Rays of bright light cast down through the treetops, dancing rays leaped from leaf to leaf as the breeze rustled the vibrant trees. Under the shield of trees was a pair of unusual beings, gods, walking the same lands as mortals, but still an enigma to the world. The Gods of Life and Death.

The world of Drifted Keys was thriving, magic wielding souls ruled over the numerous islands that surrounded the planet’s core, controlling the weather, flora and fauna, day and night cycles. Everything that made the world function. And having that balance between the highest-ranking gods, being Life and Death, meant the world itself was in balance. Everything was just as it should be, although Death had this twisted gut feeling that it wouldn’t last forever. They continued walking with their darling, but their brows furrowed and their lips pursed with deep thought. Life noticed this stress from Death, she knew that they were always worried about this and knew she could reassure them.

“Oh dear, listen to me; together, nothing can take down this world. We’ve kept it thriving for generations, through hardship. Rest your fears.” The gentle being spoke, reaching her hand for the other's and intertwining their fingers softly. Death looked down, such opposites the two were. But yet, they were like puzzle pieces—a perfect fit. They allowed Life to hold their hand, raising their own hand while holding hers and kissing the back of her palm. A small smile creased over their face at seeing Life’s obvious approval. 

The two continued walking side-by-side, approaching a grand temple with vines that grew around the arched entrance with blooming, vibrant flowers. Inside, the warm light illuminated a beautiful library, each shelf filled with books. but they continued walking past that. To a hidden place to mortals and resting souls, one for just them, connected to the afterlife and to the living realm. Some would consider this isolating, but for them, it’s a gift. Their safe place in the world they’ve built together. Death felt as Life pulled away from their hand, a small buzz of irritation rumbling in their chest. They watched Life with a content smile as she adjusted the large sundial in the center of the room, slowly rotating it as the night cycle began. Life waltzed back towards Death, guiding them both to the couch. Both sunk into the velvety couch. Life rested her head against Death’s chest, humming softly. They wrapped an arm around her shoulder, kissing the top of Life’s head, and then buried their nose against her silky, white hair. 

A loud sound came from the library—almost a crash. Death and Life instantly got up, while Death stood back with concern, they watched Life start walking cautiously towards the exit of the room they were in.

“Please be careful,” Death whispered, sighing as she didn’t even acknowledge their words. They watched as Life’s eyes showed awe and intrigue, but deep concern as well. They stepped closer to her until they were standing just behind her, seeing what her attention was on. A large deer-like creature with a warping, shadowy body. Piercing, white eyes that glowed brightly in contrast to its dark figure. It stood tall, nearly Life’s height, and Death couldn’t help but feel uneasy at how it could see them, despite being behind the barrier that defends their space. The creature was most definitely not a mortal being. Life felt pity for the deer, slowly approaching it. Death’s mind raced as she stepped past the barrier, taking another step forward but not passing it themself. Life bowed to the being, showing respect for what looked like a lost soul, desperately trying to cross to the other side. Death could tell that this was no ordinary soul, no ordinary deceased creature. They examined the area around, seeing as the glorious library seemed to be growing darker. Life’s glowing figure seemed more striking in the room than before, but all Death could feel was fear, but they held their tongue. Something told them that this was what the creature in front of Life felt: fear and undying dread. Hunger.

 “Come on." Life turned her head as she looked at Death, a sympathetic smile on her face. They couldn’t help but let themselves grin, only for it to falter as the fear took over their mind, quickly shifting to horror. The creature’s body was engulfed in shadows, growing taller as the figure changed to stand on two legs, more humanoid. Before they needed to get Life to look back, she quickly noticed Death’s shift in demeanor, turning to see the horror before her. She kicked herself back and stood up swiftly, eyes wide, as she analyzed the figure. Hooves that now looked like claws, a humanoid figure at nearly double the height it was at before, now with digitigrade legs, sharp, and angular features. It still had horns that rested on top of its head and those same glowing, white eyes. It began to step closer to Life, legs wobbly as if not used often, not made for this creature. As it now approached Life, it hovered a hand near her face, but the flesh began to almost burn, darkening as the odd shadows began to infect her. Death swiftly reached out, pulling her back. They looked her over to make sure she was okay, and she was. The dark, shadowy corruption faded away as her body rapidly healed, but nothing had infected a god so drastically before. The creature backed up, offended at the hostility Death displayed, but Death wasn’t risking the safety of Life or anyone else for this thing.

“We need to get it out,” Death urged, keeping their hands on Life’s shoulders. The library was dark now, the gods stood out brightly against the dim room, while the shadowy figure blended in perfectly, aside from those eyes. It was doing something to the temple as a whole, and the darkness had begun to seep into the safe space. 

“Every life needs a chance.”

“Darling, I’m not sure this creature even has a life.” Death retorted, a bit more harshly than intended, but was desperate to convince Life otherwise. She responded by brushing Death’s hands from her shoulders, taking a step towards the creature once more, her fingertips flowing with magic as she went closer to the creature once more. Death gritted their teeth, clenching their fists but not moving. The creature looked down at Life, eyes wide now with interest at Life. Within a second, it lunged at Life, claws sharp that dug into her eyes. Death instantly summoned their weapon, a scythe with dark wood that made up its base and a glowing blade, attacking the creature. They swung the blade at the creature, knocking it back and severing its torso in half. Death turned to Life, crouching down beside her. Life had her hands over her eyes, black liquid seeping from between her fingertips. Their chest pounded with concern and fear, unsure of what to do. Death wanted to say something to comfort her, but they found themselves silent and unable to find the words. Before being able to dwell on it, they heard cracking from behind them. They directed their gaze away from Life and back to where they expected to see the creature dead, only for it to be rebuilding itself. A black, stringy substance began to tie the severed body back together, and the creature’s eyes opened quickly once again. It dragged itself back onto its shaky legs, a low growl rumbled from their throat. Death held onto the scythe tightly, getting into a fighting stance and standing in front of Life protectively. But the creature didn’t attack, instead, it held out one of its clawed hands. The barrier that protected the space corrupted and turned into what resembled a portal. Death turned to face the warping portal, then to Life as she stood up, moving her hands off her eyes. Her eyes looked dull, black liquid filled parts of her white eyes from the claw marks. She spawned her white spear, looking towards the portal.

“What is it doing?” She asked, her voice shaky as she was trying to calm herself down after the sudden attack. Death wanted to answer but couldn’t figure out how to. They didn’t have an answer, they never did. Death once again looked back to where the creature was, only for them to not be there. Facing back forward, they saw the creature in front of Life.

“W-What are you?” Life sputtered out, holding her spear defensively in front of her. The creature redirected its glare to Death, who felt their throat tighten in dread.

“True Death.” The creature spoke at last, with a distorted voice. Death stepped back, their ears pinned down, but before reacting, the creature vanished. Death felt dark energy surge through their scythe, the blade turned black as the shadow-like corruption spread rapidly through their hands, chest, and then mind. Death knelt down on the ground as black antlers sprouted from their skull, and a second pair of ears emerged behind the original set, along with 2 extra eyes that opened under the original set. Bones snapped and rearranged themselves to reform Death’s body. Life instantly ran over, shaking Death’s shoulders, but she let go as the corruption nearly infected her. Life waited anxiously for any response, which felt like hours. Death snapped their head to Life, piercing lifeless eyes stared back at her. Life went to react, but a strange toxin started seeping from the portal, creeping under her. Vines grew from the strange liquid and started to drag her back. She shrieked out in fear, her wounded eyes still conveyed the pleading message for Death to do anything, show anything.

“CORVID! DO SOMETHING! PLEASE-” She was cut off as she was dragged through the portal. Death blinked a few times as the paralyzing, emotionless buzzing left their mind and met back with reality. A painful, torturous reality that left them alone. Her screaming and desperateness. All that remained was a part of her soul. They slammed their fist into the ground with a loud, grief-filled wail. Despite being in control again, mostly, they’d have to get used to this new form. They just stayed on the ground, tears hit the ground like raindrops. All Death knew was that wherever this creature came from, whatever this creature was, it was preying on death to escape its realm, to rid of its soul, and be able to hunt freely on those once of much higher power. There would have been no way to stop this from happening. The balance it had managed to gain was gone.

Death eventually managed to get up, reaching for the piece of soul, only for it to just vanish. They frowned at the last piece of their partner, just now gone. They were wobbling with each step as it began to approach the once-safe space. Magic surrounded it still, protecting it from the outside world once more, but now the sundial was broken. Life being gone has killed off the control of what gives this world, well, life.

It was a miracle that this world still somehow lives on to this day, with just Death and now new gods trying to balance the world with no light, corruption running through the lands and causing some to fall. But between the gods’ magic doing as much as it can to slow down the dying process, immortals that have been chosen to continue fighting for this land, and even mortals searching for secrets of this world, Drifted Keys still lives. Although most suspect its fight is soon at an end.

Light looked away after hearing the tragic story, crossing their arms. Death sharply eyed the rather young god, a mortal who had fallen and was forced to harbor an immensely powerful soul.

“I’m not afraid to send that soul to its demise if you don’t learn to let go of your mortal life. If you are to ever help them return to this land, it’s strictly for information. Do you understand?” Life felt a lump in astrals throat, but they nodded. They left the room, walking down a hallway before letting out a choking sob, sliding down against the hallway wall, shifting back to their mortal form, and pushing their knees to astrals chest, trying to stay as quiet as possible. Their ears flicked up as astral heard someone approaching, quickly getting up to go towards the barrier and shifting back to their god form, seeing someone walking into the temple. It was a pair of people that astral distinctly recognized. They hadn’t heard what the two were saying, but as they came near, one took a sharp turn to another section of the temple. The other stared towards the barrier, directly at Light with horror. Before either could say anything, they heard the other person call out, causing them to return to the person they were traveling with. Light remained motionless, their eyes followed the person until they were out of sight.

They couldn’t bear being forced to be silent anymore, or watching anyone else be silenced. The time was approaching.