It all started with a...
Bang!
Science says that if people are beheaded, they can stay conscious for two to seven seconds, staring at their body as blood gushes; spraying everywhere from their neck, while their head rolls on the damp earth.
At least that is how someone should feel before their consciousness fades into nothingness...
Yet, no one said that being shot in the head would feel like eternity...
Lidien stared at the back of his shooter, still in motion, before time seemed to stop, and only his consciousness was thinking, alive.
'Is this what you call the subjectivity of time? I don't care anymore... all that study, all that effort, gone to waste, just because of some mugger who wanted some quick cash. Well, sad for him... I don't even have a penny in my bag.'
Living his life in poverty, Lidien tried to escape it by becoming a working student, to get a job that pays well after graduation... that was his plan.
However, the outcome is sometimes different from what we plan. Just because he was wearing something unusual in the slum, a suit and tie from a thrift shop near where he was staying, people looked at him like some rich man lost along the way, not knowing he was just like them, struggling daily to escape the life he was born into.
'God... if you really exist... make me remember my past if I am reincarnated... Well, being a child of rich parents would do, but if not... if you make me a poor bastard again, I'd rather be--'
It was Lidien's last thought before his consciousness faded into nothingness.
---
In a dark place only lit by a torch with its unnatural emerald fire, a man wearing a black cloak stood in front of a dead boy. The boy's hair was white, a fang stuck out from his lips; he was muscular, yet thin. But there was something more to his body... it had a black piece of wing with crimson-like feathers on its side. He died smiling, accepting his fate and trusting the black-cloaked man, before he stabbed his own chest with a sacrificial dagger.
The black-cloaked man knelt in front of the dead boy and removed his black cloak, showing his naked body covered in bone-deep scars. He put his fingertip on the dead boy's chest, still dripping with fresh blood, before drawing ancient markings on his own body.
The black-cloaked man lifted his head, staring beyond the dark ceiling, spreading his arms wide open.
"O Reaper Who Sits Upon the Throne Forged of Soul and Blood!"
He joined his hands together, pleading.
"The One Who Embraces the Living Left in Death's Wake!"
Then slammed his head on the rough ground, marking it with his bleeding forehead.
"The Death Itself!"
Putting his elbows on the ground beside his head while raising his hands like a beggar, begging for blessing, implored.
"Heed my Call!"
A black and crimson cloudy vortex crackled as strands of lightning ripped space, slowly enlarging the tear.
The torch's oddly green flame suddenly slowed its flickering, until it stopped.
Beyond, a black throne stood oddly in the middle of a bloody world, where darkness was nature itself, impervious to the light of sun and stars.
A Being sat on the throne, chained, unbothered, staring boredly at the kneeling man whose gaze could penetrate deep enough to see his soul.
"Master...." said the kneeling man.
The Being smirked, placed his hand on his chin, and watched the kneeling man amused.
"How many years have it been, Everbleed..." said the Being.
"A hundred thousands of years... Master..." Everbleed replied, fixing his position into that of a servant kneeling before his Master.
"A hundred thousands of years, yet your hatred seems not to recede..."
Everbleed gripped his hands, nails digging into his palms, as nine pairs of black-crimson wings suddenly erupted from his back.
"Master... I offer you a body without a soul..."
The Being stood up, chains rattling against the black and bloody ground, and stepped out of the portal, entering the room where the dead boy and Everbleed were.
"What did he trade it for?"
Everbleed then pointed to the side. A woman in her twenties, blonde-haired and fair-skinned, lay on the cold ground, blood dripping from her mouth, her eyes still open, unmoving.
"To let that woman live..."
The Being then gripped the air. When he opened his hand, a small fragmented white crystal suspended above his palm.
"Poor soul... full of regrets. May Death find him peace."
With another gesture, a fragmented crystal suspended above his palm once more, and he sent it towards the woman lying on the cold ground.
Then he looked back at Everbleed.
"Watching and reliving the lives of millions of species since my existence... has made me realize one thing... Death is neither the beginning nor the End..."
As the Being walked slowly, a black miasma, thick and corrosive, followed his path.
"That even I, the God of Death, cannot comprehend the true meaning of Death..."
The God of Death then put his free hand into the air. With a gentle pull, another portal opened, showing a distant and lonesome planet.
And when he opened his gripping hand, a bright crystal, diamond-bright and whole, suspended above his palm.
"Everbleed... Tell me, what it is you truly desire, getting me out of the abyss... Just to offer a soulless body to me..."
Everbleed gritted his teeth, before calming down himself.
"Master... please use that body as your new vessel, and reclaim what we lost!"
The God of Death smirked, then look at the boy.
"What we lost, huh."
The dead body of the boy floated. The sacrificial dagger pulled itself from his chest, blood cascaded down his lower half and pooled on the ground.
Holding the diamond-bright crystal, the God of Death forcefully fused it with the fragmented crystal of the dead boy into one. With a gesture, a crimson vortex slowly materialized above his palm.
"Master! No! This is not what I prayed for!"
The God of Death smiled, bloody tears flowing down from his crimson eyes.
"I know..."
With his remaining strength, the God of Death forcefully fused his Essence into the crystal. The diamond-bright crystal darkened, turning bloody, sucking every drop of blood in the room before he placed it into the chest of the dead boy suspended midair.
"As the God of Death... it's time for me to experience what Death truly is."
Everbleed watched his Master slowly disintegrating. The God of Death just smiled, blissful... until he vanished into nothingness.
"In the end... Master chose not to fight..."
Everbleed looked at the unconscious boy, forced a smile, and sighed.
"We'll await your return... Master."
Until he vanished like black smoke in the air.