Death Cultivator by eden Hudson (knowledgeable books to read .txt) 📗

so that we were both between the riverbrush and the others.

“Kest.” I grabbed Hungry Ghost and filled my Spirit sea.

“Almost done,” she said, fitting pieces back together.

“Just make sure you got all the pieces you started with, yeah?” Warcry growled.

“Why aren’t they attacking?” Rali mumbled, his eye lace thinning out.

The shut-in lit up with incredible white light, like a star suddenly appearing on Earth.

“Grady Hake,” the angel of death boomed, her voice echoing off the rock walls. She floated about ten feet above the ground, brilliant white fans of light spreading from either shoulder like wings. “Why weren’t you consumed like the rest?”

Fight the Reaper

IT’S HARD TO REMEMBER how beautiful angels are. Looking at one feels how I imagine getting hit by lightning does, like a crack of thunder too big and too loud for your mind to comprehend booming through your body, and no matter how hard you try, it’s not something you can accurately remember or describe later.

My mouth and throat dried up. That long white hair, perfect skin, radiant light, and pure deadly fury etched across her face. She was stunning and terrifying all at once.

“The chaos creatures were supposed to devour your unbodied soul!” the angel boomed.

I swallowed hard. “I think she’s the reason the chaos creatures haven’t attacked yet.”

“She who?” Rali asked, still searching the shadows.

Kest tossed Warcry his prosthetic. “A casing to keep the joint free of debris will have to wait, but it’s better than it was.”

Warcry grunted, “Thanks,” and strapped it on.

It was like none of them had noticed the angel of death hovering right in front of us.

I blinked from them to the angel. “Can’t you guys see her?”

“See what?” Warcry stood up, dusting his pants off. “Did you finally snap, grav?”

“You don’t belong here, Grady Hake,” the angel boomed. “You’re an aberration. You should have disappeared like the others.”

Righteous anger twisted and popped in my synapses.

I let out a mean laugh. “You’re mad at me because sweeping your screwup under the rug didn’t work?”

Lips twisting into a snarl, she thrust out her hand, palm facing me.

I flinched, expecting to explode or something, but nothing happened.

The angel frowned down at her outstretched arm for a second, then gave up on whatever that Spirit attack was and pulled a huge scythe out of nowhere. The blade was at least twice as long as she was tall, and it shined like Earth’s moon.

I stumbled back a step.

“Hake, what’s going on?” Kest asked. “Who are you yelling at?”

“Her.” I pointed, Hungry Ghost still clutched in my fist. “The angel of death is right there, and she’s got a big freaking scythe. I don’t think she wants to hurt you guys, though. I think she’s just here for me.”

Except that scythe blade was so enormous it would probably slice the twins and Warcry in half if I was anywhere near them when she struck.

I jogged away from them, yelling at the angel again and trying to keep her attention on me. “Did you finally get in trouble for killing the wrong guy? Good! I told God on you about a million times! It shouldn’t be that hard to tell the difference between a sixteen-year-old high schooler and a twenty-nine-year-old methhead, you incompetent ditz!”

The angel’s beautiful face distorted with rage, and she tore through the air at me.

Not thinking, I sucked down more Spirit from Hungry Ghost even though my Sea was already full. It felt like my insides were about to burst. In a rush, I sent it all coursing through my body like opening the floodgates.

Suddenly, I felt twenty feet tall and faster than a water moccasin’s strike. I could see everything better than I’d ever seen before, down to the pores on the angel’s skin, which wasn’t skin at all. From the looks of it, her body was made of marble or some other smooth white rock.

Even with all the speed and sight enhancements, I just barely managed to get Dead Reckoning out in time to feel her first slice with the scythe incoming. I dove out of the way, but I wasn’t fast enough. The blade cut my arm to the bone, so fast and clean that I didn’t even feel it at first.

The pain hit as I got back on my feet.

Holy crap. I could get my head chopped off and not know it until I was staring up at my headless body.

My left arm hung down my side, blood running like hot water from a garden hose. I started cycling as much freezing Miasma to the cut as I could without letting Dead Reckoning drop. The bleeding stopped as the wound iced over. Frost grew down to my elbow and up to my shoulder. I downed more Spirit from Hungry Ghost.

Nearby, Warcry and Rali had dropped into defensive stances, searching for whatever had hit me. Kest was typing furiously on her HUD.

“This isn’t your world,” the angel said.

“I didn’t want to leave my old one!” I yelled.

She flew at me again, robes and hair flapping around her like wings. This time, when the very edge of her scythe touched Dead Reckoning, I ducked under the swing. By the time I’d thrown a counter, though, she was already gone.

“Where is she?” Kest swung her HUD around, pointing it at the sky like she was going to shoot this crazy chick out of the air with nothing but her wristlight.

“Stay back!” I hit Hungry Ghost again and concentrated all my Spirit into a Death Metal shield for my right arm. We’d see how that angel felt about getting bashed in the face.

“Can either of you see her?” Kest demanded.

“Feel the air currents,” Rali said. He’d shut his eyes and gone perfectly still. “The disturbance is...up there.”

He pointed his walking stick right at the angel.

Her perfect white eyebrows jumped up in shock, then scrunched down over her nose. White lightning crackled around her.

She shot toward Rali.

“Look out!” I crashed into him, shouldering him out of her way and throwing my shield