Limitless The Strongest Revenant

Chapter 1008 1008: This is how [1/2]

The lives of reapers were not easy. If anything, it felt like reapers were the very thing the universe hated the most. Every part of life was difficult, be it our purpose, how we grow, hell, even to how we reproduce.

But the most, and perhaps the shittiest part of the job would have to be dealing with malice. Of course, that was debatable. Most would say it was the fact that we had to find monstrosities from Hellsgate every night.

I personally didn't have such an issue with that. After all, I could just blow them away. There was a reason why zombie flicks were always popular no matter how many of them were bad. The reason was extremely simple. It appealed to a man's most primal desire.

The desire to fuck everything up.

Whether you had a gun or a sword or even fists, really. When men learned something new, the first thoughts normally were how to fuck someone up with it. A close second would be to use it to impress chicks. Sadly, unlike zombies, you could not end malice with bullets.

The problem of malice bled into everything. Even when I didn't care for it and just did my job, it caused my entire world to stop. When a reaper took in more malice than he could sustain, his soul would collapse.

And it wasn't like we could just stop, mind you. My race absorbs souls or soul energy just by existing. So long as something dies around us, we will get their souls. The problem is that any being that has a soul has malice as well. They come pack and parcel with one another.

Phillip said the humans called soul energy 'Spirit.' Basically, anything that has life has spirit or soul energy. The Hindus built the entire karma belief on this principle. Its law was simple: what you do in this life affects your next one.

Phillip explained it using the tree of life, but I never really cared about it. It was confusing. The monocled bastard said soul energy held emotions, desires, and regrets. And it made sense. Without emotions, one cannot have desires or regrets.

It is only when you long for something that you learn what comes with such an attachment. You would feel happy if you got it. Sad when you don't. Angry when someone steals it. Taken to the extreme, you could explain practically every emotion this way.

You learn to fear only when you have something of value. You are only afraid to die when you desire to live. You only yearn for love when you experience loneliness. You feel despair only when you have joy taken from you. Such things are natural; it is what makes us human.

Prior to today, I never really tried to understand malice. I just considered it the waste product that came with the soul. But now that I can wield it, I am beginning to try to understand what it really stands for. My mind went back to Phillip's lecture.

"Correct, malice is the intense desire or powerful emotions that could not be fulfilled by the soul. They are like stains etched on a piece of cloth. Unless they are scrubbed, they remain and spread to everything else like mud. Anyone who takes in spirit must endure the malice lest he be consumed by them."

'What does it mean to endure? How can I scrub the malice off the soul?'

The only ones able to use malice were the Reborn. And they were basically reincarnated humans who forgot what they were. But much like Reapers, they also have abilities called {Entropies}. It allowed them to use powers on par with my kind.

Meanwhile, we are the ones who use souls and get tormented by the malice. We hear voices, see illusions, and get our hearts crushed by pain, despair, and darkness. Each continent has its own way of dealing with malice. All of which are not for the faint of heart.

South America sealed them in tattoos. Asia supposedly used guardian beasts from the Reborn. Africa uses its Revenant as a garbage can and then replaces it every few years. Europe and North America rely on Saints and Devils' Remains.

The ways may have been different, but we all treated the stuff like shit. We didn't try to scrub the fabric clean; we just discarded the cloth altogether. No one took the time to understand them.

Ironically, only two unique groups could exorcise malice entirely. One was composed of heroes who died believing in kindness. The other was women who were violated but chose to step forward.

The only similarity is that they saw the world's darkness. Yet, they believed in humanity's inherent goodness. It was an idealistic way of thinking, and it would definitely do the world good. But sadly, I think humans are shit.

'They do not deserve to be saved.'

We were lazy, arrogant, malicious, lecherous, and just plain evil. We deserved to die and go to hell. And although I loved my girls very much, I knew that they, much like I, deserved the same outcome. We all deserved to go to hell.

The voices came immediately.

{HAHAHAHA! BURN IT ALL TO THE GROUND!} {I LOVE YOU! WHY DO THIS?!} {WAH! I'M SO SORRY, FORGIVE ME!} {HELP! SOMEONE!} {AHHH! IT HURTS!} {WHY WON'T ANYONE LOVE ME?!} {IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU THEN NO ONE WILL!} {I'M SCARED!!! NOO!!!!}

'But…I refuse to just die quietly. If I am destined to die. Then I will make sure that I accomplish everything I want to before I do. And I am willing to fuck up everyone and everything that tries to stop me! IF I HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS SHIT, THEN SO BE IT!'

"AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

I let my soul roar! Screaming all my frustrations.

Suddenly, I could no longer hear the voices. My senses all turned off. Sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. I had already felt like this once before. It was the same place where I died. And when Robert tried to warn me before he passed on.

'Is this purgatory or something?'

I found myself in a dark world with shadows that looked like people made of smoke running toward me. They had no faces or distinguishing features, but I somehow felt a connection with all of them.

Like a chaotic wave, the shadows collided with my body. I could feel each and every one of them. They all had stories that gave rise to their regrets. The evil and chaos made it hard to think, but I gritted my teeth as I endured.

Unlike before, I didn't shy away and opened my arms to them. There must be something hidden in this thing. Why malice needed to exist. Why were both the Reapers and the Reborn were created. And why all this evil and suffering was necessary.

'YOU ARE FINE! IT'S OKAY! YOU ARE NOT ALONE! I AM HERE! I AM WITH YOU!' I reassured the voices.

Screaming in a single voice, all the malice converged on me and threatened to drive me insane.

{NO!!!! AAAAGGGHHH!!!!}

Thousands of images of hardship, death, and chaos played like a video. It was overwhelming, and I felt my mind slipping. But then I felt a hand suddenly grab mine. Along with her melodious voice and a firm resolve.