Chapter 54: Life and Death (4)

Chapter 54: Life and Death (4)

After handing over the rough blueprint of the afterlife to Talos and pushing off the expansion work - Talos's expression seemed incredibly sad, but that must be my imagination. When does a golem have expressions? - I watched over the dragons, the Life Givers.

It seemed they were bored in their corners, as a considerable number of dragons had gathered, which was quite a spectacle.

[Hiiieeeekkk?! Creator Dragon God?! Why, Creator Dragon God?!]

[Lord! This is different from what you said!! You said the Creator Dragon God wasn't here!!! I have to get out of here!!!]

[O noble Creator Dragon God. Please look upon us with your merciful heart. O noble Creator Dragon God. Please look upon us with your merciful heart. O noble Creator Dragon God. Please look upon us with your merciful heart.]

Ha-ha-ha. What a mess.

The only thing I could say while watching this chaos was,

“Do not be afraid.”

A phrase that was entirely not reassuring.

“I know what you fear, but my presence here is not for that reason. I am here just to ensure that what you are trying to do is properly accomplished.”

I looked around at the gathered dragons and said,

“So do what you must do.”

The Dragon Lord, agreeing with my words, spoke up.

[As the Creator Dragon God has said, we must do what we have to do. We don't want to waste our lives dozing off in dark caves where the sunlight doesn't reach anymore!]

[That's not too bad though!]

[Shut that guy up!!]

Ignoring the clueless dragon who was being targeted by the tails of the surrounding dragons, the Dragon Lord continued speaking.

[If we perform this task well, the Creator Dragon God will no longer extract us from our bodies to turn us into spirits! Thus, we will gain freedom!]

No, I'm not going to do that. This guy... He knows I won't get angry about that anymore and is using it to control the dragons...

[From this day forth, we will be called the Life Givers, and the Creator Dragon God will entrust us with the task of caring for the many lives in this world! We will be the workers who freely roam the world and nurture the tree of life according to the will of the Creator Dragon God!]

The task I entrusted to the Lord was merely to neutralize the rising malice from the ground, but why is the story going in that direction?

This guy... is sneakily expanding the scope of their assigned tasks...!

What's the intention? Surely he doesn't have a perverse hobby of increasing his workload!

[Now, O Creator Dragon God. Those who will follow your will have gathered, so please say a word to them.]

Huh? Suddenly turning the attention to me?

I'm not sure what he's hoping for, but... might as well play along.

"I'll be cheering you on, so do your best."

At the same time, the roaring voices of numerous dragons filled the world.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“So, what's the scheme?”

“Scheme?”

The Dragon Lord, polymorphed into a human form, calmly smiled and said,

“I just wanted to offer a different choice to my kin who were inclined to do nothing.”

“There was no need to involve me in that.”

“No, it was necessary.”

It's good to have many hands on deck, so it seems they've brought a lot.

"Where are these dark spirits?"

"I will guide you."

Following the Dragon Lord's guidance, I headed towards the Dragon's Tomb.

[Creator Dragon God, we have carried out the task you assigned. Please give us the next instruction.]

I discovered a scene where numerous dark spirits, including shades, had gathered.

This is quite a spectacle. The land has completely turned into darkness.

"It's truly amazing. The malice cannot even approach the dark spirits."

"I'm a bit curious if other spirits are the same, but the priority is what we need to do first."

Approaching the largest spirit in front, Shade, I said,

"You've gathered quite a lot. Do you know how many there are?"

[We have gathered so many that counting them would be meaningless. We hope our efforts will be of help to the Creator Dragon God.]

Shade spoke politely. I looked at Shade and smiled slightly.

"The place where you'll work is still being prepared, so there's nothing to do right now... Un. For now, it might be good to learn how to transport souls."

[Transporting souls?]

"Yes. The task I'll assign to you is to bring the souls of the dead."

Right now, I don't have any souls to show you how it's done, but I'll have to teach you once I get some.

Ah, right.

"And for you, as the representative of the dark spirits who will be doing the tasks I assign, I have a gift."

[A gift, I am truly honored.]

I took out an item made using condensed malice.

A large scythe, entirely black, from the blade to the handle.

Un. Indeed, if you're a reaper, you'll need a scythe!

[This is....]

"It's a scythe made by materializing condensed malice. It's a weapon made for you, the leader of the dark spirits who transport souls."

I handed the large scythe to Shade, and Shade carefully accepted it.

As expected. A scythe that might be dangerous even to hold for other creatures has no effect on the shade, a dark spirit.

That aside, it suits him just as I thought.

And here's one more gift.

"I will give you a new name. You, the leader of those who transport the souls of the dead, will henceforth be called Thanatos."

The god of death from Greek mythology. That was the name I was giving him.

[Thanatos... my new name.]

"Yes. I look forward to working with you, Thanatos."

The dark spirit, who lost his name in life and was called a shade, now bore the name Thanatos and seemed very moved, bowing his head towards me.