A Shade of Vampire 90: A Ruler of Clones - Bella Forrest Page 0,79

to numb me as I watched Death’s biggest mistake unraveling before me. All the wasted lives. It was too much to endure, but I kept reading. The World Crusher should never have been made. There was too much power inside her. She lacked the soul, the actual soul that made this entire universe special and full of life. She was just an empty form with enough discernment to put one foot in front of the other and feel things, but without fully understanding what being entailed. My siblings and I had been modeled after real spirits. We had the spark of existence. The World Crusher did not, and therein lay the difference, because she lacked the emotional and spiritual equipment to understand certain complexities of life, death, and everything in between.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, opening them slowly. Eneas and the Ghoul Reapers were watching me. Their lack of souls made me shiver, but I could not fault them for it. They deserved better. Looking down at the page again, the last two paragraphs stood out.

“They call themselves the Ghoul Reapers now. Remnants of what they used to be. Death bound them to my book. They cannot leave unless I leave,” the World Crusher wrote. “Their failure to keep my anger contained upset her, even though she’d failed, too. Her ego was and always will be monumental and perhaps bigger than this very universe we all inhabit.”

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. Eneas’s gaze found mine, and he knew. He knew I would not be able to set them free. “You’re bound to the tome, and I can’t… I can’t let her loose. She’s nothing but destructive anger. She has no sense of right or wrong or consequences. She… I cannot. I’m sorry.”

This was where it ended, I realized. My dream to have a family of my own body and soul. This was where I drew the line. Unlike Death and her selfish ass, I had a limit. This was it. Setting the World Crusher free would cause too much damage, and I doubted I’d be able to control this Reaper. From what I had read and from what I had seen, she was infinitely more powerful than I was. She was on Death’s level. The mere thought of her roaming around with a colossal chip on her shoulder… no. It just couldn’t happen.

“We stop here, then,” Tristan murmured, noticing the sadness in my voice.

Eneas scoffed. “I figured you might say this…”

“I’m truly sorry. If there was any other way, I would, but Death—”

“Death is a stone-cold bitch!” Eneas cut me off, fury flashing in the blackness of his eyes. “I know! I was just… We were all dumb enough to think you might want to stick it to her after everything she did. Biriane is dead because of her. Those souls never made it into the Afterlife. The World Crusher’s rage is the worst thing to exist in this universe… I thought you’d understand.”

“I do, but at least it’s contained here,” I said, shaking my head slowly. “I’m sorry. I can’t.”

He exhaled sharply, bitterly accepting my resolve. “Just read what’s left of that tome. You owe her and us that much.”

I did. Shifting my focus to the last paragraph, I read it aloud while Tristan and the Ghoul Reapers listened. “This is my story,” the World Crusher wrote. “It is not my ending, however. I’m hoping you’ll let me craft my own finale. An eternity inside this seal is not something I would wish upon anyone, not even Death, my worst and only enemy. She threw me aside like a useless doll. She brought me out of the nothingness and made me feel like I was the center of the universe, then when I stopped playing by her rules, she threw me in here. Do you think it’s fair?”

No. I would’ve liked to say no, but as I finished reading, a peculiar rumble filled the room, immediately accompanied by the raucous laughter of the Ghoul Reapers. They sprang to their feet, grins slitting their faces, and it was clear something that wasn’t supposed to happen was about to happen.

The color fled from Tristan’s face as he gawked at the black marble lectern where I was still standing. “Babe… you might want to come down from there,” he managed, motioning for me to get off.

I stepped onto the floor and whirled around just in time to see the lectern crack in two, splitting down the middle in