Waking with a moan, Neo thought he heard some voices but it had all gone quiet. He opened his eyes to a dim room that was lit with candles and smelled of a pungent incense."Achoo!"

There was a round of laughter as the familiar face of Death came into view, "It's amazing! I've borrowed your body for a little while, there is something we need to do in order for you to do your job. Your Dragon part needs to be cleansed and melded together… Hold tight it's going to be weird."

Neo moaned, shaking his head in confusion, "What do you mean? Why?"

Death touched Neo, lifting him up by his shoulders into a sitting position and giving Neo a look around to see Deaths space. It was mostly dark with the candles giving the only light. There were also two other people standing around a triangle, within the triangle was a weird assortment of items that Neo didn't have a clue about what they were or what they could be for.

Death started to explain what was about to happen to him, "Neo, when I asked you to eat that dragon soul it was a to save you from dying to that same dragon’s own magic and blood. Although I don't regret it, as I thought, it would be a bit unfair to have you kill a dragon only to die from its poisonous mana. I thought it was quite unfair. However, it was a kick in the head of your development as your soul has become corrupted with the consumption of that soul. As an effect of that, you've become a lot more vulnerable to soul attacks from spirits, ghosts, and other such beings. So, I've had call in some favours to sort it out, Yona and Whitechapel are here to help."

Death finished by gesturing to the two other figures, who both nodded their heads in return, Neo returned the gesture and spoke, "Right, so what will this ritual involve and what'll happen to me?"

Death shrugged, "Not sure. You'll definitely lose a lot of the power, maybe the Instincts will become a part of you, or disappear altogether. Your magic might weaken or disappear, you might not get scales, horns, and a tail, and there'll be no separating yourself from whatever happens. You'll be stuck in that form, at least until you learn shape shifter abilities, then you can do whatever you like to your body. As for what you have to do, you only have to lie down in the triangle and survive!"

Neo's head snapped to Death when he finished, "What do you mean survive?"

Death walked over to the top of the triangle and looked back, "Well, I am manipulating your soul, if I make a mistake ‘puff’ you go, and it’s probably going to be a little uncomfortable."

Neo thought on how uncomfortable, but couldn't as his imagination had nothing to go on looking at the expectant Death, waiting for him to enter the triangle, "I don't have a choice, do I?"

Death grinned, "Not at all, if you don't you'll be useless to me and I'll not have another chosen hang around because I like them. I'll send you over just as I should've done when we first met!"

Neo gulped, 'Okie dokie,"

Neo stepped into the middle of the triangle and shrugged, "I've taken quite a liking to my new world, it isn't perfect, but what is?"

Death replied, "Good, now just sit cross legged, you don't want to fall during the ritual, and chill."

Neo sat down in the centre of the triangle, stared up at Death, and waited. Death nodded to the other two reapers, then it began. Nothing appeared to happen but Neo's heart beat faster as the quietness persisted his heart kept pounding but it had stop picking up speed as his heart pounding could be felt throughout his body. He clenched at his chest until he heard a pop and Neo’s body jumped slightly from the sound. Neo heaved a great breath before puking up a tar-like substance and then falling forward. He found that he couldn't use any of his muscles.

Neo in horror watched as the skin on his abdomen peeled back and he tried to scream as his nerve endings were torn. Neo watched in horror as his blood vessels, muscles, and tendons untwined and snipped off and his nerves unravelled. Everything was flooding around him and Neo could see his own organs and his pure white bones.

His organs fell out, being displayed out on ground in an organised manner. Somehow, Neo was still conscious and was staring at his own skeleton, which burst into flames, consuming it until the flame replaced Neo chest. The flame itself was white, with a huge splotch of blackness, pulling and roaming around his soul while slowly growing bigger and stronger.

Neo noticed some movement from the golden band of light surrounded his soul as they slowly constricted. It pushed itself into Neo’s soul and he screamed. His soul resonated, screaming as Neo did. Once the golden band had dug itself in, it twisted, pushing and squishing his soul, forcing the black blotch to move and break up, getting it caught up in the golden flame to be cleansed. After what felt like an eternity, the gold flame gave its all and squeezed with everything it had. Neo's numbed senses gave its greatest scream yet, as it felt the world shift. From his warped soul droplets of blackness dripped into the air, stopping there. Once every drop had fallen, the golden band released his soul. Neo merely whimpered, as all his energy had disappeared, as the gold light descended to the black sphere and surrounded them before shrinking into nothingness.

Neo barely had the energy to watch with amazement as his body reformed, but it wasn’t nearly as human as it once was. For starters, his bones had a steely blue tint to them as they regrew. Neo watched for a tail to form from his back, but it never appeared, instead six bony protrusion grew from his skull. As they slowly grew back the one at the front grew the longest, curving back and then up slightly, with the others following the first one’s form but where much short.

Next, it was time for the organs to return to their skeleton cage. Neo couldn’t tell if there was anything new, since his knowledge of biology wasn't awesome, but he thought that there might have been a few extra organs making space inside himself. The one thing he did manage to see was his own eyes, and it creeped him out. What he saw were light grey lizard eyes staring at each other.

Finally, he could stop looking at himself from a third-person point-of-view and watched as his nerves, muscles, and tendons rejoined his body. Again, Neo had no idea if it was his imagination or if everything really was different. It sort of looked different to him though. His skin started to re-grow and he noticed instantly that it wasn't skin, but thousands upon thousands of white glistening scales that grew on top of his muscles.

Then Neo got distracted by an intense need to scratch his head and fingernails as they also grew back. The lush white hair grew rapidly down his back, meanwhile his nails grew to a sharp point and had a slight blue tint. Everything stopped moving and Neo fell back,absolutely exhausted, only to land on a soft blanket and fall asleep without a care in the world.

"Wake up, Neo you have a job to do." Death’s voice whispered throughout his head, the warmth andcomfortof Neo’s surroundings delayed his response. Not having awareness of time, the voice returned like a cooing mother, "Neo, you have to get up. Your body’s adjusted and your mind recovered, time to work."

Neo moaned but ignored the voice. He jerked up not a minute later, right as a booming voice exhibited it's annoyance, "Get up or I'll drop you off in the Alps. I’m sure that'll wake you up quick enough!"

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"I'm up!" Neo spoke aloud opening his eyes to find that he was still in the same dark, candle lit space. However, after looking around, Neo saw that the triangle had disappeared and the only person in the room was Death.

Staring back up at Death, he repeated, "I'm up, how long have I been out?"

Death shrugged, "A few days."

Neo jumped at that, "A few days! I need to get back or they'll think I've died or something."

Death gave a slight smile, "No, this is my space, I can do what I like here. At the moment it's only been a few moments in the real world, while it's been about a week in here. I know I should get a reality clock, or a sun, but I enjoy the dark, it's cooling."

There was something slightly off with Death. He wasn’t as cheerful, if that was even an appropriate word to describe Death, but there was a bit of pain in his eyes. So Neo asked,"What's up?"

Deaths smile faded a little, "Fate has been decided, now you have to take responsibility and deal with the outcome."

Neo thought through everything and there was only one thing that Neo had relied on fate for, and he involuntarily gulped remembering the child crying and how he'd run. He felt anger toward himself, as well as new emotions and strange new understandings that hadn't been a part of him before. It wasn't separate, there were no doors to shut to separate himself from the Instinct. It, too, had also disappeared from his mind, the muttering of emotions all but a memory. It left him strangely lonely, with only his own thoughts and no distractions, but in its place was an indomitable will and a different point of view.

As he slowly rose from the ground, he looked down at his white hands with the blue tinted nails. Moving them he found that the scales didn't restrict his movement. He found that he was seeing everything normally, even with the cosmetic changes to his eyes there was no heat sensing or movement detection, just plain old normal sight.

Neo moved to get up, but he fell forward when he pushed up and accidently jumped a few metres in the air before he landed, slapping onto the cold stone floor. Death laughed as he watched Neo’s antics, "Let me help, I guess you didn't get it's movement control. That'll take some time to get used to. How's your white mana level?"

Neo shrugged as he sat back on the floor and entered his internal space. He found that the mana was definitely smaller, one third smaller at least. Telling Death what he'd found, he nodded, "You’ve got a lot of souls to collect before you can start returning it back to its former glory."

Neo thought about it and wondered how much that was. Summoning his scroll, something he hadn’t done in a while but he didn’t have a need to, since he hadn't collected many, or any, souls. Not really a good Death, but he was sure that was going to change.

Seeing the flame come to life from nowhere, Neo flipped through the scroll. He found his white mana at level seven, with the next level being around fifty thousand souls, "Ha, that's a lot of people!"

Looking back to Death, Neo held out a hand for some help. Death smiled and reached out a hand to grasp Neo's, pulling him up and holding him so that he wouldn't go shooting off again.

Death gave a little smirk, "At least you won't have to move around that much, as long as your mouth and voice work, which they seem to do. Right, off we go!"

Neo barely hada moment's notice before the room shifted straight from dark to the pure white cleanliness of the hospital room and he snapped in place in astral form. Neo recognised the space but it was a lot more crowded, full of hospital staff and the haggard husband of the woman in the bed. The woman in bed, her soul was almost half black. It sent a shiver down his back as he thought about how he'd felt her here to get become that!

He felt disgust at himself for leaving her to become corrupted. Lessened, lost, and cold were the words he coulduse to try and describe what he was feeling from the soul.

The crowded room stirred as the doctor looked toward the husband, who was only staring at his still wife. Leaning over her, he kissed her and whispered something in to her ears. He stood up straight and, with slightly dead eyes, nodded toward the doctor. His soul dimmed significantly as he did so. The doctor acknowledged with a return nod before he started flicking off the switches that controlled the machines that kept her alive.

It was a strange sight to see someone die, their soul flared in brilliance, consuming the whole body, before it writhed and fell apart then picked itself, up only fold in on itself. Neo was so engrossed that he barely noticed the room had quieted down as the doctor and nurses left the husband in peace. Neo stepped forward, expecting to have to do something but found Death stopped him. He whispered into his ears, "You have to leave them for a little while, it’s a very turbulent time for a soul. They get everything forced onto them at once, the mind and body combining into one being, like an archive of their lives. So, give her a few minutes, you'll know when to go. Now you have a tough job to do, as she is so corrupted. You'll try to talk to her first, however, and see if you can help push back the corruption." Death’s voice changed turning a serious, "If you are not successful, you will have to destroy her!"

Neo gulped, he had no idea how to achieve that, so he asked, "How do I go about helping her?"

Death looked over at him as he started pacing back and forth, "Remind her of what she was like. Her body, her memories, get her to remember them and get her to feel emotions."

Another question popped into Neo's head, "Why can't I just get her with the flute?"

"Well…" Death started but went silent, Neo waited a few moments before he began again, "Well, a corrupted soul can't work with our abilities. It's by design, as they are not wholly what they were, if they did manage to get through, they'd consume and corrupt every other soul they connected with, and then we'd have some serious trouble. Like, world ending trouble! However, using the musical notes to ignite emotion and memories, it could be a brilliant idea. When has this ever happened before… Oh right, no one's stupid enough to pick a flute out from the rest of the awesome and practical weapons. Give it a try, she not over halfway consumed, so there's no need for drastic measure!"

Neo smiled, now that's something he could do. His flute appeared in his hands as he thought about how he would get it. With that all there was to do was wait. It was a long wait, after two hours even Death paced with a look a confusion and worry, but it soon happened. The soul formed into a faded human body, sitting up straight before she cried out loud as the corruption formed on her body. It was like a disease, covering what looked like a half of her body as she screamed. Death slapped Neo on the back, "What are you doing? Hurry up, get on with it!"

Neo didn't wait, placing the flute to his lips he decided to play something calming and to get her attention. He got it, her eyes went straight to him, staring both at and past him. Her eyes watered as she accepted what had happened and the realisation that she wouldn’t see her family again. She slowly accepted it and as she calmed down, a small part of the black flames were cleansed as her soul recovered. It was then that her eyes connected with Neo’s, and she had a huge smile form on her face as she sat, quietly staring at him. In two hours Neo had gone through every piece of music that he could think of that could evoke her emotions and memories. At first things went well, very well. The corruption was destroyed one spot at a time at a fast pace, until they came to the last splotch, which had annoyingly stayed there for the last fifteen minutes while the rest of her body had returned to normal.

Neo had to stop, it wasn't working. There was no way for him to continue after exhausting all of his musical knowledge and he gave up hope as he sagged into his chair. Death, however, had a huge smile that Neo had never seen on his face, "Lad, that was amazing. I knew you'd be more interesting. If I'm right, all you'll need to do is talk to her!"

Neo looked quizzically at Death and wondered, 'How will that help?'

He shrugged, he had nothing left might as well go speak to her. Stopping in front of her, he spoke, "Hello, ma’am. How are you doing? I'm here to help!"

The feeling that Neo had of her from earlier had faded, she now felt warm, welcoming, and content. Her eyes almost sparkled as she stared at him and she replied with a huge smile, "Thank you, Dad, for coming to get me!"

With that her tears burst from her eyes and she hugged him for all she was worth, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Dad, I'm home." Her image changed to one of a child before the last black splotch of corruption disappeared in a puff of smoke. Her soul dissipated and flowed down the flute where it formed a cloud and an image skipped by of her father playing with her and then her playing with her own child with all of the happy and sad memories in between. The soul was then slowly absorbed by the flute.

Once it was over Neo just stood there, confused. He looked toward Death, who only smiled a knowing smile, Neo waited for the answer but Death didn't speak so Neo asked anyway, "So, why did she call me Dad?"

Death took a big breath before he spoke. "Well, it's an effect of being a reaper or, in your case, my apprentice. You have aura around you that will calm those peoples souls who you are appearing to. You'll appear in whatever form they believe in, from family, to angels, or even a demon. It all depends on what their beliefs are and what their life experiences have been."