The Devil's Temptation!

194 The River Of Three Crossing

“Anima est eterna”

Roshan’s fingers that rhythmically tapped the arm of his chair stopped after he uttered those words, “that’s the name of the book.”

He casted a side glance at the muted Azazel who blinked at him. There were a lot of reasons to suspect the white-haired Enigma since it was partially possible that he might know something about the book, or the secret meaning it contains in its depths.

He was going through the old books in the library when he came across that specific book, but not even a single word was translated in English, and it took him hours to put the actual meaning of the book together.

“A soul is eternal.” Azazel instinctively translated it, and it didn’t come as a surprise to Roshan whose lips just curved to the side in an unreadable manner. If he was genuinely smiling or not, it was impossible to tell.

Letting his eyes scan the body of Anna, her delicate pretty face appeared as white as snow, including her skin and her usual cinnamon-brown hair was starting to turn a shade darker which he noticed in the past two days.

It felt more like her body was undergoing some mysterious changes despite being dead. But it wasn’t the type that appeared negative.

Strangely, he seemed to be the only one who noticed it.

“If Anna’s soul didn’t return to the limbo this time around, that means she has no rebirth,” he logically pointed out, “I’m uncertain of how true this is, but once a soul has nothing to do with rebirth, they move through the river of three crossing in order to make it to the afterlife.”

.....

“I did read on that,” Levi’s ears perked, “the last librarian we had usually gave me those sorts of books to read, and Aunt Letitia would sit me down to test me, stating every demon must know their origin.” He shuddered impulsively at the childhood torments, “back to the topic, once a soul crosses the river of three crossing, then it can never be retrieved.”

Based on his childhood knowledge, the river of three crossing meant a permanent disappearance. Which means any soul that makes it past the river of three crossings will have nothing to do with the mortal world.

Forever.

“But it’s not possible to retrieve a soul,” Azazel straight-out cut in with a cryptic look, “like you said, there’s no chance for a second rebirth in Anna’s case, so the river of three crossings should be her souls destination, that is if she hasn’t crossed it yet.”

“It takes three days to cross the river.” Came Roshan’s direct response as he stood up from the chair, turning around to look at the puzzled white haired being.

“And that’s where you come in, brother.” The glacier added while placing a hand on Azazel’s shoulder, but it only made his neat white brows knit into suspicion.

“Explain.”

“I need you to mess with the loop that connects the river to the world of immortality and mortality, and by that I mean.... you need to transport me to the last river.”

“What!” Azazel wasted no time in shaking his head in disagreement, not bothering to listen to the rest of the words his brother had to say, “transporting you to the last river means trespassing, it’s too risky and I’m not bargaining with you on this one, no one has ever violated the rules and made it out alive, noway.”

“If Anna didn’t die, you know I would have taken her place based on what I saw on the scroll,” Roshan reminded him, “we would have switched our fate and I’d still carry her curse with zero percent chance of surviving it, but look, there’s a fifty percent chance of surviving this one so why not take the risk?”

Informing Azazel about it in the first place wasn’t his initial plan, he actually planned on tricking the demon into taking him there, but then his guilty conscience wouldn’t let him do it.

“So far your energy is weak,” Azazel turned around, not wanting to look his brother in the eyes and fall for his innocent tricks, “and you’re not a full Demon Roshan, you’re half human too which gives you both the advantage and disadvantage of being a hybrid, your chances of surviving it are below fifty.”

“I’m not a hybrid,” Levi got to his feet with a determined look on his enchanting face, “if it’s risky for Roshan then my chances of surviving should be higher right?”

“You won’t even make it past the first river, so seal those lips of yours and sit down.” Azazel sounded a bit cold when he gave Levi that retort, crushing the young demon’s boldness like a timbrel cart crushes eggs.

“Why so hard on the poor guy?” Roshan made him turn around to look at him. No one ever said crossing the river would be a child’s game and they both knew that. Trespassing alone would render him severe consequences since he has nothing to do with it, but what he couldn’t understand was why Azazel was getting so worked up about it.

“You don’t understand.” Azazel frowned, “it’s not as easy as it sounds, there are repercussions for entering the spirit realm and you might not survive it.”

From the look on his face, Roshan could tell there was more behind this, or maybe there’s something his brother knew but wasn’t saying it.

“How do you know?”

“I know because I have the power to take lives, I’m the person you’ll end up facing if you go against the rules and if you end up going ahead with this, it’s possible that I can kill you.”

~

At the dungeon.....

“You mean Anna is dead??” Gretta’s eyes widened in disbelief when Lady Odette and Aunt Letitia came to disclose the news not only to her, but to Roseline as well.

“How? When? How did it happen?” Gretta was eager to hear the full gist, same with Roseline who also nodded, waiting to hear it all out but Letitia wasn’t as excited as them.

“She’s dead, but I’m not even curious about that, it’s been two days already and there has been no sign of Roshan planning to bury that body.”

“Don’t they say that a human’s body starts to rot and smell really bad once they’re dead?” She asked, already twisting her nose as though she could already perceive it.

“As always nothing sensible still comes out of that mouth of yours,” Gretta pushed her aside, “why hasn’t her body been buried yet?”

“That I’m not sure,” Lady Odette shook her head, “but knowing Roshan as much as I do, he must be planning something, but I’m still yet to figure out what it is.