Chapter 1-0: A Slice of Life (2/2)
“These are measures used by those seeking to avoid death.”
“Or return to mortal life,” I corrected idly. “No different than resurrection with a different shell.”
“Resurrections take place only at the will of the Lady of Graves!”
“Untrue. They take place when she does not stop them, which is something quite different.”
Caught in that correction, the creature flapped his bony beak, trying to find something wrong with that. Of course, I had no idea who this Lady of Graves was, and was talking a bit out my arse, but whatever.
“Who were you?” the psychopomp finally asked.
“My name was taken by the Curse, as it belongs to the original soul and no other. I suppose that right now I don’t actually have a name.” Which was pretty true.
“You still hold great power, even without a body.”
“You might say that’s by optimization,” I noted blandly, giving this angel of death something to think about.
“What were you?”
“What was the original? A magos, a monarch, a slayer of dragons, a reaper of the undead, a butcher of the Evilborn, a champion of Creation, and a servant of Heaven, among other things,” I replied evenly.
That seemed to get some interest. “A reaper of the undead?” he repeated, most curious.
“My homeworld was subjected to an Extinction Level Event. 95% of all sentient life, and most of the non-sentient, perished, and the vast majority of it rose as undead, who rapidly evolved and gained great power.
“We had to kill them all, and we did. His butcher’s tally of the undead runs into the millions.”
“You... exaggerate, surely.” Millions was a big number.
“No. It’s probably in the tens of millions, and given he was one of the great leaders and innovators of the defense, those he is indirectly responsible for run into the billions.” I paused for a moment. “We had to kill like eight billion of just the human ones, after all.”
“That... is a considerable number of undead,” he acknowledged after some thought.
“We were motivated and thorough,” I agreed impassively.
“Would you be willing to undertake similar purges of the undead?”
Ding, ding, my quest prompter just went off mentally. “If they are elective and not mandatory, I’m not opposed to wiping undead wherever I find them, on general principle. Of course, that attitude got me into the predicament I’m in right now. The Curse came from a demilich that wiped a planet, which we successfully fed to vivus.”
The reaper was silent again, clearly thinking for a long minute or two. “An unnatural creature of such power, twisting fate so powerfully... no wonder you are in such condition, and stand outside fate...”
“A-yup.”
“The Church of the Lady of Graves is vehemently opposed to the existence of the undead in the mortal world. One so skilled at fighting the undead would be greatly welcome in their ranks.”
“You are asking me to submit to the Lady of Graves? My apologies, I am a servant of Heaven. My prerogatives are the defense of the living, not the maintaining of the cycle of death. Removing the undead is eliminating a threat and sinister menace to living mortal life, and what motivates me. Cooperation to mutual goals is certainly feasible, but I will not be one of Her devotees.”
“The favor of the Lady of Graves–”
“I have spoken.” It shut him up nicely.
“You may be in need of help in locating a suitable mortal shell.”
Well, now. “Might. I can probably call up Heaven, list out my past deeds, and they could find a volunteer soon enough. As far as payment, I am the energetic sort who will soon earn them a positive return on their faith in me.”
“But we are here now.”
I inclined my head. “This is true.”
“Follow me, and we can come to terms that I do not believe you will refuse.”
I considered that, shrugged. Why not?
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I was definitely in an Astral Plane, because the path the angel of death led me along had many souls passing by, at first crossing our path, and then going by us as we went against the flow.
I noted many other presences around, radiating predatory desires, who backed off hastily when they noticed the presence of the reaper in front of me, and who all had hungry eyes fixed upon me.
One seemed to be a spidery woman, wound about with soulsilks and with a sneering, hungry look on her face as she stared at me. I was surprised she got close enough to see so visibly, but she didn’t seem to have much fear of my escort, who came to a halt with a grim stance about him.
“Abomination,” he hissed at the creature, which, now that I looked at it, seemed to have some similarities to him, associated with death.
She opened her oily mouth and began to laugh at him, while lines of soul silk began to rise from her. “Weak little grave slave, what is this morsel you are escorting? I think I will take it for my -erk!”
I didn’t bother to threaten the soul stealer. A full flight of Shards spun up, she had an instant to gawk at eighteen of them, all blazing with shining glory, perfect leaf-shaped wedges of multi-hued, fractal radiance, and then they drove in on her.
Each impact was positive, radiant, and five different kinds of elemental energies, all wound up inside the force structure of the Shards. The eighteen Shards were equally spaced all over her, and true to being Evilborn, her body was mostly ectoplasm, body and soul all one. Destroying the one obliterated the other, particularly with vivic energy added to the mix.
The impacts shattered her like a wall of blades sweeping past in crystalline obliteration, and painted the astral space in many hues behind her for a colorful second... before the woosh of vivic energy obliterated everything in a wash of unwhite, and there was stillness.
The other presences looking on retreated rapidly.
My escort turned to look at me, back at the removal of the soul stealer, and considered something.
“That... was a minor spell,” he observed thoughtfully.
I inclined my head. “Very good. You must have an interest in spellcrafting?”
“I have spoken with many spellcasters over the years, and seen many Casters at work.” He shook his head. “You broke many limits on that spell.”
“No, but it is good that you think so.” I waved him on. “Please continue.”
There was wariness, trepidation, and a healthy level of respect in his nod, and we resumed our course.
Nothing else even came close enough for a look at us.
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The color pool was the proper hue of silver, leading to a mortal world. I could feel the harmonics with my Matrix... it was a world that basically followed the rules of the Power of Ten.
I didn’t investigate any more closely, standing away as the pyschopomp indicated the color pool leading into the prime plane.
“What are you proposing, reaper?” I asked calmly.
“Beyond the Portal lays an area of a mortal realm overrun by undead. Vast numbers of them, over a great area.” It sounded rather amused at the implications.
From out of its robes, it drew a Scroll. I could see the magic on it, tied to Fey, Druidic, and Arcane magic.
“This is a Ritual of Reincarnation.” No, it wouldn’t need multiple Casters. It would spin it out for me at the whim of something, but it wouldn’t be Fate... or Luck. There would be nothing random about it. Given the Druidic magic there, the Land would be looking on...
A Reincarnation Ritual generally took five Druids at Ten working together to pull off. Given it could give a dead old man a new young life, it was a nice alternative for the death-fearing... if you were willing to come back as a deer or badger, or a pixie, or whatnot... you never knew what the Land might do.
Supposedly Fey Warlocks could pull it off, and Mages with the appropriate divine connections. Thus, the triple traces of the magic... it wasn’t just for Druids.
“So, you want to drop me buck naked into the middle of an area infested by undead in a new body.” I rolled my eyes. “Do I look like an idiot?”
“No. But this is what you are going to get.”
Ah, shit. I heard the amusement in its voice as instead of having to read the Scroll, it simply tore it in two.
“Fuck!” I had time to say, as a whirlwind of vivimancy swirled at me out of nowhere, and grabbed me in an instant. In a second, I was whirling and plunging through the silver pool, to whatever lay beyond.
Psychopomps, damn Neutrals and their precious Balance. Of course, only having to tear a Scroll, I hadn’t been at all wary enough, so it was kind of my own damn fault...
And as I was plunging through the silver pool back to the mortal plane, there was a jerk sideways, as if something had just been redirected, and something... someone... their ties to life clearly severed, slid past me on the way to the afterlife...
Please save my baby...