Death looked me directly in the face as he gave me only one choice I could make.

"I will become your herald, and bring my enemies to their deaths."

"Then it has begun. Go, my herald, and show the world the fear of Death."

He held up his hand, and the darkness all around us began to swell up into a ball at the center of it. It condensed more and more, until all that could be seen was an endless abyss of cold darkness. He pushed the sphere inside of me, and to my surprise, instead of pain, all I could feel was the cold. I felt nothing but the soothing peace of death, the only peace I would feel for a very long time, for I knew that I would not rest, my hatred and sorrow that the world gave me wouldn't allow it. My vision, once again, blurred into nothingness, until I awoke in the middle of the forest which I died.

I lay in the same position which I died in, with a sideways glance towards the forest, the side of my face touching the blood-stained dirt. I slowly lifted my head off of the dirt, and as I was about to prompt myself up, I look at my body. My hands, bones, covered with dirt and my own blood. I am a monster? No, I am but myself. This is who I need to be.

I accepted what I was now, a skeleton. A living skeleton, but not living. Dead, but not quite dead. I am.. undead, then? My bones were surrounded by what seemed to be a black mist. I presumed it to be part of the power Death had bestowed upon me. I was calm and collected, for but a brief moment.

Those bastards.. they need to pay.. I WILL KILL THEM!

"RuAoAAoOAHH!!"

Birds flew away into the open air in fear as I let out only a fraction of the rage that I felt within me. Within the next moment, the rage intensified, and I longed to see the torment and pain of my oppressors, of my murderers. My roar echoed throughout the dark of the forest, it now being night on the same day I was slain.

I felt an attraction to the earth, a sensation that I could only describe as a longing for home. I knelt down to the floor, and put my boney hands onto the blood-stained dirt, and I felt it. I felt them. Countless corpses, bodies, bones -- all abandoned and forgotten by the living. Thousands upon thousands, millions upon millions, just beneath this forest. Many of them wished for rest, for peace, but my hatred flowed into their souls. I showed them my despair, and they were enraged. I called out to them, and they answered.

I felt them crawling, inching their way towards the surface. The black mist within me was sent down into the earth, and spread out to help them escape the confines of it. I rose on my feet, and with the air of a monarch, I spoke.

"Rise."

Crack*

The ground cracked as one by one, bones started to protrude out of the ground. It seemed I didn't have the power as of yet to force out all of my brethren sleeping beneath the earth, but this was enough to quench my bloodthirst, and seek out vengeance. Throughout the dense forest, of the many millions upon millions of dead, only a hundred or so is what my power can handle as of yet. I could feel what they felt, wherever they touched, I touched. What they saw, I could see. This is the power he has given me.. how godly.

Most of their bones were rotten, broken, and crushed beneath the earth, but when the black mist washed over them, they were reinforced and were made stronger than they were when they were alive. All of them, reconstructed to be 2 meters tall, knelt around me.

"Bring me my murderers, give me them so that I may crush their skulls beneath my feet as I hear their cries of agony.. bring them alive, for I want their first death to be from my own hands."

Half of them disappeared into the darkness at my order, and as they conducted the beginning of my vengeance, I began to test out the limits of my newfound body. The trees around me seemed shorter than when I was alive. Standing around 3 meters tall, I towered above my brethren. Their bones were a strong white, covered in the black mist of death. I walked to a nearby tree, and threw a punch at it.

Poosh*

A hole carved its way into it, tearing it in half as the top half of the tree spun into the air from the impact. When it crashed onto the floor, wood was spread along the ground, and the bottom half of the tree was bent outward, most of its roots pulled from within the earth.

I was surprised at the power. I could easily bend steel with this might, and no normal weapons could even scratch me without being broken themselves. Just at the start of gaining the power of Death, I was already more than a match than the majority of the renown paladins.

Ewell paid us a hefty sum, ten thousand silver coins to be exact, for the life of that whore and her bastard son. I saw why, too. As I sat down in the Moonlight bar with Lui, the only one left of my former bandit group, I contemplated if it was really worth the deaths. It'll take me awhile to find replacements, but in the end, I didn't feel regret. We decided to split it, I got 7,000, and Lui got 3,000. With this, I could live without worry for another 6 or 7 years! I smiled gleefully as I gulped down another bottle of alcohol and set it down hard upon the wooden table.

It was dark out now, and the barmaid told me to get out. She didn't look too bad. If this wasn't Inner Prehg, I'd have myself a good time.. I licked my lips as my lower body reacted to the thought, and suppressing my urges, I walked out the door.

The cold wind greeted me, the streets of the Inner District now seemingly barren compared to the day, where it was overcrowded at the excitement of the examinations for the new paladins. It was quiet, and something inside of me told me that it was the bad kind of quiet.

My right hand wrapped around the handle of my broadsword at my shoulder as I walked down the street. I made my way into the outer district. Still, not a person in sight. The occasional patrol of guards walked through the road, but most people were asleep at this time. I should be one of them.

That's when I heard it. Footsteps, crackling of what seemed like bone against dirt. It was too many to be exact, but there was alot. At first I thought I drank a little too much, but then the patrol that passed by me reacted to the sound as well. They turned around to the sound, and I did with them. My body froze in fear at the sight of skeletons, twice as tall as the average man, seemingly sprinted towards me. Their flaming eyes showed absolute hatred that sparked terror from within my soul.

When I first saw them, they were coming from the east gate. I was frozen in fear for a good ten seconds, but my instincts screamed at me to run as fast as I could away from them. I grit my teeth and forced my body to move, and by that time, they were already halfway to me. I sprinted with all my might towards the alleyways into the inner district, not bothering to look at the still frozen in place guards.

Tears and snot flowed out from my face as I screamed and ran desperately from those monsters.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHH!!"

I screamed as I looked back and saw them right behind me. They were fast, too fast. My legs started to scream in pain, but they only ran faster. I was almost at the end of the long alleyway. RUN FASTER! RUN, RUN! GET AWAY!

For the first time in my life, I prayed to Helios to save me from these monsters, to ensure my safety, to let me live my life. I desperately promised every possible promise I could ever think of at that moment.

Then, I felt a cold sensation grip the back of my shirt. I frantically screamed, kicked, and bashed my sword into the surrounding skeletons, but to no avail. My arms were broken, and my body eventually collapsed as I began to lose consciousness. I could feel my body being dragged against the ground and the muffled screams of Lui in the distance, before I blacked out.