"I can't see a thing," Aurelian murmured, his voice fading into nothingness.
Everything was black. An absolute void—cold and unfathomable. He found himself floating in nothingness, devoid of all meaning, of any sound, and of even the faintest glimmer of light. His mind, accustomed to understanding and mastering every aspect of his surroundings, couldn't fathom in the slightest what on earth had happened to land him there, in… limbo—if he had to give a name to the strange place where he found himself. He spun slowly around his own axis, like a leaf drifting through space. Simply existing.
Out of pure instinct, he tried to channel his magic. But nothing. His magical core, usually a torrent of nearly inexhaustible energy (according to him), was… still, with no way to use it. He searched his right hand for the Elder Wand he'd just stolen with such effort, but the relic had also vanished without a trace. He was defenseless.
As he spun helplessly through the darkness, the place began to change. The void gradually began to fill with light. A soft, silvery light dispelled the abyss; suddenly, gravity returned with a jolt.
Aurelian fell. He landed on his back on a vast, soft meadow of fresh grass.
He sat up on the grass, shaking his head, and looked around, taking a moment to catch his breath. It was undeniably beautiful. The sky above him was bathed in a beautiful night—perfectly clear, free of clouds or any pollution—revealing with clarity the millions of shining stars, galaxies, and constellations of the universe. It was simply fantastic—a landscape that radiated immense, immense peace.
As he enjoyed the scenery, relaxing his shoulders and feeling the breeze brush against his face, he suddenly felt an icy breath and heard a voice whispering directly into his ear.
"Very nice place, isn't it?"
Aurelian jumped in surprise and leaped back, rolling across the grass with his heart racing a mile a minute; he braced himself as best he could. As he turned his head, his dark eyes widened in shock.
In front of him, sitting comfortably cross-legged on the grass, was a girl who appeared to be exactly his age. She had extremely pale skin, tousled black hair as black as a raven's wing, and deep gray eyes. She wore a silver ankh-shaped necklace hanging around her neck and was dressed in casual black clothes—black jeans and a sleeveless T-shirt—looking exactly like a goth girl.
Death greeted him with a friendly smile, waving her hand slightly.
"Hello," she said, looking at her hands and clothes with genuine curiosity. "I must admit, no one has ever portrayed me as a girl before. It's very… refreshing."
Aurelian, still processing the bizarre situation and feeling strangely vulnerable without his magic, lowered his fists and raised an eyebrow.
"You… are Death?" he asked cautiously.
The goth girl nodded enthusiastically, her dark hair bouncing.
"That's right. And, honestly, I really like this way of portraying myself. I think I'll use it more often from now on," Death remarked in a tone that tried to sound cheerful and casual. "Normally, when I introduce myself to someone, they just see a gloomy skull wrapped in tattered robes. You know, the classic look," she said, tapping her chin with a finger. "Although I was once a giant skeleton with wings."
Aurelian frowned slightly, his mind beginning to piece things together.
"Are you saying that Death is different for every person?"
She nodded, hugging her knees to her chest as she gazed at the stars.
"Exactly. Every living being has their own way of seeing, thinking, fearing, and feeling the end. Therefore, my physical form always changes to adapt to the perception of the mind of whoever is observing me. You could say I'm a reflection of their subconscious."
Death leaned forward, closing the distance between them. She narrowed her beautiful gray eyes, studying him with a mixture of amusement and curiosity.
"Which brings me to my big question, Aurelian… Why exactly do you imagine Death as a goth girl?"
Aurelian felt the heat rise to his cheeks. He blushed deeply—something that never happened to him in front of anyone other than Hestia or Flora—and quickly looked away, clearing his throat slightly to hide his sudden discomfort.
"It's… personal," he murmured, avoiding her intense gray eyes.
Deep within himself, memories of his first past life suddenly came flooding back. He remembered his old life, the afternoons spent reading DC comics, and how he had always been deeply fascinated by the fact that one particular author had chosen to portray an entity as feared and inevitable as Death as a cute, friendly goth girl. His geeky subconscious had betrayed him in the most embarrassing way possible in front of the very embodiment of the end of everything.
Death smiled—a broad, knowing smile that showed she could read each and every memory of his past life as if they were an open book.
"You're quite the anomaly—did you know that?" she said, her tone losing some of its lightheartedness as it took on the unfathomable weight of eternity.
The word resonated in the starry sky, echoing in the soul of the young man standing before her. Aurelian snapped out of his embarrassing thoughts and turned his face, staring intently into her eyes. The girl's aura, though friendly, made it clear that she was the oldest and most powerful being in all of existence.
Death, still smiling at him with that unusual warmth, tilted her head.
"We have a lot to talk about, Aurelian Gaunt."
Aurelian stood up silently and followed the young Gothic woman across the meadow. A few meters away, materializing out of thin air among the fresh grass, a small table appeared, accompanied by two matching chairs.
They both took their seats facing each other. No sooner had Aurelian settled into his chair than Death clapped her hands together and began to applaud enthusiastically, giving him a radiant smile.
"Congratulations, Aurelian!" she exclaimed joyfully. "You are officially the first and only living being in all of history to have gathered my three trinkets at the same time. That's quite an achievement!"
Aurelian swallowed hard. His mind processed her choice of words with a hint of disbelief. To the wizarding world, to Albus Dumbledore, to Gellert Grindelwald, and to countless generations of wizards who had killed and died for them, those objects were the most powerful ever created. And to the goth girl sitting across from him… they were mere trinkets.
He cleared his throat, trying to regain some composure.
"And… does that mean anything in particular?" Aurelian asked, staring at her.
Death blinked a couple of times, taken aback by the question, and simply shrugged nonchalantly.
"Honestly, no," she replied, raising a hand to downplay the matter as she let out a little laugh. "To be honest, I never expected anyone to be crazy or bored enough to actually manage to gather all three. Even today, I haven't the faintest idea who the foolish mortal was who made up that stupid legend that obtaining them would make you the 'Master of Death.' As if anyone could boss me around!"
Aurelian blinked, realizing that centuries of bloodshed had been based on a misunderstanding.
"So… if I'm not your master and gathering the relics means nothing, why am I here?" he asked, resting his forearms on the table.
The girl's expression softened, losing some of its mocking tone and becoming more intimate.
"You're here because, for a very, very long time, I've had a tremendous desire to speak with you alone," Death confessed. "The fact that you finally obtained the Wand, the Cloak, and the Stone simply made things much easier for me. With my three objects in your possession, a small connection was created between us that allowed me to bring you to this space without tearing the fabric of reality."
Aurelian nodded silently. For the sake of his own sanity, he decided not to delve deeper or ask any more questions about this so-called "connection" with the embodiment of the end of the world. He preferred to steer the conversation toward something that troubled him far more.
"Before we sat down… you called me 'Anomaly,'" Aurelian recalled, narrowing his eyes. "Why?"
Death lowered her gaze for a second and gently caressed the silver ankh-shaped pendant hanging around her neck. When she looked up again, she gave him a sweet smile.
"Because I've always been watching you, Aurelian Gaunt," she whispered. "I've been keeping an eye on you from the very moment you were born. And it took just one glance into your soul to realize the truth: you're not of this world. Your soul belongs to a place far away, to another life, and to a completely different reality."
On the outside, Aurelian's face remained impassive, stoic—a perfect mask. But on the inside… on the inside, he was terrified. The greatest and best-kept secret of his entire existence—his reincarnation and his knowledge of the future and of this world—was always laid bare before her.
Noticing the tension in the boy's shoulders, Death waved her hands in the air to calm him down immediately.
"Hey, relax! Don't be scared or worry about it!" she assured him in a cheerful, reassuring tone. "I'm not upset, and I'm not going to punish you for being here. Quite the opposite… in fact, I'm grateful to you from the bottom of my being. By coming here with your ideas and your way of acting, you've turned this boring world into something incredibly interesting and fun to watch."
Aurelian blinked, emerging slightly from his daze and letting curiosity overcome his fear.
"Why? What exactly did I do to make it so interesting to you?"
Death didn't answer with words. She sprang to her feet and leaned forward across the table, resting both hands on the wood and bringing her face close to his. Her deep gray eyes sparkled with excitement, as if tiny stars were twinkling inside them.
"Because you're a Fatebreaker!" she declared with amusement and utter fascination.
"A… what?" Aurelian blinked, taken aback by the title. "What does that mean?"
Without giving him time to react or pull away, Death reached both hands across the table and grabbed him firmly by the cheeks, pinching his face affectionately, as if he were an adorable little doll.
"It means, my dear child from another world, that you are the only being in this entire universe who does not have a predetermined path," she explained, moving his cheeks from side to side as she spoke. "You do not have a destiny set by the laws that govern everyone else. There is no mandatory path, no script, and no ending that you must follow. You are a blank slate. You are truly and absolutely free to do whatever the hell you want with your life!"
When she finally let go of him, Aurelian leaned back in his chair, rubbing his cheeks, which were slightly reddened from the cosmic entity's pinches. He processed the magnitude of her words, and a glimmer of awe flashed across his eyes.
"That's… simply incredible," Aurelian admitted in a whisper, realizing that no prophecy could ever bind him.
"It sure is!" the goth girl agreed enthusiastically, sitting back down in her chair. "And that's the best part. Since you don't have a fixed destiny, you possess the unique ability to alter, shatter, and completely change the fate of absolutely everyone you interact with in the world."
Death let out a sigh of deep happiness and satisfaction, gazing up at the starry sky above them.
"That's what makes me so immensely happy, Aurelian. Before, everything was predictable and boring—I already knew who was going to die, how, when, and where. But now, thanks to your existence and your constant interference… anything is possible. Nothing is set in stone anymore. Anything can happen; any life can be saved, and any empire can fall or be built depending solely and exclusively on your decisions."
Aurelian listened to her in silence. He brought a hand to his chin and gave Death a somewhat nervous smile as his mind raced once more, weighing the consequences of holding such power and freedom in his hands.
"Well… it could be worse," Aurelian thought to himself, swallowing hard as he looked at the happy, cheerful girl sitting across from him. "The fact that the fate of the entire world depends on my whims and decisions is something that could end up being either very, very good… or extremely bad."
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