Tarous, стр. 45
“My finger…” cried the God of Love as he drew his knees to his chest and rocked back and forth.
“YOU’RE AN EMBARESSMENT TO GODS EVERYWHERE!” yelled Cronus at the top of his lungs.
“I just want to be loved,” said Cupid.
“What if I did want to change things a little? Like have the body of every human that dies instantly teleport to the monster world?”
“That’s a strange request. I don’t know about teleportation, but all you would need to do is will it to happen and your soul guides will do their best to make it happen. If you don’t already know, you will have a little over a thousand soul guides following your orders. They are all echoes of yourself. What they see you will see, what they hear you will hear, but they will move on their own with limited intelligence. They are only a pale representation of yourself, but without them your job is impossible. When they go to collect the souls of the dead at the moment of their death, will them to take the bodies to the monster world.”
Cronus waved his hand in my direction and a black tattoo of an hourglass appeared on the back of my left hand.
“What’s this?”
“A gift, the same I gave to the previous holder of your office. When he died it reverted back to me and now I’m giving it to you. It gives you partial authority over time, second only to me. Your soul guides will act in your place and will now have plenty of time to guide all new souls to the next life. If you want to gain direct power over time, you only have to speak the activation words, ‘in time everything arrives at death’s door.’”
“Thanks, I guess.”
“Don’t worry, we will be keeping an eye on you.”
With those words, Cronus and the crying Cupid disappeared.
Chapter 25
I sat in the school’s cafeteria reflecting on recent events. Even as death I couldn’t bring back someone who had already died, but with my control over death and partial powers of time I could impose my will for Bob, Nyxra, and my parents not to die. Of course they could still die from an injury, but not from old age. They would remain at their current ages just like me. I decided not to tell them and just let it be a surprise.
I looked around the cafeteria and noticed how few witches there were. A room that would normally have been bustling at lunch time was almost empty. So many things had changed. I didn’t like coffee so I bought an orange juice to drink.
I had sent a message to Edward by tying a note around the neck of a zombie rat. It explained that all human bodies that died would appear on his side. I also informed him that no matter what the reason, should the monster realm ever invade the human realm then I, as the God of Death, would wipe his entire planet clean of all forms of life. Not a single monster would be spared.
I knew Edward would follow my instructions, but I had another concern. A large amount of monsters had already entered the human world. Also, we had lost a large percentage of the witches in the world. In fact, several of the strongest had been among the ones I had killed that were creating the pentagram for Chaz. I wasn’t sure there would even be a school of witchcraft in the future. I needed help tracking down all the monsters in the world and exterminating them. Unfortunately, we were severely lacking in man power. I wasn’t sure what to do next, so I decided to spend some time hunting the monsters that were foolish enough to sneak into the human realm to feast.
“Tarous, how are you doing?” asked Bob, walking up from behind me.
“Just peachy,” I replied and then took another swig of my orange juice. Vitamin C is good for you after all. “Or should that be ‘just orange-y’.” Ah, the great conversations I have. The last time I had one this thought provoking, I had been drunk.
“I hear Nyxra is doing fine.”
“Physically she has made a full recovery. Mentally… That may take some time. She lost her father yesterday and in some ways she lost her mother again.”
“That would be tough on anyone,” replied Bob in a sympathetic tone.
Truthfully, Nyxra had shut me and everyone else out. After she woke up I had filled her in on everything that happened. She had spent over an hour sobbing into my shoulder, then asked to be alone. Since then she had been locked in her room not seeing anyone. I had left food outside her door, but I wasn’t sure if she had eaten it.
Bob and I sat at the cafeteria table, no longer speaking. So much can be said without speaking and the truth was we all needed to sort out everything that had happened recently. I was thankful to Bob because he remained patient and loyal through everything. It was nice to have such a great best friend.
For me, I was no longer human. I was a manifestation of one of the primal actions of the universe. I was death. Whether people thought of me as a god or a mere physical representation of it, either way I was no longer human. I did not need to eat or sleep. It was nearly impossible to injure me unless I allowed it. No human nor witch had ever been this powerful before. I had always thought of witches as humans plus magic. Was I now a witch plus godhood?
“The truth is, the next step is easy. We have monsters to hunt. So let’s get to it,” I said as I stood and finished the last of my orange juice by quickly chugging