Vert looks down at his new soul slave and wonders about the limits of this power. First thing is first though, might as well get some information.

“How did we end up here?” Vert asks Frederick, wanting some answers about their origins. Frederick takes a few seconds to think about his response before he is forced to answer truthfully due to being a soul slave.

“We were selected by the actual gods and sent here to represent them.”

Vert raises an eyebrow because he has no recollection of being alive before being on this planet, let alone being selected to be a representative.

“Aren’t we gods though? How have we been selected by gods?”

“We aren’t actually gods, those are merely titles that represent our specialities. If we actually win the battle royale then we actually become gods.”

“Battle royale? What is that?”

“Basically one hundred of us were sent to this planet to fight to death. Whoever wins at the end actually becomes a god and the person who picked them is chosen as the next chairman.”

“So you’re saying someone selected us, sent us to this planet and expects us all to fight to the death?”

“Essentially.”

“Who picked me?”

“The God of Justice, Seraph.”

“Interesting.”

Vert takes a second to process everything. Being picked by a higher being and chosen to fight to the death seems like a reasonable explanation since Vert is so strong and well equipped for the job. Frederick is also unable to lie since he is Vert’s soul slave. There is one thing that is bothering Vert though.

“How do you know all of this?”

“Us weaker selection were allowed to keep our memories, whereas stronger people like you lost their memories to give everyone an equal chance. Stronger representatives have to do special achievements to gain their powers and memories back.”

“So you’re a weaker representative?”

“Unfortunately I am seen as such, Master.”

“That’s fine, I’m sure we can change that.”

“I am excited to see what we become.”

Vert thinks about anything else that he should ask Frederick now, and one final thing is one Vert’s mind.

“What do you know about me?”

“I am sorry to disappoint you Master but all I know is that you’re the God of Death. I had heard a rumor in how mindless and bloodthirsty you were so that is why I attacked you the second you entered my room.”

“Bloodthirsty? As in I drink blood? I haven’t really tried that.”

“No Master, as if you are constantly looking to murder people.”

“Well, I don’t exactly enjoy killing people, and I don't actively go looking for a fight. In fact, it seems that it is always the other way around.”

“Well rumors are always just rumors, Master.”

“True.”

An awkward silence prevails for a few moments as Vert really has nothing else he is truly dying to ask at the moment. Frederick decides to break the silence and asks a question of his own.

“What is next on our agenda, Master?”

“Well, there’s nothing from stopping us from getting the other 5 representatives in here.”

Frederick laughs at this idea and stands up from his bow. Though Frederick is a reincarnation of his former self, the man has not lost any intelligence during the transition. He is quick to realize that Vert isn’t scared of anything and is quite ambitious to his core.

‘Maybe it wasn’t so bad dying to him and becoming a follower. Then again, he was the first pick for a reason.’ Frederick thinks to himself while looking at the back of Vert who is currently walking towards the exit of the room.

Vert, Frederick, and Emeralda leave the chamber of the former God of Disease and once again find themselves within the Room of Destiny. Vert looks back at Frederick and decides to continue to take advantage of the fact Frederick still has memories.

“Do you know who else is within this dungeon with us?”

“I do. We were all sent together down here. I distinctly remember the other five being The Goddess of Life, The Goddess of Storms, The God of Health, The God of Sight, and The Goddess of Rage.”

Vert is surprised by the vague names attached to some of the others. Mainly the two other representatives named The God of life, and The God of Health. To Vert, he figured that Life and Health was the same thing, so why do they have different titles?

‘Well, might as well figure out for myself.’

Vert goes to the door nearest to him and looks at the intricate carvings on the door. A single, yet massive hawk pervades the front of the door, seemingly staring into your soul. Vert scoffs at this confident looking over grown chicken and opens the door without hesitation. Mind you, he has no idea what a hawk is and he barely remembers what a chicken is yet he is still not intimidated by the creature on the door.

Frederick is directly behind his Master and Emeralda stands a good distance back as she does not wish to take any damage like what happened last time. A massively wide open area encompasses all of their visions, and the god that is supposed to reside inside doesn’t seem to be home.

Though there is a chance that the God in here has left, Vert knows this to not be true. He can sense the soul of a semi powerful being near the top of the room, yet they seem to be inside of a small outshoot so Vert cannot directly see who it is. Whoever is it though, they seem to be fairly big.

Frederick notices Vert has been watching a single direction this whole time and assumes that Vert has found the one they are looking for.

“Where is he?” Frederick asks.

“He is up there, in that hole.” Vert responds while pointing to the hole near the ceiling of the room. Frederick nods his head and throws his hand forwards. Rats pour out of the Plague Doctor’s sleeves and scurry towards the wall. After making it to the wall, they climb up it and towards the hole that Vert pointed out.

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Vert nods in approval and realizes that Frederick is most likely more useful than he thought. On top of that, he knows what to do without Vert even having to tell him.

It takes a while for the rats to actually make it into the hole, but when they do something very interesting is discovered.

A loud screech pierces the air and echoes throughout the wide chamber. Frederick goes on guard for a second and then pushes Emeralda out of the door before closing it. Vert simply looks at Frederick funnily while Emeralda yells in disapproval but she is not stronger than Frederick.

“What was that for?” Vert asks while the screech continues on, making it so Frederick can barely hear him.

“The last thing we need is distractions during this fight. Also, the beast inside of the hole seems very hostile.”

“What kind of beast is it?”

“A massive hawk, probably four times the size of you.”

“What is a hawk exactly?”

“The thing on the door, Master.”

Vert lets out a long ‘Ahhh’ as he finally understands why that weird creature was on the entrance to this place. His blood starts to pump a little harder in excitement as he is now meeting a new creature entirely.

“How strong do you think it is?”

“Certainly not as strong as you, Master.”

Frederick doesn’t seem the one to be interested in flattering someone so Vert is a little disappointed as he has only faced people weaker than him up until now.

Even though the creature knows that these two are in its room and the creature seems very hostile, it refuses to come out of its hole. Vert gets a little impatient and decides to go drag it out of its hole whether the hawk likes it or not.

“I’ll be right back.”

“Wait Master, let’s-!”

Frederick tries to stop Vert, but Vert doesn’t pay the Plague Doctor any heed. Not only does Vert not feel any sense of danger from the situation, he is interested in seeing what this God of Sight has to offer.

Vert bends his knees and jumps hard, causing him to fly precisely at the hole in which this “hawk” resides. Frederick is nearly pushed over from the shockwaves coming from Vert’s jump and he watches as Vert disappears in the hole.

It isn’t long before more screeching comes from within the hole, but the piercing sound of the screech is drowned out by the yelling of the God of Death.

“Get out of this hole and come fight you over grown chicken!”

The sound of footsteps and rustling feathers followed by a few more screeches seeps out from the hole. Frederick waits in anticipation for the hawk to fly out gracefully and try to attack him, even preparing green smoke inside of his body, but that time doesn’t come.

Instead the sight of a large hawk missing most of its feathers falling out of the hole is what actually happens. Vert emerges from the hole as well as feathers are stuck to his gauntlets. To Frederick it seems that Vert literally went in there and dragged the hawk out, throwing him out of his hole forcing the God of Sight to fight.

Instead though, the hawk falls to the ground weakly, and when looking up at Vert, it cowers to the ground. The hawk puts up no signs of resistance as Vert jumps from the hole and lands on the ground next to the hawk.

Vert is let down as this majestic looking beast refuses to fight him for some reasons. Wanting to at least scuffle a little, Vert backhands the hawk. It isn’t enough to kill the beast yet it still definitely stung.

Even with this blatant provocation, the hawk refuses to fight and just looks at Vert in fear. The hawk looks at Frederick and it stares at the man in the eyes, seemingly pleading for help. The Plague Doctor simply shrugs at this.

‘At least he hasn’t flung you into a wall and killed you.’ Frederick says to himself, trying to project this message to the hawk mentally to try and explain why he can’t help. However, after a few seconds of looking into the hawks eyes, Frederick’s vision goes blurry.

His vision once again becomes clear, however it seems he is in a different spot. In fact, he is looking at himself. Frederick realizes he is currently seeing what the hawk can see.

Before Frederick can try and protest, the hawk looks over at Vert, and what Frederick sees horrifies him. Frederick is so shocked that he is unable to speak and drops to his knees. Vert on the other hand is done trying to convince the hawk to put up a fight.

“Well, guess it’s time to end this.”

Vert pulls back his fist and both the hawk and Frederick watch in pure terror as the fist flies directly towards the hawk’s face. They both scream loudly in horror but the hawk’s screech is cut short.

Vert’s fist makes contact with the tip of the beak of the hawk, its head exploding from the sheer force as a result. Frederick regains his actual visions and shakes violently from what he had seen. The hawk had shown him what Vert truly looked like, and it was traumatizing for Frederick.

Seeing that, he truly feels dumb for trying to fight back against the God of Death, but hopefully at least he will never have that fist pointed at him ever again. Vert on the other hand didn’t realize any of this and is currently catching the soul of the hawk.

The hawk’s soul tries to fly out of its body at max speed, but Vert was waiting for it and managed to grab the hawk’s giant foot.

The hawk screeches in horror but can’t do anything about it. Black chains explode from Vert’s back and wrap themselves around the hawk’s soul. Vert doesn’t seem very impressed with the hawk and is thinking about devouring it to see what happens.

Frederick notices this displeasure and realizes that Vert never saw its true ability. The hawk will be an essential member to the team, so Frederick needs to tell Vert this before Vert does something else with the soul.

“M-M-Master!” Frederick barely manages to sputter out. Vert looks back towards Frederick in confusion since usually the man didn’t seem one to be shaken up easily.

“What is it Frederick? And why are you stuttering and shaking?”

Frederick looks down at himself and realizes he has been shaking uncontrollably this whole time. Now is not the time to be scared though, that hawk’s power of lending power sight is too crucial to lose.

“That hawk! Make sure to reincarnate it!”

“Why? It is nothing but a coward, I don’t need that.”

‘Damnit! If you saw what we saw maybe then you’d understand!’ Frederick thinks to himself but refuses to say out loud.

“Maybe you can get more information from it! Also maybe you could train it to not be so cowardly!”

“Hmmm.”

Vert scratches his skin while still holding onto the foot of the hawk, refusing to let go. Currently the massive bird is pecking at the chains that bind it, but to no avail. Vert is deciding if training the hawk is truly worth all of the hassle, but there is a part inside of him that wants to know what it is actually like to fly. He figures that he could train the bird to be more like a pet than a servant, which wouldn’t be so bad.

“You make a fair point. Fine, I’ll reincarnate it.”

Frederick sighs in relief when hearing this, and actually he is also starting to finally compose himself. On top of that, Frederick was able to figure out that Vert could do other things with souls that just wasn’t to resurrect them, which is another horrifying thought. That is because that could have happened to him if Frederick didn’t show some worth.

The chains wrap themselves entirely around the bird, once again making a cocoon. The chains spin rapidly before once again shattering and out comes the hawk once again, but alive. The hawk flies around the room a little before it actually starts to shrink in size.

It shrinks down to the size of a normal hawk and then lands on the shoulder of Vert. Vert just looks at the bird with a raised eyebrow before he hears a high pitched voice in his head.

‘Greeting Master!’ the high pitched voice says excitedly. Vert is caught off guard by the hawk speaking in his mind.

“How can you do that?” Vert asks out loud which confuses Frederick.

“Do what?” Frederick asks.

“Not you, the bird. It is talking to me within my head.”

Frederick decides to not question this and stays quiet for the time being.

‘Using the soul contract we made, I am able to talk to you.’

“Huh, didn’t know that. Why are you so cowardly?”

Vert gets straight to the point and asks the question in which was bugging him the whole fight. The bird looks a little offended at this question but answers truthfully.

‘If you saw something that could probably look at you and kill you, would you want to pick a fight with it?’

Vert thinks about this question for a long time and finally comes up with what he thinks is the perfect answer.

“I have never met anything stronger than me so that’ll probably never happen.”

‘You’re probably right. I am usually fairly brave but under the gaze of you I can’t help but quake in fear.’

Vert sighs at this and realizes that maybe he is truly a really evil and scary person, yet he doesn't feel that way.

“Also, what makes you think you can just sit on my shoulder like that?”

‘Does it displease you Master?’ the bird asks with its head tilted to the side. Vert thinks about it and figures that he actually looks pretty cool with the hawk sitting on his shoulder.

“Hm, I guess not.”