"I will protect her with my life," Axelia said to me sincerely. I then nodded in acceptance and switched my focus to Okeanós, the name of what used to be Neró's world. "What's wrong? You spaced out for a while there." The tailed Lilith asked me. "Nothing, was just in my head." I answered.
"Well, now that you're fully here, you can have this back." The tailed Lilith said to me then threw Kitsune towards at me. I stretched out my arms to catch her, but surprisingly, she went right through them and dropped into the water. I looked at my arms in shock and saw they were melting.
Thinking about it now, my entire body felt different ever since I absorbed Neró's soul. I felt stronger of course, but the solid feeling I once felt from myself was no longer there. I now felt like the very wind could pass right through me.
I then try to grab Kitsune who was stretching her hand out from under the waters, but my hand couldn't get a grip on her and passed right through her again. 'This is just annoying now.' I thought to myself.
I then turned to Neró and ask feeling irritated, "Your power is useful in battle, but how did you ever grab hold of anything?" "Focus your mind on the part of your body you want to be solid and visualize it as though it already is. Once you-," Neró began to say before being cut off by me.
"Say less." I said to him then began to do as he said. I circulated Neró's power within me and visualized my body as it once was, solid. I then slowly began solidifying and no longer looked like I was melting. I flew to the tailed Lilith and flicked her forehead. "Ow!" She shouted. "Go get Kitsune." I said to her.
She rolled her eyes then she dove into the still waters and got a hold of Kitsune before she sunk too far deep.
"What the fuck Lilith!" Kitsune shouted angrily. "Calm down, it's not like you were dying." The tailed Lilith said to her. "Now, what do I do with you?" I said turning to Neró. 'I don't really need another reaper, my power alone is sufficient.' I began to think.
"I don't need you. Keep doing whatever it is you were doing before I came here. You can die for all I care." I said to Neró. "Sovereign!" Neró said to me with a bow then sunk down, merging with the water below.
"Come out!" I said staring into the distance, but received no reply. "I know you are there. Stop wasting my time and come out!" I commanded. 200 meters away, the still waters began to ripple and a beautiful female arose from the ripples.
A majority of her body was covered in a pure shade of blue scales and she had a 6-foot-long liquid like aqua tail. Her hair seemed to be made of rushing water that flowed down over her shoulders.
She flew towards me at a speed that made it look like she teleported in front of me. "Neró is really gone?" She asked me expectantly.
"Yes, will that be a problem with you…? Whoever you are." I asked her. "Not at all. My name is Livia, I'm glad you got rid of that arrogant bastard. I never thought I would see a day where another reaper would come to this planet and so easily destroy Neró. You have my gratitude. Of course, I must report this to Thanatos…" She said sincerely.
"No, you won't!" I said as I released a pressure on her. Her liquid like tail rippled from the pressure, but her face remained unmoving. "Hahaha, for over 2,000 years, Neró had abused his power me. You could say I have built a tolerance to such pain." She said victoriously.
I then released the pressure from her and restrained her with my dark cloud. 'The helpers can travel back and forth to Thanatos, having a target like that on me will be the end of me. Helpers cannot be killed, so how do I deal with this one?' I thought to myself.
"I suppose I could serve under you and not report you to Thanatos as a thank you for freeing me from an eternity with that bastard Neró. If you let me do whatever I want of course." She said to me smugly.
"So, follow after your self-interests with no questions asked?" I asked her. "Exactly!" She said to me with a smile.
"What you ask for, I do not stand for!" I said to her coldly. I then dropped an even greater pressure on her than I did before, which rendered her from moving. I grabbed her rippling tail then inserted my dark cloud within it. "I will make you feel a pain you have never felt before." I said to her sternly.
Her tail then formed small dark patches all around. The dark cloud began taking its effect and was withering her soul. This was the effect of the black poison from the 3 headed ancient beast. This poison not only rotted down the flesh, but it also withers the soul until there is nothing left.
Surprisingly, her regeneration was faster than the dark cloud's withering effect. 'So, even the helper's souls are undying?' I thought to myself as I controlled the poison within her tail to circulate faster. This caused Livia to scream even louder.
"Please, I'm sorry. I will serve you, please, just stop." She begged me with tears in her eyes. "I'm interested to find out how much you can take next time. If you dare give me a reason to." I said to her then stopped circulating the poison within her tail. The dark patches slowly started to fade from her tail, but not completely. She eventually began to gain some relief.
"So, who wants to go sight-seeing?" I asked out loud as I looked at everyone with a warm smile. "You can be scary sometimes. Nevertheless, I'm interested to go shopping." The tailed Lilith said as though the previous events never happened. It was only then that Livia took notice of the two helpers, the tailed Lilith and Kitsune, who were behind me.
"YOU! How is this possible? Does Thanatos know you are here?" Livia asked flabbergasted. "What is it with you people? I don't know who this Thanatos is!" The tailed Lilith said annoyed. "Well, he is obviously AAAH!!" Livia tried to say, but was then overcome by a new kind of pain.
I could feel Theós' presence from within Livia's body and immediately knew Theós was once again trying to cover something up. I then held Livia's head and tried to suppress Theós' power within her, but it only lessened slightly.
It was only after 7 or 8 breaths, did Livia stop screaming and Theós' presence finally faded away. "Livia, tell me. Have you seen the tailed Lilith before?" I quickly asked her, pointing towards the tailed Lilith.
"I'm not sure if I can answer that or not. I don't think it is within Theós plans." She said to me cautiously.
"Try!" I said to her. She hesitated for a few seconds, but then mastered up the courage to say one word, "Yes." "Where?" I ask her. "I cannot say where, but it was a long time ago. Back to when we were first created." She said to me still warry of Theós.
"I see. That's enough then." I said to her. 'The stronger my resistance is to Theós, the more I can suppress his power and get more answers…all in due time.' I thought to myself. I then opened a gate in front of me with my dark cloud.
"Tailed Lilith, hang on to Kitsune and don't lose sight of her." I said to her. "Fine…" She said to me then flew through the gate, holding Kitsune. "Azrael, head over to the Alpha region then contact me once you arrive. I'm sure you will be able to sense the other reapers in the region." I said to him. "Yes master." Azrael said then flew off.
I was then about to walk through the gate, but then Livia stopped me. "Wait… Alpha region? Terrifaísteio is in that region. You don't actually plan on taking Terrifaísteio down like you did Neró do you?" She asked in a whisper.
'How you all pronounce this God forsaken name is beyond me.' I thought to myself. "That is exactly what I plan on doing." I answered her.
"HAHAHAHAHAAA!! Oh, my goodness! You actually believe you can defeat Terrifaísteio and even sent your shadow after her first…HAAAAHAHA!" She said bursting into laughter.
"Real shame about your shadow though, he had a certain charm about him." She added, clearly amused by my plan. "So, what if I did?" I asked her. She then stopped laughing and kept a serious face, one that she had never shown until now.
"Terrifaísteio is one of the untouchable existences in this universe with senses that cannot be compared to the average reaper. The moment your shadow enters the Alpha Region, Terrifaísteio will know, and your shadow will die!" She warned.