Preparation (3)

- Death -

Zach knew the best of five rule was a formality. There wasn't a chance he'd get a single win, even if Death allowed him free hits. The best Zach could hope for is dragging the fight out with his healing magic.

'The goal is winning the argument, not the fight. The goal is-.' Zach kept repeating the thought

"You can start." Death said while folding his arms.

'I hope you can understand where I'm coming from by the end of this.'

Zach approached slowly, keeping his hands up the whole way.

"You need to play a bigger part with this new problem. I don't want you to regret your passivity...again." Zach finished his sentence and threw a right straight at Death.

Death shifted his head to the right, avoiding the blow while sweeping Zach's leg with a swift left kick.

"My passivity comes from me trying to avoid constant intervention. I can't be everywhere at once, and I don't want humans to become reliant on me."

"Round one, Death's win. Separate for the next round." The announcer voice from before said.

Zach stood up, healing the minor injuries he had just received.

'You've lived an extremely long life, and I'm sure you think you know yourself better than anyone, but you have a bias.'

The injury from the kick was gone, but Zach could still feel phantom pain. It was a common occurrence with healing magic to feel injuries for a time, depending on the severity, after they've been healed.

"Next round. Start!" The announcer yelled.

'Fuck. How does anyone take a full-force hit from you?' Zach took a deep breath and exhaled.

"This world has changed greatly in the last hundred years. I know you've lived longer than I could ever hope to, but surely in all your experience you've noticed how different things have become?" Zach made a basic karate stance. Death was done giving him the first hit.

Death put his arms to his side, and slowly approached Zach.

'He's right about the change. Hundreds of years of stagnation, broken up by human advancements I would have never thought possible.'

Death threw a right straight, copying Zach, who managed to mostly dodge it. Unlike the one he threw, this punch was far stronger and cut the right side of his face. He responded by stepping in and sending a right high kick to Death's chin. Death caught the kick but didn't stop him from using his left leg to kick him in the stomach, sending Death back a few inches.

Zach rolled to his left after landing, but as he stood up Death sent a strong kick to his side, throwing him across the arena into one of the stone walls. He coughed up blood as he landed.

"Round over, Death's win. One round left for the match!"

'Fuck you, Marcus. I'd love to be ringside the next time you fight Death.' Zach healed the shattered ribs before slowly standing up.

"Alright, allow me one round with offensive magic, out of fairness. This isn't a fight, you're just slapping me around."

"I'll allow it!" Death said loud enough so that Marcus could hear.

"Rule change. Offensive magic is allowed!" Marcus bellowed.

"Look Zach, I know you want the best for humanity, but you need to think about both sides. Every time I step in there's an asterisk put next to any human victories. I will help if I need to, but the timing is important."

Zach spat some blood out and looked up at Death with a glare. He took a deep breath in and then exhaled.

"If you'd stop looking at the past for one moment you'd feel that same uncomfortable feeling I've had during this whole investigation. Something's off. This is the same feeling I had before, back when that war started in the human world."

Death's eyes widened.

'For Zach to bring that up...I still need to know something though.'

"Why did you-" Before Death could finish his sentence Zach launched himself forward with a strong gust of wind and attempted to axe kick Death's head.

Death blocked the kick with his arms, but before he could counter Zach had already jumped backward with another gust.

The air in the room gathered around Zach's arms and legs.

"We had another fight scheduled and I wanted to convince you to go. Figured I might as well move the fight up, considering I hope you'll be leaving soon."

Death often forgot how battle-hungry Zach could get. He was one of the oldest grim, an elite force of reapers that Death picked to act as an example for humans that wanted to get stronger.

'You've seen more fights than almost any other human I've met, but you still have a bad habit of overestimating yourself.'

Zach blasted forward towards Death, lifting the large body off the ground as he collided with him. Death hit the stone wall but wasn't knocked down. Zach sent two thin blades of wind that sliced the matted ground as they traveled. Death blocked the blades with his arms.

Death started running towards Zach who began launching blade after blade of wind. He avoided most and blocked the ones he couldn't. Right as he was about to grab Zach a strong gust blew the two of them apart. Zach now had his back to the stone wall, meanwhile, Death was standing in the center of the arena.

'Going to have to replace the mats again.' Death thought with a sigh.

"You've made it this far, so I'll give you one last chance to convince me." Death said while looking at the destroyed floor around him.

Zach calmed himself down. He forgot for a moment what his main goal was.

"Whatever you're afraid of happening here, we'll cover it. Whatever worries you have about babying humanity, we'll cover it. We can't match your strength, no human ever will, but that doesn't mean you should start playing momma bird and leave humans to fly or die."

Death was shocked by the last part.

'I haven't been letting humans die have I?

"I'd love to solve problems with a hunt if that style of doing things was still possible." He said.

'Maybe I should go? The more I think about it, the more this brings up bad memories.'

The two of them looked each other in the eye.

"I trust you and the others. I'll call Lucifer to let him know I'm joining the investigation group." Death said, watching the air circulate around Zach.

Zach placed his foot on the stone wall behind him and smiled. He kicked off of it with a blast of wind and went to strike death in the chest with his palm.

Death disappeared. The wind from the attack kept traveling and blew a hole in the stone wall behind where he was standing.

'If I can use offensive magic, so can you.' Zach thought as Death reappeared behind him, pushing him forward lightly.

Zach feigned falling, and Marcus yelled "Match over, Death's victory!"

- Lucifer -

"No! Not a fuckin' chance Luce!" Peter yelled. "If he had been here two months I would be questionin' the decision, but two hours?!"

Lucifer waited for Peter to finish, being careful not to interrupt the shouting for worry that it would make Peter even angrier.

'Get it out of your system. Whether he goes on this mission or not is ultimately up to me. You know that.' Lucifer didn't dare to say what he was thinking.

Peter turned to Elijah and started to barrage him with questions.

"What level of magic are ya at? Do you know how to tell someone's magic by their hands? Do ya know any martial arts?" Peter continued asking questions without giving Elijah room to answer.

As Peter was taking a breath Lucifer saw his moment.

"Everything he doesn't know we can teach him along the way. I'm the best magic teacher he could have, and I know more about this world than anyone else in Hell. I made sure to get him a guide before we left."

Peter was still furious with Lucifer but understood that the final decision isn't up to him. He knew that the most he could do is not go on the mission, but that wouldn't stop Elijah from going. He knew the best course of action at this point is going along with the mission, doing his best to protect Elijah, and giving Lucifer shit afterward.

"Fuck you," Peter said to Lucifer in a dejected tone. "Might as well introduce ya."

The four other humans that had been standing behind Peter had been trying their best to stay out of the argument.

Peter walked over to the first member of the group. A Japanese man with a light skin tone, around 5'11" with short black hair and brown eyes, who was wearing a black gi with the hood pulled down.

"This is Sabumaru, we all call him Sabu for short. Sabu this is the brand new recruit that has literally just been reborn, Elijah."

'How long has it been since I was called a new recruit?' Elijah thought extending a hand to Sabu while giving a friendly "Hey." Sabu didn't reciprocate the greeting but did give a quick firm handshake.

Peter moved onto the next person. A black woman, about 5'8" with short black hair that showed her forehead and sat just above her ears. She has two different color eyes, the left being red and the right one brown. The woman was in a full black cloak that extended to her shins.

"Yvere, just-been-newly-reborn recruit Elijah, just-been-newly-reborn Elijah, Yvere."

Yvere extended her hand first to Elijah, giving him a "Good to meet you." while giving a sour look to Lucifer.

'I wonder if there's any relation to Lucifer? Probably not, other than the eye color they look nothing alike.' Elijah thought while shaking her hand.

One of the last two stepped up before Peter could say anything. A Chinese ma with light skin tone, 5'9" in height, with medium length black hair that was parted to the left. His eyes were an almost glowingly bright yellow. His long red shirt and dark brown pants made Elijah think of an old joke.

"I'm Lao. I'm a healer, same as Yvere. If you receive any injuries please tell us immediately."

Lao started walking towards the building in the wall before Elijah could extend his hand.

"Since we have someone new I'm going to make sure we have extra medical supplies," Lao said, trying not to sound condescending.

Lao's yellow eyes seemed more similar to Lucifer's than Yvere's one red eye for Elijah. The almost glowing nature of them was unsettling to him.

'It's hard maintaining eye contact with eyes like that. It feels like an intense stare.' Elijah thought, doing his best not to show his discomfort.

The last of the four introduced himself. The man stood six feet tall, with short spiky blonde hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a green shirt and brown pants.

"Heinrich." He said extending his hand to Elijah.

'He sticks out more than the woman with two different eye colors.' Elijah thought, trying to make sure his face didn't show what he was thinking.

Peter clapped his hands together.

"Right, well that's introductions, which seems perfectly normal and not at all too soon. Heinrich uses earth magic and Sabu uses wind, just so you know, and I can use fire. We'll get to know each other better later, but for now, we need to finish preparations."

The rest of the group besides Lucifer and Elijah went into the building.

"How much longer before we head out?" Elijah asked Lucifer, suddenly feeling mentally exhausted by the day he's had.

"We'll be going in a few hours. The group just needs to make sure they have everything ready."

Elijah looked up at the sky and noticed this world's sun had barely moved in the time between leaving his illusion, and now.

"What season is this part of the world in?" Elijah asked, curious about if this world functioned the same as Earth.

"We're in the Fall equivalent. I was going to mention it later, but since you asked you might as well know. This world is larger than yours, and the days and nights last longer."

'I wonder how that affects the weather? It doesn't feel particularly cold or hot right now, but I'm guessing that'll change once night falls.'

"The weather can get very harsh in certain parts. Most of what you need to know will be in that guide. Read it as much as you can while we're traveling." Lucifer said before joining the others.