The flood of information in the scythe hammered into Sai's head like a thousand screaming whispers. Heaven. Hell. Reincarnate. Tags blinked in and out of his vision.
Then he saw it.
That name
[Name: Lucy Halos]
[Type: Rebirth (outer type)]
[Designation: World VX700D Litheria]
[Class: Cosmic Mage (S).]
His grin faltered. His chest tightened with something darker than fear.
Lucy. The girl who had sworn to stand by him. The girl who had kissed him before a job, promising to "wait forever." The girl who betrayed him, basically framing him herself, left him bleeding, draining him dry in more ways than one.
He had been branded her killer. Executed for her murder. And now? She was strolling toward reincarnation with a shiny S tag.
Sai's lip curled. "The world really is unfair."
Veylith's voice cut through the night. Smooth. Confident. Teasing, but edged with steel.
"Not unfair. Just balanced in ways you could never understand."
From the shadows, the second reaper stepped forward.
She was nothing like dreary Asvorn. She had poise, style—black trench coat hanging loose over sharp curves, eyes glittering like sharpened jewels. Her scythe floated behind her, humming with restrained violence, while she casually sipped from a soda like this was all just entertainment.
"I am Veylith," she said, voice velvet over steel. "Two-hundred fifty-seventh ranked reaper, of the Embrial House. Effective immediately, I'll be taking over the reaping procedure of the Waker, Sai Nirvan, from Reaper 859."
Sai blinked. "Waker?"
Asvorn gave a tired shrug. "Don't ask. It's just a classification." Then to her, he sighed, raising a brow."You didn't need my permission. You were going to reap him anyway."
Veylith smiled faintly, and without another word—lunged.
Her scythe blurred, a flurry of arcs that tore through the air like lightning. Sai brought up his stolen weapon just in time, sparks of deathly energy ringing as metal met metal.
The impact hurled him backwards, smashing him into a solid surface.
"Wall?" he muttered, dazed.
Then he saw it. A cube of dark purple walls shimmered around him, the very air pulsing with the sickly aura of death.
Asvorn stood outside the cube, arms crossed but his gaze sharp. "Domain seal. Standard procedure."
"Shit," Sai spat.
Veylith was already on him again. Her strikes were graceful, practiced, professional. Every swing pushed him further, her aura tearing into the fabric of his ghost-body. He blocked, parried, twisted—using every assassin instinct to redirect force instead of matching it.
Still, she drove him back. His essence bled under every clash. His knees shook. He felt his soul thinning, eroding, unraveling.
"This is pointless," Veylith said calmly, her scythe raised like a guillotine. "You're already dead. Accept it. It's painless. Come quietly, Waker."
Sai forced himself up on one knee, his form flickering like a candle flame. Not from pain—but because holding himself together in this realm cost more willpower than he had left.
"I've…" he rasped, eyes downcast. "…accepted my death."
Veylith tilted her head. "Good. Acceptance is the first step to a peaceful afterlife."
Then his eyes snapped up to hers. The manic spark was back, defiant and burning.
"So you have to accept his."
And with that, Sai did something insane.
He turned his own scythe inward—and stabbed himself through the arm.
The weapon shrieked, greedily drinking in his essence, unraveling the right side of his body into streams of ghostly vapor.
Veylith's eyes widened. "What are you doing?!"
Asvorn's brows rose, intrigued but unmoved. "Huh. That's… unconventional."
Sai's grin split across his fading face, feral and unhinged. "You're not the only ones who can write the rules."
He gathered every drop of will, every splinter of identity he had left to let the blade absorb him, just enough to amplify it enough to pierce the cube, just below the level which would make him lose his identity. Not aiming at Veylith. Not Asvorn. But at the memory of where he died—at him.
Leon.
His so-called best friend.
The traitor.
The scythe howled as he swung, the sound like a jet tearing the sky in half. The strike cut through reality itself, lancing out not at flesh—but at soul.
BOOM.
The spectral blade punched straight through Leon's essence, piercing him from within. A perfect reaping strike. His soul was severed instantly. He was dead before he knew it.
Sai staggered, trembling, half his soul torn, but his grin was vicious.
"Checkmate… asshole."
Silence hung for a beat then...
CRACK! SHATTER!
The cube shattered with a deafening crack, shards of purple light raining like glass as Sai's last attack burned through the space itself.
His form unraveled, wisps of his essence tearing loose. He was dissolving before their eyes.
Asvorn sighed, shoulders sagging as if someone had just handed him a fifty-page report. "Just great. More paperwork." He trudged toward where his scythe had fallen, mutterin something about his bad luck.
Veylith, however, didn't move immediately. Her sharp eyes narrowed on the dissolving ghost, and with deliberate steps she approached, heels tapping softly against the broken floor.
"Why did you do it, kill him, I mean," she asked, voice smooth but curious, "knowing you'd still leave this world either way?"
Sai turned toward her, his fading face split by a crooked smile. "Well, I couldn't let him sit there in the middle of the street, could I?" he said with mock compassion, feigning like killing Leon had been a mercy.
Then the grin returned, wild and unrepentant. "Plus, I wanted to go out on my own rules."
Veylith chuckled, low and amused. "You're really a weird one. But…" She leaned closer, her eyes glimmering like stars reflected in obsidian. "…I like weird."
Sai deadpanned. Seriously? Was she trying to hit on him now?
She stared at him for a second as her scythe buzzed faintly before stilling. A small smile appeared on her face as she leaned so close, her lips nearly brushed his ear, whispering just as his body began to vanish entirely. "Just so you know…you actually did help him, lucky Leon received an SS Class." She paused for effect, then grinned wickedly.
"The Hero."
Sai's eyes widened. Confusion hit first—then rage. "No. No, no, no!" His voice cracked into despair. "How the fuck is this fair!?"
His scream echoed into nothing as he dissolved completely, the last scraps of his essence torn from the world entirely.
---
Darkness. Vast and infinite.
Sai drifted in the void, surrounded by colossal streams of light—red, gold, blue, violet— all flowing like rivers in impossible patterns. They looped and coiled into endless knots, glowing brighter than stars.
None of them shone on him. Light touched him only to recoil, as though his existence swallowed it whole.
Still, he moved, drifting through the flowing currents. They weren't just light. They were… code of sorts. Each one radiated a new, unique rhythm. Complex beyond comprehension, alive with meaning.
He reached for one. It dimmed instantly, collapsing into dust. Another—shattered just the same.
"Tch." He tried again, over and over, until he realized with a pang of unease: he was damaging them, destroying something far beyond what he was supposed to interact with.
So instead, he watched. Observed.
A golden one caught his eye. Familiar, somehow. Comforting yet repulsive at the same time. He skimmed its surface and felt a pulse through his being—recognition. It dimmed under his touch but flared back brighter than before.
Strange. Interesting.
Then, shadows stirred.
Dark motes of energy swarmed, attacking the golden line like carrion birds on prey. Sai's lips curled in fascination. "Heh. Parasites. Let's see if you're like the others."
Without hesitation, he snatched them up. They quivered in his hands, then fused together, glowing with a sinister purple light.
A portal tore open, jagged and hungry. Before Sai could react, it swallowed him whole dragging him into whatever lay at the other side.
---
He awoke to chanting. Strange, raspy chanting in high, reverent notes. The kind you'd hear at the beginning of a demon themed horror movie.
His head throbbed as nausea rolled through him. Cold stone pressed against his bare skin as he collapsed to his knees. The air was thick with incense, metallic with blood.
Slowly, his vision cleared. A reflection glared back from the polished black altar floor—his own eyes, violet and slitted like a predator's.
His dark hair was longer and even darker than he remembered. His skin was paler, not sickly as like a corpse, but the beautiful kind like a vampire. Totally on the look factor he had upgraded by at least four points out of ten.
Around him, dozens of cloaked figures bowed low, their voices echoing as one:
"All hail the great Demon Lord… Xerathos, Herald of End."
The oppressive atmosphere pressed in, heavy with dark power. Sai could taste it on his tongue—corrupt, unholy… yet oddly delicious.
A cold draft brushed him. He looked down—naked. His Excalibur hanging exposed.
"The fuck!"
One man in a more ornate cloak stepped forward and draped a crimson mantle across Sai's shoulders. Then he bowed, forehead to the ground. "My lord. I am the High Priest of the Obsidian Palace. It was I who summoned you from your eternal prison. We bring you offerings, that you may regain your strength and lay claim to this world."
He gestured. Bound prisoners were dragged forward, thrown to their knees at the foot of the altar. Most were hollow-eyed, defeated husks awaiting death.
But two stood out.
A teenage girl, maybe sixteen, fire blazing in her eyes as she glared up at him with defiance. At her side, a boy no older than eight clung to her hand, trembling. Afraid but still clinging to hope in the girl.
The High Ruler spoke almost proudly. "We… had to rush ever since we found the ritual to revive your eminence. We hired bandits to stage a village raid. They overstepped, killed nearly all. These two alone survived. The rest—bandits we captured and delivered as tribute."
Sai rose slowly, body aching but steady, crimson cloak pooling at his feet. His new form pulsed with darkness, every breath feeding him with forbidden power.
His gaze lingered on the girl. So young, yet unbroken.
And he smiled.
A way out. A path he could use in this new world.