I picked up all three tiny bottles and downed them in a single gulp. The staff froze, jaws agape. Then, from behind the counter, the manager stepped out.
"These poisons…" she said, her voice calm yet sharp, "were potent enough to harm you know who. I suspected your interest in them wasn't... ordinary."
She tilted her head slightly, eyes studying me. "But to think I'd have to warn you not to drink them…"
She was tall and slim, with long black hair cascading over her shoulders. Strikingly beautiful—until my gaze lowered. The entire lower half of her body was that of a snake. Unlike the others, she didn't flinch in my presence. Her voice carried certainty. She seemed like she had a reaper before.
For a long while there was silence. All eyes locked on me.
'You could have told me these poisons worked on even you!' I hissed at Armando telepathically.
'Nothing I couldn't sleep off,' he replied, the dark cloud shifting faintly. 'The beast that brewed them was beheaded for its insolence. Still… I didn't think you'd actually drink them, my king.'
"I don't feel any dif—" I began, but the sentence died in my throat as a searing pain erupted in my rotting heart. My bones ached. My vision blurred. My head spun violently. The tailed Lilith caught me just as my balance faltered.
"Sweat?" I muttered aloud, touching my forehead. My fingers came away wet. "I'm actually sweating…"
The shock settled in.
Since becoming a reaper, I had never sweated. Nothing had ever forced my body to expend enough energy to reach that point. But now—I was drenched.
My body had launched a desperate defense against the invading poisons. The dark cloud surged into overdrive, straining to process them.
"You're an idiot," the tailed Lilith said casually.
"Arrr!""Arrr!" Armando and I groaned in unison, pain shredding through us.
"Grayson!" she shouted, the calm gone from her voice.
It felt like my soul had been set on fire. Even the blood in my body began to harden. I could no longer hold my Asímian form.
I shifted. My true form as a reaper emerged, forced out by pain too great to control.
Taking on a flesh form required precision—concentration, and with agony wracking my very being, there was no room for control.
However, the moment I transformed, I felt my body cooling down. The pain began to ease. The poisons were no longer hostile—they were merging.
New sensations bloomed in my dark cloud. I felt things, elements and microorganisms I'd never even known existed. Eventually, the pain faded entirely.
Two poisons remained within me now: the red and the black. They weren't just lingering—they were fusing with the cloud, becoming part of it. And in doing so, they made it deadlier than either had ever been alone.
'Armando's still in there. Is he okay?' I thought to myself.
"Armando," I called out, but received no answer.
I peered into the dark cloud and there he was—floating inside a dark cocoon, suspended like prey wrapped in silk. The poisons circled him, slow and deliberate.
"Armando," I said again, louder, but still nothing.
'What's wrong with him…?'
My attention then shifted as the staff members of the Herb Haven were now collapsed across the floor, gasping for air. All except the manager and the tailed Lilith—both still standing and watching me closely.
I quickly turned to my human form, seeing that there is no longer any use to pretend that I am Asímian. And with it, the aura of death that had drenched the room began to lift.
Right then, Kitsune stepped through the door.
"Did you take the boy back?" I asked.
"Um… yes," she replied, glancing around at the scene. "He was dying, but I took care of it."
The tailed Lilith looked at her with mild surprise. She'd said something eerily similar to me earlier. Now she seemed unsure of what she had actually done.
I ignored the strangeness for now and focused on the manager.
She hadn't so much as flinched throughout any of this. Even the aura of death hadn't affected her. I tried reading her, but got nothing. Despite this being suspicious, she had treated me fairly well, so I let it go.
"On the house, right?" I said, already walking toward the exit.
Just before stepping out, I paused and turned back to her to ask, "How did you know what I was?"
Her expression didn't change as she answered, "Many of us have had… encounters with you know who. I more than most, because I'm still alive. I've grown used to his presence."
"I see," I said knowingly, then stepped out of the shop.
I assumed she had some sort of connection to Armando. How else could she have gotten her hands on poisons like that?
'Master,' A voice echoed in my mind.
"Azrael?" I said aloud.
'Yes, Master. I believe I've arrived at the planet Neró,' he answered.
"Good. Don't approach yet and stand by," I commanded.
I extended my senses across Asími, feeling the pulses of life. I searched, not for the young, but for the ones with a lifespan of over 2 centuries.
'They've lived long enough,' I thought coldly.
In a single moment, I struck them down with arcs of purple lightning. Each target collapsed where they stood, their souls torn from their bodies instantly.
A rush of power surged through me. It was overwhelming. It felt as though I could crush this entire world in the palm of my hand.
Theós' grip on me loosened, if only slightly. My comprehension expanded again, as though veils had been lifted from my mind. And the dark cloud… it no longer felt like something I controlled. It felt like me.
To make things even better, when I grew stronger, so did my shadows.
'Azrael, engage the reaper of that planet. Make it submit before I arrive. You may be strong enough to suppress it now. If it proves too much, retreat and wait. I'll deal with it myself,' I said to him telepathically.
"Yes, Master," he replied, and in an instant, he descended onto the planet's surface.
I conjured a gate with the dark cloud and stepped through. The tailed Lilith and Kitsune followed close behind.
We emerged before a massive crossroad.
To the left: a wide road, teeming with low-grade shadows transporting the souls of both humans and Asímians toward a gaping, black pit.
To the right: a narrow path, at the end of which blazed a blinding light, but it was empty.No souls walked that road.
'Why didn't I see the Asímians before? Do all souls come here… or only those from planets I've claimed?' I wondered.
"H–how are we here?" Kitsune stammered, eyes locked on the narrow road. "Only guardians and Thanatos should have access to that gate! Why is it even here?"
"What do you mean?" the tailed Lilith replied calmly. "I've been coming here for thousands of years."
Kitsune turned to her slowly, confusion spreading across her face. "You… just who are you?"
Suddenly, she grabbed her head.
"Ugh!"
Pain twisted her expression. She staggered slightly, clutching her head, memories pressing against a wall that was beginning to crack.
"Thanatos definitely has a lot of power in this universe," I said out loud with an expectant smile.
'It doesn't matter. He won't control me for long!' I thought to myself then began to walk on the narrow path.
"What are you doing?" Kitsune cried out, but I ignored her, my focus locked forward.
"Stop him! Theós will not allow this. Isn't he your reaper? You are—"
Her words twisted, glitching into static as if reality itself distorted around her. "{10][1<{}>0][1*}. Then she fell silent.
I glanced back to see sensing Theós' presence behind me and saw the tailed Lilith holding Kitsune. Her body convulsed like she was seizing.
"I turn my back for one moment and this shit happens," I muttered.
Despite that I kept walking, toward the golden gate.
Thirtieth step…
Fortieth…
Fiftieth…
The pressure hit me then. Not like before—not that crushing weight that had once nearly forced me to the ground. This was different. Subtler but heavy. This time around, I could still move.
'I can keep going!' I told myself.
Sixty-first step.
Sixty-second.
Sixty-third.
Sixty-fourth...
I took fourteen steps until the invisible force came crushing down on me. Theós' hold locked me in place. It was still suffocating. I finally had no choice but to turn back.
With each step away from the gate, the pressure eased.
'I came farther this time… this is real progress!' I thought excitedly.
I counted silently. I took sixty-four steps. However, the golden gate was still far in the distance. Five hundred steps, I now knew. That's when I can stand before it. Only then would I have a chance to bring Theós down.
Hope stirred as I approached Kitsune and tailed Lilith once more. It may have still been far as I could only make it to the sixty-fourth but the goal was looking clearer now.
"Nothing happened to you!" Kitsune blurted, staring at me.
"Why would anything happen to me?" I asked, unbothered.
"Theós doesn't allow reapers on this road. Normally, you wouldn't even be able to see it let alone walk on it."
"I thought you were going to die for sure," she added quietly.
But I knew the truth. She wasn't worried about me. She was worried about Armando, the one still within my dark cloud.
"We're both still alive," I said, more for her than myself.
Her eyes lingered, uncertain.
"Now… let's head to Neró. Azrael's being stubborn." Without waiting for a reply, I opened a gate beneath our feet.