The Blessings Of Life And Death

"Urghhh!"

Lilith dressed in her black sweaty sports bra and shorts that clung tightly to her burning body grunted out as she pushed the 20 kilograms bar with 280 kilos of added weight away from her chest.

"Fuck!"

Lilith cursed under her breath because she used to be able to bench press 400 kilograms while in DAM because although the mode is primarily created to turn supersoldiers into ultimate killing machines it has other uses.

One of the uses is that it's the perfect tool to make you able to train until you either tear your muscles into pieces or blackout.

But currently, because of her condition, she wasn't in DA but even thou she wasn't she used to be able to do more reps with a heavier weight even without the mode.

As she sat up on the bench and wiped off the sweat from her face with her towel only to see the sweaty Natasha dressed in the same way which exposed her athletic body covered lightly in scars and tattoos.

With her towel around her neck and a black plastic drinker in her hand walk to her after finishing her hour-long run on the treadmill.

"You shouldn't be training with those kinds of weights it's bad for the baby"

Natasha said as she passed her drinker to Lilith who happily took it from her hands and started drinking from it until it was empty.

"And why is that?"

Lilith asked after wiping off her mouth with her hand.

"For fucks sake you really are a musclehead"

Natasha cursed out as she ran her head through her face.

"You're a female Lilith our bodies weren't made to compete with them"

Natasha said as she pointed with her right thumb at a topless Fiorenzo in DAM who was built like a hulk bench pressing 500 kilograms making the metal bar bend like a bow while his green arteries and veins were threatening to burst under his skin at any moment.

As the REAPERs, onboard gyms loudspeakers kept blasting heavy metal.

"And the only reason you could before now is that your implants were releasing a bunch of synthetic hormones, drugs, and stimulants into your bloodstream 24/7 which allowed your augmented body to compete with augmented males like Fiorenzo but because you got pregnant the microchip in your brain had reduced their output and completely shut down some of them so that the baby in your womb could develop properly"

Natasha explained it in one breath.

"So ill become weaker and weaker?"

The depressed Lilith asked.

"Yeah but you'll still be able to beat any unaugmented males into a pulp even if it's 10 to one"

Natasha answered with a smirk.

"Anyways have you told him already?"

"No, not yet didn't have the chance to his been cooped up in his room setting up the provisional military government of his while playing king"

Lilith answered while sighing with bitterness.

"You know you should tell him before he gets any funny ideas about that werewolf princess because although she's not as big as me she still packs quite a rack which is certainly bigger than yours plus she doesn't have so much muscle on her bones as you do"

Natasha said while looking down at Lilith with a mocking look causing Lilith's face to start twitching.

"Tch! You goddamn bimbo mind your own business!"

Lilith roared while stomping her right leg in anger as she stood up and went to the gym's showers.

Hehehe she's so funny to tease.

Natasha thought evilly while grinning with a devilish grin.

....

"So even by taking the REAPER apart and using its parts, it's still going to take a month to build one huh?"

I muttered to myself as I stared at my PCs glass see-through screen showing a holographic 3D model of 200 meters long, 20 meters wide, and 16 meters high armed with two double-barreled 150 mm canons and 8 eight REAPERs PDLCs including 10 REAPERs multipurpose missiles.

The REAPER class destroyer named in honor of the soon-to-be-taken-apart REAPER also had a helipad in its back for a VAMPIRE to land for the planned onboard squad of marines to board.

Marks second in command really outdid herself this time.

Not only will the destroyer be able to fly in the air thx to dwarf's reverse-engineered gasified air mana tech but it will also be able to sail on water.

I thought in my mind only to sigh heavily with bitterness upon knowing that my beloved REAPER was about to be torn to pieces.

Suddenly out of nowhere, a pitch-black mist full of a murderous and menacing aura entered my room through my closed doors as it did I could feel the temperature drop to the point that my hair stood up.

"Enough with the dramatics Zac, you know full well that I can see you"

I said in my usual emotionless voice completely not impressed with Zachariahs Gardners once the butler of the duke now a wraith who even after the death of its master refused to move on antics.

"Hehehe I'm sorry sir but I couldn't resist"

Zachariah answered with a chuckle as he condensed into a tall middle-aged athletic man with gray short-sleeked back hair and a monocle-wearing fancy and expensive black butler's suit.

He could have easily passed as a living being if not for his white as paper skin and empty pitch-black eye sockets.

"So is everything in order?"

As I asked this Zachariah's mischievous look disappeared.

"Sir, do you really want to do this? If you go down this road you'll end up as the duke sooner or later."

Zachariah asked as he scanned my face for any sign of change in my expression.

"I don't fucking care"

I said as I stood up and started walking to the cave inside the floating piece of land under the castle.

...

"Its done sir"

Zachariah muttered out in a tired voice as he dropped the bloody knife made from an unknown species bone the same that the duke used in his own ritual to the ground causing the sound of it hitting the solid ground to reverberate through the cave agitating the hundreds of thousands of death bats which were 3 times bigger than earths vampire bats.

While I spitted out the bloody lump of leather from my mouth.

"It's... time for...the... second phase..."

I muttered out through my heavy breathing as I picked up the dukes grimoire with covers made out of pitch black bones from the ground and flipped it open causing the pitch black candles around me and thousands of other candles placed all around the dark, wet death moss and empty death air mana crystals covered cave to light up with blue flames illuminating the cave in an eerie cold ice-blue light.

While my burning bloody and naked body with carved-out primordial occult runes deep down to my bones kept twitching nonstop as my leaking out blood started flowing into the grimoires empty pages made out of human skin from which countless howling and screaming faces tried to escape only to get pulled back into the pages.

As my blood started forming unknown words I started chanting them out loud.

"Hebcuoajvrilbbyocooqbepiedjudbwkishdbsb..."

While my kneeling death knights with their greatswords inserted into the ground around the circle with burning ice-blue candles with carved out primordial occult runes on the ground filled with the executed by them empires soldier's blood started doing the same.

Not long after that, my consciousness started blurring and as I did I saw the hundreds of thousands of bats surround me and form a tornado made out of bats with me being its epicenter while my own and death knights chanting which sounded like gibberish before in my ears started making sense all of a sudden.

"Death accept this brave man into your embrace who does not fear your cold embrace"

"I accept''

I heard a woman's voice which was cold as ice whisper in my ears that for some reason sounded so foreign yet so familiar to me.

"Life do not abandon this pitiful man for he is sacrificing himself to the eternal damnation of outliving all those that live without being able to die himself nor father any offsprings without the offsprings taking the life of their mothers all in order to protect all that live from those born of chaos"

"I will not abandon him"

Another woman's voice warm as the sun itself whispered into my ears again which sounded just exactly like the first ones.

"Death and Life I ask you to bless, love, take care of this man and watch over him for the rest of eternity for he will become an Apexer the ultimate being that one day will surpass both of you''

"We bless, we will love, take care and watch over this man for he is our child the child of Death and Life for he will become an Apexer an ultimate being who will one day surpass both of us"

As I heard both women whisper into my ears I felt their deathly and lifely embraces and from the corner of my eyes, I could see one pitch black and another pure white figure kiss my cheeks at the same time.

"Bring death to all those that you meet my child"

Death said as she caressed my left cheek with her ice-cold hand.

"Bring life to all those that you meet my child"

Life said as she caressed my right cheek with her lava-warm hand.

"What the f...?!"

I cursed out under my breath because according to Zachariah I should have made a deal with Hades, not Death and Life as I felt my vision completely black out but just before it did I saw the two women giggle identically as if they were twins.