Impending Death

Far away, in the Vanes building, Heavy slept with his four hands still stuck in the walls with Pishku watching over him. Page saw them through the doors and snuck away. What he was really after was the secret box set in motion and passing through this building at the very moment.

"Remember, this box could fit a head and appears to be made of wood. It's going to be fragile and securely stored. But not impossible to take. And, if I'm correct, we are one of three parties gunning for the box. We have a leg up by being here, but nothing is certain. But here is where we summon Eddie."

Page laid down paper on the floor and poured water over the circle it created. The ink bubbled and melted through the paper, engraving the floor in seconds. The Page stepped on the circle, activating it, and creating a bright, purple light. Over by Eddie, who sat in the circle, watched by everyone, the circle below him finally glowed, startling him, but even more so, the hunters they gathered.

"The circle's really working!" Reggie exclaimed.

Eddie vanished in a flash of lights, leaving only a steaming, melting circle behind that quickly flattened back into soft ground. Twelve hunters watched, dumbstruck. Cina, the most shocked of all, thought, 'how is that possible? He and I fought so recently. I thought I could catch up. But he's friends with these people? Was he not the one I fought? No, I paid handsomely for that information. I'm certain. But this is unbelievable. I suppose not as much as being transported to another world. I thought I would be a king. Gifted powers like the books. But I suppose books are simply fiction.'

Eddie appeared in the building beside Page. At the same moment, a group of henchmen rounded the corner and saw the flash of light, followed by a large, wheezing beast that ran against a wall and destroyed it.

"Eddie! Eddie! Calm down!"

Eddie jumped up, smashing the ceiling and causing the lights to flicker. The henchmen ran away, breathlessly running back to a room where a giant black ball hovered in the air. One fumbled around the orb, tapping buttons and yelling, "PCO, ACTIVATE! Speak to Vonnear bosses!"

The orb bounced up, signifying connection and the henchmen yelled, "a bunch of people are in our basement! I don't know how they got in but one just summoned a beast that broke through the reinforced walls just running into it! What do we do?"

"A summon did that?!" a voice from the orb asked, "how do you know?"

"I saw the beast come out of glowing lights beside another person. Honestly, it looked like a teleportation light but we have no circles down there even remotely close and the Tri-Eyed Sisters aren't here."

"Stop them."

"Sir, their Summon is that powerful. How can we stop its master?"

"Masters don't always subdue their summons. In very rare cases, they simply bond and fight for each other. The master could be weak. Go for it."

The orb bounced again, ending the call. The henchmen looked at each other, confused and worried.

Far above the tower, on the other end of the orb, two Vonnears stood around the orb. "Do you think they know?"

"No. Only we know and neither of us has left the past three months."

"What about Serkle?"

"I trust Jithin and Clarif with the secret."

"Then I will as well."

Heavy snapped awake full of vigor and pulled back in a sudden snap. Two hands flung out, hitting the floor and melting it, jostling Pishku as well. Almost like instinct, he hit the two hands with his scythe, causing an explosion of embers and sparks, causing tremors and shoving his hands back in. Heavy was once again locked into position.

Pishku heavily sat down, holding his scythe near him. He looked dead into Heavy's eyes, whispering, "I am Death. The tales of my deeds will go far and wide."

The air around them got chillier. Heavy's fists steamed even more than before. Pishku felt his skin tighten into goosebumps. "What are you doing?" Heavy asked.

"Nothing. You feel cold too?"

"You not doing it?"

The open door blackened like a dense fog settled around it. The corner of the entrance shone and a ghastly voice hissed, *who bears my name, dragging it through the mud?*

Page shivered just like everyone else, even Eddie. He told them, 'Death is here.'

Detro laid on the floor, broken and lifeless. Hetio, his clone, and Black all stared at the body. Detro's finger twitched, not evading any of their eyes. His head formed back again, slowly this time. He said, as he got up, "sorry about this, but I left that cave with a plan. I'm sure you can all tell by now. I ate as many of those crystals as I could and weaved them throughout myself. I told you. I'm a man of my word."

Black pulled out a paper with a complex circle on it, reached into it, and yanked out a long, curved katana. "Why the boy never uses the sword technique from the gramps, I will never understand."

The katana wasn't his real sword, it was a random creation he made for sale in the Slimoury. Its blade was made from trash he scavenged from anywhere he could, random broken blades, rusty pipes, and rubber wires. 'He likes this sword. Better not break it.' Black thought.

The edge was a bright, smooth blade with tiny ridges to lacerate and the center was weak, brittle rust to give others a horrible, coarse feeling as it ran through them. He waved the sword through the air at Detro, marveling at its craftsmanship. A sword made purely for pain and fear. The sword waves created emptiness through the air as he put Animo through it, pushing aside the air so fast new particles couldn't enter. It created a vacuum wherever the blade went, sucking the air violently from all around.

He created invisible walls directed at Detro and swung the sword again, sucking away the air and collapsing his lungs. "Page's gramp really knew how to kill."

He swung the sword again, removing Detro's head, caving it in.

Pishku bared his scythe at the incoming fog, widening in their view. Page asked, 'who wants to see Death? A single touch from his robe will steal your will to live, a slice from its scythe will end your life for good no matter what magic you have, a curse from its casual speech will affect you for life.'

'I do!' Skwil squeaked.

'I don't!' Nadaho shrieked, 'why would you?'

'If death is really that strong, then just by watching him, I can learn things at a much faster rate. We don't have to actually interact with it. Nadaho, you should be a much bigger advocate than me.'

'Why?'

'You're the weakest.'

'Hey! I grew tons more than you guys!'

'Because you were the weakest. Now you still are, just not as much.'

'Yeah, you have the 'most improved' award.' Elton clacked.

Nadaho kneeled, muttering, 'That hurts… I'm getting flashbacks to all my Participation Trophies and finding out they meant nothing.'

'But improvement doesn't mean nothing.' Page said, 'you're growing faster than us. If you keep this up, you should either catch up or become even stronger.'

'Thank you, Page. Let's go check out Death then. I just don't want him to see us.'

'Great. We'll Eddie here to storm the area and come back to search for the box when the walls are gone. He's too excited and noticeable anyway.'

Pishku chucked a broom, which blackened, shriveled, and passed through Death, disintegrating just out the room. Page saw the shrivelled stick break apart and recognized the effects immediately.

They poked their heads around the door, watching Death inch closer and closer to Pishku. Pishku swung his scythe through Death, yelling, "who are you! Stay back!"

*you know who I am. Name thief.*

"Pishku?! My father gave me that name, I didn't steal anything!"

*I meant Reaper. How dare you call yourself Death. You know nothing of the power the name holds. You know nothing of my responsibilities. I don't kill for personal matters. I take what is rightfully mine when the time is rightfully ripe. I allow life, and then I take care of it when it's over.*

Pishku didn't say anything, trying to figure out what was happening. Death had no face, it had no expression or life. Instead, it had a shapeless, black mass of particles and a long, curved scythe. The blade was longer than he was and the handle was curved like a long 'S'

Just before Death touched Pishku, his scythe turned around, pointed straight at Skwill.

*You. You belong to me.* he pointed at Skwil with a long, black finger. Skwil stared back stiffly.

Hetio held Detro in his hands, locking him against the wall. "Doesn't he appear… smaller?"

"I've been thinking that myself."

They locked eyes, yelled, "Dirt." then looked back at Detro, who was grinning. "Finally. I was wondering how long I could go for. Undead Movement!"

His body exploded and each part moved away, activating the nerves using specific electrical signals. Black pulled out Meda and Yemisia the Slime, telling them, "collect as many of the undead as you can."

Meda expanded its purple wings, using its latent abilities from the Chaos slime to call forth the little bits moving away. Zeeth realized during the year-long stay that Meda absorbed more than just the appearance of the dragon, it also took the affinity with Undead magic. It just needed to grow stronger to awaken it. And Yemisia the slime absorbed all of Yemisia's blood and powers, so every time it used a water skill, it unconsciously connected undead magic to itself. The two of them flew about, sucking away as many undead body parts as possible, sucking them into their body, trapping them. The cells mixed together again, connecting to each other.

They struggled to catch all the cells, running through the halls. Hetio stayed in his library, letting his clone and Black go instead. He stood in front of the magic window and saw the Bolluma rushing through the kingdom, leaving a path of destruction. The window zoomed out and revealed the Bolluma charging towards the school. Its horn directed at the library. If it reached them, it would demolish the entire school.

His clone stopped and yelled, "stop! This is serious, there's a Bolluma charging towards us! Detro, stop with your manly words for a moment! Dirt will still be alive under the dungeon but the school you built will be ruined."

The cells stopped squirming and gathered together again once Black stopped as well.

Zeeth yelled into the screen, "teleport the school! Tell them to teleport the school! I made a circle around the school and if you pump in enough mana, the entire thing could be teleported away!"

"When did you do that?!"

"When I heard how conceited the people here were. When I left, I wanted to take the entire building with me to annoy them. The circle can be used."

Floating Hetio vanished from the room and he saw from Hetio's perspective a thumbs up.

Black, Detro and Clone all ran back to the library, where Hetio told them about the circle and opened a window for them to jump from. Clone and Detro both jumped out the window, running off to where Black told them. Black then looked at Hetio and asked, "is this room your Lifeline? You haven't left it once and I assume you have a reason."

Hetio, still in his muscular state, wheezed, "something like that, I just don't want people hurting this."

"Alright."

With that, he hopped out. When he landed, he ran to the circle, releasing wind to blow the sand off, but on his way, he was blocked by a white wall. "White! Now's not the time!" Black roared.

"Oh, I know. The Bolluma is coming, and it's going to kill you."

"Do you want me to use this?" Black created the black blob in Zeeth's hands.

"I dare you. You can't land that."

"Oh yeah? Not even with the help of LINDA!"

A black box formed around them, surprising White just enough to close it before she could dash out. Linda revealed herself in the box with them.

"What?! When did you-!" White stammered.

"When I called Linda, I had her track you non-stop. She was Dirt's boss for years, and his stealth skills are nothing to scoff at. She picked up a few things and created her own, which is where this box came from. But now, you only have three feet on either side to avoid this. You think you can avoid this?"

"Well, we better find out."

Black let Mel out to shoot Dark Tornados, trapping her in a corner. He threw the glob, which was spectacularly slow and appeared to travel in slow motion through the air compared to other attacks, but the tornadoes held her in and it was on its way to hit. The blob hit her in the chest, wrapping around her and sucking away her powers until the black blob turned white.

"Did I do it? Did I finally do it?"

Linda carefully let go of the box, nearing the body. The ground beneath her opened up, spewing white back out in perfect condition. "You shouldn't've shown me the blob, Black. The thing you just blinded was the Memory Mosaic I found in the principal's office. A little bit of configuration," she snipped her fingers like scissors, "and I made a perfect memory replica of myself. And now, you don't have your best weapon."

"Too bad for you, I now have control of the body. My power now rivals yours."

"Don't lie. We both know it doesn't."

"That's beside the point. I need to move the school or we could both die."

"Sure, sure."

"White. I'm serious. I'm ready to use Blite."

She stopped smiling. "You're serious?"

"There's a man up there with the power to kill the both of us on his own and your Bolluma is about to destroy the only room he stays in. he will kill the Bolluma and then you."

"So why don't you let him?"

"Because I don't know enough about him but I want to know more. Now, call off the Bolluma."

"I can't do that."

"White!"

"I mean I literally can't. I set it on auto by messing with its permanent memory. It's on its own."

"Damn you! Run to that corner of the school, a circle intersects that part. Channel mana into it and I can teleport it away."

When they got into position, Detro and Clone were already sending currents through it, flooding the massive pool, so when Black and White sent it in, the circle completed quickly.