Lucerna's Gift

Pure Imagination by Superhuman and Quigley was playing in the background, accompanied by Andrea and Leah's bickering, it was about how it was the latter's fault that we're late for our appointment at Mason's where we plan to stop by. The man was kind enough to prepare us some snacks for the whole trip.

I tried to not laugh at some of their hilarious remarks—which was hard to do, by the way—as I nod along to the song's beat.

A rush of something weird filled my stomach, as if my gut was screaming at me to stop Cheska from driving and pullover somewhere. But the thought of the warm beach made me I shrug it off, thinking of it as something irrelevant and watched the scenery outside the car window.

They suddenly involved me to their little arguement, as we passed the intersection and I was about to reason with them when a huge truck came charging at us. It completely crashed into my side, sending the van a few meters away from where we originally were.

Everything was in slow motion as we flew across the road. The metal was bent along with my bones, as shards of glass flew in front of me, some unfortunately pierced my face, causing long lines of red of appear. I was dumbstruck and didn't know what to do.

Their screams were muffled, but somehow, the music was still playing, as if adding to the chaotic atmosphere happening in front of my eyes.

I always imagined death to be very unpredictable and very unfamiliar, but I didn't know it would be this bitter, and so unfair. I had so much to do after summer, like graduate, get my college degree, land a job on some random and successful company, and maybe even buy a house nearby it.

The van finally stopped when half of its metal body is left hanging off a cliff, struggling to find balance as it rocked a bit from the littlest of movements, with a single branch from the side of the cliff to be the only thing that's keeping it from falling.

I instantly knew, that once that little branch breaks, the van along—with our paralyzed bodies—would fall into the spikey rocks beneath us.

'This can't be real, where's the emergency people? I'm gonna die of blood loss soon!' I thought bitterly, as the people around us kept their phones up as they recorded the whole accident. 'These idiots, why aren't they doing anything..?'

I lifted my head from the broken window and winced when the glass shards pierced my skin. I tried to open the car door and crawl out of the van. But my jeans got stop on some bend metal, I was stuck and it made me panic even more when the van suddenly shook. I wasn't able to take my broken leg out when the branch finally broke, letting the vehicle fall, dragging my body along with it.

I watch the bright sky came into view, my body came floating out of the van, with pieces of it and my friend's dead bodies flying around me as I mumbled, "I didn't even get to see the beach."

I should've already expected such a pathetic ending. My whole life after moving was pitch perfect. I got accepted into some prestigious college in the city despite my average grades, I got a house under my name at the age of 23—it was obvious that at some point, my life would end without me realising it.

The rock pierced my back, and as I took my last breath, resentment boiled deep within me.

I reopened my eyes with a loud gasp, sitting up as I greedily took in the air that seemed absent at first, but came after a while.

"You're awake." A loud voice echoed around me.

I looked around and saw nothing but floating table and chairs. It reminded me of the time Alice fell into the rabbit hole, the furniture floating upwards and some downwards, as if saying gravity is nothing but a joke.

I've always wanted to see it with my own eyes. But now that I'm actually seeing it, I'm not sure whether to be concerned or happy. Afterall, wasn't Alice a girl believed to be high of drugs?

"Am I dreaming? Is this some kind of dream that patients get while being stitched up in the surgery room?"

Of course I asked that, why? Because I have high hopes that an ambulance came just in time and miraculously revived me. And that's what you call wishful thinking.

"You are dead." The voice answered bluntly, as one of the chairs floated towards me and scooped me up, before going back to the table, the chair trying it's best not to let me fall.

"Was it the car crash that killed me?" I asked while looking around, trying to find the owner of the mysterious voice that wasn't feminine nor masculine, but something in between. It was beautiful and so puzzling. Just by simply hearing it filled my heart with anxiety and comfort at the same time.

"No. In fact, the human that owns the title of 'dooktar' announced that your cause of death was the rocks that ripped your body into tiny pieces of meat." They answered, as the warm floating things that were idling around flew towards the space in front of me, the same little orbs slowly formed into a person that looked nothing like man nor a woman, their body was formed starting from feet to head.

They floated towards me with an indescribable smile, "You must be shocked to hear such a ghastly death, especially since it's yours, right?" I stared at them with wide eyes.

I was confused yet enchanted by their appearance. The thoughts about my horrible death completely slipped through my mind, as interest towards this gorgeous being in front of me made me focus all my attention towards them.

"Who are you?—'What' are you??" I asked, almost taken aback as my eyes hardened, taking in every details of their face.

"I am a male god born out of stars that have reunited that was billions of eons ago. I am a being who is created in the middle of everything. I am perfection and flaw at the same time, and I am named Lucerna." He gave me a smile to which I only responded by absentmindedly clapping.

'Even if you're so gorgeous, aren't you totally overdoing it?'

"What a way to create a dramatic entrance." I mumbled, receiving a little chuckle from him, "It would be rude of me not to introduce myself after so here I go, I guess... I'm Zoe—"

"No, your name is Elena." He smiled. His interrupted made me scan his face, trying to look for any signs of playfulness but saw none.

"No, you see, my parents gave me that name. Zoë."

"And I gave you the name Elena. Deal with it you punk." He said, his smile resembling that of a cunning demon's before he suddenly changed the subject along with his expression.

"I informed you of the accident befor eit occurred, but seeing as you're here in front of me, I can only guess that you ignored my warning." Lucerna frowned as he took the chair in front of me, sitting on it before crossing his arms.

The words 'I'm disappointed in you.' could be seen written in a sign behind him with capitalized, glowing letters.

"Ahaha... You must be kidding, you mean you sent me that gut feeling?" I looked away from his intimidating eyes, repeating my ugly awkward laugh as I tried to escape from his scary glare.

"Yes. I had hoped to see you die of natural causes before sending you somewhere else, like you did in your previous lives."

"Send me... Send me somewhere else? And excuse me what do you mean by 'previous lives'?!?? How many did I have??" I looked back at him, shocked at what he just said, before he nods.

"Of course you wouldn't remember, I would erase your memories every time, so you could start from scratch... and to answer your other question, I had to pick souls that are compatible with alternate universes to destroy the nests of Acerbus's evil spawn. You have a weirdly shaped soul, almost like a goop that is moldable—which is really compatible with most of the universe that exist!" Admiration filled his eyes as he held his hands together.

'You basically admitted to me that I'm built different...'

Though, I'm not sure whether to feel honoured or not for my soul to be described as 'goop', I decided to ignore it and just tried to focus on what Lucerna had just said and asked, "Acerbus? Who's that guy?

"You'll meet him soon, I'm sure of it. Somehow, probably in one of your lives before the one you had in Earth, you managed to grab his attention and ever since then, Acerbus has been following you. I managed to help you get rid of him, but while we were busy playing god and hero, Acerbus had also been busying himself for the past few centuries, planting his children in different dimensions with a single goal in mind."

"What goal is that?"

"The only goal a being like him would ever get interested in; that is to corrupt the minds of those who are weak in faith and drag their souls down to Gehenna with him." His face darkned as he spoke, his voice slightly trembling, "Once he takes those souls, they will be unrecoverable until the end of time."

"Isn't there another way to solve that?"

"There is, but only one. That is to purify every single universe that exists. That takes a lot of effort, patience and most especially time." He explained, dragging a hand down his face. "That's why I said that they will be unrecoverable. Because until all of the souls there is to exist suddenly becomes clear of evil, they will be kept to suffer inside Acerbus's lair."

"I have another question. How am I not corrupted? I mean, out of all the people I know, I'm the one who has the least faith in almost everything."

"Ah, that would be the work of my protection spell that keeps you from being swallowed whole by Acerbus. Actually, your heart is under my protection, not every part of you."

I unconsciously placed a hand over the area where my heart is, "Protection huh?" I whispered to myself as I listen to my heartbeat that sounded similar to drums.

"So... Where am I being shipped off to?" I asked as I adjusted my position on the chair, my eyebrows raised as I tried to encourage him with a look.

"'Shipped off' is a strong word, I'd rather you call it 'be transmigrated into'. But to answer your question... Just know, that is something for you to know and for me to find out." He smiled before floating upwards, as a library that wasn't there before, suddenly revealed itself from bottom to up.

"This is... A library?" I mumbled in disbelief.

"The one and only, Oracle Athenaeum!" He spoke, pride flowing out his mouth as he looked at me with sparkling eyes that was so hard to escape from.

"Why does it exist?" I asked, slightly uninterested. I mean, I've seen too much libraries in my college life enough to get myself a headache just by hearing the word 'library' or anything associated with it, and I'm sure this won't be any different and I'll probably ignore it or something.

"This is a library that solely exist for one reason: that is to store every single universe."

My ears twitched, as the words 'store every single universe.' flowed right into my ears. Within seconds, I took back what I said and looked at Lucerna, returning the same enthusiastic eyes he showed me earlier.

"Go on, tell me more!" I exclaimed.

As a smile appeared on his smug little face, "Like I said, it's a library that acts as a storage for every single universe that exists. Somewhere in these shelves contains Earth, the previous universe you decided to pick. And like Earth, every single one was personally written by the gods who ruled before me."

I looked at him while I froze into place, as I fell into an awkward state I think I might never recover from, even in the far future.

"Um... Elena? I believe you have something to say?"

I blinked repeatedly as the interest for the library slowly died down, "Right, I don't know if you're gonna get mad. Don't get mad. But aren't these just fanfictions created by your ancestors about the same worlds, with little differences?"

We stared at each other, both wearing stiff smiles while probably thinking of the same thing: that I might be right.

"I didn't know you come from a long line of fanfic authors." I teased him, snickering as the smug smile on his face disappeared in a few seconds.

He slumped his shoulders before sitting on one of the pillows by the bookshelves while letting out a heavy sigh.

"I think you singlehandedly destroyed the image I have of my ancestors." He spoke, to which I responded with a single shrug, "I said what I said."

He looked up and pointed towards the rows of bookshelves, frowning as he stared at it. "Every book in the athenaeum is allowed to be touched apart from those with bronze plaques. For now, you can pick one book, and by absorbing it into your mind, you will be teleported inside the book you picked with a snap of my finger." He said.

I looked straight into the hallway of shelves with different heights and widths, as it looms over me while I try to see the end of it only for a white thick fog to hide the rest of it.

I looked up at Lucerna and asked, "You said the gods before you created some of these?"

"Most. I think about 98% of it, probably?"

"Uh huh... And how many did they create?" I asked, and I waited but he said nothing and only stared at me eerily. He blinked a few times before finally replying, "You'll also have to find that out by yourself."

I flinched, "This is definitely revenge..." I mumbled to myself before looking back at the hallway, letting out a deep sigh before I finally took my first step.

But before I could disappear completely into the rows of shelves, Lucerna shouted, "Ah, remember to look for silver plagues and silver only!"

I didn't know why I'm only allowed to touch the ones with silver plaques, but I decided to listen anyways, too scared and lazy to deal with the consequences that comes with the trouble of not listening.

"Bronze... Bronze... Oh that one's gold, and we're back to bronze... Again." I mumbled while wearing a disappointed look on my face as I looked at the bronze plaques.

'Lucerna told me to look for silver, but there's hardly any of it. I mean, I passed a few... but those worlds were either too explicit or too boring.' I thought. I suddenly shivered after I remembered the terrifying images that appeared inside the books, 'Whoever created those worlds must've been seriously suffering from severe loneliness.' I pursed my lips as I continued to the next shelf.

I was using my hand as guidance as I walked, quickly scanning the metal plaques, but froze when I saw a silver plaque just a few shelves ahead. I hastily walked towards it, and only beamed when I confirmed that it really is a silver plaque.

I opened the book with slight caution, and was relieved to see a picture of a woman holding a sword instead. "Et Non Morieris... What in the world does that mean? Ah who cares, let's just check its plot..." I mumbled as I flipped to the next page and gasped when I finally saw the moving pictures.

I started flipping through the pages, not even bothering to read the text and only focused on the pictures. I was only ⅕ into the book when I decided.

'I don't know what this world is about, but I want this one—!' my thoughts were interrupted when the book suddenly glowed, its light instantly blinding me, forcing me to close my eyes as I wait for it to fade away.