Passage 3

                Takeshi awoke. Nothing seemed different. He couldn’t help but think that everything was just a hallucination. Then he stumbled into the bathroom where he froze as he saw his reflection in the mirror. Wings had sprouted on his back. They were large and somewhat resembled bat-like wings.
                Although the wings had caught his attention first, Takeshi now paid attention to his eyes. They were lifeless. His pupils were quite larger than normal and his irises were now a pale yellow. He could tell his vision was far better than he’s ever experienced. Fine details on things far away were easy to make out.
                Then, Takeshi had what seemed like a sudden headache. His mind began to fill with knowledge of what his abilities were. However, he couldn’t piece a lot of it together logically. He needed to speak with Rayfe again.
                “He said something about the Realm of Death. That’s where he probably is,” said Takeshi. Then images rushed to his head. They were scenes of the barren wasteland known as the Realm of Death and an entrance ceremony. Takeshi needed to create a portal for him to travel there. He decided his closet would be the best place to hide the entrance.
                He opened his closet and moved his clothes aside, making his way to the back of the closet. Then he took a pin and pricked his forefinger to draw the symbol in blood. It started with a circle within another circle and then a cross through it. Takeshi had actually recognized it from history books he had, but forgot its meaning. Next, he had to speak a phrase,
                “Acto deos numquam mortalia fallunt.”
                His blood began to glow and in an instant he was standing in a desert. Nothing could be seen for miles in any direction. Then, a creature appeared before him.
                “Do you know of the being called Rayfe?” Takeshi asked.
                “Hmm? A, a human?! That’s interesting. Rayfe you say? Continue north from here and you’ll come upon where he dwells.”
                Takeshi then decided to try what he’s been longing for, flight.
                He spread his wings and pushed off. They felt like any other part of his body, like they had always been there. As he flew up into the air, he couldn’t help but smile. It was a rush he had never experienced before. Takeshi continued in the direction the creature had told him for about ten minutes before he saw a structure. It was a cave in what seemed to be a small mountain with high jagged peaks.
                “Rayfe?!” Takeshi yelled at the entrance of the cave. A figure came from the shadows and moved closer,
                “Ah. Takeshi. Welcome,” said Rayfe with a smirk. He had been expecting Takeshi.
                “I need to understand what’s happened to me. What all can I do?”
                “Ah, well. Let’s start with some generalities. We gods kill humans in your world to harvest their souls for the afterlife. Every soul we take adds to our life span. So say, someone is supposed to live until they’re fifty, but I take their soul when they are forty. Their loss of life would become my gain of life. Ten years. We gods can keep adding to our life spans, but very few of us actually do. Most are tired of living and just let humans die randomly. When this happens, no god collects and the souls remain on earth,” explained Rayfe.
                “So… you’re not immortal?”
                “No. We just, prolong the inevitable for ourselves,” said Rayfe smiling, “You, however, wouldn’t gain years. Because you’re human, you’d only gain minutes to your life. We gods live centuries. A few have even lived for millennia. But humans rarely even make a century. You now have the ability to cause the passing of human souls.”
                “You mean… kill. Kill people?”
                “To an extent. Everybody dies you know. I just need you to use your powers. Often.”
                “Why?”
                “So your true potential can be released. I believe your awareness and the combination with these powers will have some telekinetic abilities. Perhaps… you’ll be stronger than me one day,” Rayfe chuckled. In honesty, he doesn’t believe a human will amount to anything useful, but he trusts Rath’s judgment.
                “I don’t think I could kill… I mean, who would I kill?” Takeshi questioned.
                “Well, why not kill criminals or people you don’t like? You don’t have to kill, but you can. You can make full use of your powers. Don’t worry about humans noticing. It would be very rare that they could see your wings or your scythe when you use them. When you take flight, you will be transparent to them. Invisible.”
                “I see…” said Takeshi. He started to feel a little regret. Maybe he made the wrong choice to take on the life as a god of death.
                “Look. Just take your time adjusting for now. Go back to the human realm. Only come here if you truly need to. I’ll come to you when needed. To get back, draw the symbol again and say the word reddo,” said Rayfe pointing to the wall of the cave, “You can do it there. But whenever you come from the human realm, wherever you ended up the first time in this realm is where you will always end up when you come here. “
                “Mm. Alright then.”
                Takeshi walked the cave’s wall and bit into his left thumb. He drew the same symbol that he used to get there and spoke,
                “Reddo.”
                Takeshi vanished.
                Rayfe made his way back inside to where Rath was. Rath had been listening in from the shadows,
                “Very good Rayfe. He doesn’t suspect any foul play. Good.”
                “Humans are idiotic creatures,” said Rayfe with a chuckle.
                “Nevertheless, we still need to keep a close watch on him.”