The air in the room suddenly changed and got heavy, rendering any living being unable to breathe. The people in the room were desperately gasping for air, unsure whether it was the smoke or the fear of an impending death that caught hold of their pharynxes.
The beast, being the source of their desperate situation, effortlessly continued to slice apart every single human alive in the room. It was a bloody massacre that had no signs of stopping so long as there was a living human in the vicinity.
After gallons of blood were spilled and numerous body parts sent flying, there was finally only one human left alive.
The beast then slowly approached the last human. An indescribable fear struck the man as he watched the beast approach him.
Its dark cloud began to absorb the blood spilled around the floor, walls, and ceiling as it approached. The beast then grabbed the trembling man, by the neck, and lifted him.
Unable to contain his fear, with tears in his eyes, the man finally found release in the form of urine dripping down his legs.
"I'm sorry, please…let me live," the man pitifully begged as a paddle of urine slowly began to form beneath him.
The beast threw the man and sent him flying through the shut door as if disgusted. He landed outside with a thump, sprinkles of urine trailing behind him. He skidded right in front of the tailed Lilith, where she had been waiting.
The man quickly got up and limped away for his life. The throw was so powerful, that the pitiful man ended up breaking his hip and foot upon landing. But that didn't stop him from trying to get away.
The tailed Lilith finally walked up to the beast as it stepped out of the burning building. She looked it up and down with a puzzled face, since the dark cloud that usually surrounded my body, was now outlined with a blazing, turquoise flame.
The beast then attempted to slice the tailed Lilith, but the scythe went right through her body as though it were a mirage. The scythe could deal no damage to her. She suddenly grew to a size of 7 feet then grabbed the beast's face.
The white in her eyes began to turn pitch black and black blood now dripped out from her dark scarlet eyes and down her cheeks.
She groaned in pain throughout the whole process as the beast let out a loud, deathly screech before reverting back to the size of 7 feet. The turquoise flames outlining the dark cloud began to subside and fade away as I slowly felt my consciousness take control.
"Thank you, tailed Lilith. You are much more useful than I gave you credit for," I said in gratitude.
After hearing this, she whipped me on the arm with her furry tail, giving me a look of resentment. Dark blood could still be seen flowing out of her eyes. She almost looked pitiable.
"Be more careful! You were never meant to reach such a point. Doing this to you injures my soul, and the soul doesn't repair easily. It hurts more each time I do this, and you made me do it twice today!" the tailed Lilith exclaimed her displeasure.
"I understand, it was my own fault that it got this far. Nonetheless, this was ultimately quite educative," I said not losing my composure.
'While I do not fancy being whipped, it was simply the result of my undoing. I will not challenge correction.' I thought.
"I acquired 89 years from the remaining lifespans of the humans that burned inside the club. I can feel their lifespans have strengthened me somehow, but it's to such a minuscule degree. I need more, much more. From what I have learned, in the long run…it will never be enough," I said depressingly.
"There has to be a way for me to increase my resistance to Theós' control faster than this. At this rate, it will take me many millennia to take another 50 steps down the narrow path. Tailed Lilith, what did your previous master do to get as far as he did?" I asked anxiously.
"Cain was a true reaper. When he figured out that he was given power over death, he became ecstatic. Eager to redeem himself, he believed he could start over and build a new world where no one's self-interests were above anyone else's. A fair world with no favoritism. With him as the ruler and an arsenal of thousands of shadows, no one would have stepped out of line. It would have been simple, 'Obey or die!'
However, he soon realized that he could not harm the humans, but only guide their souls to the afterlife. He became bitter and enraged by this! The power he was given was nothing short of a curse if this was the case. Forever doomed to walk the earth and watch others move on. Unable to die; unable to kill; unable to change anything. He wanted more!
He believed Theós was playing some sort of twisted game. This was the curse for committing the first murder in human history. Since he could not kill humans, he took out his anger on another one of Theós' creations, the dinosaurs.
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He killed off every last one of them in an attempt to get back at Theós. In doing this, he realized that with each dinosaur that he killed, he became stronger and could slightly resist Theós' control. Eventually, he figured out that he could also create more shadows because of it.
The only problem was that animals made such an insignificant increase to his strength that it was only worth killing them if he were to wipe out an entire species to extinction.
He began experimenting and eventually found a way to kill humans indirectly. The plan was a huge success and gave him the results he wanted.
He found out that a single human's lifespan was worth that of a thousand animals. This led to various schemes being made against humanity. Such as plagues, bombings, and saving people like Hitler from death," she said with admiration.
"He was a reaper, what do you mean by saving people?" I asked.
"When Cain saved someone who was at the end of their lifespan, he found out that each death that person was responsible for from the moment they were saved, would then be on him," she replied.
"I see, this at least broadens my options," I said still in deep thought.
"So, what do you plan on doing now?" The tailed Lilith asked expectantly.
I took a long pause to think about my next course of action. I noticed the sun coming up then finally said with confidence, "I am going to write a book."
The tailed Lilith looked at me with vivid disappointment. She had expected something more grand.
"What good will that do?" she asked emotionlessly.
"Well, for starters, I refuse to keep breaking into stores just to get a day's worth of clothing. I need to be able to support myself. My parent's money won't last long. Eventually, people will find out they are dead. By then, I would like to make a name for myself and have enough resources to take on whatever comes next.
As for the grand plan you are probably expecting of me, you'll just have to wait and see for yourself. Now, let's go," I said then opened a gateway in front of me using the dark cloud.
I went through the gate alongside the tailed Lilith then reappeared back in the bathroom of my house in Sherwood.
'I need to clean up the mess I made,' I thought to myself.
I then walked out of the bathroom and went down the stairs. Below the steps, I could see a corpse in a puddle of slightly dried blood.
"What a mess," I said to myself.
I then controlled the dark cloud to completely cover the corpse and the blood. The dark cloud then began to accelerate the decaying process on the corpse and absorb the puddle of blood as well, or so it seemed. In almost an instant, nothing was left.
"How many more shadows can I create at the moment?" I asked the tailed Lilith as I approached the door.
"10,000 is your current maximum," she replied.
I then stepped outside and began to walk towards the barn. As I stood at the entrance, I looked down at my mother's bloody corpse. I then proceeded to do the same as I did with my father's corpse and started to clean the area.
After getting rid of the body, I walked out of the barn and created a shadow having a task in mind for it. It then immediately took to the sky at a tremendous speed.
It seemed to be in search of something. I then called it back and tried to give it a direct order.
"Drive that tractor," I said pointing at the tractor in the distance. However, it just stood there, lifeless.
"You won't be able to make them do anything other than collect souls. They are not intelligent beings and only have a wisp of a human's soul. There is but a single purpose built into them from the moment they are created. Find a human; collect their soul," the tailed Lilith clarified.
'If that is all they are good for then they aren't much use to me,' I thought to myself.
"Can I increase their intelligence?" I asked the tailed Lilith.
"No matter how much stronger you get, you can only increase the number of shadows you create. Their intelligence always remains the same," she replied still curious about what I'm planning to do.
'People are born every day, but people die every day as well. There shouldn't be a need for me to have this many excess shadows. There has to be a purpose for this.' I thought to myself.
"Have you ever tried merging them?" I asked then immediately created 100 shadows, not waiting for a reply.
'I've played enough video games to recognize a system when I see one. When there are excess resources you can either trade or combine them. The shadows aren't a currency so...,' I thought.
I then commanded each shadow to combine with the next until only one was left. By the time they finished merging, the final one had changed. It had a dark cloud around its body, much like mine, only this shadow's cloud was less thick and more gascious. However, what made it truly different from the other shadows was that it had no face. The other shadows had skulls for faces, but only dark clouds moved about where this shadow's face was supposed to be.
"Can you speak?" I asked the merged shadow.
It stood there absent-minded for a while then slowly shook its head.
"So, what can you do?" I asked a follow-up question.
The merged shadow stood there for a short moment then flew into the sky in search of a human, just like the other shadow. So, I quickly called it back.
'Although this one is more responsive with direct orders, I still need to create a shadow with far more intelligence. A shadow that goes beyond its instinctive duty of collecting souls. I guess I should just merge more shadows.' I then proceeded to create 5,000 more shadows and merged them.
The shadows twisted together and formed a massive tornado that looked much like a whirlpool from above. The dark whirlpool completely blanket the sky, stopping any sunlight from passing through.
After a while, it began to shrink. A humanoid figure could be vaguely seen kneeling in the middle of it, taking the whirlpool of shadows within its body.
After a few more minutes, the whirlpool disappeared and the morning sky was visible once more. A 7ft shadow arose from the center of where the tornado used to be.
It looked identical to myself, with the exception of the dark cloud continually coming out of its skull. This made it difficult to even see its features. Its shoulders were decorated with a pair of 1ft horns, giving it a menacing look.
"Can you speak?" I asked the newly merged shadow.
"Yes, master," he said slightly bowing towards me. He stood with elegance, his right hand placed on his chest.
"And what can you do?" I asked him.
"I, Azrael, will do anything my master asks of me," he said with a respectful tone.