In the end, Yoshiko's abilities hinged more on life as a monstrous humanoid as well, and she seemed completely fine with it. Since they didn't actually need to sleep, she could forgo it if she wanted to, which brought up why she'd been trying to sleep before.

He asked, and she could see his genuine confusion.

"People have always slept," she told him, "Surely there is a reason. Even if we don't need to, we should still try to follow the path our ancestors set before us."

He nodded, seeing the logic behind it. If someone didn't know the reason they weren't sleepy anymore, it would only be natural to keep with what you know. He remembered reading about a condition called Fatal Insomnia where people would be unable to sleep at all, just degrading until they dropped. Even if your body didn't need sleep, you wouldn't want something like that to build up under the surface.

When he looked closer at the contract, he saw a little clause saying "A guarantee that no negative side effects will arise from your time as a monstrous humanoid." At first he thought it was just saying she wouldn't feel bestial, but a question she'd had about that earlier made a lot more sense, because she asked if that included sleeping, and Void said yes.

Dei hoped europe had culture a bit closer to America because he'd been floundering the entire time here. He first looked into a void for work life and found none, then one for mascot identities but that fell flat, and now the person he'd chosen had decided to become a monster in her free time.

He was good at running with the ball, at least.

When everything was said and done, his body in the real world turned invisible as he and Void stepped out of the room in the mental one. When the door shut behind them, her consciousness was released, and she shot up from where she'd been lying.

He saw her cautiously look around, but she was alone. She tested her new transformation, turned back, then did something he didn't expect.

Slipping out of her room, she went to her parents and quietly woke them up, telling them everything that happened and asking them what to do, even going as far as to show them directly.

They were concerned, of course, but not nearly as much as Dei would expect. He found it odd yet endearing how her first reaction was to go to her parents, and he stopped spoiling their moment. Slipping away, he ventured towards Europe and Africa.

* * *

He flew through country after country, scanning over everyone.

'Ireland… not seeing anything that catches the eye. Poland… too solid a culture, I'll have the same issue with Japan but they aren't as polite, I'll mess something up. Netherlands…'

When he was flying over Germany though, something briefly caught his eye as a disheveled man was thrown out of a bar, stumbling away into the night.

He moved on, not even noting it.

After making a round of all the countries, he flew back to where he started, going over them again. Little to nothing was changed, but he was getting a better feel for the scene.

Kindness pinged him, a Call for Help going out.

'Hm?'

He switches directions, following it immediately, and ends up in a dark alley, a curtain of rain falling on the two people there. He sees a cowering woman cornered by a man with a knife, and doesn't need any more information than that.

Swooping low and positioning himself in front of her, he's about to phase back into the physical world when a silhouette appears at the opening to the street, the backlights cutting an imposing figure.

Something is said in German which Dei can't understand, so he subtly connects with everyone to translate their words from the meaning in their memories.

"Hello, bitch," Dei hears the 'Hero' shout over the storm, and he actually recognizes this person. He saw him briefly a couple hours ago, getting thrown out of a bar.

The mugger turns around, and the image of a hero degrades further when a drunk, disheveled man stumbles down the alley, bottle in hand.

'What's the plan here?' Dei asks himself, and looks into the man's head directly for his intentions, seeing there are none. He has no idea what he's doing, he just saw a robbing and jumped in to help.

The woman seems hopeful, but Dei can't see this ending well.

Still… there are glimpses of something else in the man's mind, so he'll let it play out, because he may have found his fifth.

"Get lost, or I'll gut you too," the mugger says, and the "too" makes Dei think this was less of a robbery and more of a murder.

"Nah," the drunk replies fearlessly.

The murderer doesn't pause to even think, running towards the drunk who lashes out on instinct, throwing the bottle he's holding.

It lands, shattering against the murderer's head as the drunk lunges for the knife. The murderer is disoriented, but not stupid, and doesn't let go.

The woman runs out of the alley as the two tussle, pulling out her phone, and he knows she's about to call the police.

They won't get here in time. Though he tried his best, the drunk just isn't strong enough. The knife is wrestled away, and the murderer stabs him twice in the stomach.

He goes down and feels his hand land on something. When the murderer lands on him to finish the job, the drunk swings with whatever is in his hand at the side of the man's head.

The shattered remnant of his bottle hit lower than he intended, and the murderer's carotid artery is severed, spraying blood everywhere. The murderer drops the knife, grabbing at his neck and stumbling backwards. In seconds, the fight is over and one is dead, while the other lies bleeding.

From the drunk's point of view, the world freezes as Dei pulls him into his mind.

Dei's manifestation stands over the man, who simply lies on the ground, hyperventilating. The others all knew something was wrong, but this one doesn't care enough to even open his eyes.

"Karl," he says to the man, who ignores him. "Karl, open your eyes."

"I'm dying."

"Yes."

"So let me die."

"No."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Karl frowns, and finally cracks a lid open to look at Dei. "You're the reaper? Or… an angel or something? To guide me to the afterlife?"

"None of that. I'm here to offer you a second chance."

Karl slowly drags himself up, holding his stomach.

He looks around, seeing the frozen droplets. Bringing his hand away from his gut, he sees the red, and sighs

"I just wanted to be…"

"A hero, yes. That's why you're getting this chance at all."

If it was just that, Dei wouldn't have chosen this man. He would've healed him, true, but being good isn't enough to satisfy Void.

Karl hasn't lived a good life, but he's never wanted for anything. A childhood star, he's always had cameras on him whenever he would go out. Nowadays, he's a wildly successful talk show host.

Behind the scenes, at home, though? He's coping with depression and anxiety. He doesn't know who he is, because he's always been in the spotlight. One day, he had a manic episode of sorts. He put on some ratty clothes, left his house, went to a poor neighborhood, got drunk and sat crying on the side of the road. Nobody ever caught him or knew it was him, and he felt significantly better afterwards.

Since that day, he'd made it his hobby. He'd wear some elaborate disguises with clothes or some putty to change his face, go out, get belligerently drunk, and get kicked out of bars for the heck of it.

He knows his career would end if he was ever caught, so he's careful. As he's doing this though, he finds that he loves to help people.

As an actor if you start giving money away, those who don't need it will beg too. A random hobo though? He's run into those down on their luck in the places he frequents. Sometimes, he hears a story of a father trying his best who just can't make the rent this week, and quietly slips a burner debit card in their pocket. He even has several accounts and cards dedicated to just that, each labeled "From a friend, 1000 euros" or something along those lines so he can reverse pickpocket them, and fade quietly into the background.

He is an uncontestably good person, and the juxtaposition between his childhood star rich life versus his hobby as a homeless person gives more than enough space for Void.

"What's the chance?" he asks tiredly.

"To keep being you, I suppose. There's a being above that loves the way you live, and wants to reward you for it. We aren't asking you to be a hero, just to do whatever your heart desires. We know you love the spotlight, even if it can be crushing, so stay a celebrity. Not just that, but stay a… whatever it is you call what you do when you're out here."

"So nothing changes?" he asks skeptically, "I just go back to being me?"

Dei chuckles, "With magic powers to back you up, of course."

"Ahh, there it is. Okay sure, I'll do it."

"Loving the enthusiasm! But you're making a deal with a higher power here man, at least read the contract first. What if I'm the devil?" 'Or a devil which, I suppose, I am.'

"Well… it's either this or die? And you don't seem all that bad."

Dei scoffs, "I'm not letting you die, no matter if you take the deal or not, you will be healed. Besides, I'm not the one offering the contract. Void is."

"Who's that?" he asks, and a weight falls upon both of them, power incarnate descending.

A hurricane of darkness twists from the sky, landing next to Dei and coalescing as the shifting entity that Void truly is, not limiting itself to human forms exclusively.

"I."

Karl hesitantly, kneels, but Dei laughs and tells him "Don't worry about showing deference, Void isn't that kind of divine being. It will offer you a contract, and if you want it, you can take it."

Karl nods and stands back up. "Hit me."

* * *

Everything goes off without a hitch, and Dei finds that Karl, also already has a powerful innate connection to Void. Not as strong as Levi's was, but around Mid-Uncommon if he had to measure it.

His "Drawback" is as expected, a whole lotta nothin. He just has to live as he does now or his connection to Void will degrade.

Dei is surprised to find the spells Void intends to give him though don't focus a lot on his desire to help people, more on the identities themselves and what they mean. His T.V. half will be heard more easily and others will listen to him, while the hobo half will now have certain things such as animal control.

He assumes it is because helping others is Kindness' domain, and to copy its abilities will be a higher tier Void power, so it'll be easier to stick to what is already known. He questions, however, why Void is able to copy Social and Beast in that case, and immediately receives an answer after the contract is signed.

They finish up without a hitch, and a ping forms in Karl's soul.

His brow scrunches, and a message is broadcast quietly to Dei. if he wasn't looking for it, he'd miss it.

"The burden of giving weighs heavily upon this one. He is worthy of life and happiness."

His eyebrows raise as he realizes what he's looking at. 'This is Kindness' blessing! Karl must've drawn its attention with his actions, and I might have made it easier by bringing him into my soul where it can use me as a conduit.'

Karl didn't have a connection with Kindness, so there was nothing for the blessing to strengthen. Instead of that, Dei realized Void and Kindness were working together to improve Karl's final result. He would bet money that Kindness used the blessing to augment one or more of the Void spells, making them easier to use for the purpose of being good.

"What do I do now…?" Karl asks quietly.

"Now?" he smiles, "Just live, I guess."

The illusion fades and Karl is returned to his body gasping, the pain slamming into his head.

Dei hears him wonder internally if that was all his dying vision, if he truly is just going to bleed out here, but he already has access to Dei's Homeostasis through How About a Demonstration. Carefully sitting up and lifting his shirt, Karl watches as the last vestiges of the wounds close fully, and his body is returned to the healthiest state it's ever been.

He stumbles to his feet, feeling something activate within him, acting on his blood around the alley.

Void said that it would remove any evidence or sign of his passing. The higher leveled, the finer details it would remove. Right now though it doesn't have to be perfect, the rain washing everything away that Void couldn't get. He's just glad his own blood won't be found here, as it would be far too easy to link it back to Karl the star, and it would show that he was badly injured in the scuffle. He has no way to explain his perfect health after the fact.

He hears sirens in the distance and comes back to his senses, darting out of the alley. He sees the woman standing under a nearby pavilion, and runs the opposite direction. She tries waving at him or calling out, but he doesn't turn around.

He has a lot he needs to think about, but he can do that when he's home. If the police detain and question him, he'll be in big trouble.

* * *

Dei finds himself wandering the streets of Germany as well, just studying the architecture. He's had the contract to Void for so long, worrying about it came naturally to him. Now that it's resolved, he can breathe more easily knowing there are no chances for it to smite him.

He's also pretty sure it's happy with his work, as it's given him a slight head start on how to crush the dimension between the two. The original deal was for knowledge on how to use karma or his link back to Earth to return here, and that's already done. With the extra hint? It must be rather pleased.

He can guess why. The first user he'd done half-assed, and it wasn't a real issue at the time because he assumed it would be enough. When he found it wasn't and really started trying, he found four incredible candidates.

That meant he would've been able to half-ass them if he just hadn't thought hard about it, because that's what worked for the first one. The contract insisted he focus on quality because there wouldn't be many Void users on Earth, but he now believed that was because his own perspective changed. The "Spirit" of the contract was different because he saw it as different.

The punishment for breaking a contract was PTSD, as Luke told him. That meant there was at least partially some kind of mental aspect to it, and he'd checked off some hidden box from Void for not being belligerent or unwilling, his own moral code insisting that he do better. Someone else might not have done that.

Whatever the reason, he went over the mini-packet of info. It wasn't much, essentially a gift basket of knowledge, but it was a few little hints to get him on the right track.

It mentioned utilizing natural forces that were already in the universe, and focusing on the outside force of the two realities on either side to help. It mentioned that picking which two realities to crush it with would be important, because those two would now be neighbors after the fact.

He saw the chance to get Earth a lovely neighbor if he chose properly and used this dimension as one of the two.

It was a bit sparse, but he wasn't complaining about a thank-you note from the affinity, so he accepted it and went his way.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.