For this chapter: Purity Ring – Asido
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Chapter 6: Joy (Attacking)
The First Line of Sanzu is connected and Death doesn't know how to react.
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"Lord Death!" came Deathscythe's worried voice as Death felt a pair of hands as the only thing that prevented them from hitting the ground. "What happened?! Are you feeling alright?!"
Alright? No Death wouldn't describe right now as anything close to 'alright'. One moment they were reading updates on the raid of Arachne's lair, the other moment they had lost their balance, a numbness overtaking them and -were those fragments broken pieces of their mask?!
How did Death feel? They had never experienced anything like this. Even after giving birth to Kid, their soul raw from the removal, they had simply felt that their powers had been partially inaccessible. This however…
Death felt drained. Exhaustion would probably be how someone like Spirit might describe it -though they weren't sure what actual exhaustion felt like. But why? Was it a spell, like the one that had trapped them during Asura's revival?
Death's Wavelength pulsed as it travelled through their soul, scouring for any hint of magic, any type of energy that could act as an inhibitor.
It came up empty.
Meanwhile, Death's exhaustion hadn't abated one bit which set off all sorts of red flags. The longer it persisted the bigger Death's worry became, because the only thing that could cause such damage to a Grim Reaper's Wavelength was-
Oh.
Death hadn't even completed their line of thought when the answer became as clear to them as day. This 'exhaustion' wasn't a spell or anything so pedestrian, it couldn't be. In fact, when Death stopped looking for external factors and reached into their soul, into the lurking pool of their power…
The Lines.
Kid had connected one of his Lines of Sanzu. Judging from how much power Death could still muster, they estimated that only one Line had been completed thus far.
Yet… the Lines could be completed one after the other; there was no such thing as a waiting period. If Kid had already activated one of them, then at any other moment the other two could activate as well and Death would…
To be honest, they had expected a bit more fanfare. Raiding Baba Yaga was no small feat, but it felt odd that this would be the mission where Kid would ascend. Death would have guessed it would be a more major operation, such as invading the Witches' Realm, or, with recent developments, fighting Asura.
Oh well, it wasn't as if Death could do anything about it. Sure, they could put up some resistance to the Line's completion, and Kid, being unused to them, would probably not push it, but why would Death do that? Wasn't this why they had created Kid in the first place?
As sudden as it came, the connection broke and Death felt their own power return slowly, like filling a tub.
So it wouldn't be this time. Still, the fact that Kid had connected his Lines already… Death had expected the process to take a couple of more years. Then again, they had no idea how this Grim Reaper parenting thing was supposed to work simply because it wasn't a thing that usually happened.
Oh well.
"I'm just tired," Death nonchalantly said, bringing themselves upright and brushing imaginary dust off their cloak. "You know I like to keep long times, and these old bones aren't as spry as they used to be…"
Spirit's frown persisted, though the man said nothing. If he had any suspicions about the Lines of Sanzu, he didn't voice them.
All the better for Death; they hadn't told anyone about this and they doubted they ever would. Having it been known that Death was on borrowed time would not only make attacks on Death City more frequent, but would also paint a bigger target on Kid's back, with their son set to inherit all of Death's power.
Not to mention if Kid found out… Death had no doubt their son would eventually do what was needed, but they could only imagine the guilt.
No, it was better if Kid didn't know. Let Death take this secret to their grave, unlike all others pried away from them. This was their own burden to bear.
Death caught one of the falling fragments of heir mask. Part of it blended with the white of their blocky hands, while the rest faded into nothing. It wouldn't be long until the rest of them followed suit.
Perhaps Death should have felt some regret, some sort of existential horror, about all the things they had wanted to do but never managed to, or at all the things they had done wrong -and oh boy, that would be a long list. Perhaps they would have felt fear had they not ripped it all away eons ago.
Yet, despite all these considerations, Death couldn't help but feel joy. It had been a long time and these old bones needed to rest after all.
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