Chapter 161 The Interest Of A Deity
"Hello," he greeted the maids in the kitchen. It was the first place he went because the kitchen was his mother's favorite part of the house. His too because it was where his mother cooked all sorts of delicious food for him.
"Hello Lord Justin." Gertrude was eager to respond to him. Being the first born son of Esong Wu, someday this little boy would be the head of the prosperous Wu family. "Are you looking for something to eat?"
"No, I want my mummy." He was eager to show her his report card, having come third in his class.
"Your mummy might be sleeping so you will have to be real quiet." Anna told Justin.
He was let into the bedroom and he found her sleeping indeed as Anna said. Justin smiled, took of his shoes and slipped into the bed, falling asleep with his mother which was something he had not done in a long time.
His mother however was actually using this opportunity to continue climbing the ranks on the leaderboard. In order to at least come closer to top one hundred within a year she had to fight constantly and burst her way through the thousands of grim reapers that were already ahead of her.
The underworld was not like the mecha fights which were simple to navigate. Here, petty tricks like hallucinations did not work, only the level of soul strength did.
Facing another level three grim reaper at who was placed two thousand six hundred thirty eight on the leaderboard Scarlet was scared that she might lose this fight. It had been forty minutes but there was no hint who the winner of this fight would be. Her opponent Black Dalia was a mist walker, she could appear and disappear in a mist. She could also surround her opponent with that mist, choking them and blocking their soul energy. She was also patient, Black Dalia was known for her inexhaustible patience, her prowess and calculative nature. It's what made her one of the most well known level low level grim reapers. Her beauty added another tribute to the things which made her special. She was tall, dainty, with a tiny face, sharp nose and Cherry red lips. When Ezrah had been describing Black Dalia to Scarlet, she used the words heavenly beauty with a waist so small that dances as she walks.
It was so weird to her that even in a realm like this one, things like beauty still mattered. Grim reapers preferred to date amongst themselves because there was no point in dating a human that would die while you lived forever. Black Dalia was one of the most sought after female reapers in the underworld for her beauty and unique mist skill. Scarlet still found it pointless for grim reapers to be together since they could not reproduce. If they could, there would no need to find strong souls that would be turned into grim reapers.
She looked at the mist which was boxing her in and she wondered how she was going to escape it.
"Haha." A beautiful bell like sound was heard in her ears. "I yield, two words hound and I will release you."
"Never." Scarlet responded gruffly, she was trying to break through the mist with her soul power but it was not working. It seemed as if it had been contained within her.
In the audience, Lythia as always was here for Scarlet's fight and accompanying her was an unlikely individual, the old deity with a different face.
"Why are you here?" Lythia asked him. "I appreciate the disguise but not interest in her."
"Why?" the old deity smiled cheekily. "I find her interesting, and that flame of hers is also interesting." He looked over at Lythia with a more serious face. "They don't know were special flames like that come from but we do. I am simply here to make sure she doesn't ruin my hard work by ruining my reapers. Besides, I would like to spend more time with her."
"Don't do this, she is not a toy brother. I know you well and you have been bored for millions of millenniums and suddenly she comes along and you are considering toying with her for your amusement. I have never asked you for anything but for the first time in our long existences I am asking, if you need I will beg, not her." Lythia looked deeply into the old deity's eyes. Lythia knew all too well that deities could be cruel, her brother inclusive. These world that they built and filled with humans were done for their amusement and when they became bored, they destroyed them or simply moved on to newer worlds. They picked humans as toys and when they got bored, they broke those toys. It did not mean that they did not love the humans, being immortal just made them numb to small things like death of humans.
Lythia's words elicited a laugh from the old deity, he found her plea amusing. "What is it about this one that is making you beg me little sister? You make me want to toy with her all the more, ironically I could not touch her if she was human but as a reaper she is mine. Let's be candid here, I cannot quell my interest in her. In life, they belong to my most annoying brother but in death they belong to me. Which is why I am so irritated by the fact that I can't see the moment of her reaping. None of the reapers on Wrath's world brought her here, she appeared as if by magic. On top of that she brazenly tried to cut the line and escape from me."
"You put those thoughts in her head." Lythia snapped at him.
"Tomato, tomatoe, she chose to escape, it's all the same thing. I like her, she is greedy but not too greedy. She knows her boundaries but it doesn't stop her from attempting to bargain with me. She doesn't fear me which keeps making me wonder who sent her here and why?"
"Does it matter?"
"I want them Lythia," The old deity looked deeply into Lythia's eyes and he repeated his words, "I want them. The last memories of her life belong to me but they were stolen, you know how I get when someone steals from me. So if by any chance it happens to be you, return what belongs to me or I will be very unhappy and no reaper will get any rest for the next ten millenniums. One tiny outbreak of a deadly virus can wipe out billions of them in a few years."
"That's extreme, even for you." she gasped.
"Like I said, I hate it when someone takes what belongs to me. I hate it even more when other deities interfere in the way I run my world, death is my territory."
Lythia touched her head and a little white floating string of energy appeared. Slowly, it floated all the way to the old deity and he inhaled it with his eyes closed. There was a euphoric look on his face, and then he exhaled.
"You reaped her soul personally, now why would you do that?" the old deity looked at Lythia curiously. Now he knew why no reaper could confirm having reaped Scarlet, or Su Yan as she was back then. Why would his all powerful sister, a minor deity reap the soul of a mere mortal?
"I owed someone a favor, she died before her time apparently so I delivered her and allowed her to keep a little dimensional space as per that favor. That is all I know, there is no mystery to it, check your records if you want and you will find that she was not supposed to die when she did."
"Huh, now I am back to being bored." The old deity feigned a yawn. "Although, someone needs to teach her how to master that flame, Severus told me that she is struggling but she is too proud to admit it. So, I will decide whether to step in or not depend on how she handles this fight. If she triggers my interest, I will not treat her like a toy, I will ….. master, I will be her master."