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 not your fault Tarous, you didn’t know.”
It didn’t matter what Bob said, I knew deep down I had failed her.
“How is she Bob?”
“Ever since you left she has been blaming herself.”
I felt like I had been stabbed in the heart. She needed me and I hadn’t been there for her.
“It isn’t really her fault though.”
“No it isn’t, but she is still torn up about it. She is helping with the efforts to avoid the war but otherwise she stays locked in her room.”
“It’s my fault. I should have known. I should have trusted her. I let her down.”
“Tarous, it isn’t your fault. The only one who is at fault is that Incubus.”
I thought about the Incubus whose soul I had trapped in an unending loop of eternal suffering. I wish I could think of something worse to do to him.
I made a promise to never let her down again. I knew it was an impossible promise, but somehow I would accomplish it.
“Edward has even brought over Mary, a Succubus from the monster world I believe you’ve already met. They have been profusely apologizing to the council of witches. So far we are just barely avoiding war.”
I thought about it. With my new powers we could wipe out the entire world of monsters. From the sound of things, it wouldn’t be too hard to push everyone over the tipping point. I thought about Edward and decided I didn’t want to kill all the monsters. Some were ok, I guess.
I wanted to go and see Nyxra so badly I couldn’t stay still. I was ashamed. I didn’t know, but she needed me and I had abandoned her. I needed to see her. I needed to apologize. Even if she decided to hate me, I would accept it.
I turned and headed towards Nyxra’s room. There had been some changes and repairs to the school while I was gone, but I still found my way there with ease. Bob paused, unsure about whether to follow or not. In the end he decided to give us the space we needed.
I stopped outside her door and knocked.
“Go away!”
“It’s me, Tarous.”
There was silence.
I sighed. “I’m sorry, Nyxra. I didn’t know.”
Still I was met with silence. I continued to stand there for a few minutes, waiting to see if anyone would answer.
I started to turn when the door opened and a feminine hand reached out and grabbed me by the collar of my shirt. I was roughly pulled into the dark room, but honestly I did not mind.
Chapter 30
Nyxra and I spent several days together alone talking and we made up. Four times. I couldn’t keep the smile from my face. We still had a long way to go to get back to normal, and for me to make amends, but we were off to a great start.
Despite that, I was still keeping that Incubus soul looping in pain for all eternity.
Eventually the council could not wait any longer for Nyxra and she had to get back to work. She was the most technically gifted witch on the council, after all, now that her father had passed. I decided to go find Bob again. I hadn’t had a chance to have a real conversation with him. I set out from Nyxra’s room towards the cafeteria to look there first.
A knife slashed from the nearest shadow. I was completely caught off guard. Luckily, I was standing in front of a mirror and I had just randomly, for no reason, sucked in my stomach. The knife sliced by my sucked in stomach and the blade missed me by millimeters. A thousand warnings blared in my head.
I was lucky it had missed me. As the god of death nothing should be able to hurt me, but something told me that blade could. The blade of the knife was black, the hilt was also solid black, and even the sleeve attached to the arm holding the knife was black.
The hand disappeared back into the shadow it had appeared from and more warnings went off in my head. The same black sleeved arm shot out of the shadow at my feet and tried to cut my leg. I reacted on instinct and jumped, easily dodging now that I was more alert. I was a little surprised. I didn’t think anything could hurt me now that I was a god, but the vibes that blade gave off were dark. That knife was a god killing weapon.
My instincts were screaming at me again so I dropped to the ground and I rolled. That instinct to roll saved my life. Where I had been moments ago now had a black blade embedded into the ground. The arm retreated back into the shadow and then shot out of another shadow, but I was ready for it this time. I grabbed onto the arm and kept it from disappearing back into the shadow.
The arm I was holding became insubstantial and slipped through my grasp, so I grabbed its soul instead. The arm disappeared back into the shadow, but I held firmly onto its soul and pulled it out through its arm like I had done to the Incubus. Except this time it was a thousand times more difficult. I closed my hands together, causing a grey crystal to appear. Sealed within that crystal was the soul I had just taken.
I thought it was over, but then a flood of new power gushed into my body. The scythe on my forehead appeared once again. The hourglass appeared once again on my left hand, except now the hourglass had a shadow behind it.
I placed the crystal in my pocket, feeling light headed.
“What have you done?” asked the God of Love as he appeared out of nowhere.
“Cupid, what are you doing here?”
“You just killed a god! Of course I would show up!”
I was confused by what he had just said. “What?”
“You just killed the God of Shadow. When you kill a god, you absorb their powers.”
“He tried to kill me first.”
Cronus appeared as well and had heard the last part of our conversation.
“You’re a new god, which means you are weak. The God of Shadow is a weaker god. He must have wanted to kill you before you learned how to f
ully use your powers so he could absorb them for himself. The God of Death is not a weak god. The previous God of Death with his centuries of experience was a truly formidable opponent. You on the other hand…. have a long way to go.” Cronus explained with a sigh.
I wasn’t sure if I should take offence to that or not.
“It would have been nice if you had warned me. A simple, ‘be careful you’re a new god and the other gods may try to kill you so stay alert.’ Any kind of heads up would have been nice and appreciated.” I said accusingly.
“There was only a chance it would happen, that is why we decided to keep an eye on you. Luckily for you we did.”
Funny, I didn’t remember them showing up in time to save my life.
“Now that you have the power of the God of Death and the God of Shadow, without the centuries of experience most gods possess, even more gods will be coming after you.” Cronus continued.
“What happens if someone absorbs several other gods?” I decided to ask.
Cronus looked at me tiredly. “That has happened before. Usually once a person absorbs five main gods they are considered an Elder God. Ten gods and you are considered a God King. No one has ever been allowed to absorb more than ten gods before all of the remaining gods have gathered and slain them.”
“Main gods?”
“There are sub-gods based on specific skill areas. Gods of cooking, the sword, the saber, etc. The main gods are powerful forces of the universe. Earth, fire, wind, water, earth, time, space, faith, and even luck. You kill a main god and you get their powers. If you kill a sub god, the one most talented in that area becomes the new god, not the one that killed them.”
“What kind of power does being the God of Shadow grant me?”
“You already saw how the previous God of Shadow could travel through shadows and become incorporeal when he wanted to,” said Cupid.
Wait. If he had seen my fight with the shadow, why hadn’t he appeared sooner to help me? Stupid lazy love god. I didn’t get a chance to call him out on it before Cronus continued.
“He could also create a shadow clone with almost the same level of power as himself using his own shadow. He could create a bubble of impenetrable darkness that completely negates all forms of sight, normal and magical. Oh, and temporarily paralyze someone by grabbing their shadow, but that doesn’t work on other gods,” said Cronus.
“He could also spy through any shadow. He could create a weapon or armor from shadow. He usually chose a knife since in his human life he was an assassin, but you could create anything.” said Cupid.
I had experience that power first hand. I liked the idea of creating shadow armor. Armor would be really useful, especially if other gods would soon be targeting me. I thought about what I wanted and I was instantly covered in a suit of armor. It was black and shiny and seemed to absorb the surrounding light.
I decided I didn’t want to wear a helmet, so it disappeared with a thought. I thought it was a bit of a waste not to be able to use the power as both armor and a weapon. As if reading my mind, the fingers of the gauntlet lengthened into claws. With a thought they turned back into a normal looking gauntlet.
I wondered how far I could take this ability. With another thought, the five fingers merged and lengthened into a long blade before returning to normal. I could summon claws or a blade and I suspected it was capable of even more. In the back of my mind I thought of numerous possibilities, including wings. Flying armor, how cool would that be?
I knew the power of death had to be far more powerful than shadow, but I was really enjoying my new powers. The power of two full gods now flowed through my veins. The very person that had once lived waiting to die now had the possibility of living forever.
“Tarous, it’s no longer safe for you to be here. We need to take you somewhere safe until you are stronger,” said Cupid.
“Give me one day to get things in order and I will go with you.”
Cupid and Cronus turned and looked at each other. Eventually they seemed to come to some sort of agreement before turning back to face me.
“Fine. One day, and then we return.”
They both vanished. Cronus in a flash of white light and Cupid in a puff of pink smoke.
I decided to find Bob. I would tell him that I was leaving first. I hadn’t spent as much time with him as I should and as much as I hated to admit it, Bob was sorta my best friend. Bob… Bob that is a necromancer who is scared of dead things. That Bob… is my best friend. Where did I go wrong?
I was reflecting on that scary realization when a shadow detached from my own shadow and began to grow in size. What started as a tiny dot of a shadow began to grow upwards, gaining a humanoid form. In its arms was an old book, the cover worn and dirty. He handed it out towards me and I took it. The humanoid shape descended back into a shadow and dispersed.
It was covered in a really old leather. I opened to the first page and read, “Heavenly Emperor World Technique. Nice.”
I flipped through the pages, old and yellow, and I was surprised it was still in one piece. I rubbed the corner of a page between my fingers. Whatever it was made of wasn’t paper. That slightly worried me. As I placed the book under my arm I realized I had forgotten someone that I needed to visit. Bob would have to wait.
Chapter 31
I knew right where my old master Henry Dagon would be - on the training grounds. He was always training. Every single day he trained. In a way it was comforting, at least something in my life wasn’t constantly changing.
The ring he wore was amazing, and I had been coveting it for a long time. It allowed him to store books and other items inside of it. I was in need of such a ring. It was called a space ring. Sealed inside the ring was an area of ten feet by ten feet by ten feet. It was a perfect cube.
My master had promised one day as his student I would receive one. I had a feeling he would give me one this time seeing as it could be a long time until we next met.
I found him exactly where I had expected on the training ground. A blast of energy left his right fist and took the shape of a roaring lion head. He released the blast into the air but I could feel the blast from several yards away. If a normal human were hit with that blast, they would be disintegrated.
My master turned and saw me. He reached down to pick up a towel and wiped the sweat off his chest. For an old guy he was in really good shape. We walked over and sat under some trees a little way off from the training ground.
My master and I had a long conversation. I told him all that had been happening to me. He gave me advice, like a master should. Then at the end, he gave me a space ring without me having to ask. I truly appreciated his advice and his ring. I thanked my master with a kowtow just as I had when we first met. He went back to practicing as I left. I knew when I returned he would still be there training. It was a comforting thought in this ever changing world.
I quickly placed my book in there along with several others and different items I would find useful. As long as I was alive no one could take that book out of that ring. If someone destroyed the ring or if I died then the book would be lost forever. It was the perfect place to keep something you wanted absolutely safe.
After my visit with him I finally went and found Bob. I was getting better at finding people since everyone close to me I could sense. I stepped into a room to see Bob with a rather handsome man tied to a chair.
“Should I come back later?”
Whatever Bob did in private was none of my business.
“Tarous, this is an Incubus and a friend of the Incubus that you killed. He was a part of the scheme and I believe someone else orchestrated the entire thing to throw you off balance. That way it would be easy for the other gods to assassinate you.”
“I’d die before I’d betray my master!” screamed the Incubus tied to a chair.
I took out my reaper gun and shot him through the heart. Repeatedly.
“Tarous! We could have made him talk!”
“You hear
d him, he would rather die than betray his master. Keeping him alive was pointless.”
“It would have taken time, but we could have convinced him.”
“Fine.” I waved my hand and the Incubus soul returned to its dead body.
“Wait, what happened?” the Incubus exclaimed in alarm.
“You said you would rather die than betray your master. Now that you’re dead maybe you’ll talk.”
“What is wrong with you? You killed me! I’m a zombie!”
“I’m going to shoot you until it stops being funny,” I said as I raised my gun. I didn’t like him, he was the friend of someone I hated even more.
“Tarous, wait. We have to question him.” Bob turned and looked at the Incubus. “Whose plan was it to mind control Nyxra and assassinate Tarous?”
I shot him in the leg. Just because.
“That hurt!” yelled the zombie Incubus.
“You’re welcome. It is rather difficult to make a zombie that can feel pain.”
“He’s right, that’s some top class necromancy right there,” replied Bob.
“Gee thanks,” replied the zombie through clenched teeth.
“Sure you won’t talk? Last chance.”
“Not even if you kill me a thousand times.”
“That could be arranged, but I have a better idea.” I turned to Bob. “Hey Bob, I noticed it has escaped you, but that guy there, despite looking so alive, is actually a zombie. A dead thing, that is no longer dead.”
A sudden look of realization turned to panic and a giant ball of dark energy floated above Bob’s hands. “DEAD THINGS SHOULD STAY DEAD!”
“Mommy,” squeaked the zombie just before Bob disintegrated him.
After cleaning up the zombie dust I told Bob what was going on with the gods and Cronus and Cupid. I asked him to talk to the council to ask for them not to pursue war with the monsters. I asked that he tell them that I would consider it a personal favor if they avoid a war at all costs. I figured the words of the God of Death and the only god currently on Earth would go a long way, even if they were relayed by a third party.
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