Chapter 201: Azrael (Death's Arc 1)

For a few chapters, we will follow Death's story. After these first few paragraphs, the story will be told from Death's perspective.

***

"Do you know how I was born?" Death asked as Kai shook his head.

"I thought that you naturally existed. But being born, well that's something else." Kai replied as Death nodded.

"This is going to be a long and complicated story so I will first tell you the basics. Before I was born, those who died couldn't go to the Darkness. They hovered wherever they died and tried to enter newborn babies. The soul of the baby is made by the parents souls. When a male impregnates a female, he creates 20% of the soul.

As the baby starts developing, the mother creates 30% of its soul. In the past, souls that hovered near the places they died often entered the bodies of these newborn babies and complete their souls. 75% is the minimum amount of soul power required for a person to be born.

Mei and Kiyoko's job was to take the souls who broke out of the Darkness into the newborn bodies. But now that they are both gone, I handle that job while the reapers bring the souls of the dead beings from the different realms to me to submit into the Darkness. Honestly, it's a very complicated and confusing process." Death sighed as Kai nodded.

"Anyways, back to Eira. I am bad at explaining things to people so it would be better if you saw it for yourself." Death said as his memories began to play for Kai.

***

"Wake up child. It's time for you to do your job." A whisper resounded in his ears. 

His eyes slowly opened up as he was surrounded by darkness. He didn't know why he kept referring to himself as a male but it just made sense to him.

He could feel his small body floating around in the dark place as he clenched his small hands.

"Do you want to leave this place child?" The voice returned in his ears but he couldn't speak anything.

His body wasn't moving as he mentally imagined himself to be out of this place.

"Very well child. Your name is Azazel and from today onwards, you are the collector of souls." The voice said in a firm voice as bright light evaded the child's vision.

He knew that his name was now Azazel as other information invaded his mind. Everything around him was a part of something known as the world.

The world had huge sphere-like things known as realms and different creatures lived on these realms.

These creatures cultivated the natural energy present in their realms to increase in their cultivation which measured their power.

These creatures also had things known as souls which kept them alive and gave them emotions. A person without a soul would either die or go berserk.

But someone with half a soul would have conflicted thinking and would probably be mad. He then learned that when these creatures died, their souls had nowhere to go and hovered around in a radius in the place they died and would then try to enter newborn people.

And the last thing he learned was that his only job was to collect these souls and take them for salvation into a dark place called the Darkness.

As the last thought entered his mind, he appeared in a dimly lit room as his eyes turned to look at the people surrounding him.

He was currently in the hands of a woman who had a smile on his face as she held him in front of another woman who was lying on a bed.

"Congratulations, it's a boy." The woman said cheerfully as the woman lying on the bed sighed and smiled.

"Remember, this is not your mother. The child in her womb would never have been born so I put you there. Learn everything you can about these creatures and when you turn 18, your real job will begin." The voice appeared in his head one last time before he felt something detach from his mind.

'I am Azrael, the collector of souls.' The child thought one last time as his mother held him in her embrace.

After that, time slowly passed as Azrael started growing up. He was born in a small kingdom on one of the realms and was the son of the ruler of the province.

His life was pretty relaxed but he never forgot the words that the mysterious voice and told him. He learned about everything he could through the books and learned that the realm he lived on was the jewel realm and was one of the six big upper realms.

He spent most of his time learning but today was different. Today was his eighteenth birthday as he dropped the book he was reading and went to stand in front of a mirror.

His eyes were plain black with a tinge of red shade and his black hair was currently ruffled. He was wearing black robes with the family crest near the chest area as he looked away from the mirror and walked away.

"Your father is calling you." He turned towards the right to see his mother smiling at his appearance. 

Azrael nodded as he walked towards where his father was. His parents had named him as Feng but he knew that his real name was Azrael.

While thinking this, he entered the official meetings room where his father was sitting with a cold smile on his face.

"So it has been eighteen years since you were born. Soon, it would be time for you to become the next ruler of the province. It's about time you produced an heir." His supposed father said as Azrael frowned.

"What do you mean by that?" Azrael asked while narrowing his eyes as his supposed father clapped his hands.

The doors behind him slid open as numerous girls entered the place and Azrael frowned when he saw that all of them were his age.

"You are choosing one of them to be your wife and you are going to produce an heir then." His supposed father said but before Azrael could say anything, the voice in his head returned.

"It's time. Your task now begins." It was as though someone had turned a silent radio on as all hell broke loose.