"What the hell is this feeling!" I asked myself. I looked up, as though looking into a far distance. 'I feel like I lost a part of myself!' I exclaimed. "Master…!" The tailed Lilith said, appearing behind me. Clothed for once.
"Did you feel that as well?" I asked her. "Yes, I've felt something like this before. Something must have happened out there!" She said feeling concerned.
"Azrael, what is going on out there?" I asked, still looking into the distance. "Grayson, what's wrong, who are you talking to? Lilith, where did you come from…?" Elaine asked a series of questions with much worry. I completely ignored what she was saying and instead listened to Azrael.
"One of the shadows has been destroyed master." Azrael answered. "What! How is this possible? What happened?" I asked him. "Forgive me master, but I do not know. I am currently rushing to its last known location." He said regrettably.
"Grayson…Grayson, you're making a scene. Are you listening to me?" Elaine called out trying to get my attention. I kept ignoring her then began to search through the fallen shadow's last memories. I then began to see the shadow approaching a small planet, around the size of Mercury, but slightly bigger. The entire planet was covered in fierce storm clouds.
My shadow approached the planet's surface, struggling to get past the atmosphere. But then suddenly, a bright, purple light was seen all around, then the shadow was destroyed.
'Was that Theós? No, that purple light didn't feel like it. Then…was it just lightning? How could a physical lightning bolt even harm one of my shadows?' I asked myself.
"Tailed Lilith, it looks like something has destroyed one of the low-grade shadows that left with Azrael." I said to her. "That's impossible! The only ones who have the power to destroy a shadow are you and naturally Theós." She said refusing to believe.
"We both felt it, there's no debate. I believe there are two possibilities: Either there is something in that planet that Theós does not want us to see, causing it to take action or there is actually something else out there that is capable of killing my shadows, maybe even me. The second possibility is a little farfetched, but not impossible. Either way we have to go and identify this threat for ourselves." I said to her then turned to leave.
"Grayson Michael Yakhal, get back here!" Elaine shouted whilst standing up, alerting everyone else in the restaurant. I then turned around, surprisingly struck with a little fear for a moment.
"Oh! Elaine, I almost forgot about you. Some important business came up. Here's our card, after paying just step outside the restaurant. Once Archer sees you without me, he will approach you. He can take you back home." I said to her then left alongside the tailed Lilith. We then masked our presence and disappeared from the restaurant.
Elaine just stood there unable to believe what happened. She then simply chuckled and called a waiter to bring over the bill. As soon as she paid, she stepped outside, stood there for exactly 30sec, then Archer appeared before her. "Take me home please." She said to him and he did so without question.
Far out into space, hundreds of thousands of light years away from Earth, I, alongside the tailed Lilith could be seen hovering above a stormy planet a few kilometres from its atmosphere. Azrael then quickly showed up behind us and slightly bowed respectively.
"Forgive me master, I was a few solar systems away and could not arrive sooner. I am pleased to see you after so long. Ask anything of me and it shall be done." He said to me with deep sincerity.
'Azrael is giving off a different pressure since I lost him!' I thought to myself. "You seem to have gotten stronger." I said to him. "It's all thanks to your efforts back on Earth. The souls you claimed give me strength as well." Azrael said.
"Wow, this guy is a kiss up." The tailed Lilith commented as she rolled her eyes. "Shut up, you could learn a thing or two from him." I said feeling smug.
"Azrael, I want you to go scout out the planet to see exactly what happened to my shadow. If you run into any danger, come back immediately!" I commanded.
"Yes master." He said with a bow then immediately charged towards the stormy planet. As he entered the planet's atmosphere, I watched the surroundings through the eyes of Azrael. Storm clouds covered the entire sky, accompanied by a piercing wind that could rip away the flesh of any living being.
'The weather of this planet is so chaotic, but it is still not enough to destroy one of my low-grade shadows.' I thought to myself.
Azrael kept pushing on effortlessly through the storm. Everything seemed fine, until a bolt of purple lightning almost struck him, but he was quick to react and managed to dodge it.
Azrael was caught off guard when a second lightning bolt, even faster than the first, rushed from behind him. Despite barely avoiding it, the purple lightning still incinerated his left arm.
"Another shadow! Where is your reaper?" A powerful voice asked from within the storm clouds. "No matter...." The voice said then sent another bolt towards the now injured Azrael.
With a 7-foot-long, black scythe in my hand, I then emerged in front of Azrael and diverted the lightning strike with it. My body began to experience a wave of numbness, which made me feel slightly weak.
'It did some damage?' I thought to myself. "Who are you?" I shouted at the direction the lightning bolt came from.
The storm clouds then parted to reveal a skeletal creature with four arms clutching four metal rods that were encircled by purple lightning bolts.
With the exception of the four arms, the skeleton resembled me. His dark cloud was encircled by a tremendous storm of purple lightning however. Unlike my ominous cloud, which was emitting fumes. The tusks protruding from his lips were clearly evident, but his face features were scarcely discernible.
'He looks just like me…could he be…?' I thought to myself. "Reaper of Earth, what are you doing in my territory? This is taboo. How did Theós allow this?" He said to me. A purple tail then revealed itself, floating behind the four armed skeletal figure and seemed to be conversing with him.
I began to move closer and the only words I caught from their conversation was, "Adira, report this to Thanatos!" The purple tail then suddenly disappeared and the four armed being turned to face me.
"Who are you?" I asked him. "I am Armando. You should already know this is my territory. In this place, I reign, so I wouldn't be going against Theós if I were to eliminate you right now. That's if you do not leave immediately. Run little reaper...if you value your life." He said confidently then took a fighting stance as he gripped his rods tighter.
"No!" I said to him then spun my scythe in my hands and adopted a battle stance of my own. In the past two years, I had easily learnt multiple styles of martial arts. So naturally, I felt confident in my skills in a fight. However, I had never really had an opportunity to fully utilize them.
"Azrael, get out of this planet. I'll meet with you later." I said to the injured Azrael, then watched him bow and leave.
"Haha…good answer! Show me what the favoured Reaper of Earth can do. AAAHH!!!" Armando said to me then charged with a thunderous battle cry. In an instant, we clashed. Metal clattering on metal could be heard throughout the sky. Following the hit, a massive shock wave blasted away the clouds all around us.
Armando had a bright smile on his face and was quick to make a follow up attack. "I never fought with anyone that could match my strength before! Who are you? Are you a reaper like me?" I asked Armando.
"Match your strength!" Armando said feeling insulted to have been compared to me. He then began to overpower me with a barrage of wild, lightning quick attacks.
I made an effort to block the metallic lightning rods, but there were too many limbs to be watchful of, and as time went on, his attacks became faster.
The dark cloud's effect would cancel out at every point where the rods struck my body, leaving burn wounds on my flesh that could not heal.
With each strike, my body felt weaker, and my movements became more sluggish.
Then Armando abruptly stopped attacking me and raised all four of his rods in an attempt to strike me down with brute force. I then lifted my scythe to stop his attack, but the block drove me back causing me fall like a meteor to the planet's surface.
I struggled to get myself up and found myself at the center of a crater of my creation. Next to me, I surprisingly saw a four armed green man with tusks lying on the side, gushing out purple blood. It was accompanied by a shadow with four arms that appeared to be waiting for something.
'There is life on this planet and shadows that are not my own. Which means…that thing up there must be the reaper of this planet!' I thought to myself.
High up in the distance, I could see Armando hovering in the sky and looking down on me, literally. He smirked at me as though he were looking at his next victim.
He then slowly began to descend from the sky then gently landed on the ground.
I was in agonizing pain from the wounds all over my body, just moving my body made the pain worse. Fortunately, none of them seemed fatal. I no longer had the strength to fight so I tried getting some answers from Armando while I still could.
"Armando, I can see you're powerful, but are you the strongest out there? Are there other reapers?" I asked.
"Playing dumb will not save you. You will not leave here with your life Reaper of Earth!" He said to me. His voice sounded like thunder and his killing intent almost felt physical.