Chapter 36, Angel of Death
The night air was thin with a chill, and the wind picked up in mellow gusts, dancing about anything it could find. It was the kind of night where demons were said to roam the earth, and the gods gave you a warning to stay inside as the cold rolled in from atop the mountains. Gleaming green orbs looked down at the city of True Cross Town, lights flickering off in the distance. A white cape flapped lazily, wrapping around the man's legs before being sent off into the air once more. It was quiet as he waited, the night growing more vacant and uncaring with each passing minute.
Behind him, a dark, murky mass swirled into the air, popping and bubbling like disease as it stewed. It swelled like a boil into ring, its edges ripped and torn like a great wound in the world. Wails of demons and the dead made their way from the portal and into the empty night sky, becoming lost within the black.
The green eyes shifted gingerly to the portal, just as a shadow came to fruition. Coming through the portal, a thin leather boot, discolored and worn with time and wrapped tightly with a reedy rope, pushed through the fabric of a flowing black cloak as they stepped onto the Earth noiselessly, the soles folding around the rocks below with ease. The rest of the figure was swathed in long, draping fabric, concealing it from the world around it. As the apparition continued its way into Assiah, the tear in the universe shrinking with each step, the image of a long, curved blade made its way into the human world, a set of beads wrapped around the hilt where metal met wood as it rested against the sharp shoulders of the creature, offset by the weight of its own clawed hand.
A cloud of smoke, so ice cold that it could kill anything in its path, escaped from the void of black beneath the hood.
"Thanatos, my dear old friend," Mephisto spoke joyously. "To what do I owe this visit? It's been a very long time."
A cold, lifeless hand tore through the fabric of the cape and reached upwards, exposing slender arms heavily wrapped in decaying bandages; long fingers, ending in black nails, grabbed onto the edge of the hood and slowly peeled it back. The dim light of the night hesitantly shone upon the face which had been concealed for so long, landing on the appearance of something most curious. The hood fell down around pointed ears adorned with handcrafted jewelry, exposing the likeness of a young man with fine features; not the angular face of the demon king, but something remarkably soothing to behold. His brow was tranquil, without many the marks of age or stress. His nose was slightly elongated and thin, with a curve on the bridge, and ended in a slightly upward turning chute. His cheek bones, though prominent, were neither sharp nor angular, with the flesh of his face being full. His jaw was relaxed, and his chin rounded. His eyes, however, were deep and enchanting, drooping slightly with the weight with which he bore through the ages; a subtle, subdued sorrow that completed such a gentle look.
"Why must you insist on calling me by that name, your grace?"
Mephisto let out an arrogant laugh. "Isn't that about when you got that body of yours, though?" he asked, pointing out the boy's thick, black curls which framed his olive face accordingly. "That body is Thanatos," he jested, hinting back to the age the demon had roamed along the isles of the Mediterranean sea.
Thanatos sighed, setting the hilt of his bladed staff on to the ground. His attention was drawn to something squirming off to the side; an elongated object, swaddled in cloth, dark splotches spreading slowly.
Mephisto's eyes caught with the other demon's. "You asked to see me on such a perfect occasion; I'll need you to take that with you, I'm afraid I don't like to get my hands dirty." A calm, blank stare came from the young demon as if he hadn't heard nor seen anything new. "So, which name would you prefer I use for Death?" Mephisto then sneered, attempting to get a rise from the quiet boy while he stared him down. There was yet again no response, and his character grew graver by the second, anger rising in him like the moon tides. "Why are you here?"
"You know what I'm here for." His voice was soft and melodic.
"We had a deal," Mephisto snarled.
"She's living on borrowed time, my King. I can only do so much. You know just as well as I that I do not choose the life, I humbly bring it to Our King, Lord Satan."
"And how is it, being my father's slave, imp?" Mephisto badgered callously, glowering at the young demon.
Thanatos brushed his insults off, being used to such behavior whenever he made an appearance. "Sire, you may be of royal lineage, but you know I am hardly a mere underling." He wasn't expecting the King to use the proper honorifics granted to him by the courts of Gehenna, but he could at least sway from lumping him with the common riffraff. "I'm afraid her time is coming."
Mephisto looked back down upon the city he had spent so much time constructing over the many years he had lived in Assiah. When he spoke, he was quiet, almost submissive. "I'm doing what I can to keep her from harm."
"Which has kept me from coming earlier, Sire. But I'm afraid you know more than I do about what is to come, am I correct?" The boy paused, skimming over the still figure of his King. "The life I took in exchange only had so many years to offer."
In truth, Mephisto couldn't stomach to look into the girl's own future throughout the years, and with each one that had flown by, he knew it would be coming. But he couldn't muster the strength to see how it happened. When it would happen. Always the one to dismiss his own feelings with such insensitivity, he had casually chalked this random inability to not wishing to spoil the outcome of the game which was to commence. He was the King of Time and Space—he knew everything; everything that has been, everything that would be. But when it came to this girl, he found himself at an inexplicable loss, with each time he toyed with the idea of looking into her future, he found his body freezing. Rather than face his own reality of what was happening within him, he shrugged it off playfully, and waited eagerly for the games to begin.
And he was left without an idea how much time she had. It could have been next week. The next day. The next minute—he knew so much, yet he knew so little. Something in his center tightened at such a thought that sped through his mind. He wasn't ready to let her go.
It was an odd sensation to say the least, and his reasons for feeling such a way about a mere toy were beyond him. Instead of pondering on what was driving him, he carelessly passed the feeling off without a further thought; all he needed to know was he wasn't ready. And he always got what he wanted. "What can I do?" he asked plainly, breaking the silence as he turned to the cloaked figure. "Would you care to make another deal? A wager, perhaps-What?"
Thanatos was quiet as dark pupils moved across the King's face, recognizing something familiar in his plea. After much deliberation, his lips finally split. "Do you love her?"
The question cut through the still night air to the demon king as if he had slashed him with his scythe. Eyes wide, body ridged, he took a half step backwards to distance himself from the shock, completely taken off guard by the words that had escaped the boy's mouth.
Absolutely preposterous, Mephisto thought. Love was such a grossly human emotion; no demon in their right mind would willingly choose to open their hearts up in such a way. To be so vulnerable. They prided themselves on going against all that was human, especially emotions – love being at the top of that list. Was it even possible that the watered down things with which they did feel could grow strong enough to push aside their selfish desires? To put another being before themselves? Love. What sort of demon did he take him for?
Regaining composure, Mephisto cleared his throat. "What do you want from me?"
The boy cocked his head ever so slightly to the side, looking his King up and down with uninterested eyes. "How old is this body of yours?"
"Why are you asking such things?" he snapped, squinting an eye.
"I will allow you to exchange years off of this body, and call it even – for now."
Without giving it any thought, the Demon King slipped a glove from his hand and reached out into the hollow air between the two, where he paused, staring Death in the face. "Deal."
Thanatos tapped his nail on the handle of his bladed staff as he peered down at the bare hand before him, contemplating the deal he had set on the table. Slowly he brought out his own, but before the King could take his hand, he folded. "I must warn you, Sire: by doing this, your body will grow weaker at an increased rate the more you push it." Mephisto's face was stern and uncaring as his words passed through him. "This will not save her completely. The next time I'm ordered to bring her, I will," he warned.
Thinking it over swiftly, the King waited still, staring the compassion in the boy's eyes down with sweltering determination in his own. "Deal," he muttered.
Setting his hand back out, Thanatos allowed the King to take his to seal the deal, and as he did, the Angel of Death pricked the wrist in his grasp with a sharp nail, drawing thick blood, reaching the tendrils of his mind deep into the veins and up the Kings arm, where they began ripping at his core. Teeth clenched, Mephisto struggled to breathe, feeling weaker by the second as the transfer continued, sending his strength from his own vessel into the other. He felt his knees weaken, and although he tried to pull away, the fingers wrapped around him like vines growing over him, keeping him attached until it was done. Just as he started to buckle, the wisps receded, and Thanatos severed the contact. Heart pounding and out of breath, the demon king watched Death turn back to where he came, pulling his hood back over the tips of pointed ears sprouting from wavy black locks as he grabbed the bundle from the ground.
"Tell me, Death," Mephisto strained, an air of desolation surrounding him as he stood straight from where he was hunched over, a bloody hand print covering his knee. "How did it feel when my father took her from you?"
The sound of a dangling earring rang as his ear twitched, words sending the silenced demon into a deep remembrance. His mind rifled through the centuries, through all the faces he had heeded, the souls he had touched, until it found her face, buried in time; so benevolently beautiful. His mouth quickly became as dry as the wasteland that was his soul as he tried to speak. "It broke me," he whispered, the emotion heavy in his voice as he pulled the hood over his eyes, and continued through the gate to Gehenna.
(Author: Oh no, oh no! Whatever is going to come of this turn of events?! We'll find out soon enough...! I'd like to take the time to say: Thanatos is a version of the main character in a couple of my novels! Even though I had to change some things to fit in with the AnE universe, I gave you guys a bit of a teaser of my books, while showing that demons aren't exactly what they seem to be...Now if only Meph would stop denying himself...!)