"W-What's happening? Doctor?" The female said as she rested her palms at the glass case that separated her and her son who laid on what seemed like a comfortable bed.
Czak- Czak-
The machine where the boy was sleeping in was discharging electric sparks as if malfunctioning. The doctor gulped at the scene as beads of sweat dropped off his forehead.
"I-I...I don't know!" He replied with a shaking voice.
"What do you mean you don't know?" She said as tears flowed out of her eyes, "Can't you see he's in agony? This isn't a treatment!"
As she said that, many wounds started appearing on the boy's body which trembled in pain and agony. Little by little, the wounds appeared all over his body as upon the scene, the doctor as well seemed shocked.
He then turned to another person present in the room who was silently watching the scene unfold and asked, "Hey, the machine isn't working as it had previously. What's wrong with it? If the patient doesn't wake up and ends up with those horrible wounds then our hospital will be doomed. Do something."
"Wrong? Do something?" The man said looking at the doctor, "There is nothing wrong with the machine, it is perfectly fine. That's how it is supposed to work."
The man who said this was actually the person who had invented the machine, so he knew how it was supposed to work. But the doctor didn't believe his words, because he had been working here for the past few years and it was his first time seeing machines behave like this. The sparks were discharged, the patient inside was trembling in agony... and this was how the machine was supposed to work?
"Don't mess with me! This sort of thing has never happened when we treated millions of people with this machine and now you're saying that this is how it worked?Don't lie...!" The doctor refuted, "There must be something wrong. Check the machine...fast."
"There's nothing wrong with it...and if you're talking about wrong then wouldn't the sole existence of this machine be wrong?" The man said as he put his hands inside the pockets of his white lab coat.
"Just wait and watch."
"Wait and watch? How can you say that, you bastard." The doctor grabbed the man by his collar and said, "Don't you see he's suffering? He is suffering agonizing pain even after being dead and you're saying that the machine ought to have worked like this from the very beginning?"
"He's suffering? What's that got to do with me, huh? Was it me who put that kid inside that machine? What do you think is happening right now? Do you think you're making a kid sleep or something? You're resurrecting a dead, and if you that this is very simple then why don't you try to do it? I will leave everything to you, what do you say?"
"You..." The doctor gritted his teeth and glared at the man.
Slap-
The man slapped away the doctor's hand and fixed his collar.
"If you don't know how to use a machine and don't know how the machine works then do what a dog does...Behave!"
"You..." The doctor wanted to shred the bastard to pieces but he couldn't. If he knew how to use the machine then he would've already kicked this arrogant bastard out of the hospital. Just because the man knew how to make the machine work, he always looked down upon the doctor and the doctor couldn't refute it as well.
The doctor had tried many times to use the machine copying the same thing the man did but always failed to do so. Many other genius scientists and doctors had already failed to operate the machine as well. It was as if the machine only listened to the man and no one else.
If the man died then there was no way for them to operate the machine, and they couldn't force him into using it either. He operated the machine if he wanted and didn't if he didn't. This guy was very hard to deal with.
"Doctor...! Something strange is happening." The woman said as she looked at her son.
As the doctor turned towards the machine, he couldn't help but gasp, "How in the world is this possible?"
He was utterly shocked seeing what seemed like the body covered with thousands of wounds had just returned to normal. Was he hallucinating before? The body was perfectly fine and not even a scratch was in the body. But even though it was fine, it was pale as ever, hinting that he was still dead.
Death was but an eternal slumber. It was what humanity thought before but only three years ago was it proven. The man of unknown origin actually came up with a machine that he claimed to revive the dead.
The identity of the man was unknown and how he was able to invent it was also unknown. Many researchers did their research on the machine and the machine had proven it's worth by saving many lives.
It could even revive a person who was but ash and miraculously it wouldn't become a zombie but resurrect being on its the previous self as if the person never died.
There was only one machine like this and to everyone's surprise, it didn't need a person to be placed inside, if a person was in the range of about thousand kilometers then it could still resurrect them in about a second. That was how millions were resurrected in but the time frame of three years.
The doctor glanced at the body of the boy which was pale as ever and asked the man, "Does this mean that the resurrection has failed?"
"I don't know..."The man said with an odd look on his face because he knew how the machine worked but he didn't know as it would function accordingly, "Just wait for some time and we'll get the answer."
The sparks it was discharging had also stopped and the machine just stood there with a boy inside it without making any noise whatsoever. The room was filled with silence and what broke the spell was the machine again.
Beep- Beep- Beep-
With the 'Beep' sounds, the machine started functioning again as the bulbs that were on its sides started glowing in different colors as if rainbow. The body of the boy started disintegrating alongside the lights...more like started turning into thousands of blobs of light.
In but a moment, the boy wasn't there anymore and what lay in their vision were but blobs of light fusing together to make a streak. With a flash, the light illuminated the room for a moment before vanishing completely leaving the doctor and female speechless.
"Auden...Where is Auden?" The female looked at the empty device which just a moment ago contained her son and cried tears. His body had vanished into thin air and was nowhere to be found.
The doctor then with an angry look on his eyes, looked at the man and said, "What's the meaning of this? Where is the body? Did the resurrection failed?"
But the man seemed to be thinking about something else. His eyes were trembling with excitement and his face clearly showed the sign of happiness.
"F-Finally... finally...Hope isn't all lost." He muttered in a low voice, "The new legend has begun!"
"What the hell are you muttering?" The female shouted making the man come to his senses, "Where's my Auden? Where is my son? What happened to him?"
The man stood quiet but with a happy face all the same. The face of the doctor had also turned grim, "I knew it had failed. Just because of this incident, the hospital is going to be doomed."
Hearing the doctor said those words, the man said in anger, "Reputation this... reputation that. You dogs don't care about the patients, do you? What you need is reputation and money and it is all fine. Well, your reputation will be gone for good now that the machine has served its purpose."
"Served it's the purpose? What do you mean?" The doctor asked squinting his eyes.
BOOM!
The man got his answer when he heard the explosion coming from his back. When he turned his head, he found that the machine had exploded by itself and was into hundreds of pieces. He had realized that now that the 'Reviver' couldn't be used anymore, their hospital wasn't going to receive much of an attention.
He had also come to the conclusion that the man was up to something. He immediately took out his cellphone and started dialing a number.
The man wasn't alarmed by it as he had already thought of that. He just leaned against the wall and said in a relaxed tone, "Dialing someone to deal with me doesn't matter right now because I'm going to die either way. But what you people should be thinking of is how to save yourself. Now that the barrier has destroyed itself, there won't be anything that would stop it. It is going to come and no one can stop him, so just get over with that pointless effort of yours."
"Someone is coming? Who's coming?" The female asked with a cold voice, "And about my son, where have you hidden him? Is this someone coming here and the disappearance of my son somehow related?"
"I guess it is a bit related to that...but your son? Don't make me laugh! Since when did that bastard whom you took up from the street just for making some money became your son?" The man said giving a cold glance to the female,
"And asking me as if you're concerned about the boy you don't even care of makes me want to kill you even more. Do you want me to tell you how he died in the first place?"
"You..." Just as the female was about to speak, an illuminating light flashed across the world blinding everyone it touched. The light was followed by a loud thunder which made everyone in the Earth shudder in fear.
"W-what was that?" The doctor asked after the blinding light disappeared and the thunder calmed down. His hands were shuddering from the thunder and the cellphone in his hand had blacked out.
"As I told you, It has come." The man said solemnly, "It has come to take what was it's possession before."
He then looked around before saying, "This roomed is cramped. Why don't we go to the terrace for a better view? You don't want to miss this once in a lifetime opportunity."
Saying that the man then went to the terrace as the outside was even livelier than he had thought. The winds were raging wildly but the man wasn't that surprised. If it had indeed come then this was but a little touch. He then looked at the sky and seeing the figure, he laughed,
"Hahaha, it's time I guess. I might as well enjoy the show before disappearing."
Just as the female and doctor arrived at the roof, they nearly lost their footing because of the storm. Barely grabbing what they could grab to be footed there, they use their hands to cover their eyes from wind pressure followed the man's glance to the sky.
Thud-
Both of their knees hit the floor when they looked at the sky. They shuddered horrendously as their face turned pale out of terror. They couldn't hide what they were feeling with their face distorted like that.
"Wh-What's that...?" The woman said with a shuddering voice.
"What sort of monstrosity is that creature?"
Hearing the doctor talk like that, the man cracked a smile and said looking at the figure in the sky, "That monster is what you people know as death. No, more like the death God, I guess."
Entire Earth was covered in dark clouds hiding the sunlight from the eyes of every being giving the feeling of the night in the day time. Among the sea of clouds, there was a hole which was massive in size and was even darker than the clouds. It was like a black hole that was ready to devour everything in its path.
And at the entrance of the massive hole stood a figure clad in back armor and had green scales with the horn sticking out of its head pointing up. Its teeth were out of its mouth making it look even creepy.
With its eyes filled with murder and hatred, the figure glanced at the man who was standing on the terrace. Although the terrace seemed like an ant from such a distance between them, the figure could clearly see every detail in there without any problem.
"Death...? That figure is what we know as death?" The doctor said as he struggled to even stand up, "Wait a minute...you couldn't be talking about that monster when you said that it had come for what was its possession, can you?"
"You're right. That figure is the one I talked about and it has come to take what belonged to him." The man said.
"Then what is it that brought such monster to this place?" The doctor asked.
This sort of monster was beyond the imagination of humanity and its sole existence was something to be terrified and now it seemed that it was here for its belonging. What was that which made the monster to bring the calamity upon Earth? The doctor and the female had the same thought in their mind.
"Life...it has come for life what it had possessed before." The man said, "The lives that the machine brought back were actually stolen from the clutches of Thanatos and because it was malfunctioning for few years, millions of its belongings were stolen right from its nose by the machine and presented to their original body which had died."
"The machine was what acted as the barrier preventing the Thanatos from entering the Earth's atmosphere for three years, not letting it take what was its belongings. But now that the machine served it's the purpose and detonated, it is free and has come here for what was its."
"What? It was actually because of that cursed machine that we have to suffer that monster's wrath? Then isn't it your fault for inventing such the machine!" The doctor shouted in anger looking at the man.
"Hahaha, it's actually really my fault. But let this event be the warning to everyone in this world that life and death isn't something they could mess with. Actually, humans shouldn't have control over life and death, to begin with, and that's why it has come here to make everyone understand this."
"Thanatos is the only being that could rule over death and no one else. Well, Thanatos won't take every life there is because it too is bound by the law of nature. Except for its possession, it won't be able to lay a finger on a single thing so you don't have to worry about it if you weren't resurrected." The man added.
The figure in the clouds shrieked as the loud thunder rung throughout the world-shaking every being to its very core. The female and the doctor then realized that the thunder from before wasn't something done by dark clouds but it was the shriek of the figure.
Shriekkkkk-
With another thunderous shriek, every being presented in the Earth lost their consciousness as the man standing and watching the figure was unaffected and had a smile on his face.
White figure that resembled their body came out of millions of people and with the wave of the Thanatos' hand, countless souls flew inside the black hole behind it, even the doctor and female's souls were in the group.
Not one being which was resurrected using the machine previously were left alive and every soul had entered what seemed like a black hole.
Thanatos then glanced upon the man who was alone standing at the terrace of a hospital and waved its hand applying suction force even more than before. To the best of its capability, it tried to suck out the soul of the man but only failed again and again.
The soul never left the man's body no matter what it did.
"Hahahaha, Trying to take my soul as well? Well, even if I'm already dead, you can't. There are some souls that even God of Death cannot take, from what I know, I too belong to that category." The man laughed as he took out what seemed like a paper from his lab coat.
Seeing the paper in the man's hand, Thanatos now knew why it wasn't able to extract the soul. It was because of that paper...
With that paper with the man, even Thanatos couldn't take the man's soul. Realizing that, Thanatos, the God of Death actually gave up on the man's soul and entered the black hole behind it.
After Thanatos disappeared inside the hole, the clouds covering the sky slowly dispersed and let the sunlight shine upon the Earth again.
Seeing the hole disappear, the man heaved a sigh of relief and watched the peaceful sky as he cracked a genuine gentle smile,
"I've fulfilled my promise, My friend!"
He then looked at the paper in his hand which was turning into blobs of light and sighed. The sunlight shone upon his body producing smoke and his body started burning.
"Looks like this is my limit as well. I guess we'll meet very soon. Who knows how many years has it been. This paper..."
His body turned into ashes before even finishing what he had to say. But he was happy that what he had come here for was achieved. With a gust of wind, the ashes of the man disappeared and the blobs of light of the paper also vanished into thin air after turning into a streak of light.
***
Auden when he slowly opened his eyes found himself in an unknown place. It was dark and he couldn't see anything at all.
"Didn't I suicide? Then how am I still alive? Did she resurrect me with the machine as well?"
Thinking about this, he gritted his teeth. Was he resurrected and thrown into some dungeon by that wench?
"Damnit!, no matter how much I try, I can't escape her clutches can I?"