Chapter 2: The Grim Reaper's Clone

*Swoosh* *Rustle*

A dark, eerie wind blew a gust of sand and made the fallen leaves dance in circles. The branches of the trees swayed with the breeze, creating an ominous and heart-palpitating atmosphere in this forest.

An intense tension was formed in between the miasma and the forest, as if a massacre was about to occur. 

'Huh?! What did he mean by that?'

Insig was confused and didn't quite understand what he was talking about.

And... the black skeleton wasn't speaking to him but... sending his... thoughts? It was as if he was sending his emotions and thoughts, and Insig was... weirded out. As a surgeon, he believed in medical science his whole life. Such an anomaly was too much for his belief… In the end, he considered it as part of the dream.

"What do you mean? Who are you? Are you the one who brought me here?"

Although Insig asked the black skeleton such a question on the inside, he was actually panicking already deep inside.

'What is this!!! Why can't I wake up from my dream!!!! Damn it!!!'

The figure looked at him, perplexed and surprised.

"Huh? Then what are you doing here if you don't own this body? Well whatever, you'll have to get through me first to live, it's useless to talk to a dead person."

The black skeleton said.

"As for your second question. I am the Grim Reaper's clone. All life ends with death, and I am the one who converts all life into death. You can say that I am the law of death itself."

Insig was shocked as he looked at the Grim Reaper's clone.

'What? The law itself? How absurd! Isn't that basically saying that you're a god? Also, if he is the Grim Reaper, then why is he here? Am I already dying? I haven't even destroyed my PC yet!'

The enemy narrates to him once again.

"It's a mistake on my part to attack you since you're still alive. I can't just kill anyone discriminately, so I'll give you a chance. If you can defeat me, then you deserve a chance to live."

The enemy raises his hand, and the miasma around him moves and gathers in his palm to take the form of a scythe. Its handle was straight as a pole, and its blade was as dark as the starless-night. It radiated an eerie and scary aura, scaring nearby life.

"Wait, what!? Defeat you? Aren't you a God's clone? At least have mercy on me!"

"Mercy? Sure, I'll make sure to make your death painless"

Insig panicked slightly as he faced the enemy. He tried to talk peacefully but his words fell on dead ears.

Seeing as he had no choice but to fight, Insig took a deep breath to calm himself and also tried to make a weapon.

'I really need to fight him? But he has a weapon and I don't!... Well, I actually have powers, which is also a weapon, but that's not the case!... A weapon huh? What kind of weapon should I use? I'm kinda scared of getting near him, so I guess I'll just use something I can use at a long distance, like a spear!'

*Creak*

Insig stretches his hands as he imagines his weapon and controls the woods near him to take the form of a pencil-like shape, but much larger. The trees stretch and shape themselves into a spear with a sharp front.

Insig holds and grips the weapon tightly while he faces the Grim Reaper. He forms a stance as he prepares to throw the javelin towards the enemy.

He can hear his heart pounding loudly as he gets nervous, so he took a deep breath to calm down. His gaze focused on the enemy, not blinking as he feared that he might miss the enemy. And he was not wrong.

*Swoosh*

The moment he prepared himself, the enemy suddenly dashed towards him. Oddly enough, the enemy was floating using the black fog surrounding him, making him even faster. All the grass surrounding him retreats and withers helplessly.

"D*mm you!"

As the enemy approaches, Insig exhales and throws the javelin with all his power!

Insig gazed at the enemy with expectation in his eyes, only to be met with disappointment.

As the enemy saw the approaching javelin, he nonchalantly aimed his scythe at it and swung.

*Swoosh*

Insig saw that his javelin was cleanly sliced in half, rendering it useless. But that was not all of it, using his scythe to poke at the javelin, he absorbed the life in it, thereby making the scythe even larger!

"What? That's all you have? You won't live in this case."

The Grim Reaper says, disappointed. The enemy again continues to approach him. He was just like a train. Unstoppable.

Insig saw the approaching enemy and he panicked as he felt hopeless. Although he likes action, he was not much of a fighter. He prefers to fight safely.

'Not good! I should have known that normal attacks don't work. What should I do? Think! I gotta think! No... Run!'

Insig started running away. He closed his eyes to focus more on thinking. Although he was blindly running, he didn't bump into any of the trees because like a master, the trees automatically parted to make way for him.

Insig tried to see what powers he has left that he can use to defeat the enemy.

'Normal wood would not work! They'll just wither and strengthen him! What should I do!? What should I do!?'

As Insig feels helpless, he feels inside him a large lump of energy, full of life! It was like a miniature sun inside him, connecting him and all the plants in his surrounding.

'This- What's this? Since when was this here? Wait, that's not the point. Can I use this to fight?'

Insig tried to gather the power all around him toward his body. All life aura around him in the nearby trees, plant, and land, gathered around him like a whirlpool and surrounded his body. Seiki felt like he was on cloud nine as he felt revitalized all over his body.

'Here it goes!'

Insig takes a deep breath and gathers a lump of energy towards his fist and dashes towards the enemy.

"Now that's the spirit."

The Grim Reaper aims and swings his scythe towards him. Seeing this, Insig ducked to dodge the attack and prepared to counter attack.

Insig throws an uppercut towards the enemy. Unexpectedly, the enemy didn't even dodge, but took his punch head on!

*Crack*

What he met was the sound of something breaking, but it was not the skull of the enemy.

Instead, as the punch was about to reach his chin, the miasma around him moved to protect him, shielding him from the punch. The black fog took on the form of a wall and was unexpectedly hard as a wood. The fog cracked a bit but didn't break.

'W— What!? Damn it!'

Seeing this, Insig tries to get away but is met with a scythe. Insig tried to dodge but was cut on his shoulder, leaving a deep wound.

Some of the black fog on the scythe lingered on the wound, making it wrinkle and look like it was the skin of a dead person and it was spreading.

"Grrr!"

Insig grinded in pain and he took a deep breath to focus his mind. He controls some of the energy inside him to move towards the wound and heal it.

The energy fought the death aura and healed him, making his skin look anew, but only Insig knew how much energy that took him.

'Damn it! I lost in that exchange. I lose to him in terms of battle experience and power, I need to do something!'

As he sees the enemy attacking again, Insig tries to dodge and moves away from the enemy.

Insig tried to dodge all of his attack but was cut sometimes that left him with deep scars all around his body. He didn't heal some of the wounds as they would waste his powers.

*Huff* *Huff*

Minutes later, the enemy suddenly stops attacking as he looks at the heavily breathing Insig.

"What? This is all you have? How did you escape death then? I guess I expected too much."

 *Sigh*

The enemy sighs then ominously says in a bored tone.

"Let's finish this."

The enemy raises his hand as a whirlpool of black fog appears above him and enhances the size and strength of his scythe. The scythe became much darker, like it was absorbing all the light around it, and it also made it more eerie.

With a rather quick speed, the enemy raises and aims the scythe at Seiki and slashes it downward.

As Insig looked at the approaching scythe, he felt the feeling of 'death' for the first time. It was as if the surroundings were about to get dark, and the darkness covered his whole sight.

He nervously thought to himself.

'Am I gonna die here?'