Chapter 27: falling

I hurtled off the building, falling at speeds faster than a shinigami could teleport through a portal. I could hear people screaming my name, but it was strangely muffled. All I could really hear was the wind howling in my ears.

It has to be now. I pleaded. Before she takes the book and destroys me. It has to be now.

I stopped falling. The wind stopped howling in my ears. I opened my eyes slowly. I was suspended in mid air, halfway between the ground and the top of the building. Huh… I thought I'd been falling for longer than that. Golden mist was circling my entire form, like a cinematic record, except it was made of pure gold. I took a breath and spiralled back upwards towards the building. I felt strong and powerful. This was the power of death. A huge golden skull formed behind me as I hovered in front of the building, eye level with Cheryl. Panicking, she aimed a blast at me, but the skull opened its mouth and the spell got absorbed. Then, it spat it right back out at her. She ducked just in time and it crashed into another building. She ran downstairs. A smart move. If she stayed up here, I would kill her before she could even blink.

I raised my hands and golden sound waves circulated out towards the ground. Whenever one of them reached a demon, it would shriek and turn into ashes, while it healed the rest of the shinigami who weren't dead. However, my sound waves weren't killing the demons fast enough. There was an entire army of them. I had cut their population in half, but I couldn't do much else. I carefully landed back on the sidewalk. Everyone moved aside and gave me a wide space in which I could stand perfectly. My high heeled boots made clacking noises on the pavement, but it sounded more like metal against metal.

Gachink, gachink, gachink…

I was wearing a knee length dark grey dress with long sleeves. The hem of the dress as well as the sleeves was all ripped up, and I had a thick prison chain tied around my waist, as well as a thinner chain around my neck. My black doctor mask had appeared on the side of my head. Cheryl did look shaken, but she still managed to keep her demeanour.

"Hmph. So you activated your powers."

"Yes." The gold mist was still swirling around me, forming pictures of skulls.

"You did make an impact on my army, but what about the rest of the demons? You can't take care of me and them at the same time. You don't have an army of your own. This group of grim reapers is hardly fit to fight anymore. They're all worn out and tired."

"Hmm? Who said I didn't have an army of my own?" I asked, grinning. "You know, being the child of death means that I have control over the dead as well." I raised my arms. The sky grew dark. Cracks appeared in the ground, and in the sides of buildings. Skeletal hands grasped the cracks as the dead clawed their way into our world. Millions of dead grim reapers had surrounded me in seconds. All were robed and hooded skeletons with bright red lights in their empty eye sockets, all holding traditional death scythes like mine.

"Pretty awesome, huh?" I asked. I pointed to Cheryl and the army of demons. "Everyone here is your friend except for those demons and that group of grim reapers. Kill them all." I ordered. Instantly, the army of the undead moved out and engaged the demons.

The second wave of the war began. My soldiers were pretty cool in battle. Every time a demon killed one, it would collapse into a pile of bones and reform on the spot, hacking a surprised demon into ashes. Our army was given new hope and we fought with renewed force. I ducked out of the way of an oncoming blast. I rolled sideways and shot gold mist at the grim reapers. When the mist touched them, they would die. Their souls would be destroyed instantly.

I knocked William out of the way as a blast came in our direction.

"Dammit…. what do I have to do to kill this woman?" I asked through gritted teeth. "If only I could get my hands on that oracle somehow…"

"I'm on it!" Grell yelled as he swung at Cheryl with his death scythe. She skittered sideways and aimed a blast at Grell. He ducked and it took out several demons. They continued fighting for several minutes, but Grell still couldn't get his hands on the oracle.

"You…" she hissed. "You should have never survived!"

I saw what was going to happen before anyone did. There was no time. I ran in front of Grell and stopped the blast with my hand. The yellow light slowly drained into my hand and disappeared. I closed my fist around it. Cheryl cursed and tried to aim another blast of yellow energy, but the oracle wouldn't let her fire another shot.

"Work, dammit!" She screamed, trying to make it fire another spell, but the oracle refused to work its destructive capabilities any longer. She threw the book away and reached for her death scythe, but William knocked it out of her hands. She looked around at all of us, her yellow-green eyes darting around in fear. The battle had stopped. My army had laid down their death scythes and were just standing there, waiting. All the demons were gone. It was deathly silent in the city.

"This is the end." I said quietly. "The end for grim reapers is never pleasant to watch. Look away, please."

Everyone turned away as I said. I walked forwards. As I walked, the ash on the road was picked up by a gentle wind which blew them upwards in a thick grey cloud, obscuring the view.