Dressed in Feathers | K.TH FF

8. Desert

"I have noticed a pattern with you." Began Taehyung before continuing. "With every sentry I defeated, you asked if I killed it.

"Is that so bad?" I flashed my eyes to him as I still rode his back.

"I have told you before that they are immortal."

"Well, when you're finished with them, it always looks like they're dead."

"I suppose breath is not a necessity for them, so I can understand why you would perceive that."

"Do you breathe?"

"Not at all. To gain benefits from inhaling oxygen is one of the things I envy about you humans."

That came as a surprise. "You envy us?"

"The lives of humans are so fascinating and diverse yet connected. I could only pretend to be among them, but it is not equivalent to the true reality. The life of every reaper, however, is one in the same. How we go about it is all that differentiates us from one another."

"That's pretty sad. You don't eat, you don't breathe, you don't sleep. All you do is collect and travel back and forth for eternity."

"Even so, I wouldn't trade my life for a human's. To be a reaper is a rare, great honor. I would rather live with my jealousy than make it my reality because the alternating beauty of life and death is far too precious to forfeit. To witness grandparents release their souls to watch over and protect their family as spirits is such a rejuvenating and heartwarming sight."

"What do you do about aggressive or vengeful spirits like Al Capone?"

"Al Capone? He, along with the other hostiles, remain on Earth, for he was not accepted into the underworld. Anubis' method of judgment is too... aggressive; so because there is no hell, hostile souls are left on Earth, doomed to never achieve enlightenment."

"But if you leave them with the living, they will haunt them to cause harm and gain power."

"That is where we come in. Reapers are meant to balance that aggression with protection. We must protect the souls we are assigned to reap to prevent their demises from coming earlier than scheduled. We promote natural death, not supernatural death."

"Okay. And that's the same with demons, except demons are used-to-be-reapers."

"Correct."

"What do you do about powerful demons, like the Devil himself?" I had noticed earlier he made no mention of this one particular, notorious demon.

"There is one thing that is entirely true from the Bible." He was preparing himself to recite. "The fall of Lucifer. Lucifer was the first reaper, but he was more angel than reaper. I remember the fateful day he fell. He had become impatient, stingy, and twisted. He was the first fallen. Not even the Fates could stop him. He was on a warpath, and the battle waged until he was casted from the underworld as banishment. It could have lasted an eternity. But he was no match for the combined powers of the gods. Hades and Persephone, Osiris and Anubis with Isis, Hel, Izanami, all of them set aside their cultural differences, traditions, and opinions to force him out. Since then, Lucifer, now the first and most powerful demon, adopted the names Satan and Devil as titles to be both feared and respected. Us reapers must keep an eye on him to ensure his chaos does not ensue and spread."

"And the cultists?"

"There is nothing we can do about them. They are living. And when they die, we deliver the souls only, their spirits left behind and taken into Satan's army as his loyal subjects. As for other powerful demons such as Asmodeus, they are commanders under Satan's rule over the hidden corners of the spirit realm. It is quite frustrating the amount of possessions they attempt on the living. Unfortunately, unlike petty demons, the strong ones are extremely difficult to destroy and could not be for eons."