Chapter 26

I see the Mother Dragon in front of me start disintegrating into pitch-black dust. To the side, I can see a portal inside the altar-like building underneath the pillar holding the dragon egg.

I look at the egg in my hands and feel a connection established between the two of us. I now can feel life inside the egg, and I know what to do if I want to hatch it.

 I pat the egg and say.

"Don't worry. I will hatch you and make sure you grow stronger."

I look at Melisandre, who walks toward me and gives her the egg.

"Please hold this for a moment."

She nods while I walk toward the lingering effect of the dragon breath. I take out a bottle and scoop some of the aura. To my surprise, they enter the bottle, leaving me with a bottle full of dragon's breath.

I look at the others and say.

"Help me store all these lingering breaths. The one injured stays behind. I will heal you guys."

Seven people take the bottle and scoop all the breath while I am busy healing the others. I had not noticed before, but some of them even lost their arms after getting crushed by the boulder thrown away by the Mother Dragon.

Lucky for them, healing potions heal the crushed arm as long as the arm is not completely gone. It can reattach a limb but cannot regenerate limbs from nothing.

After a minute of healing, we are ready to return. We stand around the altar, and I say.

"We will jump into the portal and return to the farm. Let's jump at three. One… Two… Three!"

All of us jump into the portal, and the next thing I know, I get surrounded by darkness with stars decorating the entire sky. I look around in confusion before I see a man sitting not too far away from me, looking at me with an amused expression.

When he sees me looking at him, he smiles a little.

"Who are you?" I ask him.

He stands up and says.

"Me? I am many things. I wear many faces, yet I'm known by all. I can be a whisper. I can be an announcement. I am the one who stands at the end of the line."

And it clicked in my head.

"You are Death. Not God of Death, but Death itself."

"Bingo."

I look at him for a second before saying.

"Why?"

"Hmmm?"

"Why are you reincarnating me into this body? I'm already dead, and I thought you hate someone who cheats you."

"Oh, I hate those kinds of people. However, you are different. You are already dead. Your life is over. I ask Life to give you a new path instead of randomizing it."

I blink at that answer and say.

"Does that mean I will reincarnate even if you interfere or not?"

"Yup! For the next Megaannum, Life will be the one taking care of life. I only harvest them while Life will think of a way to process them. At the moment, Life loves a reincarnated circle at the moment."

I can only look at him in confusion. What is Megaannum? How long was it in a year? Also, Life is playing with our souls? Urgh. The more I think about it, the more headaches it will cause. I will push it away for now.

"You still did not say the reason why you reincarnated me into this world."

Death hums for a second before saying.

"Truthfully? It is random. You are the unlucky one." He looks at me with a smile. "Or rather, the lucky one. You seem to enjoy your time in this world and have already made the future ten times better than its original line."

He walks toward me and says,

"Combine it with you helping the last remaining Void Dragon in this world; I shall reward you. Tell me, what kind of reward do you want?"

"Before that, can you tell me what kind of world this is? I thought that this was a world you created for me to grow in power."

"Oh, it is. This world is the one that was personally created. Not for you. This world is an old world. A world that was once full of wonder. A world once full of people that create that said wonder. Where do you think those potions come from? They are the remnants of creations by those people. Sadly, in their drunken state of power, they want to create something. Something that angers me. They want to play with souls and the dead. They want to revive their deceased relative. They want to be immortal."

I can see him frown and start to release a black, smoky aura from his body. Death takes a deep breath, and the aura disappears.

"I let them. I let them do what they want to do. However, in their hubris, they cross the line, and instead of summoning their relatives' souls from my realm, they create a portal that summons a being that is neither dead nor alive."

"They create a portal to summon the zombies and skeletons, huh?"

"And many more. They thought that they could take care of them, but no. Each night, a horde of zombies will appear and wreak havoc on all cities and towns around the world. Because of this, a lot more people died, and now they become desperate to complete their goal. They create a portal to the nether and continue their research. It was then they created another abomination, something that symbolized their end."

"They summoned the Wither, didn't they?"

"Yes. They summoned the Wither, and that thing cost them a lot. Their race gets divided—some run into the sea, some into the desert, and so on. However, there is a group of people that go to the End, and ironically, it becomes the last place they go before some of them decide to clean the past of their ancestors and kill the Wither."

"Wait… Don't tell me the Endermen are…"

"Yup. They are a husk of what used to be the dominant race of this world. They get what they want. Immortality, but sadly for them, their body is the only thing that is immortal as their soul comes to me in the end."

Death shakes his head and says.

"Anyway, let's get back to the reward. What do you want? I will not grant you anything you want, mind you. Tell me."

I think for a few seconds before saying.

"Can I get two? They are minor rewards. At least, I think so."

"Oh? Tell me."

"Can you tell the Faceless men to serve me? I don't want them to kill others, but instead, I want them to be my spy and counterspy against people who want to spy on my kingdom. Also, I want them to make sure no assassin can kill me and my family."

Death laughs and says.

"This is why I like you. Instead of asking for power, you are thinking of a way to protect your family and kingdom. Granted. What is the second one?"

"Can you also make sure no magic can see me, my family, and my kingdom?"

"The so-called Three-Eyed Raven, huh? That is another abomination that I need you to kill for me. Anyway, granted. Gods and Goddesses can still see you, but anyone less of a divine being cannot see you."

Death smiles and says.

"Go and change the world, Father of Dragons. You have my blessing."

He snapped his finger, and suddenly, I stood in the middle of a grassland not too far away from the farm.