Death's Door

While she is an Angel of Death, therefore a deity by default, she wasn"t the only deity embodying Death, making her in a sense the "Secondary rank deity", the deities that commanded the true power of what they embody were "Primary deities."

The primary embodiment of Death obviously is not going to attend; after all he was everywhere, with Angels of Death being his extensions. They were his way of interacting with the world. Desolai herself only met the true embodiment of Death only once, when he appointed her as Angel of Death countless centuries ago. In his condensed form, he is a gigantic shadow, with only visible features being his eyes. He was the most ancient deity, the embodiment of Death of this world and only this world. He was different from other Deities who frequently took on humanoid forms to interact with mortals, but he is always there, at the end.

The primary Deity of Death, Olim, could appoint Angels of Death, in turn creating Deities that embody death. He has created more than hundreds of them, each originally being an angel, a disembodied energy being from another world. He is generally viewed as generous benefactor as well as boss of the Angels of Death, although he never interferes, just takes time to end whatever the Creator has given life to.

The other Deities have originated in this reality as well, so they naturally have their own bodies and have boundless power. Desolai wasn"t completely sure how Deities originated, but humans believe they came from heavens or risen from h.e.l.l, depending on what kind of impression deity has made on humans.

Many of them had humanoid true forms, for some strange reason. Desolai suspected they try to mimic humanity in order to understand them, but that could be biased a.s.sumption considering Desolai does h.o.a.rd on anything made by humans out of curiosity.

Anyways, the gathering of Deities was in a sense an invitation for all deities who currently reside in Tazak kingdom. It was a rare chance to see other Deities, a reunion of sorts for many. For others it was a good chance to show off or a time to be among those who are in the same boat.

Desolai herself wanted to go because she didn"t want to feel left out. It has been far too long since she has seen any Deity outside of her work. Saying she was lonely would be an understatement. Although now she had Nur and Kunjarik to keep her company, she knew it would be a matter of time before a mortal like Nur would perish, leaving her all alone again. So, she was determined to get in touch with other immortal embodiments of nature, and who knows maybe she might get to talk to another Shinigami.

The invitation said that Deities are invited and their immortal servants are allowed as well. Meaning, no mortals allowed.

When Nur heard about this he insisted to go with her.

"But Desolai! This is a chance for me to see many cool beings!"

"You wouldn"t be calling them cool if you knew what they are capable of doing to you…"

"Exactly! They are so awesome!" Apparently Nur had been spending long nights in the library reading about deities. It was safe to say the look in his eyes was of someone meeting his favorite heroes.

"The Deities in those books are biased, doesn"t he realize it?" Desolai wanted to knock him out of his fanboyish state but refrained due to seeing how pa.s.sionate he was about it. "Maybe it"s not a bad idea, he could use eye opener"

"Alright, but you will come with me in a disguise." She materialized a mask and gave it to Nur. "None can know you are a mortal, absolutely none."

The mask she gave him had two large green ears, a snout, and some fake teeth underneath it.

"A lizard? Seriously?" Nur asked out of embarra.s.sment.

"I also have a horse and duck masks if you prefer…"

"Never mind, the lizard will do. But what about Kunjarik? Is it ok to leave him here?"

"Do not worry, the flow of time here depends upon me. The banquet will only last for a day, if everything goes right we will be back two seconds after we have left, at least in Kunjarik"s perspective."

"I see, manipulating time is sure convenient."

"I am Secondary deity of Death, not time. The only reason I can manipulate the time here is because I created everything here, aside from Kunjarik, whom you created."

Nur smiled awkwardly, it has been about a month since Kunjarik came to life and life couldn"t get any better. After performing her duty as Angel of Death, Desolai would teach Kunjarik facts about souls and such. Nur wasn"t really sure where exactly the lectures were headed, so he usually spent his time in the library, trying to understand facts he could actually comprehend.

Nur actually got his hands on his former book of life that was t.i.tled Sabgyn Finnerman. He read through it and got the basic gist of who he was, and came to realize that he is one piece of him that has been split. While it was little too much to take in, it made sense; Desolai did hint that Nur wasn"t a complete human, that would explain why. Of course, even if he read the book of life, Nur wasn"t really comfortable with the name Sabgyn, so he just called himself Nur Finnerman, for simplicity"s sake. But reading the book of life wasn"t the same thing as remembering, just reading it made it look like he was reading someone else"s life not his own. Maybe that is why he grew curious about the deities; his human heart"s desire for wonders must have been triggered in response to his search for the answers. He was not Sabgyn Finnerman, he was Nur Finnerman. Thinking that by seeing more of the unknown he would be able to find answer to his own dilemma, Nur insisted to go to the banquet of the Deities.

"Sabgyn Finnerman, Sabgyn Finnerman, that ghost said the same thing. I know it was my name, this book says so, but I can"t remember. No, my name is Nur, Nur Finnerman, and that is all I need. Except I have no idea who I am supposed to be! I hope that seeing the real Deities can snap me out of my ident.i.ty dilemma." Knowing he was someone else entirely while not having any recollection of his past is not the best of feelings. Nur just wanted the answer to one important question-Who am I?

Even reading that book of life gave him no answer, nothing in it seemed familiar. "That person can"t possibly be me, I refuse to accept it!" the book claimed that he, Sabgyn Finnerman had been split twice while his enemy was trying to explode him. But that doesn"t sound right; Nur"s body wasn"t in pieces, just his memory of events before meeting Desolai were …empty.

In a sense, Nur wanted to fill that emptiness with new information, just like that book about human beings claimed, by learning more things, mind could be put to rest. Nur was hoping that the advice was right.

"Alright then, hang on to my robe." Desolai now was wearing robes that resembled more of a dress. The robes were not the usual black in color; more like bright grey, she was not in her skeletal form, but a beautiful humanoid form.

"Ok." Nur nodded.

"Keep in mind, you must not lose that mask under any circ.u.mstances. If the other Deities find out you are a mortal then…" She paused. "I will not be able to help you." Apparently deities were pretty strict with their policies banning mortals. By bringing a disguised mortal with her could be considered a taboo punishable by death of the mortal.

"Understood."

"Try not to stand out and make sure you don"t get lost…"

"Aw c"mon! It"s not like I am going to be wondering everywhere! Don"t worry, Desolai, I am not going to do anything stupid."

"Alright, I will chose to believe you." With Nur hanging on to her cloak, Desolai clapped her hands together and both of them were teleported towards a certain mountain range. They ended up landing on top of snow, with Nur sinking into the snow immediately.

"This is as far as anyone can teleport towards the location of the Banquet; we will walk the rest of the way." Then seeing that Nur wasn"t listening but sunk under the snow, Desolai pulled him out with a worried look on her face. "Are you sure you are going to be ok? It is not too late to go back, you know?"

Nur, whose mouth was stuffed in snow and the s.p.a.ce between the mask and the face being filled with snow, couldn"t help shuddering from cold. "Iiii am fffine…" he said while his teeth were clacking against each other.

Now both of them were walking upwards towards the peak. Nur tried his best to not to fall down or end up sinking; with mixed results.

"By the way, where exactly are we?"

"The place called Great Mountains; the Banquet of the Deities is going to be held there, right at the top."

"Why we ended up teleporting beneath the Mountain not on top of it then?"

"The Mountain ranged is warded off against teleportation; not even Deities can teleport on top of it without being stopped by the Force field surrounding the peak."

"Sounds awfully convenient if someone attacks the mountain range, but not so much if you invite guests over."

"It wasn"t my idea to make it so. I do not have the slightest idea why the primary deities would do that, but Secondary Deities like myself can only nod and stay silent."

"Are the primary Deities something like the bosses while you guys are the employees?"

Desolai looked at him with an irritated expression. "I suppose, in human perspective that would be the most accurate way of describing it." She said after a moment of silence.

"I see"

After a few minutes both of them reached the top of the mountain range.

When Nur opened his eyes to take in the view of the top, he couldn"t believe his eyes-it was a grand palace that could only have been constructed by the G.o.ds, and within were the Deities he wanted to see.

"Greetings!" A Deity outside welcomed both Desolai and Nur with a courteous bow. "Oh, A Shinigami? I see, and your companion must be…"

"My servant, Nur" Desolai said abruptly.

"An immortal servant for a secondary Deity; how intriguing! Well then, enjoy the party!" Now that Nur came closer he saw that the Deity talking had completely blue skin and had four eyes located at the bottom of the face while his mouth was at the top. He was wearing a suit, which in a way must have been very tiresome because he had four spider-like arms. His lower body looked reasonably humanoid though.

So, both Desolai and Nur entered the place of the festivities.

While Desolai was looking around with somewhat bored expression, she saw that Nur was looking at everyone with wide open mouth. "Right, he never saw any deities other than me, he must really be surprised."

Nur"s mind was completely overwhelmed by what he saw. Countless, hundreds of Deities there, in their true forms. They looked in one word-Magnificent. Some looked like the most beautiful humanoids he has ever seen. Some looked elven, while the others had features that looked not even remotely humanoid. And all of them were enjoying the festivity, dancing, singing, and drinking.

"This is amazing." Nur said after looking at a four headed Deity dancing with a headless lady Deity.

"I suppose what is mundane for me is extraordinary for you." Desolai said with a slight smirk.

"Well, well, well, if it isn"t Desolai?" A humanoid Deity with red hair and red eyes approached them. She looked slightly taller than Nur, wearing high heels, flame colored dress, complete with gloves. She looked very stunning by human standards. Burning sensation of heat could be felt emitting from her.

"Oh, Ignis, long time no see." Desolai greeted her with a very bored expression.

"Long time no see? Is that what you say to someone you haven"t talked to in the last nine hundred years? You sure have a lot of pride, for a Secondary Deity." Ignis looked at Desolai with a smirk, and then both of them laughed in an uncharacteristic way. Apparently they were old acquaintances.

"So who is the shrimp over there? Don"t tell me that finally someone caught your eye?" Ignis said teasingly. "A suitor perhaps?"

"Don"t be ridiculous! He is just a servant. Not to mention, I am an Angel of Death…"

"As uptight as ever, I see." Ignis said with an expression that seemed to say "same as always, huh." Then she turned to face Desolai. "But to be frank I have never heard of Shinigami having a servant, aren"t the angels who become secondary deities servants themselves? I don"t think it"s prohibited to have an immortal servant, but this truly is surprising."

Desolai could feel cold sweat running on her neck. "Right, she thinks Nur is an immortal Deity that serves me. I have to keep up the façade so that she doesn"t figure this out." "Yeah."

"By the way, where did that shrimp go?" Ignis said after looking behind Desolai and not seeing her so called servant.

Desolai looked behind her. She couldn"t see Nur anywhere.

"That fool! I told him to stay near me at all times! Where could he have gone?" Desolai started to nervously look for Nur everywhere.

Meanwhile, Nur who ended up being distracted by the dancing found himself unconsciously following the crowd. The dancers looked like many things, upper bodies of lizards, birds, and even dragons. The way they moved so strangely under the music was almost hypnotic.

Nur tried to shake his head in order to make sure he wouldn"t get carried away, he felt almost drunk from seeing the deities dance. And seems like he wasn"t the only one feeling drunk. The Deities were chugging down wine, some by barrels, getting refills with each cup. The ones who were drunk were playing strange games like leaping over each other while wearing blindfolds.

When he approached a certain deity, the deity easily morphed his hand into a long tentacle and stretched it out in order to grab a bottle of wine that was three meters away. A lazy but practical application of Deity"s power.

"Can you only do tentacles? Or can you do other shapes as well?" Nur curiously asked.

"Nope." The deity was definitely drunk, his form resembled a human but his face was scaly, like a fish, with red patches spikes. "Every deity can change form. Like this..." his hand changed into a small saw, followed by a triangle, a circle, and then to a crab claw.

"Can you change your body?"

"I see no problem with that." He changed his shape to resemble a giant square.

"Can you make yourself rounder?"

"I sure can." He now resembled a large ball, if it wasn"t for the fact that he looked like his form being squished into a ball, Nur might have laughed at how ridiculous he looked. Right now Nur could only cringe from discomfort. "By the way, I presume this is an idea for the games, right?" he said that after Nur covered him with cloth to avoid looking at him.

"Uhm, yeah?" Nur said nervously afraid to upset the giant ball Deity talking to him. The mouth was located at the top of the ball, making it very uncomfortable to look.

"Alright then, Everyone! Look at the game this fellow invented!" the Deity changed back to his old form and now started to tell the other drunk deities about the bizarre game Nur might have given him the idea for.

After being told of the game, many of the deities started to change into b.a.l.l.s, with the other deities wrapping them with cloth. Then, they started to toss the deity b.a.l.l.s as if they were made of rubber. Nur couldn"t help but feel a slight discomfort seeing them do that.

"My perspective of the Deities has just been shattered." Nur thought as he was looking at that strange phenomenon. Nur turned his head and decided to walk away from that sight.

Then Nur realized that he ended up lost, with Desolai nowhere near sight. "Oh, no. I did it again!" He needed to find her soon or he will receive even more scolding than he deserved. On the way, someone gave Nur a mug of wine, something he quickly accepted.

Just as he turned to go back to search for Desolai, Nur ended up b.u.mping against someone, causing his drink to spill, and his mask dropping to the ground.

"I am very sorry" the deity who b.u.mped into Nur said with an apologetic voice.

"Oh, don"t worry about it, I am a very clumsy by nature, ha ha ha" Nur replied, putting his mask on. He truly hoped none of the deities found out he was just a mortal.

When Nur looked at the Deity in front of him, he saw someone humanoid, but wearing a white mask that only showed a white left eye.

"Is that so, are you by any chance looking for someone?" the masked Deity asked Nur with a slightly trembling voice.

"Well, not exactly, I just lost track of my Master, did you by any chance see

her, a pale lady, about two meters tall, goes by the name Desolai, and may

sometimes resemble a giant skeleton?"

"I am afraid I have not seen anyone like that around here" the Deity answered with confused tone.

"Well, I suppose I will just have to wait till the party is over, but until then why don"t why join in the fun? There is going to be games starting soon!" Nur tried his best to distract this deity with the festivity in order for the Deity to not pay much heed to the fact that he ended up losing his mask in front of him.

"Games, what kind of games?" the masked deity curiously asked.

"Well, apparently there is going to be dancing compet.i.tion, then what follows is carrying each other with cloth tied into bags while the partic.i.p.ants shape shift into rubber b.a.l.l.s and throwing them in the air or just running around with them…"

"What kind of a game is that?"

"Oh, it"s my original idea! I suggested it to one of the head Deities hosting this party and they are thought it was a great idea!" Nur tried his best to make it sound like something normal game, not the bizarre activity the G.o.ds have accepted in their drunken state of mind.

Nur then tried to make himself blend in with the crowd by walking towards the crazy deities using each other as bouncing b.a.l.l.s.

As fate would have it, Nur did find something-an exit route. But he was told it was a place used to teleport to remote locations instantaneously.

"It is a much safer to use than an enchanted ballista, although it does not allow you to cross countries, it should be able to take you anywhere within human kingdom" the Deity explained to Nur after Nur almost entered the exiting chamber. To think he almost ended up in a remote location because of a stupid misstep. Luckily for him he was stopped at the last moment by a Deity who resembled an angel in such a way that he had three halos on top of his head and holy aura radiating in rays of light. Apparently his name was Solaris, the primary deity of light. He also had about five pairs of golden wings.

After thanking Solaris, Nur saw the same masked deity carrying a large bag walking from side to side, almost as if searching for something. To alleviate his suspicion, Nur asked.

"Are you by any chance looking for the exit?"

The masked deity nodded.

"Oh, then its right over there" Nur pointed at the small door on the side of the wall. "Oh, by the way, they told me the door can teleport you to any location you desire in an instant, but I have never used it before so I am not sure…"

"Oh, yes, thank you very much."

Not saying anything more, that deity proceeded to just walk towards the exit room. In an instant he entered the chamber; his body along with the bag he was carrying disappeared.

"Wow, tough crowd. Didn"t even say bye. Are all the Deities like this?" Nur scratched his head. He didn"t realize yet the full impact his actions have had.