Adam Does a Dante AKA Adam dies and meets Death himself. This ends badly for one of them.
Adam numbly looked down at the heavenly blade sticking through his chest. He heard Lucifer say something, but he was too busy trying and failing to keep standing.
It had been a long time since his body hurt this much.
He fell to his knees and something fell forward.
It was him, his body. He was looking down at himself.
He could only watch in numb agony as the tiny cyclops on his back started to stab at him madly. "Stab! Stab! Stab!" she cried out maniacally, golden blood splashing as she did.
"NOOOOO!"
He watched as a one-armed Lute rushed to his body, pushing him over.
It was strange. He was watching it unfold here, but he could also see Lute's face right above him as he lay there.
"Sir! Stay with me, Sir!" she pleaded, begging him not to die. He recognized the look in her eye well. He had seen it in countless human souls.
He smiled, tired and weak, grateful that she was there. That she cared. And so sorry this was happening.
"Adam!" she cried out desperately.
His name on her lips echoed in his ears endlessly for a good minute.
His brow furrowed as he heard something.
A whistle.
A slow, ominous tune of someone whistling.
All at once, everything started to...crumble. It was like Hell itself was falling apart to reveal a void, leaving only him on an island in the void.
Him, and the whistler.
From the shadow, a figure walked forward, but Adam couldn't bring himself to stand, to say anything, to even look at the newcomer.
He was so tired, and his limbs so heavy. Even his wings couldn't rise. They were never heavy for him.
"It's been a long time, אדם הראשון,"(Rishon Adam) the figure greeted in amusement.
His name and title both, that was enough to raise Adam's gaze to the figure. Even without seeing him, this person felt uncomfortably familiar to Adam.
It was a wolfman, bone white fur with a mask-like mark of ash grey over blood-red eyes. He wore a simple black clock and held a pair of sickles in his hands.
He didn't seem to be of Hell, but he didn't feel like he was of Heaven.
Something familiar crawled on Adam's back, like a dream half-remembered.
"You don't recognize me, do you?" the wolf asked as he passed around Adam. "But I know you well, ראשון של עדן,(Rishon Shelu Eden) Slayer of your own Children."
Adam narrowed his eyes, something creeping into his mind and soul.
"I have hounded you and your bloodline for all their days. And I have followed in your bloodbath, every year," the wolf taunted with a soft chuckle. "How does it feel to be prey again, הראשון? (Rishon) To be dying in the dirt again, just as you crawled out of it?"
Adam knew who this was. What this was. His fists balled.
"Ahh, I see you remember me," the wolf said with a soft, almost mocking smile.
"מוות.(Mavet) You're Death," Adam spoke, bitterly, venomously.
"Straight. Up," Death answered with a growl, showing his fangs as he crouched down to Adam's eye level. Which wasn't much of a crouch, the first man was very tall after all. "You evaded me for nine-hundred and thirty years the first time. This time? Over nine-thousand? Infuriating. If you had a third chance, how long could you go? A hundred thousand? A million?"
Adam huffed. "Didn't know you were a person. Just thought some...thing we couldn't get rid of."
Death growled a bit more, holding a sickle to Adam's neck. "Arrogant, hypocritical mortal. You are still the terrified little wretch I hunted after your fall from Eden. Mmm, the death of all the beasts of all the wilds hardly compares to the taste of a human's death. They aren't...aware enough. Those born to שמיים(Shamayim) or גֵּיהִנּוֹם(Gehenna)? They are too...shocked to really understand. By the time they grasp their end, they're gone."
Death paused to lick the blade of his other sickle.
"But humans? Your יְלָדִים(y'ladím)? They know me. The smell of fear is strong on them," Death said toyingly.
Adam chuckled weakly, making Death freeze. "You bitch, is that what's this about? Mad I didn't piss my leaves when I fucking croaked the first time?"
Death stared, glared into Adam's golden eyes which seemed to mock the Ender of Life. "Still so brave, Rishon? Do you think someone will save you? That your soul doesn't end here?"
Adam smirked.
"Arrogant to the last," Death said as he stood up in all his menacing glory. He placed his sickles together at the hilts, and they fused together as their hilts extended, turning the two weapons into a long staff with a curved sickle on each end. "Join the children you slaughtered in the grave, Rishon."
With that, he swung his staff to decapitate the First Man and end him for the second and final time.
Adam's eyes grew distant as his long life flashed before his eyes.
The happy but tense days with Lilith and the angels.
The confusion and sorrow of her leaving with Lucifer.
The curiosity and joyful times with Eve.
The wonders and peace of Eden.
The betrayal of when Lucifer and Lilith returned.
The agony of falling from Eden, losing so much of what he had been, could have been.
The sadness and pain of all the creatures he named turned against him.
The uncertain terror of life on Earth, and of raising a family.
The pride and love of his children.
The bitter sting of losing them.
The aches and pains of toiling the earth.
The strange amazement he felt in looking at his first grandchild.
The contentment of looking over a thriving humanity.
The sadness of knowing he was withering. Decaying. Ending. Dying.
And that his children one day would too.
The coldness of Death.
The warmth of Heaven.
The relief of seeing, and being with the Angels again.
The comfort of Heaven.
The slow realization that many of his descendants would never see Heaven.
The disappointment of watching things fall apart for thousands of years.
The determination when Hell rose to challenge Heaven.
The absolute rage when the Watchers betrayed Heaven.
The unimaginable Horror of the Flood.
The sheer spiteful glee he took in culling the worst of his descendant.
The unbridled hate he had for how...broken Creation truly was now.
And the annoyance he had for a brat who thought she could fix it when she knew nothing.
It was a long, long life he had lived.
"You're sloppy."
The Radio Deer's words echoed in his ears. as he saw the blade coming closer.
He had.
Once, all of Hell feared him just as much as Lucifer and Lilith.
Once, a little sinner could have never snuck up on him, injured or not.
Once, before he had gotten used to slaughtering weaklings.
His face set into a frown as the last memory of his life was stuck in his mind.
Lute, crying out his name. Begging him to live.
Lilith had not wanted him.
Eve wanted him to need her.
Lute was just...there for him.
For thousands of years, she had been there for him.
And he had left her in tears.
Death's red gaze widened as the black hand of Adam reached up and grabbed the staff, stopping the pale blade before it could touch him.
With a grunt, Adam shoved Death back, hard. The specter stumbled away with a look of bewildered anger on his face.
A light burst into existence in the darkness.
Death's gaze snapped off to the side, seeing a massive ball of light shining in the light. "No..." he whispered in disbelief, turning to Adam.
The First Man placed one hand on his knee, pushing himself slowly to his feet.
"That's impossible," Death said with a snarl. "You, the arrogant and sadistic. You, who slaughters his own bloodline! You! You are nothing but a wretched mortal, long doomed to his end!"
Adam glared at the pale hound, an old fury entering his eyes, cold and calm. "But I wasn't always mortal, was I, Mavet?"
Death stiffened, growling again.
"I was immortal once. All of creation was," Adam said, a smirk on his face as he approached Death. "You made one huge ass mistake, Pale Shitter."
Death snarled and held his staff at the ready.
"I blamed Lucifer the longest time for all the shit that went wrong, that we just couldn't fucking fix," Adam said, flexing his wings keenly. "But now? I know it's you."
Death tensed, ears twitching. "You can't defeat me. No one can."
Adam grasped the air, and his golden guitar-axe formed in his hand. "Bitch, I ain't no one."
Death leaped forward to cut Adam down, but the first man easily dodged with a glide to the side.
"Yeah, kind of a dumbass move," Adam said, locking weapons with Death, trading blows with neither able to hurt the other. "You bring a fucking staff weapon to me? Shit, I only had a spear for nine hundred fucking years! I could probably use that piece better than you."
Death braced, the final strike sending him skidding back. "You're certainly putting up a fight this time, Rishon. I give you that," he congratulated darkly.
Adam chuckled, leaning on his guitar like a staff. "Nah, you're just a cunt that can't take a challenge. No wonder you didn't go after my kids until they were too old or hurt to fight back. Eden knows Cain would have skinned you alive."
Death snorted, giving a massive spinning sweep of his sickles, sending out shadow blades that cut through the air.
Adam grinned, sweeping his axe up, sending forth a huge strike of holy energy that tore through the ranged attacks.
Death calmly, angrily sidestepped the attack, never taking his eyes off Adam.
"So, tell me, Wolf?" Adam asked with a smirk, spinning his guitar-axe. "How's it feel to be swimming with a shark now?"
Death said nothing, his eyes gleaming menacingly.
The two titans rushed one another, shaking the very air of the void with their clash. They struck, blocked, parried. Death landed behind Adam, trying to cleave his wings off, but Adam's wings shot back behind he could. Adam tried to push Death towards the edge, but Death managed to lock a sickle with the axe, using the staff itself to strike Adam in the head.
Adam stumbled back and Death went as far as trying to bite at his neck. Adam had to block with a gut strike with the hilt of his axe. Death snarled and tried to put some distance between himself and the First Man.
But Adam had been a hunter in life. He wasn't about to let Death reclaim the intuitive and become the predator in this dance.
After a long exchange of blows, Adam was finally wavering, and Death pushed it all he could.
His pale maw split into a hungry grin as his sickle broke through the guitar axe, cutting it in half with a long swing.
Adam's lack of shock was his only warning that it would go horribly wrong.
The First Man moved to the side and grabbed the staff, using the momentum to swing it and Death, slamming the specter into the ground. Both held tight to the weapon, but Adam slammed his foot into Death's head, using the opening to jab the weapon towards its owner, cutting Death in the side.
Death howled in pain before Adam wrested the sickles away from him. Death stumbled to his feet in disbelief, holding his wound as it bled to with blood, but dust of ashes seeping forth.
Adam held the weapon with a smirk as he eyed the injury. "Told you I could use this shit better than you."
Death could only stare.
He stepped back.
Branding Death's own weapon against him, Adam flew forth like an eagle upon his prey.
Death struggled. Dodging, trying to deflect and take his weapon back. But it was fruitless. Ashes upon Ashes began to spill from the specter as he was steadily cut to ribbons.
With a final cut over his chest, Adam sent Death to the ground, laying face up and breathing heavily as the ashes pooled around him.
Adam steadied his breath. He wasn't unscathed from the fight, obviously. Rips in his robes, golden blood from various cuts, and even bite wounds. His enter left mauled somewhat, covered in wounds from a last-ditch effort from Death.
"I'm taking my fucking immortality back, you damn parasite," Adam said as he approached the immobile Death.
"Hehe, not going to gloat, Rishon? Savor the moment?" Death asked weakly, trying to sound amused even as his eyes danced with the same emotion he had craved.
Fear.
"Yeah, fuck that with you," Adam said, stabbing the sickled staff down, right through the throat.
Death's mouth hung open in disbelief as finally, Death himself met his own end after ten millennia of terror.
Adam frowned as he reached down and picked up the head, glaring at it suspiciously. Without warning, the headless corpse dissolved into more ashes.
"Good fucking riddance, "Adam said as he looked at the light that had appeared in the void. His way out, he somehow knew. He took a moment to savor this if nothing else.
He could feel it. Something he lost long ago in the Fall and had never really gotten back. Until now.
The Head of Death dissolved into ashes in his hand as he leaned the weapon on his shoulder.
As he did, the weapon suddenly turned into a large scythe with a giant skull near the top, the staff looking like a literal spinal column.
Adam blinked at the change before snorting. "No, fuck that cliché shit."
As if obeying his wishes, the weapon morphed into...well, he could only describe it black, bone-themed version of his guitar axe.
He hummed, playing some cords and grinned. "Oh, I can work with this shit!" he said, dispelling the weapon. He wasn't sure he could, but it did in fact vanish and he knew it would reappear at his command.
With a breath of life filling his lungs and the smell of the Ashes of Death in his nose, he felt more confident about the future than he had in a long time.
He was in such a good mood, he wouldn't try to kill Lucifer when he got back.
He was definitely taking a wing if he got the chance though.
With that in mind, he took off to the portal, leaving the void behind.
He didn't know what killing Death meant.
Death was never meant to exist, it really wasn't.
But he did know this. Death would no longer hunt him.
And if that piece of Eden could be taken back, who knew what else could be.
End of Chapter
Okay, first off? Yes, this is based on the Death from Puss in Boots. It felt...really fitting for the Hazbin universe, seeing as there are a lot of animal-human hybrids in Hell and Heaven. That said, it is NOT the same character. See, Dreamworks Death is like most Grim Reapers/Death Gods- part of the natural world, just doing their jobs. However, the logic of the Garden of Eden story implies that Death is NOT natural. It's one of the many "problems" that arose when Lucifer and Lilith accidentally broke Creation.
But the premise and the scenery of the fight? That's based on Dante's Inferno. Great game from the PS3 days. You fight your way through every ring of Hell, and yes, You kill Death in the game. He's the tutorial boss.
All in all, this idea has a few different ways it can play out, what it means for Death to be slain and other entities that exist with Heaven and Hell being unaware of them. Naturally, the Hazbin crew are going to be very concerned and alarmed by this development.
Oh, and Adam now has a metal-ass fuck Death-axe as proof of his victory. Rock on, Dickmaster.
PS Adam's line about "swimming with a shark" is inspired by the song Ruthlessness by Jorge Rivera-Herrans- "Your pack of wolves is swimming with the sharks now"
