God's Greatest Gift

Up and down simply didn't exist. Left, right, forward, and backward. Brightly lit stats and galaxies shone from all angles in an endless expanse of space. Solid ground was not a concept here either, and yet, there he stood. Alone. Truly the most remarkable sight he ever had the pleasure of knowing. Even the pictures online couldn't do it justice. The constellations hid between an infinitesimally billions of stars. The gaseous forms and clusters that formed the shapes he was previously familiar with looked as vivid as the tree in his backyard on a sunny summer's day.

Backyard? Wait… Where was he? A dream? Usually dreams are more murky and chaotic. He looked down at his hands, beholden to a new view of the glittering starscape, and counted ten perfectly normal fingers. However, he couldn't see his feet. Or rather, it simply didn't exist. His eyes traveled up and up, expecting to see the rest of his body, possibly lopped in half, but nothing appeared. Even his hands were gone! Panic rose within his chest, up through his throat, where he was about to scream.

"Ah, there you are." Then he actually screamed. Some disembodied voice spoke to him from no where and everywhere. "I was wondering where your soul wandered off to."

"Who's there? Where are you?"

"Liam, correct?" That was his name. The moment the voice said it, it all came back to him. He was in the middle of a very intense game match, stuck with some idiots for teammates when his chest began to hurt. He thought he could shrug it off until the match ended, but those dumbasses were just so infuriating, throwing themselves at the enemy when they can't even aim correctly. He couldn't believe that some people were so unskilled that they killed him! Even thinking about it now he could feel himself getting angry all over again.

Paper rustling brought his attention back to wherever "here" was, since he was still floating in space and there wasn't any paper near him. "Let's see here… Unemployed. College dropout. Reclusive. Death by heart attack via energy drinks. That sound about right?"

Liam huffed. He just knew that voice was judging him, just like all the rest. He doesn't know him. He doesn't know what's it like out there! "It's not my fault that modern life is incompatible with my lifestyle." He would cross his arms if he had any.

"And what lifestyle would that be?"

He paused, and squinted his eyes in the hopes that this disembodied voice see his suspicion. This had to be a test. Liam had long since learned that people don't appreciate his vision, and would end up nagging him to "do something useful." When the voice didn't speak up, he decided to throw the question back at him and gauge his response. "Why do you care?"

Pen tapped against a desk, though he still couldn't see anything except the stars. "Well, I might have a fun little plan. If you're interested."

Success! He could get away with hiding himself. It's not like he was ashamed or anything. He was just tired of hearing the same nagging over and over again. It got tiring, and it was much easier to avoid it in the first place. "In that case, I might be interested. What did you have in mind?"

The atmosphere of the conversation shifted to something more pleasurable. Hard to say since there was no face or body language to read, but there was something i the voice's voice that seemed a bit more happy. "There's this planet, right about… here." Stars blurred together, lights shot across his vision in a dizzying mess and Liam was in a completely different part of space all in the span of a second. Right in front of his eyes, rotating ever so slowly, was a gas giant. A bit red with purple and gold bands of dust, shifting across its mass. And right in front of it, which Liam suspected was the actual focus of the conversation, a blue dot, not unlike Earth. Small lands speckled the surface, with very little of the polar caps actually holding ice. Winds pushed heavy clouds, with one area of the small planet forming a hurricane.

"Is something wrong with it?"

The voice sighed. "Sadly, yes. You see, there's this little problem with these nasty creatures getting in the way of their worship to me. I want you to kill these creatures and the heretics worshiping them."

"Are you… God?"

"I am powerful, yes. And I can grant all that you desire. All you need to do, is a little fighting and spread my name."

This was his chance. Now he could become the hero he was always meant to be. He could swoop in at the last second, kill some creatures, and save some babies all in one fell swoop. Everyone would cheer his name, and throw money at his feet. He would be rich, and adored by all!

Each passing thought swelled his ambition higher and higher. He had to calm himself, lest he give it all away. He needed to negotiate. That's how these things went, right? Only he could help this poor, poor planet, so this God should give him whatever he asked for. "Alright, I'll do it. On a few conditions."

"What is it you ask for?"

Liam couldn't help but smirk. Score! "I want magic. And to be strong. And a way to see my health." He didn't want to be stabbed and not notice, or get hit so often he died. It's only natural to want to see what was wrong with your body.

"Predictable, but fine. What else?"

"I… I want to be able to fight. I don't know how right now." He admitted to one weakness, just to keep things fair. He didn't want this God to think he was being greedy, after all.

"If you have magic you will already know how to fight. Plus, your file here says you play a lot of games. You should know how to fight."

"Well, fighting in a game isn't the same as fighting in real life! Obviously what kind of person would be able to fight just by playing games?" It's not like they give sword fighting lessons anymore. He would totally do it if he could.

"Fine, fine. Is that all?"

He didn't think he'd get that far. If he had time to prepare he would've made a list. Well, he at least got something. Liam was sure he would be fine with what he managed to negotiate. He would be getting magic, after all. "That's all."

After a moment a few papers popped up in front of his face. A contract, by the looks of it. "Sign."

It was a rather long contract, and what little he scanned over was filled with advanced legalese. Even thinking about reading it made his head hurt. "How? I don't have a pen."

"With your finger. Ugh, must I speak everything?" The voice mumbled something about annoying humans. The voice was really starting to piss him off. Whatever. At least he was getting magic powers out of this. Then he'll never have to hear from him again.

Liam didn't bother to read the multi-page contract. He assumed it was similar to those terms of service contracts that websites get you to agree to before allowing you on their website. Once he was done, it poofed back out of existence. His eyes began to droop, and he felt so, so tired all at once. It was a struggle to keep them open. His eyesight must have been playing tricks on him, because he swore the stars had shifted ever so slightly into a grin, right before it all began to blur together. The last thing he saw was his own soul approaching the garden planet at a very intense speed.