The Weapon Ceremony

“Fight? What do you mean?”, Leo responded in horror. “I can’t just go hackin’ and slashing people for them to attain peace. This is wrong”

“Ok, let’s take you as an example.”, Mierulo’s eyes became sharp. “You had a near-perfect life, right? Got into a good college, had your crush accept your feelings, and also had a nice future ahead of you.”

“Yes. I had a pretty smooth sailing life. Nothing I can do about that, right?”, Leo replied.

“No, no. That’s not the point I am trying to get here.”, Mierulo relaxed. “What I am trying to say is that if I were to tell you that you can’t continue your seemingly perfect life and you have to again start from scratch, how would react?”

“Obviously, I would…”, Leo’s words lingered in the air. Everything now seemed to make sense in his head. “Oh, I get it now.”

“Why aren’t the others like him? It would be way easier to guide them if they were to be just as understanding as this fellow here.”, Norn said with a dejected face.

“Oh, save some of your praise for me too. There was also my beautiful explanation to help him out.”, Mierulo said with a bright smile on his face.

“Well, I can’t disagree on that too. The last three ones you brought here were also very cool-headed.”, Norn replied. “Now, enough chit-chat, let’s go to the weapon’s room.”

“Right now?”, Leo said in low voice.

“Come on, now, I thought you understood everything by now.”, Norn was beginning to get irritated.

“Well, let’s just not make him angry. It can be a lot of trouble later.”, Mierulo whispered to Leo’s ears.

“Ok, let’s get started.”, Leo slowly got his breathing under control. With his eyes now calm, it was sharp as a knife.

Norn led them in front of yet another ornated door. But this time, when Norn opened the door, it was dead silent. Only a small light illuminated a small altar under it.

They walked through the room silently and stooped in front of the altar. The altar was small and weird. It was not really a solid thing but rather it was like a fluid.

“Put your hand on the altar.”, Norn ordered Leo.

As said, Leo put his hand on the altar. It was warm and like Leo suspected it was not a solid thing.

“I said in”, Norn ordered again. Again, as ordered, Leo slowly put his hand inside the watery altar.

“Now, clench your fists and close your eyes”.

Leo listened to Norn like a good child and did as he was directed. Slowly, Leo felt something hard forming in his fist. The water was still warm as it was before. After soaking his hand for a while in the liquid, Leo heard Norn say, “Now, take out your hand and open your eyes.”

Leo pulled his hand out of the water and when he opened his eyes, he saw his previously empty hand is now holding a scythe. The scythe’s stem was clad in gold and around his clenched fist was a red round guard. The blade was pitch black but it still shone under the faint light.

“Just like Mierulo”, Norn exclaimed in awe.

Leo rotated the scythe and pulled it closer to observe it clearly. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his leg as if something pierced his leg.

“Ouch”, Leo exclaimed and started searching for what hit him. Taking the rear end of his scythe, he saw another blade there. It was a scythe having two blades with both the blades on different ends of the stem and facing in opposite directions.

“Not quite like me, isn’t it?”, Mierulo came closer to Leo to inspect the weapon carefully, “But still an exquisite one”.

“But it can cause some problems, a double-faced scythe is not exactly a good weapon of choice.”, Norn remarked.

“But we had weirder ones and look where they are now.”, Mierulo replied. Norn seemed to agree with him.

Mierulo now slowly turned towards Leo and said, “Now, let us put you into a real fight.”

Leo became uneasy and replied, “Look, I just got my weapon. Don’t I need some time to train with it and become better?”

Mierulo nodded, “Of course, you are right. You do need some training. But there is no training ground as good as the good old battlefield.”

“Alright. Then let's go.”, Leo answered back.

“That is more like it. I thought you were gonna back off for a second there.", Mierulo laughed. Now turning to Norn, he said," Ok, ready him for the battle."

Norn nodded his head and took Leo through the main ground to a room that looked like the control center.

"Will it hurt?", Leo asked Norn.

"Are you dumb or what? You are already dead.", Norn replied.

"Ok, then let's go.", Leo pumped himself up.

"Ok, wait a minute. We are finding low wavelength people for you so that you can easily defeat them.", Norn said.

"What is a low wavelength?", Leo asked Norn.

"The people who don't want live anymore. Their affinity for living is low so they are weaker and their connection with the living can easily be severed. Mostly old people in this category, you can handle them easily.

"Ok, I understand. So, I literally have to beat an old guy to death.", Leo laughed.

"Yes, you can say that.", Norn said without any emotion on his face.

"Come on, that was a good one.", Leo said.

"No, it wasn't. If it was I would have laughed.", Norn said while looking over the wavelengths.

"You are such a killjoy, man.", Leo sighed.

"Get ready. We have found a low wavelength.", Norn said while getting everything necessary thing ready. "You have your weapon with you, right?"

"Yeah.", Leo answered.

"Ok, everything is ready. Stand in between the middle of the circle there.", Norn said while pushing a button to open a door. The door revealed a big room with a white circle in there.

Leo did as he was told. Once he stood there, he felt his feet get lighter and lighter with each passing second. He looked over to Norn to find out if anything was wrong.

Norn nodded and said," Everything is ok. No need to worry. Now, go out there and bring death, Leo Drampula."

Leo nodded. His feet were now floating and he was moving faster than ever before. To his surprise, he could even see his body flying. He didn’t know if it was his imagination or not. Within a second, he was in between a field with lush green grass growing everywhere. 'This must be the battlefield', Leo thought,

As Leo was admiring the beauty around him, he saw his opponent standing in front of him. Leo pointed his scythe towards the man and yelled, ' I am Leo Drampula and I have come for your soul."

Immediately after saying it, Leo became flustered. It was the worst thing that came out of his mouth.

After hearing, the man said," Damn, you are one edgy guy."

Leo was shocked to hear the voice of the man. His voice was nothing like an old man's, it was much younger. Then, he got a good look at his opponent. He was nothing like the old man Norn had promised will be. Rather, he was a young kid just like Leo.