Cecillia smiled and spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"She's the Empress, you know, Angelica's mother."
Beads of swear rolled down my forehead, I looked at the ground, considering begging for forgiveness but I decided against it. From the looks of it the woman didn't seem to be annoyed at me even after witnessing my lack of manners. I looked at her hair, it was white just like mine, when the Empress noticed my gaze she grabbed a lock of hair and showed it to me.
"You must be wondering why you're seeing someone with the same hair colour as you huh?"
I subconsciously nodded my head, I was indeed curious.
"Well, a few years back, a war between us and another kingdom had broken out. And I, who was sent on the front lines was captured. I went through... a lot. My hair went white because of the stress, the pain... Ah! I probably shouldn't be telling a child about how I was pathetic back then."
As a person who had fought in wars, I knew its horrors. I had been tortured as well, once I even had napalm spread across my body and was burned with it.
"Well done for surviving then, you survived, at the end of the day this all that matters isn't it? If you're the one who comes out alive then you're the winner. Don't call yourself pathetic, because you won."
I looked at her with a face of utter apathy, not a shred of emotion could be sensed from my monotone and cold tone. The Empress' eyes widened, for a moment they looked they bore a hint of fear.
"That's an interesting ideology, 'So long as I live, I win.' This is just out of curiosity so you don't have to answer, but what do you actually consider being alive? Is it simply existing? Or do you think of it being something more?"
It was my turn to be in shock, back when I was the weapon I was called a few things by both allies and enemies alike. 'The Grim Reaper', 'Reaper', 'The Shinigami' and 'The God Of Death.'
Most of the time they just called me Reaper, I would take an innumerable number of lives in each battle I took part in. I survived every battle, but now I was wondering, was I actually alive?
Was I... Or rather am I just something that exists? Something that's only technically alive but not really experiencing life?
"I... I do not know, I honestly can't tell you whether I'm actually experiencing life."
I looked around and saw that Cecillia and the other two were all happily chatting with Angelica, that was good, it'd be awkward to explain myself to them.
Then the Empress spoke.
"I see, you're a rather worrying child, your eyes, they have no emotion at all. Maybe you'll change, who knows, I simply pray that you manage to enjoy your childhood, you only have one chance at life after all."
I glanced at her one more time before heading over to Cecillia, and we all got ready to leave.
We left the estate after saying our goodbyes and promptly headed home. On the way home the other three were chatting away about how much fun they had while I was posing a question to myself. The Empress said we only have one chance at life.
But that's clearly wrong, or is it?
Was my previous existence truly something you could call a life, was my old life something one would consider 'a chance at life?'
Breaking me out of my thoughts Irene spoke.
"That Leon guy said he wanted you to come over at some point, apparently he's not met someone like you in our age group before and thinks that the both of you would get along."
"Someone like me?"
"Yeah, someone who looks past his lineage as a member of the Gladius Duchy. Most people probably have more superficial relationships with him rather than actual friendships."
I simply nodded my head at her words, and when we arrived at home I simply went to to sleep after getting changed.
***
The next day I woke up early and quickly headed over to my old, mundane, white room. The room had been left untouched for the most part, although it had indeed been cleaned up a little. I instinctively and subconsciously walked over towards the wall to my left, and I pressed on the bit of the wall just below the clock. Valier's memories told me exactly where everything was.
The wal slided open and leaded into a basement, the stairs and hallway were made of wood, I walked down the stairs, there wasn't a single sound. Only an absolute silence could be found, when I reached the very bottom of the stairs there was a desk there with a black box on it.
The black box said 'Final Dosage.' I instantly knew what this was, it was the final part of the catalyst that was produced to awaken my bloodline. If I took this, I wouldn't be able to turn back. I'll get stronger, but I'll also lose my humanity to an extent.
I reached for it but just before I touched box, I hesitated. But I resolved myself and opened the box, in it was a syringe filled with a lavender looking liquid. The liquid made me shiver in excitement and in fear, my body knew what this was.
I put the syringe against my neck, the tip made some blood flow out of my skin. Then I injected myself with the serum. Then I felt pain.
A pain that seemingly transcended all other forms of pain, it was like my entire being was being overwritten. No, it wasn't that, it was that my body was being altered on a genetic level. I could FEEL cells being destroyed and then being reformed, I could feel them replicate. Pain seared through my body, I had quite literally been lit on fire before but even that felt like nothing in the face of this mortifying pain.
I fell on the floor, and I clutched my chest tightly, clenching my teeth and using every fibre of my being to calm myself down.
***
After what seemed like an eternity, the pain stopped, I looked at my wrist watch. It was 7am, It had been over 2 hours since I injected myself. I made my way out of the basement and headed back to my room, I sat myself down on the bed and tried to feel out my core and my body to see if there were any changes.
I noticed something immediately, my Mana Capacity had increased. Ones Mana Capacity could be increased until they hit their limit, by expending all your Mana and them letting it come back you could slowly increase your capacity. However, my capacity had just shot through the roof, at a conservative estimate it had multiplied by 1.75 times. And another thing I noticed was that the seed, which I will refer to as 'The Demon Seed', had sprouted what looked like little roots.
I then felt the presence of another energy within my body, it was Cursed Energy. While going through that pain, a memory that was related to Cursed Energy had been awakened. Cursed Energy was used to fuel a person's Demonic Abilities. It could also be used for enhancement just like Mana. The high tiered Demon Bloods had managed to fuse their Mana Cores and Demon Seeds, and then they awakened an energy that only the Demons of the Ancient Era could use.
Demonic Energy.
I don't know the specifics of awakening it, and I'm not sure if I'll ever manage to awaken it. I'm satisfied with Cursed Energy anyways. I relaxed my body and mind and then, a black mist like substance was produced from my hand.
The substance had no form and it freely moved around the room, I then willed it into a weapon.
A weapon that I had used many times before, a weapon fit to become the tool of 'The Grim Reaper.'