Zeth bled, with his vision blurred and ears ringing. The relentless slashes from the sword were no more, or perhaps he couldn't feel them anymore. Yet somehow he raised his hand to his stomach in an attempt to feel the damage.
He felt something jiggly, wet, and long; they were his intestinal canals. The pain was so overwhelming that he didn't bother resisting. In both deaths he had faced earlier, they were instant and painless.
But the one he was experiencing right now hurt. It hurt from within so much that he wanted to die sooner. His eyes remained open, and his hand fell back on the ground as his soul left his body, materializing in an astral form.
It was still hurting.
The pain wasn't physical; it was something different. Something he hadn't felt before, something inside his chest hurt. It hurt bad, so bad that Zeth couldn't help but laugh.
"Haha."
"Hahahaha."
"Hahahahahahahahahaha."
Zeth laughed, covering his eyes. If anyone heard him, they would think he had gone insane. If only they could.
"That bastard..." Zeth said through gritted teeth. "I'm going to kill him...real bad."
He uncovered his face, revealing eyes burning red with anger. Looking around him, Zeth found he was not inside the dominion anymore. The sky was blue, and the horizon slowly turned red, welcoming the approaching dawn.
The ground was wet, and his lifeless body lay on the muddy ground with its eyes open. There were slashes engraved on his chest, face, and back; the ribcage was visible through the skin, and his intestines were spilling out.
Zeth couldn't help but feel a cold fear... or was it anger? It took him a moment to figure it out. This was something he had never felt before. What he felt was humiliation, and it burned worse than the wounds.
He sat back on the ground, waiting for Death. "At the end of the day, there are two types of people I don't get along with."
"Women without assets and men without balls."
As if answering his statement, the shadow beneath Zeth's body flickered and burst several meters upward like a volcano. The shadow slowly took the shape of a cloak, and the tall skeleton stepped out from it.
"I know, I fucked up," Zeth said, looking at the skeleton.
The skeleton looked at his body, then at his astral form, then at the dominion a little farther away. Death shook his head. "Why did you attempt a Folklore-grade dominion? You do realize you are not as strong as regular employees, right? If you keep going like this, you'll get yourself killed again."
Zeth looked back at him, confused. "Is there anything special about a Folklore-grade dominion? No...better question, what even is a Folklore-grade dominion?"
"You don't know?" The skeleton tilted his head, then scratched his chin. "Shit. The system fucked you up again, didn't it?"
The poor skeleton looked up at the sky. "If I had known this would happen, I should have warned you earlier. My employee, my only employee, is dead again...waaa."
Collapsing to his knees, the skeleton cried, side-glancing at Zeth as if expecting comfort. But Zeth didn't. He sat there clenching his fists and avoiding Death's eyes.
The skeleton noticed this change. "Tell me, what happened?"
Zeth didn't respond.
The skeleton approached his corpse and looked at it closely. "There are multiple slashes and burns. Just what kind of monster did you face in there?"
Finally, Zeth looked him straight in the eyes. "Not a monster, a human. An employee."
"What are you saying?" Death's voice turned serious as the shadows around him rose. A cold chill ran through the air, sinking every soul into darkness as the skeleton walked toward Zeth. "Tell me. Who dared kill my employee? Tell me everything before this gets worse."
Zeth dropped to his knees. For a moment, he felt like he had stopped breathing, even though he didn't need to breathe in his astral form.
"I...ca..."
He struggled to speak.
Suddenly, the shadows disappeared around him, and the skeleton sighed, his tone turning back to normal as if nothing had happened. "Zeth, you do realize fighting between employees is forbidden according to Heaven's laws?"
"I did not fight; it was him. That thing is a psycho..." Zeth stood up. Feeling the pressure return to normal, he explained everything that had happened inside the dominion in one breath, while the skeleton stood there listening to his story.
"If what you say is right, then the issue needs to be addressed in Heaven's court. Themis is the Goddess of Justice herself. She will find it her obligation to punish the crime, even if that's her own employee. If this is left alone, it will not stay quiet..."
The skeleton explained, but before he could finish, Zeth interrupted.
"No. That thing...I want to punish him with my own hands."
The skeleton stood silent for a moment, then spoke. "So you want to revive...yet again?"
"You have done it before. Please, I beg of you, one more time."
"It seems you have not understood your own situation, Zeth," the skeleton said without a hint of emotion. "You were never revived again in the first place."
"What?"
"The only time you truly revived was when you had descended from Heaven with official permission."
Zeth raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about? If that's the case, then how did I come back to life after I died again?"
Raising his hand, the skeleton pointed at the corpse beneath them. "You never did. You are only a soul that has jumped out of its body. And using my abilities of benevolence, once I had healed your body..."
Suddenly, it hit him, and Zeth's eyes opened wide. "I possessed my own body...without realizing."
"And even though you felt you were alive, that wasn't the case."
It had been before him this whole time, and Zeth hadn't realized it. Of course, the God of Death didn't have the power to bring someone back to life.
"So if you have done it before, you can do it again, right? It shouldn't be a problem if you can heal me again." A smile formed on Zeth's lips, but the skeleton did not look convinced.
"Should I? Why?" the skeleton asked, dead serious.
Zeth frowned. "Why, you ask? Can't you see the benefits of hiring me? You didn't have a single follower, and now you have one in every other corner. In two weeks, you will be the most talked-about god on planet Earth. If you let me go, you lose that chance."
He stepped closer, smiling. "Don't think that's my limit, God of Death. I can do even better. I can make you richer."
"What are you talking about, Zeth?" The skeleton tilted his head. "I still have zero followers."
"What?" Zeth stood there for a second. Did he mishear the skeleton? There was no way what he said was true.
"You heard it. I don't have any followers yet. None at all. If you want me revived, you will have to prove why it's worth it." The skeleton bluntly repeated.
"No. No. No. That was a good one, haha." Zeth laughed. That couldn't be real; the skeleton was definitely joking. "You almost got me there. That was a joke, wasn't it?"
But the skeleton didn't react, not even the slightest expression.
"Gods do not lie, my child."