For years, the word Death had struck fear into people's minds—not just people, but beasts and gods alike. But there was only one person—one person that Death could not read. He looked over and over, but he could not find anything. Despite his attempts at tampering with everything, he was never able to kill that person. Despite going back in time, despite facing Life herself, he couldn't kill that one person. Rage consumed him. If he couldn't kill them, he would at least make them acknowledge that he was Death.
He began his journey of conquest to make others acknowledge that he himself was Death. He entered the human world like a human—his body no less than what a human's body would look like. He was athletic, built; his skin tone, even his eyes, matched the persona he was trying to create. To get close to her, he would have to disguise himself as someone she knew.
But despite every time he tried—even with him disguising himself—his plan never worked. It always failed. What was he doing wrong? What could he have been doing wrong? He had manipulated souls for so long; why couldn't he even manipulate hers?
One day, he decided to try an experiment. He created another universe—one where she would acknowledge him. He played through the scenario, and in that universe, everything came into text, written in Scripture. In his hand, he held a future tome. The only catch was that using it would manipulate how things changed in the original universe. For what it was worth, if she acknowledged him, he would be able to take her life. Not only that—he would be able to create a new solar system and overwrite that solar system. He didn't like what had been put on that Earth, so he wanted to change it.
He watched every day, every night, as events unfolded. As he pulled the strings, he watched the event play out. Here and then, his past would flash before him—where Death no longer struck fear, where the world did not know Death, where the plague existed, and life went on forever. He would not return. He would not let that cycle happen again. He had to kill Leah. He had to fix the solar system. He had to do everything he could—or else he would be the one on the receiving end. A grin spread across his face as he began to imagine how the new solar system would look. His eyes widened—blood everywhere, corpses strewn across the land, bodies disintegrated. Everything he wanted, everything he longed to see, was all in his hands. All he had to do was manipulate it. All he had to do was break the cycle. The only problem was that, being the bearer of Life herself, he was not physically able to kill her. He had seen the god factor within her; therefore, if he attempted to go all out, it would be a battle that could last for ages. So, if he ever fought her, he would go at half strength to tire her out. The ways he was not able to intimidate her frustrated him, but eventually, he worked around it. In one timeline, he broke the cycle—but as the cycle repeated, did it really break for long?
She was dead for merely two seconds before she revived. He glimpsed an image of her lying on her deathbed and tried to repeat the steps it outlined—step after step, again and again—only to fail. Never once did he give up. He felt tired. He felt like throwing in the towel, but he didn't. His dream was just in his vision; all he had to do was make it reality. All he had to do was break the cycle completely. All he had to do was kill her completely.
He entered the human world again, this time as an older man who worked for a guild.
"Hey, old geezer, what are you up to today?"
He surveyed the room. There were three people around him. He replied, "Nothing much, just doing my job."
The man cackled like it was the funniest joke he had ever heard. Death turned his head—what made him laugh so hard at something so stupid? He couldn't understand, but seconds passed, and alarms began to raise. The village was under attack. His armor wasn't strong enough to withstand the attacks of a beast.
"Seriously, of all times, they choose to come now!" Frustrated, he picked up his sword, knowing the outcome already. He wouldn't die, but his powers would most likely be exposed. He didn't care at this point as long as he got the outcome he wanted that's all that mattered.
As he galloped on the horse, his vision began to haze, and his bodily functions felt off. This was no regular beast.
"Where did this come from!" he screamed, anxious. For once, something he had never recorded was right there in front of him—a beast he had never known.
The others had followed behind. Not turning to glance at them, he surveyed the beast. It was tall, standing on four legs, covered head to toe in hair. Its eyes were black, and sharp protrusions jutted from the bottom of its mouth. When it stood on two legs, you could see that its stomach had a mouth—a mouth with thousands of teeth. He didn't like where this was going.
He would most likely have to overwrite the world, but for now, he would act as if he could face it. He got his sword into a fighting position and infused his magical essence into it, tempering the sword's already formidable power. He grinned.
"Do you really want to face me?" he said, his eyes glowing dark red.
The beast turned its head, almost as if his gaze had pierced it.
"What… you do? A beast like that has never turned its head—why is it turning its head now?" a man asked from behind.
He did not respond, but seconds later, another beast appeared. Its eyes were golden. Death recognized the patterns—this was not just any beast. This beast was known as Eternal.
He sighed. "What a shitty way to bring this up. It looks like we're facing an Eternal, but it looks like a turtle. Seriously, why so much on the turtle look?" He began to smile as he constantly made fun of how the beast resembled a turtle.
The next moment, he was swept off his feet. To be somewhat of a god and to be humbled in such a way—he would not take that. He would not accept a failure so great that it cost him his pride. He struck Eternal with his god-like powers and sent it to a different dimension.
The other beast looked around, confused at what had just happened. Death smiled at it.
"Do you want to dance with me?" he asked.
The world shifted instantly as a tome was resighted. The logic of physics no longer obeyed him. His side, just for a second, felt physical pain. He was no longer in the physical realm—much like the spiritual realm.
He had now discovered that the beast he was facing was a Keeper—a Keeper of Reality—something he couldn't face at half strength. He began to enforce all of his power on this beast, forcing the beast to use the tome once more to limit his strength.
The fight had gone on for days, constantly back and forth. The beast continued to use the tome. But eventually, Death broke free. His eyes glowed blue, and he struck the beast down at once.
Time fast-forwarded. He was now in a forest, and Leah was in sight of him. He approached from behind, like before—he had conquered her dreams. He began to make his way down the path, following her every move, until he came up behind her and tackled her to the ground.
She insisted that he play her game, which he had no time for, but just for the fun of it, he worked on her conditions. He helped her; however, she didn't return the favor. After that, he attempted to fight her—only to be thrown back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. But that was only because he was using the least half of his powers on her. Life would have tried to take Death's power if he had invoked his full strength on her.
Eventually, he called it a day. He would come back stronger. Even though he knew he couldn't fully use his powers on her, he would still best her with what he had. His final words were: "Let my mistakes be cherished and known worldwide—how far I've come, and how far I will go to take out the crisis that plagues our world." His eyes grew hazel as he disappeared into the void—to train, to get stronger, to not depend on just his power alone. Thereafter, the journey began again.