"You must have realized by now, Seraph, that there is indeed a way. But I suppose you are far too hesitant to take it", Grim said, casually.
The sky looked nice and blue. He and I were in some place that I couldn't seem to recognize. He was lying in the most green, luscious grass in the history of grass and I was sitting just beside him under a tree.
I found myself outside once again.
To be honest, it had become hard to keep track of how many times I had done what I was trying to do. I thought that as long as the future kept moving forward, albeit slowly, I could reach the end. I'll just keep making sure everyone was alive until they were old and grey and died peacefully.
But the idea was ridiculous when I thought about it long enough. For one, what if I died before them? It would all come to nothing. My life would have been a waste.
"Where do gods exist?", I asked Grim, simply because I had nothing to say.
"Everywhere you turn", he replied, "They're very good at hiding it."
"I don't believe that for a minute", I answered, plainly.
He chuckled.
I was staring at the vast expanse that lay before me. It almost reminded of the place where we'd seen the black sheep of death. Except that one was a golden field.
"What is this solution you were speaking of?", I asked after a pause.
"A bargain. Its what all must do to become a proper god. That is what it takes, Seraph."
"I'm no lowly god. I'm a mage", I answered, mockingly.
He chuckled again. I pouted, staring at the expanse intensely.
"Sorry, Seraph. What was your question again?", he asked, much too casually.
I didn't know if I had a question in the first place. But since he asked, I decided to go with a very mundane one.
"Have you ever wanted to destroy the world?"
He laughed aloud for quite a while.
I sat in silence, staring at nothing. He always made the other person feel dumb. That was Grim. And I could see where he was coming from.
"Well, I won't deny it. Why do you ask?", he asked after a good long bit, having finally calmed down.
"I think it's all your fault. Everything."
I was pissed off but there was still honesty in what I said.
He didn't say a thing. Perhaps, he expected an explanation. But I wasn't in the mood.
"But to find the optimal solution, you're right about the fact that I already know what way I need to take. There're just a few things I need to know before laying the foundations. I know about everyone else. But you, Grim, what kind of solution would you like to have?"
In truth, I already knew. But I didn't like the idea of it. Lady had told me that Grim's optimal world would be a world which was utterly destroyed. He didn't want existence at all.
"I want a world without gods", he answered, surprisingly honestly.
Obviously, I saw it coming. Lady was right on the money about him.
"Why are you asking for such a thing? You know there are endless possibilities you could choose, right?"
"All the more so because there are endless possibilities. I couldn't have that if there weren't endless possibilities."
I agreed with him so I stayed silent, though I hung my head a bit low. I wasn't staring at the expanse before me anymore.
"Will that do?", he asked after a moment of silence.
"I thought I'd see everyone before leaving", I said.
"Where to?", he asked.
"Nowhere, really", I answered.
He didn't understand. And he didn't pretend to, either.
"Before you go, I should tell you, Seraph", he began, "I too was once a human. And like you, and Lady, and everyone else, I too possessed desire. But I was but a weakling. I caved in to death. I succumbed to fear. I chose this path long ago when I was a meager little human. I've lived longer than you can imagine. For one, in my time, mages weren't so scarce as they are today. I served in their convent too. That is, before everything changed."
"You could be a bit clearer, I'm sure", I said, looking down at him, having stood up to go.
"I would like to tell you a story. But it won't take long, I promise", he pillowed his head in his arms and smiled vaguely.
I leaned against the tree and folded my arms, looking once again, at the vast expanse.
"The boy I used to be, was a student at a convent of mages. In those times, mages formed groups to study their magic and find ways to control it", he chuckled, "I'm sure you'd have found it a really warm place to live in."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that", I answered plainly.
The thing about Grim was, that you could be rude as all hell and he'd just chuckle. You could be honest with him. He never held a grudge. You could lay yourself bare and raw with him and he wouldn't scoff at you. I think he'd seen enough during his life that he didn't care about pretense and formalities.
Knowing that, I did my very best to drop my guard and be as blunt as I was only in my own head.
"So this boy I'm talking about, he didn't like living in that place, of course", he admitted, "He wasn't good at anything. He wasn't particularly bad either. Just that, he wasn't special. He didn't want to be special. All the special folk in those times were cooped up behind the impenetrable walls of the convent. He found it suffocating. Yet he served the mages, by his own will."
"And then what?"
Grim seemed to be thinking for a while.
"He had a friend. A boy he'd grown up with. They were like brothers. But this friend was a prodigy. A student, but a favored one. Although they'd joined the convent together, the friend soon moved into the ranks of the mages while this young boy was only a servant. He hated the convent all the more. But he hated it so secretly, he himself didn't know it. It was only when all fell apart that he realized how much he despised the convent."
"All fell apart?"
Grim nodded.
"He was trying to save his friend who'd been sent to the inner sanctum of the convent to reside till eternity and master his magic. It was such a loss really. That's what those mages always did. They were foolish. But this young boy wasn't going to take it sitting down. He was under the impression that someone as puny as him could make a difference."
"Puny?", I thought that wasn't very Grim-like to say it.
"He sneaked in to the secret storage and found a spell that could help him get to this friend. He thought if he could master it, he could succeed. But that particular spell was sealed away for a reason. No one could master it. When the boy tried to mingle with it, it didn't go as he'd planned. The mages intervened but they couldn't destroy the spell without killing the boy."
"Oh, the plot thickens!", I said without a hint of enthusiasm.
I could see where it was going.
"They were foolish to think so. The friend was the first one that tried to kill the boy. And then well, by the time the boy's magic energy was depleted enough to stop the spell, the convent was a pile of corpses. The boy didn't know what he'd done. He saw nothing but the corpses. And the cursed spell that was going to kill him next."
I was beginning to think Grim wasn't serious. At least, he didn't look serious at all. He had a big "pulling Seraph's leg" grin on his face.
"And that's when God proposed to him a deal. He sent him to the Field of the Last Grazer. The place where you saw the black sheep. And God said to this boy that if he could tame the sheep, he could live. And so, what do you think the boy did?"
"He lived."
"Indeed, he did. And God gave him a reward befitting his ordeal. And since then, I've done nothing but walk with that sheep by my side. I've been reaping souls and sending them to their final place and watching the futile cycle so long, I forget where it even began."
By now, I was staring at him, trying to discern where he was getting that ridiculously vile grin on his face from.
"What?", he chuckled.
"Stop wasting my time, Grim."
I walked away as he laughed aloud and a strong wind led me back towards Valhalla.