This has happened and will happen. In time.

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Chapter 34: Irem

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Harvar was not a complicated person. At least he thought so. Irem was doing its best to counter that.

Irem was an oasis of red in the dark blue of the Unterzee. Petal-covered pillars rose and intertwined like vines, overlooking humble settlements of silk-covered and sleep-deprived inhabitants. The most notable feature of the island was a massive seven-headed serpent statue at its highest pillar, mouths open and fangs extended. It only stood present at this point in time though. At others...

Harvar rubbed the bridge of his nose. This place was confusing, Linear time seemed like a luxury here. His thoughts travelled backwards and sideways, in all ways but the usual, rational, linear way he was used to, and would do -oh no, it was happening again.

Harvar leaned against a pillar and closed his eyes. He tried to empty his mind to catch a moment of reprise, a moment where he could gather his thoughts and not have them jump all over the place.

When Harvar opened his eyes, he wasn't in Irem anymore. Or at least, he wasn't in a place he recognised.

Damn this island.

Taking a deep breath, Harvar looked around. He couldn't see a floor or ceiling. His surroundings were dotted with balls of light of varying size and intensity. It was like the sky back home-

Harvar squinted his eyes.

The lights bubbled and flickered, they grew and shrunk, they extended tendrils of burning light and retracted them, as if they were living organisms. They were constantly mobile, and the air hummed with barely-perceptible muttering that hurt Harvar's eardrums.

Harvar flinched and covered his eyes. So, these things were definitely not the stars that existed back home.

Something hissed. Harvar whipped his head at the origin of the sound but found nothing.

'Not a native,' the hissing continued.

Harvar frowned. So, whatever was making the sounds could talk.

"Where am I?" Harvar asked the void. Above and below him, the stars continued to move incessantly, oblivious to his presence. Their light must have been dimmed, otherwise Harvar would have gone blind long ago.

'This is only an image. An image of reality, but an image.'

"An image of what?"

The hissing circled around him, and Harvar's shoulders tensed. Though he didn't have his Meister, he could still summon lightning in his Weapon form. Perhaps if he tried it...

'No point. These laws are not obeyed here.'

"What laws?" Harvar asked. Laws of life? Physics? Civic laws? He had no idea what was going on, and it was maddening.

'Yet you a non-native still obey laws.'

"We all do," Harvar replied, though he was doubtful his words were of any use. "You must do so to some extent."

It might have been Harvar's imagination, but the ensuing hissing sounded an awful lot like a chuckle.

'Whose?' the hissing challenged.

Harvar frowned. Truth be told, he was becoming increasingly convinced that trying to apply the laws of physics or biology in this place was a vain affair. Civic laws were even laughable to bring up. But... there was one thing that had always been a constant in living beings -and in more abstract terms, non-living constructs as well.

"Death."

The hissing quieted down to a hum. The stars still shone.

'Why?'

Harvar's frown deepened. Why did Death apply to everyone?

'Why do you obey?'

Well, Harvar did not have many options. To rephrase that, Harvar did have a choice per se of rebelling, but doing so would be idiotic and counterproductive to what he stood for, more or less.

It was like what he had said before to people; Blind obedience would not do good and Death's judgments were not infallible, but their decisions were the laws of an absolute being. The cycle of life and death ruled all beings, that was just how the system worked.

That did not mean they had to resign to their fate, but it also did not mean they had to follow the path of Witches like Medusa, which advocated for a dubious notion of pure freedom. An approach based on equal parts trust and critical thought was, in Harvar's opinion, the optimal way to work with the Grim Reaper.

Still, not everyone understood that. Some people familiar with the DWMA and Death's presence but unfamiliar with how the Academy worked, made wild claims about the aim of the organization, or how it worked. One of the most outrageous rumours was that the Academy was a straight-up death cult -and there were times where Harvar had to politely explain to people that no, the DWMA was a secular organisation and there was no mandatory death worshipping in class. The tamer and more believable rumors were that the Academy was somehow pro-death, which also wasn't true and could be debunked by the mere fact that the Academy had a hospital wing. He had spoken little with Death or their son, but as far as Harvar knew, they had little issue with people prolonging their lives and generally doing their best to live as long as possible -in fact, with the way Harvar had seen Kid interact with his Weapons, it was quite the opposite; he was the one pushing them to make healthier choices, ironically enough.

In general, Harvar had no issue with how the Academy was run, or with the laws. There were hiccups occasionally, but they were not made of malice, just misunderstandings and unclear communication.

...Harvar was starting to doubt his words.

The fight with Asura was the source of all of it. Or perhaps a culmination of his doubts. When it came to the actual fight on the moon, information was sparse. In fact, among those that did take part, very few had been there till the end, and among those who did, they all remained tight-lipped. Even Black Star, who Harvar had thought would boast his accomplishments and give extensive -if not accurate- retellings of his achievement of beating a god was vague enough that his words could be applied to any fight in general. Harvar had also heard that Crona had been involved somehow, but that was all that had escaped anyone's lips.

The official statement was even vaguer, it being that Asura had been sealed and that Medusa's child had been one of the casualties.

There were so many more things that went unexplained as well. Lord Death's shocking demise. Kid becoming a mature Grim Reaper. Why the Kishin had only been sealed away.

… Speaking of which, why had the late Lord Death not been to kill the Kishin in the first place? Why had they only sealed Asura away? Why had Death's son followed the same course? Was Asura unkillable? That wouldn't be possible. That shouldn't be possible.

The worst thing was that all this vagueness made people's minds wander. Even Harvar, who could justify some of the vagueness as potentially dangerous information, couldn't help but form his own theories and suspicions.

Frustratingly enough, Harvar did not know if he wanted his suspicions to be true. If they weren't, then Harvar was simply misguided or had used faulty logic on one point. It sounded harmless but… Harvar did not want to end up like Justin Law. And if his suspicions were true… well. That was a bridge he hoped he didn't have to cross.

While Harvar was absorbed in his thoughts, he paid little attention to something climbing up his leg and wrapping itself around his torso, eventually reaching his hand. This changed when the coiling thing bit his palm.

Harvar hissed and retracted his arm, flailing to get whatever bit him off him. A few drops of blood fell from the small but open wound.

"If you want to fight-!"

'No fight. Only recall. Memories hidden. Long forgotten.'

Harvar looked around. The scenery flickered and changed, and in between the changes, Harvar's eyes caught a gleam of a fetid landscape, of red light and of endless coiling snakes at his feet.

The new scenery still had stars. They were rearranged, but they still had that unnatural quality of life and motion. Any blood that had fallen off his palm was long gone.

He wanted to get out of this place.

'Similar?' The hissing was barely audible and as surprised as any sound of its kind could be.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Electricity crackled at his hand and Harvar was tempted to unleash an attack, just so he could see what would happen. "Let me out of here."

'Patience. Your story. Long ago.'

With a grunt of annoyance, Harvar folded his hands impatiently.

'Remember. There are no lies here. Only memories. Only dreams.'

The hissing faded away, and he was alone, standing on nothing and with the vastness of the milky way above and below him.

Just when Harvar was starting to get bored, a small anomaly caught his attention.

A darkness. At first, Harvar thought it was nothing but the empty space between the light of the stars. Upon closer inspection however, it appeared to have a mind of its own, carefully navigating the edges of the stars and the empty space between their incessant movements.

Then it expanded. One of the stars was engulfed. More followed. The suns blared, they expanded their light filling the scenery and being so bright Harvar had to shield his eyes. When he opened them, he was greeted with a familiar sight.

The sky. The one back home, not the false-sky of the Neath, or the living stars he had seen before. Just a normal night sky, with distant suns, their only movement being their endless spiral against the centre of the milky way.

Yet stll in the corner of his vision, the engulfing darkness from before coalesced-

"Harvar?"

It was years of training and meditation that stopped Harvar from jumping on the spot and accidentally punching someone.

He was in back in Irem -or had he never left?- leaning against the same pillar as before. The place was just as he had remembered it, as if no time had passed at all. And, standing before him...

"Lord Death," Harvar greeted. He had to stifle a bow, since this meeting was not formal in nature. "Apologies, I was distracted."

The Grim Reaper's expression changed from one of brief concern to relief. "It's alright. Ox is looking for you. We're also about to board the ship."

Harvar nodded at the information. "Did we find anything useful?"

The Grim Reaper's face fell. "Well..." He gestured towards the dock, where Black Star and Soul were having a rather loud conversation.

"Dude, you still didn't have to punch him!" Soul said.

"But he was being annoying!" Black Star protested. "I just wanted to know where I can get something to eat and he said things like 'what is the nature of food' or 'why do we hunger' and nonsense like that! What was I supposed to do?!"

"Not punch him for starters-"

To his credit, Harvar kept his face neutral. "Ah. So this is Wither all over again."

Later on, when everyone was boarded and ready to go, Maka announced that their plan was to go East. Why exactly she decided that, or what she was hoping to accomplish, Harvar was not sure. But...

Maka knew what she was doing, the same way the Grim Reaper knew what he was doing. They must. Harvar had to have faith. A very irrational thing to do so, but he wasn't doing it blindly. He followed his judgement.

The true question was how much he trusted the latter.

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