Rogue Adventures - A Tale from Neverbeen Universe

14

With new determination they started the manhunt. Azrael showed Phobos and Ayumu where to the portal had opened and the area Thanatos and he had already searched. He watched as Phobos knelt in front of the portal to examine the soil, murmur a little spell, then followed his gaze far to the horizon. "They went this way," Phobos decided and marched in the direction he deemed right. Azrael briefly wondered how he was so sure, but he followed him confidingly.

He worried for the escaped souls. The dead just didn't belong on Thisside, and from his experience he knew, they really longed to be alive again so sought ways to gain back what was gone forever. And in doing so the undead wrecked havoc among the living, even destroyed their lives out of sheer envy and tried to rip life from their bodies and implant it in them. But life wasn't to be tamed as easily; what was dead might never live again.

Unless the Reapers used their unique powers to reincarnate the deceased and return them back to the cycle of souls. But there were so many souls, young and old, bright and dark, strong and weak, that the Reapers couldn't incarnate all of them at the same time. Some had to wait in Heaven or Hell respectively until they could be deployed for reincarnation process again. Most of them kept the bodies they inhabited during the last time they had been reborn, but there were also mere souls dwelling on the Otherside — entities of pure energy without thought, without conscience, only the will to live once again.

The six civil servants of Reaper currently existing had to make sure these souls didn't escape to Thisside, for unlike the undeads they would haunt people and ultimately devour their souls out of the sheer desire to return to the living, without ever being able to do so on their own. Thus their despair would grow and they became more restless with every soul they consumed. So the Reapers had to stop them from harming other souls, to soothe them and employ them for reincarnation in due time.

As for the undeads, the living just did not take kindly to them. If they were detected, it could cause a mass panic or a manhunt or both. There were also two different kinds of undeads. Souls, which forcefully clung to their former bodies, failing to return to the living and thus wretched and mindless creatures driven by the hunger for life. And souls, which stayed well integrated to their former bodies and identities, while they waited for reincarnation. They were cognizant and intelligent creatures, difficult to distinguish from a living being unless you were a Reaper or an otherwise talented being who specialized in detecting undeads.

Like Phobos, who, Azrael understood, was an expert seal technician and exorcist so he could deal with either kind of undeads or escaped soul. Which was why Azrael and Thanatos had asked him for help this time when their capabilities failed them.

Azrael's strong suit might be identifying and pinpointing supernatural beings, especially if they were related to death. But this time he had no clue where the escaped souls had gone, no matter how much he strained his crimson eyes. So Azrael had to admit defeat, and he felt utterly inadequate and a disappointment to his former mentor, although Thanatos wasn't able to find them either. Still it stung.

So he wanted to make it up to Thanatos by catching the escapists fast and without fail together, if need be with Phobos's help. Speaking of Phobos, Azrael was pulled from his musings when the expert seal technician and exorcist suddenly stopped.

"What's the matter?" Azrael asked, seeing there was none else there.

"They fucking teleported. That's the matter," Phobos snapped at him angrily.

"And what do we do now?" Ayumu huffed and stemmed her fists on her hip.

"We fucking follow them. What else?" her choleric boyfriend grumbled.

"So you can trace teleportations?" Azrael was impressed.

"Obviously, Bright Spark," Phobos harrumphed and held out his hand to Ayumu. "And since none of you can teleport I have to do every-fucking-thing for you, right?" Ayumu took Thanatos's hand, who in turn held out his hand to Azrael. Tempted to smile, he gripped it. "Oh, for fuck's sake!" Phobos groaned and teleported them somewhere into the wilderness.

Azrael looked about and beyond. Thick underbrush grew everywhere. But among the vines and shrubbery impressive ruins of once great buildings arose. Azrael quietly admired the architectonic art of a lost culture for a while, then he snapped out of it. "Do you really think they are here? What in the world could undeads want in these ruins?"

"Do I look like a fucking encyclopedia?" Phobos growled and crossed his arms, but he was positive that the escapists had teleported here.

"I assume these gents have a connection to this location. Maybe they had lived here when this was still a thriving city?" Thanatos opined. Azrael nodded. This at least was an explanation.

Together they entered the ruins. Azrael was still amazed that Phobos could track them so easily with so little magic, while he saw nothing. Suddenly, though, the path was blocked by fallen boulders. "What do we do now?" Azrael sighed, his vim and hopes — crushed with the boulders before them.

"We could backtrack and find another route. This place seems like a labyrinth. Maybe there is more than just one way to get to our goal," Ayumu suggested.

"Out of the way," Phobos grumbled. Azrael blinked, and when Phobos wound up, he was fast to hurry to Thanatos side and watch in surprise how the seal technician blasted the rocks into smithereens with one single smash. The whole corridor shook and rumbled; Azrael thought it might collapse. But when the dust settled the corridor was still intact.

"There we fucking go!" Phobos walked on as if nothing had happened, and the others followed him deeper into the labyrinth. Ayumu cast a spell and a floating sphere of light appeared, so they could see better in the dark. Azrael threw her a thankful glance. For a long while their path continued, Phobos led the way through the otherwise confusing corridors and chambers until finally they reached a larger chamber. A spent torch lay desolate on the floor, tiny shards were scattered everywhere, glimmering red in the light of Ayumu's spell.

"What the hell happened here?" Phobos exclaimed.

"Seems as if these gents had a little misunderstanding," Thanatos stated as he examined the room.

"A little misunderstanding?! There's blood on the floor! If you two weren't Reapers and couldn't fucking feel their deaths I'd say they bloody killed someone in here!" Phobos groused.

Azrael frowned. At least there had been a fight, so much was evident. And when the undeads caused some bloodshed, it was even more urgent they were returned to the Otherside. "Mister Phobos," he therefore turned to the seal technician, "can you trace them further? If they resort to harming people we must catch them at any cost!"

Phobos nodded. "These blasted zombies teleported again."

So they took each other's hands again and Phobos brought them to the next location; Azrael was amazed yet again. He had never seen such riches, not that he had vices like their colleagues, but he did acknowledge the values kept in this vault. All these artifacts, all these rare contraptions and spellbooks and— this was not why they were here, Azrael scolded himself. Just this instant he detected someone among the motionless bodies of dozens of guards. "There they are!" he exclaimed, but within the blink of an eye they were gone, vanished into thin air.

"Oh no!" Thanatos breathed, while Phobos shook his angry fist. "Un-fucking-believable!"

"After them! We are so close!" Azrael was excited, but Phobos shook his head.

"No fucking way! He'll cover his tracks now, that clever bastard, he knows how to do it. No use following him any further! He's at least three jumps ahead by now."

"But...!" Azrael couldn't believe it, until he noticed: "Wait, you recognized them?"

It was Thanatos who answered: "Indeed." He sighed, then revealed: "It is Ra-chin and Hoffman-kun."