Reaper Can Die Chapter 2
Genesis woke up from his sleep, he felt like he had a hangover even though he never drank. “mmmh.” Genesis looked around and noticed a man sitting relaxed on his computer, he had short black hair and wore a long black coat, and he seemed to be buying stuff on EBay, he seemed to be about 17 years old. He finally turned to Genesis and noticed that he was awake. Genesis looked him for a second and then noticed that this man was on his computer in his apartment just sitting around as if he lived there. “What the hell?”
“Oh, hey, what’s up? Now that you are awake we can begin. Hi, I’m Julius Riddle, your new best friend, we can start the day with maybe a burger at McDonalds, and then we could go to GameStop or something, I noticed you don’t have any videogames and that is no fun. And don’t worry, I’ll buy.”
Genesis just looked at the guy, for one Genesis never had a friend that was so instant like that, for two Genesis was still confused. “Get out, for all I know your just another reaper and you are probably not even a teenager like me anyway.”
“Guilty, truth is, I’m not a reaper, but I am not a teenager either.” Riddle stood up and brushed off his coat, he smiled. “But I can teach you things, so you can defend yourself from people like Ekdahl. I know you want power, I can sense it.”
Genesis remembered that, the feeling of power, the intense want for control and raw strength. It almost made him want to laugh uncontrollably. He snapped back into reality, “I seriously doubt or even care about your teaching right now.” Genesis rolled over in his bed then smelt the smell of fire. He turned back over and saw the guy playing with a ball of fire in his hands as if it were a basketball; he was even whistling the globetrotters theme. “urg! Come on. Fine, teach me.”
“Nope, I won’t teach you until we hang out.” The man started laughing, he seemed like an idiot, but genesis could tell something. The man carried himself differently than he acted. He carried himself like a predator, something deadly and forbidden.
Genesis just looked at him. “Get out, I’m tired. All of you with your psycho powers.” Genesis sat up and looked at Riddle. “Let me make up my mind, seriously.”
“Very well, just call if you need me.” Riddle vanished in thin air, as if he was wiped from existence. The air around him made a slight pop sound.
Genesis thought to himself, teleportation would be one power he wouldn’t mind having.
___-__
Riddle appeared next to Ekdahl, it made him jump, he was drinking jasmine green tea. “Riddle? I thought you were watching Genesis.”
Riddle smiled and shrugged, “I am… or was. Well I can still see him thanks to my power. Isn’t it great to be a god, god-killer, immortal thing.”
Ekdahl stared at him blankly. “Well if you have free time and are so egotistical, you can fight one of the thousands.”
Riddle’s smile dropped along with the temperature in the room, “The thousands? They are in hiding, why should I fight one of them?”
“They are back, with our luck they may try to start the second Reaper War.”
Riddle scoffed, “why, didn’t the death of almost all of them make them think twice?”
“Not when the powers combined with every death of their brothers in sisters, each of the thousands have the powers of their entire race in them.”
“And that’s what makes them strong. The power of thousands in one.”
“Don’t underestimate them. I want you to go after Giovanni Gaia, The thousands of earth.”
Riddle turned for the door. “Buy me a coffin, that is if he doesn’t burry me first.” Ekdahl laughed at Riddle’s sarcasm.
___-__
Giovanni drank silently at a bar in a small town in Nevada. He was a large looking man, he wore a large. He hated that being so powerful he was immune to the usual sicknesses of man, which sadly to him included becoming drunk. “Pour me another glass.”
“You’re going to get drunk if you continue.”
Giovanni scoffed at the man, “I could out drink anyone here.”
“I’ll take you up on that offer.” Julius Riddle walked up to Giovanni and sat at the barstool next to him. Giovanni smiled, it has been a long time since someone approached him and just wanted to talk or drink with him. It was comforting, “maybe we can sit in the back and talk for a bit, what will it be?”
“Very well my new friend, Let us talk.”
Giovanni sat in his new seat and ordered two beers. “I know a little on why you want to talk to me alone.”
“Oh, is that so?” Julius ordered an Orange Julius, Giovanni didn’t know if it was a joke or not but it made him laugh. “So what do you already know?”
Giovanni watched his drink as the liquid settled, “Neither of us are human, you know I’m a thousands and I know you’re a god of a Long deceased pantheon, and you were sent to get information from me.”
“Close but not quite, I was sent to fight you, an honest battle I can teleport us to a large uninhabited island where we can fight, you have plenty of earth and I have my mystery powers to fight you with.” Julius sipped on his drink and splayed his arm across the back of the seat.
“So you hope to kill me where the other thousands will not find me? And we were getting along so well.” Giovanni stopped smiling and finished one of his beers. He looked at the football game on the TV and tried to think of the best way out of this, not options, fight or be fought here. “Smart to think of the island, my powers are pretty wild and I can’t control rocks flying everywhere.” Giovanni rubbed his beard.
“oh no no no, you have it all wrong, I wasn’t sent here to kill you, just to gauge your power.” Julius smiled, “plus, I like you, I’m sure both of us could use a challenge, us immortals have to stick together you know.”
Giovanni smiled showing his bright teeth, “very well, I accept your terms, now when do we…..” they were already at the island before Giovanni finished his sentence, Giovanni felt chills, this guy will be trouble.
“My name is Julius Riddle, I’ll leave my Pantheon a mystery for now.” Julius’s long coat drifted in the wind. He had dark clothing and a leather strap going across his chest barely noticeable under the coat. He also wore leather pants and combat boots.
“Giovanni Gaia, The Thousands god of Earth.”
Julius disappeared when the rocks under him started to rise, “That was close.” Giovanni moved in a stance Julius knew well. “The iron fist?” Giovanni used his fist over his head to slam down on a boulder, he kicked it in the air and moved around, two boulders lifted on their own. Julius slammed through the first boulder with both feet, Giovanni saw a silver chain going from his belt to his front pocket. He let his fists down and clenched them, the ground moved him into the air to Julius. Julius dodged the final two boulders and was right in the way of Giovanni’s punch. He got hit straight in the stomach. Julius went flying back to the ground that Giovanni used to make a rise in the ground and have a land slide start for where Julius was to land. Julius figured he played enough, he took off his sunglasses reviling his Golden eyes, and he slammed through the rocks and was buried in the landslide.
Giovanni landed hard on the ground cracking it, he punched the ground shattering rocks reviling Julius “War.” After that word he ran for Giovanni using the dust as cover his eyes turned red as he smiled evilly. He punched Giovanni in the stomach several times and kneed him in the head. He broke several of Giovanni’s ribs and broke his nose.
“Where did this kid get his strength? I punched him straight in the stomach which can shatter diamond.” Giovanni held his broken nose and felt the warm blood flow from it.
His eyes still red Julius didn’t break stride, he teleported in the air and slammed down on Giovanni’s chest. Giovanni just barely blocked, he used the rocks under him to get back up and push Julius back, those red eyes, they meant something. Just when Giovanni thought he had something Julius’s blonde hair turned black. “Your going to die here Giovanni Gaia.”
Giovanni didn’t like this, it was like he was another person, so not fair to have a bipolar person to fight. Giovanni Punched at Julius and missed, Julius laughed.
“That’s it? You missed, don’t tell me you’re getting tired already, I want to fight, I want to destroy.” Giovanni smiled as a huge boulder hit Julius head on, the boulder exploded. Julius ran for Giovanni who was ready this time, he used his stance perfectly, Julius punched for Giovanni only to have Giovanni punch Julius’s arm away and hit him straight in the jaw, the next was a kick which Giovanni countered the same way to a hit to the stomach again. Julius was like a wild animal, he laughed madly after every attack as if he as stronger than anything that existed. Giovanni figured that close range attacks were useless, time to go back to the drawing board, long range. He spread out his hands and slammed them together into a fist, rocks and boulders even larger pieces of the earth itself was being lifted, and then everything fell. Julius covered his eyes with his arm. The dust settled, Giovanni wasn’t there, a large part of the earth lifted as if it were a huge arm. It seemed Giovanni was deep underground commanding a huge amount of earth to make a counterpart of him. The huge arm grabbed at Julius as he put on his battle claws. “Let’s do this.”
Julius dodged and ran to the back of the hand as the second arm came out of the ground. He went through both hands as he teleported and slammed through them with his claws and his entire body following. The rest of the giant earth golem that Giovanni was controlling was reviling itself, the hands were the size of a large truck.
A red aura spun around Julius as his eyes turned completely red. He smiled insanely as he ran up the arm breaking it with his claws as he went, the aura spinning around him as if they were swords surrounding his entire body slicing anything that came close. Giovanni’s golem punched at Julius only to have him run up that one with a front flip shattering the hand and running up the rest of the arm to shove his claw clean in the golem’s head. Giovanni came out of it punching Julius wildly. Blood came out of Julius’s mouth and landed on the earth that was behind them, the golem was dissolving and a tall spire was left where Julius and Giovanni was standing. He grabbed Julius by the Jacket and lifted the Leather strap which Giovanni found out was connected to a backpack. Julius tried to stab him in the chest with his claws but it was like trying to scratch diamond. Giovanni’s skin started to become dark, as if he was slowly turning into metal.
“You no doubt know what I am.” The metal covered his entire chest and went up his neck, his arms were also completely metal now. “I am a Thousands, we have several stages of life, some of us have two, I hold four stages. You are looking at the second stage of mine.” Giovanni lifted his hand to revile that metal claws now were his main weapon.
This wasn’t good, Julius had to do something. His eyes turned back to normal, his usual Golden look to them. “Justice.” A large shield appeared in his hand and blocked the claws, he knocked him away.
Giovanni held his hand, his eyes were covered by his metal skin, “I see now, how your power works. you are an entire pantheon, you have the power of every type of god behind you. That’s why you became bloodthirsty when you said war, that’s why you got a shield when you said justice, your calling on your different godhood.”
Julius looked at him seriously, “so now that you know this, do you still think you can beat me?” it was silent for a few seconds, as if Giovanni was weighing his options. The metal around his flesh went back into his body. He turned around. “Take me back to my bar. Who knows what would happen if you unleashed everything at once.”
“So be it, but I have one thing to say, I gave one of my God rights to my brother. But that’s all you get for the fight. Tell your boss I said hi.”
“How do you know about…..?” Giovanni was gone.
___-__
Riddle teleported himself into Genesis’s apartment, it was the only place he could think of, he wheezed from the pain in his chest. The punch that Giovanni gave him did do a lot of damage, but in his War God form, he didn’t react to pain as much as any other form, it would have been worse if he didn’t switch to his Justice God form. He coughed up blood. “Damn it.” He hit the ground.
Genesis rushed to him when he walked back into his apartment, “Julius, are you ok? Hey, say something.”
Riddle held onto his chest, “Unless you have some more power like you showed in that alleyway, I’m going to need Ekdahl soon.”
“You know that bastard! If I help you will you tell me everything you know?” Genesis looked furious, Riddle didn’t like being held when he was in pain, but it wasn’t like he would die. This just weakened him, made him useless temporarily, immortality is funny like that.
Riddle coughed up more blood, he couldn’t breathe but he still spoke. “Everything, ill tell you everything kid. Just help, please, your more important than you know.” Riddle fell to his knees and then collapsed, Genesis cursed under his breath and took out a knife from his pocket and plunged it into Riddle’s heart.
Riddle’s eyes widened, he knew the blade pierced his skin, he felt it penetrate his heart. But the feeling wasn’t painful; it felt warm and soft as if it were surrounding his chest. “One day I found this dagger next to my computer when I moved into this apartment.” Riddle felt his wound instantly close and heal itself when the dagger left his body. “A man tried to mug me one night, I had the knife with me. I stabbed him in self-defense. I knew there was something wrong with him though, he looked sad and held his chest as if he was injured. After the dagger left his body he looked at me funny and felt the inside of his shirt.” Genesis helped Julius up, Julius knew his coat was ruined but he didn’t care. “The man had three broken ribs from his days in war; he was suffering from lung cancer. The dagger healed all that. He left and I never saw him again, but something told me he was fine, that he wouldn’t hurt anyone again.”
“Can I see the dagger?” Genesis showed him the dagger and Riddle’s eyes became cloudy. “I…I’m crying.” The dagger was well known; six thousand years ago it was his father’s dagger. A healing God who was killed for healing the wrong person, in turn, the person he healed killed him thinking he was an enemy trying to rob him. The human didn’t even know he pierced the heart of a God. His father turned to ash, after that his life changed forever. His brother turned on him, his mother a victim of his brother’s anger. Genesis saw the sadness in Julius’s eyes. “That dagger used to belong to a healing god.” Julius smiled, “He meant a lot to me.” He laughed, “I guess I have a lot to tell you right? Let’s get started.”
They went to the kitchen table and sat, Julius put on one of his claws. “this will be a start of the story. My name is Julius Riddle, I was born a god of the sun and the moon, with the power of type of god in existence, a god which other gods were to worship, one that would keep balance in troubled times. Julius sounded so proud and happy that Genesis had to smile a little, but there was also a little sadness in Julius’s voice. “I never asked to be a God of Gods. I didn’t even want to be worshiped, you could say all I wanted to do was look after my brother and father, to spend time cooking with my mother and run through fields of flowers with my wife, to laugh with my children and spend time with the other gods and races.” Julius looked straight into Genesis’s eyes, it somewhat demoralizing knowing that someone so powerful was sitting at his kitchen table.
“What about Ekdahl?” Genesis clenched his fist. Julius looked surprised that Genesis had such a bond already that he was obsessed with Ekdahl.
“Cant get it out of your mind can you? He is your dad.”
Genesis’s eyes widened at the answer he wasn’t expecting. He had a father, someone who he has been searching for his entire life, was right there just yesterday. “My…. Dad?”
