“Isn’t it about time we kill that audacious child?! Not only is he an abomination but he dares to utter such words?! How dare he!” Tempest roared in rage.
Even after crossing the second trial, he was still seething with rage, the disgrace that little thwart had caused him was beyond repairable! His untouchable image was dented and although it was only for a mere second he could see the glint in the eyes of those little fledgling demons at the thought of his defeat.
It was a well-known fact that after the portal it was only about time before challenges would begin pouring in for the throne. He knew that and was well prepared, with his strength all knew it’d take quite some time to overpower him and he planned to use his remaining reign to stir terror within the souls of the demons so that even until his death he’d be remembered as a powerful tyrant.
Not some weak shit who was defeated by a stupid fugitive! Truly, the spirit-grade weapon that kid held feared him to some extent, after all, who didn’t know the true power of a spirit-grade weapon? That was why it was easier to just finish him here, right there and then!
'How did he even get a spirit-grade weapon? Those weapons went extinct along with the gnomes! Or is it related to the complete collapse of the gnome ruins?'
“H-Angel lord! Even you know that such a being cannot exist in the Styr kingdom, not only is he an angel but a saint which you basta-angels have wanted for a while! How will the angels feel if such an atrocity roamed this Styr freely?” Tempest shrewdly stated. They had been placed in a group along with the lord of Babel who faced hell from him for the stupid thing he had done, mentioning that bastard’s name.
Hezekiah’s pale brows furrowed silently, looking towards the seething male who had the lasciviously dressed babel lord toddling behind him, he asked,
“Demon king, what trail did you face?”
Tempest raised a brow in confusion, but answered anyway, “I was given the option to fight either my desires, myself or my enemy.”
He dared not reveal anymore not out of cautiousness but pettiness, why ever would he work with this bastard if not because of the portal and to take down that little wrench? He remembered his battle with him, the portal revealed quite a lot about how powerful the spirit grade weapon was, and the reason why he was so enraged was because that little bastard had nearly beat him!
Had it not been for his injuries being healed right up after the trials he couldn’t imagine how shameful it’d have been to showcase his wounded self.
After questioning the lord of Babel and getting about the same answer with a variation of being told to battle his beloved instead of his enemy, Hezekiah got a gist of the idea. Just as he had expected, the trails were similar for the same races but different for each race.
His trial was based on a verdict where he was told if he judged wrongly he would die, and he guessed other angels’ trials would also be centered on the same thing. More precisely the verdict of the last saintess, Roxanne Julien.
The angels who saw each other as one knew nothing such as distinction like the other races. However, even angels had to have a certain level of categorization thus leading to the birthing of the four major houses.
The house of Teresa known for their prayers, specialized in all prayer-related activities; the house of Siras known for their love for nature were more in tune with the plants and beasts; the house of Ezekias, where he was born, were known as the judges; and lastly, the one who the saintess was born into that year, the house of Julien, known for their kindheartedness and love, where the ones who handled communication with other creatures.
Any child birthed by the holy waters would be taken accordingly by each house and this time the house of Julien had gotten the golden-haired saintess with a blooming rose in her eyes, and they named her Roxanne, a rather peculiar name for an angel.
Roxanne was named the saintess at the early age of 35 (due to their late aging the angels considered this an adolescent age) and even till then she never stopped descending onto the earth to help other creatures.
She was a special being, in that she helped all including the despicable demons. No one stopped her, for who could hold back such a beautiful soul? She was blooming beautifully just like the rose pattern within her eyes, like a fiery red rose, one never seen before.
Until that rose was tainted. Sometimes goodness was poison to the soul and excessive kindness could be the end of a person, even a saintess, in this case Roxanne herself.
During one of her helping seasons, Roxanne had come upon a severely wounded demon who was a step away from death, that demon was Edward Eugene, the crazy ambitious genius of the demon realm despised even by his race due to his abnormal thinking faculty.
This time he seemed to have pissed off a royal blood by rejecting his advances and while being drugged had to fend off the killers who were after him. Maybe it was Roxanne’s bad luck or his good luck but that day happened to be when Roxanne came to look at the strange garden rumored to possess strange fruits different from normal ones within the forest division between the demon and human region.
*** The same place Genad and the duo had stayed before leaving for the angel realm.
The same area turned out to be Eugene’s safe spot which was why he was sprawled over half dead. Unsurprisingly, she couldn’t help him as an angel’s power was more deadly than helpful to a demon, meaning she couldn’t heal him.
She could only clean his injuries with leaves and treat him with what she could before looking for a place to hide him. Luckily, she found a small cottage (the same one Genad and the duo had been in and the one owned by Eugene) and placed him in it.
Instead of leaving, however, Roxanne made the mistake of staying with the demon, worried about his health which led to the next line of tragic events that followed suit. At midnight, Roxanne had just finished her prayer when she was attacked by the drugged Eugene and raped.
To say she ended up in a sorry state was an understatement as under the barrage of her bloodlines’ punishment and madness of Eugene, Roxanne met a fate no one, talk more of an angel would want to go through.
Eugene awoke on the third day to meet a desecrated Roxanne whose state could even rouse the pity of a demon ancestor if possible. He didn’t clean and heal her out of sympathy for, after all, he was a demon, but out of curiosity, which creature was this that could withstand that torment for a whole three days?
It didn’t take time for his question to be answered on seeing Roxanne’s injuries heal before his eyes. Unlike other demons, he didn’t abhor angels to the bone but he still held quite a strong dislike for them. However his curiosity won over his desire to kill the angel before him.
Who was she? What was she doing here? Why was she with him? What had happened after he was shot?
His questions were never answered as Roxanne couldn’t stop weeping from the moment her eyes opened. Surprisingly, she held no animosity towards Eugene but her sorrow was immense and a helpless Eugene did the only thing that came to his mind, sent her to the gnomes.
Although he held no sympathy for the saintess, he wasn’t one to cruelly execute his helper, especially after all she had suffered. She couldn’t go back anytime soon and the only safe place was the gnomes’ race where no one could cross into, even the angels.
Eventually, Roxanne gave birth to a beautiful baby boy who had the same purple hair as Eugene but possessed the golden eyes of Roxanne, but it was a shame the blooming roses of his mother bloomed not within his eyes.
Roxanne despite all warnings went back to the angels’ race to confess all that happened and she was judged by the newly appointed judge of the Ezekias, Hezekiah, as guilty, for mingling with a demon, being defiled by one, and birthing a child for the demon.
Refusing to disclose the name of the demon who fathered her child and their location, Roxanne Julien was refused even the right to die within the holy fountain and was executed on the spot by Hezekiah.
And thus, Roxanne Julien became the first ever angel to be killed by another angel.
Edward Eugene on hearing the weeping of her followers only felt disappointment, not from the death of his mother’s child but from the burden it’d be to raise the child himself. Deciding to see him as a mere object of scrutiny due to his possession of the bloodline of a demon and angel, he found himself interested, albeit a bit in the child’s life and safety.
Something in him felt that this child would become something great and at all cost, he had to keep him alive.
Eventually, Edward was betrayed by his assistant, and news of his greatest work, the anti-device along with his partnership with the gnomes and the child which he hid was snitched about to the demons.
He was given two options, kill the child, become royalty and a tool to be used at will by them, or be termed an enemy of the entire demon race with a fate to die the most gruesome death. Disenchanted by the idea of his free will to create whatever he wanted being manipulated, the genius resolutely refused, taking full protection under the gnome race.
However his bad luck soon overcame him and the gnomes’ territory, and his sole protector, collapsed. Resolutely, Edward went to his second partnership, the humans, his only wish being to protect the child and let him continue his legacy only to be severely disappointed.
But all hope was not lost and he decided to use his one last chance to protect the child. Using his works as bait he successfully drove away all attention from the child whom he placed under the protection of his only trusted distant relative, Carl.
*** Carl’s mum is his relative so yeah.
He was executed but his plan worked flawlessly and after hiding the child for a while, luckily his golden eyes receded into a pair of purplish ones, and with how debauched the demons were even if Carl were to grab a hundred kids out of nowhere no one would question him talk more of one random child.
This was the history of how Genad was born, of course, the portal didn’t reveal all to Hezekiah but just enough for him to judge.
No other saint was born as punishment for killing the saintess and Hezekiah had to take up the throne as the most powerful angel, his punishment being that he’d be an angel but wouldn’t live like an angel.
Angels were known for their purity and allowed to kill only when necessary, or they’d be punished by their bloodline. But he’d be different, he could do whatever he wanted, he would become an angel without the very essence of angelhood and the angel realm would be led by such an angel as punishment for staining the heavens with the blood of a saint.
‘It’s my punishment for judging foolishly, no matter how much an angel had sinned as long as they didn’t succumb to demonhood they will always be privileged to fall into the embrace of the father, and Roxanne that poor child was very unfortunate.
‘All she ever truly wanted was to fall into the embrace of the father even if she was never forgiven. How foolish was I?’ Hezekiah thought sullenly, he had been asked to re-judge that case at the second trial including placing judgment on himself and this time he did the right thing.
He finally understood how the angels would be forgiven of their sins and be given a new saint, he had to judge himself correctly. The same hands that spilled blood would once again do the same, except this time it would be done fairly.
“That child… I don’t care about him anymore. Do what you want with him, I won’t harm him but I won’t stop you from doing whatever you want with him,” Hezekiah said and without a second word spread across his five wings and flew off into the air.
The two demons stood in shock for a second before Tempest punched a tree blowing it up into smithereens, what the fuck did he mean?! First, the human race was protecting that child and now the angel lord, that angel, was giving him up? Despite his break-in in the angel realm?! What?!
“Babel Lord,” Tempest called out furiously.
“Yes, my king,” the Babel Lord answered kneeling on the floor respectfully.
“Find me that brat.”
“Already done, my king,” the Babel Lord answered, his red eyes glinting excitedly.
***
“Nice Paws, you’re way more fluent than before!” Feral praised Paws who stunned them once more with his more fluid transformations and movement making Genad even more doubtful of their story. A fruit? That was all they could come up with? Seems his little elf needed a little punishment when they got back.
They had taken down quite several persons and were still advancing onwards, although Dina would prefer not to kill, what say did she have if the target said she should?
This third trail seemed like a thing of free will but in actuality, it was the main brawn of the trails, Dina could guess that depending on their number of kills and who they killed they’d be getting more rewards.
Like a game where killing monsters gave you exp and the stronger the monster the more exp one got except they weren’t killing monsters here. Dina wondered why she felt nonchalant killing so many when a few weeks ago she was severely damaged by nearly killing the human prince, Orinda, who didn’t even die in the end!
“What’s happening Zero, am I even still normal?” she wondered a bit troubled. This definitely wasn’t normal!
“No. It seems you’re very good at adapting Dina, all you needed was one kill and the motive and you’ve become quite the excellent killer, I guess you can say it’s in you?” Zero wondered.
“How soothing, that helped a lot. Yes, indeed, knowing am a born killer puts me in a great mood because it just makes this fucking stupid morally questionable job of mine easier. Second world and am already a killer?! What’s next? Will I become a psychopath by the third world?! A madman by the fifth?! Fuck it!”
Feeling even more angered, Dina let her rage rain on her opponents.
Genad found himself in awe at how adaptable Feral was, when did he learn to be so ruthless? Slaughtering his enemies like beasts with no regard? This elf of his just couldn’t stop surprising him, how enchanting.
/ Awemeter increased to 98% /
“98?! When?!” Dina exclaimed in shock.
“It’s been increasing for a while now but I kept it in wraps due to the situations you found yourself, it especially increased during the second trials,” Zero explained.
“So something did happen then! No wonder he was so weird when he came back… shit! Does that mean am leaving soon, what about Paws… I haven’t even thanked Princess Zillah and… and…” Dina panicked but then took a deep breath to calm down.
“You know what? Damn it all, my business is done so I guess… I gotta go, I didn’t even get to fulfill Feral’s wishes!”
Feral fought even more fiercely, filled with varying emotions that couldn’t be described. Dina however knew one thing, she… wasn’t ready to leave this world, but it wasn’t like she had a say though, after all, her level was still too low for that.
Just as Feral was about to shoot at a helpless elf who seemed to have separated from her group, Genad suddenly leaped to his position and seamlessly lifting him, swiftly carried him away to another position just in time for the tree Feral had stood in to explode into particles.
Sitting on top of the bloom of a huge black rose as he stared down at the trio with a large smile, the babel lord giggled excitedly, time to have some fun!
