The light is blinding. I hear distant voices. I smell blood. I feel my chest rise and fall. The tension of death has been cut and I can finally breath.
I can feel the breeze on my skin, my muscles ripple underneath my towel as I sit up to absorb what's around me.
Dior is cradling my face. Aki and the twins are looming over me. Panpun licks my feet (he has returned to his petite size), and Aziel stays at a distance, studying the corpse of a fallen dragon.
"What... happened?" I ask, my voice is several tones deeper and raspy as it escapes my lips.
"I told you not to jump into it! Why did you have to do something so stupid?!" Dior embraces me and cries on my shoulder.
"I don't understand... I went to kill the dragon and then... I met Death, the demon. He put me in a trance. Used my past against me to make me crave him."
"You kept muttering 'kill me' in your sleep." Aki says in a grim tone.
"You've been unconscious for a few hours, we were worried he took your soul." Tia says, her voice breaking as she buries her face in her brother's shoulder to stop her from crying.
I clutch my pendant. Millions of emotions running through my broken mind. My heart aches now at the touch of my gift that mother left me. The comfort it brings holds new meaning. I am torn into pieces, not knowing how to pick it all up.
The old me that I so dreaded and erased from my mind has rejoined my conscious self; and now I must force them to converge. Creating a new complete version. Death has made me whole. I will carry all my burdens, and make sure nobody else has to bear this weight.
"Well I'm here now... Those of us that remain still have each other." I say this but I am reminded of the countless lives of children that were savagely taken by the demon's reaper.
"Those poor kids have been taken by that twisted demon but we still need to keep moving. Aziel? What is our next move?" I swallow my tears, we have to survive, we must move on.
He gets up from studying the reaper of Death and points east, towards the desert coast. The four quadrants outside of the protected peaks are divided by their landscape.
We are in the north coast, and it is a rugged rainforest. The trees provide shelter but also make us prone to lightening.
Wandering ghouls (such as the dragon reaper) that don't return to the abyss at night along with the fog like to find solace in the mystical shrubbery that engulfs our region.
The desert to the east is said to be the safest from the hellspawn creatures. The terrain is unforgiving but it keeps the threat of flesh eating monsters at bay.
"We go to the east. There are other droids running their own orphanages there amongst the caves. If we leave now we can get there by sunset."
I look up to see that the day has just broken. The clouds part to reveal the oasis, and the reflection of the sun undulates over us.
I pat both the twins on their heads and give Aki and Dior a reassuring nod. We all gather ourselves and get on our boards.
There is no room for mourning over spilt blood. Our own lives are now at stake if we didn't act fast.
I am still groggy so I need Dior's help for me to get myself oriented with my board again. Aziel is the only one without a board, but Aki seems to have a plan for that.
"C'mon Panpun, your secret is out now. We all know you can transform, let's get that beast out of ya. If Aziel rides you, maybe his scent will get masked by yours and the ghouls won't be drawn towards us."
Good thinking, I forgot about the threat that the godsblood being exposed on Aziel's body causes for us. They lust after the liquid more than human flesh.
Panpun rolls his eyes and reluctantly transforms to over eight times his size. Growing large enough to carry a small cottage on his back if needed.
His steel-like fur shimmers in the light and his breath sends a gust of wind strong enough to make me catch my balance. This tiny pinewolf has grown into a scary monster.
His giant tongue licks me when he sees my apprehension to his form; it easily drenches my body in one simple swoop. That's disgusting, but it gets a laugh out of the twins. Even Aki and Dior need to hide their chuckle.
I hoist up Aziel and we are all off on our journey within an instant. The twins seem to have a better understanding of the board, weaving in and out of the clouds, but Aki still holds his own; often using his blessing to counterbalance his mistkes.
If he really wanted to he could fly all the way there, but his blessing isn't a passive one like mine. Aki is a vessel of the demon of glutony and is able to manipulate mass.
His ability is fueled by his Tao (a form of energy stored in one's soul) and it takes immense concentration and skill to be able to use it conservatively.
Currently he could probably use it for an hour. The older one gets, the more disciplined, life experience, character growth, and overall intelligence one gains, the larger the capacity of Tao a soul can contain.
To improve your efficiency however, it is purely reliant on focus. Someone who is young, dumb, and overall less experienced can still make their Tao last longer by being effective on how they use it.
It takes hours of training, meditation, and practice to hone your focus into how you might use your Tao in relation to your abilities.
I for one, do not have to concern myself with this at all so I have no idea what it entails or how difficult it really is. I just see Aki practice on his own a lot.
Even for his young age, he is a formidable vessel. Not only because of the powerful demon that he is bound to, but because of his mental fortitude and dedication to his craft.
All of my efforts and concentration goes into abstaining. It's honestly frustrating how many close calls I've had, especially recently. I am living life on hard mode for real, having Dior as a best friend is as much a curse as a blessing.
We fly for hours, Panpun keeping pace and not tiring. A few ghouls encounter us, but they are mostly C tier; and are smart enough to run when they see us.
Without the fog to aid them or shepherds to command them, they are just beasts with a desire to survive.
There are three powerful vessels in our entourage, along with a colossal (potentially S tier) ghoul and an ancient robot riding atop it, dripping in godsblood who rivaled the heavens to set his kind free.
We are a terrifying sight. The ghouls avert their gaze and hide within seconds of realizing our presence.
Dior has been trying to contact Zara and Perada through her third eye. She has a larger range than I do because she is half Atlanic.
We seem to be too far from them. I hope they don't freak out and think we bailed. We're just trying to keep our asses alive before the mission actually takes place.
We were supposed to meet them this morning but plans have changed. Dior and I can't just leave the twins, Aki and Aziel out here alone.
They aren't exactly helpless, but they are far from seasoned surfers; they lack the experience and vulgar reality of the world outside of the protective bubble.
Aziel has the experience but lacks the ability to ward of the hordes of hellspawn creatures that will flock to his godsblood.
He barely built the sanctuary when he first left the peaks. It is unfortunate that godsblood is the only thing that fuels him and that it needs to be exposed to air for its properties to work.
When we near the desert I can feel the shift in atmosphere. The air is thinner. Sand drifts in our eyes and the heat is dry, no moisture in the air, not a cloud in sight.
We have about an hour left until the sun sets and I can spot a cave in the distance amidst the innumerable rolling hills of sand.
There is also another figure in the distant sky that I spot with my enhanced vision. Several dark silhouettes of birds. A flock of ghouls are headed our way.
There are no normal creatures out here in the coast. Every single one of them (besides the rare acception of Panpun) is out to kill us.
A flock of birds may seem harmless at a distance but in the air we are helpless, easy pickings for those harrowing hellspawn creatures. I yell at the others in panic.
"There's a flock of ghouls headed our way. I don't think they're going to run and hide like the others. Aki, Dior, prepare to fight. Tia and Tito, ya'll need to go down to Panpun and hide under his belly."
They obey and the three of us are left alone to fend off this horde of hellish creatures. Damn. I'm scared shitless; but I remember the nightmare that Death made me live through.
I remember my home, my sister, my mother, the pact I made with Lust. There is no room for fear anymore. I need to plunge into this madness and rip out the hearts of those that stand in my way.
Right now, it's a flock of birds, and I'm ready to shred them. I welcome their maddening frenzy. I relish their anguish when I tear them apart.
Now that I've been born again, I live for death. Death fuels my will to live.