'Only 3 and a half years…!' I thought to myself. I clicked my tongue at the thought of how short that time was. I did not know my enemy's weaknesses nor did I know just how strong he actually was.
'I also still do not know the locations of any other reapers apart from the one in the Alpha Region. Presently, absorbing the souls of other reapers is the only way I know to get stronger, but what good is that if I don't know the locations of these reapers.' I began to think.
''From what I know, each reaper has control over their own sector. A sector is as big as a galaxy, but not every galaxy has a reaper within it. It took Azrael and my other shadows 2 years just to find Armando. He may have been slower then and was searching blindly, but even with increased speed, without any direction, it would still take far too long to continue searching blindly.' I thought.
I no longer had the time to wonder the universe aimlessly as my time was now limited. I had never met Thanatos, but my instincts told me, if we were to face each other now, it would be no different from an ant going up against a dragon.
'Whatever the case, I can't stop now!' I thought to myself as I resolved to get stronger as quickly as possible.
"Mark my words…Keep something like this from me again, and I will find a way to kill you!" I said coldly to Livia who was currently on the ground, still breathing heavily.
I then walked through the gate leaving Livia on the ground as the gate slowly began to fade away behind me. She then quickly jumped through the gate before it completely disappeared.
"Listen, I'm sorry, but you haven't met Thanatos. Going against him is suicide. You might threaten to find a way to kill me, but he actually has the power to kill us!" She said trying to defend herself.
"From now on you will hide nothing from me, or else next time…I won't stop the pain!" I said to her coldly.
"Hey Azrael…you wouldn't happen to be packing anything down there would you?" The tailed Lilith asked Azrael seductively as she moved closer to him.
Azrael was currently holding the string of dark cloud wrapped around the tailed Lilith. Clearly, she did not like the restraints on her, but she seemed to be recovering her senses.
"Master, I humbly ask you to take her back." Azrael said to me as he took a knee and presented the string of the dark cloud before me.
I took the string and asked the tailed Lilith, "Are you in control now?"
"More or less, just let me go. This thing is itchy." She said to me. I then let go of the string and it immediately disappeared.
"We shall never speak of this!" The tailed Lilith said turning away.
"Of course, whatever makes you happy…" I said to her, giving her a condescending smile.
"Good!" She replied. "Because when you feel good; I feel good." I added with a smirk. I then pulled out a maroon blouse from within my dark cloud and tossed it to her.
"Shut the fuck up!" She shouted at me as she caught the blouse.
"Hahahaha…" I laughed at her blushing face.
'He seemed to have somewhat calmed down now. For now, I'll be loyal to him. At least until Thanatos handles him.' Livia thought to herself as she watched.
"What are we doing back here anyways?" The tailed Lilith asked. "Asími is located between Sector 309483 and Sector 617499. Teleporting here already takes us half way to our destination," I said to her.
"Do you have any actual plan against this next reaper or will you just be throwing fists and getting your ass kicked again?" The tailed Lilith asked.
"When you have enough strength, no plan is needed." I said to her. I then proceeded to target the eldest of those within Okeanós, what used to be Neró's planet, and sent a kill order to all of the shadows assigned to them. Unlike my shadows on Earth, these ones could actually kill.
As millions of its inhabitants began to die, I could feel myself getting stronger and stonger. Each soul raised my power to a new height as the 100+ year lifespans strengthened me. I then turn towards Azrael and created 5,000 shadows all around us.
"Ready for an upgrade bud?" I asked him. Azrael then looked at all the shadows around him then nodded affirmatively. I then sent all 5,000 shadows into Azrael! Kitsune and Livia instinctively retreated back a few hundred meters almost instantly, as they weren't aware of what was about to happen.
It was only the tailed Lilith, alongside me, standing in front of Azrael. He was now kneeling within a massive black tornado made of shadows that were rushing into him.
After a minute or so, Azrael stood up, but this time his appearance didn't change. 'Is this really enough?' I thought to myself. In the past, Azrael's form changed slightly whenever he got an upgrade.
'I can sense a slight increase to his power, but other than that, he looks pretty much the same. It's getting harder to increase Azrael's strength. Will my own power reach a bottleneck as well?' I thought to myself.
"Let's go." I said putting these thoughts aside. I then removed the limits I kept on my body to regain my speed. I launched off the ground and sped off like a rocket, flying towards the Alpha Region.
The tailed Lilith flew next to me. Azrael, Livia, and Kitsune followed closely behind. Moving at a speed faster than the eye could see, we flew through space. Within a few minutes, we were past the boarders of the galaxy. A week depressingly passed like this. With us flying without rest.
'I'm feeling kind of tired now.' I thought as I passed yet another collapsing star. The next day however, we were finally approaching the Alpha Region. The closer we got to the sector, the more an intangible pressure around us grew.
Livia still did not like our chances against this reaper and Kitsune had a frightful face as though she were approaching a horror house.
'As soon as we enter Terrifaísteio's sector, we will be found out. What will you do then?' Livia thought to herself. As we entered Terrifaísteio's sector, the pressure grew even stronger.
Suddenly, after just crossing the boarders of the galaxy, a tall, beast like man with long wild hair intercepted us. His hair was certainly an eye catcher, but what truly stood out was his 6-foot tail made of fire.
His eyes glowed yellow with a domineering pressure. A pair of fangs decorated his mouth. I sensed the energy he was emitting and noticed it was the same as Livia's and the others, but also different.
Kitsune's energy was like a raging thunder storm, Livia's was overwhelming and deep like an ocean, and the tailed Lilith had a similar energy to mine. This man or beast's energy however, felt like all of them combined and then some.
It was like a loose dragon that could crash you beneath its palm without even realizing. Beneath that palm, it was like the entire galaxy would get crashed.
"Why are you here?" The beast like man asked in a deep and commanding voice. It was a simple question, but was carried with the weight of a mountain.
"We are here for Terrifaísteio." The tailed Lilith immediately answered, licking her lips with a flirtatious look on her face. I looked at her disappointedly, but it was this that brought me back from my shock.
'It's just my imagination reacting to his domineering energy, he doesn't actually have the kind of power to crash a galaxy.' I thought calming myself down.
The beast like man then scanned the tailed Lilith deeply for a while. During this time, I felt the presence of Theós on the beast like man for a brief moment, then it quickly disappeared.
"You got balls!" The beast like man said with a grin on his face.
"Will you stop us?" I asked him moving closer to his face.
"Come." He said then disappeared from view. We then proceeded to follow him. 2 minutes later, we arrived at the Terrifaísteio's planet. The planet was as big as Jupiter and gigantic volcanoes could be seen all around it.
"Took you a fairly decent amount of time to get here. Terrifaísteio might have some fun with you." The beast like man said mockingly. No one said anything back as we descended onto the planet. The beast like man led us to land on an island with an active volcano.
A few seconds later, a female with a majority of her body engulfed in flames, shot out the volcano. She had a seductive, charcoal like body with nothing covering her private parts apart from the flames. Her eyes looked like two furnaces. She glared down at us like she was looking at insects.
"You have 2 options. I either kill you all right now where you stand, or I give you 10 seconds to explain why you are here before I kill you!" She said in a soft yet, commanding voice.
Her words felt like they were carried with power behind them as they echoed all around the island. Her body dripped with lava as she said these words. It was a terrifying sight.
This didn't even feel like a threat; she was simply proclaiming what she was going to do because she had the power to do so.
"I've come for your planet, Trafetio," I said to her unyielding. "Terrifaísteio!" Livia quickly corrected me. "Yeah that...." I said not looking at her. "Hahahaa…Thirío!" Terrifaísteio said out loud with a huge grin.
"Yes mistress?" The beast like man responded.
"Take care of the others, this cocky one is mine!" She said as her killing intent completely engulfed the island like a wild fire. Goosebumps appeared on my skin as a spine-chilling smile formed on my face. My eyes glowed a bright shade of turquoise and dark smoke rose from my body as I countered her overwhelming killing intent with my death aura.