July 1st, 3125: Four months before Eleanor Lynn awakens from her coma on the island of Blackport Ridge, on the day the Great Sea Wall crumbled.
Falling.
The wind barraged her form as if she were a bird with broken wings, her smooth, clean blonde hair flying in all directions as her eyes snapped open.
Colored like ash, her gaze whirled around without reason, her thoughts muddled, and a headache pounding in her temples.
Her last memory had split her mind wide open: the chiseled chest of a deity, and then a sound that stuck like cotton in her ears.
As she fell, she couldn't help but remember that moment, the feeling of her body breaking apart and her soul crumbling out of existence.
The next moment, she had awoken into this freefall, her figure descending into a world of bright light that she couldn't comprehend.
Only after much twisting and turning, while trying to refocus her vision, did she truly observe her imminent surroundings.
Eleanor Lynn was still kilometers above the ground, a large body of crystal clear water directly in the path of her dive through the air.
A fall from this height is like landing on rocks! I'll die!
Scrambling for anything that might allow her to slow her descent, she realized with great shock and extreme embarrassment that she lacked any proper clothing.
All that wrapped around her body was a thin veil reminiscent of the kind the church used in the morgue to drape the dead in.
T-there's nothing!
Watching as the ground approached quickly, she felt her stomach contract, icy fear washing over her like a pool of dread.
Bracing for impact, she held her eyes shut hard, her breath hitching at the thought of instant death that would meet her as her body splattered across the gentle lake.
SHOOOMPH!
She vanished beneath the surface, her lungs instantly intaking the liquid and drowning out any air that was left inside.
Yet, as the seconds passed, she began to furrow her brow, her thoughts full of utter confusion.
A-am I dead…?
Opening her eyes warily, she realized with a jolt that she was several meters beneath the waves, various fish the size of boats gazing at her with odd expressions.
Wishing to scream out in terror but unable to do so while submerged, she burst into action, swimming with all her might towards the surface.
But, even as water filled every organ of her body, it didn't cause any real damage; the suffocating fluid drained the second it entered her system.
SPLSHH!
Eleanor's head broke the crystal clear water, her lungs instinctively gasping for air even though she didn't really need to.
Not daring to stay in the terror-infested pond for long, she rushed towards the white sand shores, the speed at which she swam comparable to a professional.
Reaching the beach quickly and sprawling herself out with her back buried in the sand, she panted hard, exhaustion wearing at her sanity.
H-how am I still alive?
Looking up into the sky with her mind in chaos, she froze, her jaw falling open in awe at the sight she beheld.
Vines resembling the roots of a tree covered the heavens, their stems breaking through the atmosphere and colliding with the ground many kilometers away from where she sat.
Some roots were lit by a glowing algae-like film, their surfaces bubbling and oozing with every color known to man, and many far beyond anything she had seen before.
This abnormal yet natural-looking structure reached upward for what appeared to be infinity, the occasional droplet of water that fell from the massive tree hitting the ground with an enormous boom.
Eleanor couldn't quite make out what occurred at the sites where those raindrops landed; however, whatever it was, it couldn't be safe.
Slowly, she stood up, examining her own physical state, which, for some odd reason, seemed almost perfectly preserved.
My skin is paler than normal, and my priestess robes are gone… My head hurts like crap, and the last thing I remember is—
Her thoughts cut off as she tried to remember the moments before she woke up in this strange place.
There was that thing… He was a deity, and he was angry… H-he… He erased me…
Shaking slightly, she took a closer look at herself and then at the terrain around her, a possibility wedging its way into her mind.
I-I'm dead…
There was a knot of despair within her chest as she contemplated her own mortality, the sequence of events that had transpired only moments before now making complete sense.
Slowly, she curled up into a tight ball, rocking back and forth on the sand, simply staring at the vast pond in front of her.
Hard and heavy breaths could be heard coming from the girl's body even at a distance, a hot substance falling from her eyes and dripping into her hands.
Such was the way most spirits entered the Great Beyond after their lives, devoid of joy and basking in their own loss.
No longer would they see their loved ones, no longer would they see the bright sun that graced the heavens, and no longer would their gods' blessings reach them.
For no matter the religion, the Great Beyond was the absolute end that transcended faith; the location and the rules were the same for all.
There was nothing more she could do but search for the souls of those she cared deeply for, a specific one clinging to her mind as she stood.
Olivia…
It had happened only a short time before her own demise; however, her oldest friend had been murdered by her own brother right in front of her eyes.
Straightening up slightly, she scanned the surroundings, noting that she was within a crater with steep hills on each side.
Lillies covered their slopes, the white and pink flowers slowly guiding her ascent towards the summit.
There was a cool breeze that blew through the Beyond, her arms trembling slightly in the cold.
T-the Ghostship was always the perfect temp, but death isn't…?
Her lips curled down as she remembered the most recent friend she had made, that boy, the anomaly of fate.
No memories, no reason, no clue as to what he was doing.
To her, he was an utter clutz, a bumbling fool, not far from a newborn child who would attempt to stick rocks up his nose.
However, there were times that he surpassed her wildest expectations, whether it be his calm attitude in the wake of gaining a power dangerous enough to frighten even a Sea King or his resourcefulness when doing day-to-day tasks around the ship.
Out of all those small things she had witnessed from him, disjointed and random, the most recent of all stood out among the rest.
It was he who tried to save me from what the core had caused…
Regardless of what she had encountered within his mindspace that had erased her presence from the world above, she could not find it in her heart to resent him in any way.
For even after knowing her for no longer than a few weeks, he had risked his life to save a stranger from death.
Feeling her lips form into a smile subconsciously, she muttered a few words quietly under her breath that were lost to the wind shortly after.
"What an idiot…"
Shaking her head and taking the final step to reach the top of the slope, she took a heavy breath, her body apparently not resistant to all the wear and tear of existence despite being dead.
Slowly, she raised her gaze from the ground towards a light in the distance, which made her frown again.
"What could that…"
Eleanor froze, her eyes widening and her heart pounding with the force of a thousand suns.
Far in the distance, beyond rolling hills, winding rivers, blossoming meadows, and herds of beasts, a spectacle incomparable to those in the world of living unfolded before her.
A single root larger than anything else she had seen among the heavens tore through the world, its other end buried deep in the ground, forming a massive pillar.
Veins of multicolored light coursed through it like blood, pumping upward into the main heart of the tree.
Further than that, a comet seemed to streak across the sky of this new world, sparkling in a shade of turquoise that felt almost ethereal, or godly.
It arched downward in a wondrous spiral before vanishing completely from sight and from reality, as if space and time had simply denied its existence.
Yet, that was not what had surprised the girl; rather, as she gazed past the area where the bright light had met its end, she saw something built into the root-like terrain.
A castle of pitch-black clung to the wooden pillar, its majesty truly unmatched in comparison to all the masterpieces built by human hand.
It was a monolith of lightless stone with towers that didn't simply pierce the skies, but rather held them aloft.
The raindrops that oozed from the other roots gathered at the main one, their forms reshaping into wisps that fell into the city that rested below the castle.
It was larger than even Sea Fallen, with architecture far more advanced than what the citizens of the ten seas could even imagine, whether it be the people of Blackport Ridge or the hanging city of Dendrali; nothing could trump the grandiosity of that place.
The castle was situated in the center, emitting an aura that reminded one not of malice or gloom, but rather conclusion, an end to a life of hardships for all.
Eleanor couldn't help but find herself captivated by the architectural gem, her body moving on its own to get closer.
For that purpose, the home of Death himself is a place where all spirits would attempt to reach and find refuge in the city below.
When she inevitably made her way through the gates and into the enchanting streets, she would forget her life, and the choices of what came next would be offered soon after.
So as she approached, her mind began to drift off, and all other goals other than reaching that place started fading away.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Her hair was suddenly grabbed by a force far stronger than herself, interrupting her momentum, and the hypnosis wrapping around her was instantly lifted.
"W-what? Huh?"
Darting her eyes around wildly, she realized she had been walking without reason, her confusion evident.
"Why was I…"
Turning around slowly, she was met with the sight of a large figure, one standing at a height of 2 meters.
He had strongly masculine features, long blond hair tied into a bun, and a single deep turquoise eye that shone like the sea itself.
A pronounced jaw that was hidden by a perfectly trimmed beard, and a scar crossed his left eye, which was covered by a black eyepatch.
His attire was ragged, forged from various pieces akin to leather and sheep's fur, a blue capelet hanging from his right shoulder.
"Hmm? You ain't one of lost souls?"
His voice was wrought with doubt, his head tilting to the side as he examined the girl closer.
Eleanor took a step backwards, her heart nearly skipping a beat as a face in her memories overlapped with his.
"A-Aaron?"