Death walked in circles around the gravestone. He wanted to blame his servants, but he knew the truth: he had been far too reliant on his servants to notice the balance of existence destabilizing.

  Even though his servants were efficient, his gaze reached everywhere from his castle in the heavens, enough to understand what procrastinating on the job meant. The more notable the soul, the bigger the crowd to usher them into the afterlife; the servants did their job after the soul had thoroughly boasted about every achievement they had until even Life felt they had done too much. Always focused on the most extraordinary of souls, they always slacked on cleaning up the scraps. Reports about the living being able to see the world of the dead were most likely buried in one of the piles of folders in his office.

  Relying on his servants was not the wisest choice, so he had to find another way to solve this problem. But how? And at what cost?

  "Erm, excuse me, sir. About my inquiry. Could you explain what is behind this sudden shift?"

  Death stopped walking, realizing he hadn't been acting appropriately. "Pardon me for that, I just had to check something. You said your name was Anya didn't you?" If he couldn't rely on his servants, and he obviously couldn't figure it out alone, perhaps relying on fate was his only choice. "What do you think about helping a servant of death to figure out the cause of this problem? I could use a mortals perspective."

  Her eyes widened. "Me? But I am a novice necromancer. Sir—pardon, what is your name?"

  "Servants of death aren't allowed to keep names. The only one who is allowed is the aspect of death."

  "Sir it is then." She exhaled. "I am not even a lich. Are you sure I will be of any help?

  "Don't worry. Even the smallest contributions can lead to great change."

  She gulped. "Alright. Then what do we do first?"

  Death thought about it. When existence was created, he and his sister Life were born as the first aspects. Of course, later new aspects such as Time and Space were born, but in the most simplistic sense, existence was the manifestation of their relationship with each other. Although someone else being the cause behind it could be possible, since this is about both of their realms — who was he kidding, it was totally her fault.

  Death clenched his fist. "Let's go meet the ruler of life."

  "The ruler of life? I see. That sounds—." Her eyes widened. "Hold on. Are you talking about the ruler of life, Life herself? How would you even be allowed an audience to speak to her?"

  He smirked. "We don't need to ask for an audience."

  Closing his eyes, Death blocked out the material realm to sense Life's location. He saw no traces of her in the cave, so that meant she was in the material realm. Despite how much his ego hurt from admitting it, she was far better at blending in with the mortals. Thankfully, he had a solution for that.

  "Miss Anya, could you whistle for me?"

  She whistled. "Like that?"

  Death could sense it approaching following Anya's thread. The creature he had created in order to thwart Life and her creations. He had hidden it deep within the Pleroma, the divine realm, where the threads of life hung around like tangled yarn, never to unravel. A black portal appeared, and out of it jumped his greatest creation: Chaos.

  "Awwwwww! What a cute kitty."

  Chaos hissed at Anya. She hated being coddled.

  Anya couched down, spreading out her arms. "Don't be scared. I won't hurt you."

  Death coughed. "Let us focus on the task. Chaos, could you find Life for me?"

  Chaos miaowed, approvingly. She sat down and her pupils dilated.

  The reason why Chaos was special was that she could freely enter and exit the Pleroma, including being able to see it from anywhere. He had created her when Life refused to let the threads of fate fracture by letting them vertically elongate. Since the Pleroma mirrored the material realm, and because the universe expanded indefinitely because of Time and Space, that meant no death. He couldn't let that happen. That's why he sent Chaos into the Pleroma to play with the threads and tangle them into a mess even Time couldn't patiently unravel. Life could as a consequence not infinitely extend life anymore without any of the threads snapping. However, in her arrogance, she would never stop trying to unravel the threads. Chaos was much more familiar with the makeup of the Pleroma than him, and where the threads of fate seemed to move around unnaturally was usually where Life was.

  Chaos stood up, conjuring a portal in front of them.

  "You can make portals? This cat is amazing!" She looked at Chaos. "What do I call you?"

  "Chaos is her name," he answered.

  She looked at him, then at Chaos. "Little Chaos, how adorable."

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  Chaos ignored Anya and walked through the portal. They both followed her to see a town in front of them. It looked much less impressive than the settlement they had just left. Anya tried to pick up Chaos, but she dodged her and climbed up to his shoulder. Chaos couldn't find his sisters exact location, but she had to be in this town somewhere. Death did his best to conceal his divinity and walked past the gates.

  It didn't take long until he found her. In the middle of the town square, a huge crowd surrounded a woman tied to a wooden pole. She had golden hair, fair skin, and a white robe covering her body.

  "Burn the witch!" The crowd chanted.

  Life didn't try to break free. She looked upon the crowd with a kind gaze. "People, don't you all see? Hate is not the way forward. We should love—."

  "Shut up whore!" an angry woman exclaimed. "You tried to steal my man from me." She elbowed a man standing beside her, with an odd interest in staring at the cobblestone pavement beneath his feet. "Tell them, Mark. The witch forced your gaze onto her."

  The man just nodded and didn't say anything.

  "And she tried to give food to that old man who is always loitering outside my shop!" A man complained.

  Life smiled. "We must show kindness to the unfortunate and poor. Only then will—."

  "Bullshit! She was trying to curse my shop with misfortune, helping a beggar. Burn her already!"

  The crowd cheered as a man holding a torch walked to the center.

  Before he could burn Life, Death decided to intervene. Snapping his fingers, he looked up. People screamed and fled from the town square as dead birds started raining from the sky.

  "Curses! Curses!" Someone screamed. "Death is punishing us!"

  An old priest didn't run, but went down his knees to initiate a prayer. "Oh, mother of life. Save us from the anger of Death and his servant, this filthy witch."

  Death rolled his eyes and walked past the man, who he made specifically sure would get smothered to death by a flock of birds. Life had already easily broken free from her shackles. She looked around at the carnage. Dead birds flooded the street, along with the unfortunate civilians who were smothered to death. When their eyes met, she spread out her arms.

  "What is the meaning of this, Death? I had the situation perfectly under control!"

  Anya's eyes widened. "Did she just say Death? As in the Death."

  Death sighed. "You definitely weren't under control. If they had killed you, your mortal vessel would explode, taking an entire continent with you."

  She glared at him. "How do you know that? Are you spying on me again?"

  "What—No! Who do you think has to clean up all your messes you irresponsible excuse for a god."

  Life gasped. "Irresponsible? You are the one who randomly kills people whenever you want. What happened with letting fate decide the outcome?"

  Death scoffed. "Fate is just us taking a bet. We can change it whenever we want, what purpose would it have otherwise?"

  "You always have such little respect for the living." She gritted her teeth. "Think of all they could have accomplished!"

  "The ones who were trying to burn a helpless girl alive? They already failed the test you gave them, so why give them second chances?"

  Life hesitated. "That—." She balled her hand into a fist. "You are always embarrassed of me. Hiding me away in a cave beneath the earth. Why can't you see the contribution I make to existence?"

  "What, increasing my workload? And for the last time, my realm being in the heavens is much more practical since I can watch over the living. Why do you even need a realm of your own?"

  She avoided his eyes and twirled her hair. "For stuff."

  "Excuse me." It was Anya. She nervously walked towards them. "Dear rulers of life and death, about the grave danger to existence: how will that be resolved?"

  Life looked at Death. "What is she talking about?"

  "You know exactly what she is talking about. The boundary between the realm of the living and the dead is fading away," Death said. "What did you do?"

  Life gasped. "Don't blame this on me. I already talked with Time and Space about the matter, and we concluded that this wasn't by my will. I thought this was one of your nefarious plans, or that you were embracing my superior idea of eternal existence."

  "Not happening," Death flatly responded. He scratched his head. If this wasn't by her will, then what was causing this problem? "Are you sure you didn't do anything? Maybe you made some kind of weapon to save the mortals but accidentally gave it the ability to use your authority?"

  She fumed. "Im not dumb. I still remember last time existence went out of balance, and it was a mess. Although, I have grown fond of Time and Space, having another sibling like you would be disastrous."

  "Oh, no." Death mockingly said. "Not another responsible—. Ouch! Why did you punch me for?"

  "You started it!" Life said. "Stop making fun of my ideals."

  Death lifted his arms. "So you want to lose another war?"

  "It wasn't a loss. You just—."

  "STOP!" Anya screamed. "When I first learned about the aspects of life and death, this was not what I was expecting. You two are supposed to be wise and always looking out for the balance of existence. Well, now the balance is broken, so you guys have to do your job!" She gulped when Life and Death stood there, silent.

  To her relief, Death regained his posture and Life calmed herself.

  "The sad goth girl is right," Life said. "We need to focus."

  "Erm. I am actually a necromancer."

  Death nodded. "Then we are back at square one."

  Life and Death stared into the air, deep in thought. Anya couldn't bear the silence any longer. "If you both did not do this, can't you think of another time existence went out of balance? You … Lady Life, said something about Time and Space."

  Both of their eyes widened.

  "You don't think—?" Death started.

  A loud trumpet echoed from the sky. They both looked up to see a dragon flying down towards the town. A knight mounting the dragon looked upon the confused populace trying to recover from the punishment Death had given them.

  "What happened here?" The knight said, scratching his head. "I'll just get on with it." He opened a scroll and held it in front of it. "Dear people, I am here to spread the good word: a savior has come. The incarnation of life has graced the mortal realm and will be holding a sermon in the holy city Liv in two moons' time."

  Life's hair turned red. "Who dares impersonate me?"

  "She will tell us the doctrine that we must follow. Either travel to her sermon or send a representative to learn how to live the right way. If not, Death will make his mark, and burn the stories of men."

  "Why do the mortals blame me for everything?" Death complained.

  "Judgment Day is upon us!" The knight closed the scroll and flew towards the north where the holy city lay.

  Death knew Life wasn't reckless enough to reveal her existence — again, and she was obviously standing beside him. He knew about several mortals who tried to impersonate them, and their servants were usually the ones who punished them. If this impostor was still roaming free, it could only mean they had managed to take advantage of the broken balance.

  Anya looked at Life. "Lady Life. What is Judgment Day?"

  Life didn't say anything and looked at Death.

  Death shrugged. "No idea."