Tarous, стр. 42

Discouragingly, Chaz had absorbed enough power that he was also uninjured. Luckily, without the witches the pentagram began to flicker and eventually dispersed.

I turned to look at the reaper and deep down I knew it was too late for him. He was as tall as a normal man. One second he seemed solid, but the next I could see right through him.

“Hello death, my old friend.”

He looked so tired and small, but he still managed to look at me and give me a knowing smile. We both knew this was the last time we would ever meet. He was dying, but he didn’t seem sad. He had lived a long time. He had seen many things. He had grown tired of this life. Gathering the last of his fading strength he leaned on his scythe to keep himself standing.

I moved closer to help him and he placed his hand on my shoulder and gave me a brief nod. So much was said with just a nod. He held out his scythe and as soon as my hand grasped it, cracks appeared on his skull. Little pieces of bone shard fell from his face. The pieces of bone fell faster and faster. The reaper was disintegrating before my eyes and in moments even those pieces shattered until he had completely turned to dust. His robes turned to black qi that swirled around me into the black robes of death.

I was the new death. I had the power of a god. I could kill with a thought. I felt strength like I never had before. The power was overwhelming. I could kill the entire monster world. I could kill anyone.

The reaper faded away and for the first time, I heard him speak. I was able to hear his last words. They echoed through the universe and through my very soul.

“Always be kind.”

Then he was gone, like he never existed. I knew he existed. I knew his sacrifice. For one instant I hated all of life. Knowing that in the world, somewhere, were people that were happy made me burn with anger and hate. How dare they be happy when someone as great as the reaper had passed.

I calmed myself. I knew most of the world wouldn’t even know the reaper had died. Mortals would never know. How could I blame them for living their lives unaware of what had transpired?

Then my attention was drawn back to myself. I was the new death, but I was not whole. Chaz still had something that belonged to me.

“NO! You’ve ruined EVERYTHING! I will kill you!” he shrieked.

As long as both of us had part of death’s power, neither of us could truly become death.

“Today is not my day to die,” I replied as I walked towards Chaz.

“You can’t kill me. I will become the new death and I will never die.”

“We humans do love to believe that we will never die, despite all the evidence that points to the fact that we will.”

“I will never die! I will become more powerful than even death!” Chaz continued to screech.

“The rantings of a child.”

As much as I liked the traditional weapons like the scythe and short swords, the weapon I thought of in that moment was a gun. With that thought, the scythe changed and reformed as a black sub-machine gun. It was beautiful. It was also alive. It was a manifestation of my power in the world of men.

Chaz raised his arms and a black sphere of death energy formed above him. He was not only gathering death qi from our surroundings, he was also using the power he had stolen from the reaper.

There could be only one death. Since we both had a part of death’s power, neither of us was truly death. For now, his attack was more than enough to kill me.

“Now you will die!” He threw the blast of death qi straight at me.

“Crap, crap, crap.” I didn’t have time to avoid the blast.

Something flew in front of me, obstructing my vision, taking the blast of death qi directly. It took me a moment to realize that the something was Nyxra. I froze, my insides froze, and I felt empty. I instantly denied everything my eyes were seeing.

Everything froze and I knew a fear worse than death. I did my best to deny reality, but that fear forced its way into my mind. I was afraid to take a single breath, because if I did the world would continue on and the truth I feared would become reality.

The truth is we mortals do not have the ability to freeze time, no matter how much we may wish it. The world continued to spin, time continued on, and there was nothing I could do about Nyxra’s body lying on the ground in front of me.

Then I heard someone screaming. Someone was screaming so loud it hurt my ears. I realized both Chaz and I were screaming. For the next few moments everything became a blur.

Chaz was shaking his daughter, but she wasn’t reacting. She was dead. I fell to my knees and just kneeled there on the ground. I was empty. No thought, no emotion, I couldn’t feel anything. Some distant part of me realized I was in shock. It was almost like I was watching myself, like I was an observer and none of this had anything to do with me.

I saw Chaz stand up. He was looking off into the distance. He took my reaper gun that was formerly the reaper’s scythe. It had fallen from my hands at some point and I hadn’t realized I was no longer holding it until that moment.

All he had to do was shoot me. Then all the powers that death had granted to me would go to him because he was the only other candidate to become the new death. When I died he would officially become the new grim reaper and then he could bring one person to