We couldn't believe what our brains were trying to tell us.
There's no concept called Death in this world. We have all been lied to, like children who did not do their homework and were made to believe a monster was coming for them if they didn't obey their parents. The image is so vivid in my mind, the comparison as close to the truth as one can be. I wondered, who was playing the role of the threatening parents in this story ? Who exactly lied to us this way?
I had the answer. For the first time since our trip to the past began, I knew something my father didn't. I tried not to think about the words. I tried not to conjure the image of the person who raised me in my mind. Yet, her serene face instantly materialized, her calming voice and firm words, her long blue dress she loved to wear so often, her chocolate-colored bobbed haircut, her white-as-snow eyes, looking deep inside your soul, as if she knew your origins before your very own conception.
Cassiel-obaa-chan. One of the Oracles.
Who else could have enough authority in this universe to lie to all living creatures, including the immortal ones ?
I was suddenly seized with an unfamiliar feeling of disgust. Disgust for this world, disgust for the people we met so far, disgust for the purpose of my existence.
I felt Noah's emotions in perfect sync with mine. I did not need to look at him to notice that he cupped his head in his hands, a million screws were turning inside his mind, considering the possibilities. I did not have a single word to tell my lover, so I turned to my father, watching his every move.
Panic instantly seized me. My heart contracted in my chest over and over, sending massive waves of pain that made me double over. I squeezed the fabric of my shirt in my chest area, like I could grab my heart to calm it down if only I could touch it. It didn't help.
The monster was getting excited, and it made my blood boil and my insides wish to melt down, wither and die.
An inhumane smirk materialized on his face, devouring its lower half, slitting his cheeks right up to his ears. Belleth knew there was more in this story than we were witnessing with our own eyes.
And he won't rest assured until he discovers it all.
"So there is a way around the gates" , he said out loud, thinking to himself.
I could almost see the neurons stretching their thin arms to link to each other inside the demon's brain, and as he held his chin in his right hand, sat cross legged on the fluffy clouds and watched the newborn angel fly in repetitive directions like a dying bug, he began to form the closest thing to the truth in his mind.
A war between angels and demons broke because of some stupid agreement on not marrying humans, an agreement that now seemed to Belleth like absolute, clear bullshit. The demons were the ones that broke it first, but they got all worked up because the Queen of angels wasn't one to talk. She had already given birth to Noah, a half-angel from a human father named a certain Kai. Considering there has always been a grudge between both parties, their principles being complete opposites, they agreed not to agree, and they decided to fight each other until only one 'race' remained. They were immortal, yes, but was there a limit to immortality, like a really long age that was bound to end, at some point? Can an immortal actually kill another? Those were the questions both parties asked themselves. Belleth guesses they wanted to find out themselves through fighting until eternity chose to end itself. They descended on Earth, a neutral territory, and fought and fought. The demons loved to fight, so they were gaining ground over angels, the latters getting constantly tired or disabled that they needed a fixed amount of time to heal and get back in the frontlines again.
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.