Azrael's Relapse

"Haha! It's great! I haven't been feeling the urge to kill at all. Nope! Hahaha!"

Charles could sense that the diet was making Azrael unhinged.

"Ah, that's great Azrael! It's been a decade hasn't it?"

"Yes, ten years. Not long at all compared to all the years I've lived."

"I smell the sea breeze from you. Did you come from a beach?"

Charles, as a man of the sea and a former Captain of the Royal Navy, could easily smell the sea breeze from his clothing and skin.

"You've got a keen nose for the sea as always Charles. I came from Hawaii."

***

A daredevil went farther into the beach despite warnings about the high tides. The lifeguards brought his dead body back to the sands.

Azrael sipped on a straw in a coconut while he watched them do rescue breaths and CPR. Each second that the person doesn't wake up while CPR is being performed pushes him back in the statistics, the expectant probability of him dying increases.

Azrael placed his coconut down as he got excited and walked into the crowd. The man still didn't wake up after 30 chest compressions. The soul was drifting out of the body, a whiff of the scent tickled Azrael's nose.

He grinned maliciously.

"Come here, come here," Azrael whispered like he was coaxing a deer to come to him.

The soul's hand reached out and touched the fingertip of Azrael's but then was suddenly sucked back into the body.

A loud inhale was heard followed by coughing.

"You're lucky that you're alive son." One lifeguard said.

Azrael's face twisted and he clicked his tongue.

"Dammit!"

He kicked the ground which sent sand flying into a sandcastle.

"Hey!" Said a kid who was building it.

Azrael turned his head and gave the kid a stare with his bloodshot eyes.

"Haha, thanks I needed more sand." The kid said nervously.

Azrael continued walking until he saw a butterfly struggling on a spider's web. An orange and black orb weaver was slowly making its way to the butterfly.

Being so death-deprived, Azrael cheered the spider on. Much like cheering on a friend who was giving it to a random thot.

"Dew it! Dew it!"

A group of girls came back with some sticks and put one in between the spider and the butterfly.

"Hurry, hurry!"

The spider desperately tried to reach the butterfly, but they rescued it in time. The girls then poke their tongues at the spider.

Sigh.

Azrael bent over and looked at the spider with pity. His face entered the spider's 6 eyes.

"If Father was still here, I would ask him to ascend you into a celestial. Maybe you can join the grim reapers in their jobs."

Azrael thought he needed a break right now. Just the thought went by he received a telepathic call from the "message" function.

***

"So, what did you call me for old friend?"

"I know you're on a vacation, but there's a soul I need reaping."

"Hmm? Why don't you ask Death? You know he loves company."

Charles crossed his brows and rubbed his beard.

"Mhmm… I did ask for Death, but it seems Fortuna has enchanted the soul's life tether."

"Fortuna? Haha! I wonder how she's doing!"

A target who's been favored by the Goddess of Fortune raises the value of the soul, making the Angel of Death more excited. A soul's value was like a bounty to him.

He reminisced on the good old days of picking on the Goddess of Fortune. Since she wasn't a combative God, she was terribly weak and couldn't do anything but shout at him.

He figured that since he's been on vacation; she thought it would be safe to open her heart up again.

Azrael's nostalgic smile faded away.

"I want to help you since you're asking for me, but you know I can't just break my pilgrimage for that."

Charles expected this and rested his hands behind his back.

"That's unfortunate. After all the Master System has personally requested for this, and it has raised the threat level to the Maximum which has never been done before. I think that this might concern the survival of not just the System, but all of us." He said with an exaggerated frown.

"In that case! I'll have no choice but to help you out just this one time!"

'Huh! That quick?'

Charles didn't let his surprise show on his face.

"Oh really! That's a relief!"

"So who's the target."

Charles went over to the viewing station and summoned a holographic image of two high school students walking on the street.

It centered on the boy.

"His name is Elijah Whitlock."

"And the girl? She's pretty."

"Alyssa. A girl that he's deeply infatuated with. You missed the best part a couple of minutes back."

"Oooh, show me."

Charles rewinds the hologram several minutes back.

Alyssa went to save Elijah who paid in kind by summoning the courage to protect her, then they confessed their feelings to each other. They were like two long-lost puzzle pieces that have been united.

It was just like the Goddess of Fortune to change the endings of sad tales. She didn't directly change their fate unlike a certain God but indirectly used luck to join their paths, giving them the chance to make rights.

"Now I can't have you cut corners… I need you to do what you do best. Give us a hero we've never seen before." Charles spoke like a true bard.

"Isn't breaking Fortuna's spell enough? People will speak badly about me again."

"This concerns all of our survival! Forget the naysayers! Many believe your methods are tried and true. Many of them won't admit it, but they love watching your work. Those crime scenes are the work of art."

The Gods were bored with their immortal life. Watching Azrael's truck death fetish was entertaining for most, but they wouldn't dare admit it for fear of persecution.

It was the equivalent of a human watching a certain video like my teen step-sister is stuck in the washing machine.

"If my best friend insists, then there's no way I can refuse!"

"Hehe, the good old days. Eh? Truck-kun."