Death's Obsession

Mark

What is mana? I have asked myself this each and every time I have introduced a power system from an anime, game, tv show, or just my own ideas, and added them to the golem magic system. What I have discovered is that mana can come in many forms, but is a fundamental part of magic. There are many different depictions of mana being used, and even instances where it supposedly isn't used, but feats that can only be described as magic still happen. 

For example, anti-magic. A style of magic meant to go completely against it. The way this is done is by breaking down each and every spell, skill, ability, or form of magic it interacts with, and disrupting the mana within it, causing it to dissipate. Every time it's depicted, mages, scholars, and the like will always say that mana isn't utilized to do this, but something else entirely. 

However, that is far from the truth. Anti-magic utilizes an offshoot of mana which is typically utilized in spells for corruption. But, it goes even further than that. Since anti-magic also counters demonic or devil magic. Thus it utilizes mana that is typically from the void itself. A place of supposed 'nothingness'. Realistically though, the void, and also in the case of the universe I reside in, the dimensional gap, is encased in mana. Just one that eats away at magic, life force, and anything that could produce a form of magic.

This offshoot of my research has led me to find ways to convert the mana of the dimensional gap, or 'void mana' back to its natural form. The reason I want to do so is so I have access to an infinite source of mana, since the dimensional gap has no 'technical' end to it. 

"And what would you do with an infinite power source hun?" 

"Well I would most likely supplement any form of electronics we may have to run off of that instead of my own magic power, or anyone else's, as it has been so far, and expand the size of our current dimension."

"Here I thought you would quote star wars and go 'UNLIMITED POWER!' Or something along those lines." I paused and looked to my side to realize that Jane was responding to me that whole time.

"Yes, you were speaking out loud. You tend to do that a lot when you get deep into researching something. If it helps, I find it cute, and Jess thinks it's endearing." The smirk on her face said otherwise. 

"It does not help actually. I am glad that it was you that pointed it out though. I would be embarrassed if someone else did it instead of you or Jess." I stayed in my male form, walked over to the couch in our room, and took a seat. Jess followed behind and stood behind the couch, not letting go of her secretary persona quite yet. 

"Well you do have a meeting with Odin soon about the frost giants. He was looking to resolve things with them more peacefully this time, and Ymir was a bit more open to it since he heard that we had an alliance with Asgard." She scrolled through her tablet, most likely going through several documents she prepared, ready to summarize them. 

"That's good. It does still surprise me that Ymir is still alive. Or in this case, he woke up I guess." Ymir in this verse did suffer terrible injuries at the hands of Odin, and his brother gods died in the battle. The wars they fought in the past may have softened them up, either that, or my presence just had that big of an impact on them. 

"That is true, although I still do not trust him. He has been alive for a long time, and I doubt he actually enjoys peace. Of course, I could be wrong and time actually changed him. I would still like to keep a close eye on his actions for now though." I nodded at Jess. The more I discover about the version of DxD that I am in, the more I have to prepare. A lot of powerful deities are alive and well, including ones like Ymir. 

"Moving on from that, Death has reached out to Kuro via a letter, and we have sent back a tablet at her request so that she could communicate easier. It seems that she has become quite fond of him." Oh yeah, that whole situation is…interesting to say the least.

[Flashback]

Today I am out on a family picnic with everyone. We decided to visit a spot near Levi's old log house by the lake. She doesn't really visit there anymore ever since she started dating Jewel. I brought Jewel's cave within the dimension and they started to live together. Although out of all of my children, her relationship is progressing the slowest, funny enough. It had more to do with the fact that all of the romance came first, with a lot of innuendos, in-between, rather than jumping directly into the hardcore side of things. 

It was adorable to watch though. Levi was like putty in Jewel's hands when it came to their relationship, but at times it was the other way around. Levi's harem plan hasn't dwindled though, if anything it has been reinforced, and Jewel has been encouraging her all the way. 

Sebastian and Vivi are fun, due to the two being almost complete opposites. Seb is like the serious workaholic type that will get shit done. Vivi is like the outgoing, girl next door type, with a heart of gold. Not to say that Seb is cold, if anything he is extremely gentle and caring. Very heroic driven too. Of course that's not to say that he won't do anything morally gray if it comes down to it, but it's better to do the lesser evil at times anyway. The discussions between Vivi, Jess, Jane, and I have brought us to have Seb be crowned as king of the fae in maybe ten years. It's still being hashed out, all things considered. 

Retzio and Loki went from a mistake, to lovebirds that can't let go of each other. The two of them barely leave more than ten feet of each other. Retzio even brings Loki along whenever he has to carry out assignments, or work within the torture chambers of the assassin troupe under him. I took part in torturing some of the corrupt church folk myself. It was cathartic in a way, but strangely pleasurable in another to watch them scream for mercy. Especially since they tortured fae to create holy weapons for their selfish war that's just a glorified family feud. 

Circi still hasn't found anyone she is interested in. It's probably due to her being way too absorbed in her research and teaching her fellow angels more about the magic system I made. Her son is a different story though. Kuro is almost as powerful as any of my children, of course Bob blows any except Seb and Circi out of the water, but he is an anomaly. Bob has taken up an uncle role in Kuro's life funny enough, and he trains Kuro's undead summons since they can learn. 

Speaking of said undead, the ability worked almost the exact same as Jin-Woo from Solo Leveling, with the difference being the fact that they could take on their original appearance, Kuro had to defeat them himself, and he could theoretically bring back any being. Even a god. 

"Grandma, I got this letter while Uncle Bob was sparring with Sir Chomp." Kuro's naming conventions could use some work, but I just rubbed the boy's head and grabbed the letter.

Dear Golem Goddess, (Please let the goddess read this, I beg you.)

You could probably already tell based off of the mana signature, but I, Lady Death, am sending this letter. The only reason this has reached you was due to your grandchild, who also happens to be the topic of this letter. I do not have a way to get into your dimension, I don't think any being in this universe could get access without your permission, so I do apologize if sending this letter offends you. I would prefer to keep my unlife so please hear me out as you read the next few sentences.

I would like to court your grandchild. Please do not rip the letter yet, there is a lot more to it than just that.

To be honest, I almost did just rip the letter, and I could feel in the back of my head the want to shift forms, but I pressed on and continued to read.

If you managed to read this far, then I thank you for sparing me your time, I know how precious it is to you. Now to get to the topic at hand, I would like to court your grandchild due to me taking an interest in his personality, his looks, and his abilities. I am aware that his new undead abilities can be attributed to the growth item that you have created for him, but his affinity for death is by far the strongest in the known universe. No being is able to surpass his potential with death, not even the gods and goddess' that I have given my blessing to utilize power of that capacity. 

Kuro's domain over death, if given time, would reach the same level, if not surpass my own, and I am the very embodiment of death itself. Due to these factors, I would like to court him, so if you permit it, I would like to visit your dimension at any location you would like. I am certain that you would probably severely harm me like you did in the past when your daughter Kinami was taken from you. I am sorry for that by the way, I know that it was not my doing, but several death gods and goddesses under my employ did try to steal her soul before you got it back, so I will apologize in their place. Goodness knows they sure wouldn't.

Venting about my subordinates incompetence aside, as a show of gratitude if you would allow it, I will only send an avatar to your realm, I would never step there with my actual body unless you permitted it and I gained Kuro's and your trust. As an alternative, if you can provide me a way to communicate with Kuro on a regular basis, I will do that instead if it will help you trust me easier. I mean it when I say I mean no harm to your grandchild. I do not want a repeat of what happened when you lost your daughter. 

From Lady Death 

P.S. I don't have an actual name, I plan on letting Kuro give me one once we reach that stage within the relationship.

P.P.S. Did I mention how hot your grandchild is? Also the fact that if he is that big then those genes clearly…

I stopped reading since she started to get a bit too descriptive about my grandchild's body. Like, I get that I made them like that, but damn woman how thirsty are you? Kuro didn't just have a god or goddess thirsting after him, he had the actual embodiment of death thirsting after him. What in the actual chicken fuck. 

[Flashback Magic Dissipating] 

So, ever since then, the two of them have been interacting in a similar way to how Levi and Jewel started out. Except the two of them tend to watch a lot of tv shows together. I think they started watching Breaking Bad recently, and have been playing a lot of the full-dive vr rpg's that I bought from The Collective more recently. 

Another interesting tidbit is the fact that I was able to buy the vr utilized to play Overlord, Log Horizon, and SAO. This would allow the user to actually interact with said worlds during their canon times before they did their crossover/shutdown. I personally didn't plan on doing that anytime soon so I didn't get those yet. Maybe once I handle everything important here first, I would. 

Lady Death

This man was fascinating. It was like looking at a male version of myself whenever I saw him interact with death magic. Also the fact that the unique magic that his grandmother, the golem goddess granted him through the growth item, I couldn't recreate it. No matter how hard I tried. Me, the embodiment of death, wasn't able to do something that Kuro, son of the true angel, was able to do. 

Let alone the fact that death adored him. Obviously I was talking about myself, but also the magic behind death. Everything about death found him to be perfect. His potential was also limitless, but that was normal for any being among golem-kind. Any of them could grow to become a powerhouse. 

"Lady Death, you have received a package from the golem goddess." One of my reaper servants brought me a large package. It had a small note that read.

Here, have fun. Kuro loves tv shows, anime, and the like more than video games. It wouldn't hurt to play some with him from time to time though, and you can also interact with him physically in vr when he trusts you more. I believe Circi already told him everything since you sent her a separate letter, but she didn't seem to mind, so I'm giving you a chance. But, if you do anything to hurt my grandchild, I WILL REPLACE YOU!

I felt a shiver run down my spine and I looked around my castle after I read that letter. There wasn't any extra mana in the air, nor were there any curses cast, but I could feel the threat through the letter. That last line was most likely written by the golem god, since more pressure was put into writing those letters. I opened the package and misled at the contents. Each device had an instruction manual by them, so I setup everything in my private room and created an avatar to handle my day-to-day work. 

Just the sight of Kuro regularly sent shivers down my very being. What would happen when I am actually in his presence? What about when he touches me? Or vice versa? What about if he is inside of…

"I will assist you Lady Death." One of my servants helped me unpack the package and interrupted my thoughts. I still drooled at the thoughts of him, I wanted, no I NEEDED him. I will do everything I can to gain his trust, my very being and everything about me wants to embrace Kuro. I can wait though, no matter how long it takes. 

Malek

Being a gelatinous orb is a weird experience. Especially when I was first given sentience till now. When father first brought me into this world, I realized that I was the least humanoid of the bunch. Once I consumed some corrupt humans from the church, I realized that I could shapeshift into a more humanoid form. It was still more comfortable as a slime, but it was easier to read as a human. 

Everyday I was given a different type of creature to devour with my unique ability until I was able to hunt the creatures on my own. Even then, I still had subordinates that would follow me, whether as guards, or as a troupe that I would need to grow myself. It is a common test that mother gives each of her children. She tasks us with taking in subordinates that she creates alongside us and has us choose their path of initial growth. From there, they choose the further path they take. 

My situation was different though, since I was given the choice to choose golems from the adventurers of the guild, or once that mother made. Of course I wanted to have subordinates that were made by my mother, so she created more slimes like me, 9 in total. Not as powerful, nor with the same ability set per se. Their power was limited in the fact that they could only devour one 'type' of magic. For example, if one devoured a fire salamander, they could only devour beings that align with the fire element. 

There are exceptions of course, and that is if the first creature they devour has more than one element. They also could not obtain a being's unique abilities after devouring them like I can. Although, like any other of golem kind, they don't have a ceiling to their growth, and they aren't technically limited to a specific element since we all can learn golem magic. All of us were currently within the library reading over a book aptly named 'Basic Theory Of Golem Magic', written by mother. 

"I see that you are still hard at work Malek. Do you need any assistance or have any questions about magic." Circi walked over to the section of the library where we were sitting, and greeted us.

"For now, I don't believe I will need assistance, since all of us have yet to grasp the basics. We have plenty of power, but without the utility of golem magic, we will grow too reliant on the powers that we have devoured. I am a somewhat special case, but that isn't the case for the rest of us. That doesn't mean I shouldn't learn this though." Circi nodded at me and took a seat at the table.

"That's a wonderful thing. I do think I can still write out a few guidelines on what you all should focus on at the start based on what you specialize in. Although Malek, you will probably have to learn everything like Sebastian, and I have. Since your scope of power will be so broad, and golem magic will help organize it easier." I smiled at her, and nodded, before I focused on her guidelines.

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Here is that chapter I promised. There are plenty more to come. Here is ze Kofi: k.o.-f.i.c.o.m.(slash)oshimura

And Here is ze discord: disc.o.r.d.g.g.(slash)SMCNsWwsW6

Next chapter release will be for my worm fic: Tinker In My Bio (It isn't posted on this site but I will start posting it here soon.)