"Well, son of a bitch, I was looking for you too, man. Shits working out great today!" Zero exclaimed, walking toward Death with his arms swaying wildly, as if approaching an old friend. "I got some questions, buddy."
Death shook his skull slightly, the tattered robe covering his armored body rippling back and forth from his aura. Even with just a skull for expression, you could see the confusion in his sockets.
"How many times have you cheated me?" Death asked, his question accompanied by a wall of aura that stopped Zero in his tracks.
"Uh, I only met you once before when you took Máire." He looked to Virgil for a moment, then back to Death. Virgil was simply standing by, watching intently. "If you have been waiting on me, why didn't you say so then?"
"I cannot stay in the mortal world forever; even I have limits," Death replied.
"Oh, so does that mean I can't go back? What about taking someone else who died already? I can get their heart. What all do I need to bring someone back, and if I don't have it, is there something else I can do to get back? I kinda have a lot riding on this." Zero's smile was infectious. Neither Death nor Virgil could resist mustering up a smile, or at least what of one Death could make. He almost wished he had borne his helmet to not show such emotions to someone he has been grasping at for nearly five thousand years.
Death shook himself to attention and pulled the matter back to his own. "You have cheated me thirteen hundred and eleven times. Time and time again, I think I have you, but you always manage to escape my grasp. And to think, all I had to do was wait, and you would come waltzing in on your own."
"Damn, I almost died over a thousand times?"
"Thirteen hundred and eleven is more than a thousand, yes," Death replied. "What is this conviction you bolster? It's unnerving. You are in the face of Death, the end of all things. When the All Tree finally succumbs to its end, I will be there, and here you are standing in front of me with such confidence. There has only been one other who has dared stand before me with such arrogance, and yet in the same vein, I can see you two are quite similar. He too was a Dragon, not one who was trapped as a Human, of course. He ventured all the way here. Even now, I am unsure of how he did it, but he came here without dying and took the knowledge I gave him back. I saw him again some hundred thousand years later. He was old and frail when we met, but he still remembered me, and to this day, I still remember him. It must be close to three million years since that day."
"That Dragon, did he have a green-haired fairy with him?" Zero asked.
"He did. Do you know of him?"
"I don't know him personally." Zero shook his head. "But every Dragon knows the Legend of Gilgamesh and how he walked to Death's door and knocked three times, asking if there was such a thing as immortality."
"And what did I tell him?" Death asked.
"You cannot defeat death, but you can tiptoe around him longer than you'd expect and leave a story that might see the next life."
"Precisely."
"So, is that a no to going back? Like if I punch you in the face enough times, will you help me get back? Like how does this whole thing work?"
Death shook his head, glancing over at Virgil; his eye sockets shifted into a glare. "You, what business do you have with him?"
Virgil shook his head, and his body began to fade into sand, blowing away with the winds starting from his feet, slowly making its way up his body as he spoke. "Nothing right now. I'll come get what's left of him when you're done."
"Very well," Death stated, his attention shifting back to Zero, whose expression was quite concerned. Still, Death left him no time to speak. "You have lived without a Soul since the day it formed in your chest, the very day it came into being, you broke it apart, and over time, you spread it, how?"
Zero's face relaxed, and he shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know? I just did it."
"You were eight."
"No, I was two thousand and eight, there is a difference."
Death grabbed ahold of Zero's vest and pulled him in close, his voice pressing against Zero's skin so hard that it was making dents in his cheeks like a harsh wind. "STOP PLAYING FUCKING GAMES WITH ME BOY, I HAVE HAD IT WITH YOUR CHARADE OF CONFIDENCE. YOU ARE IN THE PRESENCE OF DEATH, YOU ARE IN MY EMPIRE, I WILL BE THE ONLY THING AT THE END OF THE UNIVERSE, SHOW ME THE RESPECT I DESERVE."
"Oh damn, you'll be all alone at the end of the universe? That sucks. What happens to all of us here?"
"I... I don't know... I can't see the future," Death replied.
"Oh, well then how do you know you'll be alone at the end of it all? Ain't there, like, other dimensions? Are those part of the universe too? How does that work? Where does the All Tree fit into all of this?" Zero raised a finger to his mouth as his mind pondered a bit more. "Say, who's older, you or the All Tree? Did you also come from the All Tree like the Old Gods, and what's Virgil? Is he an Old God, or is he like a NEW God? I have like a whole list of questions, but you still haven't answered if there is a way out of here or not. Can we sit down somewhere, or do you have other plans?"
Death stood there for a moment, then shook his head, resting his hand on Zero's own head, he sighed.
"Do you ever shut up?"
"I guess that depends. Are you gonna answer any of my questions? Because I told you, I have a few more, and if we are gonna be here awhile, I feel we can really check off a good chunk of them. Side note, my entire species of Dragons, are they here?"
"The ones who have died, yes, they reside in the Ninth Circle of Gardena."
"Okay, two more questions here. When you say those who have died, that’s like all of them, right? Because all of them are dead. Is it crowded down there? What’s the point of living if you just come here and live too? Wait, you said Gardena. We’ve been saying, the UNDER Gardena, should we take out the Under part, also I thought this place was called Volja Vatre?" Zero slapped his face. "Oh no, have we been calling it the wrong thing?"
Death let out another sigh. "That was more than two questions."
"Like I said, I gotta lot," Zero replied. "You don’t have to answer them in any particular order, just you know, answer them."
Death turned around and gestured for Zero to follow with the wave of his hand.
"Ooooo, are you going to show me the giant castle you live in?" Zero asked.
"No."
"Then where are we going?"
"WE aren't going anywhere. YOU are going to the First Circle, reach the Ninth, and then I will answer to you."
Zero’s excitement expelled from his body, and he gripped his fist tight. "Oooo, what do I have to do?"
Death lifted his skull slightly, stopping in his tracks just a few steps from where they started. "Survive."
"Ahh, so it’s a mystery."
"I hate you."
"You know Maeve says that a lot too."
"I can’t understand why." Death mumbled.
"Me either, man."
Death didn’t respond right away. He was still trying to process anything and everything that was Zero; he didn’t expect anything of this sort. Virgil spoke of him, but not to this degree.
"Zero."
"Yeah, bossman?"
"I will tell you this and only this for now: when I said the Dragons who have died are here, down in the Ninth Circle, I meant it as those who have truly died. Your entire species is not dead, Zero. Your entire species, including your mother, is very much alive."
"Where are they?" Zero grabbed onto Death, and instantly he was knocked backward into the sand, but just as fast, he scrambled to his feet, his aura melting out from his body. "TELL ME?!"
"Nix’s Void Domain."
Zero’s eyes widened, and he nodded his head. "Well, that’s certainly going to be a problem."
"Well, son of a bitch, I was looking for you too, man. Shits working out great today!" Zero exclaimed, walking toward Death with his arms swaying wildly, as if approaching an old friend. "I got some questions, buddy."
Death shook his skull slightly, the tattered robe covering his armored body rippling back and forth from his aura. Even with just a skull for expression, you could see the confusion in his sockets.
"How many times have you cheated me?" Death asked, his question accompanied by a wall of aura that stopped Zero in his tracks.
"Uh, I only met you once before when you took Máire." He looked to Virgil for a moment, then back to Death. Virgil was simply standing by, watching intently. "If you have been waiting on me, why didn't you say so then?"
"I cannot stay in the mortal world forever; even I have limits," Death replied.
"Oh, so does that mean I can't go back? What about taking someone else who died already? I can get their heart. What all do I need to bring someone back, and if I don't have it, is there something else I can do to get back? I kinda have a lot riding on this." Zero's smile was infectious. Neither Death nor Virgil could resist mustering up a smile, or at least what of one Death could make. He almost wished he had borne his helmet to not show such emotions to someone he has been grasping at for nearly five thousand years.
Death shook himself to attention and pulled the matter back to his own. "You have cheated me thirteen hundred and eleven times. Time and time again, I think I have you, but you always manage to escape my grasp. And to think, all I had to do was wait, and you would come waltzing in on your own."
"Damn, I almost died over a thousand times?"
"Thirteen hundred and eleven is more than a thousand, yes," Death replied. "What is this conviction you bolster? It's unnerving. You are in the face of Death, the end of all things. When the All Tree finally succumbs to its end, I will be there, and here you are standing in front of me with such confidence. There has only been one other who has dared stand before me with such arrogance, and yet in the same vein, I can see you two are quite similar. He too was a Dragon, not one who was trapped as a Human, of course. He ventured all the way here. Even now, I am unsure of how he did it, but he came here without dying and took the knowledge I gave him back. I saw him again some hundred thousand years later. He was old and frail when we met, but he still remembered me, and to this day, I still remember him. It must be close to three million years since that day."
"That Dragon, did he have a green-haired fairy with him?" Zero asked.
"He did. Do you know of him?"
"I don't know him personally." Zero shook his head. "But every Dragon knows the Legend of Gilgamesh and how he walked to Death's door and knocked three times, asking if there was such a thing as immortality."
"And what did I tell him?" Death asked.
"You cannot defeat death, but you can tiptoe around him longer than you'd expect and leave a story that might see the next life."
"Precisely."
"So, is that a no to going back? Like if I punch you in the face enough times, will you help me get back? Like how does this whole thing work?"
Death shook his head, glancing over at Virgil; his eye sockets shifted into a glare. "You, what business do you have with him?"
Virgil shook his head, and his body began to fade into sand, blowing away with the winds starting from his feet, slowly making its way up his body as he spoke. "Nothing right now. I'll come get what's left of him when you're done."
"Very well," Death stated, his attention shifting back to Zero, whose expression was quite concerned. Still, Death left him no time to speak. "You have lived without a Soul since the day it formed in your chest, the very day it came into being, you broke it apart, and over time, you spread it, how?"
Zero's face relaxed, and he shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know? I just did it."
"You were eight."
"No, I was two thousand and eight, there is a difference."
Death grabbed ahold of Zero's vest and pulled him in close, his voice pressing against Zero's skin so hard that it was making dents in his cheeks like a harsh wind. "STOP PLAYING FUCKING GAMES WITH ME BOY, I HAVE HAD IT WITH YOUR CHARADE OF CONFIDENCE. YOU ARE IN THE PRESENCE OF DEATH, YOU ARE IN MY EMPIRE, I WILL BE THE ONLY THING AT THE END OF THE UNIVERSE, SHOW ME THE RESPECT I DESERVE."
"Oh damn, you'll be all alone at the end of the universe? That sucks. What happens to all of us here?"
"I... I don't know... I can't see the future," Death replied.
"Oh, well then how do you know you'll be alone at the end of it all? Ain't there, like, other dimensions? Are those part of the universe too? How does that work? Where does the All Tree fit into all of this?" Zero raised a finger to his mouth as his mind pondered a bit more. "Say, who's older, you or the All Tree? Did you also come from the All Tree like the Old Gods, and what's Virgil? Is he an Old God, or is he like a NEW God? I have like a whole list of questions, but you still haven't answered if there is a way out of here or not. Can we sit down somewhere, or do you have other plans?"
Death stood there for a moment, then shook his head, resting his hand on Zero's own head, he sighed.
"Do you ever shut up?"
"I guess that depends. Are you gonna answer any of my questions? Because I told you, I have a few more, and if we are gonna be here awhile, I feel we can really check off a good chunk of them. Side note, my entire species of Dragons, are they here?"
"The ones who have died, yes, they reside in the Ninth Circle of Gardena."
"Okay, two more questions here. When you say those who have died, that’s like all of them, right? Because all of them are dead. Is it crowded down there? What’s the point of living if you just come here and live too? Wait, you said Gardena. We’ve been saying, the UNDER Gardena, should we take out the Under part, also I thought this place was called Volja Vatre?" Zero slapped his face. "Oh no, have we been calling it the wrong thing?"
Death let out another sigh. "That was more than two questions."
"Like I said, I gotta lot," Zero replied. "You don’t have to answer them in any particular order, just you know, answer them."
Death turned around and gestured for Zero to follow with the wave of his hand.
"Ooooo, are you going to show me the giant castle you live in?" Zero asked.
"No."
"Then where are we going?"
"WE aren't going anywhere. YOU are going to the First Circle, reach the Ninth, and then I will answer to you."
Zero’s excitement expelled from his body, and he gripped his fist tight. "Oooo, what do I have to do?"
Death lifted his skull slightly, stopping in his tracks just a few steps from where they started. "Survive."
"Ahh, so it’s a mystery."
"I hate you."
"You know Maeve says that a lot too."
"I can’t understand why." Death mumbled.
"Me either, man."
Death didn’t respond right away. He was still trying to process anything and everything that was Zero; he didn’t expect anything of this sort. Virgil spoke of him, but not to this degree.
"Zero."
"Yeah, bossman?"
"I will tell you this and only this for now: when I said the Dragons who have died are here, down in the Ninth Circle, I meant it as those who have truly died. Your entire species is not dead, Zero. Your entire species, including your mother, is very much alive."
"Where are they?" Zero grabbed onto Death, and instantly he was knocked backward into the sand, but just as fast, he scrambled to his feet, his aura melting out from his body. "TELL ME?!"
"Nix’s Void Domain."
Zero’s eyes widened, and he nodded his head. "Well, that’s certainly going to be a problem."
