Chapter 10: Death (3729 BC)

Morrigan's room, Atlantis, 3729 BC

I can sense the deathly aura is concentrated in the clan district on Atlantis. The residential part of Atlantis is divided into the clan district which are essentially nobility, each clan having its own compound to live in to make sure their family magic can be practiced privately. Another is the civilian district where all the clan less citizens of Atlantis resides. It's a division that Atlan and myself were trying to slowly erase but this isn't the time for pondering, I need to find Atlan.

The closer I move towards the disturbance I start to feel the source, and it seems to come from the Grimm clan compound. I always disliked the Grimm family; I could always sense negative intent coming from them. They also tend to oppose Atlan on any decision no matter how small they were. It didn't make sense to me since they're one of the most influential clans in Atlantis but Atlan once told me that the Grimm clan head, Thanatos was almost king instead of him but the council found out rumors his involvement in the death of a few clanless citizen where he was said to have consumed their souls to increase his magical power. The investigation revealed nothing but the council decided against taking the risk of having a murderer as king.

Even as I enter the compound, I can barely walk straight due to earth shaking. It is day but it is dark. What were those fools doing? Were they trying to kill us all? I am surprised that the earth is somewhat stable even if it shaking, from the tower, it looked like it was split into two. As I walk towards the epicenter of the aura, I see a sight that shocks me.

Just outside the compound, Atlan is on the floor groaning as he pours his magic into the earth, this is what's keeping the ground stable while the survivors are evacuating. His magic is already depleted, he is using his own life force, sacrificing his own soul to fuel the spell. All to buy his subjects time, he truly is a great king. He looks at me and smiles, "I was worried I wouldn't see you one last time, Morrigan."

"Atlan, why?"

"It is my duty, my purpose to protect Atlantis. It was always going to end this way. We both know I will not survive this."

"But Atlan…"

"You must be strong, Morrigan. You are my heir, more so you are my daughter. I am so proud of you, what you've become and I know it is only the beginning. My greatest accomplishment was you. When the spell finishes the blood wards will be disrupted, you will only have seconds to enter the compound. Make it count. I leave Atlantis in your hands, daughter, you will mourn for me, I know but I also know you will persevere. I have faith in you, Morrigan, I love you."

"I love you too, father."

The last thing I see him do is smile at me, and the light leaves his eyes and the wards shatter. I put my despair in the back of my mind and enter the compound.

I see the Grimms chanting in the courtyard, in a circle. In the middle, the bodies of seven women are scattered, I can feel their souls bound into the world, being consumed to power the ritual. The deathly aura is more and more oppressive, I feel like I will always be cold. Suddenly, a shadow appears and slowly takes a humanoid shape, devouring the souls of the women. I attempt to kill them and disrupt the ritual but summoning a bolt of lightning, but it gets absorbed by an invisible shield around the ritual. Thanatos turns around and looks at me, "It is futile to try to stop us. We have reached our goals and will achieve our destiny."

"What are you doing!", I screamed at him, "you're destroying the Island."

"Islands can rise and fall, Morrigan, with this power we will rule the world and not some insignificant island. I shall have the power of a god and destroy all who oppose me. It is futile to resist, I have Death on my side and no one, not even you or Atlan, not even the gods themselves will stop me."

My blood freezes, "What do you mean you have Death on your side."

"It was prophesized that a Grimm will master death, and that will be me. "

I cannot believe he did this, the absolute idiot. Who tries to bind a fucking cosmic entity with just magic, over a fucking prophecy no less, "You fool, do you realize have you done?"

"I have summoned Death into this realm, I am merely fulfilling my destiny."

Suddenly, the mass of shadows, scream out, "YOU DARE, YOU DARE ATTEMPT TO BIND ME, THE STRONGEST OF THE ENDLESS. "

Thanatos and the others tried to flee but couldn't move. I felt Death absorb their souls but they're still alive. I didn't think that was possible. Their bodies turn into some kind of wraith, their clothes into cloaks, their eyes disappear and their mouths grow.

"YOUR PUNISHMENT SHALL BE LEGENDARY, YOU WILL NEVER LIVE AND NEVER DIE, YOU WILL LIVE IN CONSTANT HUNGER, FOR YOU SHALL HAVE NO SOULS. YOU WILL NEVER FEEL LOVE OR HAPPINESS AGAIN. THIS WILL BE YOUR FATE."

Shit, I think I just witnessed the creation of the dementors. The shadows around Death condense. I can definitely tell she's a woman. She creates a scythe out of shadows and raises it up in the air. I can feel it in my bones that should this scythe touch the ground that there would be no survivors. I pull out my staff out of my soul space and quickly perform a spell that I have been working on for the past few decades. All of the celestial runes engraved in the staff glow. Suddenly, we were no longer in Atlantis but in a barren land. This was a spell I created to trap beings into a self-created pocket dimension. Unfortunately, they will escape if I don't stay in the dimension to stop them. I tried to copy Agamotto's work but it's still unfinished. I call it a reality marble, after the fate series. Erebus, my trusted familiar appears from the shadows and gives me his support.

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"MORTAL, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE."

"You were about to destroy my home; I couldn't allow that."

"IT IS THE PRICE FOR THEIR TRANSGRESSION, ONE CANNOT HOPE TO ATTEMPT TO BIND ME WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES."

"Please, all I ask is mercy. It was only a small group that are guilty. The rest are innocent and even ignorant of what happened."

"IT IS NO MATTER; YOUR HOME IS ALREADY SINKING AS WE SPEAK."

"A place is not home, they are my people, I am their queen. They are my home. I will not allow you to harm them."

I'm not under any delusion that I can win this fight. Definitely not in a straight one on one, but I will do everything I can to protect my home and my people.

She looked at me, amused, "AND WHY SHOULDN'T I JUST LEAVE?"

I smirk, "Because you can't. I created this place to trap mortals but also consciousness. I made it so that psionic energy cannot escape. And while you are powerful, you're still just a vessel. You are a consciousness in a body that cannot contain your power but your conscience is still in here with me. Most of your power is not on this plane of existence, yet you are still trapped in her with me. And I'm the only thing that can let you out."

Her amused expression turned thunderous, "THEN I WILL GO THROUGH YOU!"

She sends at me a bolt of black lightning towards me; I bend space around me so that it misses but I find out that I wasn't the target, the lightning bends and hits Erebus but fortunately he isn't dead just knocked out. Angry, I fire back by writing a rune in the air that fires a bolt of blue power that she blocks with a shield of shadows. I do not like this. The shadows are usually under my control but I can tell that they would obey my opponent without question.

I bend the earth around me into multiple giant serpents that attack her. She turns into shadows and they go through her. She creates a dozen of necro swords that I shatter with a telekinetic pulse. I have to say that I'm very fortunate she's limited to the fraction of a fraction of her power because if I was fighting a proper vessel, I would be finished.

She fires the black lightening at me again and I surprise her by opening a portal that absorbs the spell and opens up behind her, hitting her with her own lightning. She stumbles forward. I guess first blood goes to me. That confirms that soul magic affects her. She looks at me disbelieving that I actually landed a hit. I use her distraction by creating chains out of the ground. I enchant them to be unbreakable and to contain souls and send them towards her. She turns into shadows as I expected but the chain was able to bind her. As she's bound, I create a ball of power, space and time using runes, it turns into a miniature dark hole that's sucking my opponents. She clicks her finger and the hole disappears. She's still bound, so I charge up my finishing move and release a sphere of red power that speeds up like a bullet, it's force even distorting to ground under its path, and hits Death in the chest. The explosion is blinding. This spell I designed as a last resort. I transmute something into Helium and Hydrogen that I force into doing a fusion reaction. I condense this energy into a ball and let it explode on contact.

I don't know what I'm hoping for but I'm really desperate. I just know that I need to keep her occupied somehow. Suddenly, Death stands up, looking at me with fury and releases a giant stream of shadows that scream danger at me. I raise my staff and bellow "Rho Aias!" my most powerful defensive spell. It's a mix of a power and soul rune that creates seven layers of shields that protects the caster. I took inspiration from the Rho Aias from the fate series and it too causes damages to the castor for every layer destroyed. Each layer of the shield spell is extremely dangerous and protects from a different type of attack. There is a soul shield spell I developed, a blood magic shield, an energy shield, a psionic shield, a magical nullifying shield, one removing momentum of any object that touches it, an element shield and finally a physical shield. When the mass of shadows touches my shield, it immediately destroys three layers, a second later another layer is destroyed. Death keeps on fueling the spell, two layers shatter suddenly. I only have one layer left and it's slowly cracking. As it bursts, Erebus appears before me and takes the brunt of the spell, absorbing every single shadow sent at me. When Death finishes her attack, Erebus bursts into shadows, leaving a small chick that I quickly put safely in my soul space.

Suddenly, Death attacks me, this time physically with her scythe, "YOU DARE TOUCH ME! YOU DARE THINK YOURSELF MY EQUAL."

She keeps on hitting me, I try to dodge the best I can but my body is battered from the backlash of my shield spell. I cough up blood when I'm hit with the blunt end of the scythe. I have a plan, it's more of a hail Mary but it's something. I fall down and was barely block the blade of her scythe. The runes on the staff light up and it's slowly resisting the scythe but then death puts more energy into it and it snaps in two. I'm heartbroken, as this is one of my most precious processions, a gift from my father.

"YOU CANNOT WIN THIS. YOUR EFFORTS ARE COMMENDABLE AS A MORTAL BUT YOU'RE STILL A MORTAL."

"Yes, I can't win, but I can still make you lose."

I suddenly slam my hand over the ground where my golden blood has taken the shape of a rune. I controlled it as I was blocking the scythe, and activate the array and a green light encompasses the whole of my reality marble.

"I have turned this dimension into a timed loop. That only I can stop. If you kill me my soul will power the spell and you will be trapped in it for all eternity. I will let you out when you promise not to kill the survivors of Atlantis."

Suddenly, I look at her and she suddenly turns entirely into shadows, I feel her power increasing exponentially, and her vessel bursting. My time spell and my reality marble shatter. The shadows slowly take the shape of a woman, with flesh this time. Her face is still made of shadows but she seems to have created an actual vessel and not the imperfect one she was summoned into.

She speaks in a soft voice, no longer in the soul chilling sound she used when we fought, "What a curious specimen you are. Yes, very curious. A reunion of two half souls from two different worlds. Every half was supposed to die a meaningless death. You do not fear death for you know it intimately, you have entered my domain once. I can feel it in your soul."

I am speechless, Morgan and Jasmine were just half souls? How was this possible?

"You're powerful for a mortal. To be able to defeat my previous vessel, no matter how weak it is, is an achievement. So, let's bargain. I will spare your people and will not pursue them anymore. In exchange, you will act as an avatar in my stead."

"What does, being an avatar, entail."

"You shall walk the earth, hunting those who destroy the balance. Those who consume souls, who make deals with demons, mutilate their souls, those arrogant enough to think they can defeat me. You shall be my hunter, my herald."

I can't really think about it, I don't have a choice, "I agree, Lady Death." She puts her hand on me and I can feel myself getting more powerful, my control over the shadows and souls gets even more powerful. My injuries heal instantly.

"Let's get you the tools necessary to complete your job. First your weapon." She picks up both pieces of my staff and put them together. The staff slowly fixes itself but it's color slowly turn black. "A tool to cause death," She then retrieves an orange glowing stone, from its power alone I know what this is an infinity stone, "A stone to control the dead," She creates a black cloak of shadows in her hand, "And a cloak to hide from anything but death. Protect your gifts, for in stranger hands can cause chaos and doom. Good luck, Morrigan, my Herald, my Hunter, my Avatar and Master of Death."