245 Death’s Evolution

[Lolay Galaxy, Desolate Region, Miyanka World, A Ruined City]

Lying silently on the road of an abandoned street was a highly conspicuous Egg. However, the only thing 'egg'-like about it was its shape, but honestly… Anyone looking at it would rather liken it to a strangely smooth boulder. A very evil one at that.

After all, not only was it very large, roughly the size of a car, and lacking any semblance of softness, but it was also very paranormal in its colour. It was a haunting pitch black that seemed to absorb all light, and the only saving grace were strange grey patterns marking its body. Beautiful in appearance but eerie in nature.

The object was obviously bad news, and any mortal with intelligence would have made the smart decision to skedaddle, whether they had knowledge of magic or not. Even the adrenaline junkies who braved perilous situations in order to discover the 'secrets of the universe' would have made the smart decision to run away, and they didn't even need to look at surrounding ruins of what was once a beautiful city to make that decision.

The aura of death surrounding that Egg was just that bad.

*Crack!*

All of a sudden, a distinct cracking sound was heard above the roar of flames assaulting the city.

*Crack! C-crack! Cccrack! Tsssssssss!*

Further cracks could be heard from the Egg and it sounded like it was about to hatch, not that it could be seen - The Egg was too dark to detect any cracks. But soon enough, a hissing sound could be heard as what looked like black smoke seeped out of the cracks and billowed into the air with notable velocity.

*CSSSSSSSSH!*

A while later a different sound was heard and the Egg suddenly shattered, releasing what was hidden within back into the World.

The Horseman of Death.

Breaking common sense, the black smoke that had congealed together to form the rough shape of an oval ball had reached an imposing height of 10 or so metres, something akin to a 3 storey building. Had it been compressed within the egg the entire time?

Either way, that observation wasn't the most shocking thing about its terrific appearance. Taking that position were the dozens of phantom wolf heads littered all over its vapious body. Those things were the stuff of nightmares. They disappeared and reappeared in different locations erratically and the killing intent they expressed within their eyes and horrible growls was blood-curdling. And yet, not a single sound could be heard.

They looked like they wanted to devour the World and everything within, eyes chaotic with ravenous hunger and lips pulled back in despicable snarls, but they didn't make the slight sound.

The horror could not be fully expressed with words.

However… As time passed, something seemed to change. The wolf heads seemed to be… calming down? Their movements were less erratic, eventually appearing even casual, and although their eyes still looked like portals to the underworld, they looked less furious and chaotic. More passive, as if they were still made for destruction, but weren't actively seeking it. Their mouths had mostly settled down too. Some still gave a snarl every now and then but for the most part they were settled.

Something had obviously changed. But what?

…

Death POV

Death cycled through the thousands of memories it had inherited since It's birth. Memories of all kinds. They were all incomplete and rarely displayed a long enough story but with the sheer amount of them it was enough to come to a comprehensive understanding of this World, and the exact situation It was in.

These were the memories of the many It had devoured. The memories of the deceased that had become the nutrients to fuel It's growth.

Since the dawn of It's existence, It had been collecting lives and collecting memories, nothing had changed in this regard and it likely never will. The memories had only ever been used to enhance It's hunting methods or locate places that many lifeforms gathered at, but having just completed It's first evolution, the way It looked at those memories had undergone a groundbreaking shift.

After all, the creation of It's Soul had finally reached completion.

Before this moment, the only desires Death had were biological, and the only thoughts It had were how to satiate those biological desires, mainly the desire to eat and the desire to grow. It could identify that many of the lifeforms it ate were different and reacted to life based on a much greater amount of factors outside of simple biological desire, something the 'Humans' called 'Emotions', but they all seemed like fruitless acts.

Death couldn't count how many fools It had seen carelessly commit to acts that ultimately ended up with them landing It's stomach. There were some that purposely consumed poisonous liquids or poisonous supplements that dulled their senses and damaged their ability to think before they walked home in the middle of the night as if they were safe.

There were some who went out running, alone at that, because of 'motivation'?

And there were even fools that purposefully sought out danger because of the 'thrill' that it gave them.

Death had categorised the behaviour of people like this as the behaviour of 'fools', a word It had learned from the Humans, but not because It had never looked down on them. That would require pride, an emotion. The word 'fool' was used to describe someone that acted unwisely, and such fools were just easier prey to find and exploit than their peers.

Why they acted like that, Death had not known. Perhaps it was a defect or the results of a mind altering plague or drug. It had once eaten an 'important' person and found out information that would make the rest of the Human race break out with 'rage', and that was that amongst the antibiotics that they were made to take at birth, a few of them carried heinous designs that had detrimental effects on their biology, permanently changing them and their future generations in order to suit a specific purpose.

Humans who were in positions of 'leadership' had actually done this to the rest of their race. For what, Death had not known. Why not just focus on eating, drinking, sleeping and procreation, their main biological needs? It was odd. A conundrum that Death had been incapable of comprehending.

…But that was in the past.

Death had gained a Soul along with greater intelligence but most importantly emotions of her own. And now… She knew it all.