Chapter 44 "Lamia"
Chapter 44
Lamia
“Of course… You know me. You just don’t recognize me anymore…” Female voice. The new Grim Reaper clenches the Elixir too tight in her fist. It suddenly transforms into a large scythe. The evil grin has not gone away from her face as she grips the red stick part of the scythe.
The entire planet starts trembling all of the sudden. As if its own soul is crying for mercy. Death King can sense it very well, as he scowls deeply.
I know her? But… Death King takes a look at the appearance of the Grim Reaper. All he has ever known is the demons who are always half of his size. Yet looking at the Grim Reaper who is at the equal height as Death King is.
“This time… I will finally take your soul!” Without moving at all, the Grim Reaper sends a sudden wave of shock across the air, but Death King easily vanishes it by swinging his sword.
Jervis is snickering loudly as he points his finger up at the sky. “Make sure you don’t forget about me!”
Death King glances up only to find a countless number of icicles floating in the air. He cannot help but display a big grin on his face. “Is that all you can do?”
“Can you save all the demons down here?!” Jervis laughs out loud as he launches the icicles straight towards hundreds of the demon guards in the courtyard.
Death King moves swiftly towards Jervis, about to swing his sword only to be blocked by the Grim Reaper’s scythe.
“Your opponent is me!” Grim Reaper chortles loudly. “Today is finally the day you die!”
The icicles stop suddenly just several inches away from piercing through some demons. Jervis raises an eyebrow as he quickly glances at Jade who is using some kind of purple magic from his hand. As soon as he senses a powerful attack coming, he quickly jumps off the floating icy platform, which gets hit by a large lightning bolt. All remaining icicles get destroyed by another single lightning strike.
Jervis lands on the ground with his feet. The demon guards quickly charge at him only to get frozen by Jervis blowing a large amount of freezing mist. He laughs again and says, “I’ve gotten a lot stronger! You’re no match for us.”
“W-what the hell did you do to yourself?” One of the demons asks.
“Why, by consuming the souls, of course! Join us if you don’t want to die!” Jervis exclaims. He chuckles as he watches some of the demons backing away. Of course, they can’t fight without their scythes.
“Then, we are your opponents!” Clear yells as she, Jade, and Viola leap from different distances.
“Wait, are we fighting for real?” Viola asks nervously.
Jervis laughs loudly as he jumps in the air and then slams his feet on the ground. A large amount of icicles are being shot out of the ground.
Clear and Jade dodge every icicle without any problem. Viola barely evades them until the last one.
“One tenth the gravity!” Jade yells as he manages to move Viola away to avoid the final icicle, making her yelp in both surprise and panic.
“Dragon of Lightning!” Clear sends countless lightning bolts at Jervis, but they only crash into the new wall of ice.
How the hell did I get myself into this battle?! Viola stumbles over as soon as Jade lets go of her with the power of gravity.
Jervis runs his hand through his smooth blonde hair. He has not stopped laughing even once. “I see you’re no ordinary fighters! I wonder how your souls will taste?”
“What?” Clear raises an eyebrow at Jervis’s odd question until she realizes what he is doing just now.
Ice is emerging out of the ground right next to Jervis. In the form of a scythe. He grabs it and then points it at Clear and Jade. “For a long time, we were always directed to eat the evil from the souls. To keep the universe in balance.”
“Jervis, you didn’t…!” Viola gasps loudly. “You know that’s a deadly taboo!”
“That’s correct. We ate all six qualities of the soul - Evil, virtue, despair, hope, hatred, and love!”
“Wait, ‘we’? Are there other demons with you, doing the same thing?” Jade asks worriedly. He only receives a big mischievous grin from Jervis. He frowns at the demon’s reaction. How long have they been doing it under Death King’s nose…?!
“Ice Wave!” Jervis constantly laughs as he creates a large wave of ice. The field surrounding it becomes icy and frozen.
Clear and Jade barely leaps away from the large ice attack. Clear has to grab Viola, who is freaking out, before she becomes another victim of getting frozen by Jervis’s powerful attack.
As they land safely, they look up at how big Jervis’s ice wave attack looks. It is literally a small mountain to them. Everyone over in the four districts on the lower ground can clearly see it.
Jervis makes a few leaps until he reaches the top of his made ice. A new scythe is being created entirely out of the ice, right next to its owner. Jervis grabs it, getting in a ready position.
“Man!” Jade chuckles softly as he releases cold air. He watches several other demons freaking out and running away. “What the hell is Raven doing? Why can’t she give the weapons back to them so they can fight back?”
“I always tell you! She’s greedy! Of course she will not give them back!” Viola cries, waving her hands in panic.
Jade and Clear briefly give each other the knowing glances.
“Viola, use that illusion thing! You know, to scare him?” Clear gestures her hand towards Jervis. ”We will help out!”
“Er, fine!” Viola shuts her eyes close tightly, as yellow magic appears surrounding her body.
“What are you scheming?” Jervis asks suspiciously. He is not going to let his opponents attack even once so he has to stop them before then. He jumps off the icy edge and then creates a small icy platform so he can use it to slide down the small icy mountain.
“Hurry up, will you?!” Jade yells at Viola.
“I’m trying to make it perfect!” She yells back.
“Here he comes!” Clear shouts. She easily evades Jervis’s icy scythe attacks as soon as he finally reaches the ground.
“I’ll just take your soul, then!” Jervis laughs loudly as his scythe begins to glow up in the red energy. “Bringer of Grim Reap--”
All of sudden, in the blue sky, a large black dragon is literally being assembled right out of the air. It is so enormous that its own shadow can cover the entire kingdom. It is more than enough for the demons to start freaking out and running randomly.
“What?” Jervis stops laughing for the first time as soon as the dragon appears. “Is that… Xiuhcoatl? Why is it here?”
“Seriously? You chose it? The king of all dragons?” Jade asks sarcastically, his arms widely open. “Really?”
“Shut up! I’m so sorry I could only think of it!” Viola snaps. “It’s one of the most feared creatures in the universe!”
The dragon lands on the icy mountain. Bearing its large sharp teeth, it turns to the traitorous demon. Seeing its full red eyes, Jervis flinches.
The dragon opens its mouth widely, powering up for some kind of bright magic. It flies toward Jervis fast.
“Oh crap!” Jervis cries as he quickly turns to run away but he stops as soon as he notices Jade pointing his palm. He chortles lightly. Is he seriously going to use the gravity power on me like he did to Nekros? Wait… Why does it feel different?
“Looks like you’ve been cornered,” Jade smiles widely. “Tsunami!”
A large amount of water, equaling to the size of a normal ocean wave, suddenly emerges from Jade’s open palm and crashes Jervis at the very close range.
“You damn freak! I’m taking your soul, then!” Jervis yells, already recovering from the water attack. He leaps toward Jade, about to swing his icy scythe.
“Lightning Strike!”
Thanks to Jade’s water attack, it has increased the power of Clear’s lightning attack. At the end, Jervis gets hit and knocked out. Anything that is made out of ice is dissipating into nothingness. The illusion of the dragon is gone as well.
“Is… Is he dead?” Viola starts poking Jervis’s unconscious body with a random stick.
~*~
SEVERAL MINUTES AGO
The second Jade turns to use his power of gravity on Jervis’s icicles to save the demons from getting pierced to death, Nekros hastily gets up to run.
Only to be stopped by a soccer ball. A very heavy soccer ball- enough to be a bowling ball. Nekros luckily has dodged from it only to witness it crashing into the ground. He scowls as he looks around until he finds the owner of the soccer ball. “Thorn.”
“The palace is on lockdown. Why are you trying to run?” Thorn flashes a set of his own shark-like teeth.
Dammit… Only if I have my scythe…! Nekros snickers at his own thoughts only to stop when he notices dozens of tiny bright orbs surrounding himself. Huh?
Johnny smirks before he snaps his fingers as he commands, “Burst.”
Suddenly, red magic appears on both Nekros’s feet right before he runs at nearly the speed of light to escape the area with the small explosions which were initiated by Johnny.
“The power of rush, huh?” Johnny raises an eyebrow. Exactly the same power as Tezuka has. At least he’s much faster than that demon.
Nekros is already within inches of Johnny. Laughing loudly, he takes a dagger out of his hidden pouch and thrusts it towards his opponent’s chest.
Johnny easily evades it by swiftly moving his body to the side.
“What?!” Nekros cries. He tries again but his dagger suddenly gets heavier until his wrist cannot handle the weight anymore. His weapon falls out of his hand and crashes into the ground, creating a new hole.
“Hey, that’s cheating!” Thorn gives a few chortles.
“Give up, will you?” Gules shakes his head. As soon as he senses Jervis’s large amount of icy energy, he yelps startled before he hastily tosses up a wall volume of flames that go all the way up to the sky and really wide from one side of the palace to another. Some ice rocks from the small icy mountain still come rolling until they melt down as soon as they hit the wall of the flames.
“Whoa! That was close!” Thorn gives a relieved sigh, looking all the way up at the wall of the flames.
Now here’s my chance! Nekros takes the advantage of Thorn’s distraction as he quickly pulls the dagger out of the hole. He throws it hard at his demon opponent.
Johnny quickly jumps in front of Thorn, taking a stab in his chest. “Ugh!” He yells in pain as he collapses to the ground.
“Hehehe!” Nekros turns to run as fast and far away as possible.
“Why you!” Thorn yells angrily as he runs after him until he spots his heavy soccer ball still in the hole. As soon as he gets it, a huge shadow covers the entire kingdom. He nervously looks up to find the king of all dragons- Xiuhcoatl. “H-how?”
“Go after him!” Gules yells, startling Thorn. He has already pulled the dagger out of Johnny’s chest and starts healing him right away.
“R-right!” Thorn remembers where Nekros went so he resumes running along with his soccer ball.
Nekros stops at the very edge of the cliff. Panting heavily, he leans over a little bit but the city below is like an ant to him. “Damn! Only if I have my scythe…!”
“Well, well… Nekros, there you are.” Thorn smirks, his foot on the soccer ball not letting it roll anywhere. “Now you have nowhere to run. Especially with that rush power of yours. But you know what is so funny about it?”
“Tch…!” Nekros scowls deeply.
“Death King did not choose you to go out to different worlds and collect the souls from the dead or the ones who live past their expiration dates,” Thorn says amusedly. “Your power would’ve been perfect for it. I wonder why?”
“Go to hell!” Nekros yells as he runs fast towards Thorn, fixing to throw a punch. Only to get hit in the stomach by Thorn’s soccer ball worth a ton.
It is more than enough to knock him out.
“Hell? Aren’t we here already?” Thorn snickers as he easily picks up the super heavy soccer ball.
~*~
“Well, well… even my own subordinates defeated you just within mere minutes.” Death King gives the so-called Grim Reaper a smirk as the illusion of the legendary dragon as well as the huge wall of flames are vanishing away into nothingness.
“I don’t care. All it needs is to take your soul.” The Grim Reaper spins her scythe several times before getting in the fighting pose. “And then I’ll be the ruler of Hell!”
“Hey, Death King!” Raven is standing on her large and thick red book, which is literally hovering in the air. She briefly fixes her tangled tie, sending the Grim Reaper a couple of glances, as she asks, “What do we do about the Elixir?”
“I’ll take it back. Give me my scythe back and then just stay out of my way,” Death King says.
“Well….” Raven grins evilly. “What do I get in return?”
“I know you stole it from me the day you were expelled.”
“Of course I was mad! I used to be the weaponry and armory keeper and got to eat all the souls I wanted!”
“If you give it back to me, then you won’t have to die. That’s the deal.” Death King shoots her a deadly glare.
“Eeps! Fine, fine…” Raven grumbles as she squats down so she can reach into the large book until she pulls out Death King’s scythe with three blades, which is double in size compared to all other demons’.
Suddenly, the Grim Reaper has already approached even closer to Death King as she swings her scythe hard only to be blocked by Death King’s own. A sudden powerful wave of shock from the collision sends Raven away along with her book.
“Hey, you’re not bad yourself!” Death King exclaims, his adrenaline already rising. “Now… show me your face!”
He thrusts his weapon directly towards the Grim Reaper’s head, but she quickly leaps away from him. He raises an eyebrow as he asks again, “Who are you?”
The quick slash from Death King’s scythe has cut the hood in half, finally revealing the true face of the Grim Reaper. Light tan skin, long pink hair with layered cut and orange vertical slit eyes. She growls even with a smirk but stops as soon as she realizes it. “Hard to believe that you don’t remember me at all.”
“Let’s see… Pink hair and orange eyes…” Death King briefly gazes over as he continues, “There are thousands of you. How am I supposed to remember?”
“I was your top soul collector,” the pink-haired Grim Reaper says. Her red scythe suddenly starts glowing in bright pink magic. Several souls from the demons below are being absorbed into her weapon.
Death King briefly shudders at the sudden increase in the Grim Reaper’s power. How long has it been since the last time I reacted to someone powerful?
Whether he wants to remember it or not, all he can think of is how insanely strong Hikyou the Double God was back then. During the third and last Soul War, all three Gods were not involved. At least, not at first. Tenshu and Death King always fought over the souls. They tried many agreements and deals but ultimately failed, leading to the war. There seemed to be no end to it until Hikyou showed up and ended the war with a single yet powerful attack called--
Death King’s thoughts are interrupted when he quickly blocks the Grim Reaper’s scythe only to flinch at the cries coming from the planet. He growls in frustration. “Shit! What are you doing to Hell?”
“Doesn’t matter. As long as I defeat you, that’s all I care about!” The Grim Reaper laughs loudly as she keeps attacking him with her weapon. She backs away at the end only to shout “Bringer of Grim Reaper!”
Cries come as soon as dozens of souls are being forced out of the demons. The Grim Reaper opens her mouth widely, consuming every single soul within just a few seconds.
“Stop!” Death King shouts as he swings his scythe hard through the air, creating and sending a large magical blade at his opponent.
The Grim Reaper quickly drops herself to the ground, evading the attack completely. “If you want to save your demons, then give me your soul!”
Death King growls in frustration. Only if I take the Elixir away from her…!
“Well, fine then!” The Grim Reaper slams her scythe on the floor.
Every demon and person who is still on the ground suddenly has their souls floating outside their bodies.
“Oh no…!” Raven cries. She has been sitting on her book watching the battle. She quickly looks up at Logy only to be relieved that he is still alive because he is still on the roof of the castle.
But Thorn, Viola, and most of the Dark Team members are not so lucky. Raven frowns. “Well, shit! Where the hell is Knapp?!”
As cued, Knapp comes out of the sky and lands his feet hard on the ground.
The Grim Reaper narrows her eyes in both confusion and anger. Confusion because she has never seen Knapp in her entire life. Anger because her battle with Death King got interrupted.
“About time you get here!” Death King gently lands next to Knapp.
“Sorry, it took a little longer than I expected for me to gather the power of the universe,” Knapp says as he takes off his scarf.
Death King bends down and places his hand on the ground. He commands, “Returner of the Grim Reaper.”
All souls suddenly get pulled to their original bodies, some yelping in surprise.
“Well then… who are you?” The Grim Reaper scowls.
Knapp half-smirks as he says, “From what we got your thoughts… Your name is Lamia, isn’t it? You’ve been resenting Death King for a long time.”
“Lamia? Oh no…” Death King gives out a roaring laughter, making Lamia scowl even deeper. When he calms down, he continues, “That puny little demon? One of the smallest demons? No way, it can’t be her…”
“How did you get everything from my head?” Lamia asks. “Is it a mind reader? I’ve heard of the power of mind reading but…”
“That’s right. It’s the rarest of all rare. I’ve only ever heard of five souls with the power of mind since the beginning of the universe… Too bad though. They all went to Heaven first. Tenshu did not want any of us to get our hands on them.”
“You’re way too soft, Death King,” Lamia chortles lightly as she places her hand on his face. “You should’ve gone after them when the Gods were gone.”
Knapp withdraws his sword from his scabbard. “No more chat-chit. I strongly suggest you give up and give the Elixir back.”
Lamia licks her own lips, chortling once again. “Make me!” She swings her scythe through the air, sending energy balls at both of her opponents.
Knapp easily defects one of them away with his sword while Death King swiftly dodges. Death King shoots a couple of fireballs at Lamia, who evades.
They dance around. Weapons conflicting. Magical attack balls crashing into each other. Exchanges of punches and kicks only to be either evaded or blocked.
After a while, Lamia seems to be slowing down. She leaps away from her opponents as she is panting heavily.
Suddenly, she can feel something sharp on the side of her head. She carefully glances until she realizes that it is Raven with her own scythe.
“You really need to give the Elixir back to Death King,” Raven grins widely.
“I thought you were exiled?”
“Turns out they found me to be innocent-- wait a minute,” Raven widens her eyes in realization. “How did you know?”
Lamia laughs loudly as she knocks Raven’s weapon away with her own scythe. “Of course! I had to frame you so we could avoid getting caught for eating too many souls! Death King kept sending out his royal guards. We needed more time.”
“That’s enough, Lamia. It’s over,” Death King says. He can clearly tell how exhausted Lamia looks. “You’re hurting the planet by hanging on the Elixir too long.”
“Never!” Lamia growls loudly. “Watch me! I will eat Raven’s soul instead!”
Raven tries to block Lamia’s scythe but her own weapon suddenly breaks in half. “What?!”
“Raven!” Knapp shouts as he moves swiftly but he is way too late.
It is Logy who gets sliced by the so-called Grim Reaper’s scythe. Except his body is not cut.
Instead, his soul gets pulled out of his body. Logy collapses to the ground.
W-when did he get there…?! All the way from the roof? Knapp’s heart starts beating faster. Not in excitement. It’s actually fear.
Lamia laughs out loud as she grabs the chains, which are connected between Logy’s soul and real body. “What is this powerful soul?!” She harshly pulls the squirming soul towards herself and opens her mouth.
“Logy, no!” Raven shouts, reaching out her hand desperately.
LOGY'S FATE IS IN YOUR HANDS
~*~
So, this is probably a one-time thing or I may do a few more like this in the future. Anyway, I can’t wait to see the result and see where the story will go! Just be warned- the result of your choice may lead to two entirely different paths, which will affect the ending of the Double God trilogy (which is still in process of being largely edited and revised).
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