Slowly,
The dream life that Lidien lived faded into the vast ocean of Verve, reflecting the starry skies.
His throat was sore no matter how he gulped, his sclera reddened from his welled-up tears, as his bloody iris seemed to glow.
As a single tear dropped into the ocean of Verve, Lidien stared at the shadowy and hazy being watching the Crimson Shard replay his true memory.
"Are you here to claim the body now?"
The Death God slowly turned his head. His eyes, deep and stagnant as a forgotten grave.
He stared directly at Lidien, and in that gaze, Lidien felt his entire existence--past, present, and future--laid bare... finding himself insignificant.
"What is there to claim if it was mine to begin with..." His voice was deep, and it reverberated throughout the Dreamflow.
Lidien gripped his hands, then relaxed as he faced Death for the second time.
"It's so... unfair..." he murmured.
He slowly walked towards the Crimson Shard and stood beside the Death God.
He stared at the shard, at the image of his own body in the alley.
"It's all a rigged game," he whispered, the truth settling into his bones like a frost.
"And the only rule is that there are no rules. Everything is unfair... and in that, I finally see the fairness."
Lidien watched the Crimson Shard...
He watched his father abandoning both him and his mother from a young age,
Watched his mother lie on the cold ground, coughing blood and holding his face...
Watched himself cry a river of tears when his Mother died from cancer, as it was too late...
Watched himself live as a beggar... eating scraps to fill the hunger that pained him from night to day.
Lidien did everything to survive... using his brilliant mind, he studied in a public school by day, lived in the street by night.
For years he learned how to survive, to be a fool if needed, and to do the same to those he could fool.
He was never kind, for the things that he got weren't even enough for him... It was even harder for him to trust, as the thought of his father leaving them haunted his mind.
And living in the street for his whole life? It made him realize it was either him or them being used for their own advantage... Taking him or them for granted.
Yet, no matter how opportunistic he was, no matter what plan he made to escape the life he never wished for... he just got killed in an alley without a valid reason...
Was it because he was wearing a suit and tie for his interview? One that he had used his hard-earned money to buy from a thrift shop near his place...
No,
He died just because a mugger's finger pulled the trigger...
Despair and desperation, the only things Lidien fought for his whole life.
And being side by side with Death made him question himself.
'What am I fighting for?'
The Death God heard his thought but did not answer...
'What is the meaning of living?'
Lidien stared at the Death God, still watching his Crimson Shard.
'Isn't it peaceful just to die?' The thought was a sedative, his final surrender.
But then a hotter, older fire erupted in his chest--the same fire that had kept him alive in alleys and gutters.
He felt his hands shiver, as he stabbed a Hunger in its neck.
He felt his fist sinking, thumping into the softness of organs as someone writhed beneath him.
He felt his veins burning, as the sensation of his Sparkline was continuously abused to fight for his life.
And he felt the soul of the old Lidien, crying its non-existent tears, begging for his sister to be revive.
Their sister... Lily.
He saw Lily leaping forward to block the sword of the Death Knight, saving the old Lidien without thinking for her life.
Then he saw Lily with her demonic blue eyes, inside the cave, as she lay resting her back on the cold wall... the wet sound of her finger snapping when she bit it just to give Lidien her ring to heal... and watched her final smile, the moment he took her heart out of her.
'Surrender my life? No. Never.'
Schlick!
His partially transformed hand penetrated the Death God's head without warning.
'Please die truly for my sake...'
However, the Death God's head phased out from Lidien's hand, rendering the attack utterly insignificant.
Lidien leaped back, widening the gap between them.
'So what if it's yours to begin with... I got the chance to live, even if it's impossible... I'll reach for it!'
The Death God did not smile. He laughed. A sound that had not been heard since the start of his existence.
For the first time in eternity, a soul that didn't even belong in his world had managed the impossible... To amuse Him.
And, as His laughter died... He said.
"You... are not special..." He paused, sinking His words into Lidien.
"Even I... the God of Death... am not special..."
He then walked towards the Crimson Shard and placed His hands upon it.
"Only this..."
Suddenly, a violent, external force gripped Lidien's consciousness, pulling him backward out of the Dreamflow.
As his eyes focused intently on the Death God slowly disintegrating, he heard His voice once more.
"I did not have the Essence of Death for being the God of Death; I have become the God of Death because I have the Essence of Death."
And as His form dissolved into starlight and shadow, the Death God looked at him. And for the first time, it was not a gaze of boredom or indifference, but one of profound, terrifying focus. He smiled.
"Free me... Soul from another World... and be the God of Death in the New World."
The voice echoed, searing the command into his very soul.
As Lidien's consciousness woke from the shattering mirrors, fresh tears formed in his eyes, as the lie of his dreams and the truth of his life amalgamated, turning him into something new.
The Corpse, the Shattered... and a promised God.