"Knock Knock."
The door rattled as something hit their knuckles against the rotten wood surface, a cloud of dust spraying out from the force.
Isn't this town abandoned? Who would be knocking on the door?
Aaron craned his neck, trying to see through a crack in the wall.
Unfortunately for him, he couldn't get a clear angle on the region in front of the door, leaving him with a view of the destroyed village.
The pounding on the door became louder and more desperate as if it were begging to be let in, but remained locked out due to the doorframe being too small for its warped entraceway.
Aaron's heart pounded as the possibilities of what awaited him outside the building only grew as the seconds passed.
The only thing he knew for certain was that if it was the same creature that had left that corpse floating in that water, he wouldn't make it out alive.
Scanning the room for anywhere to hide, he remembered the partially collapsed closet buried under the rubble.
He ran fast to it and pried open its doors, tossing away dozens of tools, coats, and papers that cluttered the space; afterwards, he climbed inside and held the hatch closed firmly.
There was still a thin crack in the wood, giving him a view of the town hall that had started to warm up, whether naturally or magically.
Aaron tried to slow his breathing as he heard a large crash from the entrance.
That thing had broken in, and while the dust settled, he couldn't help but swallow hard, praying that it wasn't something sensitive to smell or sound.
Please don't be the manticore… Please don't be the manticore… Please don't be—
His thoughts trailed off as a human woman appeared from within the debris, and she, compared with the few women he could remember, was exceptionally beautiful.
She had golden eyes that pierced the darkness and long blonde hair that fell past her soft, exposed shoulders.
Yet, the part that separated her from anyone he'd seen before was what unfurled from her back slowly as she cleared the doorframe.
Large white wings, shining with an ethereal, almost divine luster, emitting a warmth that felt as if he was embraced by fire itself.
A-an Angel?
His mind had begun to overload from just staring at her holy figure; thick black blotches continued to appear in his vision the longer he watched.
As his eyes started to wander lower, he noticed quickly that the wrists of the woman were shackled together with a stone that looked as if it was formed from obsidian, with the chain being inlaid with rubies.
She wore a simple white dress that ended at her ankles, allowing her to walk barefoot through the debris, examining the room for anyone who might've heard her entry.
Determining that she was alone, she gradually made her way to the center of the chamber, where she peered down into the hole where the corpse had been, her lips turning into a frown.
What could someone of her status be doing in the Sea of Chains?
Angels weren't uncommon beings, not when a new one appeared every few decades in a wondrous display of light in the Holy Capital.
Typically, they had been cardinals or saints in their past life, and after death, been chosen to be reborn again as these holy lifeforms.
However, most of those Angels stayed within the Sea of Wishes far to the East, and any that did venture out remained within the safe seas.
Without the direct authority of the pontiff, it wasn't even a possibility for one of their kind to be here, yet here this woman was.
Was she sent to bring back that man? Could he have been a high-ranking member of one of the churches?
Angels themselves weren't powerful and could only invoke small miracles or cast spells like Divine Light, which purified darkness and eliminated weak curses.
Even the title of 'Angel' was a loose term since, while they might've had the appearance of the Angels written about in the divine texts, they believed that the true Angels of the world were the emissaries of the deities and dared not set foot on mortal soil.
Many of these so-called 'Angels' openly rejected the title of 'Angel' because they felt as if they were impersonating True Angels, beings whom they had seen in death; however, the opinion of ordinary citizens wasn't the same as their own.
How could anyone deny that they are Angels? The bright white wings and divine light are the definition of angelic…
Aaron couldn't do anything but observe for now, unable to risk the chance that this Angel wasn't as friendly as she seemed.
Nevertheless, as minutes passed, he started to feel his body going sore and his legs beginning to cramp from the narrow space.
In the meantime, the golden-haired angel pressed her shackled hands against the floor, attempting to move the floorboards to view the foggy puddle where the body had vanished.
Still trying to readjust his posture, Aaron attempted to move, but as he pushed the closet door open slightly, one of the tools resting inside began to fall, hitting the floor with a loud thud.
The woman, who had her shackled palms pressed against the wood, instantly turned and faced the boy with a surprised expression.
Suddenly rising to her full height, she walked towards Aaron, who had exited the closet after realizing he'd been caught.
He had to avoid any contact with the unknown Angel; that was the only way to have his safety guaranteed in this dangerous world.
Reaching the farthest wall from the woman, the boy could only grab the nearest object in hopes of defending himself: two broken candles.
She continued towards him at a steady pace, stopping when he was about two meters away, still staring at him with her golden eyes.
Then, the woman opened her mouth as if she had wished to speak, but closed it before saying anything.
She tried to use her eyes to signal for him to follow her gaze; however, he was too busy staring at the cuffs that shackled her wrists.
Specifically, he was absorbed by a small mark on the right cuff with a familiar symbol that Aaron had felt he'd seen before.
That marking…
The woman who had been waiting for Aaron to do anything held up her chains in front of her face in an attempt to gain his attention, shaking them gently.
At the sound, the boy refocused his thoughts, shoving the unusually familiar symbol to the back of his mind.
Seeing his eyes finally meet her own, she nodded and signaled for him to follow her.
He, though, still unsure of what to do in the presence of such a divine figure, hurried along without any complaint.
She guided him slowly towards the hole in the floorboards where the body of the man had vanished, pointing with her head at the pool of liquid that filled the gap.
"A-Are you looking for the man who was here?"
Aaron stumbled on his words, afraid that she would pin a murder that he did not commit—at least to his knowledge—on him.
Without squashing any of his fears, she gave him a childish thumbs up and moved her eyes towards the liquid and then towards Aaron again, signaling him to continue speaking.
"W-well, he was here when I entered this building, and after confirming that he was human, I studied the islander mark imprinted onto his head, which indicated he was a native of the Sea of Chains, which led me to stumble backwards. But when I looked back, he was gone…"
He paused, taking a short breath.
"After that, I heard your knocking and hid in that closet, afraid you were one of the beasts from the island who had come to hunt me."
After blurting out the whole story without missing any details, he waited for a response to come from her rose-colored lips, yet in the end, he was left without one.
Slowly, Aaron realized that her silence wasn't likely her own choice, but rather the shackles that bound her.
Those chains must be made up of something opposite the divine, or else she could easily break them with Holy Magic… But who could've entrapped such a being?
The woman slowly raised her chained hands and walked towards the boy.
She reached out to place her palms on his chest, yet he flinched backwards in fear before realizing that she had no intent to hurt him.
Quickly, he returned to his previous spot and apologized to the Angel for flinching, with the only response from her being a small grin as if she was mocking him inwardly.
The grin revealed brilliantly white teeth hidden behind her lips that glowed in the sunlight that seeped through the cracks in the ceiling.
She stretched her hands outward again; this time, though, he resisted the urge to move backwards, allowing the beautiful woman to press her palms against his chest.
When she made contact, Aaron immediately felt all his soreness and hunger dissipate as if it had simply been taken from him.
The woman's palms emitted faint light as she retracted them and smiled, and furrowed her brow as she looked off into the distance, far beyond Aaron.
Suddenly, she paled and took a step backwards and made for the door faster than he could realize that she was leaving, passing the doorframe right as he turned to face her.
Aaron rushed out behind her; however, all traces of the Angel had vanished, leaving him completely dumbfounded about what had just transpired.
Was it just my imagination? No… All the cuts I got from the bushes on the way here were instantly healed, while my stomach feels as full as if I had eaten three full meals…
He was awestruck by what he encountered before circling back to the one key aspect of this Angel that set her apart from the myths he knew.
Why was she chained? And what was that symbol on the chains?
The boy stood at the entrance of the town hall, staring off into the dense forest, sprawling with life, seemingly in deep thought.
That symbol… It seemed so familiar…
His expression crumbled as the connection finally clicked inside his head, a slight gasp escaping his mouth.
Lying in the captain's quarters on the Ghostship he had arrived on was a small cabinet that had a symbol that was nearly identical to the one on the shackles!
Though the one on her wrist wasn't a human skull with strange eyes like the one on the boat, it was of a horned goat with a broken halo above its head…
Deciding to check carefully later, Aaron, who had his fair share of terrifying experiences on this island, decided that he should quickly check for anything else in this town and then get back to his ship as fast as he could.
For now that he knew that there was both an Angel and a manticore here, he couldn't help but worry about countless other mystical creatures that would turn him into their lunch.
Hurrying down the desolate road, avoiding the roots and shrubbery that grew along the walkway, Aaron came to a building that was half-collapsed.
If not for the sight of a tiny chest poking out of the destroyed structure, he never would've paid it any mind; however, if it was something he could use…
Rushing over and attempting to pull it out from the rubble with one harsh jerk, he felt the box shatter, dropping its contents into the dirt.
It was an item that seemingly lacked any monetary value, but to Aaron, it was the greatest treasure he could've found on this island, and one that came at the same time as the first snowflake from the cloudy sky.
A diary.