Chapter 33
The one who appeared before her.
Seraphim.
As Arc Royle looked at him, who suddenly appeared and urged her to stop,
she was momentarily seized by deep confusion.
Stop?
What exactly was she supposed to stop?
Was he telling her to stop inflicting pain on this wretched being?
No… that cannot be.
This creature is evil.
The one responsible for all of this,
the evil that led countless children to their deaths.
Why was Seraphim stopping her,
when she was about to punish this creature?
[That… that cannot be… This creature… This monster deserves even more pain…]
Confused and feeling resistance at Seraphim’s words,
Arc Royle tried to inflict more pain on the soul of this wretched being she was holding.
At that moment,
[Arc Royle… please…]
[!]
A desperate voice reached her ears.
It was as if,
It were the voice of a father pleading with his daughter.
The voice began to resonate deeply in her heart.
[Please… stop now… No more… Don’t destroy yourself any further… I don’t want to lose you like this.]
[Wh… what…]
She could not fully understand what Seraphim meant.
Lose herself?
What did that even mean?
All she was trying to do was what had to be done…
To avenge the children who had died and suffered at this creature’s hands.
How could that possibly…
How could that destroy her?
Even though she didn’t fully understand…
She could trust him.
The words of the one who had always guided her…
The warm hand that had always held her when she was foolish and weak.
Surely, there must be some important meaning behind his words,
something she, in her foolishness, could not yet see.
With this belief,
Arc Royle acted as he had asked.
[…Under…stood.]
Suppressing her emotions with great difficulty,
Arc Royle slowly returned the soul she had been holding,
the soul of Gei, the one responsible for all of this, back into its body.
“Cough… cough… cough!”
Gei gasped for breath, full of pain.
But Arc Royle paid no more attention to him, and instead approached her master before her.
[Seraphim… I… I…]
Arc Royle’s voice trembled as she spoke.
Where should she begin?
Should she start by explaining everything she had gone through since arriving here?
Or should she speak of her foolishness, of how she had naively bled for the humans?
Whatever the case, she felt a heavy obligation to confess her sins, and tried to continue speaking with difficulty.
At that moment,
[You did well.]
[…Seraphim…?]
[You truly… did well… my child… My Arc Royle…]
With a voice filled with joy and relief,
Seraphim stretched out his great, white arms and embraced her.
Feeling the peaceful sensation of that embrace, Arc Royle realized that something inside her was disappearing.
[!… What?]
It was something she hadn’t even realized was there.
Hatred, despair, and madness.
The things that had been clinging inside her heart without her knowing, were slowly being wiped away.
Arc Royle was momentarily overwhelmed by this realization.
She had been dangerously close to crossing a dark line.
Had she gone just a little further…
The angel she was, perhaps, had nearly become something beyond return.
But only for a moment.
As deep sorrow washed over her, tears began to well up in her eyes.
[A… Ah… Ah…]
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she let out a painful groan. At the same time, a flood of guilt overtook her mind.
Arc Royle, clinging to Seraphim, began to weep bitterly.
The children born because of her mistake.
Those who never knew happiness or joy.
Children who became mere playthings for those vile beings and had to die.
[I’m sorry… I’m really sorry… Because of me… because of my mistake…]
She shed tears of repentance, sinking into the swamp of sorrow.
For those children who died.
A prayer that was so fleeting yet so desperate.
And, as this little angel wept, Seraphim simply embraced her silently and comforted her.
The Lord says in the scriptures:
“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
When I first read those words, I couldn’t understand why we had to do this.
Revenge for evil deeds is justified.
The sinner must pay the price,
not only for my own comfort but for the stability of society as well.
But not long after,
I found the answer elsewhere.
Those who fight monsters must be careful not to become one themselves.
If you gaze into the abyss long enough, the abyss will gaze back into you.
It’s the story of how those who wield the sword of justice against evil eventually become tainted by it.
This famous quote, “God is Dead,” by the German philosopher Nietzsche,
ironically helped me understand the meaning of God’s words.
I understood why He commanded us to love our enemies.
This command was never for the sake of the wicked.
It was to protect those with noble hearts from falling into sin.
To ensure that the double-edged sword of revenge does not wound themselves.
And now,
I could see the meaning of those words with my own eyes.
Arc Royle, drenched in blood, was torturing the soul of a human.
For a moment, her appearance was so terrible that she could no longer be called an angel.
At the same time, an unsettling, ominous divine power emanated from her.
Cold and cruel.
With a madness so clear it sent chills down my spine.
I instinctively knew what it meant.
Corruption.
Like Lucifer, the Morning Star who fell from heaven.
It was the degradation and destruction of a noble angel.
This phenomenon
forced me to stop Arc Royle’s act of “just punishment.”
Not to protect those who deserved to burn in hellfire,
but to protect my precious child from being stained by the filth of those wretches.
Forcing her to stop wasn’t possible.
Preventing her from falling into corruption was something only she could choose to do.
So I persuaded her…
And thankfully, the child, who had managed to hold onto a thread of reason, accepted it.
In that final moment,
she did not cross the dangerous line, and now, she sheds tears in my arms.
After letting her rest for a moment,
I slowly ascended into the sky.
Then,
I extended my senses.
Over a thousand souls below.
Spirits similar to mine,
which is why I could clearly sense the location of those children.
And then…
{What?}
{Wha… what is happening?}
Immediately after, the children, expressing their confusion and bewilderment, rose into the sky, lifted by my magic.
From the smallest of girls to those who already showed signs of maturity in their appearance.
Though their ages varied, they all bore a striking resemblance to Arc Royle.
After safely lifting all over a thousand of them into the sky, I, as the Archangel, spoke with authority.
“Do not be afraid.”
{!}
They were of the same kind as me… but at the same time, I held a higher status.
At my proclamation, awe began to appear on their cold, lifeless faces.
After calming the children, my gaze shifted down below.
A city that committed unspeakable atrocities under the guise of experiments.
And a place filled with unspeakable debauchery and indulgence to relieve their own weariness.
The place where only sinners resided, other than the angels I had lifted and the ten or so Holy Knights who had just left the city.
Sodomora.
As I gazed upon it, I gathered my divine power with calm, unwavering judgment.
A place filled with sins deserving of punishment.
Though I had stopped Arc Royle’s bloody revenge, their fate was already sealed.
This was not personal revenge, nor was it born out of anger.
It was simply the natural course of justice.
What I was doing was merely accelerating the inevitable.
To bestow ‘mercy’ so that those who had already become as corrupted as they could be would not decay further.
Nothing more, nothing less.
“I will mete out the punishment you deserve. It will come in the form of Sulfur and Fire.”
With my cold declaration, I gathered my divine power.
The result was a small sphere, the size of a basketball, that appeared before me, emanating a brilliant light and intense heat.
It was sulfur and fire forged through divine power, created for punishment.
In modern terms, it was like the seed of a small star, born from nuclear fusion.
A method to erase that cursed place in an instant.
Though the sinners below, as Arc Royle had said, were unworthy even of death, there was no need to worry about that.
Even though they claimed otherwise with their mouths and had grown used to their bodies’ circumstances,
deep down, they had always known the truth.
If they were to die,
they knew that their destination could only be hell.
They knew better than anyone that the price of their sins would come for them immediately, with no delay, the moment they faced death.
*
The blue sky before him.
As he gazed at it, a wave of relief washed over Archmage Gei’s heart.
“I… survived…”
The unbearable pain he had experienced just moments ago still twisted his insides.
But in the end, he had survived.
He didn’t know how, but he had lived.
And with that, Gei regained his composure and felt a renewed sense of purpose rise within him.
“Yes… this must be the result of Ba’al’s salvation! It’s a sign to complete His research! Alright… although there’s significant damage, the research data is still intact. By chance, I even managed to create an Archangel just now. If I start from the beginning, step by step…”
At that moment,
feeling a sudden warmth, Gei’s gaze turned toward the sky.
Something was shining brightly.
As he watched the object descend slowly from the high heavens, a question arose in Gei’s mind.
And curiosity began to stir.
“What… what is that? That shining thing… what could it be…?”
Despite himself, Gei began to approach it.
The heat grew more and more unbearable.
But despite the ominous discomfort, Gei’s curiosity as a mage drew him closer and closer to it.
And then,
as it finally reached right before him,
“This… this is a ta—”
Pah!
A sudden surge of intense heat.
And with that, Gei’s thoughts ceased.
Along with him, the grand world he had built, and the city named Sodomora, came to an End.
—
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