320 Clashing with Death
When Death snapped his fingers the scenery changed around the two immediately, they were in a stormy day, a couple were running away with a baby in the females arms, the blood of natural birth still sticky in her thighs and tainting her dress, the man was panicking and looking each way while he supported the mother as they ran away from the darkness, the little boy did not cry, not when the thunder rumbled in the heavens, not when the rain washed away the blood on his mother and not when his parent were attacked by monsters made of shadows.
The couple made it just a bit before dawn to a town big enough to have an orphanage and left their child in a bundle at the doorstep, then they ran again faster and faster, they fought but were overwhelmed by the shadows and were separated as the two cried out each other's names. The boy was found by a nun, she was returning with a blush on her face, the cold air of the morning after a storm made her heart flutter, she was too poor to put on anything heavy enough to keep herself warm.
She picked up the silent baby and took him in, she fed him and cleaned for him, and gave him his name. The scene paused with the nun cradling the baby to her chest, she was blushing this time too, something else made her heart flutter. Death watched Yunan with a keen look before saying "if you knew they were both alive and have lived good lives would you resent them for not returning?", Yunan did not answer his gaze was fixed at the blushing nun and the baby who still has yet to cry. Death asked again "would you trade her life for theirs? I can make it so".
"Not in a million life times, she is my only mother, not even the creator can change that, not you, and not them, in fact, i am grateful to them for leaving me behind and never returning, ki became this great of man thanks to her care not to them leaving me behind". Death was very amused so he snapped his fingers again this time he saw the two parents run past the orphanage without a second look, they were not caught by the shadows this time, and the child they had grew into a king, power, wealth and prosperity, anything was at the tips of his fingers, he was, however, alone, even when surrounded by people who fawned on him at all times.
"This is what great of man you would have become if they kept you" a tempting tone to his voice, " i can make it so that this timeline is your home". Yunan wasn't very tempted "i have something he doesn't, i have love". A snap of a finger and the lonely man became a happy man, he had his beautiful wives and loving parents around him, his friends were numerous and in the land he was more loved than rain. "It is not enough" this time Yunan said first "you can even show me the timeline where i rule the world, if she is not part of my life, then i have to reject, i care not for wealth or power or prosperity, i care for my family, people who truly love me, i have no need for a whole world who adores me of i can not love them back".
Death laughed in merriment "good words, good words, but what would you chose if her life was better without you?". The scene changed again after the two parents passed by the orphanage and the nun returned, a prince will pass by and gets attacked by bandits, she saves his life and whisks her away from how life as a nun to become his queen, he would love the nun madly and give her all the happiness in the world, she would love him too and together they birth a child, they raise the child with all the love and happiness in their hearts, she gets old and dies with a smile on her face.
"I am selfish, even if she would have been much happier than with me, i would still want to be her son, because i know she was as happy with me as i was happy with her, we didn't need the world, we had each other". Yunan's answer made Death laugh even harder, this ant was defying him with the stupidity of a rock stubborn and immovable. He really liked this ant, it would be fun to have him become a nuisance for a few millennia, he would not be as bored as he was before today.
After calming down, Death prepared to snap his fingers but stopped he looked inquisitively at Yunan for a moment before saying "if i told you I would cut short her lifespan by a day for each reaper you killed, what would you do?". Without answer Yunan somehow gripped his death scythe in hand and said "i will try to kill you too, you should have stopped me from making this thing if you truly knew what would happen". Still with his fingers ready to snap, Death took out a scythe of his own, it was something magnificent and terrible at the same time, he could feel it in his bones, the fear, the hatred and the anger left behind by all the deaths that were harvested with this item. It was the divinity of death itself, the primordial concepts of end, inexistence and null.
Yunan was not discouraged and swung his scythe, he swung to kill, there was no hesitation or reproach, it was the first time Yunan would have felt good for killing, the two scythes met with a clang, two divinities clashing, none could end the other, for they were one and the same, the two scythes fused and became one, a formless mass of nothingness that is able to devour anything it encounters. Death grabbed the mass and swallowed it. "it is too early for you to become death, that weapon is not a toy to play with, if you make another by your own efforts, then let us clash again, until then stay away from my domain". Snap.