Tarous, стр. 51

Taking a deep breath, I repeated the process. As the death qi increased in the vortex more life qi was drawn out of the air to accumulate inside me, slowly balancing out the vortex of qi. The rate I was absorbing life qi was insane. The power didn’t trickle into me, it flooded. I was being drowned in the overwhelming flood of power.

I repeated the process over and over again, but it seemed like there was no end to the amount of life and death qi I could absorb. The vortex inside of me grew far larger than I had ever felt before. I could feel the power coursing throughout my entire body.

This technique had the added effect of tempering the body and I could feel my body starting to change. Then like a dam breaking, I could feel something drastically change within my body. A black sludge began to squeeze itself out of my pores. It was the impurities and harmful things that had been inside my body.

My body was now covered with a nasty, smelly, sludge. I sat very still. I felt so dirty, and I didn’t want to touch anything. Crowley stopped fishing to watch me. He had a large smile on his face as if he found the entire situation hilarious.

I walked down to the water and kneeled down to bathe. I managed to wash all the black sludge off of my body, though it was difficult since the stuff was sticky like tar. Once finished, I sat on the banks of the lake and let the sun bake me dry.

It was nice to just relax. I felt wonderful. My body felt different, stronger. I felt like I had changed on a fundamental level. I was bursting with energy and I smiled just because it was good to be alive.

I knew my body was even stronger than it was before. The technique I had used was originally meant to strengthen my body, I just didn’t think it was able to strengthen my body anymore since I became the god of death. How powerful was a technique that could strengthen a god?

The more I thought about my technique the more I realized what I needed to do. I had learned the technique from a damaged book called the “Heavenly Emperor World Technique.” Unfortunately I only had the first chapter. But now that I had the man power, or soul power as it were, I could search the entire world for any pieces or clues about the technique. I might even be able to find the next chapter. I sent out my orders to all of my soul guides. I could sense acknowledgement from all of them. They knew this was high priority and took their mission seriously.

I continued to watch Crowley play as I laid there. He was truly too cute. Just sitting in the sun, in nature, watching that cute little puppy have fun helped me to mend my heart. Your first love is always the hardest.

As I sat there baking in the hot sun, I realized it was finally time to return home. I called Crowley over and when he came close I scooped up my tiny little dog and called upon the powers of my mantel of death. More memories from the previous grim reapers floated into my mind. A new technique appeared and now I would no longer need to draw pentagrams to travel long distances instantly.

I activated the Death Is Everywhere technique. Black death qi swirled around me and I took a step forward. Suddenly I was back at the school gates. With a single step I had returned to my old stomping grounds. I had spent enough time moping and mending. I was ready to be home.

No one had noticed me appearing out of thin air. People were walking around as normal, no one paid me any special attention. People are used to the strange and weird in a school of witches. I imagined that this air of nonchalance was rather similar to the attitude of people in New York City, though I hope at least someone would pause for a second at the sight of a man appearing out of thin air. From what I had heard about New York, they might not.

One guard eventually seemed to notice me. He whispered to another guard and then at a brisk pace left for the school building. The remaining guard watched me. He had a wary look in his eyes. I returned his stare, not blinking even once.

Crowley decided he was bored and tired of being held. He started to wiggle until I grew tired of his actions and put him down. He immediately ran off. He tended to do that more and more often.

Moments later Bob came running out to meet me. I hadn’t realized how much I had missed him. Despite that, I put him off when he started to speak by yelling at him.

“I don’t want to hear it, Bob!”

“Wait, you don’t understand! He was an Incubus, he was using his powers on her.”

At that point Bob had to stop talking. He was out of breath from being out of shape and running out here.

A flash of different emotions flooded into me faster than I could process them. Disbelief. Anger. Guilt. Sadness. Pain. Was this true? Had I abandoned Nyxra in the moment she needed me most?

“Is that really true Bob?”

“Yes! Yes it is true. Edward Rask has spent days here trying to calm down the situation. Several of the elders from the council of witches wanted to destroy the alliance we’ve built. Some of the witches have even called for war with the monsters once again. We have barely been keeping things together here.”

A wave of guilt washed over me.

“How is Nyxra?”

I was instantly worried about her. The dam I had built up to separate me from my emotions for her instantly broke.

“It’s