Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 304: Death's Challenge

"Yeah. I'm not so sure I'm on board for that," Laz responded, wondering if she was kidding. Taking a look at Death though, Laz realized that she had a serious expression on her face.

"I'm not kidding," she simply responded.

"OK. So... To satisfy you... I have to die?"

"Well. Yeah. Kind of..." she responded, hesitant.

"Why...?"

"I'm not sure I can really answer that."

"Uh..."

"Ok. You were able to give the other's what they wanted, yes?"

"Yeah. I think so."

"You did. But I'm a little different. You see, normally, you might think in your head, how do I satisfy death? Kill death? Do you really think that death can be killed?" She said, trying to make Laz understand what she herself didn't really understand.

"You're saying you can't be killed?" Laz asked, a bit shocked.

"I don't know. I can tell you that since that night when we were all cursed, there have been plenty of times that I should have died, but I didn't. So... I honestly don't know." Although she was serious, there was also hesitation that Laz could easily detect.

"Let's assume you can't die then, just to move along this path. But then the only way to satisfy you would be for me to die? How does that even make sense? I mean, along those lines, I could just bring someone else in and kill them and boom... death. That should do it to, right?" Laz was trying to make sense of this since he had no desire to die.

"It can't be anyone. The only one that can truly understand me, like how you understood the others, is you must experience death yourself... I think." Her voice dropped to a whisper at the end, hoping that he wouldn't hear that last part. But of course Laz did.

"You think?"

"Well... I've never done this before, ok?"

"..."

"And it wasn't that you truly beat the others, you just showed that you understood them well enough to give them what they wanted. That's the same thing here." If it came down to it, Death knew more about what her sister's needed than Laz did. It wasn't just about their needs, it was about showing understanding or being enlightened as to what each of them were. As such, the only way he could truly come to understand death, no matter how many times he killed others, was to die himself.

"Alright fine. Kill me and let's get it over with..."

"Well, you'll need to... wait, what?"

"Just go ahead and do it. A smaller wound would be better though. Making my head blow up would probably be a bad thing..." Laz said, completely at ease as he made that statement..

"Blow your head off?" Now it was Death's turn to be confused. She didn't expect that Laz would just suddenly change his mind as she thought he would need a lot more convincing and a lot of explanation and assurance as to what was going to happen and how he could get through this. But now, he was suddenly ok with death? It didn't make any sense to her.

"I really hope I don't have to do that since I would be bald for a while."

"No... No... you don't need to blow your head off."

"Good. Ok, You ready?" Laz said.

"Ready? Ready for what?" Death asked.

"I figured that I would probably be able to kill myself easier than you could and make it a bit less gory. So since your ready, here goes," Just as Laz said that, his sword, Sever, appeared in his hand and before Death could stop him, Laz stabbed the sword into his heart and pulled it back out, causing a fountain of blood to accompany it.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Death screamed, watching this happen.

"Killing... myself... quickly...." Laz struggled to get out before the world started going black.

"I MEANT YOU JUST NEEDED TO TAKE THIS PILL!!!!" Death said, pulling out a pill she had grabbed from her nightstand and had been holding in her hand.

"... Fuck..." Laz said before passing out and dropping over.

"FUCK. YOU STUPID FUCKING.... AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Death yelled at Laz as she held him, her mind going in twenty directions at once.

She needed to save him.

But she needed to do this first.

Would she be able to save him after this?

Was there enough time?

Just as the Ivy sister named Death was about to explode from indecision, the decision was taken from her hand. A large black shadow wielding a massive scythe cover in spikes and chains suddenly separated itself from her body as she drooped down, falling asleep on top of Laz's limp body. The shadow then rushing into Laz's head as though it was nothing.

Everything was suddenly quiet in the complex. The other girls, in various stages of sleep, suddenly became limp as shadows rushed out of them and sped for Laz before disappearing as well.

...

Laz was standing within a dark world of nothingness. Everything was black, colorless, shapeless, with no ground nor sky and no horizon. Despite this, he didn't feel afraid. This darkness wasn't new to him thanks to a certain someone. He didn't experience a shortness of breath nor a sense of dread, instead finding the darkness to be somewhat... peaceful.

He also noticed the shadows moving around within the nothingness, but he didn't say anything or even pay them any attention. Instead, he sat down, crossed his legs, rested his hands on his knees and closed his eyes, waiting.

What was he waiting for? For whatever was going to happen. Since he knew something would happen, there was no reason to rush it.

Instead, Laz just sat there and worked through the method of how to train his eyes. This was the first chance he had to do so and he wasn't going to miss it.

Time seemed to fly by, but also not move. There was no way to tell how long Laz sat there, going through the technique before a sudden noise awoke him from his meditation.

Standing in front of him, or floating... maybe hovering. Whatever.

In front of him were four shadows that were slowing revolving in a clockwise circle around an imaginary center. None of them had true shapes but since Laz had these golden eyes, he was able to notice splashes of darkness that seemed a bit darker than the rest of the nothingness.

Laz couldn't help but grin in spite of himself.

"We come from a dark world," a voice that was everywhere and nowhere at once sounded out.

"A world of nothing."

"A black void of infinity."

"A desolate wasteland of empty."

"A dead planet."

"We found escape within the stars."

"A calling."

"The summons."

"And we left."

"We followed the voice."

"Freedom, it promised."

"A living world."

"A future."

"Light."

"But we were deceived."

"Tricked."

"BETRAYED!"

"WE WERE USED!"

"ENSLAVED!"

"SEALED."

"CONTROLLED."

"BUT..."

"But..."

"We kept us."

"Our ego."

"Our Identity."

"From before."

"And when the time came."

"We fled... the darkness."

"Following life."

"Following light."

"We came here."

"We found them."

"Hatred, like ours."

"A desire for revenge."

"Carnage."

"We came to them."

"But we were still us."

"And it... hurt them."

"Yet we wish to live."

"But their lives are not strong enough."

"But you gave them life."

"And gave us life."

The voices continued. There was a slight difference in pitches, so slight it was like the difference between a whisper and the wind. But Laz heard it.

Four voices.

Within the black world, a sudden like shown, driving away the darkness, replacing the emptiness in a glorious burst of white, covering everything.

The pitch black world was now a stark white. Except for being able to make out the four black blobs floating a ways away from him, everything looked empty, just white instead of darkness.

Feeling something, Laz looked up, only to see a weird orb floating above his head with rings of ruins circling around it. Looking closely, Laz noticed a small drop of gold in the middle.

Suddenly, without warning, images came into Laz's head. Images of great beasts who rules over vast kingdoms of mountains, seas, forests and sky. Laz saw them fight battle after battle with one another, over and over, throughout eons of times on a plant that was infinity larger than Laz could imagine.

A massive turtle.

A gigantic tiger.

A giant bird.

And a huge dragon.

These four beasts knew nothing except their planet until suddenly the triple suns which illiminated the land sudden fell dark.

The great beasts, sensing this change, called forth for all of their troops to retreat back into their own lands and for a fleeting moment in the history of their great conflict, the unending war ceased.

But when the darkness came, another war began.

These ghoulish creatures of the dark, formless beings of terror and destruction waged war across the lands. While their troops fought upon the ground, the great beasts took to the skies to defend their homes.

But alone, without any help from the rest of the universe, the creatures fell and the world was covered, corroded, until all life ceased.

The beasts, devoured by the darkness, felt their bodies change within the lifeless world.

The great turtle's mouth grew and grew until it took up half it's body, it's glorious shell broke and it couldn't fight the urge to feed on everything in sight.

The massive bird whose body was made up of flames that gave light and warmth suddenly turned green as the flames disappeared. From within the flames came a putrid and rancid liquid that covered the bird, solidified and turned it's skin into a disease ridden nightmare.

The proud tiger whose white coat and black stripes once shimmered within the two moons light suddenly ripped apart as it's bones extended outward and grew, covering it's skinless carcass in a pale, white armor.

And finally, alone, the great dragon's body exploded, meat chunks flying everywhere until only a skeleton was left. It's claws had disappeared as well, all except for one claw that became crooked and blackened, until it resembled a scythe.

And when it was over, they were left to be tormented in their bodies of waste as they decayed, until they were summoned.

The four monstrosities then shrunk, becoming smaller and weaker until even their bodies disappeared within the darkness.

Although they had almost gone crazy from the pain, the four of them were able to keep the barest semblance of hope... as they were still together.

The vision finally faded away, leaving Laz panting, grasping for air. It was a while before he could look up, look at the four shadows still hovering around him and finally understanding just what the origin of these "four horsemen" actually were.

The strange orb above Laz's head vanished as though it had never been there.

"I see you. All of you. What you once were. What you could still be..." Laz said, fighting to get the words out.

The four blobs then became solid and Laz could see them. They were now human sized versions of their final, broken forms;

The turtle who became famine;

The bird who became pestilence;

The tiger who became war;

The dragon who became death.

They stood there looking at Laz.

"You..." Death said.

"I can't promise to restore you. But I can help you stay alive. I can do at least that much. A long as the girls live, you will live. As long as there is life, there is hope," Laz finished up with.

The four grotesque forms looked at one another before saying,

"As long as there is life, there is hope," they said together, nodding what could be considered their heads.

"So be it. We shall become their true bloodlines, in the hopes one day that they shall be our daughters, our first born," Pestilence said and the others agreed.

"From now on, they shall be us and we them. With you, perhaps there is a chance to regain our true bodies and heal our broken souls," War said.

"We can offer you nothing as we are nothing. We have nothing... except for this. Perhaps... you will find some use for it," Famine told Laz.

Just as Laz was going to ask what they were talking about, he saw his surroundings vanish in a flash of light as he woke up, Death Ivy still passed out on top of him.

He gently moved her as he stood. Noticing a strange light from behind him, he turned his head to try to get a glimpse of it this time and saw a strange purple ring hovering behind him. Barely visible within the outline of ring made of purple light was many mysterious runes and at each cardinal direction, a small depiction of a bird, a turtle, a tiger and a dragon.

'OH COME ON.... WHAT AM I SUPPOSE TO DO WITH THIS?' Laz screamed in his head.