- Death -
(Centuries ago)
Death was pacing around the office holding his echo.
"Answer the call. Answer the call." He repeated, gripping his echo tightly.
No sound came from the echo and Death had to resist the urge to spike the orb into the ground.
"Answer!" Death shouted.
Death placed his echo into its holder and sat down, putting his face in his hands.
"Why?!"
Zach walked into the room. He had been waiting outside, hoping that Death would get an answer.
"No response?" Zach asked.
Death slammed his hands onto his desk, knocking the echo holder over, and cracking the wood.
Zach flinched.
"You can go visit Amakell. We'll be fine here." He said shakily.
Death placed the holder upright and put the echo back in it.
"We can communicate across the world. I shouldn't have to visit him personally. He should answer the FUCKING CALL!" Death yelled the last part so loud the room seemed to shake.
Zach was scared of Death for a brief moment. He knew he needed to say something, but was afraid to. Death looked at Zach.
"Sorry. I don't want you to fear me. If anything I want Amakell to. Humans are getting slaughtered and he knows he's a suspect but is still arrogant enough to ignore my calls."
Zach had heard this exact thing multiple times now. He was worried that Death might start putting holes in the wall if he stayed here any longer.
"Sir, please go. If you stay here you're going to anger yourself into making a terrible decision."
Zach wasn't confident in his words, but he knew he had to say something.
Death put his hand onto the echo and tried calling Amakell one more time.
"If he doesn't answer, I'll go. Though at this point, I can't say I should be speaking to him in my current frame of mind."
There was no answer.
Death's face twisted in anger. He held his hands to the side and resisted every urge to put a hole through his wall.
"Zach" Death mumbled. "I'll be leaving for Vázoluna. Please let everyone know."
"On it," Zach answered as he left the room.
Death walked over to the echo and decided to call two others before leaving. First, he called Sangmara. Lucius answered and Death explained the situation. He called the next being.
"What's going on?" The female voice answered.
"I'm leaving to go have a meeting with Amakell. Just wanted to make you aware that I'll be in the area."
"I could go. You don't need to come all the way out here." The female voice said.
"I think it's best if you stay where you are. I don't want you dirtying your hands with this."
"Okay. I'm going to stay around Vázoluna if you need my help."
"I should be fine, but thank you."
Death ended the call.
Death left the building and grabbed his uništi from the stables. He placed his hand on its head and black flames formed around its eyes and hooves. The uništi shot forward, leaving the nearby grim shocked by the speed.
Death made his way to the large city that sat in-between Purgatory and Seraph woods. He asked the guards to make sure no one was on the streets, and also apologized for the future damages. He rode through the city, the uništi's hooves burning the stone ground as it ran.
Death quickly made his way through the city and then Seraph woods. He went around Hydern and straight to the border. He ran past the border guards who were about to say something before they realized who it was that passed them.
As Death arrived in Sangmara night began to fall. He got off his uništi and stopped feeding it his mana, returning the creature back to its original state. He told the guards that he had called Lucius prior, but wouldn't be staying in the city.
"I won't ride, but I can't stop to say hello to Gwyn and Lucius."
As Death walked through the gate Lucius greeted him.
"Please feel free to ride through the city at full speed. I understand the circumstances." Lucius greeted Death.
Death climbed back onto his uništi.
"Thank you. I will return this favor someday."
Death rode through the city as fast as he could, being careful to keep an eye out for someone walking. He could see that the other gate was already opened and rode through, yelling "Thanks" as he went through.
Death was now rapidly clearing the neutral zone. He made it to the lycan border and was stopped by two guards.
"Out of my way. I've given your leader plenty of chances to answer my calls. At this point, they should know I'm coming.
"Sorry, can't do that." One guard said.
"Do you even have a passage coin?" One guard laughed.
Death appeared in front of the two guards and slammed their heads together.
The other guards along the wall started to run towards Death until he turned and stared them down.
"By all means. Who do you fear more? Me, or your leader?! Death shouted.
The rest of the guards backed away shaking.
Death conjured his scythe and destroyed a large chunk of the border wall. He walked through holding his uništi's reins. As he walked through the pitch-black woods he yelled into the darkness.
"If you think I can't see you you're wrong! I would recommend you leave and pretend you didn't notice me!"
Death returned his scythe and pulled out his echo. His vision constantly shifted to the lycans observing him.
'Thirty. Thirty-one. Thirty-two.'
The female voice answered.
"Have you left for Vázoluna?"
"Already there. Be quieter, just in case."
The female voice softened to a whisper.
"I can't believe you're already there. I guess you really want this handled now?"
"I wanted this handled a year ago, but clearly I was too lenient."
'Forty-three. Forty-four.'
"I'm not that far away. Be careful. Even if it is lycans they still have the territory advantage."
"Of course. I didn't come here to start something I can't finish."
Death ended the call.
'Fifty-two. Fifty-three.'
Death conjured his scythe again and held it to his side with the blade pointed in front of him. He arrived in the main town. He had counted seventy-four lycans following him.
'I guess they didn't want to keep sending scouts.'
Death had hoped on the walk here that this was all a great misunderstanding. That this was just multiple unfortunate coincidences that he had overreacted to. The moment he stepped foot into the main town of Vázoluna those hopes went away.
The stench of blood was heavy in the air. Death's eyes scanned the area. There were no lycans in sight. Even the scouts had left him. He left his uništi by the town's entrance.
'I assume they won't touch you.'
Death walked through the town, trying to find where the smell of blood was thickest. He searched around until eventually, he came to a building that smelled of blood so strong he felt like he could taste metal.
'Here first and then I'll check the other buildings.'
Death returned his scythe before attempting to enter.
'I can just use my hands if I need to.
Death ripped the wooden door off the frame and walked in. There was a lycan waiting next to the doorway that attempted to tear at Death's face with his claws.
Death grabbed the lycan's throat and forced him to the ground, snapping his neck.
Through the darkness of the room, Death could see another door. He walked to it and a burst of flames shot out from it. He blinked out of the way of the flames and as the lycan that made the attack stepped out to confirm his kill, Death was on him, slamming his head into the wall.
Death looked down the stairs and found two lycans pointing their palms at him, electricity flowing around their hands. As they shot at Death he reappeared behind them, putting his hands on the back of their heads and smashing their faces into the stone floor.
Death looked up, horrified.
There were humans hanging from chains, missing limbs, and losing blood into buckets beneath their hanging feet. One of the humans was barely conscious. He tried to lift his head but failed.
"Please...kill...us" The man's voice was barely audible.
"I'm here to help." Death reassured.
The man only kept repeating his words over and over. It was clear that his mind had long been broken.
Death took out his scythe.
"Forgive me for my inaction."
Death put the blade of his scythe into the man's head, killing him instantly. He cut them both down and carried them outside, where he placed them down by the damaged doorway.
Death wasn't sure what he was feeling. His anger had reached a point so strong that he felt almost empty. His face shrouded in black smoke. His robe turned black and tightened around his body. He had no more doubts. He pulled out his echo and made one last call before moving.
"How b-"
(Brackets represent a non-human language)
["Many dead or severely injured. Come to the main town as soon as you can."] Death's voice was a low echo.
The female voice on the other side knew what this voice meant.
"It's time for a hunt I suppose. I'll be there soon."
The female voice ended the call.
Death ran through the town, visiting every house. He would tear a hole through the walls and check for a basement while killing any lycans that stood in his way.
As he was bringing another mutilated body up from a basement his mind flashed back to a conversation he had with Amakell.
(A year prior)
Death on a call with Amakell
"Come now Death, you don't have any proof that these killings are lycan related. It's unfortunate to say, but humans have many enemies in this world." Amakell reminded.
"I know they do, but given how close to your territory some of these bodies have been found, you can understand my suspicions."
"Look. You don't want to start a war with us over this. You know how humans are viewed up here, and starting trouble with us will only make it worse. That's not a threat, just a reminder."
Death was angry, but couldn't deny Amakell's point.
"I'll be making daily calls to check-in. I don't want a war with you and I don't want to make human's lives worse."
"That's only fair. I'll do what I can to investigate these human murders, but I can't promise anything."
Death didn't trust the lycan leader but knew that with Amaterasu's backing, he couldn't pull the rank card.
"I hope this problem gets resolved quickly."
Death ended the call.
(Back to the town)
Thinking about the past conversation made Death sick. The moment a human body was discovered he should have rushed over, war or not.
The growing number of tortured bodies he saw before him had made him swear to never allow this again.
'Grim will be stationed up here. They will have my protection and if any of them get killed I will personally take that as a declaration of war.'
Death's mind emptied and then filled with only two thoughts.
'Save. Hunt.'