'If I need to act as a woman, I should really conceal my face... my hair is somewhat long, but I should cover that up too. My voice is a bit too deep to pass off, so should I pretend to be mute?'
As Mercury approached to retrieve the man's clothes, another slip of paper appeared in his hands. It had a singular line scrawled in writhing black ink.
[Do you wish to capture a soul?]
Mercury glanced at the paper, then back at the man's corpse. It was lifeless, devoid of anything remnant.
"Ah… I suppose so?" Mercury accepted the offer that the seemingly-living paper placed forth, but he could not quite understand its meaning. 'Does Hell harbor souls? Is this man currently watching me as a specter? What a terrifying thought.'
The paper then immediately dissipated, blowing away in the wind. The corpse in front of Mercury lay silent for a moment, until its finger began to twitch. Slowly, its many fingers began to writhe, then its arm, until its whole body was convulsing, as if experiencing painful torment. A thick, permeable black aura emanated from its flesh, wafting through the air like smoke.
It brushed past Mercury's cheeks, soft, with a slight sting. Then, it instantly solidified, like sharp shadowy spikes that brushed past his face, cutting into his skin and causing blood to drip down towards his chin.
The ink on the paper he held twisted violently, reforming itself into a new strand of text.
[Then fight for it.]
'Strange. Is this a key feature of Hell, or is it the product of one of my abilities? I recall the poem speaking of souls, left for capture… is this what it meant? Shall I fight this man once more?' He was unperturbed, rather intrigued by the developments. 'But what is the purpose of capturing a soul? Shall I continue to torment him, even after his death?'
The shadowy mist gradually reformed into the shape of a person, devoid of any facial features, apart from two gleaming dots in the center of its face that resembled pupil-less eyes.
'Well, if it has eyes, that means it perceives me. But do souls still yet understand the concept of gender? It seems… vacant of all thought.'
The shadowy figure opened its face, acting like a maw from which thick black liquid dripped from its makeshift jaw, letting out a blood-curdling scream that echoed through the forest. Groups of birds burst out of the branches, fleeing from the area in droves.
Then, it lunged towards Mercury, malice emanating from its horrific form. He stepped to the side, allowing it to cruise past him at high speeds, slamming its face into the titanic tree stump behind him.
The shadowy figure burst into wisps of pitch-black smoke upon making contact with the tree, dispersed by the force of the blow. It fell apart in the wind, gradually attempting to reform itself.
Mercury simply watched in amazement as the wisps of shadow coalesced, becoming the faceless shade once more. It reached out its hand as if it were taking a bird's wing stance, and mist fell away from its arm, forming into a large pole. At the edge of the pole, a triangular rounded blade was cut off at its point.
'Well, that's a little unfair.' Mercury still retained the twig in his hand. He had picked it up previously anticipating a battle against the man, but had been able to trick him to his death in the end. He was sure that it could pierce through flesh, but was not so sure about shadow.
He glanced over to the corpse on the ground, which hadn't dissipated. 'Is it possible that damaging the dead body could have an effect on the soul?'
Without hesitating, he began to try his hand at it. Mercury dashed towards the corpse, flipping the twig around in his palm. Seeing this, the reformed shade began to run alongside him. However, its attempts were far too late.
Its desperation had stoked Mercury's suspicion. He grinned, landing on his knees next to the corpse before brandishing the sharp twig, jabbing it into the underside of its jaw, directly into the exposed brain.
The shade immediately froze in place, its glaring red pupils gazing in horror at the sight. It dropped its polearm, which immediately dissipated into thick black mist. The same, its body was gradually picked up by the wind, its somber, expressionless face vanishing before Mercury.
'So I was right. The body is like an anchor for the soul, so it must ultimately be its weakness. In order to vanquish the shade, I had to go for where it was derived. This means that the soul should ultimately attempt to protect the body, but it seems it retained its personality. It was brazen, foolish, ready to give up what was most important, just like the man.'
Mercury stood up, brushing the dirt off of his pants and the blood from his cheek as he grinned.
'That's exactly why he lost a second time, despite the circumstances.'
He felt the piece of paper in his other hand began to wriggle around as if it had a life of its own. Glancing down at it, the text on the sheet of paper began to writhe, reforming itself again.
[Call for the arrival of the lantern.]
'The arrival of the lantern? What? Is it teaching me still?'
He felt a vast knowledge rest dormant inside of him, as if it had been there the moment he had stepped foot into Hell. He knew exactly what to do, and only needed the prompt to remind him of such. However, he also instinctively understood that it was just how a Reaper was, a dormant sea of knowledge.
Amused, Mercury reached out his hand instinctively, speaking aloud "at my grasp, arrive."
Bright wisps of light arrived with the wind, and in his hands, an ornate gold wire-framed cage about the size of his hand appeared. He grasped at it, viewing its contents, but found nothing resting within.
'A lantern without a candle? Then what should remain within?'
Suddenly, he saw the black mists begin hovering over the corpse of the man once more. However, this time, he felt a magnetic pull emanate from the ornate candleless lantern, a force he could not resist.
As he drew closer to the black mist, it lurched towards him. Mercury instinctively wanted to flinch back, but the lantern continued pulling him forward. The mist charged past the wiring of the lantern, coming to a full stop in its center.
'I see. Is this the method of capturing a soul? But why in such a gaudy manner? Should a songstress be quite showy? A performer, it seems…'
Noticing the writhing of the paper, he glanced down towards it once more.
[Your hand shall be held no longer. Enjoy Hell, Reaper.]
The piece of paper gradually began to dissipate as it had before. However, in its place, a pocket-sized leatherbound book dropped from the sky onto the ground in front of him. It had no obvious ornamentation, and the pages of parchment that peeked out from behind the leather covers seemed wilted by age, burnt by ember, and stained by ink.
It resembled a collection of years, a compendium of effort.
'Is this the form that the dispersion of knowledge truly takes? Then why did it bother to send the first few pages at first? Was it akin to a tutorial, seeking only to enlighten me? Have I now finally entered the beginning stages of this warped game? Hilarious.'
"Let me go, motherf-cker!" A curse suddenly rang out into the air. It had an illusory sense to its tone, like the echoes of a spirit from the afterlife. It seemed distant, yet close, and reverberated on top of itself, stacking together like a dissonant chorus.
It was an oddly familiar voice, one he had heard just moments prior. Mercury raised the ornate golden lantern, peering inside. The wisp of shadow had shrunk to the size of a plum, now sporting distinct but plain facial features that resembled the face of the man he had tricked into death previously.
"Did you say something? I think the wind is picking up again." Mercury stared at the wisp, an amused grin playing on his expression.
"Don't toy with me, damn it!" The wisp shouted, its voice puny, remnant echoes of its former assertiveness. "What did you do to me!? Why am I trapped in here- and is that my body!?"
Its horrified gaze rested on its corpse that was once full of life, now reduced to bloodstains on the grass below. Mercury nodded his head. "Yes, and I plan on leaving it for the beasts to feast on. However, your clothes will prove useful to me. You have my thanks for leaving them behind. I really thought they would disappear along with your body when I vanquished your soul."
"You bastard! Is this your real ability, to torment me!?"
Mercury shrugged, refusing to give up any information, both for a fear of dying, and of a lack of care. "Who's to say?"
'Interesting, sure. But what use does this ability have? If I torment him by playing around with his corpse, he might be privy to give up useful information. I'll be sure to do that, but is this ability reduced to being a simple post-mortem interrogation tool? What other uses can I derive from it? Well, we can always figure that out later…'
"Hey, little wisp thing. Let's play a game."