Chapter 10

Bad arrived in the Shadow Realm.

The moment he appeared the council showed up and paid their respect. "Hail…"

"Skip it." He demanded. They were stunned silent as the council slowly rose to look him in the eyes. "I need answers."

"What can we help you with my King?" asked Bloodbore.

"I need to know, did the previous king have alliances and allegiances with other people? Who did he work with? Why did he cooperate… I need that information." Said Bad.

They nodded in agreement. "If the one I assume has confronted you, then I can explain." Bloodbore stated. "There was an old druid from thousands of years ago, who made an agreement with the Shadow King… well… he was one of the council men at the time. However this druid knew how to take out the previous king before last. In exchange, he would be taught how to extract souls to strength his own power. However, the Shadow King held back on much of the knowledge, the mortal is able to extract portions of souls but not the whole entity, after all, if he did, his power could rival that of the Shadow King."

Bad nodded as he felt sick with what was about to be said next. "Yeah, so…" he said with reluctance.

"Well, this druid has heard about the changing of the King. The power he had to take and use the shadows to his whim has diminished greatly for he was once bounded to the previous king. Since then, he has tried to summon you many times over, but it does not register. After all, you determine how you can be summoned. He then tried to summon a councilman, but once more since we are not the previous council it failed as well." Bloodbore explained. "He must have gone to the gift ceremony for Prince Botan for one of two things. To see the new Shadow King with his own eyes, and attempt to latch his power on to your son…"

"Wait what!" Bad demanded.

"The druid could have devised a way that he could attach himself to your son, taking his energy to sustain himself or even trying to extract his abilities to make his own… was he anywhere near Prince Botan when it happened?"

"He tried!" Bad said with a scoured look. "The shadows I had with me reacted before the asshole even made his way into the building. Garou was quick to grab Botan and keep him away from him. Death stepped in…"

"Death!?" the council demanded. "Death… Death came to you!?" asked Jima.

"Yeah… he introduced himself to me… I got to admit he is a rather friendly guy… but… he said things that are really making me think. I mean, he told me that the Shadow King is the side of him that is suppose to be a protector and bring justice… It's just… I never thought of the Shadow King being anything more than a hindrance or even bad guy to the world…"

Suddenly, all eyes turned to Bloodbore. He sighed aloud. "My King, you and I need to speak of this in private if you please."

He nodded in agreement. They returned to the mortal world. Bad's been taking a liking to moving about in the shadows, he can get to high places and be alone with his thoughts. Yet this time around, it would be the privacy he needs. Bloodbore turned to him and stated. "I have been in this legion since the King before last. Even that king is nothing compared to you, despite his wishes for an heir, he did nothing to serve the people of the living or dead. He was content to merely live in the shadow realm and do nothing but accept whatever is given to him. Granted, we were respected, however never listened to."

"Get to your point Bloodbore!" Bad demanded.

"My point is this. You cannot look at the actions of the past kings to determine your own path." He stated. "You are conflicted with what has been said to you, but in the end, you decide what you wish to do. I admit though, what Death has said is true. The Shadow King was suppose to be the one that keeps the peace for our kind, however now that humans are involved, the peace must be kept between both worlds. On the other side of this one as you are aware. People like myself dwell without concerns of human interference. However, if humans were to find that world, what do you think would happen?"

He thought about it, no doubt the people would be panicked, if worst comes to worst, the government involved would believe that the other side of the continent is where the monsters are coming from, and the Others are influencing the turn of humans on this side of the world. An all out war could break out. "It appears you are considering both side of this…"

"Shit man," Bad cursed. "I mean what the hell do I do now?! I can't do both. I'm Metal Bat, Class S Hero here! My job is to protect the people from monsters, that's all I wanted to do. I wanted… I wanted to be sure my sister is safe from such things. I didn't think… Shit!" he protested.

"You want to do both, I can understand how important your sister is to you Bad, and I assure you, and we will never let anything happen to her…"

"It's not that!" Bad protested.

Bloodbore was stunned to his outburst, Bad began pacing about, trying to gather his thoughts. "It's just that… I didn't ask for this!" he looked Bloodbore in the eyes and said. "I never wanted to be your king! I never wanted this power over death and shadows, I wanted NONE OF IT!" he felt himself getting worked up. "Shit man, what the hell was I suppose to do against the Shadow king huh? Was there any other way for me to have beaten him? Did I HAVE to take over his position after his defeat? Couldn't it have been someone else…"

He calmed down a little, but still, it wasn't right in his mind. Bad has this phenomenal power, and yet now he has to come to terms with what it means to be in possession of it. "In truth, if you had not been chosen, many of us would not be standing in your presence now. You are aware of the ritual that is done to cement one's power as the King?" Bad paused and nodded. "Jima, and all those who were trapped with you would be the first one devoured under the new King, sometimes, the King doesn't know when to stop feeding either, the one you took out, I saw many good warriors taken into him, he devoured nearly a thousand before he felt he had done enough to prove himself to be King. You stopped yourself, the control you possessed is nothing short of amazing to us."

"I don't like doing it!" Bad protested. "I ain't fussed on soul eating."

"Be that as it may, you have self control. When one comes into great power, they lose it rather quickly. They would consume until they felt it was enough, many times, it never was enough." Bloodbore stated. "It's like a vampire taking victim after victim of blood for the sake of it, never for the taste but for the power."

"Then what the hell do I do now?" Bad questioned. "What's the point of all this?"

Bloodbore smiled, he placed a hand gently onto Bad shoulders and said. "Be the King you wish to be. And we will follow you."

Bad merely nodded his head, when he suddenly felt something strange. His heart began to beat oddly, for a moment, he thought it was a heart attack of all things! Yet as quickly as it began, it stopped. He was sweating, gasping for air and didn't know why!

"My King!"

"I'm okay… what the hell was that? What did I just feel?" he demanded.

Bloodbore didn't know, for no king before him has ever done such a thing before…

#

"Thank you for the advice, I must admit, I am very pleased with this one!"

Death decided to pay a visit to Pig God, one of the few gods who insisted he go and see the new Shadow King with his own eyes. Pig God smiled and nodded. "I have known Bad for many years, despite his age and brash nature, his heart is pure. That will keep him in check as well as his younger sister. Garou on the other hand…"

Death smirked as he thought it over. "Ah yes, the curse of the Crimson Plague… I did all I could to help him, I swear by it, however it wasn't enough, and now that curse passed on to Garou himself… Be that as it may, he has done well considering his situation. I do understand the trouble he put you all in…"

"I am grateful Saitama took over that. The battle between the two was enough to burn the monster blood out of his system. Had he not done so, the changes would have been irreversible."

Death nodded as he reached for his cup of tea. "Indeed, I don't wish to see someone like him suffer, he has endured enough. Running his whole life from his mother who sought his power. Gods, if that ever happened, we would never hear the end of it from the higher ups!"

Yet as he laughed, Death paused as he felt a trickle down the corner of his cheek. His hand reached as he gently cleared away a tear, yet found it was blood. He froze as did Pig God.

"Death…"

The tears continued to flow. He couldn't stop them. "No… Oh gods… oh gods no!" he began trembling, shaking with grief. His teacup dropped from his hands and shattered upon the ground as Death became weak in the knees.

"Death!" Pig God called as he caught him before hitting the ground. "Speak to me, what is happening?!"

He shook, the bloody tears continued to cascade down his face as he shook his head to it all. "So many… so many are dying…" he whispered. "They are being massacred… Please… please someone stop them…"

"Who is doing this? Can you sense it? What city?"

Death shook his head. "No city… but the on the other side of the world… where the Others live… they are being killed by the hundreds…" He froze, a moment of anger and rage followed in the eyes of death. "Adus…."