Alright, here's the next chapter for you guys, hope you all can enjoy them.
Broken Angel: Rising Demon
Chapter 9: A View of Darkness
-Rapture, Northern Atlantic. November 6th 1998-
"Armacham?" Wesker mused as he ran his eyes over the stacks of files, documents, hard drives, and laptops that lay strewn about the room before him. By his side was the Birkins, along with Kabuto and Eleanor.
"Yeah. Armacham was the corporation responsible for what happened to Alma. They wanted to use her to try and breed an army of psychic commanders, that could then control an army of cloned soldiers that only responded to telepathic orders." Riley explained.
"So that's what they were after from her and her kids…" Eleanor mused as she opened a few manila folders and perused the documents within.
"Yeah. Using my child for such a thing is unacceptable. However… their research, their ideas, what they've learned so far… It could benefit us and help us elevate the Legion. Everything I've found is yours to do with as you please. I've also dropped off all of the equipment and prototypes I snagged from their research labs. Feel free to go over it if you want, and see what you can make of it. I've brought along some new research assistants to help you handle things down here. You'll find that they are quite efficient workers." Riley explained, drawing all of their attention, when she mentioned the new staff.
With a devilish smirk, Riley flashed through some handsigns and placed her palm upon the ground.
In a poof of smoke, she summoned several figures. A column of them, at least twelve in total.
Each one stood naked before them. Their figures were human, but they were missing key features. Each one had patchwork sickly flesh that covered their whole bodies. The flesh itself, obviously came from different people, all pieced together and held together by an intricate network of stitches. The stitch-work was fine, delicately done, but because of this, the differences between skin tone, and even health stood out across the body of each individual.
They lacked any of the intimate features that associated their gender. They didn't possess genitalia, nor did they have nipples. While the rounded shape of breasts, did reveal that some were female and others male, they lacked intimate details. They were completely hairless, and their bodies were heavily marred by stretch marks, making it appear that the flesh had been pulled taught over their whole bodies.
On their head, they each lacked a nose or ears, both sensory organs were simply gone. Where the eyes should have been were X shaped stitches, pulling the flesh tightly together, and held there with thick black wires. They also lacked a mouth, which rounded out the torturous and grotesque appearance of these freakish creatures.
"What are they?" Wesker was the first to inquire, not at all overly disturbed by their appearance, but very intrigued by them, none the less.
"They are homunculi that I created to serve the Legion. More specifically, the science department. Within each of these bodies, is the souls of several of the Armacham researchers and scientists. I created them to aid you in your endeavors. They are immune to physical pain, disease, and poisons. They will do whatever you tell them too and answer any questions you may have." Riley answered.
"Answer? How? They have no mouths." Annette stated as she approached the cluster, eyeing one of the front most members.
Riley offered her a devilish grin, and nodded towards them, "Ask them something."
Annette was quiet for a moment before finally deciding to humor the demoness and see what would happen. "Can you speak?"
"Yes." Came a chorus of responses. Annette's eyes widened and she took several steps back. The voices of the freaks came out like someone cupping their hands around their mouth and then whispering instead of speaking. It was a strange, uncomfortable sound, and they all seemingly answered at once.
"Each one has the memories and skills of several Armacham scientists, researchers, technicians, and the like. I've created a hundred-and-sixty in total. They'll remain down here in Rapture doing anything and everything you need them for. They can be given complex orders and will carry them out with extreme precision. They are fully aware of everything going on around them. They can see, hear, smell, and feel, just like you can. They are physically stronger then regular humans, and as I said, they are highly immune to damage, so feel free to use them as assistants and manual labor. They are yours to use as you see fit. Assign them at your own discretion." Riley stated as she removed a scroll from her pocket and tossed it over to Kabuto. Within the scroll were the remainder of the entities she now dubbed Nothings.
With her spoils now delivered, Riley left the science department to marvel over their new resources.
She quickly retreated into Kamui where her grandchildren were waiting for her. The two boys, Paxton, and Darren Fettel, was what the scientists had named them, and that was what they had gone by all their lives. The older one was Darren, the younger Paxton.
Darren didn't say much. He was a quiet and reserved young man, who rarely said much, but his silence hid a heightened level of understanding. Only Eleven years old, and he showed signs of incredible intelligence and perception. He was also the more athletic of the brothers, his physical abilities on par with an untrained Shinobi of that age.
Paxton on the other hand was far more vocal, and very direct. He was full of questions and even more so of opinions. While not as physical as his brother, his mental abilities were exceptional. At ten years old he already showed intense telepathic and telekinetic skill. Able to enter into the minds of others, and even move things with only a thought.
Both boys looked almost the same, despite the year difference between the two. Their hair had been buzzed down, with Paxton's being the darker of the two, nearly black, while Darren's was a bit lighter, closer to a dark brown. Both of them had piercing blue eyes, that did little to hide their intelligence, both were far beyond their age group when it came to problem solving and rationality.
The boys had yet to leave Kamui since Riley rescued them from the Ward facility. Alma herself still kept to the insides of Riley's mind, her only external contact was to bond with her sons, who's minds she often jumped between to interact with them. Her interactions were often little more then hovering around them, and feeling their emotions and allowing them to feel hers.
The three had been kept here due to Alma's overly paranoid nature. Riley knew she needed to work with her try and get her calm and stable enough to allow herself and the boys to venture outside of Riley's body to interact with the outside world, so far that wasn't working out to well, but it had only been a day. The only other person that the trio interacted with, other then Riley was Kaede, whom had been brought into Kamui so that she could see them.
Alma reacted pleasantly around her mother, but Riley sensed a deep seated agitation in both of them. Kaede wouldn't soon forget what humanity had done to one of her children, and Alma, being such a powerful empath and telepath, quickly picked up on Kaede's agitation and it's source. Alma learning that her own mother in Kaede suffered things of a very similar nature, did little to open up the psychic's mind to the possibility of reintegrating into society. So for now, the boys and Alma remained here, where Riley kept a close eye on the them, and while working with Alma and helping her recover mentally, she also began to train the boys.
Teaching them in the ways of magic, and enhancing their skills, unlike with the researchers at the Ward facility, Riley had no intention of trying to drive the boys apart, and instead did what she could to help them further bond with one another, sensing that if properly trained the two would be a near unstoppable duo one day.
-London, England. November 10th 1998-
Riley quietly strolled through the rather empty streets of London, quietly thinking to herself. Her appearance had been altered, hiding her unnatural features, and allowing her to blend in as simply a rather exotic looking, regular woman.
Snow was falling all around her, a gentle fall of heavy clumps, that reminded her of bits of ash. The cold and the snowfall had emptied the streets, leaving them sparsely filled with travelers and cars, Riley was currently in the midst of reflecting on the recent days events.
The fallout was finally being felt now as the world recovered from the horrors unleashed at Fairport. As of now science had no answer for what had happened, nor had there been any response from any magical community. The Statute of Secrecy had once again survived by the skin of it's teeth, but only due to the silence of those responsible for keeping it.
No one knew anything, and so long as that was the official answer from every magical organization, the statute remained secured.
Over the last few days, Riley had to deal with many in-depth conversations with her mates, grandfathers, Itachi and Shisui, her mother, her friends… pretty much all of them at one point or another over the last few days approached her to try and discuss what had happened in full and try to get a handle on the situation.
During that time, Riley was informed about the message delivered by who Madara and Hashirama both assumed was Kane. Riley viewed their memories of the broadcast and memorized the face of her so-called prophet. She was absolutely certain she had never seen him before. At the moment, she had Loki dispatched, eavesdropping on various governmental organizations, trying to determine if any of them knew anything about Kane, or where to begin looking for him.
When the opportunity presented itself, she intended to find the man and have a chat with him. She was eager to learn what their connection was, and how he knew so much about her. For now though, all she could do was wait, and while waiting, Riley spent most of the time anticipating the summons from either Lucius or the Queen. She expected one of them to demand her presence to give an explanation for this, but so far it hadn't come.
Riley suspected that the reason behind their silence was fear. Both leaders knew that despite Riley's position as a citizen of their country, she was basically a world-ending monster, and every day the world continued to spin, was quite frankly a gift.
Riley herself was uncertain how close that was to the truth, but she suspected it played a large part in it. The only repercussions Riley could face from this were from those she cared about. Nothing else affected her. No government had control over her. No nation could impose their will or laws upon her. She was a goddess. A being above all of them. That she still allowed anyone to live, was a gift, in and of itself, when she had the power to casually wipe out the entire planet.
Again, she didn't know if that was true, and quite frankly she didn't really want to know if that truly was the reasoning for their silence.
A part of her wanted the challenge, wanted them to have the balls to call her out, but another part didn't blame them for being afraid. While Riley wasn't sorry for what she did, she knew that it was far from what anyone would consider 'right' or 'just'.
Riley knew her morals were screwy, but that's how it'd always been. If left without the oversight of those who's opinions did matter to her, Riley's demonic nature took over, and suddenly, all living things became expendable, especially humans.
"That's not masochism is it?" Kurama inquired with a chuckle.
"Shut it." Riley though back in response as an un-amused look spread across her face.
"The part of you that's still thinking like a human knows that murdering all of those people that had nothing to do with Armacham was wrong, and should be reprimanded for it, but no one is doing it. Your friends and family are being understanding, because they know what your temper is like and they're just happy you didn't blow the entire world straight to hell. Anyone else that may know the truth is too scared shitless of you to call you out on it." Kurama noted with another chuckle.
"I don't want to be punished for anything. I know what I did wasn't the morally right thing to do, but when it comes down to it, right and wrong, never even played a part in my decision to attack the city. I was pissed, so I did it." Riley responded.
"As a demon should..." Kurama stated, when Riley took a pause.
"Maybe I'm just so used to having to justify my responses to people, to try and convince them to understand why I did what I did, that I'm surprised I'm not getting more flak from this. I mean you remember the whole kids fiasco when it came to Naruko's baby mamas? My mates jumped down my throat about that, and I hadn't even done anything at that point in time, that was just words. How many kids do you think died in Fairport?" Riley continued on.
"More then a few." Kurama answered.
"So… what's different now? Why am I only getting understanding from this? Am I just putting too much thought into this? I mean the hammer should have dropped by now." Riley thought back.
"Do you remember what happened when Katie's mother died? Over two million lives, Riley. You remember Naruko's rape? Over one-hundred-thousand people. Fairport? A few tens of thousands at most. Riley… this is tame. Compared to everything you've done before this, Fairport was nothing. In fact, I'd argue that you showed remarkable restraint." Kurama said to her, causing Riley to stop in her tracks, and think back. The fox was right, this was remarkably tame compared to the other times Riley had unleashed her demonic rage upon the world.
"I think those who care about you, remember those acts, and recognize that this was light in comparison to what you've done before. In fact, they probably are more surprised by the level of control you displayed with how angry you were. You channeled the two extremes of burning rage, and cold fury perfectly, by lashing out at the city with the tornado, while hunting down and executing Armacham yourself. Hell, you even spared those bozos in green, I'd argue you're temperament has improved vastly from those events. I think others see that too, and that, coupled with the fact that they've seen you do worse, is why they're not reacting more negatively to this." Kurama continued on, earning a slow nod of agreement from Riley as she took in everything he said.
That honestly did make a lot of sense to her, and she hadn't though about comparing the differences between this and what she did to Konoha. Perhaps Kurama was right.
"To answer your earlier question, the number of children that died, was one-hundred-and-eighty-seven, between the ages of three and sixteen. Your attack did primarily occur in the industrial district." Came a haunting voice, that was eerily familiar, and caused a vicious smirk to spread across Riley's face.
She turned slowly, her eyes finding the hovering form of the Shinigami, holding position a few meters away, in the middle of the street. Cars passed aimlessly through him, and people continued on with their days, not noticing the reaper.
"Shinigami." Riley stated aloud, as she started to approach him.
The Reaper held up a hand, signaling for her to stall in her advance. He then gestured to a nearby building and disappeared from his position.
Riley easily caught sight of the Shinigami reappearing on the same buildings rooftop, where he waited for her to follow.
Riley quickly and deliberately made her way across the street. The moment she was out of eyesight, she dashed up to the roof of the building.
"Hello, monster." The Shinigami greeted her.
"You… I've been waiting for you to show your ugly mug again. I found the hole you put in my soul well." Riley stated with a snarl, allowing her demonic features to express themselves.
"I am aware. I know you may hold resentment towards me for that, but I wish to explain myself, and perhaps offer an arrangement that will benefit the both of us." The Shinigami responded, in the sad, depressing voice of his.
"Oh, I've got to hear this. Because of you, Mito was able to reanimate my enemies. People that should have remained locked away within my soul well, were instead released, and Mito brought them back! Now I have Minato Namikaze running around out there doing who the fuck knows what, and I've got to kill him again. So… let's hear your riveting explanation for why you tricked me." Riley snarled taking a step forward.
"I am bound by my duty to Life and Death. So long as I exist, I must fulfill that mandate to the best of my abilities. You are a monstrous beast. A creature like you should have brought an end to my duty. You should have brought this world into the dark realms, and claimed it as your personal sanctuary. But you didn't. Instead you chose to live here, leaving the souls of humanity in the cycle, and thus leaving me with a job to do. I do not apologize for installing that back door into your soul well. It is my duty to see to it that the souls of the dead relinquish their lifeforce. I cannot do that if you absorb all of them, and at the time, I had no way of knowing just how bad you would be. Now that some time has passed, I have come to the conclusion that you have no true hunger for souls in general, meaning that we may be able to reach an agreement." The Grim Reaper explained to her, as Riley folded her arms across her chest, and narrowed her eyes at him.
"You want to make another deal? Why would I ever trust you again? So what if you were simply fulfilling you life's duty? That doesn't mean I'm going to sit back and let you screw me." Riley responded.
"Hey, I know he's a traitorous bastard, but maybe hear him out, you could end up with another Artoria. I know how much you enjoy having her around." Kurama suggested with a chuckle, earning a pause from Riley. After a moment she decided to simply continue to listen to the undead, and see what he had to offer her.
"I understand that. And I'm not asking you to trust me. I will be entirely up front with my reasoning's and more importantly, I am willing to explain to you more about why my duty is as important as it is. Please… if you would… follow me. There is a place I wish to show you. I swear on my unlife and magic that no harm will come to you." The Shinigami offered as he began waving his hand, causing a purplish mist to erupt outward, a few feet away from the reaper.
Slowly the reaper drifted into the mist, vanishing from sight.
Riley's eyes could see what the mist itself was, a portal to another place, or maybe another realm. Regardless, she could easily return here with her own space-time ninjutsu if she needed to, so with her guard fully raised, and her curiosity peaked, Riley followed after the reaper.
-The Nether-
For a moment, Riley saw nothing but gray fog. After a few moments she found herself standing on a platform, that seemingly expanded infinitely outward in every direction. The platform itself was semi-translucent, and carved with ancient runes and symbols, Riley quickly identified them as belonging to a multitude of different cultures, from Aztec, and Celtic, to Latin and Scandinavian. There was Japanese, Chinese, Egyptian, Babylonian, Hebrew, Arabic, and even Sumerian, the runic languages of every ancient magical human culture was seemingly inscribed on the floor beneath her feet. Many of the symbols Riley couldn't place, the peoples they had belonged too, either too ancient, or forgotten for her or anyone else to know about.
Several meters below the platform was stony ground. A thick layer of fog, covered about two feet or so above the ground.
Beneath her, in every direction, Riley could make out ghosts. People from every walk of life, slowly moving in the same direction, heading towards something in the distance.
Slowly Riley followed their movements, which coincidentally led her towards the Shinigami that hovered not to far off.
She arrived at the reaper's side. The platform itself continued onward, but below, the stone and mist gave way to a muddy body of water that flowed in one direction, yet Riley couldn't see the other side. On the banks of the river, the ghosts gathered, en mass, as if waiting for something.
For a moment, Riley was silent as she gazed at the river, curiously wondering why it seemed familiar to her. After a few moments, an idea crawled into her mind, she then she turned her gaze towards the Shinigami.
"The River Acheron?" Riley inquired.
"Yes, and beyond lays Limbo. The first circle of Hell. Before us lays the entrance to Hell itself. At least one manifestation of it. While Dante got the circles right, his view of it was shaped by his own prior conceptions. Hell itself is ever changing. In those dark and twisted lands, we once punished the human souls that had refused to relinquish their life force. This is one of many places, where my kind could once banish the dead, when they refused to relinquish the life that was given to them. Though this place was a special kind of punishment, reserved for only the most stubborn." The Shinigami answered.
"I see. So… if getting sent here is a special punishment, then why are there so many people?" Riley inquired, gesturing to those below.
"There are a lot of stubborn humans out there. But in truth, many of them seek this place out. They come here, searching for punishment for their crimes. This place was once a 'workplace' for my kind, but over the last few thousand years, it has become a sanctuary for demons and monsters. I can do nothing to stop the people that willing come here, and due to the presence of demons I would no longer send a soul here. This place was twisted because of humans. It was never a happy place, but it was meant to brake them, not torment them and turn them into monsters." The Shinigami explained to her.
"Wow… So… what caused all of this exactly? How did humanity twist what was essentially a prison for breaking the dead and forcing them to relinquish their lifeforce, into literal Hell?" Riley inquired with genuine curiosity.
"Do you know what a Hollow is?" The Reaper inquired.
"It's a type of demon. One that specifically feeds on souls. Why?" Riley answered.
"Hollow type demons are the true enemies of life. Your kind in general are a plague, but the true enemy of life itself, isn't just the destroyers, its the hungry beasts that feed on life's gift. You understand how it works, correct? A living, sentient being is given a seedling of lifeforce when they are born. This seedling makes up the soul of a person. From the moment of their birth, that seedling is constantly growing, their lifeforce maturing, aging, growing in density throughout their whole life. The act of living, is what feeds this seed." The Shinigami started to explain, turning to face her as it did.
"And when they die, it's your job to remove their lifeforce, pass it on to death, which then feeds it back into the great entity Life. Or whatever it is that's responsible for making things alive." Riley finished for him, having learned all of this throughout her life from various sources.
"Yes. The job of the reaper is to separate a spirit from it's life force. What happens then is up to the reaper in question. For me, if they give me no trouble and relinquish their lifeforce willingly, then I send them to Paradise where their spirit can be happy for the time that it has left, however long that may be. If they refuse then I must break them, and tear free the living energies with force. This place was one such area where we reapers did that, at least until we started bringing humans from the various timelines here." The Shinigami continued.
"Humans broke your prison. How?" Riley asked.
"Humanity is a very unique race. They have one of the highest concentrations of magical beings among any race that isn't purely magical. Out of almost all the races out there that aren't magical by default like Elves or goblins, humans have a higher chance to be born with magic. And even if they aren't a pure magical, and are only a squib, they still have a more powerful lifeforce then others. This makes them rather interesting when they die. This isn't solely tied to humans, as I'm sure you know that any living thing can be corrupted into a demon. Well, as I mentioned, humans are stubborn, and they are stubborn in any timeline you could visit them in. It's one of their defining characteristics. This has lead many a reaper to need to break humans in order to get their lifeforce. This is time consuming. And as I'm sure you've noticed, there are quite a lot of humans, and as a violent race, there are quite a few that have died violent deaths, and don't feel they deserve to die. This has led to a major issue with humanity. Most of the reapers who work with humans, are quite frankly… overworked. For lack of a better term." The Shinigami explained to her.
"I think I'm getting where you're going here. Stagnant souls have a much easier time turning into monsters, and a lot of them end up turning into Hollow type demons. That's why Hell became this. You guys brought humans down here, but there was so freaking many of them, that when they started turning into demons, they eventually chased you guys out of your own prison." Riley guessed, earning a slow nod from the reaper.
"Nowadays, Hell has become a literal prison, where higher beings send others to be locked away, and to suffer. The demons rule it now, and it has become a Dark Realm, that unfortunately, still caries many aspects of Death within it, and thus, many a soul are drawn here if we cannot reach them in time. The demons now fulfill our roles, breaking the souls of those who enter and feeding on them." The Shinigami noted with what had to be a sigh, though given that his mouth never moved when it spoke, Riley didn't know if it actually was one or not.
"So… why did you bring me here?" Riley asked.
"To show you. Hell is a terrible place, but it's merely a failure of our ability to manage humanity. Over the years we've tried to do what we can to alter the way that humans think, to either diminish their stubbornness or convince them in life to accept a peaceful death. Many earthly religions were actually started by reapers from various timelines and they carried over to new worlds when enough people believed in the various entities that the power of belief caused magic to bring these false deities to life. You'll notice how a great many religions surround the concept of a peaceful life. That is by design to make humans docile so that when they die, we have an easier time reaping them, and it worked for a while. Though, as they tend to do, eventually the problem grew beyond that, and we were forced to come up with new plans. Many of the others have their own way of going about it, trying to change humanity. I gave up on changing them long ago. Instead, I chose something different. If I couldn't convince humanity to accept death, then I would need to put measures in place to ensure that when Hollows did arise, they could be swiftly dealt with. That was my answer. To fight fire, with fire, as it were." The Shinigami offered to her as it slowly started to float away from their position over the riverbank and away from the swelling mass of ghosts waiting to attain entrance into the demon infested Hell.
"So how did you do that?" Riley inquired as she walked by his side.
"I built an army." The Shinigami responded, earning a smirk from Riley.
"Well if humans are gonna be assholes about it, may as well just butcher them when they turn into demons. Fuck it. Sounds like something I would do." Riley stated with an amused chuckle.
"You do understand the importance of keeping the number of Hollows in the living realm, down to a manageable level?" The Shinigami inquired.
Riley's response was to turn her gaze to it as they continued forward. Her gaze told him that she had an answer, but she didn't know if it was 'his' answer.
"There is, and always has been, a finite amount of life-force in existence. Life as we know it, started because of the entity known by you simply as Life. Before Life, there was simply beings like you. Pure magical creatures, that were, in essence, magic given will." The Shinigami offered, earning a nod of understanding from Riley.
"I get it. Life gives life-force to people, and gets more life-force back when they die, that's how it grows more powerful. The more people it gives life too, the more life-force it receives. On and on it's power grows, and with more life-force, more sentient beings can 'live'. Creatures like me though. We can devour life-force. We can remove it from the cycle, causing a detriment to occur. Life gives a little, and gets a lot back, but if a demon that specifically feeds on souls, goes buck wild and starts eating everything, everywhere, Life loses out, not only on it's potential gain, but also it's initial investment. And because demons are pure magical beings, when they die, they don't rejoin this cycle. So that life-force just becomes more raw magic." Riley stated aloud.
"You are correct. It is that very logic that governs my actions. I must ensure that so long as a species continues to 'live' that the investment put into them, is returned. This ensures that Life grows stronger, and thus… life goes on. When a world enters the Dark Realms, all of those souls become forfeit, and with that, the reaper responsible for them, no longer has a purpose and simply ceases to be, it's job done. Because of how many Hollows-type dark creatures are born from humanity, there exists a real possibility of humans being overwhelmed by them and that faction of humanity is subsequently destroyed, their souls all devoured. I've seen it occur on other worlds. Hollow type creatures are the true enemies of life, even more so then the Dark creatures like you. Beings that exist purely to feed on souls, are the literal antithesis of life, and it is part of my mandate to destroy them, if I can." The Shinigami offered to her.
"So that's why you put the backdoor in my soul well? I hadn't dragged this world into the Dark Realms, but there still existed the possibility that I would feed on all the souls of the people I've killed. You had no way of knowing at the time if I was a Hollow myself. A question though… why do humans turn into Hollow type demons more then other kinds, and why have I never come across one of these hollows, if they're so prevalent here?" Riley inquired.
"To answer your first question, it's because of the way they wallow about after death. As I said, it takes time to get them to release their life-force, due to how stubborn so many of them are. This leads many of the dead to simply hang around with nothing more to do, other then contemplate their life, and their death. Many hold deep regrets for certain failings in their lives, or they resent the way that they died. These souls can be left in this limbo state for months before I reach them, and in that time, they start to become corrupted, drowning in the despair of their deaths or the failing in their lives. This leads to deep yearning and a desire to be fulfilled. As I'm sure you can attest, demons are creatures of desire and they yearn to fulfill their desires. These twisted human spirits wish for life to either return from the dead, or for the chance to correct mistakes. Thus… when they turn into demons, their resulting desires leave them highly specialized towards one particular target, the life, and thus soul… of other humans. They are called Hollows because they desire to fill the hollowness within themselves, with life. To answer your second question… my soldiers are good at their jobs." At the end the Shinigami stopped and faced her, it's face twisting into what could only be described as a grin.
"Interesting. So what does this have to do with us?" Kurama inquired, silently urging Riley to ask the question aloud, even though both of them knew that the Grim Reaper could probably hear him.
"What's this have to do with me? I may understand why you did what you did, doesn't mean I'm happy about it, but I do understand. But that still leaves me with why I'm here? Do you intend to ask me to join your little faction and kill hollows for you?" Riley asked, eyeing the reaper with curiosity.
"No. While I wouldn't mind you slaying any Hollows you come across, that was not my intention when approaching you, nor do I believe it would be required, as creatures like yourself are often highly protective of their territory, so if any hollows did wander around long enough for you to stumble onto them, you'd kill them anyway. No… what I've brought you here for is to make another deal. I intend to make you an offer. In exchange for showing you how to make a new soul well, one that you may use to store any souls you wish to keep for yourself, and then allowing me to reinstall the back door into your primary soul well, I will offer you a weapon of limitless potential." The Shinigami responded.
"Oooh. Another Artoria. Go for it, see if you can get one with an evil sword this time." Kurama stated, earning a snort from Riley.
"I don't need another servant. Not like Artoria. I'm glad to have her with me, but I don't need you to tear someone else out of their time of death and bring them here to serve me." Riley responded to the Shinigami.
"Well as it just so happens, I had no intention of this new weapon, being a person. When I say weapon, I mean something physical that you can hold in your hands. A special weapon, one that can harm, seal, disperse, or even permanently destroy souls." The Shinigami explained, earning a very curious look from Riley.
"I understand you face a threat from a powerful Archdevil that seeks to end all life on this planet and drag it into the Dark Realms. That goes against my mandate, opening up the possibility of us working together. I cannot interfere directly, but if my assistance helps you destroy this threat and leave humanity alive so that I can continue my work, then I don't see why I shouldn't try and hedge the bets in my favor." The Shinigami went on.
"Alright… pros and con?" Riley thought as she retreated into her mindscape, appearing before Kurama so that she could discuss this with him and perhaps the Darkness if it had anything to add. She doubted Alma was going to offer an opinion on this, though she did sense her daughter's curiosity as she listened in.
"Well the obvious is that we lose out on all those souls, but to be fair, we weren't really getting anything out of them to begin with, considering that hole in your soul well, was there before Konoha. Plus, you can still absorb the memories and magic of a person when you steal their soul, meaning you can learn all they can do and add any abilities that were specific to their magic, to your own. Their souls still get sent to the reaper, you still get their knowledge and magic, you don't hunger for souls, nor do you require them to grow stronger. Another plus is that he did offer to teach you how to make another soul well, that's something I don't know how to do, and I doubt anyone who isn't incredibly skilled at soul magic would know how. So that's a new power that you'll possess, plus with a new soul well, you can do exactly what he said, put all the nobodies you devour into the primary one, absorbing their magic and memories, and allowing their souls to pass onto death, and anyone who pisses you off, you can put them into the second soul well, where you can keep them. Either to fully devour, or just to torture, or do really anything you want. It screwed us over before because we didn't know about it, that left us confused when Mito brought them back, knowing that it's there and having another place to put them if we don't want to risk the possibilities or if you just want to torture them, will mean we have full control over it." Kurama listed out for her, Riley nodding along with what he was saying. In truth, the offer was intriguing. Not only did Riley learn how to shape a new soul well, which opened the possibility of doing it for others, not just herself, but she'd gain an ally in the Grim Reaper, and a 'weapon of limitless potential' that could supposedly destroy souls. Such a thing would be invaluable in the fight against the demonic force that threatened the world in the Coming Day of Wrath.
For several long moments, Riley weighed the pros and cons, finally she retreated from her mindscape and took in the surroundings. She had continued to walk while she thought, and she found that she and the Shinigami were now standing atop a plateau, overlooking a vast city and castle.
The city's architecture was familiar to Riley, it had a distinctly Japanese feel to it, with structures and walls that seemed to have been pulled straight from the Edo period of Japan's history. The city itself stretched in all directions, disappearing from sight over the horizon. The castle nearby was large, and towered even over the massive plateau they were standing on.
"What is this place?" Riley inquired.
"This is where I place the spirits what have willingly given up their life-force to me. This is where they may reside, and live until their spirit fully decays into nothingness. This is the Soul Society…" The Shinigami answered, it's hollow eyes drifting over the massive city below.
Riley took in a deep breath as she focused her gaze onto the large city as well. There were powerful magics here. She could feel it seeped into every stone. A smell was in the air, open souls, free for consuming. Despite not being a hollow type demon that craved souls, she couldn't deny that a place like this would be an absolute buffet for demons.
Though the city seemingly went on endlessly, extending her senses out allowed Riley to feel the literal edges of the realm they were in. The magic within the realm did not mingle with that from beyond it's borders, this place was cut off from everything outside. Meaning there was only a few ways in or out.
Despite it supposedly being a place meant to reward those who gave up their life-force willingly, Riley's empathic abilities allowed her to feel the emotions of the world itself. Despite all of the magic in the air, this place felt no different then any city on Earth. There was everything from joy and peace, to fear, anguish, and even suffering. I guess if people wanted to 'live' again, this was a good place to enjoy their second life. It seemed like it came with everything the normal world did. All of it's ups and downs, goods and bads.
"Alright… let's say I'm interested. Tell me about this weapon." Riley stated as she turned to face the Shinigami, her eyes focusing in on the ghastly entity as she did.
The Shinigami stared back for a moment before letting out a dreadful chuckle.
"Allow me to explain… the power of a Zanpakutō..."
-Seireitei, Soul Society. November 10th 1998-
-To Be Continued-
Alright, here's the next chapter for you. I hope everyone can enjoy. Now as I'm sure many of you can see where this is going, I'm gonna start a new vote, please offer up your suggestions for Riley's future Zanpakutō, I'm excited to hear your suggestions, and depending on how many I get, I might do a poll after the next chapter.