Tarous, стр. 70
“I am Tarous, God of Death. You cannot break me.”
In my mind I pictured my core, my essence, as some unbreakable marble. Nothing they could do would break me. Time continued forward. Far more years had passed than I had been alive. Had it been two centuries or three?
I was forced to watch everyone I ever loved die, repeatedly. Every horrible scenario and every possible bad thing that could happen had happened. None of it broke me. I gained confidence in myself with every personal victory. It was my undoing.
I was sure I had been trapped at least three centuries by now. Memories of my life had begun to fade. Had that ever really happened or was it also an illusion? I became mentally exhausted, something that should be impossible for a god, but still I refused to break. I just needed to hold out.
It wasn’t some grand elaborate illusion that broke me. It started as a light pain. That little pain grew and grew until I was in more pain than I thought possible. All I wanted was the pain to end. I begged for death. I whimpered in the dark, alone, without hope.
The black marble in my mind, my unbreakable core, cracked. It started with a single crack, but the speed of the cracking began to escalate. Soon my core, my very soul, was broken. Then it shattered. The tiny pieces continued to shatter until they became dust particles.
Still it didn’t end. The death I begged for didn’t come. I was death and I could not die, no matter how much I begged for it. The fear of death I had always harbored in my heart was gone. I truly knew that there were things worse than death. How messed up was that?
[Congratulations. You have passed the level 2 test. You now understand there are worse things in life than death. Your reward for becoming level 2 is to receive instruction from a God King of Death from another universe.]
With that I was swallowed up by the blessed darkness.
Chapter 40
I awoke on the ground outside the temple entrance. Bob was nowhere in sight. It was night, but it wasn’t dark because most of the makeshift city was in flames. I didn’t move for several moments, as the euphoria of no longer being in pain mixed with the panic and confusion of the chaos around me. A loud blast shook the ground and echoed through the city.
I finally sat up and got slowly to my feet, leaning against the side of the temple. My powers were back. I seemed to be in nearly the same condition as when I had entered the temple, and it did not appear that much time had passed. A few hours or days maybe.
Demons ran everywhere. I summoned my scythe and started to walk through the city. It appeared that everyone in the city had been killed. Since we were not on Earth, the bodies had remained where they fell. Finally, I spotted Cronus. Tiny mountains of demons surrounded him.
A large group of rather fierce looking demons came my way as I made my way toward Cronus. I fully embraced the power of death I had regained. I started to grow taller and my black robes began to billow out. The sky darkened and an insane laughter escaped my throat.
I wanted to make the demons hurt like I had been hurt. I wanted to vent my pain.
The demons all turned and ran. Every single demon. I think they recognized me. I gave chase, but their fear made them run extremely fast.
One tripped and became my first prey. My black robes billowed around him and he began to scream. Soon from beneath my robes I threw out the skull then a few ribs and a thigh bone. After that I tossed a few more ribs and then the few remaining bones of the demon. They all landed in a pile with not a scrap of flesh left on any of the bones.
I began to look for my next victim, but a beam of energy struck me in the chest, sending me flying backwards. Landing on my back, I shrank back down to my normal size to make myself less of a target. I hadn’t seen where it had come from, but that blast had the power of a god behind it.
The sky grew even darker as black portals began to open up everywhere. From each portal a line of golden metallic gargoyles marched out onto the planet. Though it is hard to read the emotions on the face of a gargoyle, they didn’t look friendly.
Each appeared to be at least twenty feet tall and made of gold. They moved with grace and coordination, despite their size. They also moved in perfect formation like a well-trained military. Their movements made me realize each of the creatures was intelligent.
I also saw several gods mixed in with the creatures coming through the portals. Cronus limped over to me.
“Two can play at that game,” he said with a smile as giant balls of light began to float all around us and Cronus opened his own portals.
The first to step out was Cupid, God of Love. Many different people stepped out from the portals, but I didn’t recognize most of them. I could tell that several of them were gods. Finally, both sides appeared to be evenly matched.
“Is this everyone?” I wondered out loud.
“There is one more, handsome,” said a voice I recognized.
I turned and swept Nyxra up in a hug.
“Good to see you,” I replied.
“Likewise.”
“About what happened…”
“I don’t need an explanation. I