Page 45 of When Death Called Life Home (When Deities Awaken #1)

Chapter 45

Death Is Merciful

ASCIAN

E nergy from generations before him thrummed through Ascian’s veins. It didn’t feel how he imagined it would, to awaken a deity within him. Although, he supposed a deity hadn’t exactly awoken within him. Death had passed on His energy, and the energy of His descendants, all the way to Ascian.

Staring down at the swirling blue eyes, now with green flicks throughout them, Ascian couldn’t care less about the fact he was now Death. None of that would have mattered if he’d lost her.

“How did you...?” Her voice slurred slightly, as if the pain hadn’t quite subsided.

The wound no longer marred her neck, though. Only a thin scar lined the skin there, a reminder of everything that happened, and that would happen.

“Can you stand?” Verena asked. She stood in front of them, kicking the corpse out of the way. Ascian felt no ill will towards the disrespect. Not when the reaper had almost killed Alora. He’d let the man's grave be a urinal, for all he cared.

“Are you on our side now?” Ascian retorted as he stood and pulled Alora with him. She managed to find her balance quickly enough, though her muscles trembled with the effort of righting herself.

Verena rolled her eyes, glancing behind them afterwards as warning flared. “Like I told you in the dungeons; I’m always on your side. I just didn’t realise they’d try and get you to kill your little girlfriend.”

Ascian growled lowly. “Thin ice, Verena. Thin, fucking ice.”

“I’m petty. You knew that when you welcomed me into your reapers,” she snapped back. “Now, can we get back to killing the bastards before they kill us?”

No words of denial came to the forefront of Ascian’s mind. She was right. He had known who she was when he allowed her into his reapers, and to expect anything else was to expect disappointment.

“I can feel them,” Alora murmured quietly, her brows furrowing. “Their souls are so bright, they’re blinding. Too bright.”

“Then I guess we should turn them off,” Ascian hummed. He pressed a kiss to Alora’s head and then gingerly stepped away from her. “Verena, get Maelo and put her somewhere safe. Outside is preferable.”

“I’m not leaving!” Maelo yelled from behind them. Apparently Verena had succeeded in waking her. They both ignored her.

“What if you need my help?”

Ascian looked down at his hands, at the black, smoky ribbons that curled around them and stained his fingers. He didn’t miss the green vine-like energy that curled around Alora’s limbs protectively, chrysalis slowly forming and waiting to hatch.

He looked back to Verena, lip curling into a half smile. “We won’t.”

Verena glanced at his hands, her own flexing at the new energy that swirled there. Her fingers twitched until she curled them into a ball and nodded. She didn’t respond, only moved past him and crouched near Maelo, waiting .

Ascian scanned the room, taking note of every single person's position. Osiris somehow managed to get the Root elder in a headlock, his sword stabbed through the middle of the man’s back and protruded out of his abdomen. He twisted the sword, teeth gritted and bared before he yanked it from the elder’s body and watched him fall forward, his energy leaving him in a wisp of air and disappearing into the marble.

The new female reaper pressed her dagger harder against Suoh’s neck, droplets of blood racing down his throat as he wheezed a breath. The woman’s eyes flickered, hesitation abundant despite her grip on the blade's handle. A little push and she’d run.

Cónán stood toe-to-toe with the brute who’d stabbed and knocked out Maelo, his imaginary hackles raised and a murderous glint in his eyes. Despite the feud between Osiris and Ascian, Maelo was well loved amongst the Reapers. Her fiery and loud attitude often allowed her to get along with everyone, even the quiet ones like Izel. Nobody hurt her and got away with it.

Ascian, as much as he wished to rip the throat out of the man, would leave him to Cónán to finish. He was sure the man would have plenty of fun creating illusions for the brute until he tried to tear out his own eyeballs.

That left the last three elders. All of which stood before Ascian, but now their attention split between him and Alora, observing the moving energy around their persons. Fear bordered their gaze, lingering in the creases on their faces. Fear that Ascian would happily give them more cause for.

“It can’t be,” the Throat elder muttered. “It’s been centuries since they were last awake. They shouldn’t be able to. They should be dead.”

“Ever heard of hibernation?” Alora asked sweetly. One of the chrysalis’ cracked, wings unfurling and pushing the walls away from around it. Emerald green sparkled in the light that bounced off the marble walls. It drew everyone's attention to the single butterfly as its wings slowly flapped and dried in the stale air of the council room.

Time appeared to pause. Alora’s lips curving into a breathtaking smile, right before her first butterfly lifted from the vine and shot towards the Crown elder like an arrow. Its body sharpened, wings folding back into fletching as it navigated and then landed with deadly accuracy in the elder’s chest. Right where her heart would be. The emerald bloomed into a symbol that looked eerily similar to that of an animal's paw print. Swirling lines connected every part of it until it then circled the entire symbol itself and ended in a small leaf.

The Crown elder froze, head lowering to see the glow of the symbol. Her hands shot to her chest, clawing at the spot as though she could pull the butterfly from her chest and save herself from the effects of it. Her clawing shifted towards her shoulder and she was gripping her left arm. A whimper echoed from her. Her body tensed, and she fell to her knees, the veins and arteries in her neck distended. Her eyes widened suddenly and then life flowed from them. Ascian reached a hand out, turning it palm up and calling to the elder’s life force, pulling what remained from its body and releasing it to the forest.

The elder's lifeless body fell forward, slack and empty.

Metal clattered behind them, and Ascian turned to find the female reaper sprinting for the exit, her dagger abandoned on the floor in front of Suoh. Verena shot forward to Maelo’s side, sliding her arms under Maelo’s armpits and lifting her to her feet. Maelo fought her as Verena moved them away from the fight, but Verena gripped her, muttering quietly enough for only Maelo to hear and his sister finally stopped resisting. Whatever Verena had said, Ascian was grateful. He wouldn’t lose another sister when it could be prevented. He didn’t need her to win this battle, but he would need her once it was over. When they could finally start to allow themselves to grieve their losses because Ascian didn’t want to go through that alone, and he sure as hell didn’t want Maelo to go through it alone.

Verena stopped by the exit, checking through a small gap before she looked at Ascian one more time and then helped Maelo get out.

“If you think a little deity energy will help you defeat us, you’re-.”

“Wrong?” Ascian interrupted, tilting his head to the side. “I think my beloved amorsa clearly portrayed we’re anything but wrong about having the ability to defeat you.”

“One little butterfly,” Alora hummed. “And one of you is dead. What might a flutter of butterflies do against one of you? Do you know, Commander?”

Ascian crossed his arms, the black ribbons shifting to swirl around his entire body. “I could imagine they might be a little … hungry after metamorphosing. Perhaps they’d taken a few bites?”

Alora tapped her chin in contemplation as they both watched a myriad of emotions flicker over the Throat elder’s face. To witness such a thing on a supposedly ‘all powerful’ being? Ascian wondered if this was what pure joy felt like.

Behind him, the Solar elder muttered with a sneer, “A Life deity could never take from another living thing. It goes against everything they are. You’re nothing but an imposter. A fake, trying to make it seem like fighting is futile.”

Alora stepped forward, more and more chrysalis’ cracking open and revealing those stunning emerald butterflies. “Would you like to test that theory?”

The Solar elders' lips parted to respond, but a thump sounded behind them, and they all looked to witness the last male reaper smashing his head into the marble wall. Cónán watched from a short distance away, arms folded and a smirk on his lips. The reaper repeatedly drew his head back and slammed it forward until a nauseating crack filled their ears and blood gushed down his face. His body paused as he drew his head away again and then crumpled to the floor.

A grimace marred Alora’s face, and Ascian offered a gentle, comforting touch to pull her from the sight of it. She blinked, focusing her gaze on him .

“I think it’s time we end this, don’t you?” He asked casually.

Alora nodded. “I have a feline I wish to get back to.”

The Throat elder stepped forward, lifting two of his blades and offering her a too-sweet smile. “How about you take these and reopen the scar on your neck?”

Tendrils of energy curled out with the words, blowing towards Alora’s ears and slipping into them. Her eyes glazed over, fingers twitching as she lifted her arms and reached for the blades.

Ascian didn’t think twice as he sent a simple thought to the Throat’s mind, enclosing it in walls to prevent the elder from fighting it. The elder wrapped his fingers around the blades tightly and lifted them to his own throat. The effect of his words melting away from Alora. Ascian closed the distance between them, keeping their gazes locked.

“Threatening my amorsa will be the last thing you ever do in this forest, now. Slash. It. ” He snarled, and blood sprayed him as the elder swept the knife across his throat and dropped to the floor, gurgling the last of his life away.

The last remaining elder took a step back, eyes flicking between the two of them rapidly. She looked like a deer caught in a hunter’s eye-line, arrow nocked and ready to be released.

“If I surrender, would you be merciful?”

Ascian laughed, sharp teeth glinting. “I have been merciful . My amorsa has been merciful . Where was mercy when you sent Nymphs to deal punishments to my Reapers on orders you gave?”

“They didn’t even receive the damn punishment,” the Solar snapped back.

“Because I took it myself !” Ascian snarled back. “I wouldn’t let them receive a punishment they shouldn’t have had to get! Your deaths, they are merciful compared to the punishments I have received. I should have you chained up and tortured for a millennia, but I don’t wish to soak and sour in revenge for that long. Nor do I wish anyone else to, so yes, I will be merciful, and you won’t have to experience never-ending pain for the last stretch of your life.”

Alora wrapped her fingers around Ascian’s arm as she stepped up beside him. “Tell the other souls, the ones Ascian allowed to be released, that Death gives mercy even to those who don’t deserve it, but Life is not so kind. Come back with the same intentions, and expect ruthlessness.”

The Solar walked forward and exposed her throat to them, squeezing her eyes closed. Ascian wrapped his hand around her throat but needn’t put any pressure there. Instead, he focused pressure inside her mind. Inch by inch, infiltrating every crevice and until it exploded and her mind shattered in his mental grasp. Her body fell limp in his grip. He released her, letting her fall to the floor and join the others.