Lady's impaled body just hung high up between the coldness of Grim's embrace and his sharp scythe.
As if unable to believe or perceive her current predicament, her eyes were wide open in shock, digging into Grim's unaffected ones. Once she hurled a flood of blood that all too fruitlessly dropped down to the cracked ground, her pupils rolled back into her skull and she stopped twitching.
A wave of peace ran over Chopper, as if he'd been saved. In the end, it turned out that not making any decision was the best decision after all.
"Now then, let me show you the world I promised. A world that doesn't exist yet."
Saying so, Grim spared us a glimpse too. Sight then lowered his barrier and moved us to the battlefield. The fight was over. The winner was decided.
"I'll bring you all along too", Grim said, grinning.
For a moment, he seemed to have turned back to his old self.
By now, Lady had recovered enough that she was breathing heavily. With dilated eyes and a slightly open mouth that had failed to utter anything earlier, for now all she could do was hear everything.
"There is a domain beyond the one where you stand. You only need to blink twice to be able to see it now that I have awoken you. I'll take my dear Lady there myself."
We all obeyed Grim's command, seeing as it was clear that no one could oppose him anymore.
Just like he said, it was like waking up for the first time. The feeling that filled me was so alien to me that I cannot possibly describe it with mere words. It felt like we had never opened our eyes before, like we'd never seen anything more real than this. Even though it was such a dreamlike place, it seemed more real than any other reality.
As far as our eyes could see, there was a golden field, flowing with a cool breeze. It was a bright, sunny field. But there was no sun to burn your skin, nor blind your eyes when you looked up at the endless sky. You could see the horizon and it seemed infinite. The sky was so much closer, as if we were floating in a heavenly river.
A tree kept us in its shade, warmth permeating through the leaves when the wind created a rustle. We stood as if we'd been hypnotized.
Lady was standing too. There was no sign of any wound on her, even though Grim hadn't recovered at all. He was riddled with holes all over. Lady's clothes hadn't recovered though, her fur coat was still the only thing on her.
"Lady", Grim wasn't standing with us under the shade of the tree, "Do you see that over there?"
He pointed in the distance. We all followed his directions. In the far distance, there was a black and white sheep grazing in the fields. Just a small black and white sheep.
"That...sheep?", Lady peeled her eyes to see it.
"That is death."
A strong gust of wind blew across us.
"Those who tame her are called Gods of Deaths."
Lady stared emptily at Grim.
"You asked me of my motive, Chopper?", Grim turned to face us, "Then here it is. Look!"
Saying so, he stretched his arms out and turned his face to the sky.
"Ya don't need to make it sound so grand", Chopper had a cigarette pressed between his lips but it had gone out when we got here, "To put it simply, you are obsessed with Lady."
Grim laughed out loud.
"Obsessed? You criminally undervalue my passion! I, who have conquered death itself and wield her at my command! I, who delivers the final sentence, eternally! I, who wastes life itself and puts it out just as you ash your cigarettes...I, a God of Death, the end of all beginnings! Obsessed with a little woman?", and he laughed again, even louder.
Lady's eyes were glued to the little black sheep that grazed away at the field in the distance. I, at least, was more concerned that she was standing closer to Grim than any of us.
"I have never once known defeat. No one can run away forever. But a world that is so within my grasp is nothing but a bore. An endless, tiring cycle, devoid of all meaning and sense. Yet, our fate is to grate ourselves away in such a world."
Grim was looking away again, to some distance that none of us were capable of seeing.
"Until I found Lady! My magnum opus! The ultimate defiant! In this field before you, where only that sheep exists all alone, there is no one but Lady who can keep me company. For she is the only one untouched by that sheep! Do you see, now? What you call obsession, is nothing but the ultimate life inside death!"
"Sounds like an obsession ta me", Chopper replied carelessly, to which Grim chuckled and shook his head.
Lady was no more than that to Grim. Someone he couldn't grant death to. That was, as Chopper called it, his obsession. The only thing that even Grim couldn't conquer, that was Lady.
"So now, my dear Lady, what will you do?", Grim asked her, filled with a joyous spirit.
Lady looked exhausted, as she kept staring at the sheep.
"That...", she pointed at it, "...is death, you say?"
Grim smirked, as if reading her mind.
"Indeed, it is. Would you like to try taming her?", Grim egged her on.
But Lady needed no motivation. Soon as those words escaped Grim's mouth, she almost leapt onto the wind from where she was standing and started running towards the sheep.
She looked like someone possessed. It seemed like the wind tried to knock her down while the ground tried to drown her but she cut through all of that and ran towards the sheep like there was no tomorrow.
Despite her utmost efforts, the distance never decreased. The sheep seemed to be moving further and further from her struggling figure.
When seeing her desperately fight became too much, I couldn't just stand there and watch anymore. I intended to go after her and grab her but just as I took a step forward, Chopper stopped me.
"Don't leave that shade, Seraph", Grim looked over his shoulder and said in a stern voice.
"Why...? Aren't you all seeing this?!", I looked over to find them wearing the same frustrated look as me. Deli and Lubbock and Sight too, all of them wanted to drag Lady back to this side too.
"Lady won't die, but you would. So don't move from here. She can take this all, because she's stronger than-"
"Enough, Chopper-san! Stronger or not, what I see there is a woman desperately chasing death! I don't see any strength in there! And you standing here, saying all this won't bring her back! Because you keep running away...because you..."
Regardless of how much I shouted, Chopper wouldn't let me go. I already knew that.
"Because you've always just been watching from a distance, she's drifted so far away. But this time, I will bring her back!"
Chopper didn't have anything to say. Because he knew what I was saying was the truth. Despite everything، Chopper was the kind of man that had always been on the run. That was the only thing he knew how to do.
Futile as it seemed, and as it definitely was, even in all my rationality, I couldn't stop myself anymore. So I ran after her. Chopper tried to hold me back but Grim stopped him.
"Do as you wish then", Grim said to me.
I didn't care how much of life I was missing out on, what I was losing. I could have died there. That sheep started walking towards me too. And I knew the consequences of my action very well. But I wasn't going to abandon Lady anymore.
At times like these, I wished I had met her sooner.
Running in that ethereal field, all the strange sensations got jumbled together. I could hear my heart beating so loudly when I was running after her. Every thump of my feet was like a blow on a drum. Everything was so heavy and so light at the same time. I felt like I might float upwards into the sky if I put more strength in my step.
But all the while I was getting veiled in these extreme sensations, my eyes were fixed on the single running figure in front of me. That sheep wasn't going to get me before I got her.
I wasn't thinking about what was behind me, what was going to follow or what was happening around me. I stopped thinking entirely. And just as she was within reach, I leapt onto her.
I grabbed her from behind, as we both tumbled to the ground. But even as we fell, her eyes only reflected the image of the sheep. She wasn't able to see anything else. She reached her hand out to it but the sheep had stopped moving in the distance.
"Lady!", I was calling out to her at the top of my lungs.
Even as my throat burned, I kept shouting her name. Her name...I didn't even know it though. Perhaps that's why I couldn't reach her no matter how many times I tried. She kept squirming in my arms but I refused to let her go after that sheep.
I must have looked like an idiot, struggling like that. But for everyone's sake, and in some ways I wouldn't admit, for my sake too, I had to bring her back.
Just then, among my unceasing attempts to call out to her, rang a voice from the distance. Just Chopper, always being the hero in the shadows.
"Nicole!"
His voice rang out in that endless golden field and the wind came to a halt. Lady froze too. Just one drop of long withheld tear escaped from her eyes and rolled down to end up in the mud. That sheep faded out from her eyes. She pursed her lips and closed her eyes, pressing her head back into my chest, coming to rest, finally.