God Is A Bird

Issei, was dead.

At least, that was what he thought.

He'd never been dead before.

Who had been before?

When a person dies, it's over.

Nothing after that.

You're dead.

Gone.

You're not supposed to feel anything after you die.

If that was the case.

Why did he feel cold?

"You have arrived, I was waiting for you." A voice, so familiar to him, boomed around him. It reverberated throughout the space, filling his ears with the voice.

It wasn't feminine nor was it in any way masculine, the voice was by all means gender-neutral, to the point Issei was confused as to what exactly could utter those words.

"Am I dead?" He didn't feel dead. But this was the first time he died, so maybe this was normal.

Looking around, he was in what seemed to be an empty space. Nothing, absolutely nothing, not even a single particle was seen.

Where was he?

"Dead? Perhaps. I prefer the word sleeping," the voice said. "You're funny Issei Hyoudo."

"You know my name?" Issei asked, swerving his head left and right to try to pinpoint an exact location where the voice came from. It was all around him, and it wasn't at the same time. "What else do you know about me?"

"I know everything, and I know nothing. I do not know everything, I only know what I know. It's not what I know, it's what you know," the voice said, with Issei being confused as the voice contradicted itself with each line.

"Who are you?" He decided to ask. It wasn't human, that was true. It was probably some kind of deity of some sorts. "Where am I?"

"You're in my home, Issei Hyoudo," the voice said. "Cozy, isn't it?"

Seeing as there weren't any decorations whatsoever and the fact that he was in an empty space, no, it wasn't cozy.

"Take a seat, we're going to have a long chat." Issei was about to say that there wasn't a chair but he felt something wooden below him and was forcefully pushed onto a mahogany chair that wasn't there before.

To his surprise, Issei wasn't floating in the wide expanse of space anymore. Instead, apparently he had been teleported to what seemed to be a library of some sorts.

Bookshelves, much taller than him, covered the walls, with the shelves almost bursting with books that were probably thousands of pages long.

Several candles were floating around him, the flames burning a bright green as they illuminated the small room with soft light. Issei tried to grab one that was close to him but retracted his hand as the candle flame burnt the tip of his finger.

There was a desk in front of him, and a person he didn't know was behind that desk.

"Welcome Issei," the person in front of him said, extending out its right hand towards him. "To Salvation."

If you were expecting something dramatic to happen, it didn't. The person behind the desk delivered his line almost anti-climatically, and not at all the way it should have been.

Anyways, Issei didn't know what the person was talking about, nor did he know what exactly Salvation was. Was it Heaven? Hell? Limbo? A strip club?

"Salvation?" Issei asked the person.

"Salvation," the person repeated, nodding its head at the word.

"Aren't you supposed to like.....introduce yourself?" Seriously, what was the deal with this person. Doesn't it know that people were supposed to introduce themselves in a story with each facial and bodily feature explained in excruciating detail? Seriously, stories nowadays really suck.

On that note, the person in front of him, wasn't a person at all. Shocker. Big surprise if you will. If Issei had to describe it, the 'person' resembled the figures you'd see in Ancient Egyptian art of the Gods.

A large bird-like head, with a long beak that curved downwards like a hawk. Wise, intelligent, but round pupils that contracted every few seconds as it's eyes bored into Issei's own.

The person was shirtless, but had a very toned body with hints of a physique surpassing most body builders Issei had seen. In lieu of pants, it wore a leather kilt of some sorts, with an assortment of gems that sparkled in the light that was present.

In its left hand was a large book, far thicker than any book he had ever seen. On it's cover was imagery of a flock of ibises, along with a flower of some sorts.

"I suck at introductions," the person said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I've been called many things throughout time."

"But you can call me Thoth." Thoth, was the name of an Egyption God, that he knew. Why said God was in front of him, he didn't know. "God of Writing, Magic, Wisdom, and the Moon. I am the Sacred Keeper of the Holy Word and the Owner of the Chamber of Knowledge."

"Uh, cool," he said. "Why am I here, though?"

Thoth gave him a beaky? smile, laughing slightly at the expression on his face. "I think you know exactly why you're here."

"That power of yours, is mine. And I want it back."