Episode 81: LOSING PATIENCE

Gabby then waves to them both, saying that they now have seats. That surely put a smile on Tanken, as now she have a chance to get closer to her. But Red decided to sit in the middle, telling that he must do so to avoid being ignored by the two of them.

Of course, who'd want to be ignored, right?

But knowing that Tanken is resistant to cold, Red couldn't help but wonder if they were doing the right thing.

RED: Isn't this bad though? Like...we're cheating them.

GABBY: Oh yeah, you're right. Sorry...maybe we shouldn't continue this after all.

TANKEN: Don't be pussies, it's not my fault that the cold doesn't sting my tongue. What's the harm of doing this sometime? Calm down you two, don't you want free ice cream as well?

RED: Eh, fine do whatever you guys want. I was just saying, ya know? If you're sure about it, then please do.

TANKEN: Great!

Gabby was handed a paper by one of the waiters, and there included the rules of the contestant.

GABBY: You need to beat the current holder. 25 cones.

TANKEN: Pwah! That's pathetic. I can take double than that.

GABBY: Well, there you go.

Tanken stretched her fingers with a confident smile, then, a timer of an hour started.

...

Humility was again summoned by the Divine Empress, together with half of all white reapers. She looked at them all with a face full of dread and sadness.

ALICE: My dear reapers, I know you are all exhausted, but we received another signal that some demons are helping the rest of the jinxis with stealing souls from the mortal realm. Please help me fix that.

Humility and the rest bowed down before her, and obediently accepted the pieces of paper from Alice's summoned maids.

ALICE: Nhairon, please lead the first group. Humility, you lead the second. Kassandra, you lead the third. Avenge those who have fallen from us if you can, but don't fight fights you know we cannot win. Our main goal is to prevent them from getting the souls that belongs to us. We lost many brothers and sisters from the last fight, so try your best to conserve. I do not want to lose more of you.

Humility carefully stuffs the paper on his pocket, then with his group of powerful men, went back to the mortal realm in order to locate the places with most lost souls.

When all one of them left her chamber, Alice sighed in great exhaustion. Just why do the demons kept leaving hell? They were once so contented just leaving some time or so, but their visits and harmful impact had been frequent. It

was quite alarming.

She sat on her throne, but her heart was not at ease. She trust the soldiers, but if she lose too much, the souls of the dead may be in trouble. Have time passed so much that their seal was able to weaken that much?

Meanwhile Humility and his team were very cautious as they approach the seaside where some people decide to end their lives, while some drown, or get lost.

They saw a lot of souls wandering, crying and wailing, and what tears his heart most was that, some were children. Looking for their mother.

Humility told his 14 fellows to collect the good souls as quickly as possible, or else the demon might quickly reveal itself.

His company followed obediently, gathering as many souls as they want.

Humility looked at the mourning siblings, two souls huddled close to each other, whispering their mother's name. Humility felt a flashback of memories, his moments with the little children he tried so hard to protect during the war.

He approaches them with a sincere smile, his voice in a whispering tone, trying to calm them down.

But the kids kept telling him to go away.

Humility did not take that as an answer, and he kept pursuing them, not wanting them in the hands of ruthless demons. He reached for them again, this time singing a lullaby, to hopefully connect to the children.

The kids, one boy and one girl, looked at each other and wiped their tears, then quiet down, listening to Humility's soft calming voice.

He extended his hands as he sing, he wanted them to trust him. But they were still uncertain.

HUMILITY: Please...I will take you to your mother.

That gave the two a linger of hope. They quickly stood up and held each other's hands, together, they approached Humility.

Before he completely takes them inside a jar, he hugged and comforted them first. And without wasting more time, he opened his jar and their souls were absorbed inside it.

There were more to collect, but they were quite aggressive, while some mistakened them as demons or some evil beings. Catching them had been quite painstalking, and soon the reapers felt a lost of patience.

Their number, versus the great number of mortal souls were unmatched. Some even tried to hurt them.

A fellow white reaper approached Humility, and told him that there were far too many unwilling souls.

He was Rashard, a white reaper with teal eyes and white hair. He told him that it's better if they move already. But as Humility wandered his eyes, he still saw a fair number of children souls. That was not what he wanted for them. They were innocent. They were just scared.

HUMILITY: As long as the demons are still not around, do as what I ordered you to. Collect as many as we can.

Rashard, surprised by his decision, bowed down before him with great respect and continued to do his job.

Humility and the others continued to collect souls, hoping that what they feared would dare not come.

Rashard, while collecting souls saw a crying boy hiding behind one of the rocks. Rashard approached him closely. He smiles at him and tried his best to look friendly. But no matter how hard he tried the kid looked unamused. He was spending way too much time trying to get the kid to come out. And the kid kept dodging his hands as well. He feels bad if he would simply bag the kid. White reapers don't usually do that. That's one of their distinctive nature. They don't collect a soul without making sure they want to come with them. That what ensures that what they collect is at peace, because they were sure, and calmed upon reaching their hands.

That is not the case for him and this kid however, he looks very unwilling.

Dayo, one of his fellow reapers, told him to hurry up, that caused Rashard to get angry and he turned around quickly to point him a finger.

When he did though, he eventually lost his guard and was unaware that the kid was a demon in disguise.

It morphed into a demon with long black hair covering most of his face. His built was quite muscular and he was very big. Thrice the size of them, actually.

Dayo tried to reach Rashard's hand but he was too late.

Even if Rashard tried to escape his fate, the demon quickly swooped him up and ate him whole.

He screamed before meeting his end, and Humility quickly heard that.

When he looked at the size of it, he knew that it perhaps was a class B demon.

It grinned grimly and looked directly at Humility. He frowned and upon receiving the wish of Alice that no reaper must be lost if necessary, he quickly ordered them back. He yelled with all his might to warn them.

And he tried to protect those who are vulnerable. Eventually, they had no choice but to fall back, leaving the poor souls to the demon's hands.

Though they lost Rashard out of fifteen of them, Humility still was unsatisfied with the result. He didn't consider the fact that they might encounter a shapeshifting demon.

He blamed his self for that lost. Without Nhairon, he was not confident enough to finish the job.

Making sure that his friends were alright, he shared some of his flare to those who injured themselves trying to save some souls on the way.

But since most of them lost a lot, he shared a lot as well. If not, they won't have the strength to ascend to the spirit realm.

Knowing that his flare is depleting, he ordered Dayo to take the jars he have with him to the spirit realm in case he loses so much.

But what made him shock though, was the fact that the demon has somehow tracked them.

The demon's second ability was tracking.

Who knew what the third ability was? It might be even more frightening. Humility ordered them all to ascend quickly to the spirit realm as he did not want to lose more of them. He will try to fight it to buy them time as the demon's third ability might be speed. And it's hard to defend his friends while they are already ascending.

A little info about the demons that will help you understand more about future chapters or episodes:

You see, demons from class D to B usually have 3 abilities at most. Class B have the most feared abilities essential for killing even the strongest entities. Class A have five abilities though, but their encounter with such is not that common. What's a nightmare though, was facing an S-class demon, which have 7 abilities at most. Only 9 demons are S-class. But defeating one has not been possible.

Knowing that it was only him versus this fearsome beast, Humility prayed his best that the heavens will help him harm the monster even just enough to make the others escape.

It looked at him with hunger present in his eyes and charged.

He was right.

The third ability was speed.

And that isn't good news.