Chapter 150
The destruction of this universe, rather than solving the problem, would instead become the final spark.
The absolute void left after annihilation would sever the very last binding thread, allowing that "emotion" to surge without a medium, forced to erupt and tear Quil-Hasa apart from within.
That truth struck Aldraya like the edge of a meteor, shattering the entire landscape of her conviction.
The torment of uncertainty replaced the dogmatic certainty that had long been her breath.
Before her lay two paths, and both felt like betrayal.
On one hand, continuing the order meant killing her first love with her own hands.
On the other, defecting meant betraying the oath of loyalty that had defined her existence.
For the first time in her eternal life, Aldraya truly felt the anguish of uncertainty, lost at a crossroads of destiny where each choice promised everlasting pain.
"Quil-Hasa may be everything to us, but if blind loyalty alone will destroy Him, then rebellion is the highest form of devotion."
Swoooosh!
"And thus, the decision is made.
Together, let us face fate in the Heavenly Land, where everything began."
Returning to her long solitude in the freezing night, Aldraya walked forward with unwavering steps, as though each footprint carved a new wound into the earth.
The memories she unearthed grew deeper and more painful, as if she were lifting the headstone of her own past.
Yet silence was more torturous than confronting that pain.
After the conversation that changed everything with Xavier, Aldraya did not decide alone.
With a new burden nearly unbearable upon her shoulders, she faced her twelve siblings, bringing the human hero as a witness to the horrifying truth.
In the most unlikely gathering amid the ruins of destruction they themselves had caused, King Xavier XVII once again delivered his prophecy.
This time, before all the Supreme Angels—including Equinox, whose usually expressionless face began to crack with complex emotion—his words echoed with the weight of fate.
And a collective decision was born from the same root of desperation.
The twelve angels, united by the vision of their Creator's death—each loving Him in their own way—resolved to halt their aggression.
In a fragile yet complete unity, they—the thirteen Supreme Angels and one human hero—deduced an impossible path.
To rebel.
Not from the outside, not by running, but right at the heart of Divine authority itself, in the Heavenly Land.
A supreme rebellion to save the Most High from Himself, a paradox that would transform them from loyal servants into defiant beings filled with love.
'A victory like this leaves a bitterness that surpasses all euphoria.'
Thus was engraved a new chapter in cosmic history, a resistance never before imagined.
The thirteen Supreme Angels, the most faithful of servants, together with a human hero, turned against their own Creator, Quil-Hasa, who insisted on continuing His plan to annihilate the universe.
The battle that followed was a masterpiece of suffering and sacrifice.
The battlefield in the Heavenly Land itself became a silent witness to the ferocity of this conflict.
The fight drained all their strength and effort.
The twelve pairs of angelic wings, once perfectly radiant, were now torn, pierced, and tattered by waves of divine power.
Some of them lost limbs, their golden light scattered like stardust across the air.
Aldraya, who led the resistance, bore the deepest suffering.
Four times she was struck by pure heavenly fire, a punishment and a trial that transformed her form.
Her silvery light was scorched, reshaped into that of an angel reborn from pitch-black radiance, streaked with blazing flames that seemed never to die.
Her feathers fell and burned again and again, an unending torment that mirrored the raging inner conflict within her soul.
Together, with wounds that nearly destroyed them, they supported one another.
The heroism of King Xavier XVII and the perseverance of the wounded Angels merged into the final harmony of resistance.
With every last ounce of strength, they pushed forward until they finally defeated the form of Quil-Hasa standing in their way.
But the victory tasted bitter.
They realized, with stinging grief, that what they had defeated was merely an avatar—the weakest manifestation of Quil-Hasa's boundless power.
Only a fragment of Him had they managed to bring down, a reminder of the immeasurable abyss between creation and the true Creator.
'Right or wrong, which one do I believe?'
Amid the heavenly silence newly restored, Aldraya stood like a cracked statue.
Their victory felt hollow, replaced by a storm of inner turmoil.
On one side, a faint relief washed over her soul.
She had prevented Quil-Hasa's death, saving her first love from the cosmic loneliness foretold by Xavier.
Yet on the other side, the fortress of dogma she had built all her life echoed with merciless condemnation.
Every principle of her Trilogy of Loyalty—Faith, Devotion, and the curse upon Betrayal—screamed in her mind, accusing her of being the greatest traitor, a fool who had betrayed the very source of the light she worshipped.
This conflict tore her apart from within.
She was no longer an angel firm in absolute conviction, but neither was she a rebel soothed by liberation.
She was trapped between two identities that devoured each other.
A savior who had betrayed, and a lover who wounded her beloved through her resistance.
Every breath felt like treachery, every heartbeat a reminder of the sin she had just committed.
The victory over Quil-Hasa's avatar felt like a wound far deeper than any physical defeat, a wound of the soul that might never heal.
She was lost upon her own path, stranded amidst the ruins of her once-solid beliefs, without a compass to guide her home.
'Our choice today leads to one consequence: becoming battle partners in the next life.'
"I agree with you, Xavier. So make sure you keep your promise."
Fuuuuuh!
"When we are reborn, we will stand side by side, no longer aiming for each other's lives."
With her soul in tatters, the tremor gnawing at every nerve's end as she struggled desperately to appear strong, the presence of King Xavier XVII felt like an anomaly amid the ruins of her former world.
The human hero approached.
Not with painful pity, but with a silent acknowledgment of the suffering they shared.
Seeing the wavering in Aldraya—who was usually unshakable—Xavier extended a proposal, a promise that sounded like both an escape and a redemption.
He promised to protect Aldraya, to be her guardian and partner in the next life.
It was an indirect admission that after this immense betrayal, their old lives as angel and hero had ended.
They had to shed their current identities, abandon the remnants of heaven and their duties, and begin a new chapter in a different form—a cycle of uncertain reincarnation.
For Aldraya, drowning in a sea of confusion, the offer felt like a lifeboat in the middle of a stormy ocean.
Without hesitation, almost reflexively, she nodded.
The decision was not a triumph, but a surrender.
In her chaotic mind, it was the best path—a preparation for forgiveness that she might earn in the next life, after enduring the punishment of a mortal existence she did not understand.
A confession that forgiveness from Quil-Hasa was too sacred to be granted now, and thus must be sought through a new cycle of birth and death.
'Demanding retribution for betrayal, while pointing to me as the primary cause.'
Returning from the deep sea of memories, Aldraya's chest rose with a steady breath.
To be continued…