"It's okay to live the rest of your life with Ace. You two shoulldn't have to hide like this." I added then teleported away.
I then appeared hovering above the city of New York.
"The heck is all that?" I asked the pair of helpers in front of me.
Kitsune and Livia were now holding a pile of books much taller in height than the both of them. "It's all the manga we still want to read." Kitsune said.
"Terry told us this will be a long trip and we might not be coming back anytime soon." Livia added.
"Well you can't fly like that." I said to them. With my dark cloud, I opened a horizontal gate in front of me.
"Put them in here," I said to them.
Kitsune was then about to drop her pile of manga into the gate, but then Livia stopped her.
"Wait! Where exactly would they be going? These kinda took a while to collect. I don't want to lose them." Livia said worryingly.
"See for yourself." I said to her, pointing towards the gate.
She hesitated at first, but then decided to stick her head into the dark cloud. Inside she saw nothing but darkness.
"It's empty?" Livia said out loud.
"Exactly, in its truest sense, that space is completely empty. Each time I teleport I fold space to get from point A to point B. I noticed, before I get from one point to another, there is always a brief moment where everything around me goes dark. There is something between point A and B and I think that is what you are looking at. I don't know how deep it goes, but it seems infinite.
It took a few weeks of trying, and a lot of trying and failing. I would sometimes end up inside a planet's crust or inbetween a wall, but eventually, I managed to go into that nothingness.
Through this void, I can get to anywhere in the universe, but I have to see the place first to know where I am going, or else I would just end up in another part of this empty space or worse. The universe is within a miniscule part of nothingness.
Although it is ever expanding, beyond that expansion is complete void. When I teleport, I fold space, but in between that space is an infinite void wrapped around a finite universe. So basically, your manga will just be floating inside infinite nothingness. There is nothing corrosive to damage the manga." I said to her assuringly.
"But once you take them, only you can get them back!" She exclaimed to me.
"Indeed, it's a risk you'll just have to take haha." I said to her with a chuckle.
She then hesitantly dropped her pile of manga into the gate then Kitsune did the same.
I then closed the gate and took a deep breath, taking in the air one last time... "Kitsune, Livia, Azrael, Armando, tailed Lilith, let's go. Terry, lead the way." I said. We then we immediately flew away from earth.
"How long will it take to get to this reaper?" I asked Terry.
"From where we are now? About 3 days at my top speed. However, it would have taken 7 from my planet, so this is good." She said to me.
"3 whole days! It's that far!" I said in shock.
'The universe is truly massive!' I thought to myself.
We could cross through galaxies in a matter of minutes, a trip that would take 3 days at our speed, really emphasized just how far this reaper was.
(sigh)
"He better be worth the trip." I said underneath my breath.
For a full day now, we had been flying through galaxies at a normal pace, to conserve energy. I would occasionally sense the power of different reapers, but the aura they emitted was no different from an insect to me at this point, they weren't even worth absorbing.
Upon approaching the second day, I came to an abrupt stop as a scene rushed to my conscious mind. Seeing that I suddenly stopped, the rest came to a halt as well.
"What's wrong?" Terry immediately asked.
"I have to go collect a soul." I said out loud.
"Well, that's what your pawns are for genius." The Tailed Lilith said to me as though it was the most obvious thing.
"Not this one. This one, I will collect personally." I said to her then opened a gate with my dark cloud.
"I will accompany you." Azrael said flying forward.
"No need. You all go ahead, I will meet up with you once I'm done." I said then flew through the dark cloud.
"Did he seem tense to you?" The tailed Lilith asked out loud.
"Seemed like it, but was hard to tell with that weird smile on his face." Kitsune said.
'I wonder if something happened to Elaine again. Will she really be okay with us gone?' The tailed Lilith thought to herself.
They then got out of their heads, and continued their journey. Terry was still taking the lead.
I then walked out of the gate and appeared inside a dark room, which had all its curtains closed. In front of me was an old woman holding the hand of a now dead man on a bed. With tears in her eyes, she kissed the man's forehead and slowly let go of the man's hand.
She then took off the dog tag around the man's neck and proceeded to put it on herself.
"So, the old man finally kicked the bucket." I said out loud completely surprising the old hag.
"Grayson!" The old hag said in shock.
"What are you doing back here boy?" She asked me in her usual condescending tone, completely doing a 180 to her mood.
"I'm here for his soul." I said pointing at an empty space at the corner of the room.
I then turned around and faced the corner to talk to the soul standing there.
Name: Peter Yakhal
Lifespan: 86 (Deceased)
"Can't believe after all you have done, you actually got to die peacefully on your bed…but no matter. Where you are going, you won't know peace. Death is truly fair." I said to him.
"So, you really are death." The old man said with a proud look on his face.
"You have come so far. I have no regrets. One day, you will thank me." He added.
I then walked up to him and placed my hand on his right shoulder. Immediately, the number 85 began counting down at an incredible pace as I absorbed his lifespan.
In almost an instant, the number reached 0. A gate then opened next to us.
"Walk through there." I said to him.
As he stood before the gate, he turned to the old hag and said underneath his breath, before walking through, "Goodbye Linda."
I then followed him through the gate and were now in front of the all too familiar intersection. To the right was a narrow road with a bright light at the end of it and to the left was a wide road, which led to a massive cliff with an abyss underneath it.
I directed him towards the wide road on the left and told him to follow me to the end of it. It was a short and quiet walk. As we approached the cliff the old man finally said something.
"I don't know how you came to become death boy, but I do know that the lessons we had instilled into you were the right thing to do by you. After all, pain is for all…" He said to me with a smile.
"…and all is pain." I said to him smiling back, then kick him into the abyss. "Thank you...that was bloody satisfying." I said out loud as I watched the old man fall into the abyss. As I kept staring, I could feel a cold and vile aura that kept a pressure on me. It was far, but it still made me want to retreat.
'What the hell is down there?' I asked myself looking down at my hands, they were trembling.
'This completely ruined the moment.' I thought to myself as I retreated my steps from the cliff.
'What kind of fate awaits the old man in there, I wonder. It's true that without the old man and the old hag keeping me under that basement, I would have never become what I am today.
Really makes me think about what they had to gothrough to become the way they are now. Did their parents treat them the same way they treated me?' I thought to myself as I walked back to the crossroad.
As I arrived at the crossroad, I stared deeply at the narrow road and at the light at the end.
'Not yet.' I thought then opened a gate and walked through it.