"All right, enough small talk. Let's go meet the other half of your soul, Azik!" Alaric said with a smile, dispelling the room's lingering heaviness. Then he looked at Klein and asked, "Did you bring Azik's copper whistle?"
The copper whistle that Azik had gifted to Klein was the key to entering the space where the Artificial Death was... namely, the Inverted Mausoleum.
"I brought it... it's right here." Klein hastily produced the treasured whistle from his pocket.
Alaric nodded, then glanced at Azik, who extended his hand to reveal a ring.
That ring had been left behind by Death... a relic of the Underworld Emperor... and it was also a key to the Inverted Mausoleum.
Seeing they had both tools, Alaric said nothing further. He took the ring from Azik and, using his current power as the Death, located the tomb... and led the group near the Inverted Mausoleum, somewhere in the Berserk Sea.
At this moment, the sea roiled violently... it was never calm, but now it seemed especially turbulent.
As the true Death, Alaric sensed the "door" instantly. Although it had restrictions... requiring not just a key but also a specific being or bloodline... these mattered little to him now. But instead of forcefully breaking it, he took the copper whistle from Klein and snapped his fingers.
Snap...
The colors around them shifted, and a massive vortex appeared before them.
"Go on in. Inside lies the Death's fallen domain... and the other half of your soul, Azik." Alaric smiled.
Azik led the way into the vortex, Amanises close behind.
Watching them dive in, Alaric remembered something. He glanced at the three others and said, "Don't worry... this passage is stable. It shouldn't make you feel uncomfortable."
Unlike the shaky portal Azik might have opened, the doorway created by Alaric as Death was far more secure.
"I trust your skill, old friend," Jack nodded, then pulled Klein and leapt into the vortex.
Klein followed. Only after the others had entered did Alaric, disguised in his Lucifer persona, step in. Moments later they emerged in a dark, chilling tomb.
It had unmistakable Death aesthetics: rows of coffins lay everywhere. The corpses looked far from ordinary... each had decaying white feathers sprouting from their backs.
Everyone stood beside those coffins. Some, like Klein, examined the remains; others, like Azik, stared toward the deep stairs at the far end.
Upon arriving at Inverted Mausoleum, Azik felt something ... a deep pull from his soul. His core instinct craved reunion, leading him toward his other half.
Thanks to all the preparation, Azik could just barely resist that instinct, though he seemed distracted as memories of the future Lucifer described flickered in his mind.
Without Lucifer's warnings... and lacking any knowledge or encounter with his past self... what fate awaited him if he had entered this place unprepared?
Azik imagined his soul being drawn deep into the tomb. At first he might resist, but as he neared himself, he'd be unable to resist that primordial pull. Whether willing or not, he would walk toward his predetermined destiny.
According to Lucifer, though, that Azik had some luck: he ultimately avoided the irreversible outcome by "choosing"... abandoning the other half of his soul to preserve his personality, but damned to spin endlessly in reincarnation.
Is that a good ending? Azik couldn't say... but now, he wasn't planning to evade it. Now he had the means to choose a better outcome.
Thinking this, Azik turned to Lucifer with gratitude: "Thank you for giving me the chance to choose my fate, Lucifer."
Lucifer gave him a glance and smiled: "Then prove to me that the chance I gave wasn't wasted."
He then snapped his fingers, and a semi‑transparent shell wrapped around Jack, Klein, and Lil' Amon. It was a protective shield... Jack and Klein might tolerate mythic creatures, but Klein was still a true Sequence‑6, unable to behold the mythical form of the Artificial Death. Alaric was wary of potential contamination in the tomb, so he granted them a safeguard.
"Let's go... don't keep the others waiting!" Alaric said, still smiling.
They descended toward the deeper tomb. After passing through thick black fog, they soon saw a colossal feathered serpent.
It was undeniably massive... big enough to fill an island. Its form resembled a snake, but covered in feathers. Its tail scales were dark... black or dark green... and the feathers weren't pure white but stained pale yellow, giving it a grim, oily sheen.
Most striking, atop its body rested a face... cold and impassive, eerily similar to Azik's face, though less intelligent-looking.
"This is… the other half of Mr. Azik's soul?" Klein asked, staring at the beast. Protected by the shield, he didn't suffer from looking directly at a mythic creature... but his expression showed deep awe.
The creature was uncanny... simultaneously beautiful and terrifying.
At that precise moment, Azik shook slightly. A sharp pain struck his head, and he clutched it instinctively. Upon facing his other half, lost memories began rushing back.
He recalled how his soul had been torn from his body by Death and split in two. He remembered how Salinger merged one half with the Death's uniqueness in the tomb, while the other merged with a strange golden artifact and returned to his body.
Sensing his approach, the other half reacted instinctively. The giant feathered serpent looked toward Azik, driven by primal urge to reunite... pure instinct, no reason left.
***
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