Arata was at a loss for words, all of this seemed like a bad dream to the deceased boy. He could believe that his life had come to an end; but receiving a curse? No, that didn't sound right or realistically in the slightest.

Magic and afterlife? Those were myths made from the ancient people to explain phenomenons that they didn't have enough knowledge about. They were all fake, empty words.

Then why? Why was Arata in this void between 'Life and Death'; why did he kept his consciousness after his death? It made no sense for him, he couldn't explain how this complicated stuff worked and because of that, like any normal human, he was afraid of the things that he got to witness.

"W-what do you mean by a curse?" Arata asked. His voice was trembling with fear, but he didn't try to hide it; after all the last time he tried to act as a hero it got him killed.

The man didn't answer Arata's question and instead smiled in amusement as he stepped away from the boy and sat down on his own throne. He was a God tasked to take care of the death and to help lost spirits to find their way to the afterlife; therefor, he rarely had the chance to do anything interesting or amusing.

He was isolated in darkness for so long that even the mortals that once prayed to him forgot who he was, what his name was and even that a God of Death existed. Truly, it was a horrible way to spent one's eternal life.

"Answer me!" Arata yelled, which brought the man back to reality. "What the fuck is happening? I don't get any of this! What the hell is a 'curse of the Grim Reaper'? And why me? Hundreds of people far worse than me die every day, so why don't you place that curse on one of them?!"

"Why not, huh? Well, my story is a long one and in order for it to make sense I will have to first tell you about that friend you had out there. What was her name again? Eve?"

"Eve? What does she have to do with any of this?!"

"Everything my boy. She is in the center of this whole mess, she is the Guardian of Light!"

"I have absolutely no idea what this means!" Arata yelled back. "Guardians and such, I have never heard about any of this! All I want to know is why you choose me!"

"Because of that girl!" the man yelled back. After a moment he sighed and looked away. "Just hear the story. But before that let me start by introducing myself; my name is Zóvux, but that name means nothing now, so feel free to call me however you want. I once used to be the God of Death to which people would pray for their deceased loved ones to find peace and happiness in the afterlife, but that was long time ago. It was during times when spirits, mystical beasts and even magic existed in the mortal world."

The man paused for a moment before he continued with the story.

"Back then, there was of the large amount of rampaging spirits wandered around the world and caused havoc. It was a horrible time for mortals and immortals alike. Because of all the death and misery the humans stopped trusting in us and since Gods need you - the mortals - to believe in us in order to sustain our powers, we became weaker and were eventually outnumbered by the raising threat."

"In a last desperate try to protect ourselves and your world from the evil spirits we, the gods, send a part of our powers to a small group of believers. We gave them the ability to connect with the spiritual world and tame the spirits. It was the perfect solution as unlike us, you mortals don't need a source to sustain your strength. Eventually those 'gifted' people were able to seal away the evil and became known among the rest of the humanity as the Eight Guardians."

"So that's what Eve is? A human who wields the power of Gods?" Arata stuttered, stunned by the strange story this man was telling him. "But didn't that happen a long time ago? How does those people still exist? And why isn't that mentioned anywhere in history?"

"Because we covered it up. After sealing the evil spirits away we lead the Guardians along with their families to a place far away from the rest of humanity to avoid them getting corrupted by the rest of your kind. But of course, we all knew that one day a new evil would raise so in order to be able to repel it they created eight powerful artifacts, eight crystals that held the powers of the Guardians within them. I'm not going to get into details about what happened afterward, since you already know it."

"The marks were passed through the generations." Arata replied in amazement. If that story is true then those artifacts should be at least seven thousand years old and they still exist…

A frown appeared on the man's face and he glanced toward Arata. "Unfortunately, not all Gods got the luck of having prayers like those. The people that believed in me were filled with greed so strong that they eventually tried to achieve immortality by creating artifacts that would let their owner come back from the death and you probably figured out where this is going by now."

"You didn't accept this, did you?" Arata asked, certain that the God of Death wouldn't be very happy if his cult turned against what he was representing.

"Ohm you have absolutely no idea. They, the people who prayed for me to forgive them and save their souls in the afterlife, suddenly thought that this isn't enough and tried to cheat me! So, I gave the artifacts the power those fools wanted them to have, but with the added twist that the reanimated person would become my agent. Because of that my creations quickly turned into items of vengeance and justice. They have the souls of the murdered, tortured, abused a chance to put the wrong things right."

Arata realized what those words meant. The curse that the man was talking about wasn't an actual curse. Depending from the point of view that was actually a blessing; a chance for those who had lost so much to get justice and rest in peace. Just like how the Grim Reaper takes the soul of everyone without matter about social status or past, the ones this man revived would bring the wrongdoers what they deserve without picking.

"It's a curse for the criminals…" Arata mumbled.

"That's right! Those artifacts allowed humans to cheat the laws of life and death. What would have happened if they fell in the hands of, let's say, a murder or someone like that? I wanted to avoid such scenario and so the artifacts had the power to only revive people who I have approved, only people that truly deserve that second chance."

"You should know it by now boy. Your world is a cruel place as it is, humans had always tried to become something equal to a God before and they still try it nowday. There are just seven persons gifted with divine powers from among the seven billion that live in this world. Somebody has to find them, help them discover their purpose and protect them from the dangers of your world. Eve is a very important person, a true angel that watches over others, but her wings won't protect her from the evil in people's hearts. This will be your second chance boy. A chance to protect something worth it."

"So you are giving me a life just to protect Eve? I can understand that. But that isn't the reason to call your own gift a curse, right?" Arata asked suspiciously. There was more to the curse and Zóvux didn't seem to want to talk about it.

"That's not important right now." Yep, like Arata expected the 'God of Death' wanted to dodge the question. "What I'm getting to is that you got one of those artifacts! And that's the pendant around your neck; the Viternam!"

The God's words took Arata aback and he glanced down at the item in question. The golden pendant he was always carrying with himself had the power fix the damage! He remembered how his father gave it to him when he was just four years old. The story of the pendant had haunted him until this last day; a horrible reminder about a person he would never get to know.

"Are you mocking me?" a weak whispered echoed through the void. Zóvux had guessed that this is how the boy would react when he hear about this.

Arata had grabbed the chains tied around his wrists. Stinging tears brimmed up in his eyes, running down his cheeks. His head faced downward as he let out a painful cry.

"Are you mocking me?!"

His pendant had the power to fix the damage, to erase all painful memories. It was going to bring Arata back to his father, his aunt and Eve. Zóvux said that it gave a second chance to people who deserved it, but then why didn't it revive that person? For the boy, to hear that his own life was worth more that his precious person, made his heart to arch in desperation and self-loathing. If this damn pendant had worked sixteen years ago he could had had a happy childhood, but now it felt like a waste of power.

"You could… You could have used this to save someone worth it!" Arata yelled. "Someone that deseres it more than me!"

Zóvux rolled his eyes to the side, he knew where this conversation would go if he let it continue so he snapped his fingers; the chains and the thrones all disappeared from existence. Arata fell on the ground, landing on his hands and knees. The crying boy looked up toward the God who stood in front of him with an uninterested look on his face.

Why did he save him instead of that person?

Arata wanted to shout, to yell, to curse, but for some reason he couldn't muster the strength to do so and instead just glared at the man.

"I…killed…" Arata hissed, but the person in front of him paid no attention to the confession.

Instead, he raised his right hand over Arata's head and his eyes changed their color to completely black once again. A dark mist formed into a circle around the boy and slowly started to advance toward him. Arata looked toward all sides as the black substance reached him and started to move up his body. He tried to shake it off, to remove it, but the mist planted itself on his body and continued to advance.

Arata turned his head toward Zóvux who was looking at the boy in amusement. Why? What kind of twisted joy could a God get from watching a boy's suffering? Arata had no idea, but it made him angry and deep inside it also scared him.

"'Curse of the Grim Reaper' is what the mortals called my blessing."

Arata's limbs were completely absorbed by the shadows. He couldn't move anymore…

"The reason is because once revived, you will no longer be able to live as a human. You will be nothing more but a pawn that exists to follow my orders!"

Arata's whole boy was no absorbed in the shadows. The black mist was traveling up his neck along with a burning sensation that made it hard for him to breath.

"Your soul shall return to where it belongs until your job in the living world is done. You won't become an immortal and if you are to die in that body again, then this time your soul is going to die as well."

Arata's vision started to become darker. His was body had already disappeared into the black mist.

"So make it count, boy!" The man said with a sense of superiority. "Protect the Guardians! Even if the cost is your own existence!"

Arata was barely able to hear those words before his consciousness finally snapped.

"Hyyyyaaaaaaa!" Arata cried out as he sat up with sweat rolling down his face. Pain instantly flowed in and forced him to stop moving. "Damn it!" Arata shouted and clutched his pendant. The item had never done anything good for him, it had brought him only suffering and bad memories.

Arata closed his eyes, he could remember clearly everything that happened before and after his death. The arching wounds reminded him of the blades that were once inside of his flesh; it made his stomach to twitch and an acidic taste raised in his mouth, but he covered it with a palm before anything could come out. The mere thought of the way he died made him sick to the bone.

After he calmed down, Arata removed the hand and looked around his surroundings. He was in a room, probably his own, but it was too dark to make out anything that would support this theory. He felt cold for some reason and initially thought that it was because he just came back to live, but soon realized that there was a completely different reason for his discomfort. He was sitting on his bed, on top of the covers, covered in sweat and had no shirt or anything else on to cover his top.

Arata looked down at his own body, but it was dark so he couldn't see much. He ran a hand through his chest and felt the bandages that covered his chest and back. After that he moved his hand to touch his right cheek which along with his eyes were covered in the same white material as the rest of his wounded body. Pain flowed in whenever he moved causing him to sweat heavily.

"Don't push yourself." A voice came from somewhere within the room.

After a moment the lights in the room turned on Eve stood next to the light switch, wearing a white t-shirt one size too big for here, which right now was a good thing since it didn't seem like she wore anything underneath it. Arata responded to Eve's voice by only moving his eyes to look towards her direction, not even surprised of her improper clothing.

"I knew that you would come back." Eve said with what she must have thought to be a sweat and carrying voice.

Arata simply rolled his eyes at the girl's attempt to act kindly toward him. She was there watching as he got murdered and didn't try to do anything to save him. She gave up on him to safe her own life and even though he could understand her reason to do so, that didn't make the thought any less painful. She was the only true friend he had, but she betrayed their friendship; he couldn't even bear to look her into the eyes any more.

"How long have I been out?" Arata asked and ran a hand through his pendant; the purple crystal had turned even darker, almost black in color.

"Two days." Eve answered, with her signature monotone voice.

"Did you know that my pendant was cursed?"

"Not at first." Eve said, "I figured that out after Saivar flee and the pendant started to glow. I carried you to the house and treated your injuries."

"So, you scarified my life without knowing if I'm going to revive or not!" Arata finally snapped and glared at the girl.

Eve lowered her head regretfully. She knew that what she did was a mistake. She had been preparing herself mentally about the moment when Arata would open his eyes again. But no matter how many times she had played this scene in her head it wasn't enough to make his words sound any less obnoxious. Eve was so ashamed of her actions that she would have run away after she had treated Arata's wounds, to not anger him with her presence, but she couldn't, because she had nowhere else to go and the Order could find her no matter where she tried to hide.

So the opinion was either to stay with Arata and endanger his life only, or to run away and get more people hurt because of that.

"I'm sorry." Eve bowed her head. "I know that this isn't going to make you any better and a single 'I'm sorry' or 'Thank you' isn't anywhere enough to repay you for what you did. If it would calm you down you can beat me, yell at me, and curse me, because that's everything I can give you in return."

Arata ran a hand across his hair. The idea about beating Eve, or any girl for that matter, didn't stay well with him. He was against the idea of someone hurting someone else just because they can do it. The mess Eve had gotten herself into was far too dangerous for him to handle and she had already shown that she couldn't be trusted, but even though Arata couldn't bring himself to forgive her he was also unable to cast her out. Actually, he was resurrected just to protect Eve from people like the man who murdered him, so if he wanted to kick her out that would be equal to committing suicide.

"It seems like I don't have any other choice but to accept your apologize." Arata sighed and looked Eve into the eyes. "That doesn't mean that I'm going to forgive you, actually, I don't think that I will ever be able to, but you can continue to life in this house."

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Arata stood up and walked toward Eve. Staring deeply into her eyes he put a hand on her shoulder. "I didn't mean to sound so rude to you, but you couldn't possible understand what I went through in the afterlife. I had an encounter that brought back some unpleasant memories." Arata lowered his head as tears brimmed from his eye once again. He couldn't accept that this damn pendant had chosen to revive him; he didn't deserve it. He absolutely didn't.

Arata was once again remembering the events that lead to him gained that curse tool when Eve suddenly hugged him and stuck close to him. He looked down at the girl curiously, this type of psychical affection was unfamiliar to him, but he refrained from making any comments about it. Actually, Arata expected to hear some cliché line like 'Don't worry because I'm with you' or something of that type, but it Eve didn't say anything of that sort. She just kept hugging him as she touched his right cheek to the side of her head.

Arata didn't move or say anything and let Eve enjoy herself, but even after a whole minute had passed she didn't seem to have any intentions to move away, which made Arata feel pretty awkward since he remembered that he was topless. Arata's face heated up and turned red while his head was desperately thinking of ways to get the girl off of his chest.

"I have been out for two days and my wounds have already healed that much." Eventually he settled with the idea to turn her attention somewhere else with a random comment. Well, he definitely was desperate.

"At first I tried to use my abilities on them, but I found it unneeded since they all closed by themselves rather quickly." Eve replied and broke the hug to look at the bandages that covered most of Arata's upper body and face. "It was almost like your body regenerated."

"Well, I guess it did, after all I got stabbed in the heart. Though I'm a bit worried about how I'm going to show up at school tomorrow with those bandages."

"If your hearth has restored itself then shouldn't it be the same for your eye?" Eve raised her hands and put them behind Arata's head. After a moment she had untied the bandages and they fell on the ground.

Eve opened her eyes widely in surprise and took a step back, she stared at Arata miserably then lowered her eyes. Arata understood by this that something had gotten wrong, but couldn't understand what it was as he could actually see with his eye and it felt normally.

"What is wrong?" He asked concerned.

Eve just shook her head and moved to the side. "You should see for yourself."

Without hesitation, Arata burst through the door of his room and ran into the hallway. All kinds of horrible thoughts ran through his head as the boy sprinted toward the bathroom. He kicked the door open and looked into the mirror that was attached above the sink. What he was, thankfully wasn't anywhere near what he feared, but it wasn't that far away from it. His eye wasn't much different form before, it was still the same purple color that it was before; the different was that now it had a large scar that trailed down his cheek. It was crude and hooked slightly at a few points. Arata however put those small details into the back of his head and focused more on the unnatural dark purple color of the scar.

"What the heck?!" Arata yelled. What kind of curse did that man put on him?

Without hesitation Arata grabbed the bandages that covered his chest and ripped them off. He gritted his teeth at the sight of the single deep scar was presented on the left side, where his heart was, formed into a form that resembled a dark purple tattoo.

"Ha." An empty laugh escaped Arata's lips and he leaned toward the mirror, using the sink to support his body. "I turned purple?" Arata chuckled at his own comment and continued to stare at his scars. How was he going to cover that from his aunt? Was that a part of the curse as well? More and more questions popped into the boy's head and he was too busy trying to come up with an answer for that that he completely failed to notice the other person in the room with him.

From behind, Eve stared toward Arata miserably and put a hand on her chest. She didn't say anything and just looked at the boy for a bit before she turned and left the room.

Inside a metallic room filled with computers and all kinds of hi-tech stood a man, in his mid-forties with a dark grey hair, glasses over his dark eyes and a large lab cloak. The man was peacefully working onto a new program with no worries until the door of his lab got rudely burst open by a certain fellow.

"What the fuck is this old man?!" Saivar roared and threw his Duel Disk on the floor in front of the man in the lab cloak. He in turn simply looked at the machine and raised an eyebrow.

"If you don't explain more specifically about the problem you have with my equipment I won't be able to fix it, you know?" The man said casually and lifted the Duel Disk of the ground. "Also, please refrain from breaking technology that you clearly don't have the money to buy."

"Shut your trap, bastard!" Saivar yelled and grabbed the man by the collar of his lab cloak, which didn't provoke any particular emotion from the latter. "Your update was shit! It's Solid Vision wasn't strong enough to beat that whore's Soul-Fusion!"

"A Soul-Fusion?" the man repeated as a spark of interest appeared in his dark eyes. "You are saying that she was able to use that?"

"Yes! And I'm telling you that the update you added in my Duel Disk that lets the holograms withstand it didn't fucking help!"

"So in other words you failed to capture her." The man sighed in disappointment and turned toward the Duel Disk. "Well, it seems that her abilities must have evolved while she was out. I used the data we had from before when tuning you Duel Disk, so that must be the reason why it didn't work. I'm going to fix it now. Are you sure that you will be able to handle the mission?"

"It's going to be a bit easier now." Saivar replied with a smile and let go of the man. "She had a boy protecting her, but I killed him and now she is completely alone."

"Just one boy? Are you sure?"

"Yes! If there were more than that, they would have shown up when I engaged into a fight with the doll."

"That's interesting indeed." The man cupped his chin and turned his back to Saivar. "But now that you have killed the boy they will try to protect her even harder. You had only one chance to do it quickly so be careful from now on."

"Tch. Whatever." Saivar sighed and turned to leave. As soon as he was out of the lab he stopped and hit his fist into the wall.

"Next time I will get you, doll."

A/N: Welp, that took some time. Not much to say here this time, expect that I did a small change on the last chapter. Originally, I had written that the story takes place somewhere in Netherlands, but since I want to eventually reveal the town and all other things as well, and I know jack shit about Netherlands I changed it to Bulgaria, as I'm a bit more familiar with that one.

Also, that's another chapter without dueling... In a YGO fanfiction... I swear I'm going to fix that from the next chapter on. It's really worth looking forward to as the next chapter is not only going to introduce the third important character of this story, but in it I will also reveal those new summoning mechanics that were mentioned in the FIRST chapter ;)

Btw, I think I murdered all of the typos before posting, but if I didn't please tell me so I can burn them with fire.

Until next time!

Diabolic Tracer Out!