The words birth and death exist in this second realm as well as the first one, Earth. The entities living in the second realm, however, comprehend the meaning of the words in a slightly different way than the first realm. Birth for instance is never witnessed by anyone. As far as they know birth is synonymous with the word create. Human souls and the souls of the entities occupying the second realm are created and no one witnesses the process, only the end result when they enter the second realm. Some believe the Council members are the only ones who witness this birth, and it is nothing like the birth of a human.

Death in the second realm also means the end of the physical existence, but it does not mean the soul ceases to exist. A soul is pure energy, and it cannot be erased. Countless entities and human souls have died in the second realm, only to return after gaining enough mana to manifest into a physical existence. There is a meaning of the word death that suggests a permanent removal of the soul, but it is limited to human souls only. When the time is right, a time that remains unknown to all until it arrives, the human soul leaves this plane of existence and moves on.

What is worth mentioning is that there are rumours speculating that some human souls move on to another third plane of existence; but it is only a belief and there is no proof of this. Grim Reapers only know of this cycle of the human soul because they play a part in it. They are the ones responsible for escorting souls to their new human shells on Earth.

When Griffin returned from his walk around the cabin, looking for a nice quiet spot to meditate, he found a note on the table, right over some mana Haron left for him.

The note read, ‘The Council asked to see me, and I had to leave in a rush. Take this mana and use it whilst meditating for the next three days. Come find me at the cabin when you are done, and I will fade you back to Heaven. Haron.’

“He really hates being around others, doesn’t he?” Griffin said out loud and placed the bag of mana over his shoulder as he walked out.

“Yes, I believe the only other presence he puts up with is his weapon, Grim Reaper,” Emma replied.

“That’s to be expected. You weapons develop your character according to your wielder so there never is any kind of conflict between the two beings.”

“The Council was wise to design us like that. Don’t you agree?”

“Absolutely.”

Griffin entered a huge tree he had found during his walk earlier. The tree was hollow at its base and Griffin decided to meditate in the empty tree trunk. He crossed his legs, sat down, and rested his back on the bark, making sure he positioned himself in such a way that anyone passing outside the entrance of the hollow tree would be unable to see him unless they peered inside. He then grabbed Emma, aimed the blade at his left shoulder and swung. The blade pierced the tree between his neck and his shoulder, locking his body in an upright position between the wooden handle and the wall.

“What are you doing?” There was no worry in Emma’s voice for she knew she could never injure Griffin, but his actions did spark her curiosity.

“This way I can’t drop you, and you can vibrate and wake me if anyone comes looking for me,” Griffin opened the bag of mana Haron left him and placed it in his lap, “And my body can keep absorbing mana while I meditate,” he pulled his black hood over his head until it felt like he was enveloped in darkness and started taking deep breaths.

Griffin performed a quick scan of all his memories, starting from the most recent ones and quickly making his way back to his birth, trying to locate what he considered important moments. He would then work his way back to the present day, reliving the memories in an attempt to discover some of the answers he desperately searched for.

Much to Griffin’s surprise, despite his nearly four hundred years of existence, there were only six important moments as far as he could tell, and some of them overlapped. Either way, Griffin decided to proceed as he planned and called forth the oldest of those memories.

It was a memory of sitting in a classroom, but he and Valentina were the only ones in the room. Valentina was his teacher in the early years, helping him read and understand the Grim Reapers’ rulebooks; the theoretical part of becoming a Grim Reaper. His creation, or birth if you prefer, and the one hundred years it took him to successfully accept the Council’s basic information package and form a physical existence were completely blank. By this time in history Griffin had already met Haron, and he already knew that there was something that set him apart from all the other Grim Reapers.

Griffin had reached the end of the page he was reading and paused for a minute to ask Valentina something he had heard earlier that bothered him. “Is it true Valentina? Am I the only Grim Reaper to be in a class all by myself?”

“Where did you hear that?” Valentina sat across from Griffin on the small wooden desk.

“Haron. He said that there are five thousand Grim Reapers, and that they all came into existence in groups, at least twenty of them each time. He said he couldn’t understand why the Council decided to have just one more Grim Reaper, and he also couldn’t understand why now. He said he trained the last team of Grim Reapers about five hundred years ago.”

“That’s true, all Grim Reapers were trained in teams, and yes the last group was about five hundred years ago.”

“Then why have I arrived now? Why not five hundred years ago with the last batch of Grim Reapers?”

“Obviously the Council has decided that we need one more Grim Reaper, and so here you are. It might seem a bit unusual, but it is nothing you should worry about. Now what have we learned so far, tell me what you know about souls?” Valentina changed the subject.

“A soul is something every entity has. The soul is pure energy that cannot be destroyed, and it marks the birth of a new entity, like me. I am a Grim Reaper.”

“Correct, now explain what mana is,” Valentina continued.

These were routine questions that Griffin should be able to answer without even thinking, and so Valentina fired her questions without giving Griffin a chance to pause.

“Mana is a form of energy that all souls are capable of producing,” Griffin replied mechanically, “This mana is used to perform all sorts of actions, including the manifestation of a physical body. All souls have access to their mana, but it is difficult to do so and requires a lot of training. When I am ready, I will receive a weapon, and that weapon will make it easier for me to access my mana and wield it as I please.”

“Good, and how can one increase their mana, and therefore gain access to more advanced abilities?”

“Mana can be increased in two ways. One is through physical training and the other is through mental training. Increasing your physical and mental abilities not only increases the amount of total mana you can use, but it also affects how quickly and how much you can burn; allowing the user to perform abilities that require larger amounts of mana.”

“Can someone decide to increase their reserves by following one of these paths; for instance, training really hard, constantly improving their physical condition?”

“Yes, that is possible, but it’s not the best method and the rulebook advises against it.”

“Why is that?”

“Because these two states are interconnected and increase each other’s effects. When you reach a new level of physical condition, it requires twice as much effort before you can reach the next level, and even if you manage to do so, the increase will be incomplete without the mental increase. It will be a lot faster and the results higher if you can progress these two together as they complement each other and allow the user to reach their true potential.”

“Is it impossible then to progress by focusing on one path only?”

“Not for humans. They have the unique capacity, under certain circumstances, to bypass this balance and increase only one aspect, the physical or the mental. Humans born with any kind of impairment to the two states of being can still achieve unparalleled levels of abilities for the unimpaired aspect, resulting in them creating large mana pools. For all other entities here in Heaven however such impairments do not exist, and everyone is advised to work on both aspects of their existence if they seek to improve their overall performance.”

“Are there any other ways we can increase our mana reserves?”

“Yes, there is a third way, but it is forbidden because it corrupts the soul, and the increase is only temporary.”

The story continues in:
Kingdom of the Red Rose
(Episode 19 of 62)
Chapter Seven: A Question Never Asked
(Part 2 of 2)

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