"What would you do if I were to let you start over?"
A black haired boy perched on his deathbed.
An ancient-eyed stranger, his back sprouting wings — dark feathers ruffled, twisted, and beautiful. But somehow wrong.
"Who..." he rasped, incense twisting his nose.
"That's not important," the kid put a cold palm on his heaving chest. "Call me Lu. So? What?"
What indeed.
He was too far gone to question his sanity or who Lu was. An angel or the Grim Reaper, it mattered little; he was going to die anyway. Only the question echoed in his mind.
What exactly?
He wouldn't have dropped out of school. He'd been careful not to injure himself. It wasn't worth becoming a prisoner of his dead-end job either. Why did he have to die alone?
Well, he wasn't alone. Not now.
"I would... Never rely... On anyone." Words came out like choked whispers.
"Hmm," Lu pondered, pulling back. "A bitter takeaway from your life. Do you regret relying on that girl, too? The one who made you run away from home?"
Violent, wet coughs shook his body, almost ripping his lungs as he remembered.
He was only fifteen back then, the girl a little older, already living on her own. Hair like fire and freckles for days — they say, gingers collect souls and wear them on their faces.
She must've gathered many.
They broke up mere months later, and he always wondered if his soul ended up the same.
It must have been, because he never fell in love again.
"So romantic," Lu chuckled, no longer waiting for the answer. "But you didn't go crawling back to your parents, I respect that."
Another coughing fit. He burned that bridge, and many others, working himself ragged, in construction instead. A wrong step, and his spine never completely recovered.
The angel shivered, as if joy sent sparks through his wings, but it only lasted a second.
"I should've been a better Guardian," Lu sighed. "But things got hectic. You worked hard, too."
That he did. Thirty years at a logistics company's desk. A nameless pawn, whom they never acknowledged, and fired when the pandemic hit.
And of course, he got sick.
One week — that's how long his savings lasted. Another, and he was stuck in bed, drowning in his fluids. When was the last point he could still fix things?
"I'm sorry, but even I can't turn back time." Lu shook his head, as if reading his thoughts. "But I can offer you a second chance."
With a wave, he opened a portal on the wall.
Blinding white clouds with sweet scent echoed with laughter. "The best goes to Heaven." Dark and red shadows swirled until a fiery pit of suffering formed. "Evil ends up in Hell."
Lu paused, ominous. The fires disappeared, giving place to... Nothing.
"Well, most go to the Purgatory. Like you, having no impact on the world whatsoever."
An infinite void stretched beyond the portal.
"In many lifetimes, you forget, and are reborn with a purified soul," he explained. "But alas, what stops you from making the same mistakes again? To remain unremarkable?"
He couldn't answer. His painful and lonely journey flashed through his mind.
"Indeed, to avoid that, I offer three things," the angel nodded, counting on his fingers. "One, you keep your memories. Two, you can pick where to be reborn. A world far more advanced?"
He remembered endless hours working on computers. He had had enough of that for many lifetimes. Eyes pleading, he shook his head.
"All right, no modern tech," Lu chuckled. "How about magic? A world built on ancient beliefs? Monsters, and princesses to save from them?"
That didn't sound half bad. Something heroic, something different.
"Okay then, third," he paused again, looking deep into his eyes. "How do you want to live that life? I'll grant you one more wish. Do you want to be rich? Famous? Immortal? Choose."
He never experienced either, as good as they seemed — but no.
Fifty years on Earth taught him that nothing lasted forever. He was always a plaything for the circumstances, of girls, of corrupt bosses, of events, of sickness. Now he was alone in his room.
Well, almost. Why start over, if it were to happen again?
Gathering all his strength and the remaining air, he squeezed out six words.
"I want... To be... In control."
Lu raised an eyebrow, putting his dying wishes into words with dreadful precision.
"To be in a position where others must obey? Freedom from weakness? That is no small task, I said one wish." The angel shook his head, but then his eyes went wide with another jolt.
Right when he thought of revenge.
Of starting a harem, of turning the tables on the bullies, of people in power, showing them how it felt to be at the bottom. He wanted to become the worst tyrant imaginable.
To rule with an iron fist. To become untouchable. Strong.
Making others suffer in his stead. To give back all that he endured. No noble thoughts at that moment — a lifetime's worth of anger and desperation nestled in his mind.
And reading all that, the boy's face distorted into an eerie grin.
A laughter echoed in the abandoned room, hollow and cold in the smell of sickness.
"No promises," he chuckled, "but you can be in control."
And with that, a new portal opened, swirling with colors. A tiny, broken crystal pulsed white and blue, illuminating a dirt floor and cold stone walls.
Pain took over when he noticed a silhouette writhing in the dirt. As if laboring, she struggled and cried, all alone. As he squeezed his eyes shut, his last coughs felt almost liberating.
His decaying body was below him now — the rift called for his soul alone.
The shift was jarring.
Darkness, light, and the scream of a newborn — his voice, as clean air filled his lungs after so long. His eyes couldn't focus, voices blurred together, his old body cast aside for good.
"Lucifer, you meanie!"
A woman with hair like fire peeked over Lu's shoulder; her face had freckles for days.
"Lilith," Lu yelped as the soul took root in the other world. "How long did you eavesdrop?"
She giggled, unfolding her black wings.
"Since you asked if he regretted relying on me," Lilith leaned over the bed, caressing the old man's face. It was growing cold. "He was such a cutie. I loved ruining him for you."
The boy composed himself, but not before the demon confronted him.
"Why did you give him a free pass from Purgatory?" She pouted. "I claimed his soul, you know."
"I couldn't get my fill yet," he gulped, eyes gleaming toward the newborn. "His suffering is too delicious. I didn't want to wait another thousand years until he was born again."
"You meanie," she repeated. "What if I want to seduce him again?"
"Be my guest," Lu waved at the portal. "He had an interesting little thought at the very end. About how he wanted to live his next life."
"Yes, yes, I felt it," Lilith sighed. "And I saw so much suffering, too — that's why I'm letting it slide. But if he makes a harem, I'm calling dibs."
"Suit yourself," the angel closed the old man's lifeless eyes, and the portal faded away.
Later that day, an abandoned basket made strange noises in the Kingdom of Kasserlane. A nun took it home and named the odd phenomenon Konrad Ostberg.