around, well, everything. Pitch black darkness engulfed everything.

Then a sound that made the first creature's cry seem modest by comparison hit my entire body. All I could do was squeeze my hands to my ears in a vain attempt to block out the noise that rippled through my body. I screamed in pain, the vibrations shaking me down to the atoms.

It felt like I was dissolving away...

A monstrous creature that ate clouds of universes was a mere guppy to the titanic thing that ate everything.

The next thing I remember was convulsing on the floor. How many beings did I see die? Did they even know they died? Was it painless, drawn-out, or somehow worse? I wanted to scream at the madness of it all. What was I supposed to do in a playground where I wasn't even as powerful as the atoms that composed a gnat? Madness crept into my mind. This was insane. This was not real! I don't want it to be real!

A soft hand gently rubbed my head.

"I'm sorry. You wished for the truth. I was just...I have not spoken to a mortal in a long time. I had forgotten that... you were not ready..."

As my body spasmed uncontrollably, I looked up at the goddess. Her eyes held a sea of sadness.

And a glimmer of hope.

"I hope you succeed, James Hartford."

That was the last thing I heard before everything faded to black...again.

I woke up on something soft. I hoped to god it was my bed. Or a hospital bed. Hell, even the couch at my job's break room would be wonderful. Anything to confirm everything I experienced was just a dream.

The lights were off and it was dark, but lights from outside filtered into through the window. My stomach sank as I sat up to find I was in an exquisite, luxurious room. I was resting on a bed that, by how large it was and how soft the sheets felt, was way too expensive for me. The walls were a nice vanilla color and the room was decorated with furniture that made the room feel rich, if bare and unlived in. The kind of room you'd find in an expensive hotel. Or, well, I assume they'd have given how I've never stayed in one.

I felt tired and lethargic. That kind of feeling that signals you're coming down with a cold. Crawling out of bed with all the energy and speed of a snail, I decided I needed a stretch. You know what they say: keep nice and limber to avoid complete and total mental collapse. Hands to the floor, legs straight. Stretch my hamstrings. Good, now my calves. I continued until my muscles were loose.

The door suddenly opened, prompting me to grab a lamp nearby and hold it like a weapon. It was heavy and sturdy enough to do some damage. A hand slowly came through the darkness, between the crack of the door.

The hand suddenly switched on the light, blinding me and causing me to yell. I threw the lamp as hard as I could in the direction of the door.

As the light blindness subsided, I saw a woman in her mid-forties and the biggest man I had ever fucking seen at the door. Tall. So tall. He was taller than the door and made the giant room feel smaller by comparison...

The lamp laid easily in his massive hands, fingers tightly wrapped around the base. It was super obvious he was strong: he had more muscle than any bodybuilder ever, period. On the other hand, seeing him nonchalantly palming a lamp (that had to weigh at least five to six pounds[2.26-2.72 kg]) like an NBA player handling a basketball was just as threatening.

Yet, I noticed the bear of a man was gentle enough not to damage the lamp in his giant paws.

The man spoke with a deep, booming voice, "My, my, we usually start introductions with our names. Not lamp throwing."

I could only stare dumbly at the man in front of me, contemplating all the ways he could kill me from his strength alone. His forearms were as big as my head. His arms were bigger than my torso. He was wider than two doors put together. I threw a lamp at a man who could tear me in two as casually as the average person could tear a piece of paper.

But... everything was offset by his calm face: tranquil and indifferent blue eyes stared back at me. He had dark blonde curly hair and a large mustache that hid his mouth. I didn't and couldn't hide his massive jaw and a neck that looked better suited on at the base of an oak tree. I'm repeating myself, but I've never seen someone so big and muscular in my entire life. It terrified me.

The man was wearing loose clothing. That man could only wear loose clothes. A red sleeveless shirt and gray cloth pants with brown boots. A belt buckle with a large 'D' was worn around his waist.

He looked amused at my actions, while the woman looked disdainfully. She had sharp features and reddish-brown hair that made her head look vaguely triangle-shaped. Her eyes were a greenish color. She looked Caucasian, but her hair color wasn't any red or brown that was natural, more maroon. Must be dyed. Her face held wrinkles that indicated, in general, she was probably a stern person. Her eyes and stare were like steel.

Not a person to be messed with. That and her crossed arms and a cocked eyebrow.

The woman was tiny, especially compared to Big McLarge-Huge, but her clothing was all business. She wore a black-green suit that cut an imposing figure on her short stature. Somehow the suit showed off her figure, a figure that the word 'Olympian' failed to do justice.

She tapped her fingers on her arm as she spoke, "I understand you've been under some stress these few hours, but I'd have expected more from someone chosen by our dear Lady."

Something snapped inside of me. The fear of the giant disappeared with her casual dismissal of my situation.

"Oh! I'm sorry! Let me start over then! My name is James fucking Hartford! I have died, was cloned, mindfucked, and generally have been screwed with all fucking-" I grasped at a time frame and fell short, "however long, fucking it's-! God damn it!" I turned around and kicked nightstand next to my bed with all the impotent fury of someone who was literally a god's plaything. I acted and felt like a petulant child, but I think I more than deserved some anger at this point.

I closed my eyes and felt myself shaking. In and out. Breath deeply. I repeated the mantra I made for myself: Control yourself and control the world.

After a few moments, I calmed down and opened my eyes. I turned around to see the man was observing me with hard eyes, but there was concern and pity in those eyes. As well as...something else I didn't like. The woman looked as though this was all beneath her.

"Now that you're done having a temper tantrum, we can begin. Mayer, I think we'll be fine for now. Please wait outside."

The giant named Mayer nodded and left the room, as he did I noted that he had a hitch in his step and his right hand was grotesquely curled.

I grabbed a chair next to a small table that was across the room and sat down. I didn't bother to offer the woman a seat, "Ok. Go."

"No questions? No resistance? The way you acted now and from the way Lady Zhulong spoke, I'd have thought you to cause more trouble."

I answered with a bitter sigh, "Why the fuck bother? Every time I've asked a question I've been fucked with in some way. Or if I wasn't, the answers fucked me up. And I'm smart enough to realize my situation and the futility of putting up a fight: if you don't have some weird, bullshit superpowers; well, the guy outside could snap me in half like a toothpick," I rubbed my face in frustration, "Besides, I didn't cause any trouble with her. She was the one messing with me."

The small frown and nod she returned gave seem to indicate that the goddess probably did this a lot, "Hmm. That's fair. Still, you're taking this differently than I expected. You're...much more accepting of your situation than most would. Your report stated you would be more...distrusting and quiet."

I growled, "Oooh, ho, ho, ho... believe me. I don't trust you guys, and a person can only take so much until he can't stay quiet anymore."

For a minute there was tense silence. It only broke when I sighed like a deflating balloon. I felt tired, so fucking tired and sick, "I'm gonna' be honest: I'm angry, scared, and a thousand other emotions right now. I think coming down with a cold too. But, my life hadn't gone how I wanted it, and I'm not all too surprised my second life is turning out to be as unpredictable and uncontrollable as my first. However...you seem far more normal and reasonable than the 'Healer'."

I looked down and thought of the words Pedro told me the night I died. I chuckled at the insanity of it all, it felt like years had passed in only a few hours. He told me I needed to be confident. I needed to take control of my life. Now that I had a second chance, that advice applied now more than ever.

Zhulong herself said I had potential... whatever that meant. Even if her decision to pick me was as random as picking a name out of a hat.

I lifted my head and stared her into eyes. They were as green as grass, the same color as the mark on my hand. She stared back with an analyzing, searching look; as though she came unprepared for this and was calculating the correct response. I let her off easy by speaking first, "So, I guess I introduced myself. Who are you?"

She nodded and began her introduction," My name is Evira. You have been entrusted to me for training. Therefore, it is my responsibility to explain that this world is unlike yours in many, many ways."

I sat up straight, not surprised at the news but still concerned, "Right now we reside in the city of Yorknew City, located in the United States of Saherta. Before you start, yes, I understand this is all strange. The names I just described might sound like gibberish. Don't worry, you'll be given more details tomorrow morning. For now, just sleep. It's ten at night and you need a full night's rest for tomorrow."

Evira turned around and grabbed the door handle, but she lingered for a moment. Before I could ask what was wrong she spoke, "I'm sorry you had to go through this. Just know I will do everything in my power to make sure you succeed. Sleep well."

After that, she left.

I sat in my chair thinking about everything that was happening to me. Everything I knew, everything I didn't know. All the fear, the uncertainty, the frustrations that were inside me.

I was terrified.