Tempting Fate Absolute

A man comes to the end of his life, only to realize he's not the first, and has been living in a horrific loop for millennia.

David fell. The city skyline view from here was breathtaking, or it would be if the leap hadn't already taken it away.  As the ground approached, time slowed. All the dread of tomorrow, the abyss of numbness, the existential nightmare, gave way to clarity in its pureness. The lens in which he viewed life was incomplete - but it was too late. He couldn't finish his thought before the ground was too close-

Every part of his being rushed back at once. Countless lives spread across the countless millennia. He once again foolishly thought he was the first…

Then, he remembered where he was. The great blank canvas, the light of eternity. He'd come to call it 'The All Seeing Eye'. He stared into it once, and it stared back. He'd felt…he feels inconsequential, inadequate. The indifference is nauseating, as if it's warping the very reality that he's standing in-

He had to break focus lest he lose another age to the terror of existence before a being so far beyond himself. Did it even know he was there? He stood before a mirror of himself…themself. They had taken many faces over many lives over many eons, all ending the same way - all but one…the first. The memories flooded in.

The empire they'd ruled blurred into view. They - no. She was standing before a great body of water. She had everything: a great many lovers to please her at her whim, servants by the hundreds for the countless tasks she deemed unworthy of her attention, a powerful army at her side. Still, something was missing, and she could never figure out what it was. It clearly wasn't love she was lacking, nor wealth, nor methods to express herself. Perhaps she was missing something greater. She'd conquered lovers' hearts, her subjects' wills, her enemies' lands. Now, she would conquer fate itself, maybe that would be enough to satisfy. Steeling herself, she dove deep into the lake, searching for the most hidden secret of them all, the orb from legend old, the eye of fate incarnate…surely the answer to life itself.

There they were again, the mirror of themself, staring back blankly. This would be their body in the next life, ready to be shaped anew, to try yet again, and hopefully live a fulfilling life. All this power to control their own appearance and origin, and they've never found happiness to last to a natural death! The cruelty of absolute choice, with no reprieve from the same fate, and no exit strategy other than to try again…again…again…again…if only they had been content and not…tempted fate.