The Twilight of Death Verse

They’re looking at Cyrrus Crystl Void. Different races of gods, all of them different from each other. He looks around, standing on a glowing pinkish fluid, probably a river, that extends into the night sky filled with glowing stars.

“Can anyone of you tell me where G Fallasleep is?” Crystl asks everyone present there.

None of them answers him. In fact, they just return to their usual thing. However, it is a good thing that somebody took pity on him. She has a monochromatic color. She’s got short spiky white hair, her eyes are black, her lipstick is white, her earrings are black, her skirt is white, her T-shirt is black, her gloves are white, her socks are black, her kneepads are white, and finally her shoes are monochromatic. The last thing to add, she is fair skinned.

“He’s busy talking with a new recruit, just like you. I’m Strika but you can call me Lt. Strika. I am a Temporal Being. This place is the Timeless River, a creation of my creator, Lady Xemp, the Supreme Being of Time.”

“At the very least, you are polite,” he sighs in relief. “My name is Cyrrus Crystl Void. I was also recruited by G Fallasleep.”

“We are all new recruits actually,” she offers for a handshake. “You are probably the last one to arrive.”

“I see,” Crystl obliges with the handshake, of course. “Now I know the reason why everyone’s doing their own…”

Looking up ahead, he sees an out-of-placed mansion with a familiar face getting out from its gates, the nightmare nurse. Strika turns her head towards her.

“That is Lord Xeel’s secretary,” Strika leads him to her.

“I already met her before,” Crystl walks ahead to greet her. “Is G Fallasleep still busy, Ms. Noiricca? I need to ask him a very personal question…”

“Yes,” Noiricca looks at him with her signature blank stare, “he will be coming out later.” She then gazes at Strika, “Were you the one who welcomed Mr. Void, Lieutenant?”

“Yes I did, Noiricca-san,” Strika turns her attention to Crystl. “Fun fact, I am actually a high-ranking officer, a lieutenant general here in the Timeless River.”

“Lt. Strika it is then,” Crystl salutes at her.

Lt. Strika salutes back at him. “That’s courteous of you, Mr. Crystl. How about the three of us take things inside the mansion?”

“Lead the way ladies,” Crystl lets them in first. “I’ve got a lot of questions to ask…”

Chapter 6: CRIMSON SQUAD

“Is the attendance complete?” G looks around.

In the study hall of the mansion, everybody is gathered by G to convene their first meeting. While waiting for the meeting to convene, Crystl notices the heaviness in the atmosphere. Of course, he also contributes to its intensity. The reason for which is because they have their own pride on the line, “I am the strongest in this place!” or “I don’t trust these people around me!” or “What is it are we going to work for?” and other questions that could possibly pop up out of nowhere. They all have their pride on the line… well most of them…

“Everybody has arrived,” Noiricca speaks with the one responsible for this meeting, “and everything has been prepared, Master G.”

“Thank you Noiricca,” G nods at her. “You may take a seat.”

As soon as she sits down and G stands up and walks in front, the meeting has officially begun.

“Alright,” G grins. “How about we introduce ourselves first? You already know me and Noiricca, who goes through a lot of trouble just to greet and get to know a bit of you. So I think we should start with the introductions at the back starting with you, Mr. Void.”

“Why did I have to choose this place to seat into?” he whispers to himself and then stands up.

“I want you to tell us who and what you are, your titles and accomplishments, your rank in your universe, your power, ability, and your primary weapons.”

“I am Cyrrus Crystl Void, a Death Being. My title is the Weaponair and I am ranked as the strongest in Death Verse,” Crystl notices the others looking at him with dire or great interests, maybe they want to battle him or something. “My Reaper Power is to turn myself or any part of my body into weapons… and I can also break the forces that govern nature and matter… I can break through anything thrown at me. My ability is probably the same as any other Death beings out there which is to capture the souls of the mortals who have perished. Finally, I am my own weapon.”

“Aside from yourself,” G takes a look at his data. “I need you to tell them about your other weapon and you forgot your accomplishments.”

“Do I have to?” Crystl sighs. “Fine… my other weapon is an Eternal blade called Trinity-X-Calibur and the only accomplishment I can think of is becoming a God Slayer.”

The room’s atmosphere suddenly intensifies.

“Alright, thank you. You may now take your seat. A Death Being has two power sources, the first one is their Reaper Powers and the second one is their Reaper Awakening. If I have the chance to rename your boring names for power sources, I would call your awakening as Grim Awakening.” G gets excited with the intensity within the eight walls of the study hall. “Alright, next one please…”

“I’m not done yet, G.” Crystl glares at him. “I need to ask you one personal question.”

“Alright, ask me…”

“You cured Caine, didn’t you?”

“I did,” G’s eyes narrowed. “Shit, what happened?”

“Prince Caine reverted back to his cannibal state,” Crystl clenches his fists, “and I was forced to slay him. I thought you cured him, why didn’t it work?”

“Once a cannibal, forever a cannibal,” G slams his fist on the table. “Remember when I told you about the mastermind of these acts of cannibalism within the soul community? It’s partially my fault… If I knew sooner, I could’ve cured him properly.”

Crystl, upon hearing the explanation, sits down. “If that mastermind was the reason about all of this team you are building, then I’m in.”

G nods at him, “I’ll be explaining everything after we finish with the introductions. Lieutenant, you’re up next.”

“I’m Lieutenant General Strika. My title is the Blitz of Nature and I am a 3-Star General and I am ranked second here in the Timeless River. I am blessed with the power of lightning, I can use the power of fire, I can also use the power of the air, and the power of light. My ability is to pause time for eternity. In G’s human terminology, it is called pausing the game… I’m not sure. I can’t move when I also use this ability though, so I use this ability to think of my next move or to take a rest. As for my weapon, I also use an Eternal blade called Diamanticus.”

“The Eonian twins are, together, the ranked 1st here in Timeless River, right?” G makes some clarification. “Two inseparable twins… when separated from each other, you become the strongest, lieutenant.”

“I think so,” Lt. Strika nods at him.

“Alright, take your seat,” G points at the next member. “What about you?”

“Bezal L Cero, I’m a Chaos-Human being. They call me the Tyrant King of Hell Verse. I killed a lot of Creation beings and arrogant Chaos beings who didn’t know their own place. I also recall killing mortals and absorbing their destroyed souls after killing them twice. I have a lot of powers. My weapon is a long sword.”

“What are your exclusive powers and abilities?”

“I have the affinity to all kinds of elements except powers born from imagination. My unique ability is oppression.”

“Thank you, you may sit down. You see, Bezal is a unique being created by the Supreme Being of Destruction Xaos. He is a Chaos Seed and he forgot to mention creating other Chaos Seeds to follow him around. He is feared by a lot of Celestial/Creation beings. Even without an Eternal blade to wield, he was unstoppable.” G looks at the one in front of Bezal. “Next, please stand up…”

“I am Vol-jan, a Reality Being created by Lady Waxe, Supreme Being of Reality,” The voodoo doll-like being with X’s for eyes makes his introduction. “They call me a Titan God because I destroyed my own universe after creating five titans followers of my own. I can use all kinds of powers, except for powers from his fantasy world. My unique ability is the Multiple Choice which allows me to choose the best answer from the best options beforehand. My weapon is a spear created from dark energy.”

“The reason Vol-jan is like that is because I sealed his universe-destroying powers away from him.” G shows them a keychain voodoo doll that looks exactly like Vol-jan. “I did this to him in order for him to learn empathy.”

“Learn empathy, he says,” Vol-jan reacts, “what about that nurse? She is an empty shell devoid of feelings!”

“She was created from my subconscious,” G defends his creation. “Noiricca Grave, whatever you think she is, is learning to act like a normal human being. She already knows what is right from what is wrong and she has good judgment. The only thing she can’t do as of now is to portray the behavior you are looking for. Even with your universe-destroying powers, you can never defeat her like the many times she did.”

“Now sit down,” G grips hard on the voodoo doll making Vol-jan uncomfortable. “Until you learn restraint, you will not get your true form. You should be thankful that I took only three things from you, your free will, universal destruction, and your true form. Who’s next?”

“I am Savos Zanather, a Celestial being.” He looks at Bezal, “I’m not mad of what you did to Meltan Luminoir, but I do not agree about your actions. I will fight against my own creator by joining this squad because I no longer see him involved with the mortals. I am known all throughout the right side of the verse as the Redeemer. I cannot be any prouder of my accomplishments during my time as a human because the entire universes that branched out after my time became eviler. My divinity was used for evil purposes… it is disappointing. Before G found me, I was living my lives as a human doing good things to the poor, a philanthropist. I have a lot of powers and abilities however anything created from the world of fantasy is not one of those. I don’t have any weapons to wield, but if I would use one it would be a shield.”

“Alright,” G gives him thumbs up. “Next one please…”

“I am Gazbleir Celxion Rare. I am the Essential being that governs Courage.” A man in the full black hooded outfit, like the typical grim reaper, stands up for introductions. “Due to the immense changes in my body after my awakening, I have been called as a Quintessential being. I am currently ranked as the second strongest. I would like to explain the circumstances of my uh… circumstances, but it would take a long while to explain. My power is Darkness and my ability is called Heirloom. I can inherit the power of a friend, which is a god, who dies. As for my primary weapon, it is a scythe.”

“Thank you, Mr. Rare (pronounced as RA-RE).”G checks his notes about him. “The circumstances he is in is really complicated. He was romantically involved with the Essential being of Fear who was killed due to internal warfare amongst the gods of the Essential Verse. He inherited everything about her loved ones, not only her powers, even her abilities. Although, this guy did not make use of her abilities, which was the doppelganger, so it is not important. We all know that emotions are essential to humankind and it is necessary to feel afraid or fearful, hence the Rebirth System was created. The Essential being who died had undergone a rebirth instead of resurrection. Their internal warfare was due to this rebirth. Memories were erased and new personalities emerged. It was taken advantage off and those gods were taught evil things and there you have it, a formula for mass destruction. Because of that Rebirth, the Essential being of Fear is a kid again… alive but without her memories of the past. At this point, you guys are intelligent enough to know what happened.”

“So the new Essential being of Fear grew up with new memories and she has the same ability as her predecessor.” Lt. Strika analyzes thoroughly. “Since Heirloom does not work anymore, could it be that you lost her powers and the powers returned to her?”

“Yes,” Gazbleir approves of her analysis, “but…”

“Don’t say a word,” she immediately stops him from speaking. “I can crack this case. So… where were we? Ah right… However, this woman has a personality and memories of her own already. I think this original one is using the doppelganger ability!”

“Your right again,” Gazbleir sighs.

“See what I did there?” Lt. Strika grins at Crystl.

“Actually, she tried to possess the new Essential being of Fear but she can’t get through her and so she used the Doppelganger so that she could exist. However, while possessing her, their powers sipped through each other and multiplied making them equally powerful but opposite of each other.” Gazbleir explains it further, “the reason why I am here is to get stronger than her in order to kill her.”

“Why would you kill her?” Savos asks him.

“The Essential verse is in a state of equilibrium that the Emissaries of Balance decided not to intervene,” Gazbleir tells his reason. “However, the original Fear has become corrupted and vengeful… living in the past and blaming those she could blame and so she must be stopped. As of this moment, G is currently using his barrier to prevent her and her army from the destruction of my universe.”

“Damn, that’s deep,” Lt. Strika sighs.

“That honestly went long already…” G clears his throat. “Honestly, it took me days here in Timeless River to study his case. However, since this place is timeless, you only thought that we spoke for a brief moment. Now, next one please…”

“I am Lightzelle Heart and this one is Darkzelle Spade.” A female warrior, not wearing the clichéd sexy outfit, but rather with a decent one, stands up. “We are Spatial beings. We are not twins, but we were given these names after we became goddesses. My power is light and light shadow and hers is darkness and dark shadow. I am as powerful as the G’s third strongest creation and Darkzelle is as powerful as G’s fourth creation. However, in our world, we hold the title for the strongest and second strongest. Our world is peaceful, but the space outside the world called the Dream Space is violent. We help the lesser Sleep beings and lesser Temporal beings in preventing other races such as yours to penetrate our world. Since Sleep Verse is the largest universe of all, the other Supreme Beings tend to be… envious. The dreams of outsider gods are confined in a space provided for them. None of it will ever spill into Sleep Verse. Some mortals with special abilities called the Dreamers are free to roam around Dream Space. We do background checks with each one of them on a daily basis. My weapon is a short sword and an arm-sized teardrop-shaped shield while her weapon is a thorny spear and hooked chains.”

Lightzelle’s pinkish red hair is short but straight, and she’s about 5’9 in height. G was only 5’7 so this girl is tall. She has 6 dark green ears (3 on each side) that are designed to be zigzagging. Her eyes are reddish pink and her skin tone is fair and vibrant. The other one, Darkzelle, is more like a goth in appearance. She looks like the darker and more silent version of Lt. Strika with her monochromatic tone for her dress, except that she wore black and pink. Her hair is wavy and her 6 ears, signature ears of Spatial beings, are as black as her hair. Her skin tone is as pale as death and her eyes are pure black with her white pupils standing out.

“She explained her part very well but I can assure you,” G smiles gently at all of them, “if they were my creation, they would fall second and third to Noiricca. The reason for which is because Lightzelle and my third strongest already fought once. The winner, who won because of her meticulousness was her, Lightzelle… … Finally, express yourself… Noiricca Grave.”

“Good day to everybody,” Noiricca stands up and faces everyone. “I am Noiricca Grave, the Sleep being of Nightmares. The title that was given to me by my master is the Nightmare Nurse. I am the most powerful creation of Lord Xeel and I am the youngest of all his creations. My power is everything that I can imagine. I have the power and ability to induce nightmares, hallucinations, illusions, and delusions. My weapon of choice is my Injection blade and a silenced magnum pistol with its Fairy gem cartridge.” The way she speaks is without a doubt devoid of emotions and then she drops a line that shifts the tone of the room from intense to the extreme, “From what I can sense from each and everyone you except for my master, I am the strongest.”

“Shit,” Bezal stands up and heads to the door. “You and me, one on one, outside, right now!”

“I was going to challenge her first,” Vol-jan stands up and confronts Bezal, “Buzz off!”

“Wait,” G spreads out his hands around all of them. “I need to make sure that none of you gets killed before you go and kill each other.”

“She looks dangerous despite her appearance,” Lt. Strika whispers to Crystl’s ear. “This is going to be good.”

“I don’t want to fight,” Savos is being cautious as he looks at Noiricca. “She is too pure for me to understand.”

“Kuh,” Crystl whines while seated down glaring at the rest of the gods. “How did it end up like this?”

“Lt. Strika, do you have a desolate world we can use here in the Timeless River?” G walks outside while holding some weird things.

“Mother has created a World mimicking the environment of the desolate lands of the Death Verse.” Lt. Strika starts to locate it within the river.

“What are those, G?” Crystl takes a look at the weird things floating around him.

“These are your totems,” G shows him his. “Yours is that bell like the ones in your… err… tied to your hair.”

“What is it used for?” Lightzelle takes interest and tries to find hers.

“If you get killed there in the world where I will take you so that you can fight with each other as a means to check your own abilities, it would all seem like you woke up from dying in a dream. I might’ve worded it wrongly… I hope you understand though…”

“I see now,” it seems like she easily grasps what G have explained. “Is that my totem, that pink heart?”

“Yes milady, it is.” G signals Lt. Strika.

The river they were standing on lit up as a door to a world hidden within it rises up from its pinkish waters.

“The entrance to the battlefield is here, Sir G.” Lt. Strika proudly presents the amazing powers of the Timeless River.

“Alright, this fight is free for all,” G grins. “You can even attack me if you want to get beaten in an instant. Rest assured that you won’t get killed because of these totems that represent each of you. It is difficult for me to explain this to you so I’ll make it easy… This fight is a dream, but it doesn’t mean that this dream is not real.”

“That’s good enough for me,” Vol-jan glares at Noiricca and Bezal. “I’m going to show you who’s boss.”

“You know what? You piss me off,” Bezal cracks his fists. “I’m going to make you regret approaching me.”

“This is actually part of my plan,” G thinks to himself. “If they get to know their own limitations early on, training them to defeat the main adversary will be worth it.”

Desolate World, Timeless River

“I SAID, I’LL GO FIRST!” Bezal insists on dueling Noiricca first.

“WHO SAID IT WOULD BE YOU?!” Vol-jan marches towards Bezal. “I’LL TAKE YOU OUT FIRST THEN!”

Noiricca summons her stuffed red panda and her button-eyed rag doll, “Terror-san… Trauma-san, attack Vol-jan.”

“WHAT?!” Vol-jan’s eyes widened as Noiricca’s two monsters charge at him. Vol-jan feels chills along his spine as the ragdoll brings out a humongous pair of scissors. “THIS IS CHEATING, YOU B-”

The impact of the scissors landing down on the ground creates a huge crater that causes minor tremors. The ragdoll, Trauma, laughs hysterically as it is filled with killing intent. Vol-jan has no choice but to fight the rag doll, however intelligently, it hid behind Night Terror, the red panda causing him to back off suddenly. The panda roars as its claws retracted out from its stuffed arms and legs.

“So you chose to fight me huh. Better regret it later!” Bezal summons his golden blade. Skilled at Reversed Swords Dance, he zooms in on her for a quick slice.

Noiricca, as she always is, doesn’t show any emotions as she summons her Injection blade to block Bezal’s several attempts at slicing and slashing her. Swords strike each other one after another, the former means to kill, while the other waits for the opportunity… the opportunity to kill. Noiricca decides that she wants to finish her opponent. At one clash of their blades, she summons her silenced magnum pistol with her left hand aimed at Bezal. Few shots are fired, but he instinctively evades every single shot. However, Noiricca is relentless at firing shots at Bezal even as he distances himself away from her.

Once Bezal is far enough from getting in her line of fire, Noiricca raises her Injection blade at him. From the tip of the needle, a gigantic slimy green orb which is highly toxic in nature begins to form and grows in size in a matter of seconds. After reaching its maximum size, she fires it towards Bezal like a cannon. He easily dodges it, but then realizes that it is about to explode, he instinctively grows out his draconic wings to block the explosion. However, as it exploded, the force blows him to the ground below.

Crystl is glued at their match, his hands and legs trembling. He wants to join in… this match is free for all anyway, right?

Back on the match, as Bezal gets back to his feet, he notices that the ground glows red turning and turning into lava. He tries to dodge it but he still gets hit as the ground below him erupts spewing hot lava, poisonous smoke, and pyroclastic materials. The origin of the attack was from the Injection blade with its needle injected to the ground.

“Magma Explosion,” Noiricca pulls out the needle from the ground. Not giving Bezal a chance to make a move from the thick smoke he is in, Noiricca, wielding her Injection blade, creates the toxic slimy green orb again, this time chanting its name, “Chemical Waste Cannon.”

Blowing off the toxic gas from the volcanic smog, Bezal dodges the cannon and dashes towards Noiricca with his blade while evading its explosion. As Bezal tries to close in their distance, Noiricca shows another of her skills, Shadow Punch. She punches Bezal in the face, knocking him down by surprise, from a distance with a shadow in the shape of her fist. Not satisfied, Noiricca turns her fist into claws to somehow claw him and tear him apart. Luckily, Bezal narrowly escapes her attack.

Unable to control his urge to attack, Crystl accelerates towards Noiricca. Transforming his arms into katanas and his legs into chainsaws, Crystl makes his move.

“Sword Style 7713,” Crystl concentrates towards Noiricca… “Huh?”

As he heads a few meters towards her, Caine suddenly appears to block Crystl from her. He slows down a bit surprised and confused as to why the prince is alive and well somehow preventing him from performing his sword attack.

“No! You are already dead!” Crystl’s awakened power activates and breaks through the hallucination created by Noiricca. The breaking manifested as the sound of glass shattering.

However, even though he breaks free from it, Noiricca needed only a few seconds to deceive him. What he sees after breaking through the attack is a gigantic green blob that causes a great head on collision creating a massive explosion throwing Crystl with great force as he is seen crashing into the cliff where the spectators are watching on top of it.

“Holy shakes,” G wobbles as the cliff shakes for a bit.

“She’s extremely overpowered,” Lightzelle moves with Darkzelle to another cliff. “You guys should hurry away from there. The cliff is on the verge of collapsing!”

“I’ll go check on Crystl,” Lt. Strika flies down at the crash site.

“What were you thinking when you created the nurse, G?” Savos asks her creator.

“Extreme fear from dying over and over again,” G sighs. “I was human when I unconsciously created her.”

From afar, they hear another massive explosion, this time it’s a volcanic eruption. The victim of the heard explosion, Vol-jan, is knocked down with his face flat on the cold sandy battlefield of the Desolate World. Noiricca lowers her head as a sign for maybe saying, “Thank you very much for the one-sided match.”

“That match was scary and awfully one-sided,” Gazbleir feels his knees tremble. “Even if I am the embodiment of Courage, I can genuinely say that I was afraid for my life.”

“It could’ve been worse if you jumped in just like that grim reaper over there,” G points at Crystl being helped by Lt. Strika. “Thankfully, nobody died. Although, egos and pride were shattered…”

“I see it as an eye-opener though,” Lightzelle looks at the fallout from the match. “I need to get stronger to be able to keep up with her… with you also.”

“I don’t need your help,” Bezal refuses Savos’ healing. However, there is no helping it because his legs were melted by the mixture of the chemicals and the lava. “Alright, probably a little. But I don’t owe you anything…”

“She hasn’t even used the mystical powers of this universe and yet she is already this strong,” Savos finishes regenerating Bezal’s legs back. “If our enemies are as powerful or stronger than her then we are doomed. We need to work together…”

Bezal glares at him, but decides to sigh it off, “For the time being… I guess we have to work together. You should probably help the voodoo guy.”

Crystl wakes up in a hospital bed the next day despite it being a timeless world. He looks around and finds out that he is back in the mansion again. Hearing snoring sounds, he checks the other bed and sees the voodoo guy still asleep. Looking around, a note in his bed gets his attention. As he reads what is written, he smirks.

HOW WAS YOUR INITIATION? BY THE WAY, WELCOME TO THE CRIMSON SQUAD!

“I really need to pull myself together, huh. How did it end up like this?”