Way of True Death

Ra’azel felt the wind, he felt the weight of it, the force of it. His runes flashed into existence, but without his Soul the most they could do was counter the wind’s onslaught.

He had to be smart about it, he couldn’t use too much. It would hurt him. He took a sliver of his Soul and shaped it into a rune string of force. A barrage of kinetic attacks lanced out, heading straight for Zacharia.

The wind moved him around, and Ra’azel realized that he had injured him more than he thought. Regardless, he kept his eyes open looking for other threats.

A crescent sent by the Scythe arrived from the darkness of the forest. He ducked underneath it, then pushed off the ground and charged.

The Scythe attempted to dance away, but Ra’azel was faster. His body reacted almost on instinct, his claws swiped and she blocked with her weapon.

The reality shuddered as his claws hit the scythe made out of bone. An explosion of power rocked them both, sending them flying in opposite directions.

Wind howled and Ra’azel cursed. He pulled on his Soul, and felt his leg go numb as he overdrew it, but he didn’t stop. He carved a string, and his power echoed out.

The howl and the attack died as silence took its place, the wind vanished and then he punched forward with his hand, releasing another kinetic strike that hit Zacharia straight in the chest and sent him back into a tree.

Shadows rose around him, but weaker than before, he ripped them apart with brute strength alone.

He looked around, as the wind picked up Zacharia again, and he turned to face him fully, intent of finishing him.

Ryun crashed into Nayra with such speed and force that he felt her arm crack beneath his weight. He rolled off the ground and cursed, his own body was bruised and aching.

“Nayra,” he said and she responded immediately before he could continue.

“I’m fine,” she said with a groan as she got to her feet. “I wish we had time for you to explain all of this,” she waved her spear around. “But I don’t think that we do. Help me with this.”

She offered her shield arm, the one that was broken and he took her shield between his teeth as she dismissed her spear and pulled out a healing potion, one to drink and another to pour over her arm.

“I’ll go from above next,” she said, her fiery wings beating once, then before he could answer she was gone.

Ryun looked back, and saw Selia rejoin the fight as Zach sent blades of wind at Ra’azel that were countered by an opposing wind force.

Ryun’s body was strong, but he lacked most of the tools that he used to have in this form. He wasn’t as powerful. The forest was weakening Ra’azel, but it wasn’t enough.

Ryun couldn’t call to his Oblivion side, even just thinking about it made him ache, he had drained it too much.

He called to Scorn, it rose out from his Soul and covered him, sheathing him in armor. And within it he sensed the Qi they had stored within the core.

He rushed back into the fight as Zach struggled, as Ra’azel’s runes countered his wind and blasts of pure force chased Zach around.

He shaped Selia’s techniques, and sent blades of her Qi flying at Ra’azel. Shields rose and blocked as he charged. Selia, now shrouded with Scorn as well, did the same.

Blades and spears showered him, and even if they got through, his body twisted, evading or intercepting and breaking their attacks.

Ryun grew frustrated. Instead of the dwindling Sanguine Flame of Laqruud Qi, he reached for his very Essence. For True Death. They were the only source of it in the Infinite Realm, they were like a plane of an Aspect all in themselves.

He poured it into his Core, it changed, became Qi. Dark and light, powerful, it pulsed within him. He drew on it and opened his mouth, firing a {Twilight Cutting Flicker}.

A beam of purest black and white lanced out. Ra’azel reacted immediately, with far greater reflexes than even Ryun would’ve been capable of.

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He raised a hand, and a shield formed in between four runes, one on each corner. His attack hit and the world around them shuddered. The shield broke, his attack hit Ra’azel, washing over him.

And it only made him stumble. What was it to do in the first place? What was True Death? A transition? It was not Death that caused Life to wither and decay, to turn turn a body into remains and send a Soul to the Ethereal. It was never that. True Death were the two beings that were once one. An instrument in the hands of reality. Those that ended a life and sent a Soul outside of reality.

This was not that reality.

Ryun looked at Ra’azel and knew, they weren’t going to win.

“We are weak.”

“Ryun?” Both Selia and Erdania’s voice echoed inside his mind.

“We are weaker than him,” he answered.

“We are not what we used to be,” Selia sent. Their conversation flowed in the time between moments, at speeds no other being could even comprehend.

Nayra was still in the air above him, slowly gaining distance, heading toward Ra’azel.

“We are True Death,” Ryun added. “Our strength was supposed to be the greatest, here, in this forest, we were supposed to be able to take down anything. Everything.”

“This is not that reality,” Selia reminded him of what they both knew, both remembered.

“There is no True Death here,” Ryun’s voice was slow, relatively speaking. Measured, as ideas, thoughts, rumbled inside of his head.

“We are here,” Selia sent, but he could feel the change in her voice, she understood some of what he was thinking.

“This is so weird,” Erdania’s voice broke through, her thoughts and feelings uncontrolled, leaking so much more than she probably intended. There was fear, there, but contentment too. She was happy, despite the situation. Happy that she was finally part of what him and Selia had shared. “Do you want to do what I think you want to do? Or am I thinking it?”

“We are thinking it,” Selia answered. He could feel her hesitation. “Ryun, can it—”

“—Why not? Who we used to be brought True Death here. We are its only Source. We are the Plane of True Death. No one else touches our power.”

There were no words after. Instead, they, all three of them reached for their Souls, for the pieces of themselves that were the Aspect True Death.

He, no, they leaned their will against themselves, against the Plane of True Death. Shaping it into more than it had ever been before. The Framework had accepted it, had integrated it into the Infinite Realm, so why shouldn’t it be the same as with every other Aspect?

Ryun forced his idea of True Death as a weapon, as force that ended all in its way, that could kill even reality—

“No, Ryun,” Selia’s voice interrupted him. His ideas faltered, as others made themselves known.

“We need this,” Ryun sent back, but Selia didn’t budge.

“That is your understanding, your desire, but you are not True Death alone.”

His anger and his frustration bubbled up from beneath, rising to the surface. And then he let it go. She was right, he wasn’t True Death, they were.

He listened to what Selia said, her voice carrying the weight of the memories of the Scythe, the wisdom that had always been part of her.

The Scythe had carried the parts of True Death that were kinder, that were wiser, that thought more.

The Reaper was the impulse, the emotion, violence.

They had changed, so he listened.

Together, they shaped a Way of True Death. Gave it intent and meaning, it wasn’t just destruction, it wasn’t just a transition. It was the record keeper of all that had happened before. It was the final witness of a life, of a concept, of an idea. The final arbiter before it was allowed to transition beyond. True Death had to encompass it all.

He felt it come into being, not fully solid just yet. And then he expanded what he was doing, as something else occurred to him. Why should they just shape True Death? It was so obvious to him now, and through him to Selia and even Erdania—though he could tell that she didn’t quite understand everything.

He was the Reaper for countless ages. Those memories suddenly made him look at his existence in a different light. He was a complete manifestation of an Aspect, the only conduit for it. He had shaped himself, had splint himself in half.

Now he was True Death, but he was also a Soul, he was Oblivion. Why shape just True Death, when he could shape his entire being too?

“I am the fire and blood that creates a foundation for the future; I am True Death, the witness to the last breath of life, to what remains behind,” Selia’s voice echoed with the tone of the Scythe. He could feel her changing, her Soul evolving. She spoke in his mind, with a voice that held a finality to it.

“I am, Legacy.”

A meaning given form, shaping of a Way, but not for an Aspect, for an entire being. He could feel it taking hold, feel Selia becoming what she was always meant to be. What she had always walked towards.

“I—” Ryun started, his thoughts and voice emotionless, but filled with intent. “I am destruction of all in my way, the promise of oblivion to come; I am True Death, the witness to the journey’s end.”

It rose up from the deepest parts of who he was, his Soul. He could feel all the separate parts pushing against each other, integrating, Oblivion and True Death, becoming more than what they were alone. The Concept of who he was.

“I am, End.”

It felt… good. As if he finally understood himself. He could feel the change happening in his Soul. A slow process, but it consumed everything.

Then, another voice spoke up. A bit more hesitant, without the weight of memories to guide her. Ryun and Selia reached out and offered her a helping hand. They were her anchors, as she had so often been theirs.

“I’m—I am a pillar around which greats orbit, as solid as the stone of the world; I am… True Death, one piece of three.”

They opened themselves to her and offered her insights into her own Soul. How they saw her, how they understood her. It helped her find what she was always been. She was stable, she was strong. Always there for them, the balance that kept them together, helped them working.

“I am, Reliability.”

As reliable as Gravity, as Worldstone, as True Death in the End.

They were changing, all three of them. Their Souls morphing into something else, something new. Notifications were blaring in the corner of his eye, but he ignored them. His Soul was evolving, and with it, came power.