The Voodoo Doll

Chapter LIV: A Visit

Meanwhile, the angel Queen was getting worried. She was a new queen during that period, she couldn't find a solution to this never ending war. Her child was everything to her. Belleth guessed, himself once owning a child that age, that she didn't want Noah to grow in such a troubled world. She either had to surrender to the demons, or find a way to win.

So she abruptly stopped the war by closing the gates that led to Earth and the two other worlds, the Heavens and the Core, so that no one fights anyone anymore.

She trapped both angel and demon warriors on Earth, abandoning them to their fates. Belleth and Aoki-sensei were only one of many sacrifices the angel Queen chose to make.

Little by little, the Abandoned lost their will to fight. The sudden disconnection to their worlds weakened their powers. Their wings fell down like leaves of a tree in autumn, their weapons melted, became one with the Earth, their essence ran through their vessels, turning back into human blood, their muscles were no longer that powerful, ready to fight for at least a hundred years. They were exhausted, their memories became fuzzier, they wandered off for years, unsure of their past. Belleth couldn't even remember how he met his wife, when he got married, who his parents were. As he turned back into a human, he acted like one all his life.

Who knew that simply remembering one's past is enough to gain back powers, to awaken as a stronger version of one's self ?

The newborn angel seemed to have finally gained control over his new wings. He was ready to move on and do his duties like any angel would.

Belleth was not satisfied with the deductions he made. Neither were we. What was he going to do, now that he was at the threshold of the World he longed to discover? So close to finding out the identity of the Oracles?

Won't he be immediately stopped by all angels if he stepped beyond the gates?

He was ready to do so, for he didn't care about any side anymore. He wanted nothing but the truth.

He slowly stood up, shaking the cloud flakes that were stuck on his knees as he wiped the folds of his denim pants.

We didn't have time to react. It was only later on that we recognized the face who appeared before us, the moment we stepped past those gates into the angels' territory.

A blinding light appeared, coming from all directions at once, so bright it forced us to look away, dig our fingers inside our eyeballs, anything to stop it from hurting us.

"What---Who's there?! Show yourself, coward!" Belleth screamed.

That's it. We were screwed. We will get killed by the god of the Heavens.

The god of the heavens...? We were surprised by the peculiar choice of words we made.

Wasn't the god of heavens....

"We are the ones worshiped by all. We have many names. Humans call us gods, without knowing who we really are. We are not gods, we are not infinite. There are certain truths not even us have knowledge of. However we are the closest to such a concept. The past, the present, the future belong to us. You belong to us."

The light suddenly dimmed, leaving us unaware of our surroundings for a couple of minutes, or so we thought. Then, little by little, our eyesight regained control, and we could finally discern the creatures standing before us in all their glory.

The Oracles.

Angels the size of monumental statuses, glowing with a never ending light, wearing nothing but white capes and long dresses. A circle of light floated above their heads, reminding me of a lot of cartoons. Their wings were too white to be clearly seen, but I had a feeling they stretched far into the distance, embracing both the skies and the earth down there, not leaving a single area empty, free of their reign.

Their faces were hard to remember. I only recognized Cassiel who stood in their midst. She looked at us for a very long time. I could swear she was smiling a little, as if she shared some sort of amusing secret with us.

I could only glare back at her. If she noticed it, she ignored it and kept smiling.

"Are you here to erase me, the one being who rebelled against your rules?" Belleth laughed bitterly. A twinge of regret tugged at my heartstrings, coming from his own.

The demon was afraid of this presence he was granted at such an inopportune moment. He felt the immense difference in power, and he never intended to fight those who were stronger than him, let alone the gods who ruled this universe.

"You are not meant to die yet. Your role has already been decided." , the Oracles said in unison, with a voice that resembled children who sang in corals.

"Come forth, young demon Belleth. You shall be our savior, yet, those are not the words you wish to hear, so we shall give you precisely what you want."

"What is it that I want?" , Belleth asked, struggling to keep his voice even out of sheer excitement.

"You want power. An eternal power that matches ours."

"Why would you give that to me if you know I will only use it for destruction?"

"Because destruction is what we, ourselves, seek. Because it is the only way for salvation."

That smirk, that terrible smirk we never wanted to see again, reappeared on the demon's face.

He laughed so loudly we had to cover our ears. His euphory reached our hearts, but it felt like cold water on our naked skins. It felt like a stab in the heart.

"Now we're talking" , he declared, his eyes lit with a new kind of fire, hotter than the deepest pits of hell itself.

The Oracles were helping demons. What for? What was their plan for the future of this world?

We didn't know it at that moment. We were so blinded by the Oracles' light, their sweet words coaxed in honey, their immense strength compared to our mundane existence.

We were too busy cowering before them to remind ourselves of an already known fact.

The fact that they were nothing but filthy liars.