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The atmosphere was dark and dreary, and the sinking sensation seemed never-ending. It was so prolonged that I even found myself wondering if this was what it felt like to be put through hell.

I had expected that I would disappear when I died, but that did not appear to be the case. After a considerable amount of time had passed, I was suddenly scooped up by something.

Light came to a world that had been pitch-dark. I don’t mind visiting, but isn’t this a bit too bright, I thought to myself. What had been a pitch black world suddenly turned into pure white.

Perhaps hell was a system that seeks to mentally destroy individuals by confining them in this kind of empty space.

I’d heard that spending an extended period in a state where you couldn’t see or hear anything could lead to insanity in the span of a few days.

If that was the case, did it hold any significance for me? I had felt like that for a long time after all. Perhaps it had been less than a day since I died?

If so, then I was surely going to go crazy.

Though I couldn’t be sure, as I didn’t know whether the sensation of falling down could be counted in that time.

“You sure have some interesting ideas, Makoto Toriyama.”

A voice appeared amidst the pure white scenery. I couldn’t help but wonder if I could reply to it.

However, I thought that since they’d responded to my thoughts, then it would probably be okay.

But if this was the case then this wouldn’t exactly be hell, I pondered.

“This is not hell, Makoto.”
“Then can you please do something about this pure white space?”
“Haha. I guess I can.”

After the voice, that was similar to that of a friendly old man, responded, the world took on color.

And the owner of the voice appeared.

He looked like he had just hit his 40s. He had slicked-back hair and a calm expression on his face. His beard was also well-defined.

This was what I imagined a bartender in a bar would look like, though I had yet to go to one.

The trench coat that he wore suited him perfectly as well.

I, on the other hand, was quite different. My garments seemed quite vague, and I looked like I was some kind of doll.

I gave off the impression of those stage assistants dressed in all black. Or so I thought.

Also, another thing was that I could talk despite having no mouth.

“As for your appearance, Makoto, I picked up all I could while you were disappearing. If I were to put it in a way for you to understand, right now what you’re seeing is your soul. Also you aren’t talking by using the vibrations of the air, you’re just talking through your soul.”
“Now that you mention it…”
“Convincing, no?”
“To be honest, I’m not that interested. In other words, you’re like some god, right?
Or maybe like a being that judges those who have died?”

Although I said that, I wasn’t sure if there was a clear difference between a god and those who judged the dead.

“From the way you put it, I’d say I lean more towards a godly being. I’m the one who created the world you were summoned to, and I also helped you a lot.”
“And, what business does a god have with me?”
“I thought I’d bring you back to life, Makoto.”
“I see… So you’ll bring me back to life but in a different world kind of setting, no?”

Yeah, that’s definitely a basic trope in these kinds of stories, I thought.

Now he’d give me some kind of overpowered ability because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to live in the other world as I am now.

“I refuse.”
“Why? You’ll be able to get revenge on those who killed you.”
“You should already know that I’ve already taken my revenge. I’m sure I died quite content.”
“Hahaha. You sure did.”
“Are you trying to pick a fight? Leave it, I won’t buy it. I don’t want to be brought back to life. I don’t think I can bear dying a second time. God, have you died? It’s quite tough even if you’ve prepared yourself for it.”
“I can imagine. That’s how I made it after all.”

Although God spoke in a calm manner, he gave the impression that he understood how I felt.

“Still, there’s something that I’d like you to do for me.”
“So you want me to be your gofer?”
“Think of it as compensation for being brought back to life.”
“No thank you.”
“Really? You think you’ve had your revenge, but are you really sure that everything will go the way you think? Besides, the kingdom that summoned you is still standing.”
“Now that you mention it…”

It would really be an eye sore if the kingdom turned out to actually be friendly towards the heroes.

“But why did you say that? You didn’t have to.”
“Hahaha. If I said it, you’d grow interested, no?”

I regretted saying that this old b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲ looked cool.

He was nothing more than a huge tease.

“Why me of all people? There should’ve been other choices as well.”
“There is no other gem like you. After all, you died with no regrets. I had to wake you up forcefully to bring you here. It was because I wanted to see your desire for revenge, and wanted to make certain of some things. Maybe this will change when you get to see your classmates again, but right now you are so pure, so garrulous, so indifferent. Souls like this are truly a rare find.”
“What if I come back to life and my desire for revenge grows?”
“I don’t care about that. You can let those feelings loose and kill for all I care. Or you can even destroy that kingdom while you’re at it. What matters is that at this very moment, you are indifferent to everything. If anything, I liked the thing about not wanting to be brought back because you’d eventually have to die again. I really did. But despite this, you don’t completely refuse the revival.”

Although he was saying all kinds of things, in the end I was talking to a God.

My feelings in this wouldn’t matter and I’d have to bend the knee.

“They’d matter, Makoto. Then, how about this. I’ll bring you back to life and make it so that you can’t die. How does that sound?”
“I’ll grow bored of living at some point.”
“At that time I’ll simply erase you without you having to feel anything.”
“So, just what is this errand that you want this adorable high school student to do?”

My goal from the start had been to get to this question.

Though he’d probably already known that I’d give in with the conditions that he laid out just now.

“I want you to save as many spirits as possible.”
“Spirits exist?”
“This world will perish soon. Before that I want you to rescue its spirits and bring them here. After all, spirits are necessary when creating worlds. If they end up perishing alongside the world, then it’ll be annoying to rebuild it.”

There was too much information, and too many things were cut off.

If God said that the world would perish then it would surely happen.

I assumed that God would want to create a new world after the destruction of this one. To do this, he would need the power of the spirits.

And from the way God said everything, it was right to assume that the spirits were trapped in some way. But by who? The Demon Lord?

“One sixth of that is correct.”
“Only a sixth?”

“There are six spirits in total. You should already know of them, but the six spirits are: Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and the remaining two are Light and Dark. Their role is to keep the world’s balance. They hold immense power that can also be used to energize animals, promote the growth of plants, as well as control natural disasters. When people learned of this, they began wondering if they could use that power for themselves. As such they captured the spirits and built kingdoms around the place where the spirit was captured. That is why a kingdom’s center is richer and the people are more prosperous. At the same time, wars became more frequent. Why? That’s because if you managed to steal another kingdom’s spirit, you’d receive twice the benefits.”

“So I guess the Demon Lord has one of those spirits locked away in the Demon Kingdom.”
“Correct. You all were summoned to protect the kingdom’s spirit and steal the spirits of the other kingdoms.”

And now he wanted me to go and steal spirits from other kingdoms? There was no way that was going to happen, I thought to myself.

“That’s why I told you to bring back as many as possible. Even if you don’t manage to save, let’s say one of them, I can just create a new one in its place. Besides, you’d be a messenger of God. You’ll become something akin to a demigod.”
“That’s the first I’m hearing of this.”

“To be immortal you have to transcend the boundaries of living creatures. However, for regular souls this comes with a lot of obstacles. Even if I just made you into a Demigod nothing good would come out of it. You’d start wielding your immense power and doing whatever you wanted. Gods should view everything in the world as equal.”
“You mean seeing bugs and humans on the same level?”

“That kind of thing. Though I have a bit of a bias towards intelligent life as they have achieved a pivotal point and I can talk to them like this. That said, if intelligent life was to be wiped out right now I’d simply not think anything about it.”
“And you think I can do that as well?”

“I’ll remake your soul so that it can do it. Though I’m not going to leave you completely emotionless, and I’m going to make sure that you keep your consciousness, so you can rest easy about that.”

God looked at me with expectant eyes, but, well, I wasn’t going to say no.

It was a hassle, but I didn’t think I could back down now.

And it’s not like I didn’t understand what God was saying. I likely wouldn’t so much as bat an eye if I saw someone being killed in front of me right now.

“There’s one more thing I’d like to confirm. Do you care about the world being destroyed now?” I asked God.
“Not at all. For starters, the world is about to be destroyed because each species does as they want. The last straw was summoning people from other worlds. It’s impossible not to put a burden on the world by forcefully making it connect to and pull someone from another dimension. And if you do that without the help of the spirit, it’s only normal that the world would break. And they’ve already performed countless summons, so to put it in your perspective, the world will at most hold another 20 years. Though it won’t crumble today or tomorrow.”

“One more thing. Can’t you do something about this yourself?” I asked.
“If I had to say whether it was possible or not, then it’s possible. However, let’s put it this way. Would you want to spend hundreds of years trying to correct tiny mistakes in a microscope with tweezers?”
“I wouldn’t.”

“I wouldn’t mind it, if the world wanted to help itself. However, I’ve sent countless revelations to no avail. The things a god can do is either destroy everything, or start over from zero. As well as send someone in his place.”
“I understand. I’ll be your gofer. In return, please do me a favor when I’m done.”
“Sure thing. I’ll grant you one wish for each spirit you bring back. Though I’ll only grant those that my power as a god allows.”

This meant that I could get up to 6 wishes.

“Well then I’ll begin remaking your soul. You should get some sleep in the meantime.”
“Okay.”
“Ah, one more thing. Right now the only body I can use is that of a girl’s, so you’ll have to look like a girl, I hope you won’t mind.” God said, dropping one hell of a remark at the last minute, but unfortunately for me, I was too sleepy to argue.

And well, looking different might not be such a bad thing, I thought. It wasn’t much when compared to being killed by my classmates.

With that I went to sleep.