Grim Tales: From The Other Side

**Grim Tales: From the Other Side** is a crossover fan fiction story, inspired by the style of *Grim Tales*. It is written by Belgiansparten. The story is a crossover, based on the cartoon, *The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy* but borrowing elements from all sorts of media. The genres of the story are action, supernatural, sci-fi and horror and is R-rated, meant for mature audiences, due to the dark themes and descriptions of violence. It is part of the Ω Universe and will be closely tied to the events in Powerpuff Girls Ω, with this series serving as an expansation on the Powerpuff Girls Ω story.

## Summary

Grim Tales: From the Other Side follows the Grim Reaper and consorts after the Omega Event. The disaster didn't only affect life on Earth, it also changed the Afterlife forever and Grim is hellbent to discover what who did this and for what purpose. And in the meantime, he also have to attend to the ins and outs of his kingdom.

## Story

* Ch 1

**Chapter 1 - A Grim Past:**

September 7th, 2010, Endsville.

On the playground of Endsville Elementary, you would see the strangest group of people, you had ever seen in your life. A blonde girl from whose gaze even demons would cower away, a red-haired boy with a nose that dwarved a basketball and his nerdy friend whose underwear was repurposed to a headdress. But the oddest of this group was a tall skeleton, dressed in a black robe and wielding a scythe... A being with many names: The Celestial of Death, The Soul Taker, The Lord of Bones, The Thanatos King, Shinigami, The Grim Reaper... How the mighty have fallen, the once proud Ender of Life was now reduced to a toy of these children. How he cursed the dreaded bet... how he cursed Chaos' stupid taunt... He looked down at the bullied boy with utter disgust: What was Clockwork thinking? This was supposed to become a primal warrior?: 'Irwin, when you finally stand up for yourself. For once, be a mon!'

'Lay off, joh...'

'You are mummy/vampire hybrid, boy. Act like one!'

'You really should speak, Grim... Who was Boogey's favourite punching bag...' Mandy said on a degrading tone, much to the amusement of Billy and Irwin and to the displeasure of Grim, who against his better judgement, tried to argue with his mistress.

'That was different, Mandy...'

'How so?' She brought up, raising her eyebrow in disbelief. Realizing he didn't want to explain his real history to her, he lowered his head and adjusted his hood, as silently admittance of defeat. He would literally do anything if that meant that he didn't had to tell about the Great Divide. It was a story he wished he could take with him to the grave.

'Grim, you are able to raise the dead, right?' Mandy asked on her typical demanding tone, but it was the question itself that annoyed him the most. Rubbing extra salt into the wounds.

'I am the Grim Reaper, Mandy! I invented necromancy! I can raise every corpse from around the globe with a single thought, if I wanted to...'

It was only when these words left his mouth, he realized that this questions was too specific for another taunts. And he had shown them he was indeed able to do this, in the museum... So why did she ask... Because she wanted to know the scope of his ability and knew that he would gloat when given the right provocation... Never in his life had he met someone as manipulative as Mandy and he had often run-ins with Kaere.

'Yeah, let the dinosaurs in the museum dance again!' Billy yelled enthusiastically and running around. Mandy casually caused Billy to trip who fell face first on the concrete, while she continued: 'So if I told you to resurrect all soldiers who have died in the Iraq war and sent them to Washington D.C., you'd be able to?'

'Why are you asked this?' Grim asked heavyhearted by the mere suggestion of raising a zombie army. He swore, this child's lust for chaos put Eris to shame...

'It would be a good reminder to these cowards which lives they have wasted in the Middle East.'

'And this is a bad thing since?' Grim asked surprised by her sudden altruistic concerns.

'Simple, these cowards are thinking of retreating. I don't care how many lives you ruin, you don't back down... Never back down, till you have what you came for... No matter what the cost...'

He was both reassured and surprised by this sudden turn in thought, and as he looked at her, he thought of what would become of this little monster. Her black heart and natural gift for evil would put half of the Dark Conclave to shame. He couldn't deny his intrigue in her dark psyche. Although he was hesitant to admit it, he did feel a desire to do as she asked and feed on the carnage that this plan would cause. As a being that was beyond morality, he wasn't bothered by the amount of lost life's. Mankind would survive her actions, and the life would continue, and in the meantime, he would be able to feast on the energy of all this death.

The mere idea of the death if would bring with it, made him feel euphoric. Even more than euphoric, he felt powerful. He felt a burst of arcane energy, surging through his ancient bones. It was bliss... It was wrong. This sudden ecstasy wasn't caused by Mandy's inspiring ideas, although words contained powerful magic of them own, not even the demonic languages of the Second Rule of Plutus Set, could affect him in this way. It was death empowerment, and based on how intense the feeling was, it was caused by the death of millions. How was this possible? He was the Grim Reaper, he knew when people were going to die and how many at a time, yet someone just had killed millions without his knowledge! Who was so powerful that he could delude both him and Clockwork!

'So Grim...' Mandy continued but Grim ignored her as he glided forward, aiming his gaze at the horizon. 'Grim? Grim! Do I have to remind you the punishment for disobedience!'

But the Grim Reaper didn't care, while the being was able to deceive him, his presence was still palpable. And the being had marked Endsville as its next stop. Grim would not let this pass. He saw the being landing on the playground but as it unleashed his death storm, Grim raised his hand. As the green flames were about to engulf him, he stopped the attack and created a dome that protected half the city, sparing them from this creature. Never before had he seen a creature like the one that had created the death storm but the being was clearly surprised to see the Grim Reaper stopping his attack. Grim had no idea who this being or rather what this being was, but it would pay for bending the ancient laws. Fueled by the death, the being had caused, Grim flew towards him with the scythe raised but just as the blade was to puncture the mutilated face of the creature and rip the soul out of the monstrosity, it vanished in a cloud of green smoke. Enraged by this cowardly departure of the killer, Grim clawed with his bone-y fingers through the mist.

'Where did you think you are going to hide, creature. I am the Grim Reaper and I will find you, I...'

'We are going home, Grim!' Mandy ordered him, not showing even the smallest interest in what happened, unlike Irwin and Billy: 'The street's on fire, yoh!'

'Mandy, I...' Grim tried to plead his case but he was quickly stopped by her

'We are going home!' Mandy repeated, leaving no doubt about her resolve.

Three days later, Grim was still wondering about what happened. He already risked to have all his bones broken by Mandy, for leaving Earth without her permission, to visit Clockwork but still he had no clear answer on what happened that during the Omega Event. As he had suspected, the thing that would eventually massacre 18,030,952 people, had found away to deceive both the Reaper of Souls as the Master of Time and managed to commit a massacre that neither could predicted and by doing so alter the future. Although the usual suspect was clear, the question remained how he did it and what the being was that he sent. To make things worse, they had no proof of his involvements...

'Grim?'

'Yes, Mandy...' Grim said, finishing the sentence in his head with: Don't break my bones again. He turned away from the window and looked down to his mistress, fearing what cruel punishment she had in store this time or what sad humiliation would befell him this time. He was surprised when her next sentence wasn't a command but a honest question: 'What caused the Omega Event?'

'What did you say?' He replied, desperately trying to win time, to hide how he didn't had a clear answer, only suspicions. But he knew better than to hope that this would help in any way. It was the shortest stay of execution one could get: 'You heard me, what or rather who caused the Omega Event?'

'I have no idea,' he murmured and he couldn't bring himself to look at her.

'What did you say?' her poisonous tongue reacted and Grim was forced to repeat his admission that he had no idea who killed those peoples.

'But you are the Grim Reaper! You know who will die and when! You know every killer by name... Aren't you supposed to be omniscient and omnipresent when it comes to this?'

'Something clouded his nature from my eyes, a dark entity that even managed to deceive the Master of Time...' Grim sighed, finding himself unwilling to answer the second part of the question, as it would bring him to the 7 Seals and the Great Divide... But if there was one being in the universe that should have known better than to think that there was an escape from Mandy's question it would be him...

'Yet your omnipresence should have enabled you to hunt him down? Or allow you to slip away from us, unnoticed, to meet with this Master of Time...'

'I... The ability only works to reap souls, of course. I can't be present everywhere at once, that would be ridiculous,' Grim said nervously, trying to evade Mandy's gaze.

'That sounds as plausible explanation...' Mandy responded and for a moment, Grim felt relieved, before Mandy shattered his hopes of ending the conversation with the words, 'if it wasn't for your nervous tone... You are hiding something from me. Tell me, Grim. What is it that you try to hide from me?'

'Nothing, nothing... I wouldn't dare...'

'We both know that you are bad liar, Grim. Lord Pain! I summon thy...'

As the call of her voice, the door that normally led to the kitchen, dissolved into a stream of bugs, and revealed a gruesome hallway of necrotizing flesh... From the portal, a knight with green skin step forwards. Armed with shield and mace and with the top of his head masked by a spiked helmet, the demonic man stepped towards Mandy. The imposing figure looked from Grim to the girl, before kneeling at her feet. 'You call me, my mistress...'

'I did, Charles... Grim has a sudden case of amnesia... Perhaps, you can refresh his memory...'

'Mistress?'

'Grim seemed to have forgotten the true extent of his power, it seems... After all, it is the only explanation that he is weaker than most ghosts...'

'Forgotten, Mistress?' Pain said with a surprised expression, 'My master don't forget the powers he posses... He is only bound by...' Pain continued much to the horror of Grim who desperately shook his head at his servant but it was already too late...

'He is bound by what? Grim! I want the truth, now! Why couldn't you stop that thing?!'

Pain looked discomforted when he realized his mistake but Grim had already decided to deal with him later. Now, he had to face Mandy. Thanks to Pain's ignorance, he was now forced to tell her about the Seven Seals and knowing Mandy, she wouldn't be satisfied by a simple explanation of the Seven Seals. He had no other choice than to start with the beginning of it all. With the Mother of Creation, the Rise of the Celestials and the First Divide.

'Pain, fetch me my trunk...' Grim said tiredly. He could easily have summoned his trunk to him, in an instant. Hell, he didn't even need the trunk but it would postpone the moment that he had to tell the story of the First Divide... It would also remove Pain from his eyes. Pain, clearly feeling that he was unwanted, saluted his master and his mistress and went to the basement.

'Where is Billy, anyway?' Grim said, in a fruitless attempt to lighten the mood but Mandy looked at him with a combination of annoyance and disgust, and worse than usual...

'You won't escape this time, Grim...' she replied before saying: 'He's with Irwin, playing D&D, if you really want to know. He won't be back for 9, so you have all the time to do your explanation!'

What followed, was a silence that even unnerved the ruler of death. Grim did no further efforts for small talk and awaited the return of Pain. And soon, the Ruler of the Plane of Eternal Suffering, returned with the trunk. As if it was made of most fragile of glass, he carefully put it before Grim's feet, bowing to his master in the process as he removed the locks. Still bowing before them, Grim sighed and said: 'Rise, Charles... This is enough.'

'Yes, my master.' He said, still with the head bowed, before standing back.

Grim opened the trunk with a wave of his hand and levitated a book bound in black demon leather from the box. On the side of the book, someone had carved the title in the skin: *Ahriman Dimenanos Necropendiax*. As Mandy tried to read the title out loud, Pain stopped her: 'No, my mistress. A mortal should never read that phrase out loud, it would insight insanity in even the most stable of minds.'

'So, why don't you pronounce it?' She said, raising one eyebrow. But Pain nodded his head: 'I'm immune to its effects, yes but hearing the title spoken out loud, causes mortals to bleed from every orifice.'

'Can I begin? Or do we have to explain all the effects of the Language of the Black Tongue.' Grim said annoyed as the booked landed in his hands, howling as it touched bones more ancient than Earth. Although he wasn't thrilled to tell the story, somehow holding the *Ahriman Dimenanos Necropendiax*, he suddenly wanted it to be over as soon as possible. Mandy only nodded and Grim opened the book. A howling even worse than when he touched left the book and from the pages it oozed a gruesome continuous stream of bodily fluids and demonic substances. A combinations of blood, bile and ectoplasm dripped from the book onto the ground, slow but steadily covering the floor boards. Once opened, it immediately turned to the right page, as if Grim browsed through it telepathically.

'You know me as the Grim Reaper, but for many years probably saw me as a mere Skeleton. One of many, who was lucky to gain the mantle of Grim Reaper. A young boy who gained the title by winning it...'

'Yes, that's what you showed us, right... Why else would Velma the Spider Queen be after you...'
'Because I told you only half the story. I was... No, I am one of the Celestials. One of Earth's Celestials... The Celestial of Death.'

'One of the Celestials... There are others?'

'Yes but let us not hurry things. I am part of race, known as the Celestials and we were created by the Creator of the Universe, a being we refer to as the Mother of Existence.'

'God is a woman?'

'No, God is the Celestial of Heaven... Mother is a different entity, an far more powerful entity. A genderless being, far superior to any Celestial, Earth's or elsewhere's... None of us, Celestial is bound to gender by the way, we just appear in the gender, we choose. And since "she" often takes on a feminine form, the Celestials often take on a male form... As a sign that we know our place, to show we aren't her equals nor are delusional enough to think, we are.'

'Okay, so you are an all-mighty Celestial, only rivalled by the other Celestials and only seconded to this Mother? It still doesn't explain any...'

'Then perhaps, you should keep silent and let me tell the story!' Grim said in an uncharacteristic act of defiance and courage. His eyes glew crimson red and for a moment, Mandy was stunned. She wasn't even paying attention to the dreg that was still gushing from the book and covering most of the floor now. Grim didn't even wait for another response as he continued his story: 'As I was saying. The Mother of Existence is our mother, our real mother. She said it work the machinations that created solar systems, and when in these solar systems, planets formed with the potential of life, she created the Celestials. We would craft the Earth further, its dimensions, its Heaven and its Underworld. In total, the Earth had 16 Celestials: Bill Cipher, the Celestial of the Mind; Chernabog, the Celestial of the Earth; Clockwork, the Celestial of Time; God, the Celestial of the Heavens; Kur, the Celestial of the Animal Kingdom; Lucifer, the Celestial of the Underworld; Nocturne, the Celestial of Night; Odin Light, the Celestial of Light; Pariah Dark, the Celestial of Darkness; Ra, the Celestial of Day; Sandman, the Celestial of Dreams; Shen Guang, the Celestial of Life; Undergrowth, the Celestial of Vegitation, Vishnuu, the Celestial of Space; and Vortex, the Celestial of Weather. I am amongst the oldest of my brethren, together with Shen Guang, Clockwork, Shiva, Odin Light and Pariah Dark.

Together we created the solar system over which we should rule. As the planets started to form, we realized that none of us had the abilities to shape worlds as it should, so we sought an audience with Mother, who formed the Trinity of Worlds. Chernabog, God and Lucifer were born. While Chernabog modelled Earth, together with Clockwork and Vishnuu, God went on to shape the Heavens with Odin Light and Shen Guang, as I aided Lucifer and Pariah Dark to give form to the Underworld. Under the hammer of Shen Guang, the first life forms were created, the Salamandrine men. Their lifes were short and they died out quickly. It was clear that Earth wasn't ready for life yet... The Salamandrine Men never forgave us that they were our first experiments and became the first ghosts in existence. This failure did let Shen Guang to visit Mother of Existence once again. If life would have to form on Earth, Chernabog's abilities wouldn't suffice and we need more brothers. Mother understood us and promised that she would keep observing our progress and send new brothers when the time was there. As we started to populate both Underworld and Heaven with demons and angels, Pariah Dark showed his first sign of betrayal towards us. Without anyone knowing, he created a plane of darkness, a shadow world. To balance this, we helped Odin do the same, with Light and soon both worlds would be inhabited as well. We did warn Pariah however never to something like that again, although I'm sure, he got help from the Prince of Lies. But we never bothered to pay attention to it, as three new beings were formed, Kur, Undergrowth and Vortex, joined our ranks. Together with Chernabog, Vortex formed a world that would be able to hold life. They did the same with Mars. The creation of two inhabitable planets led Shen Guang to experiment. On one planet, he would create creatures that evolved. On the other, he created being similar to the angels and demons. Time would show which was the superior system. But as life evolved on Earth, Kur and Undergrowth took control over life forms. But none seemed to evolve to the sapient beings we wanted. The dinosaurs weren't what we hoped them to be, so we destroyed them and repurposed their souls for a new crop.

What we didn't saw back then, what we refused to see back then, was that some of us, saw it as a failed experiment. On Mars, things seemed to go well, and the final four Celestials had taken form: Bill Cipher, Nocturne, Ra and Sandman have extra structure. On Earth, Shen Guang finally seemed to have found the right direction with his evolution, with mammals, he started to create creatures that would slowly turn into what would become sapient beings. To further their evolution, Nocturne and Ra, opted to separate the creatures of Earth in creatures of day and night. A bit of competition would improve the gene pools. But even with this alteration, for some the progress was too slow. We became distrusted of each other and soon, God decided to take things into his own hands. Fearful that the Lords of Darkness would create an unholy species, beings of darkness, that could take the place of sapient beings, he created what would become known as the Firstborn. As you probably have realized by now, we never tried to do things beyond the boundaries of our own capabilities. Shen Guang was the creator of life, not God and with the Firstborn, it was clear why we shouldn't step beyond our boundaries. The Firstborn was a being like the Earth never had seen before. Genderless and neither light or dark, the Firstborn was an enigma, even to us and it possessed such immense power that calling it a weapon, rather than a life form would be more appropriate. It was strong enough to challenge us individually and it took all our combined efforts to imprison this being. We imprisoned it into a prison dimension, we called the Pyxis Prima. But even this prison wasn't enough to hold it. Although, it was never able to escape the prison completely, it was able to move the entire Pyxis Prima to Earth. We were able to shackle it in a city you might know as Al-Khali. Over the years, more and more barriers were pulled up to protect the universe from its influence. The creation of the Firstborn was enough for Lucifer, Bill Cipher and Pariah Dark to accuse God of betrayal and ordered his execution. The millennia of tensions between the Celestials reached its boiling point and soon an all-out war between the Celestials. Small grievances exploded into large conflicts and brothers turned enemies overnight. It became known as the Great Divide.'

For a moment, Grim stopped, uncertain about how much he was willing to tell her. There were parts that he wasn't particular proud of... His latency in the battle was one, how he watched his brethren slaughter each out without even bothering to interfere. He decided that the Great Divide was a subject best kept brief, so he continued with: 'The war raged on for millennia, alliances were formed and as soon broken but eventually God was victorious. Lucifer was imprisoned in Lake Cocytus, Chernabog encased in the highest Mountain of Limbo, Pariah Dark entrapped in a sarcophagus, buried in the Ghost Zone and Bill Cipher stripped of all memories... Many of the Celestials fell in the war and the ones who survived, were forever changed... You can fight against the forces of Darkness without it affecting you and soon God became what he once would have hated. A monstrous dictator. At first, we didn't realize how far he would go, but that became apparent, very quickly. Paranoid about more betrayal from his brothers, he started to absorb the abilities of his enemies. But soon, he would continue the war, only this time his former allies were the target... For eons, I had just watched, my inaptitude to see the danger allowing him to engage in his mad crusade. But as he conquered realm after realm, defeated Celestial after Celestial with his army, accusing his own brothers and allies of treachery, while professing his own purity and holiness, I could stand by no longer. Enough was enough. As the Gates of Eden, I ordered him to retreat. Shen Guang's domain was off limits to all. It was clear that he hadn't taken my neutrality during the previous conflict lightly. And now I defied him? A duel was the only possible outcome, so I engaged in a one on one with my brother.'

'You fought with God?'

'A battle that would go on for a thousand years, constant and no interruption. But after a thousand years, I finally got an opening and with one swift blow of my scythe, I reaped his soul... I reaped God.'

'You reaped God, how...'

'Have you ever wondered what the Holy Trinity truly stands for? The Father is God, as the mighty Celestial. The Son is God, in the sentient race that he would come to prefer, as Jesus. And the Holy Spirit is God in his current state. He is the only one of the beaten Celestial who could become a Spirit. The only one who found peace in his original death and who worked tirelessly to undo his mistakes.'

'So you are the mightiest of the Celestials, yet unable to find out who caused the Omega Event,' Mandy asked cynically but Grim raised his hand to silence her: 'There are the Seven Seals...'

'And those are...'

'After I defeated God, I was the most powerful Celestial on the planet and had powers rivalling those of the Mother of Existence. I was one of the most powerful beings in the galaxy, far stronger than most other Celestials and if I would have wanted, I would have been able to reap even Her soul... Yes, with the power I had, that was an attractive notion. But as we could learn one thing about the whole war, than it was that none of us could be trusted with such power. Together with Mother, God and Shen Guang, we devised a plan to limit my powers. Shen Guang and God set their differences aside and crafted the Seven Seals. Each Seal would lock away a part of my power. When all Seals would be in place, I would be powerless. In my original form, two seals are in place but after I lost that bet with the two of you, the Three Judges deemed it necessary to activate another two, only lifting one in a crisis. That's the reason why I couldn't find out who did all of this. And now, it is too late...'

'You are lying to me, aren't you... We have seen your past, Grim! We have met several of your family members! We have seen you in Doomsday Junior High! We have seen how you became the Grim Reaper!' Mandy screamed at him, believing that Grim was making stuff up, to evade her questions...
'Yet never bothered to ask yourself why they called me Grim even back then?'

'I...'

'The things you know of me, of what you think to know me, were, as I said before, only half-truths and the things I wanted you to believe. After the Seven Seals were crafted, conspiracy grew that I was behind this whole war, even despite my willingness to be bound. In order to cleanse myself of any doubt, I asked all parties involved to activate all seven and strip me from all power. For the next 16 Underworld years, I would be a regular juvenile skeleton as the Reaper mantle was locked away. The skeleton family you came to know are my adoptive family: Earl Skellington was my adoptive father for example. During my time at Doomsday Junior High, I was given the opportunity by the Three Judges to get my powers back as well as the Scythe. The only thing I had to do, was convincing my peers of demons and monsters to elect me to be the Reaper once again. At this point however, I lost interest in the title and wished it would go to Velma Green... But as we all know, thanks to Boogey, I was elected once again, ruining my relationship with Velma for eons...'

It was silent for a few minutes as Grim closed the book, ending the contentious flow of bodily fluids that leaked from the pages. With an expressionless face, he looked at Mandy, waiting for what happened next. Eventually she opened her mouth and asked: 'So, how powerful are you when all 7 seals are removed?'

'I can reap everything, even the Unreapables, for example...' he said promptly...

'And what are the Unreapables?'

'Beings and entities that normally can't die. True immortals whose souls are still safe from me. Those who possess the ability to resist the blade of my scythe. The other Celestials, Mother, the Keeper of Oblivion, but also a few humans, like General Immortus and Vandal Savage... Billy and you...'

'We are Unreapables?'

'As part of our deal, yes.'

'A deal based on lies!' she yelled at him, catching both him and Pain by surprise, 'you lied to us, Grim. When we made the deal in Limbo, we were expecting to get the full package. Yet we got a weak imitation of the Grim Reaper!'

'Mandy, I can't help it, I didn't make the rules...'

'Yes, you did! When you gave up your powers and allowed them to create the seals...'

'What's your point...' Grim said annoyed by her sudden outburst. It didn't change anything. He was still their friend, uh, slave and this would be forever...

'My point is, our deal was made on false pretences, we got cheated on... The deal is off!'

'What do you mean,' Grim asked but the sudden surge of power going through his bones already told him what she had done. His strength and his magical abilities had increased exponentially in the last 10 seconds and this could only mean that two seals had been lifted. She had freed him...

'Why did do you this?' He eventually asked. Although he had wished to be free ever since the deal was made, he felt betrayed by her, now she actually freed her. Thrown away like a toy when it stopped amusing her.

'Because, with us you can't be yourself, Grim. We have had our fun with you but not only did we make you soft, we made you weak. Now, go!'

'What about Billy? The deal included him too...'

'I made the deal, not he. I borrowed one of your robes as well as the skeleton of the science class. He won't notice a thing.'

Poor skeleton, he would go through to hell, once Billy got home, Grim thought. He was surprised by how thoroughly she had prepared this. She had been planning his release since the beginning of the conversation. She must have suspecting something like this from the beginning. She was always smarter than he gave her credit for. This would be the end then...

'Are you sure you want to do this... I could...'
'Don't you have to chase down some teenagers who cheated death or something?'

'No, the Cherubs finally seems to finally have gotten my message and stopped giving visions to people... You have no idea how detrimental to the timeline it is, to prevent people meeting their appointed end...'

'You have better things to do than hanging around here... At the very least, go investigate who caused the Omega Event in the first place... Now, leave my house...'

Grim put the book back in his trunk and grabbed his scythe to open a portal. As he walked to the portal, Lord Pain followed him but Mandy stopped them: 'No, Pain, you stay! Someone has to clean up this mess first! After that, I want the both of you gone.'

'Yes, mis...' he said but seeing her expression quickly turned it into, 'Mandy.'

He grabbed a mop and started working. Mandy turned to Grim, who still hadn't stepped into the portal, and said: 'One question, when will I die?'

'When I see fit, Mandy... I will return for you, once it is your time and I will decide when that is... But for now... I don't think the Underworld is yet ready for your arrival... Anything else you want to ask, before I return to my subjects?'

'Yes, something that I have been wondering since we started this conversation... Is Grim Reaper your real name? Your birth name?'

Grim smiled for the first time since their conversation had begun and as he stepped into the portal, leaving his chains behind, he whispered: No...'