I’m not sure what I was, but one thing was for sure, I was no longer human, nor a witch. The two powers continued to swirl through my body in an ever increasing symphony of power. Repeatedly destroying everything in my body down to the tiniest cell and then healing it back to perfect health. Each time this cycle of death and rebirth happened my body grew stronger. Nobody could handle such power, anyone else would have exploded from the power now swirling within me, but my body was no longer that of a human and every second it was growing stronger.
Whatever the grim reaper had done to me, it had changed me on a deep and fundamental level. I wasn’t even sure what I was. I knew one thing that I was, I was grateful. I was alive and healed and I was so very grateful. Tears flowed from my eyes, tears of joy to be alive.
Another wave of death washed through my body. If one could slow down time they would see my skin wrinkle and turn grey, my muscles withering away, my eyes becoming cloudy as my sight left me. They would see my hair turning white and my bones weakening. All the signs of one who has lived a long and full life.
Right after that moment they would see another wave of warm life energy flooding into my body. My skin growing firm and tight once again. My skin glowing with life energy. My muscles bulging, becoming even bigger than before. My eyes growing clear and sharp and my hair becoming dark and luscious once more. It was a perfect system.
The changes happened so fast it appeared I was vibrating. My body was even giving off a slight humming noise. The cycle continued over and over again. A wave of cold death energy rushed through my body, it felt like having ice cold water suddenly poured onto you. Then the warmth of life energy flowing behind it, healing the destroyed part of my body, making it even stronger than before. Like how a weight lifter breaks down their own muscles so there body can rebuild them stronger than before. This endless cycle was refining my body.
Black sludge began to appear on my skin as the remaining impurities in my body were being forced out through my skin. My body eventually reached a point it could not be refined any more. Once this happened the entire process began to stabilize. No more black sludge was forced out of my skin.
I went to the bathroom and stood in the shower. The black sludge was sticky, but I managed to wash it off. As I continued to wash I noticed something strange, but exciting. Every scar, no matter how big or small was gone. It appeared even my skin was receiving a second chance at life.
I stepped out of the shower and put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I sighed with relief as the death energy that rushed through my body no longer caused it to wither and die. Even if no one else could see all the cells in my body dying repeatedly I could feel it. As the pain left me I began to smile. The cycle of life and death had finally stopped. The amount of life and death qi now contained within my body was staggering. It was like I had two oceans of energy within my body. My body felt solid, strong, and I felt grounded and reborn.
The realization that I was alive hit me like an angry drunk in a bar. I was alive, I was going to stay alive. I now had a life to live, a good life with a strong healthy body. I had an entire life to live. I had so many things I could do. I could get married, have kids, and grow old. I never even considered the possibility before. Doors of possibility opened within my mind, my future was now unlimited.
I had never even dated. Why would I want someone to love me if I knew they would soon lose me? I wouldn’t want the person I love to suffer in that way. Things were different now, I could love someone and let them love me in return. My mind exploded with the possibilities.
Now that I was no longer dying I made a promise to myself. From now on I would finally start living.
Chapter 6
The notes Bob took were wonderful. He was kind and patient while he talked me through all of his notes. He even added his own insights. He had even managed to stay the entire time for all of our classes. I was proud of him. I was happy to be alive and I was happy to have a great friend like Bob.
It was impossible for me to stop smiling today. There is a peaceful but uplifting feeling knowing that you should be dead, but you’re alive and have an entire life ahead of you to live.
The next day I returned to class. Things were going smoothly until our Zombies for Beginners class. Ms. Olga demonstrated the entire process of creating a zombie. Bob was doing well until Ms.Olga’s zombie shuffled over to him. Bob didn’t want anything to do with dead things, but that seemed to make the dead things try twice as hard to get his attention.
“DEAD THINGS SHOULD STAY DEAD!” Bob ran from the room screaming.
The zombie was hot on his heels. I briefly wondered if the zombie had a crush on him. I leaned back in my chair laughing. It was good to be alive. I wasn’t worried. There was no way that zombie could catch Bob, he was running way too fast for that to happen.
Bob missed out on learning several interesting tricks to quickly raise zombies. Knowledge that I would use several times in my life. My long and wonderful life.
Bob didn’t return for the rest of the class, but he did show up for the start of our demonology class. The demonology teacher was an older gentleman named Chaz. He had noticed Bob’s distress at his zombie head from the previous class so he had removed it. I felt that was very thoughtful of him.
As Bob sat down I caught a glimpse of something on Bob’s wrist. It looked like an anvil and a hammer, but it was hard to tell because it soon slipped beneath the sleeve of his shirt. I was a little surprised Bob had a tattoo. Go Bob, you wild man. Perhaps there was hope for him yet.
Nyxra was in class again today and I was happy to sit by her. Nyxra looked very pretty today. She also smelled nice. Today was just a wonderful day.
“You feeling better today?” Nyxra asked me in an awkward way. I felt like she wasn’t used to being the nurturing type. Her black cat was on a nearby bookshelf next to a demon in a jar. The cat was watching me intently, almost like it knew something was different about me. I decided to ignore it.
“Much better, thank you for asking,” I gave her a big thumbs up. Who was alive and had two thumbs. This guy!
She was wearing a dark green outfit so dark it looked black with a black pointed witch’s hat. She had dark green eye shadow on that made her look sexy and mysterious.
“Your eye shadow makes you look really pretty,” I complimented her. I had just died, so talking to a girl would no longer cause me to be shy. Plus I was ready to get on with my life. Even if she told me I was ugly and to never talk to her again it would still be me living life. I was looking forward to the best and the worst life had to throw at me. She just gave me a beautiful smile that could light up the darkest nights.
“Thank you,” she replied. I was in a state of euphoria and bliss. I was on cloud nine.
Chaz started to teach and we turned to listen.
“There are several ways to summon a demon. The most common way is to use its true name. This is often used to summon some of the darkest and most powerful demons this world has ever seen. I have been forbidden to summon such powerful and evil demons by the school,” said Chaz in a loud clear voice. “Otherwise we could use the Dean’s name to summon him,” he mumbled quietly to himself.
“I can, however, teach you how to summon common merchant demons. I happen to be familiar with a harmless merchant demon, but one of high standing, that would be perfect as a classroom example. Now remember class no matter what this demon says or does, you must not make a sound. Let me do all the talking.”
The teacher drew a pentagram on the floor using scotch tape. Then he placed candles at each point, they looked suspiciously like reused happy birthday candles. The closest candle to me looked like a wax candle in the shape of an H. The other candles looked like an A, P, P, and finally a Y candle. The bottom of the Y looked like it had some cake on it. I had a bad feeling about this summoning.
“Come forth %$#(@*^#,” Chaz commanded. I was unable to understand the name as it sounded like a combination of snarls to me. The pentagram created wi
th tape glowed neon blue. A fat, green skinned, pointy eared demon appeared, no taller than two feet high. His eyes were a pale yellow and he was smoking a cigar and was wearing a tiny business suit. His nose was rather large for his size and was rather pointed as well.
“I am the great and powerful merchant demon %$#(@*^#. I rule over seven thousand demon merchants. I have a net worth of over 7 million souls and I’m willing to grant anyone here one wish at the low cost of their eternal soul. There is no wish I can’t grant,” said the demon with a very crooked looking smile. It appeared he had learned his smile from a used car salesman or vice versa.
“I want to be brave, make me brave! I’m tired of being afraid of dead things!” yelled Bob. Chaz face-palmed. He had just warned the class not to talk. The demon looked at Bob and waved his hand. It glowed blue, but then sputtered out. The light flickered a few more times, but nothing happened.
“Well this is awkward,” frowned the demon as he had performance issues. “Sorry kid, that will take more magic than I have,” mumbled the demon. Bob laid his head down on his desk in disappointment. Chaz glared at him and began to berate him for talking to the demon. While everyone was distracted, Nyxra’s black cat walked over to the demon and began to meow towards him.
“The wife and kids are doing well,” the demon replied to the cat.
“Meow meow meow,” the black cat replied.
“Oh yes, she’s three hundred this year, already learning to write contracts using blood just like her father.”
“Meow meow.”
“We should all get together sometime,” said the demon with a genuine smile.
Chaz had stopped fussing at Bob and watched the last part of the conversation with the rest of the class. Everyone was staring with open mouths except for Nyxra and Chaz, they didn’t seem surprised at all. Nyxra watched the exchange with an amused smirk while she rested her chin in her hand and leaned forward on the desk.
The demon and the cat both turned and looked at the entire class staring at them as they finally noticed that they were the only ones talking. There was an awkward atmosphere permeating the entire class.
Chaz face-palmed once again. “Just…everyone…leave, get out, class…dismissed.”
Chapter 7
The weekend finally arrived and several students decided to go home, including Bob. I decided to stay at school. It was nice to have the room to myself since it was so small. The silence was rather nice. Bob was a lot of things, but quiet wasn’t one of them.
Nyxra had stayed on campus and I got to spend time getting to know her over cafeteria lunch and a movie we watched together in my dorm room. She confessed to me that Chaz was her father but asked me not to tell the other students in our class so they wouldn’t think that she was getting any special treatment. I assured her that I would keep the information between us. Although she generally got along with everyone, I could tell that the others were a bit intimidated by her already. She had such a strong presence, it was captivating but also a bit scary.
I had been floating on cloud nine since coming back to life and I was finally coming down from my natural high. There were still moments when I’d see something like squirrels playing in the grass and suddenly I would stop and smile like an idiot though. Life is so short. Just for this moment everyone I knew and loved was alive and happy. I knew that could change in an instant.
I had gone for a walk around the school with Nyxra, but now I was rushing back up the stairs to my dorm. I wanted to get back to my room and grab a quick shower. I was so excited I was careless and I was running up the school steps. I lost my balance and tripped. I tried to grab for the railing but missed. I fell backwards, hitting my back hard on the stone stairs, then I rolled down several more stairs landing awkwardly. Luckily my skull broke my fall.
Strangely, I was fine. No scratches, no bruises, no caved in skull. I had felt different after dying, but I still didn’t know the full extent of those changes. I needed to talk to someone more experienced in these kinds of things, but no one was really experienced in something like this.
The school had different areas of study. Elementalists, necromancers, support magic, psychics, and even body refinement. There is also a section of the school that is dedicated to those that don’t fit into any of these areas called “others”. We don’t talk about “others”.
I needed to talk to someone about the changes in my body and I decided a body refinement master would probably be the best choice. Body refinement was basically focused on using magic to strengthen one’s body. I could think of nowhere better to learn about the changes in my body. I decided not to mention that I had died though. Even in a world of magic that would freak people out. I had no plans with anyone on Sunday, so I decided to go ahead and start my research into my new body that morning.
The training ground was outside of the school, near the south side of the school. It was a large field with equipment to train in. Half of the people on the field were fighting each other and the other half were either running laps around the field or lifting boulders. The sight was rather intimidating. I watched one of the more impressive fights.
“Flame Fist!” yelled a man as his entire hand became engulfed with flames. He punched towards his opponent, but moments before his fist connected with the opponent’s palm his opponent could be heard yelling “Stone Palm.” His entire hand became grey right before my eyes. The punch appeared to have been rendered ineffective. Both men then leaped backwards. One had his feet surrounded in lightning and his movements were fierce and quick. The other man’s feet were surrounded in shadow and his movements were dark and shrouded.
I was distracted by the fight so I didn’t realize someone had walked up behind me. Before I knew what was happening this person punched me in the back of the head. If my body hadn’t undergone its recent changes the force of that blow would have probably knocked me unconscious and possibly killed me. As I was now it only caused me slight pain, and great annoyance.
“What are you doing on my training ground, punk?”
I turned and ended up looking down at a student I had never met before. He was shorter than me by at least a foot and he didn’t look all that bright either. Before I could give my perfectly sarcastic reply I felt a gust of wind and an older gentleman appeared behind the boy.
“Causing trouble again I see,” mumbled the old man as he punched the boy in the back of his head. The boy’s eyes dimmed as he was knocked unconscious. A fitting punishment in my opinion. The old man turned and looked at me questioningly.
“My name is Tarous, honorable sir, and I was looking for someone that might be able to tell me a little about recent changes in my body.”
The old man looked at me and grinned. “Boy, it’s not my job to teach students about puberty.”
Despite his comment he leaned over and began examining me. He pinched my arm and started examining my fingers.
“You are different. Your body looks like it belongs to someone who has spent several years training in body refinement. Your skin is tough enough to turn blades and your bones are as hard as steel. Interesting.”
He continued to study me. “With body refinement, first you train your body to a high level. The process strengthens your bones, skin, muscles, and even your tendons. Then you learn special fighting techniques that are different from the spells the other students learn. We use these specialized techniques to harness the energy inside and outside of our bodies to fight with.”
I reflected on his words as he continued to examine me by poking and prodding different places on my torso. He squinted as he looked into my eyes like he was trying to find something in them.
“Your entire body, including your organs, have all been refined. Your body is currently similar to a body refining expert who has spent decades refining his body. No matter the technique there are always imperfections. Whatever method you’ve used is strange, as I can detect no impurities within your body. It’s almost like you were born with this body instead of h
aving to train for it.”
I was startled by how close to the truth this man was. The old man paused and continued to watch me before he started talking again.
“In fact, we train in qi instead of magic. It is simply a different kind of energy and your entire body is saturated with qi, specifically life and death qi. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.”
“I have been watching what I eat lately,” I replied with a smile. I even sucked in my stomach a little. The man raised an eyebrow but motioned me over to a shady spot and told me the basics of body refining. I found it interesting how much body refining and the eastern technique that I had learned had in common.
“I don’t believe your body is able to be refined anymore, but I bet you’re lacking techniques. Is that correct?” asked the old man. I nodded. I had no idea how to do what the two men fighting a second ago were doing.
“Alright, I’ll tell you what. I will take you on as an honorary disciple. Basically I will become your master in all things body refining related and pass on a few fighting techniques to you and you will call me master going forward. If you accept this kowtow to me three times.”
I had learned enough from my studies to know what a kowtow was so I got on my knees and bowed till my head touched the ground. I did this three times. I was rather thankful for the help. I stopped on my last kowtow, while my forehead was still touching the ground.
“Master, may your disciple know your name?”
“My name is Henry Dagon.”
“Master your disciple is known as Tarous Sun.” I stood up from the ground, taking the time to brush off my pants.
The old man waved his hand over the ring he had on his left hand. Two black books and one white book suddenly appeared in his right hand. The two black books were on bottom and the white one on top. They were all about one inch thick.
“Seeing as your body has a large amount of death and life qi inside of it, these techniques are a perfect match for you.” The first book he handed me was the white book. Its cover was completely white and appeared to be made of leather. On the cover were the words Healing Angel Hands written in gold.
Tarous Page 3
