"My name isn't 'little wisp thing'! It's Fang An!" The shade in the lantern spoke angrily.
"Don't be foolish. Little wisps don't have names." Mercury teased the man's remnant soul. 'Still, it's not like it matters, even if you tell me yours. Dead people don't get to have names. It's just the remnant memories that they keep it around for. Do you think that a woman speaks to the corpse of her dead husband? No, she speaks to his detachment when she washes the dishes, telling him of her day. Do you think a father still sees his deceased daughter everyday? No, but he kept her name to put on her headstone. No one will think of you when you die, and no one will speak to you as if you're still here, so you do not deserve a name.'
Of course, he didn't say such a thing out loud. He still had plans for the remnant soul. Ignoring the whining of the wisp, he walked over to the corpse, prodding it with his boot.
"Hey! Don't f-ck around with my body, you villain!"
"Hah, villain? Should you still be chastising me, given that I have full control over your soul and your body?"
"What good is my body now? I've lost my head!" The wisp grumbled.
"No, you can still be revived. Think about it. How are you alive now?"
'I can still sway him to action. His mental state shouldn't be very good right now, considering he's still grappling with the concept of his own death. He should overlook certain things, and that makes him easy to use.'
This caused the wisp to finally enter a silent state, trying to think through the whole situation. "Is it because of your ability?"
Mercury shrugged. "Who's to say? But there's an equal chance that I have the ability to revive you."
Mercury knew that Fang An still had no idea that telling him of his Danger Sensing ability had caused his death, so he had decided to exploit it further. If Fang An's knowledge of abilities was lacking as a whole, it meant that Mercury could make up whatever he wanted as long as he kept it feasible.
Because he had been able to entrap Fang An's soul in the ornate lantern, there was the pretense that Mercury's powers revolved around death. As such, it was a completely feasible idea that Mercury could also reverse the process, reviving Fang An.
Of course, this was all a lie, as far as Mercury knew.
After mulling over the idea for a minute, the wisp named Fang An responded.
"What do you want in return?" The gnawing attitude had slightly dissipated, and Mercury grasped the sense that Fang An had started feeling a bit subordinate.
"I want you to tell me all that you know about this place. Tell me everything that you've learned since you arrived here." Mercury spoke with utmost confidence, trying to laud over the wisp, making him feel small and insignificant.
"I don't know much, only the things that some woman told me as soon as I arrived…"
"Woman? What woman?"
"There was another one, another Reaper, like us. She was patrolling this area of the forest, looking for newcomers… she told me of this area, Limbo.."
"Limbo? Is that the name of this forested area we're in?"
"Supposedly it's not just the forest, but the entire area surrounding a large marble palace. It sits in the center of a large field, past these Titan trees that make up this forest of monoliths."
"A marble palace? Is that the objective of this place, to reach that palace?"
"Who knows? She didn't tell me anything about it."
"What else did she tell you about?"
"These powers of ours, it's called a 'Forte', a bestowment of that 'Beast'."
"I don't care what the name of the power is. Power is power. What else do you know?"
"I know that we are no longer human." The wisp spoke as if he was grinning, dropping a bombshell on Mercury.
However, Mercury was not perturbed. "I know you aren't human. You're a dead little wisp. And I'm not human either. I'm a monster. Are you really only going to tell me things I already know? What use are you?"
"No, that's not what I mean. I mean Reapers- they aren't human. At least, that's what that woman said."
"I resemble a human, don't I? So, what's different?" Mercury pointed towards himself, confused.
"It's not the exterior that would tell you such a thing. It's the interior. Our stomachs are stronger, and our physicality is slightly enhanced. Haven't you noticed that you're moving a bit differently?"
Mercury shook his head. "Nope. I feel perfectly normal. Why are our stomachs stronger? Does the Beast get stomachaches often, and felt like projecting onto us?"
"It's because Reapers eat monsters to log their kills. Each time you consume a monster, it 'assimilates' into you. This is how they get stronger, and how they keep track of how many creatures they've slain."
"Sounds delicious." Mercury nodded his head, satisfied with the information. "So, what else?"
"That woman also confirmed one of my suspicions. It doesn't really matter now, but when I was alive on Earth, it seemed… strange. Absurd, almost."
Mercury's eyes widened, finally intrigued by Fang An's information. This was also something he had observed while he was alive. Everyone seemed to act strange on Earth for no seeming reason at all.
"Did she tell you why?"
"No." The wisp shook back and forth once more. "That was all the information she gave me. I have nothing else I can tell you. Will you revive me now?"
"Thank you for all the information. It might prove useful in the future. However, I was lying to you again." Mercury winked towards the wisp.
"You bastard! You can't keep getting away with this!" The wisp audibly fumed, small wisps of black smoke emanating from its form.
"And yet, I keep getting away with it." Mercury shrugged, content.
He then proceeded with what he had been doing prior to the fight against the shade. Leaning over Fang An's corpse, he began to retrieve the hood, cloak, and cowl of the man.
In passing, he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the thinning pools of blood. It was gruesome, horrific. His hair was stained different shades, of black and white alike. But the thing that stuck out to him was his expression. It was cold, unfeeling, distant.
'Why can't I remember anything? What caused the loss of my memories, and why do I feel like I'm not as I once was?'
Mercury turned towards the ornate lantern, which he had set in the grass beside him.
"Hey, do you remember being a shade?"
"A what?"
"A tall man made of shadow, wielding a polearm. Do you remember that? It was mere moments ago."
The wisp thought deeply for a moment, but shook back and forth as if shaking its head. "No, I can't recall such a thing. But thinking back, there is a period of time that seems hazy. Was this the moment between my death and now, I wonder?"
'Interesting, so he can't recall the moments I fought against him. I wonder if that's an effect of the ability, or a natural feature of being a dead person?'
He threw the bloodied clothes taken from Fang An's body over his shoulder, grabbing the ornate lantern and turning away.
"Wait!" The wisp cried out. "You're not going to bury me!?"
"What use is there?" Mercury shrugged. "It's not like you're going back to that body anytime soon. Let the creatures of the night have a wonderful meal."
"But- but…" the wisp visibly began to shiver.
"Don't plead. I won't listen. If you're so distraught about it, I can cut off one of your fingers and take it along with me as a remembrance for you to look fondly upon."
After hearing such a thing, the wisp immediately shut up, gaze downtrodden. Mercury began to follow the sound of trickling water he had heard when he first arrived, seeking a stream.
Past a thicket of monolithic tree trunks, ones that Fang An had previously called 'Titan Trees', Mercury found exactly what he was looking for.
Bright crystalline water flowed at an even pace, carrying with it sheets of fallen leaves that danced atop the stream. He wasted no time in making his way to its bank, kneeling down and scooping the bone-chilling water up to his face, cleansing the crimson away.
The cut on his cheek stung horribly, but for some odd reason, Mercury was adept at dealing with physical pain, as if it were something he could easily ignore.
After he had cleaned himself, he began to wash the blood out of the cloak, cowl, and hood he had taken from Fang An's corpse. To his surprise, the wisp didn't speak out, still in shock from what Mercury had said previously.
After he had washed, he built himself a fire out of the twigs that had fallen en mass from the canopy above, resting the clothes by it to dry.
He let down his hair, somewhat long in length, a stark contrast of black and white on each side. Mercury picked up soot from the fire between his fingertips, dragging it along the long length of his eyelashes, accentuating their colour.
Then, donning the cowl and hood, he was able to hide the majority of his face. With several locks of hair falling out of the hood, it gave off the light appearance of a woman whose visage was merely obscured.
'My appearance is already quite feminine… hopefully this is enough. I wonder if Fang An can still trigger my Distortion Law as a wisp? The problem is that I don't yet know any of my other abilities, if there are any.'
He glanced down towards the leather-bound book.
'I wonder if this book can tell me?'