A Reaper's Philosophy-Chapter 85: Beginnings

"I think I know how this works now." Grayson said. He suddenly warped outside the barrier and looked up at Lilith who was still within it.

"How did you do that? Hurry and get me the fuck out of here!" Lilith screamed from within the barrier, but no sound came out.

Grayson began to look around and pretended not to understand. Lilith had always hidden her cards. Grayson wanted to see if she truly had no way to get through the barrier. He was also always willing to push her to the edge.

Nearby, was a group of small marmots, each the size of a car. There were about 800 or so. They were each following one particularly large marmot. This large one was as big as the Eiffel Tower.

Despite them being so many, one marmot stood out from the rest. It was as big as a football. It had a long white fluffy that slowly faded into nothing as its end approached. The marmot lagged behind the others, but it never failed to keep up. Grayson took note of this beast and the beast stared at Grayson as well. The beast looked at Grayson as it came to a stop. It did nothing else.

{Eyes of Samsara (Lv.1). (active)}

Grayson observed the beast further and noticed he couldn’t see through the beast. It was like trying to look through a thick fog.

{!!!}

’My eyes and even the system can’t identify it!’ Grayson thought to himself.

Grayson was, however, able to see the beast’s soul. To his surprise, it was much weaker than the other beasts it accompanied. Its life force was extremely weak. It perhaps only had a year left to live.

Death awoke from his slumber within Grayson, coming out of a dark cloud, he placed himself on Grayson’s head. He too stared at the white creature. Upon seeing Death, the beast began to approach. Its tail dreamingly swung left and right as it approached. It was like it was there, but it wasn’t. The shell on this one also glowed brighter than the others.

Death came down from Grayson’s head and slowly approached the incoming beast. They circled each other many times, as if to study the other. Reality twisted around them each time their tails brushed against each other. It was a weird scene.

"What are you?" Grayson wondered out loud.

Lilith suddenly warped next to Grayson. It seemed like she had just figured out how to warp. It was evident in her smile.

"I managed to get out you asshole!" Lilith screamed at Grayson.

She suddenly spotted the white-tailed beast as well, playing with Death. She immediately forgot about Grayson and approached the beast. The beast noticed Lilith and seemed drawn to her. It quickly ran after her. Before reaching Lilith, the beast jumped into the air and disappeared into a fog. The fog blew towards Lilith like a breeze then suddenly disappeared.

A few seconds later, Lilith’s tail suddenly began to turn white. Her eyes were also turning silver as she began levitating off the ground. A mysterious white energy flowed into her. The energy came from every marmot in the vicinity.

This caught the attention of all the marmots, including the colossal ones. Each of them turned around, bearing a powerful life energy. They all felt a familiar connection to Lilith and were suddenly brimming with life energy.

A large portion of the wasteland was quickly blanketed with a field of flowers and trees in a matter of seconds. Rivers and lakes formed as the ground split open. A variety of beasts began to come out of the ground. Next to Grayson, a four-armed, grey ape stuck its arms out of the ground and drugged itself out, much like a zombie. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

These beasts were not buried here before they arrived but were created right at this moment. The beasts didn’t attack each other, nor did they attack Grayson and Lilith. Each one followed their instincts toward their natural habitat. The wasteland was now brimming with energy.

Lilith then waved her hand and all the marmot beasts disappeared in a cloud of white. Lilith now radiated with a powerful life energy, much like the marmots.

"Looks like she’s back! Theós can no longer suppress her soul." Grayson said out loud.

The power surrounding Lilith sneakily suppressed Grayson. He was yet to feel it, but the force of his exousia was weakening.

"Lilith, do you remember me?" Grayson asked.

"Yes, I remember everything!" Lilith answered as she walked up to Grayson.

She held his face and brought her face closer to his. She then gave Grayson a passionate kiss.

"Who are you then?" Grayson asked Lilith with a smile.

"I am Lilith, the Concept of Beginnings, and I have missed you, my love!" Lilith said warmly.

"That’s right!" Grayson said pleased.

(Slap!)

Lilith slapped Grayson on the head with her now white, furry tail.

"What do you mean that’s right? Did you not miss me?" Lilith asked pouting.

Lilith had been greatly suppressed by Theós. As the Concept of Beginnings, she was far more powerful. If it weren’t for the incident long ago, Theós would have never had so much influence.

"Of course I did my love. Every moment without you felt incomplete. My heart feels whole again now that you’re here." Grayson said longingly as he held onto Lilith’s waist and pulled her closer. He gave her a deep and passionate kiss following that.

"Grayson, why are we doing this?" Lilith asked.

"What do you mean?" Grayson asked confused.

"Going to the north; fighting your other reapers. What’s your end goal?" Lilith asked.

"To stop Theós from imposing his self-interests on me and everyone else." Grayson answered immediately.

"Why? You remember what Theós is, do you not?" Lilith asked.

"I do." Grayson answered.

"Do you remember what you are?" Lilith asked another question.

"I do." Grayson replied.

"Do you remember what we are? What we are meant to be?" Lilith raised yet another question.

"What are you trying to say?" Grayson asked.

"Just answer the question..." Lilith said.

"I... I-, I do not!" Grayson answered with shock.

"You haven’t fully assimilated with Grayson, your reincarnation. As a concept, you should know that the only purpose you have is to live by your philosophy, our philosophy! Exousia has made that possible for us.

Over 15,000 years ago, Exousia, a powerful living energy, was all that there was. Exousia was not sentient, but it was conscious. It was aware of what it was and the potential of what it could do. Exousia created us concepts as a representation of it’s will. Exousia’s desires, intentions, and decisions all came alive through us concepts.

As an observer, each concept governed their own individual realm. Life began and flourished throughout these realms, but unlike us, they were all mortal. Only on rare occasions could a concept interact with the mortal realm. These realms and the mortals within them were all created by exousia. Each concept’s philosophy dominated their respective realm. Nonetheless, concepts are not permitted within the realm of mortals.

I, as the Concept of Beginnings, was tasked with spreading my philosophy throughout all the realms. Each realm had a beginning, so my philosophy was one of the few that could be found in every realm.

My philosophy is to bring about new beginnings, whatever it may be. Beginning of life, beginning of healing, a babies first steps, an idea, the creation of heavenly bodies, etc. Every beginning began through me. This is what exousia has blessed me with. The more people live by a concept’s philosophy, the stronger the concept becomes and the greater your status and influence is in the realm of concepts.

"Why can’t I remember any of this?" Grayson asked out loud.

"I don’t know. You went into hiding and sent your consciousness through time and space. Hidden within a reincarnation of yourself, Grayson. I had to wipe my own memory of this ever happening. That’s how dangerous this was! You should have remembered everything by now. Perhaps it’s because of the injury Dunamis did to your soul?" Lilith answered. "So, I’ll ask you again, why are we doing this?" Lilith added.

"I may not fully remember everything now, but I know the threat before me is real. I need to prepare for that. That is my priority for now. To do that, we need to go to the north." Grayson said.

"Dunamis? A threat? HAHAHA..." Lilith said laughing.

"What’s so funny?" Grayson asked.

"You’ll find out eventually. I guess we are still going to the north then." Lilith answered.

Grayson nodded in affirmation, and they were finally off to the north. They ran there at an incredible speed. On the way, they discussed various things about their past and the changes that happened to Lilith’s body.

"So, how strong are you now, compared to your old self?" Grayson asked.

"I have about 30% of my original power back," Lilith answered.

"Huh, it felt more than that. Perhaps I’m remembering wrong." Grayson admitted. "My memories feel shambled all over and I’m missing bits and pieces of my life...How did Theós become so powerful? He can even supress us!" Grayson added.

"It all began with Greed taking his ambitions too far and nearly causing the collapse of all the realms." Lilith began to say.