“Where am I?”

After sending another soul to be reincarnated, another one appeared at almost the same time the other departed. This time, unlike the other one, the soul was that of a young boy in the single digits age.

“O pitiful soul, whose death has come, I am the Death God, the manager and ruler of all souls.”

After speaking a line the Death God has spoken countless of times, the soul faced towards the voice, only to see a huge skeleton wearing a pitch black robe covering its whole body inside this dark space. Technically, what the soul could see was only a huge floating skull because the robe blended in perfectly with the background, but his was still enough to instill fear in the mind of the soul.

“Hiii!!??”

The soul inched back, only to find itself struggling within the bony hands of the Death God. On the back of the Death God, a huge scythe was hanged. Using the other hand to reach for the scythe, the soul screamed in fear.

“AAHH!!!!”

In just a moment, the soul was cut in half, and the figure of the young boy vanished. The remnants of the soul sucked up within the hands of the Death God, and every memory about the life of the soul was erased.

After another moment, the new recycled soul was sent through a channel towards the Death God’s colleague, the Life God, in order to be given new life.

The Death God’s work continued over and over again, for years, for centuries, for millenias…

<><><><><><><><><> 

After for who knows how long, for the nth time, the Death God reaped another soul and sent it to the Life God for reincarnation.

It was at this moment, the Death God had a thought.

What if I took a break from this tiresome work?

The Death God finally reached its patience for working nonstop for millenias. Using this moment when a soul had yet to appear, the Death God went through the channel connecting this place with the Life God’s place.

Arriving at the aforementioned place, what greeted the Death God’s view was abundant greenery. Having no knowledge about the greenery, the Death God continued on its way towards where the Life God is.

Passing through green and countless of others, the Death God finally saw the figure of its colleague. Wearing a white toga with a human male appearance, the Life God was just finishing his work.

In his hands, was a pure floating soul, and with just a single snap of his fingers, the soul vanished and was sent into one empty vessel in the world.

“Life God.”

“Hmm? Death God? What are you doing here?”

After countless interactions with the souls, the two communicated countless of times with a specific language they were accustomed to.

“I want a vacation.”

The Life God went speechless for a moment before denying his words.

“You do know if you are gone, the balance between erasing and reincarnating souls will be broken.”

“I know. That is why I am asking you to take care of it while I am on vacation.”

“Are you serious?”

“Don’t worry, after my vacation, you can have yours, and I will take care of things while you are gone.”

The Life God, upon hearing the Death God’s remark, broke into a laugh.

“Okay then, but I will choose your form when you descend onto the mortal realm.”

“That’s fine by me.”

But the Death God’s decision, will impact its life from here on out, but the Death God had no way of knowing this at the present.

After a few minutes had gone by, the form of the Death God was complete and in the hands of the Life God. Its figure was that of a pitch black skeleton.

“So this will be my vessel on the mortal realm?”

“Yes. Before you go, let me warn you, once the vessel is destroyed, you will be directly sent back onto our realm making your vacation over.”

The Death God had a question mark over its head before realizing that what the Life God said meant about death.

“Sure. Anyway, now that my vessel is complete, I will descend right now. By the way, during your vacation, I will also choose the figure of your vessel.”

“Haha, that’s fine. Bring back a lot of souvenirs for me!”

“Sure.”

The figure of the Death God was sucked into the pitch black skeleton and beneath its feet, a circle appeared. The next moment, a blinding light shone and the Death God was nowhere to be seen.

“Now, I wonder how will Death God fare in the mortal realm he had no knowledge of.”

A smile formed on the Life God’s face because of the prank he pulled on Death God.

<><><><><><><><><> 

~ First Person POV ~

Where is this?

Damp walls, no light, rocks on the ground, what is this place?

Walking for a couple of minutes, I found a forked path. On the left, there was complete darkness, but on the right, there was a miniscule amount of light pouring in. Taking that right path, the light shone brighter and brighter, until I found myself in a huge dome.

Inside, there were five mortals sitting down. Upon seeing my figure, the five of them stood up and took fighting stances.

Why are they doing that? What are those they are holding?

While I contemplated on why they are doing those mysterious movements, one of them rushed towards me and used that weird sharp object to slash at me. I used my left arm to block the mysterious sharp object and felt a sharp prickling on my arm for the first time.

What is this feeling? Should I do something?

The next moment, the mortal whose mysterious sharp object was blocked by my hand, quickly separated and I was bombarded with flames.

Why are there flames around me?

Another moment after that, the three remaining mortals rushed towards me and barraged me with a series of attacks using mysterious sharp and blunt objects. I blocked every single attack using my arms, but everytime I did, I felt the same prickling sensation I felt when I first blocked the first attack.

Ah… I finally noticed… This feeling… Is pain, isn’t it?

After finally noticing what they were trying to do, I recalled my meeting with a certain soul.

The soul was saying that it died because of pain. And it said that pain was a prickling sensation on the part of the body.

And I recalled what Life God said before I descended.

“Yes. Before you go, let me warn you, once the vessel is destroyed, you will be directly sent back onto our realm making your vacation over.”

And I finally noticed one thing. That means that if I die, I will be sent back.

And when the soul said that it died because of pain, I comprehended what the five mortals were doing to me.

They were trying to kill me.

I am not going to let my vacation be this short!

<><><><><><><><><> 

~ Third Person POV ~

“W-What is that thing!?”

“I-I don’t know!”

Every attack of the party of adventurers were doing were nulled by the pitch black skeleton. Slashes, thrusts, magic, smashes, almost everything they did, did no damage to the skeleton.

“Shit! We need to inform the guild about this monster!”

Upon hearing those lines, the other four adventurers nodded in agreement. Sadly, they were too late.

Red dots appeared on both the once blank eye sockets. Seeing those red dots, the adventurers felt a sense of dread and this made them panic.

“D-Damn it!!! Run!!”

All the adventurers quickly ran for their lives, but all of their actions went in vain.

In just a moment, the five of them had their necks separated from their bodies. Blood splattered everywhere and the five of them had no idea what killed them.

In this day, an A-rank adventurer party went missing.