"You even have a name!" I say surprised, but not as surprised as the tailed Lilith who was standing behind me with her mouth agape. Her reaction proved that she truly did not know any of this was possible.
"Yes master, I am my own being, colleccted from numerous wisps of souls. Born to serve you alone," Azrael said still refusing to lift his head. "Good," I say to him then proceed to create more merged shadows, making 40 of them in total.
'Each of the new shadows have the strength and learning capacity of 100 shadows merged within it. They are no geniuses, but they should be able to accomplish tasks more flexibly than the normal shadows.' I think to myself.
'For now, a majority of my shadows are low-grade. They each have a built-in command to only collect the souls of the deceased, nothing but pawns. They are no different from bots.
The 40 recently merged shadows should still fall under the low grade category due to their limited intelligence, but can of course be more useful than the pawns. I would have to merge about 1,000 shadows to create a middle-grade shadow, but I cannot afford that right now.
Luckily, I just acquired Azrael. Having fluent speech and the potential to learn and grow, he clearly falls under the category 'high-grade shadow'....
Is that the extent, however? If I were to merge 10,000 shadows, couldn't I create a shadow even more powerful than Azrael? And if so, would it not exceed even my abilities?' I went into a chain of thought.
"Azrael, I have an important task for you…"
…
Back in the city of New Orleans a man could be seen limping towards an abandoned building. His left leg was visibly injured and he had a few fractured ribs that made it difficult to take each step. However, even that didn't stop him from moving forward.
He arrived at the entrance of the abandoned building and was greeted by two muscular men that stopped his approach. "I need to see the boss, tell her Arnold from Club Rumors is here," he says desperately to the two guards.
One of the guards then sent someone inside to relay the message. A few minutes later, the messenger returned, signaling Arnold to come inside.
He then led him to the top floor and into a slightly dark room, where a huge round table was at the dead center. A few people were seated around it, all having anxious faces.
A dark-skinned woman stood out amongst the seated crowd, as she was seated in the largest chair in the room. Next to her, was a familiar face. 'The bartender, one of the boss's personal spies,' Arnold thought to himself.
"Report!" The woman seated, on what could be considered a throne, commanded. "If he is here, then you must already know about the suspicious man that came to Club Rumors last night," Arnold hypothesized. His face quickly turned solemn from just mentioning him.
"That's all I do know. Joey sent him back to me. According to him, this suspicious man gave Joey a sense of danger. The man may be a drunk, but his instincts are always on the mark. I respect him for that. So, has Joey already dealt with him?" The boss asked.
"Joey is dead, along with everyone else that was at Club Rumors last night. Only I managed to just barely survive," Arnold said with horror on his face as he recalled the events that happened last night.
"Explain yourself!" the boss demanded. "At first, he seemed like a decent guy. He offered to buy a round of drinks for everyone in the club. He claimed to be working under you, but Joey saw through his lie.
From there, he began causing a scene. He started throwing expensive bottles all around the room. At first, no one understood why he was doing what he did. That was until the place caught fire.
We tried to escape, but all the entrances were surprisingly locked. He had an accomplice with him. I couldn't see her, but he spoke as if she was with us in the room. Someone called Lilith I believe, she's the one that locked the doors," Arnold began to explain until he was interrupted.
"So the man burned down along with everyone else…?" The boss interrupted. "No, that thing that came after us was actually no man. As I struggled to get out, I had already believed I was doomed to die there.
Suddenly, I heard screaming coming from behind me. I assuemd they were the screams of people succumbing to the flames. That's when I saw a monster cut someone in half with a sythe that came out of thin air.
Pieces of clothing were still burning off around its body, and that's when I recognized that monster as the same suspicious man from earlier. One by one, he sliced our comrades apart till I was the only one left.
As it approached, I felt like death itself was coming towards me. It grabbed me by the neck then threw me through the shut door. The fall broke my leg. I struggled to get up and run away, all the while thinking I wasn't going to make it.
But then suddenly, as if possessed, it began striking at the air. It's like it was trying to cut someone down. I quickly hid in a corner then watched as it swinged its sythe like a maniac. It then went on its knees and turned back to…." Arnold tried to explain further but then got cut off midsentence.
"Let me just stop you right there…. Are you really expecting me to believe this bullshit? Who the fuck do you think you're talking to? You think you crawl up in here with this absurd story? Tell me that my club got burned down by an unnamed man and everyone who was in it is now dead, including Joey! AND YOU, a nobody, are the only survivor? You're not very smart are you?" The boss said with a deathly stare.
"Boss please, I swear I'm telling you the truth. Everything I said is the truth," Arnold said with tears in his eyes, knowing exactly what is in store for him.
"Okay, humor me then. How did you escape this monster?" The boss asked. "I didn't, it just got up and disappeared," Arnold replied completely terrified. He knew that explanation would not be enough to save his life.
"Moonlight, did you get a good look at the man's face?" the boss asked the bartender standing next to her. "Yes boss," the bartender replied. "So you can identify him?" She asks a follow up question just to be sure.
"Yes boss," Moonlight replied once again. "Kill him!" the boss signals to a guard at the door who immediately shoots Arnold in the head.
"Moonlight, find this man and bring him to me alive. If he resists, break his legs. Nobody messes with the Fools Gang…. And someone clean this mess from my floor!" the boss commanded.
…
"Azrael, I have an important task for you and your new shadows, but before that, I need you to learn of my philosophy. I will not tell you what it is, you must see it for yourself.
Study human behavior, their science, their religions, and all that they have to offer, then tell me what you have observed. Take the low-grade shadows with you, hopefully they will be able to learn a thing or two as well.
They will be under your command, so do with them as you see fit and fulfil my commands. However, you are in no circumstances allowed to interfere with the work of the pawns am I understood?" I commanded.
"Yes master, I understand. I will be sure to fulfil your every command with utmost haste," Azrael replied. "As for the forty of you, you are to listen to every single command Azrael gives to you. His word is law and only second to mine," I say to the low-grade shadows.
As soon as I finished speaking they all immediately bowed slightly towards me with their right hand on their chest, then turned to face Azrael. Azrael only gave them a look that lasted about 5 seconds then they all flew to the sky.
Azrael went to the east along with 10 of the low-grade shadows. 10 went to the north, 10 to the west, and another 10 to the south. They all seemed to have been given orders to separate for some reason. Luckily I could still keep track of each one of them through their eyes, even Azrael.
"Now, I believe I have a book to write," I say out loud as I begin to walk towards the house. I turn around and see the tailed Lilith still frozen in shock with her mouth agape.
"Well, are you just going to stand there all day?" I ask her, waking her from her stupor. She then quickly caught up with me and we both walked into the house.
In this house, mother had a hidden room built behind a wall in our library. I was never able to figure out how to open that room, but now I don't need to open it.
I walk into the library and take note of an all too familiar wall stacked with books. I then turned into a dark cloud and managed to pass through the tiny cracks on the wall.
On the other side was a dark and spacious room that was so silent that simply dropping a needle in there would be clearly audible. I then took the dark cloud into my body and regained my 7ft human form.
Even though it was dark in there, there was no need for me to switch on the lights. Surprisingly, I could see everything as though the room were already lit.
The room was mostly empty, with the exception of a chair and a desk at the center. On top of the desk was nothing but a plastic cup and a typewriter.
There was also a mini fridge on one corner of the room and on another, was a bucket that I'm hoping she used for keeping trash.
"Why isolate herself like this?" I ask myself as I took a seat on the chair. "Don't forget to revert back to your reaper form this time," the tailed Lilith said sounding annoyed.
Not bothering to reply, I began to view the lives of each human being through the eyes of my shadows whilst typing at an incredible speed. I began to study their reactions and responses to different circumstances, experiences, and questions.
I observed and deciphered almost every single emotion known and unknown to man as I continued to type away for my book until…. "Well, aren't you an enigma!" I say to myself….