Darius thought back to these tales and felt like he understood something very important when he compared what Thanatos had said earlier to what had been written down in history. The simple truth was that this entity before him was above the Gods/Demons who stood above Grandmasters!
As such, Darius cast all flimsy thoughts aside and decided to be honest. That very second, his serpentine eyes reverted to normal, something Gunner missed but Thanatos didn't. He hadn't commented on it, but he had definitely taken it into account.
If Thanatos' assumption about him turned out to be correct, then this particular agent of the Great Goddess would be a very interesting person in the future. However, whether he would survive until then was up in the air, so he chose to remain silent.
The Titan looked down on Darius from the pedestal. "And so, as you now know my name, you should be able to piece together the rest, no?"
Darius affirmed solemnly. "Yes, God Emperor Thanatos."
Hearing his old title made the Titan nostalgic, and he displayed a light smile. After spending a few seconds in that state, he became calm once more.
"Alright, so you want the First Resurrection Stone then? Let's begin the trade."
"My Lord, Here are all the items I-" Darius began as he wanted to empty his Inventory of valuable items to move this overpowered Titan of Death, but Thanatos waved his hand boredly.
"Pah, what do you take me for? I know everything you have in your possession, so I'll be the one to decide what is of value to me."
This revelation chilled Darius, but he dared not comment on it.
Seeing the wisdom and compliance from the fellow, Thanatos was satisfied.
He was growing more and more certain that this fellow might go far, bringing great change to this cage of a world.
"What does the God-Emperor feel is adequate for the stone?" Darius asked quietly.
Thanatos raised three fingers. "Since you had fun letting my servant choose from three different options, let me present you some choice now. The first is to give me just the Reaper Contract in your possession. In exchange, I shall grant you the chance to use the stone to complete your mission and reach the next stage. The moment it is done, you are to return it to Marasmus."
"The second is to hand over the Reaper Contract, Staff of Anubis, and the Core of Faust's shard. If you agree, we shall henceforth split permanent ownership of the stone. We would both have equal rights to it for all eternity."
"Finally, if you trade away the Reaper Contract, Staff of Anubis, the Core of Faust's shard, A Stitch in Time, and the Dagger of Death, I'm willing to grant you full ownership of the First Resurrection Stone."
Thanatos lowered his fingers. "Choose carefully."
Darius was stuck in a dilemma. The Reaper Contract, while valuable, was useless to him now that he had Mikey and Joneson, so one could say the first option was basically getting to complete his Quest for free.
However, after seeing Marasmus' past, guessing why Caesar had chosen the stone as his first Quest's target, and hearing how Thanatos had suffered to get it, Darius knew that it was far from being a simple item.
However, he could not tell what it was about or what it did, which made this a gamble. The best he could do was guess its abilities based on what he knew and measure it up to the three options he had.
The First Resurrection Stone… Resurrection Stone… Resurrection?
Damn, could it be?!
Darius began to breathe heavily. Yes, if it truly had the ability to resurrect ANYONE, why wouldn't such top-tier beings fight over it? No wonder the price for full ownership was so steep.
He could consider himself lucky that 'a mere' five of his items were of equal value to the stone. However, this made it even more bizarre. The question was, who would ever dare to trade away such a useful item? Nothing could compare to the ability to resurrect from death.
Could it be that there was a problem with the stone? It could be, but… Darius didn't think a being like Thanatos wouldn't have a way to fix it. If he could fix it or circumvent it, he would not be trading it… or?
Darius suddenly wanted to slap himself! He realized that he had been looking at it from the totally wrong angle!
Who was Thanatos? He was the bloody Titan God of DEATH. The last person who feared death would be him!
It was like thunder struck Darius as everything started to make sense to him. Thanatos had only fought over this item to deny all the other topmost beings the chance to completely negate his domain.
He himself would not need it, or he would not be trading it away. Even the God of Life would cling to this stone dearly, for it would prevent him/her from, falling into Thanatos' hands.
So the stone had no real use to him or his undead because… did it even need to be explained why undead did not fear death?
The next question was, why was he willing to trade it with Darius?
He quickly identified two reasons. The first, as Thanatos himself had said, because he was Vena's Agent. Thanatos couldn't give two shits about him personally, so he probably thought doing this would win him some favor with the almighty Goddess.
The second was his items which were probably barely enough to consider of equal value objectively and subjectively. Trying to form a connection with a Reaper by using the Scroll would be a gamble for Darius, yet should be easy enough for the Titan.
The Staff of Anubis was practically created for Thanatos, as its ability was to allow its user to judge the karma of a person, deciding their fate depending on what kind of karma they had accrued.
Though it could not be used on the living, it could be used on the dying, the already dead, and wandering spirits. The utility of this to the Titan God of Death should also go without saying.
The Shard of the Core of Faust was a sort of universal thing. Even to Darius, it greatly pained him to do away with it as he had planned to groom a Grandmaster servant for himself after becoming a Journeyman, but he could definitely cough it up if necessary.
