As much as Azrail wished to claim that he knew how many days have gone by in this dimension of his, he was unhappy to say that he didn't know. Time didn't seem to exist here as the only remodeling thing that ever developed was the changing of positions of the moon every few hours—or what Azrail could only presume was a few hours. The appeasing noise of rushing water remained steady, as it now could only be regarded as background noise for him; along with the continuous scribbling of an ink-dipped quill across a creamy-white parchment of paper as Azrail approved the countless lives that he believed were ready to die.

Every single night was the same: wake up from his dreamless nap and look over the countless names that were on a board, confirming one after the other that Azrail considered groomed to die. Of course, after his meeting with the ex-god, Azrail could now thoroughly understand the once unfathomable golden slab as he scanned over it for a few minutes as he now applied from what limited information he grasped into his performance—which, remarkably enough, took seldom time allowing Azrail to be free to explore the gardens as much as he pleased.

Azrail constantly stayed unpredictable with the quantity of deaths per each Earth day in order to not give some kind of theory to the humans on a certain number of individuals that were destined to perish per day. For humans to realize the definite deaths per day wouldn't be very satisfactory for Azrail to discover; specifically when the golden slab undoubtedly states to never become predictable with their death sentences and numbers.

From his first death, which was of a deteriorating grandmother, Azrail made her death peaceful and painless as she passed away in her clinic bed with companions and family by her bedside, devoting the last moments they had with her to be filled with comfort. Azrail arranged her to die ten minutes after he put a check mark on her name, and ten minutes later—exactly; she died with a content smile on her face.

Checking off his last death, Azrail set it to be after an hour of his blessing, leaving him with the total deaths that day to be an overwhelming 176,000 deaths. There were times when he was tempted to read into their situation and find out how kind they were, or how much they've influenced others and judge their death by that—but that would be biased, and he was strictly forbidden to not be biased with future deaths.

Occasionally he would make sure that deaths that were expected to be spent in alienation and resentment would instead be spent in peacefulness and peace of mind, which Azrail didn't regard as being biased, just somewhat lenient. Azrail recalled one time when he was expected to execute someone, just when he was about to check off their name, the name shone and the quill didn't discharge any ink into the name. It was as if someone else allowed that fellow to survive. At that moment Azrail could only think of one thing, and that was that it must have been the God of Life's working.

Yes, the God of Life could interfere with a life close to death because of that person still being conscious, thus still being under the God of Life's influence, but that god seldom did such a thing in the five Earth days Azrail had devoted to checking off names.

Two hundred times, Azrail recalled. That was the number of times the God of Life had meddled in lives close to death and awarded a surge of life into the individual, allowing them another chance at life. This didn't trouble Azrail as he only disregarded it and continued on with his job. That person wasn't dead, so he couldn't possibly argue that their soul was under his sovereignty, so he could only gawk at the name for a few seconds before continuing on with his job.

Evaluating the name of the newly dead that were recorded on a section of protracted paper Azrail groaned and let it sink back on top of the lengthy table, already done revising his work for the day as he nimbly trudged back towards his chamber, yearning to take another brief nap, but before he could leave the Passing Room Kallias abruptly kowtowed in front of him, arms outstretched as he offered a thin glorious manuscript holder with a round insignia in the middle, connecting the two ends of the scroll together. The insignia presented an opened scroll with a barren page with two flames on each side and a wreath under the scroll.

This must be the God of Life's symbol... I'm inspired.

"Message from the God of Life, my god." Not putting out any further words, Azrail took this as a sign to seize the scroll. Now holding the scroll, Azrail opened the cape and plucked the paper out, unfurling it as he strode back to his desk. Reading the words thoughtfully, his once relaxed expression turned tough as he hastened towards the golden slab that bore the directions of what to do. Skimming over the words as conscientiously as he could, Azrail tsked, agitated once again by the incompetence of the ex-God of Death.

Detecting his god's displeasure, Kallias shrunk away, not daring to interrupt his god whilst he raved with fury, his delicate fingers strongly clutching against the placid surface of the golden slab.

"Well, Kallias, it appears like I have to attend a weekly meeting with the God of Death about the ongoing deaths and of how much regard we should put on Earth and its inhabitants. Never done this before, per se—but I assume I can just consider this as a consultation with a patient like I've done before I passed away." Putting away the shining slab, Azrail tucked away the scroll inside his bag and raced past Kallias as he ran out of the castle and out into the wide world.

Racing close behind him, Kallias became disheartened once Azrail exhibited no intentions in obliging him to accompany his god once again; though this didn't go unnoticed by Azrail as he stared at him with bemused eyes. Perhaps Kallias wished to go?

"Kallias?"

"Yes, my god?"

"Do you wish to accompany me to this meeting?" Holding back the enthusiastic squeal that threatened to elude his restraint, Kallias bowed down and smoothly said: "If my god prefers Kallias to, Kallias shall follow." Entertained by his poorly disguised expression, Azrail turned his head away from him and nodded.

"Alright then."

Striking the end of his staff upon the ground, both of their visions only saw darkness before they ultimately regained it, diverse sparkling lights invading their vision all at once, overwhelming the two of them immediately.

"Welcome, God of Death. A pleasure to meet your acquaintance. I am the God of Life. I hope you and I get along splendidly." Hearing an unfamiliar stern voice heard before them, Azrail was the first to recoup his sight before Kallias as he peered up at the rather towering god, somewhat bothered by the diversity in height.

The God of Life stood at a startling height of 6'2, which is far grander than Azrail's dispiriting height 5'6 height. With long, fiery red hair that was snatched up neatly in a high ponytail with a few strands of hair braided together, gliding mildly against the flowing wind that stimulated more volume and vibrancy to his pure white eyes that gazed attentively down towards Azrail. He had a bulky and broad chest that stretched out the top of his outfit, with his toned arms also doing the same against the satin fabric. His stomach was flat yet lean contrasted to his sturdy chest giving him an intimidating presence. His plump red lips were set in a steely frown as his light peach skin glowed against the blazing sun high in the morning sky, the hues a mellow yellow and rosy red. With a sculpted jawline that made Azrail think he could hone his staff with, this stimulated to better exenterate his godlike features. Well, silly thing was that he was now a god.

Not alarmed by the harsh pressure that the God of Life spread to everything around him, Azrail nodded his head and reached out his tender hand, pleasing to approach his new colleague properly with a polite handshake.

"Greetings, God of Life. I believe we will get along wonderfully in the future." Grasping the God of Life's hand back with hearty vigor, Azrail soon let go as he just settled there, uncertain of how to proceed.

"I called you here to Earth to discuss expected procedures concerning the lives of the individuals living here. Various calamities have come upon the regions, resulting in hundreds of creatures dying. You were to make sure that their deaths would prevail smoothly. Tell me, what were the most deaths related to?" Asking the God of Death this with an unruffled tone, the God of Life turned away from Azrail and instead stared down onto the Earth below them, the sight of miniature dots clear in their eyes.

"The most deaths were correlated with a recent pandemic called the Thermes Virus, which has recently been abbreviated to be called T-Virus. This virus infiltrates the body through either the mouth or nose as soon as the victim inhales on either body part, entering the body and—in some cases—weakening the insides beyond hope. First, it moves with a minor fever with violent sneezes and runny nose—then, in the worst yet most frequent instances, the T-Virus invades the bloodstream, gradually poisoning the victim in less than three days. Humans are presently tackling to make a vaccine for this, which has been advancing speedily, but it might be awhile before the antibody can be prepared and be able to be purchased by society." Summarizing the entire pandemic report that was delivered to him not too long ago, Azrail screamed in his mind as he commemorated how mind-numbingly long the report was.

Nodding his head in understanding the God of Life turned towards Azrail, his eyes serious as a sphere turned up by his side that showed to bear the entire universe in its interior with comets and stars seen crossing by within a few seconds of staring keenly at its see-through surface. "I say we allow the Thermes Virus to continue expanding throughout the nations, influencing the creatures below." Hearing this proposal, Azrail clutched his staff tighter, reluctant to comply but also perceiving fully well that this was the best course of action nature-wise.

"Even if it is the best course of action to grant the creatures to deal with their own plights, I believe that as their gods that we must do something to properly subdue them of their burdens. Of course, there is seldom that I could do in this situation, as I am only authorized to rule over the dead, but you can." The two remained silent after as the God of Life seemed to stare incredulously at the god next to him, bewildered that he would ever say something like grant others to have a better chance of survival.

Bringing back his emotionless expression, the God of Life glanced away from him and back to Earth, his stare deep. "And how do you expect I do that?" Interrogating the God of Death about his own solution made Azrail bit his lip in thought. "How about you give life to a Golden Child? As reimbursement for the troubles that all the creatures below or going through as of the moment?" Gazing up at the God of Life expectantly, his gaze instantly dulled as he saw the scorning sentiment that the God of Life carried in his dazzling white eyes.

"Why do humans deserve such a gift? What have we done with them in the insufficient time we have reigned in power? How much of a soft fool can you possibly be?"

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ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴀ ɢᴏᴏᴅ ᴅᴀʏ/ɴɪɢʜᴛ ᴍʏ ʟᴏᴠᴇꜱ!

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