"...Brother-"
"Don't call me that. Archangel Michael. After what I have seen today, I do not think I wish to associate with your version of Heaven in this lifetime."
Gabriel felt sadness as she saw how her eldest brother's heart broke at those words from Arael.
'Aetherion,' She reminded herself.
Honestly, to the woman known as the messenger of god, the names by which people chose to go by meant little. For someone like her who could see the very souls of the people around her, she remembered people more by their souls than their names.
That is why she was so sure that the being standing in front of her, despite his different appearance and far more ridiculous power ceiling. Despite his different name and personality. It was none other than her most beloved brother.
Because the names can lie, abilities can lie, faces and appearances can lie. Even her father's blessed light can be replicated, even if it would lack the conceptual weight that Father's power had.
But the soul? That can never lie. It is simply impossible for the soul to lie.
Because every soul is unique, and every soul has its own specific conceptual weight that simply cannot be replicated, for they are tied to the fundamental tapestry of reality itself. Especially so in the case of her kin.
So, she had no doubt that Aetherion is Arael.
And so, it was even more heartbreaking for her to see the look of disgust on his face as he stared at her and her brother while giving looks of sadness to the dead bodies on the ground.
Children, all of them. Ranging from 5-year-olds to teenagers who were probably 13-14 years old.
Gabriel felt really angry and depressed as she watched the corpses, knowing that she and her brother had no way to explain this tragedy to their estranged brother.
Vasco Strada, the Cardinal Priest, fell to his knees in front of Aetherion and spoke in a tone that was contrary to his extremely powerful physique.
"I take full responsibility for this tragedy, Lord Aetherion. It was my negligence in my duties that led to all of this happening under our , noses with none the wiser."
Aetherion did not even look towards Strada as he spoke in that cold tone of his again.
"Will your apologies and taking responsibilities bring back these children? Vasco Strada? Will you assuming the blame for your incompetent superiors bring back these unfortunate souls who were robbed of their futures? Will they?"
"....No, my lord-"
"Then, stay silent."
Strada silently moved back, unable to meet the cold look of the new archangel.
Seeing her oldest brother not make any more attempts to talk to her most beloved brother, Gabriel finally decided to take things into her own hands.
'I can't leave things like this. I cannot lose him again after I just found him.'
Taking a deep breath, she walked forward, making Michael and Vasco Strada stare at her with worry, which was a valid concern given how incensed Aetherion was feeling at the moment.
"Brother-"
"Did I not just say not to call me that?"
"Brother Aetherion, listen to me!"
Gabriel remained stubborn and called him brother, despite the smoldering rage she could see in his eyes, which made her heart thump in her chest.
And yet, she was not afraid of him. No. What she felt was anxiousness. The fear that she would lose her brother again.
"What explanation are you going to give me? Messenger of God? That it was not your fault-"
"It is our fault, brother. There is no denying it."
Aetherion remained silent as Gabriel cut through his words.
Gabriel's voice lowered as she started whispering while staring at the dead bodies with despair and regret clear in her eyes.
"It really is our fault. After the war, after we lost- after we lost so much, we simply had no way to maintain the same kind of protection for the humans like we used to. We lost so much, so many of us died, and others fell from grace. We had no choice but to depend on the Church to do what we could not."
"We depended on them to protect their fellow humans, knowing that some of them would take advantage of this new position of power and take things too far, perverting father's teachings for their own gain."
Michael's shoulders drooped as his sister continued speaking, showing how much the guilt had been weighing him down.
"We really did not have a choice, brother. Michael did his best. He tried to take on the role that he was not meant for, tainting his white wings and turning them gold, giving up his former position and power to do something that he was not created for. The others also tried their best to carry out their duties. But the truth was that what was left of our cracked spirit after Lucifer's betrayal, Samael's imprisonment, and your disappearance, was shattered completely after we lost Father as well."
Michael chuckled wryly as he placed his hand on Gabriel, who was weeping by this point.
"This world, the Great War, even the humans. They took so much from us. So, I made the decision to isolate the heavens from the mortal world. So that we would not lose any more of my brethren. So that I could keep what was left of us alive. So that I would not have to watch another one of my brothers or sisters die in front of my ow,n eyes and I would remain powerless to do anything about it."
"It was a cold and selfish decision that I made. I know that Father would have cast me out of heaven if he were still here. But it is a decision that I made on my own, so if you want to blame someone, blame me."
Aetherion did not reply. He simply continued staring at the corpses, lost in memories from a life he had only recently left behind.
Memories of a world of smog and evil. A world where human life was not even worth a single one of the papers that people call money. A world where it was not uncommon to see the corpses of little children somewhere in the alleyways of the cities, prey to the people who were in power.
For a second, in Aetherion's view, the corpses of the children were once again replaced by the sights he had once seen in his past life, with one of the young boys being replaced by a face he was all too familiar with.
A child whom he had mourned for his entire childhood. A boy whose ideology had shaped him into becoming what he is today.
With a sigh, Aetherion spoke softly.
"I do not care about what you think you did right or wrong, Michael. And neither am I here to judge you, Gabriel. Frankly speaking, I have nothing to do with you two or the Heavens. At least for now.'
"But what I care about is what kind of lesson this incident has taught you?"
Suddenly, Gabriel felt like she had been taken back in time. To a time period when everything was right in her life.
A time where, whenever she made mistakes or indulged in mischief, her beloved brothers, Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and others would try to stop her. To protect her from being hurt in any sense of the word.
Helel and Samael would keep to themselves, thinking themselves above such pettiness, even though they, too, loved her just as the others did.
But it was only her beloved brother Arael who would try to teach her through example.
He would let her experiment, let her make mistakes, and suffer the consequences. Only then would he ask her.
"What did you learn from this experience? Gabriel?"
Once again, tears started to gather in her eyes, as even Michael could not stop his emotions from showing in his words.
It was only Vasco Strada who responded to the words of Aetherion and once again took a knee.
"I understand what you wish to say, My Lord. I will do my best to remove this kind of darkness from the Church. From this moment on, I swear on my name that we will never allow such darkness and corruption to fester in our holy grounds ever again."
Aetherion simply chuckled at those words.
"How naive of you. Do you truly think that it is possible to remove greed, lust, pride, and other such emotions from your followers? Let alone the other humans that call this faction home?"
"...."
"Your silence speaks volumes. But I do not blame you. In fact, it is good that you acknowledge this truth. Strada. Humans are, by nature, born with such emotions in their hearts. It is simply impossible to remove those dark emotions from them."
"And yet, we try to anyway. Do you know why?"
"....No, my lord."
"Because the true mark of a good man or woman is the ability to overcome these innate dark emotions in their heart. To accept that these emotions are an aspect of themselves just as true as their good emotions and beliefs, and move on with their lives. To live with them, but not letting those emotions control them and their actions. To stay true to their morals despite the temptation of this darkness within them."
Aetherion turned to stare Strada in the eyes as the human could only feel reverence for the divine radiance that Aetherion was radiating at that moment, unconsciously.
"That is what it means to be human. Vasco Strada. That is the beauty of the human race."
"I will admit, it will be hard. Because it is not so easy to supress that innate nature of the human race. I know that better than anyone. The majority of humans will always succumb to their baser instincts and give in to their desires."
"And yet, answer this, Strongest human on the planet."
Those piercing blue eyes now shone with gold as the System of Heaven bolstered his very presence and his voice all on its own, keeping even the angel in question unaware while Michael and Gabriel's eyes widened in disbelief.
" What do we see when we look into the night sky? Is it the darkness of the infinite abyss that lies beyond this world? Or is it the short and powerful illumination of the bright stars that our gaze is drawn towards? Those that burn bright and fast, yet with such power and purity that they illuminate innumerable leagues of the abyss?"
"...I understand, my lord. I will not fail your expectations."
"I truly hope you won't, so I will take your word for it. But make no mistake. Next time, if I ever come across such darkness ever again, there will be no mercy."
"Yes, My lord."
Suddenly, nine walked into the room with the leader carrying an unconscious girl held within a barrier that was placed on a floating piece of land behind them.
As one, the angels kneeled in front of Aetherion with their heads bowed in reverence.
"My Lord. We have disposed of the Heathens and brought back the source of the anomalous energy. It is this girl."
"Hm? Why have you not disabled that barrier yet?"
"My lord. The source of that barrier is a Legendary-Class item embedded in her very soul. If I were to use the higher-tier variant of [Break Item], I believe it will damage her soul while destroying the item in question."
"I see. You did well. I will take those memories from that bastard."
The angel called Seraph Empyrean bowed with restrained glee in his voice for having been of service to his lord.
"Of course, my lord."
"[Retracognition]"
Once again, the memory spell was cast by Aetherion, who instantly learned all the knowledge that Seraph Empyrean took from Valper, making him shake his head with disgust.
"You may return home."
As one, the angels took flight, heading straight back to the town of Kuoh, where their lord had made a home for himself. The same place where they were first summoned in this world by Aetherion.
Watching the angels leaving the area, Gabriel once again lost her breath, just like her brother Michael, just like when her brother Aetherion had first called upon those angels.
Gabriel had the ability to see souls, so she knew from the very beginning that Aetherion was none other than Arael. But if someone without her powers needed proof of his identity, they only needed to look at this unit of angels, and they would have all the proof they would ever need.
For Michael, who had fought by their side for countless eons, and Gabriel, who could see the souls, they did not even need to think twice to recognize the lion-headed warriors for who they were.
The legendary warriors of heaven. The Gatekeepers that once guarded the Seventh Heaven, abode of God himself, and earned the title of the Pride of Heaven.
The unit that answered to no one but God and their appointed leader, Arael. The renowned angel that was called The Lion of Heaven.
And yet, there was one person whose presence confused them.
The being called Seraph Empyrean.
He was someone that neither Gabriel nor Michael recognized, but given how much their brother trusted him, they would put their doubts aside for now.
Now sure that all the corpses were gathered here, Aetherion walked forward as he continued speaking.
"Michael, Gabriel, and Vasco Strada. I know that you wish to make up for your sins and that you truly feel guilty for your inactions that led to this incident. So, for now, I will forgive you."
"But the next time I am forced to use this spell again, I will show you why I was called 'The Dawnbringer' by my enemies."
With those words, he raised his arms in the air and pulled on his mana and light, invoking a spell that he had gained after he had leveled up his race from an Archangel to Seraph while he was still in the game.
"[True Resurrection]"
The Tier-9 spell activated with much fanfare.
The very sky dimmed as lightning cracked across the heavens, as if condemning the angel for having messed with the natural order. Yet, the otherworldly angel would not bow to such rules.
His radiant light erupted like a miniature sun, forcing Vasco Strada to close his eyes to protect them.
The two Archangels, on the other hand, could only stare in awe and excitement as they felt a form of pure holy energy that only one other being had ever possessed in their memories.
Soon, the holy energy spread across the sky in the physical world, but was in fact spreading its tendrils into the Third Heave, where the souls of the dead are taken to.
There, the tendrils of energy snatched the souls of the bodies that belonged to the children, yet they did not find all the souls, so some of them returned to the mortal world with the souls, while the rest kept searching.
Given where they were, the next logical location the tendrils reached was to search the Underworld of the Olympians, enraging the god who presides over it, before retreating with another handful of souls, before the tendrils started spreading again.
One after another, the tendrils of holy energy invaded every single realm of afterlife across the world, from the Kur of the Sumerians, to the Swarga and Naraka of the hindu pantheon to Yomi and Takamagahara of the Shinto, even the Biblical Underworld was not spared their molestation until they finally found all the souls that were dispersed to the four winds after the death of the children, bringing them back to this room tha housed thier bodies.
With the souls now in their grasp, the holy energy gently placed them within their bodies and re-tethered them to their mortal coils perfectly, exactly how they would have been from the moment of their birth.
And yet, Aetherion was not done just yet.
With the effect of the Tier-9 spell done, he started speaking again.
"You children have gone through so much, all because that foolish old man was obsessed with Holy Swords and wanted to make artificial wielders for the church's 'precious' holy weapons."
"In that case, why not slap those corrupt fools in the face and take a boon from me?"
With another wave from Aetherion, several strange metals, herbs, trinkets, and other such things materialized from within his inventory.
As one, these materials started to merge into a molten blob, which soon took the shape of various swords. Each one radiating such holy power that even the most prized weapon of the church would seem dull compared to even the weakest of this bunch of weapons.
Then, Aetherion pulled on the connection he had with the System of Heaven and used it to seamlessly merge these swords with the souls of the unconscious children.
All the while, the angels and Vasco Strada could only stare with eyes full of wonder.
For Aetherion had done something that nobody had managed to replicate to this day.
He had essentially turned those swords into Sacred Gears and tied them to the souls of the children exactly how a natural Sacred Gear would be bound to a newborn soul.
"Now, you don't need that pesky 'Holy Element' to wield holy weapons. This is my boon to you. A compensation for the suffering you experienced at the hands of the vile beings that call themselves the men of the cloth."
"I hope that you can now lead fulfilling lives with this second chance at life."
With his piece said, he turned away and looked towards Vasco Strada.
"I trust you will take good care of them?"
"Leave it to me, My Lord. I will teach them personally and make sure that they can become powerful exorcists for you."
"No need. Let them lead lives that they want to lead. Do not force them to become anything that they don't want to be. The choice of what their future will be, is theirs to make."
"Yes, My Lord."
With that done, Aetherion turned to Michael and Gabriel.
"Well then, shall we go and take a look at what exactly you want to use to prove that I am who you say I am?"
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Author Notes: Read 5 chapters ahead on Patreon: patreon.com/Ruijard1