Tarous

by Jeremy W Eason

  “You were the son of a farmer, that’s why you carry a scythe. You could have made your weapon look like anything, but you spent most of your life working in the fields. You were familiar with the scythe so that’s why your God Weapon took the form of a scythe.”

  I had always wondered why a scythe was the instrument of death. Now I knew.

  “Your family was poor. They starved to death. You starved to death with them and when death came to take your soul he took mercy on you. He felt pity since your life was so short and sad. Never did you hate others or fear death. Never did you curse anyone for your misfortune. You always did your best with a smile on your face despite how difficult things became. You were able to sway the heart of death himself. So he sacrificed himself and granted you all of his powers. It was the only way he could save you.”

  He gave me a slight nod.

  “You have done nothing but show kindness to others your entire existence. Even now you’re giving me your powers so that it won’t fall into the hands of someone that would abuse it.”

  “I will be the master of death,” yelled Chaz.

  I turned and looked at Chaz, all of the reaper’s memories of all the things he had done for humanity running through my head. “You’re not worthy.”

  The power of death continued to flow into me, but some of it began to flow into Chaz as well. I wasn’t sure I was worthy of death’s power either.

  “Death is inevitable. It is a cold truth that finds us all one day. Even death is dying right before our very eyes.” I motioned towards the reaper who had begun to shrink in size as he channeled away his power.

  “There was no reason for my wife to die! She was still young, but even magic couldn’t heal her cancer.”

  I felt his pain and his loss in my very soul. Poor Chaz and poor Nyxra. “Death is fair, we must all die. We are born to die and from the moment of birth we all have an appointment with death. Without death how can the children of the world blaze their own path if the older ones don’t ever step aside?”

  “I refuse. I will defeat death,” spoke Chaz, his body glowing with the stolen power of the grim reaper.

  “You cannot defeat what cannot be defeated.”

  “Death took her from me and I will never forgive it!” cried Chaz.

  The power flowing within me was overwhelming. I was death. I was the release from the pain of living. Like Chaz, I also glowed with the power of the reaper.

  I clenched my fists. “If you hurt so much, I will remove all of your pain!”

  I struck first. A wave of death spread out from me. I used my Withering Fist technique, except now it was a thousand times stronger. A wave of black flames exploded from my body and rolled off into the distance. The wave flowed through Nyxra, leaving her uninjured, but all the witches that were channeling their power into the pentagram began to wither and die before our eyes.

  I think a better name for my technique would now be Withering Wave.

  Discouragingly, Chaz had absorbed enough power that he was also uninjured. Luckily, without the witches the pentagram began to flicker and eventually dispersed.

  I turned to look at the reaper and deep down I knew it was too late for him. He was as tall as a normal man. One second he seemed solid, but the next I could see right through him.

  “Hello death, my old friend.”

  He looked so tired and small, but he still managed to look at me and give me a knowing smile. We both knew this was the last time we would ever meet. He was dying, but he didn’t seem sad. He had lived a long time. He had seen many things. He had grown tired of this life. Gathering the last of his fading strength he leaned on his scythe to keep himself standing.

  I moved closer to help him and he placed his hand on my shoulder and gave me a brief nod. So much was said with just a nod. He held out his scythe and as soon as my hand grasped it, cracks appeared on his skull. Little pieces of bone shard fell from his face. The pieces of bone fell faster and faster. The reaper was disintegrating before my eyes and in moments even those pieces shattered until he had completely turned to dust. His robes turned to black qi that swirled around me into the black robes of death.

  I was the new death. I had the power of a god. I could kill with a thought. I felt strength like I never had before. The power was overwhelming. I could kill the entire monster world. I could kill anyone.

  The reaper faded away and for the first time, I heard him speak. I was able to hear his last words. They echoed through the universe and through my very soul.

  “Always be kind.”

  Then he was gone, like he never existed. I knew he existed. I knew his sacrifice. For one instant I hated all of life. Knowing that in the world, somewhere, were people that were happy made me burn with anger and hate. How dare they be happy when someone as great as the reaper had passed.

  I calmed myself. I knew most of the world wouldn’t even know the reaper had died. Mortals would never know. How could I blame them for living their lives unaware of what had transpired?

  Then my attention was drawn back to myself. I was the new death, but I was not whole. Chaz still had something that belonged to me.

  “NO! You’ve ruined EVERYTHING! I will kill you!” he shrieked.

  As long as both of us had part of death’s power, neither of us could truly become death.

  “Today is not my day to die,” I replied as I walked towards Chaz.

  “You can’t kill me. I will become the new death and I will never die.”

  “We humans do love to believe that we will never die, despite all the evidence that points to the fact that we will.”

  “I will never die! I will become more powerful than even death!” Chaz continued to screech.

  “The rantings of a child.”

  As much as I liked the traditional weapons like the scythe and short swords, the weapon I thought of in that moment was a gun. With that thought, the scythe changed and reformed as a black sub-machine gun. It was beautiful. It was also alive. It was a manifestation of my power in the world of men.

  Chaz raised his arms and a black sphere of death energy formed above him. He was not only gathering death qi from our surroundings, he was also using the power he had stolen from the reaper.

  There could be only one death. Since we both had a part of death’s power, neither of us was truly death. For now, his attack was more than enough to kill me.

  “Now you will die!” He threw the blast of death qi straight at me.

  “Crap, crap, crap.” I didn’t have time to avoid the blast.

  Something flew in front of me, obstructing my vision, taking the blast of death qi directly. It took me a moment to realize that the something was Nyxra. I froze, my insides froze, and I felt empty. I instantly denied everything my eyes were seeing.

  Everything froze and I knew a fear worse than death. I did my best to deny reality, but that fear forced its way into my mind. I was afraid to take a single breath, because if I did the world would continue on and the truth I feared would become reality.

  The truth is we mortals do not have the ability to freeze time, no matter how much we may wish it. The world continued to spin, time continued on, and there was nothing I could do about Nyxra’s body lying on the ground in front of me.

  Then I heard someone screaming. Someone was screaming so loud it hurt my ears. I realized both Chaz and I were screaming. For the next few moments everything became a blur.

  Chaz was shaking his daughter, but she wasn’t reacting. She was dead. I fell to my knees and just kneeled there on the ground. I was empty. No thought, no emotion, I couldn’t feel anything. Some distant part of me realized I was in shock. It was almost like I was watching myself, like I was an observer and none of this had anything to do with me.

  I saw Chaz stand up. He was looking off into the distance. He took my reaper gun that was formerly the reaper’s scythe. It had fallen from my hands at some point and I hadn’t realized I was no longer holding it until that moment.

  All he had to
do was shoot me. Then all the powers that death had granted to me would go to him because he was the only other candidate to become the new death. When I died he would officially become the new grim reaper and then he could bring one person to life. Despite all of his faults, Chaz truly loved his wife and daughter. He would have to choose. Bring back Nyxra or his wife, but not both. As the new death, he could only bring back one person.

  I was still in shock, I wasn’t moving. With Nyxra dead I didn’t want to live. To stand up or to fight would take more than I currently had in me. I never realized how much she meant to me until that moment. To realize I would never see her smile again broke me. I waited for my death.

  I just sat there and watched him. I felt like I wasn’t really even in my own body. It felt like I was still observing from outside my body. Like I was watching a horrible play that had nothing to do with me, but was still sad.

  “There is only one way my daughter can live and I can be with my wife.” Chaz looked down and examined my gun.

  It was difficult to tilt my own head, like I was surrounded by water. My movements were slow and sluggish.

  “Take care of my daughter for me.” He placed the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. His brains splattered out the back of his own head.

  The remaining power of death inside of Chaz flowed into me. With the power from his body now in mine I had all the power of death. I was now officially the grim reaper. I now possessed the mantle of the God of Death.

  Now that I was officially death, more power flowed into me. The universe began to acknowledge my mantle of power and began to recreate my body. What I became was no longer human nor witch. The energy of the universe flowed inside me and changed me. No longer mortal, I was a god.

  With what little of my mind was left at that moment, I looked at Nyxra’s body. “Come back. Please come back. I miss you so much. I need you.”

  As the official God of Death, I had given up my past life, the life of a mortal. By the laws of the universe there must be balance and in doing so I was allowed to bring one person back to life. Though I wasn’t thinking straight, the power inside me knew what I wanted and Nyxra’s body began to rise as it started to breathe on its own. Her flesh grew warm. Her soul returned to her body.

  She was back. She was still unconscious, but clearly alive. As I looked at her I could feel the pieces of myself pulling back together and I smiled. Before this I had never realized how much she meant to me. I would never take her for granted again.

  Chapter 24

  I just sat there. The new death, one of the most powerful beings to exist, and I just sat there in a puddle of Chaz’s blood. He had made the ultimate sacrifice for his daughter.

  He wasn’t such a bad guy really. He had just wanted to bring back his wife. Who hasn’t missed a loved one? I remembered my friend the reaper who was also now dead. Someone wonderful had left this world and because of it the world suddenly felt smaller.

  “Even death must die.”

  I wanted to hate Chaz. It was his fault the reaper, my friend, was dead. I wanted to hate him, but I couldn’t. Which made me hate myself a little. He wasn’t truly a bad guy, but he was blinded by the pain of his loss, because of his love. All the witches that had helped Chaz in the ritual were now dead. I was unable to feel sad about that.

  I wasn’t sure what to do next. Everything was hazy. I just sat there. I’m not sure how long I sat there. Time had little meaning to me at that moment. The entire experience had been too much for me emotionally. I had watched two people that I loved very much die in front of my very eyes. One had come back to life and one never would.

  I picked Nyxra up and laid her across my lap. I stroked her hair gently. Poor girl. Her mother and father were now both dead. She had lost all of her family.

  Time began to blur again. It could have been minutes or even days, it would have all been the same for me. One moment was the same as the next moment and not a single moment was important. The blood around me had dried, and I wasn’t sure when that had happened. I was having problems focusing. I was lost in my own thoughts until something wet on my hand brought me back. I looked down and an unnaturally tiny dog with brown eyebrows was licking my hand.

  It was Crowley, my familiar. I couldn’t help myself, I smiled down at my crazy and way too energetic dog. He continued to lick my hand before doing three quick laps around me and constantly yipping.

  A short time later two figures materialized out of the air. As Nyxra was still not awake, I gently moved her off of my lap and leaned my body slightly to protectively cover her.

  “Planet Earth, I give you the gift of myself, Cupid the God of Love!” said a man dressed entirely in pink. Even his hair was pink. He was clearly an idiot.

  “Is that a refundable gift? Please tell me you at least included a receipt with it,” said a man wearing a beautiful white robe beside him.

  My little protector Crowley stood between us and barked viciously at the two strangers. Despite his size, he was ready to take on the world for his beloved master.

  "Bahahahaha!" laughed the God of Love. "Your familiar is a…. Tiny little…. Rat dog! Bhahahaha!"

  Crowley knew when he was being insulted. He let out a vicious growl, which only caused the God of Love to laugh even harder.

  “Move it munchkin,” he said between laughs. The man in white beside him did not laugh or speak but continued to observe the scene playing out before him. He made no move to interfere, he only observed.

  The tiny dog leaped, going for Cupid’s manly parts.

  "LET GO! LET GO! IT HURTS!” screamed the God of Love in a voice reminiscent of a prepubescent girl as the dog latched onto his dangly bits and refused to let go.

  “I’m going to eat your soul!” screamed the God of Love with tears in his eyes.

  Anger flared inside me. How dare he threaten my dog! Black flames coalesced around me. I stood and my reaper gun flew through the air and into my hand. It then returned to the previous reaper’s symbol of office, a scythe.

  “You may think death is weak because the last grim reaper was so kind. I’m not him and I’m not always kind.”

  For a brief second a skeleton wearing a crown was superimposed over me. The sky instantly grew dark, the wind began to howl, and lightning struck the ground nearby. The sound of a thousand lost souls began to howl from all around us. I was now death. I was the force that ended all.

  The man in the white robes looked over at me. “We mean no harm. I am Cronus, God of Time. We are only here to assist the new God of Death.”

  I studied the two and slowly everything returned back to normal. The darkness and flames dispersed and the world around us became calm once more.

  “Fine, but tell your friend to keep his insults to himself or I’ll have my little dog neuter the God of Love.”

  With that, Crowley released Cupid’s marbles and trotted back over to my side with a large grin on his face.

  [Charm]

  “Well, I guess he is a rather cute doggy,” the God of Love kneeled down before Crowley and began to pet him. “Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good AAAHHH!!!” The dog latched onto his finger and wouldn’t let go.

  I saw that coming a mile away.

  “Help me Cronus! Help me! IT’S GOT ME!” he screamed as he tried to pull his finger from the dog’s mouth.

  “This is not how I pictured things going.” Cronus face-palmed. “How could this man be a god like me?” Cronus muttered to himself as he watched Cupid’s antics. He was getting beat up by a tiny dog. Cronus seriously hoped no mortal would find out that a god was being bullied by a tiny dog.

  “WHY WON’T HE LET GO?” screamed the God of Love. He began to cry a little.

  Cronus turned to me, intently ignoring Cupid and his plight. “We came here to give you an introduction to being the new God of Death. Basically, you are a representation of death. You have full control of it. As long as you wish it death will continue to work as it did before. You’re not alone though. Throughout th
e universe there are several other gods ruling over their own aspects. If at any time you grow tired of your position, you are only able to leave it by dying. Humans are often using ancient spells to try and steal our powers, all you would have to do is let their spell succeed.”

  Things made a little more sense after listening to Cronus.

  “Thank you for letting me go finally. I have never met such an ugly, stupid…,” said the God of Love.

  [Charm]

  “… Cute, handsome, sweet doggy.” He reached down to pet Crowley again. “Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good AAAHHH!!!” The dog latched onto his finger again.

  I found the entire scene oddly entertaining. Then something occurred to me and I turned back to Cronus.

  “Wait. Do you mean that the reaper allowed himself to die?”

  “Help Cronus! Demon dog! Demon dog!” screamed the God of Love. He was crying again.

  “Yes. I was close with the previous holder of your office. He had grown tired of living. He decided he wanted you as the next death. He knew you would never try to steal his powers so when he found out that another human near you was trying to steal his powers he enacted a plan to pass his powers to you.”

  “Why won’t you help me Cronus? Why? WHY?” screamed the God of Love. He was completely ignored by both Cronus and myself.

  I ignored the embarrassing moment that was happening right in front of me. A feat that took a large amount of willpower.

  “So what should I do now?” I asked.

  “Honestly, just live life like normal. As needed we can provide some additional training, but mainly you just need some time. Luckily, you’re now immortal, so you have all the time in the world.”

  Crowley had a rather evil grin on his face for such a cute puppy. He was rather enjoying himself.

  “I have personally appeared today to help you at the wishes of my friend, the previous holder of the title God of Death. As the God of Time we have worked together on several occasions. How else do you think death is able to be everywhere at once?”