After several long moments alone in the bathroom, Isabella finally came back into the lounge where I was. She walked out the opened door, pointed at me, and immediately spoke up before I could say anything.

“NOT ONE WORD.” She was firm in her speech. I could tell, she wanted to make certain that I knew how serious she was feeling right now. “Not one word about earlier. That didn’t happen, we won’t ever talk about what didn’t happen, and what didn’t happen, will never happen again.”

Slowly, I nodded my head to show I understood. For some odd reason, I had a strange feeling of deja-vu, but I quickly put it out of my mind as Isabella came over and hugged me.

“Are you alright?” I asked her.

“I’m fine.” She sighed and snuggled into my bare chest. “Are you?”

“Umm.. Yeah, I’m fine too,” I reassured her.

“So where’s your clothes?” She just had to ask, and I had no real idea what to say.

“They burned up when I died again.” I figured just cut to the chase. Peel the bandage off the wound in one swift yank. Just get it out there and be done with it.

“So they’re gone then?” Isabella didn’t move from me, and what I said didn’t seem to bother her at all. I think dripplets of my brain drained out my ear and piddled on the floor. At least, that’s what it felt like to me.

“Uhh… Did you hear what I said?” I had to double check.

“I sure did.” Slowly she nuzzled her head up and down against my chest. “You’re fine now, but you lost the clothes when you they burned up when you died again. That tells me that somehow, you’ve died previously in the past, but that you’re fine now. Normally, I wouldn’t believe such a thing, but I’ve put my trust in you, so I believe you. I’m just glad you’re alive now, and I hope you stay that way.”

It’s official, my brain was dribbling out my ear. I couldn’t believe that she was taking the whole thing so easily! I’d imagined a lot of scenarios where she might find out sometime, but I never imagined one like this!

“If you die again, will you come back for me?” She lifted her head and looked me in the eyes.

“Uhh… I think so.” My mind was blanking out again. I just could not figure out what to expect from this girl! “I’ve died several times already since The Crack appeared. Every time, I come back after a few hours. I think it has to do with me getting the title ‘The Witness’. I guess if the gods want someone to watch their changes take place, then they aren’t going to just let that witness up and die and give up his job.

“That sounds reasonable,” she agreed with me. “I’m a demon, by the way.”

Hello brain dribblets on the floor! I think I’ll come join you. My knees gave up, and I ended up flopping on my ass, dragging Isabella down on top of me. She never let go of her hug during the whole time.

“De… Demon?” I wasn’t certain I really wanted to know.

“Yep!” Isabella playfully leaned up and nipped me on my ear. Then she moved, lifted herself lightly, and sat cross-legged across my midsection while I was still flopped out on my back. I started to say something, but she just put a finger on my lips and said, “I don’t care if you can see everything. And I don’t care if your lower part is touching some lower part of mine. Deal with it.”

“Uhh… Yessum!” What else could I say in a case like this? She wiggled her hips a few times to get comfortable like I’d watch her do a dozen times before on the couch, and then she told me how she was a demon.

“A long, long time ago, there was a race of winged people, and they were very strong in the ways of magic. They focused their energy and talents and they’re the original masters of the Way of the LifeStealer. In times of war, they could practice their skills all they wanted, and they grew amazingly powerful.

“However, during times of peace, the church forbad them to drain others just for the purpose of growing stronger. They were expected to give up their ways of learning and stop stealing the life of others. The winged ones, the Ka’Leni as they were called back then, they found a different means of gaining life. They took it upon themselves to follow in the footsteps of the world’s oldest profession, and they became wenches or prostitutes.

“After all, what has a stronger life force than the very ‘seed of life’ itself?”

“When the church found out what the Ka’Leni were doing, they declared them heretical beasts which were stealing the lives of their prey. They called them Succubi and Incubi. They were declared unholy. Evil. Castigated from the land. Over time, most of them died out. The few that remained were regarded as demons.

“When the book changed me, it altered me so I could follow the true path of the LifeStealer. It made me a Ka’Leni. Or as close to one as a person can get, I suppose. After all, I never grew any wings. But, for all intents and purposes, I’m basically the same as them. I’m now a succubus. A devil. A human-Ka’Leni hybrid.”

Isabella stared down into my eyes without blinking. “So, if this world can make me a demon, and then you tell me you’re fine now, but you died again a while ago, I believe you."

“So I can’t stay dead and you’re a demon.” I laid my head back on the floor and just sighed. “You know, I guess this just means we’re both going to Hell in the long run then.”

Isabella giggled, and then placed her hands on my hips, lifted her butt up slightly and then moved her legs so that one foot was wide to the side of each of my shoulders. Then she slid her buttocks another foot up my chest, before finally arching catlike and laying her back down across my legs. I had a perfect view of her ‘woman parts’, and I couldn’t help but prop one arm under my head so that I could lean up and get a better view.

“You know, I can see everything perfect,” I told her matter-of-factly.

“Well then good.” She giggled and wiggled a few inches closer to my face. “I’m tired of you avoiding looking at me, or hiding your face, or being ashamed to see me. I’m stuck like this for now, and I’m able to deal with it. In some ways, it’s annoying that you can’t. I’m just a demon. It’s not like I’m a monster or anything.” She giggled again and rubbed her hands down the sides of my legs.

Gingerly, like a caveman trying not to break the fine china, I slowly reached up and rubbed her left leg with my right hand. She just giggled again and finally asked, “So if you died again, when did you die the first time?”

For a long time, I just laid there in silence with her, enjoying the feeling of her soft hands rubbing my legs while my hand caressed her smooth creamy legs. She didn’t say anything, and she didn’t move off me. It was a quiet and peaceful moment, almost like the feeling of nothingness that had enveloped me earlier, except this time her warmth was here. She was here. And somehow, somehow that made things so much better!

Finally, and I don’t know after how long, just finally, I opened my mouth and started to talk. I spoke of seeing The Crack rip open across the sky. Of seeing the dots fall from it and drop to the ground. I spoke of the giant bull man and how quickly my life had ended.

She never said a word, but when I came to a point in the story where I’d pause to collect my thoughts or collect my emotions, she gently squeezed and kneaded my legs with her hands, as if to remind me that she was here with me now.

I told her of how I could still feel my corpse, even after death. Of how I how I could feel my corpse being ate and torn apart. I tried to convey the experience of the flames of my corpse’s destruction, but there honestly aren’t any words which can convey such an experience properly. I did the best I could, trying to share the experience, and then I took another moment to collect my thoughts while she gently tried to comfort me with her touch and just her silent presence.

Finally, I went on to tell her of my rebirth and then my second death at the minotaur’s hands, just to be followed by another rebirth several hours later. I told of how cowardly I was and how I hid under the water tower for the next several hours, until finally I was too scared, shell-shocked, and lost to stand it anymore. I told of going down the steps, finding the lone goblin and how I just… snapped. Hard to believe all that had happened in just a single afternoon’s time.

I went on to speak of my next day’s experiences. Of leveling up, getting over-confident and walking into the rat’s nest, and then dying multiple times. On my third day, I learned that the rats fear the goblins and by covering myself with its odor, I could lure the rats from their nest and hunt them. My fourth day, I gassed the nest and lured out the Rat Champion, without even knowing it was in there to begin with. I managed to defeat it and gain several levels and achievements. That’s also when I got the notifications that I needed to kill a lot more things before I could unlock the elevator also.

It was in the evening of that fourth day when I finally met Isabella. I suppose she knew the story from there on out, but I just kept rambling on. I continued to tell her about me meeting her, and I went over the days afterwards.

The rest of that evening to gather the corpses of the rats. The next day to skin them while she studied her book and gained her class. Another day where she learned her skill and started using it. It was then that she’d had her mana overload and I’d wandered off and stumbled into the Jello-Muncher, and my subsequent death and rebirth.

From start to finish, seven days was all that had passed so far. Only seven days so far, and I really had no clue where to go from here. All I knew at this point, is that I was grateful that I had Isabella here with me now. We’ve been together for about four days now, and yet somehow… somehow it felt like she’d been with me for half my life.

Which I suppose is true, if you consider that my old life ended with The Crack, and this new life started then. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what the eighth day has planned for us tomorrow. For now, I just wanted to enjoy the blissful moment of today…

Author's Note: And thus, dear reader, we are bringing to a conclusion the 'first arc' of this story.

My goal and intent in this first arc was to first and foremost hopefully entertain. I hope I've achieved that much for you guys, as I've certainly achieved it for myself.

The purpose of this arc was to introduce our world to the reader. To explain some of the 'reality-game' mechanics. To introduce Drake and Isabella, and hopefully develop them so that the reader can relate to them not just as characters in a story which level up and grow more powerful over time, but as people who learn, experience the hardships and struggles of life and death, and who mature and evolve over time.

I may end up taking a few days to go back over everything to reproof and correct any grammar/spelling mistakes that the work contains so far, but this story isn't ending with the completion of this arc. In fact, it's just now beginning!! I truly hope everyone has enjoyed getting to this point with me so far, and I hope everyone will join me when I begin the next arc in what I foresee to be an epic tale that's going to take me ages to tell as it needs to be told.

If you guys have gotten this far with me, kindly take a moment and drop by the main page and leave me a review. Or post your thoughts, opinions, ideas, and criticisms here. If you see something that looks wrong grammatically or is spelled incorrectly, drop me a note and I'll correct it. (In fact, it'd probably even help me finish up the final editing on this arc so I can start on the next one a little quicker.) Let me know what you like, and what you didn't like. I won't swear that I'll change anything -- even if the whole world is against something, if I think the story needs it to proceed so that it can fulfill my vision, the world will just have to rant -- but I do listen to you guys, and I like to hear what you think of my work so far; both the good and bad.

Thus concludes ARC 1: ENTERING THE NEW WORLD

Arriving soon is ARC 2: EXPLORING THE NEW WORLD