Life and Death (4)
After handing over the rough blueprint of the afterworld to Talos and dumping the expansion work on him—Talos's expression somehow looked incredibly sad, but it must've been my imagination. Golems don't have faces anyway—I watched over the dragons, the givers of life.
They must've been bored rotting away in their corners, because a pretty impressive number of dragons had gathered, making for quite the spectacle.
「Kieeeek?! The Genesis Dragon?! Why is the Genesis Dragon here?!」
「Lord! That's not what you said!! You told us the Genesis Dragon wasn't around!!! I gotta get outta here!!!」
「O noble Genesis Dragon. In your merciful heart, pity us wretched ones. O noble Genesis Dragon. In your merciful heart, pity us wretched ones. O noble Genesis Dragon. In your merciful heart, pity us wretched ones.」
Haha. What a mess.
Watching the chaos, all I could say was,
"Fear not."
Words that wouldn't reassure them one bit.
"I know what you're afraid of, but I'm not here to do that sort of thing. I've simply come to watch and make sure you all do what you're supposed to."
I looked around at the gathered dragons and continued,
"So go on and do what you need to do."
At my words, the Dragon Lord chimed in as if in agreement.
「As the Genesis Dragon has said, we must do what we have to. No more wasting our lives dozing in dark caves where the sun doesn't shine!」
「That doesn't sound half bad, though!」
「Shut that idiot up!!」
Ignoring one clueless dragon getting pummeled by the tails of the others around him, the Dragon Lord pressed on.
「If we do this job well, the Genesis Dragon won't pull us from our bodies and turn us into spirits anymore! That's how we'll gain our freedom!」
No, I'm not gonna do that anymore, I said.
This guy... He knows I'm not mad about that anymore and is using it to control the other dragons...
「From this day forward, we'll be known as the givers of life, and the Genesis Dragon will entrust us with caring for the countless lives in this world! We'll wander the world freely at the Genesis Dragon's will, tending to the tree of life as its workers!」
All I'd tasked the Lord with was neutralizing the death aura rising from underground—how did it balloon into that?
This guy's slyly expanding the scope of their job...
What's his angle? He can't have some masochistic hobby of increasing his own workload!
「Now, O Genesis Dragon. Your followers have gathered to obey your will—won't you say a few words to them?」
Hm? Suddenly putting the spotlight on me?
I don't know what he's after, but...
Fine, I'll play along.
"I'll be cheering you on, so do your best."
At that moment, the roars of countless dragons filled the world.
"So, what's your real game here?"
"Game? What do you mean?"
The Dragon Lord, polymorphed into human form, smiled nonchalantly.
"I just wanted to give my kin—who want to do nothing—a different option."
"You didn't need to drag me into it for that."
"No, it was necessary."
The Dragon Lord continued lightly,
"The Dragon Age. What the Genesis Dragon showed us at its end... became a powerful shackle for the surviving dragons. Seeing countless dragons lose their bodies and turn into spirits at a single gesture of yours... Even I tremble just thinking about it."
Yeah, I think I went a bit overboard with that one...
But it was what they wanted. Even knowing the outcome, I granted it.
"If even I'm like this, imagine the others. They probably think if they so much as fall out of your favor, they'll end up like those spirits."
"I said I won't do it anymore."
"Even if you say that, it won't sink in for the other dragons. And then... bam. A new job pops up."
"A new job..."
The "givers of life" gig, I suppose.
"A job the Genesis Dragon assigned personally, named personally, and even cheered on personally. If they take it on... the dragons will cling to the faint belief that they won't be abandoned by you."
"I wasn't gonna abandon them to begin with."
"Even if you say so... the other dragons see it differently."
So, because of me, the dragons are too scared to leave their corners.
Ugh... Yeah, I did go pretty hard back then...
"Anyway, now the dragons will start moving bit by bit, so please keep cheering them on. If you do, they'll move like your hands and feet."
I nodded slightly at that.
True, there's no creature stronger than dragons on this land. Their usefulness is unmatched.
Though I do have to worry about them being too strong and upsetting the world's balance.
And so, the dragons began neutralizing the land where death aura welled up... the land named the Dragon's Tomb, using their own life force.
They amplified their life force with mana and used that to wash away the death aura.
While watching over them and researching condensed death aura, I also worried about the dragons overusing their life force, so I created a spring to restore it.
A spring whose waters worked well whether drunk or splashed on the body. It proved a huge help to dragons who'd depleted their life force.
But still.
Building structures around that spring like it was nothing, and before I knew it, turning it into a full-fledged temple...
What the heck is that about? And giving me the best room in that temple, no less.
I'm a little grateful, but this is unnecessary...
Eh, not my problem anyway.
While spending time like that—researching and overseeing the dragons—the Dragon Lord burst into my room with an urgent look on his face.
"Genesis Dragon, the spirits of darkness are gathering."
"Spirits of darkness?"
"Yes. Word is, there are so many you can't even count them. One of the darkness spirits said it's doing the task you assigned the Genesis Dragon..."
I nodded slightly at the Dragon Lord's words.
Looks like he followed my orders to gather as many darkness spirits as possible.
"That many? Seems like it did the job properly."
I'd said more hands make light work, so he must've brought a ton.
"Where are these darkness spirits?"
"I'll guide you."
With the Dragon Lord's guidance, I headed to the Dragon's Tomb.
「O Genesis Dragon. We have completed your task. Please give the next orders.」
I found a spectacular sight: Shade and countless other darkness spirits gathered together.
This is another spectacle. The ground's completely drowned in darkness.
"Truly amazing. Death aura can't even touch the spirits of darkness."
"I'm a bit curious if other spirits are the same, but first things first."
I approached the largest spirit at the front among the darkness spirits—Shade—and said,
"You've gathered a lot. Do you know roughly how many?"
「We gathered so many that counting is meaningless. We hope our efforts aid the Genesis Dragon.」
Shade spoke politely. I smiled faintly at him.
"The place for you to work is still under construction, so there's nothing for you to do right now... Hm. For now, you should learn how to transport souls."
「Transporting souls?」
"Yes. The job I'll give you is fetching the souls of the dead."
I can't demonstrate right now since we don't have any souls on hand yet.
Guess I'll grab some later and teach them.
Oh, right.
"And as the representative of the darkness spirits who've taken on my tasks, I have a gift for you."
「A gift? I am deeply honored.」
I pulled out an item made from condensed death aura.
A massive scythe, black from blade to handle.
Hm. A grim reaper needs a scythe, right!
「This is...」
"A scythe materialized from condensed death aura. Made as a weapon for you, the leader of the darkness spirits who transport souls."
I handed the massive scythe to Shade, who took it carefully.
As expected. A scythe that would burn any other creature's hand had no effect on the darkness spirit Shade.
And it suits him just like I imagined.
And one more gift.
"I'll give you a new name. As the head of those who ferry the souls of the dead, from now on, you'll be called Thanatos."
The god of death from Greek mythology. Fitting name.
「Thanatos... So that's my new name.」
"Yes. Looking forward to working with you, Thanatos."
The darkness spirit who'd lost his old name and been called Shade in life now bore the name Thanatos—and, deeply moved, could only bow his head to me.