5 EMERGENCE III

A NEW WORLD

The Beither slowly dissipates into the air as the 2 men take a deep breathe after their fight. Lachlan looked at Finn's direction and he seems to have disappeared as well. He looks to his broken claymore with only the wooden part of the handle is left, he burns it slowly along with his wounds sealing up. He covers it and approaches Albert who is taking care of the 3 kids who have passed out upon what they have witness. All 3 have loss color but are still hanging on, especially Ava who has in the middle of it all.

"Are they okay?"

"Yeah, we need to bring them to the school, they have potential"

"Yep, we better train them, we also need to find Finn"

"No, we don't have to worry about him"

"Are you sure?"

They slowly get out of the realm as the dark sky turns back into the blue bright sky that they all know, and they felt safe. As the 'pocket realm' retract back to Albert's stop watch people started materializing out of nowhere. The 2 quickly grabbed the kids and headed to the second floor on the pub which hosts a hotel. The 3 kids slept there like a log, Harry snores loudly, Ava sleeps quietly and Logan seems to be having a nightmare. The other 2 have regained color and is lively, but Logan with no color at all was the liveliest out of the 3. Albert feels a disturbance around him, like something wishes them death.

"Did you feel the presence of a banshee earlier?"

"Yeah, I did not kill it, also a giantess"

"You do have an idea what the banshee's scream signifies?"

"Death?" Lachlan looks at Albert, but both has no expression nor emotion, Albert agrees with with his answer. Logan still continues to struggle in his sleep but the 2 left him alone.

"And the banshee seems to have seen the kids, or rather warned them about the death"

"Yes, the life of this kids will change from here on out will it?"

"Indeed, I can also roaming souls around the area, it must be theirs"

"I'll stay and tell them when they wake up, You go on and gather them Albert"

"Its the only thing I can do, take care of them"

Albert gets up and puts on his trench coat and top hat, he holds down the door as he gets out of the room and ended up to where the nearest souls are. He ended up in a small and humble abode, ruined and clearly a sign of a dangerous attack. He looks outside and sees the crow -squawking- telling them of the location, he gave the crow hat tip and it nodded back and flew away. He is yet to see souls on where he is, he sees the stairs and he climbs up to it. He sees a little girl looking through the window, she turns around and sees him. He looks around before interacting with her and feels that there was someone here before him, but it was not his job to find out. He slowly approaches the little girl and sees her seeing him, she has died.

"Oh you poor girl"

"Hello"

"Hiya, who might you be?"

"My name is Lola Finely, and who might you be?"

"Albert"

He kneels down and looks at what the little girl is holding, a portrait of her family. He asks for it in a kind manner and so she hands it to him, he smiled and as he looked at the photo his smile blew away; realizing something. He looks up to her once more and they do look a like, this is Logan's little sister. She is dead now, as he looks behind her and sees her and parents lying down with their chests burst open, or rather torn into; but it was not his place to interact with it.

"Oh no"

The dead are unable to see their body unless the Reaper tells them of its presence. Children under the age of 13 are the ones who will be reincarnated immediately, a pure soul. He looks at her and he is unable to shed a tear, Reapers have their emotions locked away with their memories, they can imitate it but they do not know the feeling. The warm love, the sadness, loneliness, joy, anger they do not know how it feels, so when Albert looks at this little girl he cannot relate to her. He looks back at her body once more and she is holding the same portrait, but much bloodier than the one her soul is holding.

"Do you wish to see your brother once more little one?"

"Well, he just went to school earlier than we expected, and then some friends of his came by and asked where he is but they were too scary so I did not tell"

"Friends?"

"One of them had fangs showing, long hair like a girl, his eyes were red"

"And his friends?"

"One had a horn coming out from his head and then- Like ram.. he looks like a ram"

She pointed at the animal on the wall of her room and Albert starts to feel more worry some. They cannot be killed but can be corrupted. He is well aware of his power, so if he were to walk down the path of darkness then on his wake death and destruction comes.

"But I don't know what happened after that, now I'm just.. here talking with you"

Not being able to hear more he writes her name down on the book using his quill and rights down that her soul shall be reincarnated; he closes it with no feeling of remorse. He looks up to her and her soul starts to break apart as if she is being blown away, at this split moment the soul can see their bodies and she does. She leans over and sees her body down on the floor with her parents', dead. After a minute her soul has fully vanished. Albert looks behind and approaches the 2 bodies. A man comes in and sees the awful carnage and calls the police and headed outside.

"I'm sorry"

"For what?" A husky, cold, terrifying, bone-shaking voice spoke from behind him, but for the ripper it was nothing, he slowly turns behind to meet a face that for him was familiar; only in the wrong way. A tall being stands in front of him and his head is almost making contact with the ceiling.

"Dracula, how are we?"

"Good, I see Mephistopheles has gone hunting once more?"

"He is not as brutal as you"

"hmmm, poor bastards" He said as he kicked the body "I offered them to be one of my own but they declined, they could have achieved Immortality" Albert was already on him since the beginning of their talk, and he came clean. The Reaper kept that cold glare onto the Vampire's face.

"Those 'dead' eyes, you want to kill me?" He leaned over down to his height, mocking him.

"Grim Reapers cannot kill you, are role is to the souls, to gather them"

"And I"

His nails grew long and tries to attack Albert, but his hand is stopped, there is a wall around Albert something not allowing him to take any damages. The Reaper did not flinch with the threatening and can only hold on firmly to his book. "Cannot" Albert finished his sentence for him, the vampire laughed and almost hit his head on the ceiling near his face, he sees a light bulb and he does not see his reflection.

"Well, that is all, and Albert, that little place where you are teaching these children, we shall take it, when one of us is among you"

"I cannot interfere even if you were to provoke me, Death does not allow it"

"I know... Good luck"

Dracula raised his arms and disappeared within his robe, massive baths flew through the halls of the home, through the living room and through the front door of the house. He moved on to the next 2 houses quickly and taking the parents of Ava and Harry, their hearts also have seem to be taken; and in the same way as well. The clear work of a demon. Their deaths was not peaceful nor comfortable. Albert hurries up and gets back to the hotel where Lachlan stands watch among the 3. He rushed in and sees Lachlan with his gun in hand and charging up, looking through the window.

"You felt him did you not?"

"I did, we need to go to the Castle and get this kids to the Overworld"

"Yeah, we're ready" Logan said as he slowly gets up, sweaty unlike the other 2.

"Finally, are you sure you are ready?"

"Yes, and we know that our families are dead, we have no time to express our grief or mourn do we?"

"You do... and you should, if you are to have any negative emotions then, Corruptors can use it to destroy you"

"...."

"Well, I do not feel emotion, personally, but I do understand it, I have already become insensitive to death or such, but I can sort of empathize to your kind. So before we depart, you must.. must mourn, all of that emotions, let it go"

A memorial service was held for the families of the 3 kids. The 2 Reapers attended it but kept hidden to the eye of those without Imperium. They stood there without any emotions, just seeing other wandering souls cursed to be ghosts by their own kind.

"Lachlan, where are you going?"

"This man, or this soul, I condemned him"

"Okay?" After that weird interaction Lachlan stood back with Albert in the trees. The ghosts. They wander around aimlessly for a sin that they have committed, ghosts are the product of strong negative emotions, they are the core that is used to create monstrous supernatural beings, except for demons. Only Angels of Death can kill them now, but they refuse too.

The kids shed a tear in front of their deceased parents, but they did not dare to cry. Their pent up anger towards their parents mellowed down into sadness, and to their tears. Some of their relatives approached them asked them to live with them, but they refused it by not replying, although they can live in the school that they will be taken too, the Reapers told them they must go out from time to time in order to keep in check in with their relatives. After the funeral service the kids were sent back to their homes alone with their relatives and nothing else.

"Well, there they go"

"When should we depart?"

"In the dead of night, and quickly we must Lachlan"

The 3 kids looked at the Reapers from their own respective angles as the 2 disappear into the rain. They got back to their houses and acted as if they were sad, but in reality they were angry, especially to the people that killed their family. They sought revenge, a powerful feeling, the result of hatred and sadness boiled down to 1. In the dead of night as their families sleep the 3 kids snuck out quietly of their houses, using their phones they communicated with one another and navigated towards the pub.

"This will be fun"

"Do you sense them Albert?"

"Clearly"

They can feel the kids approach them little by little on their feet, after a couple of hours they arrived at the pub, tired.

"3 bottles.. of scotch please!" Harry said as he raised 3 of his fingers, but they have no reaction whatsoever. The 2 Reapers 'congratulated' them by brewing a drink for them, the 3 kids looked at Lachlan and Albert with utter confusion as to why they would offer kids alcohol. Harry felt guilt instantly.

"I was joking by the way"

"Its not alcohol"

"It is created from the purest form of Imperium, we call it 'The Essence'. The raw and innate form of Imperium that is awakened at a certain age within you kids"

"Do you guys have it?"

"Yeah, Imperium or whatever, like how do you have this?" Logan and Harry checked the clear cups, when they looked under it the liquid does not appear at all.

"Well, yes and no"

"How?'

"Imperiums are created mainly from emotions, a powerful emotion such as joy will result with a much better control of your ability, anger will give you an uncontrollable massive power that will not only hurt you, but those around you"

"And sadness?"

"What about it?"

"What can sadness do?"

"Sadness, can make your imperium weak, sadness is an emotion in between joy and anger, but you are more susceptible to anger than joy"

"Really?"

"No away"

"That's crazy... what will this do to us?"

"Indeed. When you are of course taken over by anger it will destroy you, if happiness were to fall on you, then you will be taken a back"

"You need to learn how to be insensitive at times, and by drinking 'The Essence' it can help you understand your power, and in time you can and will control it as you 'want' it to be"

"Control how?"

"For example the feeling of rage, like you kids, you want retribution to the once that killed your parents"

"Do you not?

"We Definitely do Mr. Lachlan"

"Of course"

"Yeah"

"But, you can feel rage, that is fine, but do not bring it to the point where you would do things drastically, you are still in control. Think of it as a-"

"Overriding?"

"Yes, you do not allow that emotion to take control of you"

"I kinda get it"

"hmm yeah sort of, we'll learn more once we get to see this school"

"Cannot wait"

"You kids can break a smile but inside yo-"

"We know"

"We won't allow our emotions to get the best of us"

"You can trust, you do not have to worry"

"Good, now drink and find your power"

Lachlan and Albert talked on the corner of the pub, they are warry of the effects of the drink to them. By the way they act the death of their family does not seem to affect them as much.

"What do we do if they become evil?"

"They will not, look at them... Crying"

"Its a façade?"

"Of course, no children will laugh at the same day their family were brutally murdered. If they do it is probably a lie"

The kids smelled the concoction which just looks like the night sky, they smelled it but there is nothing to smell off. They took a sip and the flavor is outstanding to their palettes, after taking a sip they drank the whole thing. They blink their eyes as it turns slowly into the starry dark sky. The 3 looked down on them and they see the whole pub disappearing, suddenly they were sucked into a portal and they are separated.

The 3 of them fell from the sky, they passed by the clouds already and all they can see is the luminous, colorful dots in the sky. Each of them looks around and they cannot see one another, all they can feel is the overwhelming and powerful Imperium around them, they feel it as a strong gust of wind blowing to their faces. Some parts feel warm and cold as they slowly fall into the abyss. They look up and they can see the clouds starts to swirl, 'what is that?' they all thought until a bright ray of light came through and shined the whole place. They stopped falling and they are floating, they look up and down and there are clouds around them.

*What is this?*

*Where Am I?*

*I'm dead*

Clouds form into a tendril and it wraps around them slowly, and they can feel it pulled them down slowly, they felt safe and sleepy as the tendrils fully cover them. All they can hear is their own breathing, heartbeat, and their thoughts.