Alaster Von Grim
The True Grim Reaper
Who would have guested it, being stared down by a giant lovecraftine horror from who knows where, with a scythe in one hand and magic book filled with forbidden spells and incantations in the other. The only thing I can think of is this was one hell of a weekend. My name is Alaster I am 5"10 with spiky silver hair and blue eyes and I have a rare disorder that makes it hard for me to be entertained known as chronic boredom, one of the few things I enjoy is antiques. Boring I know, but what I found might change that thought.
About a week ago I was in my favourite antique shop, it was run by an old lady who never said a word, she just sat behind the counter smiling without a care in the world. The shop was filled treasures from around the world spanning the centuries with rusty helmets the gladiators once use in Ancient Rome, the shields Spartans used against the Persians, if it was over a hundred years old you could find it here. It's just something about these windows to the past that just suck me into a world of the past and what this pieces of rusty metal use to be, and the thought of the effort that went into making them. But their is one area of the shop that draws me in every time I visit, it's the small section in the back of the store filled with old books, but this time was different, this time I saw something dangling from one of the shelves it was a small golden scythe, it was attached to the book above it.
The book was lined with silver and onyx with a brass pentagram on the cover. The title was worn and faded so I couldn't make it out. Something inside me compelled me to buy this book, when I brought it to the counter the old lady spoke for the first time.
"You have a good eye my dear, that book drifted into my shop sometime ago"
She spoke softly in a way that wouldn't disturb a sleeping mouse.
"That is a genuine Grimoire"
"A Grimoire?" I ask, contemplating where I heard the word before.
"Yes, a Grimoire" she said "a Grimoire is believed to contain magic spells and incantations, but for some of the books only certain people can open them. Who knows, maybe you can open it? Then again maybe not? What do I know I'm just the lady who works at the antique shop."
Once I had purchased the Grimoire I returned home. I don't live in your standard four bedroom house, I live in a ten bedroom six bath gothic cathedral. My parents got it at a low price, something about it being hunted or built on top of cemetery, needless to say we don't get many visitors, the mailman has started to tie our mail to a brick and throws it at the front door. My house has character if nothing else, my room is in the tower to the right of the main doors. I wanted the main bell tower but my little sister beat me to it.
"This world is full of paranoid superstitions" I said to myself as I lay the book on my desk. "Now, what deranged fantasies do you hide within your pages." Some people in this world believe that monsters exist, others in magic and some believe in nothing at all. I however, believe that magic and magical creatures existed, but faded away like fairies if no one believed in them.
I tried to open the book but the cover wouldn't budge, after three hours I had tried every thing saws, pliers, the angle grinder, the blow torch, bolt cutters nothing would work and most of them broke. Then I thought of something, maybe the little golden scythe was a key. I looked at the lock and saw that there was no key hole, I picked up the scythe and I cut my finger with it. Once my blood dropped from my finger to the cover of the Grimoire the latch opened.
As I open the book a cloud of dust flew from it's ancient pages, as I flipped through it's wore parchment the same picture kept showing up. It was an illustration of the scythe that hangs from its spine. Every time that illustration showed up the same Latin word came up, thanks to that one year of Latin I took in school I could translate it into English letters. It read "idolonorum," but that was all I could do. Then I did the only thing I could do, went on the Internet and learned that it said "harbinger."
After several days, energy drinks, me blacking out, and many applications of painkillers and hand cream I had translated the first three pages. I had discovered that it was a Grimoire on summoning, and judging by the illustrations they aren't the kind of creatures you would make come out of a top hat at a birthday party. There were creatures from from all mythologies, their was tsuchigumo from Japanese mythology, the gorgon from Greek mythology, and vampires from European mythology. Against my better judgement I did the completely idiotic thing and read the incantation,
"Per nomen sacri tool idolonorum ego Alaster von torva voco, Lucifer"As I finished the incantation a mystic circle formed beneath my feet. A shadowy figure appeared in front of me with glowing red eyes and sharp fangs, before I figured out what was happening he spoke."Et tu fili hominis ecce ego scire postulo Lucifer lamia sum rex instans vel vitro vinum utemur tuo et ossa vestra quasi colligere cerebrum meum."As I stood their terrified by this what I assume is a vampire, he seemed to want something but before I could respond he spoke again."Numquid scis ubi ego sum profundum instant puerum reposcam."Judging by the anger in his tone he seemed confused, I attempted to speak to him."Ego sum nucis bonum offunduntur Latine" I said with a great amount of uncertainty. He stared at me confused.
"Sunt nescio quam praenuntiet?" He said confused
After four hours of arguing in Latin, which I had no idea what I was saying I decided just to ask something I should have asked four hours ago.
"Yo twilight, do you speak English?"
I asked"Of course I can speak English, and what is this twilight?" He said exasperated
"Its better if you don't know, my name is Alaster Von Grim and you are?" I asked
"I am lord Lucifer the Vampire King, now where is this hovel in which we dwell." He asked in a disapproving tone.
"We are in a mountain valley on a secluded island in B.C, and this is not a hovel this is just my room in a tower but now that I think about it, its more like a dungeon." I answered hoping he wouldn't rip my throat out.
"No, I am not going to rip out your throat. Every thousand years or so that book chooses someone and the first spell they cast summons me." He explained
"Ok, wait you said the book chooses someone?" I inquired
"Correct,"
"Chooses someone for what?"
" That Grimoire is the Reapers guide book it can teach anyone to be the next Grim Reaper, tell me has your world suffered from frequent natural disasters, crimes, or increased hostility?" he asked.
"Yes it has, its been mostly in the form of terrorism." I replied
He continued on and explained in extremely boring detail about everything I needed to know. The thing about speaking aloud is if you want people to pay attention it needs to sound interesting. What I understood from this vampiric fossil is that after the last grim reaper died all the souls that where hanging around formed together and the emotions they had caused the living to feel extremely sad or angry at the smallest things. The notion that stuck out the most was that the best choice to set the world right was me.
"This may be hard to believe but a Grim Reaper has a life span of only two hundred years, your world has been without a Grim Reaper since the 1880's" explained Lucifer
"The duty of the Grim Reaper is to fairy souls to the afterlife, but when a soul is not brought to the afterlife it starts to rout and all its malice, grief, and hatred from its death starts to enrage the living and causes them to lash out without reason. Whats worse is the routing souls will start to meld together to created a giant creature known as A Lost Legion."
"A Lost Legion, what makes that so special?" I asked Lucifer.
"Unlike routing souls on their own a Lost Legion can affected the physical world like natural disasters and causing life sustaining machines to fail. One more thing before we start your training" he said before he gave me a serious look with the intent to kill, "if a soul becomes part of A Lost Legion they can never move on to the afterlife." He explained with a stern expression emitting from his cold stair.
He sighed as he said "sadly this is a job you will have to learn as you go. But first that gilded scythe hanging from that book, that is your weapon and armour for battle."
"This thing is my weapon its a little small?"
"Pull it off you idiot."
I did as he instructed ignoring the rude part when a flash of light shined as I pulled the scythe, my skin turned white and I was wearing strange clothes with a bronze arm brace and holding this massive scythe. Then lucifer swung a sword at me, and what seemed effortless I blocked his sword with my brace and had the blade of my scythe to his throat.
He smiled and said "good the skills work, now that you are a grim reaper you cannot be seen by the living or interact with them but you can interact with objects and such so you can work without worry and before you ask yes you can turn back to normal all you have to do is tap the tip of the blade of the scythe to the cover of the book."
He started going on and on about what he called M prep the gist of it was open the book, pick a spell focus on the target say spell. After another hour of over explaining stuff that the writer could have written but was too lazy and it would have been boring. One thing that stood out in Lucifer's lecture was that even in my normal form I will still see souls and Lost Legions.
"Keep in mind boy" he said as his voice echoed like a gong "the laws of nature, to obtain something must be given of equal worth, in this case when you die you will be erased from existence. Every trace of your being will vanish memories, photos, events, everything will disappear."
A sudden chill shocked me to the core, the thought of being erased from history terrified me but this might be the one thing in my life that would actually be worth doing.
"Very well Lucifer" I said with a sneered across my face " that's a fair price I'll take on the job, this might be fun."
A devious smile formed across his face as a thunderous snap from his finger tips echoed though the room and my mind.
"And like that a deal has been struck, till the end of your days you are the grim reaper."
Said Lucifer as he let out a bout of melodious laughter.
The laughing struck me as odd but I payed it no mind as I flipped through the pages of the grimoir and found a spell to try.
"Angelus alas defensiva"
I read aloud as a mysterious magic circle formed beneath my feet, as I read a pair of ghostly wings formed behind my shoulders.
"Cool does this mean I can fly?"
Lucifer opened the window behind him and said
"Why don't you find out"
With a couple minutes of consideration I took a running start and dived out the window, I fell for three out of the seven stories before I spread my wings and started to fly. For some reason flying felt natural to me, perhaps it was the spell but the thought wasn't my biggest concern. I looked to the ground below and saw dozens of ghoulish beings.
"Those must be the routing souls lucifer told me about, so if I'm a grim reaper to collect souls all I need to do is hit them with my scythe."
About a week ago I was in my favourite antique shop, it was run by an old lady who never said a word, she just sat behind the counter smiling without a care in the world. The shop was filled treasures from around the world spanning the centuries with rusty helmets the gladiators once use in Ancient Rome, the shields Spartans used against the Persians, if it was over a hundred years old you could find it here. It's just something about these windows to the past that just suck me into a world of the past and what this pieces of rusty metal use to be, and the thought of the effort that went into making them. But their is one area of the shop that draws me in every time I visit, it's the small section in the back of the store filled with old books, but this time was different, this time I saw something dangling from one of the shelves it was a small golden scythe, it was attached to the book above it.
The book was lined with silver and onyx with a brass pentagram on the cover. The title was worn and faded so I couldn't make it out. Something inside me compelled me to buy this book, when I brought it to the counter the old lady spoke for the first time.
"You have a good eye my dear, that book drifted into my shop sometime ago"
She spoke softly in a way that wouldn't disturb a sleeping mouse.
"That is a genuine Grimoire"
"A Grimoire?" I ask, contemplating where I heard the word before.
"Yes, a Grimoire" she said "a Grimoire is believed to contain magic spells and incantations, but for some of the books only certain people can open them. Who knows, maybe you can open it? Then again maybe not? What do I know I'm just the lady who works at the antique shop."
Once I had purchased the Grimoire I returned home. I don't live in your standard four bedroom house, I live in a ten bedroom six bath gothic cathedral. My parents got it at a low price, something about it being hunted or built on top of cemetery, needless to say we don't get many visitors, the mailman has started to tie our mail to a brick and throws it at the front door. My house has character if nothing else, my room is in the tower to the right of the main doors. I wanted the main bell tower but my little sister beat me to it.
"This world is full of paranoid superstitions" I said to myself as I lay the book on my desk. "Now, what deranged fantasies do you hide within your pages." Some people in this world believe that monsters exist, others in magic and some believe in nothing at all. I however, believe that magic and magical creatures existed, but faded away like fairies if no one believed in them.
I tried to open the book but the cover wouldn't budge, after three hours I had tried every thing saws, pliers, the angle grinder, the blow torch, bolt cutters nothing would work and most of them broke. Then I thought of something, maybe the little golden scythe was a key. I looked at the lock and saw that there was no key hole, I picked up the scythe and I cut my finger with it. Once my blood dropped from my finger to the cover of the Grimoire the latch opened.
As I open the book a cloud of dust flew from it's ancient pages, as I flipped through it's wore parchment the same picture kept showing up. It was an illustration of the scythe that hangs from its spine. Every time that illustration showed up the same Latin word came up, thanks to that one year of Latin I took in school I could translate it into English letters. It read "idolonorum," but that was all I could do. Then I did the only thing I could do, went on the Internet and learned that it said "harbinger."
After several days, energy drinks, me blacking out, and many applications of painkillers and hand cream I had translated the first three pages. I had discovered that it was a Grimoire on summoning, and judging by the illustrations they aren't the kind of creatures you would make come out of a top hat at a birthday party. There were creatures from from all mythologies, their was tsuchigumo from Japanese mythology, the gorgon from Greek mythology, and vampires from European mythology. Against my better judgement I did the completely idiotic thing and read the incantation,
"Per nomen sacri tool idolonorum ego Alaster von torva voco, Lucifer"As I finished the incantation a mystic circle formed beneath my feet. A shadowy figure appeared in front of me with glowing red eyes and sharp fangs, before I figured out what was happening he spoke."Et tu fili hominis ecce ego scire postulo Lucifer lamia sum rex instans vel vitro vinum utemur tuo et ossa vestra quasi colligere cerebrum meum."As I stood their terrified by this what I assume is a vampire, he seemed to want something but before I could respond he spoke again."Numquid scis ubi ego sum profundum instant puerum reposcam."Judging by the anger in his tone he seemed confused, I attempted to speak to him."Ego sum nucis bonum offunduntur Latine" I said with a great amount of uncertainty. He stared at me confused.
"Sunt nescio quam praenuntiet?" He said confused
After four hours of arguing in Latin, which I had no idea what I was saying I decided just to ask something I should have asked four hours ago.
"Yo twilight, do you speak English?"
I asked"Of course I can speak English, and what is this twilight?" He said exasperated
"Its better if you don't know, my name is Alaster Von Grim and you are?" I asked
"I am lord Lucifer the Vampire King, now where is this hovel in which we dwell." He asked in a disapproving tone.
"We are in a mountain valley on a secluded island in B.C, and this is not a hovel this is just my room in a tower but now that I think about it, its more like a dungeon." I answered hoping he wouldn't rip my throat out.
"No, I am not going to rip out your throat. Every thousand years or so that book chooses someone and the first spell they cast summons me." He explained
"Ok, wait you said the book chooses someone?" I inquired
"Correct,"
"Chooses someone for what?"
" That Grimoire is the Reapers guide book it can teach anyone to be the next Grim Reaper, tell me has your world suffered from frequent natural disasters, crimes, or increased hostility?" he asked.
"Yes it has, its been mostly in the form of terrorism." I replied
He continued on and explained in extremely boring detail about everything I needed to know. The thing about speaking aloud is if you want people to pay attention it needs to sound interesting. What I understood from this vampiric fossil is that after the last grim reaper died all the souls that where hanging around formed together and the emotions they had caused the living to feel extremely sad or angry at the smallest things. The notion that stuck out the most was that the best choice to set the world right was me.
"This may be hard to believe but a Grim Reaper has a life span of only two hundred years, your world has been without a Grim Reaper since the 1880's" explained Lucifer
"The duty of the Grim Reaper is to fairy souls to the afterlife, but when a soul is not brought to the afterlife it starts to rout and all its malice, grief, and hatred from its death starts to enrage the living and causes them to lash out without reason. Whats worse is the routing souls will start to meld together to created a giant creature known as A Lost Legion."
"A Lost Legion, what makes that so special?" I asked Lucifer.
"Unlike routing souls on their own a Lost Legion can affected the physical world like natural disasters and causing life sustaining machines to fail. One more thing before we start your training" he said before he gave me a serious look with the intent to kill, "if a soul becomes part of A Lost Legion they can never move on to the afterlife." He explained with a stern expression emitting from his cold stair.
He sighed as he said "sadly this is a job you will have to learn as you go. But first that gilded scythe hanging from that book, that is your weapon and armour for battle."
"This thing is my weapon its a little small?"
"Pull it off you idiot."
I did as he instructed ignoring the rude part when a flash of light shined as I pulled the scythe, my skin turned white and I was wearing strange clothes with a bronze arm brace and holding this massive scythe. Then lucifer swung a sword at me, and what seemed effortless I blocked his sword with my brace and had the blade of my scythe to his throat.
He smiled and said "good the skills work, now that you are a grim reaper you cannot be seen by the living or interact with them but you can interact with objects and such so you can work without worry and before you ask yes you can turn back to normal all you have to do is tap the tip of the blade of the scythe to the cover of the book."
He started going on and on about what he called M prep the gist of it was open the book, pick a spell focus on the target say spell. After another hour of over explaining stuff that the writer could have written but was too lazy and it would have been boring. One thing that stood out in Lucifer's lecture was that even in my normal form I will still see souls and Lost Legions.
"Keep in mind boy" he said as his voice echoed like a gong "the laws of nature, to obtain something must be given of equal worth, in this case when you die you will be erased from existence. Every trace of your being will vanish memories, photos, events, everything will disappear."
A sudden chill shocked me to the core, the thought of being erased from history terrified me but this might be the one thing in my life that would actually be worth doing.
"Very well Lucifer" I said with a sneered across my face " that's a fair price I'll take on the job, this might be fun."
A devious smile formed across his face as a thunderous snap from his finger tips echoed though the room and my mind.
"And like that a deal has been struck, till the end of your days you are the grim reaper."
Said Lucifer as he let out a bout of melodious laughter.
The laughing struck me as odd but I payed it no mind as I flipped through the pages of the grimoir and found a spell to try.
"Angelus alas defensiva"
I read aloud as a mysterious magic circle formed beneath my feet, as I read a pair of ghostly wings formed behind my shoulders.
"Cool does this mean I can fly?"
Lucifer opened the window behind him and said
"Why don't you find out"
With a couple minutes of consideration I took a running start and dived out the window, I fell for three out of the seven stories before I spread my wings and started to fly. For some reason flying felt natural to me, perhaps it was the spell but the thought wasn't my biggest concern. I looked to the ground below and saw dozens of ghoulish beings.
"Those must be the routing souls lucifer told me about, so if I'm a grim reaper to collect souls all I need to do is hit them with my scythe."
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