Chapter 1: Eternity and the End

"You have defied my will, and what have you to show for it? You have strayed from the Ten Commandments, so far as to kill, to dishonor mother and father, to steal, to covet, to bear false witness, to forget the Sabbath day, and take the Lord's name in vain. I will not let someone like you continue to reincarnate. Goodbye, my child."

"May you forever feel loneliness in the void, for all of Eternity and more."

Well, he wasn't kidding about the void, at least. Pure nothing, a complete darkness with a slight dash of purple as far as I can see fills my vision. My ears, though I haven't been able to confirm they still exist, hear a sound almost akin to water around a submarine deep in the sea, yet I feel nothing except the lack of even air.

Those last words of that bastard still rang in my ears, despite my recollection of my last moments being nothing but incessant ringing. While I can't say I didn't defy them on purpose, if he hadn't sent me to war, I wouldn't have had to break them. Some of those couldn't even be considered true, and the rest were against my own will. And for that, I'm cast out of the cycle, to "forever feel loneliness," as Being X said, in this endless void.

I couldn't even feel the flow of my mana anymore, as if this place serves to crush any and all hope of returning to the cycle of reincarnation and getting that peaceful life I so desire. And with that thought, a few long standing questions of mine have been answered. Being X really is the Devil, and this is Hell.

So much for Hell not existing, I thought. Well, not with the fire and brimstone I was expecting.

At that thought, I saw the purple in the void twist into small sparks around me, flowing towards me, rapidly gathering around me and circling me like gnats. The sparks grew in number, slowly filling my vision and silencing the pressure around me with constant ethereal noise. Reflexively, I raised my arms in front of my face, shutting my eyes and-

I am not alone in this void. Thousands of pairs of purple eyes snap to me, then they vanish with the roar of-

And then it stopped.

I heard the sounds of the sea, lapping against the beach, and I feel sand against my knees. I smell it as well, reminding me of the shores of Francois, yet also of a distant memory of my childhood in Japan.

"...What?" I mutter, slowly lowering my arms and opening my eyes, and then raising them back up again as soon as the light hits my eyes. When the light fades, I don't see the void anymore. Instead, I'm on some sandbar stretching out from the beach behind me, while I faced out towards the sea. Close to the beach, I see a forest, the wind swaying the surprisingly small trees in the wind.

Once the shock finally recedes, I realized I hadn't looked down at all yet. To my… mixed feelings, I appear to still have my old body and uniform. The wounds were gone, I felt as clean as I was when I had to meet the Kaiser once, and my uniform, for once, felt comfortable. Yet, things were… different. For one, I was, for lack of a better term, larger.

The ever-so-soft skin of childhood was gone for the feeling of smooth, matured skin, yet without a crease in sight. No blemishes or scars, not that I ever got them with how well Imperial medical mages worked, aside from a few former exceptions. Somehow my hair was already tied back, but it was slightly longer than it was before. And still, my mana is choked. But I can feel it now, and can even run a few mental enhancements in my head. My uniform seems to have changed too.

My uniform did not have my real rank, instead placing me as a Brigadier General instead of a Lieutenant Colonel, and it was several sizes larger than my own custom-tailored outfit, otherwise it wouldn't have even fit. One of my medals, the Silver Wings with Oak Leaves, of course, was pinned to my chest, which…

Why did I never bother to learn cup sizes before I needed to? I thought, before banishing said thought and standing up. With literally nothing but the clothes on my back, there wasn't much else to do but… survive, I suppose? I can't see a single hint of civilization anywhere, and I haven't heard anything from Being X ever since he threw me into that void. Was he responsible?

…No, he may be an incompetent, hypocritical bastard of a middle manager, but he usually doesn't go back on his word. Regardless, there's not a hint of other life here besides the forest, so I can't rely on old tactics. I began to walk towards the forest, when I felt something watching. My eyes flicked across the trees, briefly spotting a figure with purple eyes-

Cast out by their God, they will never know true life again. Immortality once celebrated, now a curse. Ancient sins long forgotten by both God and those who came after. Silence, disturbed by a-

I saw nothing in the trees, continuing to walk towards the… Wait.

There definitely was something there. Obviously it's not now, but I remember seeing something there. Some kind of black figure, taller than I am, with purple eyes. I suppose that's technically life, if this body doesn't also have some hallucinations to go with the sudden maturity. Assuming it's… No, human might not be the exact word. If it was sentient, it clearly wanted nothing to do with me. If it was nothing but a trick of the eyes, then I should see a doctor as soon as civilization is found.

Back to the task at hand, I knew I needed to find food, so by looking around, I saw… Literally only two species of tree, grass, and a bunch of flowers. Oh, dandelions! That's… technically edible. Not really food though. Looking closely, I realized I couldn't even notice any insects. So, unless I peel into the trees and eat the bark- which might actually be more filling than dandelions, now that I think about it- I have no food.

Great, I think to myself, Simply wonderful, Being X. Making me eat tree bark of all things? With an untrustworthy, hallucinating body? I take back what I said earlier. You do go back on your word.

My fist curled up in anger, slamming into the oak tree in front of me.

I'm stuck in some forest I can't even place on a map, possibly followed by shadow creatures, and I don't even have a single bit of food to eat! This forest is incredibly quiet, now that I think about it. So there's not even anything I could kill!

Again and again, I threw my anger at the tree in front of me, the trunk cracking apart bit by bit as I did so.

If you just wanted me to suffer, you didn't have to throw me into, for all I know, Prehistoric North America! I would've actually preferred the flames of Hell to this! Have you any notions of what punishment actually is in proper economic terms!? If you're truly what you claim to be, which you sure aren't, you would've been able to actually get RID OF ME! INSTEAD OF PLAYING THESE SICK!

Crack.

TWISTED!

CRACK.

GAMES!

CRAAACK!!

The tree broke apart, shattering into pieces, forcing me out of my rage and making me take a step back.

I… lost myself there. Lost control. That… He's winning already, isn't he? He's taking glee in this, watching me break apart without him even being here! Why doesn't he-

Cast out by their God-

…Oh.

Before I can continue diving deeper into my own thoughts, I looked at the tree again. Or, well, the two halves of a tree. Somehow, the top half was just floating in the air, as if gravity wasn't a thing, which I had to confirm does still exist by jumping for a second. It only occurred to me that the part of the tree that's missing isn't anywhere on the ground, not even the shattered scraps from the last punch. And there's something in my hand.

Typically, when one claims they can shrink an object down to a smaller size, even a meter-wide tree log, they're making things up. Or they're in some magical (in the truest sense of the word, and absolutely fucking not divine) fiction setting, perhaps some technology might be involved. Yet in my hand is the exact same log I was punching, somehow cut at the exact height that was missing from the tree. And, notably, completely intact.

"How did… I saw it shatter, so how…" I tried to voice some sort of concern, some semblance of my thoughts on the matter, and yet nothing came out. There was simply no possible explanation for this. This… was a trick of the eyes again, just another hallucination. There's no other logical explanation, unless…

"Different world, different rules…"

It should be obvious to me at this point, after all, this is the third(?) world I've been reincarnated into. With that out of the way, I had to confirm if what had happened was just a hallucination, and after some more punching, another meter-tall section was removed from the top half of the tree and somehow shrank down into a size small enough to fit in my hand- and also merge with the other log entirely. Definitely magical in nature, then.

So, I don't have my mana, but instead I have reality-altering, physics defying abilities. Does it transfer over to other material? What are the restrictions? What can I even do with a bunch of logs?

Wooden Planks, Wood, and sticks, excepting items forgotten, not able to be constructed with present grids, and/or not yet discovered. Additional constructions made of logs may be done by other means.

"...I'm definitely losing my mind."

Alright, adding "mysteriously self-implanting knowledge of varying reliability" to the list of new, strange abilities. Though, the fact that it mentioned "present grids" is interesting. Is that related to how I'm supposed to "construct" these items? Besides, what can planks even be worth in this case? Where would I get the equipment to turn these logs into wooden pl- Oh?

I opened my hand that held the logs, expecting them to be the exact same logs I had just moments ago, only to be met with a cubic meter's worth of wooden planks. Scratch that, a cubic meter of wooden planks that hold eight times that amount at once. And not a log in sight. So that's what it means by construction, I can simply modify existence at will. Hell, this shouldn't even be possible, since I quadrupled the amount of wood I initially had, so-

Wait.

…No, he can't be involved in this. This is… something else. Yes, he's gone. He's the one who cast me out. Being X is not here. I am alone here.

…I am alone.