"My Destined One" • Tensura x Arifureta

Ch 37: The story of the reapers

Raphael showed the group a bit of the city and everyone seemed like curious tourists.

In the city, most people were kind to them, but some were wary. All the people had white hair and skin. A few had half pointed ears or black horns. They all wore black clothes and for some reason they all carried weapons. Some introduced themselves and all had biblical or angelic names. Rimuru and Hajime were very curious about this, but they didn't comment on it.

They were taken to a large house and all sat down at a large table.

"Is this an inn? If your town is secret, why do you have one?"

Hajime asked confused. The others seemed curious about this too. If the city was hidden it wouldn't welcome travelers. So an inn was strange. Raphael replied...

"No, this is not an inn or hotel. This is where the newly emerged stay until they get a home, or at least they used to..."

"Emerged?"

Sakura asked the meaning of the unfamiliar word. Raphael then said...

"Well, I'll explain everything. It's a rather long story, but I think we have time. First, do you want something to eat?

"No.

"No thanks."

"No."

No one wanted to eat, so Raphael would start telling the story.

"Since that's how I can start..."

"Tell about the town and the reapers first."

Yue encouraged him and he began

"Good. Then I'll start by telling you about us. Currently there are just over 500 reapers in this city. We reapers can't leave this city, if we leave we need to suck souls to survive and we stay here because we don't want to go around committing massacres."

He spoke to make it clear that the people of the town were not crazed killers as the stories told. Everyone in the group seemed to believe it. This was because they had talked to the citizens and none of them seemed like psychopaths. Then Yue asked.

"And why do you have several legends about you killing various people and sucking souls?"

"Oh, yes. Some centuries ago a group of rebels wanted to live in the outside world and killed several people trying, but they were stopped by those who call themselves 'gods'."

"Hm. So if you guys don't suggest Souls while out there...what happens?"

Rimuru asked to confirm his guess.

"If we do that, we will gain monstrous forms and over time we will weaken, until one time we will die and become soul orbs. These orbs can be used to revive us and are quite resilient. However... The resurrection ritual is not known to us, and the humans have also erased all records of this so that no one can revive us. The only way to destroy these orbs is with high temperatures, but the humans think they are indestructible."

The group was processing the various new information and at this point Rimuru asked...

"Why is it different in this city?"

"You mean, why don't we need to suck Souls when we are here? I guess it's okay to tell you. Did you see that light in the middle of the city? We call it the light of life, it produces the barrier that protects us, and that same barrier also releases an energy similar to Souls. So if we stay here it's no problem."

"Oooh. That barrier looks impressive."

Hajime said impressed. The mad scientist inside Hajime kept repeating "Let's analyze that barrier!" in his mind. Tio who was more serious than usual then asked...