In the bloody silence that followed the battle, as dust settled like abandoned supplications upon the broken expressway, a shadow of truth hovered.
The words: "Yes. because I'm not a fallen angel" remained an unsung thunder, a paradox encased in angelic duplicity.
The mortals, Akira, Yura, Lint, and Yuna, panted around them, their triumph a thin skirt against turmoil. It was I, however, who beheld him. What was the puzzle that entwined this being, a Fallen, me, and the tapestry of destiny?
It was as if he felt the weight of these unwritten tales when Lucarious stood tall, blood dried upon his lip as if splashed by ink. His eyes locked onto mine, ancient as the abyss preceding creation, as he spoke, his voice as gentle as caressing zephyrs through a lost Eden.
Suddenly he rose his hand , snapped from his fingers. Everything on surrounding paused, like a lifeless statues except Yuna, me and him.
"Listen, Lucifer,"
he whispered, his voice a hushed drama that ensnares all ears, while the hum of the new gates procreates portents of doom in the distance.
"You wonder about our connection made in the light before the darkness took us? Well, I will reveal the beginning of our story—one written in the stars themselves."
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[ Lucarious-POV ]
I was the Angel of Time, possessing unheard-of power, the most living soul among the endless throng of heaven. An extrovert fire burned within my wings; forever and ever, my song was laughter, drawing brothers near like moths to light from a dawn just breaking.
But fate had other plans, as it often does. I saw tomorrow's fabric—with all joy, all sorrow, all secrets of sin spread before me with eyes shut tight.
Angels shuddered away, averting their eyes as if I pulled open the vaults of their own souls.
'He sees tomorrow's secrets,' they murmured, as if I trespassed on the inviolable privacy of what was yet to come.
There wasn't an action that didn't have its end replaying inside my mind; consequences trickling like rivers to the shadowed seas. Loneliness insinuated itself, a silent serpent entwining itself around my heart.
I disguised it with smiles, as brilliant as the blaze of seraphs, alone in the light-streaked halls of heaven. Until that fateful evening, when eternity stopped.
Under the Grand Celestial Tree, I sat—the crown of heaven, with branches so massive they formed a cathedral of glimmering stars.
Ambrosiac fruits arrayed themselves, radiating divine juices, with fragrances of paradise lost. Petals swirled in a lazy breeze, scattering gold and pearl across the ground, while the roots sank into hidden recesses, speaking tales of the birth of creation. There was no task to be accomplished, no end to time—my loneliness.
And then Lucifer appeared: rebel in nascent glory, with Azazel's deceptive darkness on one side and Samael's tempest on the other.
He was the flame that sparked in the quiet of order. With wings folded in mischievously graceful repose, he stepped forth with eyes aglow in merry defiance.
"'Tis told of a secret glade,"
he said with voice that was thunder in velvet cloak. He raised a beckoning hand in kingly command.
"A fruit so peculiarly flavored—proscribed delights in paradise's own bower—comes with us, brother!"
Eyes closed, I surveyed my inner visions, destinies unraveling like strands of silk. Images as sharp as knife blows: barred gates, Azazel held fast by scrutinizing guards, ligatures of light holding wing to wing.
My voice came booming out, sonorous as the knell of judgment:
"We will go there. The gates close. Azazel is taken by the guards."
Lucifer knelt low, surprise notching his flawless brow, his excitement vibrating with the first rays of dawn.
"Oh my, the myths were true! You're the Angel of Time!"
I gave a tentative smile, tinged with wry shadow. "Of course, you might don't want me to come with you. right?," I said in a low voice that vibrated with knowing.
"Huh?" Lucifer blinked, laughing in confusion, his chuckle a flash of light. " I'm kinda jealous, i wish i could see future like you."
I raised my eyes, surprise unfurling in me.
"Aren't you frightened?" I asked.
"I see your future as well, the choices you make and the storms you invoke."
Delivering himself to his knees, his hearty strike to my back shuddered through me like a pulsating thunder.
"Fear? So long as I behold myself destined to be clasped within hell's own grasp, since I was born from there, from its fiery, endless forge!"
With this, he forcibly tore hold of my wings, hauling me toward his brethren with all the fervor of one hauling home his spoil. Azazel and Samael caught me mid-fall, launching me into their ranks with a shove.
"Behold, then!" Lucifer proclaimed, his voice surrounded by their upturned grins. "This one is our own, now, through fate itself!"
I stood up, grounding feet on holy ground, whispering in awed tones,
"Friends?"
Azazel looped one arm across my neck, then Samael did the same.
Their laughter was like a tsunami of sound that washed away all alone.
" Well why our new friend is so handsome. Hey tell got any girlfriend?"
I shook my head, no—a simple nod of denial with a smile.
Centuries had slipped by since words had warmed my wings; my extrovert spark had dwindled to embers.
But within that embrace, that stormy gust of joy, warmth burst forth anew. Laughter kindled deep within, long buried, a phoenix from ashes of isolation. For the first time in eternities, I felt whole—tied to this misguided throng, their anarchy a salve to my foreseen voids.