I stood before the window, gazing at the Pillar That Holds Up The Sky in Rhodheoga. Above it flew bats and slave ships as fantastical colors danced across the heavens.
Reality itself felt like a dream.
I thought of the Feast of Eros, those dazzling lights and intoxicating wine, the mingling of fog and radiance.
I thought of the three questions Azazel had asked.
I thought of Lucifer, standing beneath the red glow and black mist, quiet to the point of suffocation amid the crowd’s uproar. His only motion then was to tug at his glove and slowly clench his right hand into a fist.
It wasn’t that he didn’t believe me. It wasn’t that he blindly trusted the pentagram’s guidance, or that he was overly confident in his dark magic.
It was because my answers were lies.
Each of Azazel’s questions was drawn from something that had actually happened, except the last one. Lucifer knew them all.
Until Azazel had asked: “Do you love Metatron?”
And my answer… made me no better than a liar caught red-handed, still struggling to cover the truth.
Lucifer’s hands were beautiful. When he played the piano, his fingers were as lovely as the music they conjured.
The most despairing thing in life is not death. It’s waiting for death.
From that day onward, he would feel his hand begin to fail, rot, until only bones remained. From the nails to the knuckles, to the back of the hand, the palm… He always knew what kind of ruin I would bring him. Again and again, he bore it. Again and again, he retreated. And in return, he received a lie at the feast.
What must he have felt in that moment?
He must have found it laughable.
All the deception from the very beginning, only to end in deception still.
If such a thing happened to me, I would want that person dead.
Seven thousand years of sunrises and sunsets. Seven thousand years of seas shifting and heavens turning. Seven thousand years spent waiting and hoping—only to become the butt of a cruel joke.
The pain in my abdomen tearing through my flesh made it impossible to stand upright. I stumbled away from the window and toward the bed, and as I passed the mirror, I noticed my clothing had changed entirely to black.
I stared blankly at my reflection.
Yes. Black robes, the robes of the Demon Queen. Even the pearls at my brow were all uniform, gleaming black.
Red hair. Black garments. Alluring in a way both bewitching and unfamiliar, utterly unlike before. And from the neckline of those dark robes, marks bloomed faintly across the pale of my neck, like rose-colored bruises.
I shook my head and ran out barefoot. The cold floor seeped into my bones, each step echoing with sharp, crisp cracks. Aside from that, the hall was utterly silent.
Thick, rounded columns supported the entire great hall, and the floor shone like a mirror, reflecting everything with perfect clarity.
I walked for a long time before finally seeing Beelzebub standing outside the hall, surrounded by a group of dark mages.
I spread my wings, flew over, grabbed his shoulders, and asked, “Where is Lucifer?”
Beelzebub froze. I shook his shoulders harder. “Tell me! Where is he?”
“His Majesty said you should go straight back to Heaven. He’s busy, so he won’t be seeing you off.”
“No! He said he wanted to see me! Tell him to come out!”
“Don’t go. He really doesn’t want to see you.”
Suddenly I remembered that night, the pale skeleton fingers under the moonlight. I looked at the majestic sprawl of Pandemonium’s palatial skyline, wrenched my arm free, and began searching room by room.
Rhodheoga was still noisy and lively, but the palace was dead silent.
Time passed, minute by minute. With every room I searched, my heart sank further.
My six wings flailed erratically. My black robes and red hair stirred in the air.
The pain was rising steadily. If I guessed right, the child was starting to grow wings. The sharp wing bones would tear through the organs, but not fatally.
My soul felt like it was about to tear itself from my body. But no matter how many rooms I checked, he wasn’t in any of them.
At last, someone stepped into my path. He lifted a pretty, foxlike face and smiled stiffly. “Looking for my dad, aren’t you?”
I stared him down, enunciating each word: “Mam…mon? When did you get back?”
Mammon seemed not to hear me. “I’ll take you to him.”
He turned and walked ahead. I followed close behind.
Out through the northern gate of Pandemonium we went, Mammon walking swiftly though he didn’t fly. Through alleys and streets, past countless demonfolk who all turned to watch us, some curious, some wary.
The buildings, tall and squat, rushed by on either side. I kept my eyes from drifting to the great cathedral rising in the far distance, wedged between rows of towers, its sign looming amidst a blur of color and demonic script.
Suddenly, Mammon stopped, turned, grabbed my arm, and launched us into the air.
A bat-shaped sign hanging upside down on a shop front startled and flapped up in a flurry, their shrill cries piercing the sky.
I tried to pull back several times, but Mammon dragged me with reckless resolve toward the towering cathedral at the end of the avenue.
We landed before its doors. I wrenched my arm from his grip. “He can’t be in there!”
Mammon kept pulling me forward. We crushed skulls underfoot as we walked. The feeling of stepping on human heads was as disgusting as wading through a swamp.
Down a dim corridor, I saw pale blue chandeliers and finally the altar at the end. Upon it, the little angel still knelt in prayer, the same posture as before, as if eternally mocking the Creator.
Behind the little angel, on the throne’s high back, bone wings splayed upward—fractured and ruined.
On the throne sat a skeleton, clad in noble robes, its chin tilted, posture impeccable.
All strength drained from me. I dropped to the floor, numb. Mammon stood beside the skeleton and looked at me with a faint smile. “Look familiar?”
I shook my head. “No. No, I don’t know him.”
Mammon gently stroked the skeleton’s skull and said nothing more.
I sat there as the eerie light bathed the bones.
It was all over.
Heaven. The divine race. Hanniah. Home.
None of it mattered anymore. There was no point in speaking of any of it now.
It was over.
Lucifer was dead.
I didn’t know how much time passed before I finally came to.
Mammon seemed to be muttering something beside me.
Ever since I woke up, remembered everything, realized the mistake I’d made, understood that I had to hurry and find a way to free myself from God’s shackles, that no matter what I said, I could never leave him again… I should have found him, held him tight, kissed him, told him I loved him.
Yes. That was what I should’ve done.
I got to my feet, moving like a puppet, walking straight toward the platform. From beside me, Mammon shouted, “Can you stop running around already?”
I cradled the skeleton’s skull, but Mammon grabbed my collar and yanked me back.
“Jerry’s been dead a long time—can’t you let him rest in peace?”
I blinked. “This isn’t Lucifer?”
Mammon looked momentarily surprised. “That’s not even funny. If he looks like him to you, go ahead and keep hugging him.”
Turned out Mammon had just been talking to Lucifer via a communicator. He told me Lucifer was in the Yura Tribe and told me to go see him there.
After we left the cathedral, Mammon summoned Anra with a magic whistle. The massive black dragon landed before us, scattering waves of startled bats into the air.
Dark flames glimmered faintly in Anra’s mouth. We climbed onto his back and gripped the silver fastenings embedded in his scales. Anra flapped his wings, rising into the sky with a surge, his scales shimmering like crystal beneath the wind.
The massive walls, the lofty towers, the grand domes of Pandemonium twisted and shrank beneath us in a dizzying blur.
We circled upward, soaring toward the Face of the Demon Realm. The sun was already beginning to set; Yura’s lush green landscape was now washed in a tint of orange.
We descended. Mammon led me through a tree hollow to the right of the Demon Eye. The ground was paved with white stone. The hollow itself was semi-transparent, and slanting rays of sunlight spilled through its seams, fragmented, broken, scattering ahead like a path of ruin and gold.
The beauty of the Fifth Hell was framed like a painting.
“Go in yourself. I’m leaving,” Mammon said, taking two steps back.
“Where are you going?”
“None of your business.”
“You’re still angry with me.”
“Why would I be angry with you?”
“If someone like me suddenly showed up in my life, I’d probably want him dead too. I’m very—”
“Stop. Stop right there,” Mammon cut me off, impatient. “Michael, even after you showed up, my life stayed exactly the same. I still laugh when I want to laugh, slack off when I want to slack off. You’re not that important. Got it?”
“But—”
“No buts.” He cut me off again. “What do you want me to do? Be a proper little son for you? Obedient and well-behaved like Hanniah, wagging his tail and saying, ‘Yes sir, I’ll listen to you’?”
I didn’t know how to respond.
In the dim space, the rose on his cheek was red and delicate, but the bloom was so vivid it seemed almost barbed.
“I’m not trying to force you. If my attitude has made you uncomfortable… I truly apologize.”
“It’s just that the entire Demon Realm knows I’ve been chasing after you, and you—well, you got all cozy with my dad in public, made sure everyone saw how smitten you are with him. You haven’t made things difficult for me, Lord Michael. You’ve just made me a little bit humiliated, that’s all.”
“You and Lucifer are different. You can’t compare the two.”
“Yeah. We’re different. I never had the chance to share an earth-shattering past with you. Never had the chance to make you owe me. Never had the chance to bear your child. Never got cursed by your family…”
“Mammon, you’d better figure out where you stand.”
“Where I stand?” Mammon laughed. “I think I’ve always been clear about that. I want to be with you. And I want your mind to be filled with me and only me. I won’t ask about your past, and you won’t ask about mine. You’re not allowed to go find anyone else, and I won’t either. Then we’ll live together, work together, talk together, shop together, eat together, sleep together, make love, grow old, and die together.”
I listened patiently to every word he said, unable to stop my jaw from trembling.
“When did this start?”
“How would I know?” he replied. “By the time I realized it, it was already too late, Archangel. In the arena, when you held back on me, you want to say it was instinct, the nature of an elder, right? I know. But that’s not what I thought.”
He hooked a lock of my hair with his finger, twirling it a few times. “Back then, I thought you were seducing me. And also, since you knew my first kiss was with you—why did you kiss me again in the library?”
I pulled him into an embrace, my whole body shaking slightly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think that far.”
Mammon hugged me back, his sharp chin resting on my shoulder.
A long time passed before he finally pushed me away. He looked at me for a while, then forced a smile, trying to seem lighthearted. But the smile grew stiff, and glimmers began to rise in his eyes.
Then he turned and walked away—fast.
I stood there for a long, long time.
…………
……
At the end of the path hung a circular platform suspended in midair by branches, their tips wrapped in bright, tender green leaves. On the platform sat a vine-woven lounge chair like a sofa, and in it, a figure with hair dark as night glinting with the last slanting rays of the sun.
With every step I took, the view widened just a little more.
If the curse had taken hold, then he must have already…
I clenched my fists and, bracing myself, strode up behind him. My soles pressed against the vine-woven surface of the platform; it felt anything but solid. I gathered all my courage and called softly, “Lucifer.”
Black butterflies fluttered past. Dewdrops plinked onto the surface of the Solor River, bright and glassy.
Lucifer turned his head and looked at me, then rose to his feet.
I stared at his face, motionless.
“What’s with that shocked look?” Lucifer smiled faintly, his dense lashes nearly veiling his eyes.
In a daze, I took hold of his right hand, squeezed, then carefully pulled off the glove to reveal five beautiful fingers. I turned his hand over and over in mine, then gently held it.
“How can this be?”
“You mistook Jerry for me, didn’t you?” Lucifer withdrew his hand and slid the glove back on.
Below us, the Solor River wound its way onward, threading through little bridges hidden among forest groves. Ornate boats drifted lazily, as if sailing toward the edge of the sky.
The windmills were still spinning. The mañjusaka were in full bloom, blazing bright.
A black butterfly flitted down and landed on Lucifer’s shoulder, resembling a bowtie at a glance.
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
Lucifer smiled. “Mhm.”
“Was it supposed to be a surprise?”
“Call it a release.” He flexed his right hand. “I’m all right now. And the Blood of Loyalty still flows in you. Do you know what that means?”
“I don’t. But just now, I was really scared.”
The black butterfly fluttered, looking so much like his lashes when he cast his eyes down.
“You’ve remembered everything by now. You should know we were together only two years. You and Metatron were together for thousands. I was selfish back then—I had the crystal sphere but refused to return it, because I was afraid you’d remember all that.”
“And now?”
“Now I’m fine, and you’re fine. Everything’s resolved.”
The sunset behind him slowly sank beneath the line of windmills.
“What do you mean by that?”
Lucifer glanced over his shoulder. The butterfly on him shivered slightly, but stubbornly clung to its place. He turned back and said, “Does His Highness Michael have anything else to say? If not, I’ll be leaving first.” He started turning to go.
“Why did you call me here?”
“I didn’t call you. You came on your own.”
“Have you decided the child’s name?”
“You can decide.” Lucifer walked toward the tree hollow.
“Belial,” I called out. “Is that name okay?”
“Your Highness, can’t you just let me go?”
“What did I say? I only asked what to name it. I haven’t even done anything out of line yet.”
Lucifer sighed softly and turned away to look elsewhere.
“Well, now I’m about to do something actually out of line.” I rushed forward and crashed into him, forcing him a step back. I wrapped my arms around his head and kissed him hard on the lips.
The black butterfly flapped away.
The last ray of the sun disappeared beyond the horizon.
Lucifer shoved me off and quickly stepped into the tree hollow, visibly flustered. “No… You’ve remembered everything already.”
Night fell, and stars filled the sky.
The breeze rustled the branches, and Lucifer’s black clothes and hair merged into the dark, his face under starlight unusually pale.
I smiled bitterly. “It’s exactly because I remembered everything that I’m even more certain: I want to be with you. But… you made me feel like a failure, like I couldn’t even protect the person I love most.”
“You’re lying.”
“You mean about Metatron? Yes, I loved him, but only back when I’d forgotten you.”
Lucifer didn’t reply.
“Come on, think about it, you’re so beautiful, so brilliant, and you know so many things… You’ve got too many good points to count. With someone like you, how could I fall for anyone else?”
But Lucifer’s expression only darkened.
I held him as gently as I could, patting his back like I would a child. “When I saw that skeleton in the church today, I swear it almost killed me. Please don’t scare me like that again, alright?”
Lucifer didn’t move.
“Alright then, there’s still a bit of time before I return to Heaven. Here’s what we need to do: one, protect Belial until birth; two, patch things up with Mammon, that child’s ready to kill me right now; and three, we haven’t been together in ages.”
Lucifer smiled, strained, and nodded.
“And from now on, no more secrets. I’m not waiting another few thousand years. We’re going to stay together every day, and you’re going to treat me as well as you treated Lilith.”
Lucifer paused, then said, “You should think it over.”
“There’s nothing to think about.”
Lucifer said nothing for a long while.
From here, one could see the border of Rhodheoga, thousands of lights flickering like stars.
The silver-tinted branches gleamed brighter in the darkness, like a mirror reflecting the heavens.
Lucifer pulled away from me and walked silently into the starlight. With his back to me, he said, “You’re right. I shouldn’t have lied to you. Just look at me now.”
He took a deep breath, then turned to face me.
It was like something smashed into my skull. My mind went completely blank. I stumbled back two steps and swayed unsteadily before I could catch myself.
This is… Lucifer?
Even more terrifying than Jerry’s skeleton. The right half of his face had turned to bare bone, while the left remained untouched. With no eyelid, his right eye rolled restlessly in its socket, unable to close.
There was no expression on the fleshless side of his face, but the intact left side formed a bitter smile. “If I looked like this… would you still want to be with me?”
The night sky glowed cold and pale. A drifting black cloud slid across it, blotting out half the stars.
His face flickered between light and shadow. When the darkness covered him, the wounds seemed miraculously healed. Just when I thought I was imagining it, the silver light returned, and the skin and flesh dissolved again, revealing white bone at terrible speed.
I stepped forward, tightly shut my eyes, and held my breath for a long, long time.
I heard wind, the sound of flowing water, and the unsteady rhythm of my own breath.
When I opened my eyes again, the half-skeletal man was still standing before me. His round, gleaming right eyeball stared blankly, perfectly aligned with the beautifully shaped left eye.
He was so close I could see the red veins running through his sclera.
“This isn’t real… It’s not. It’s not…” I nearly collapsed to the ground.
It had to be a nightmare.
I slapped myself hard, then harder, trying to jolt myself awake.
But nothing changed.
Lucifer’s expression on the left side of his face slowly dulled. The right side remained expressionless—only the lower jawbone, split to the ear, moved faintly. He extended his right hand and removed the now-empty glove, revealing five ghost-white finger bones and part of his palm.
He flexed them. Bonier now than when they had flesh, the finger bones clicked as they moved, crisp, sharp.
“Isar, I’ve become like this.”
He pulled up his sleeve, revealing the fine radius and ulna side by side. Then he tugged at the sleeve again, as if to roll it up further. “It’s the same farther up. Do you still want to see?”
He took a step toward me. I stood stunned.
Another step—and I retreated instinctively.
He suddenly stopped, curled his lips into a twisted grin, let his sleeve fall again, and leaned in close. Even his left side had contorted into something grotesque. “So? Do you still want me like this, Your Highness Michael? Wearing a mask while your heart says otherwise—how painful that must be.”
I looked at his face, then slowly down to the exposed vertebrae on his neck. My nose stung.
Lucifer let the mockery drop from his expression, stood upright again, and smiled lightly. “I just didn’t want to keep hiding it from you anymore. That’s all. Go back to Heaven. No one will blame you.”
Behind the Demon Sovereign stretched the splendid, flickering lights of his realm.
The Solor River ran through it all, along the edge of the Yura Tribe. At night, the gentle rushing of water sounded like the cries of lost souls.
He spoke with a calm detachment, as if describing someone else’s fate. Other than his appearance, he was still as graceful as ever.
Suddenly, I rushed forward and embraced him.
Through the fabric of his clothes, his left and right arms felt entirely different—one warm and solid, the other cold and hard, nothing but bone.
Lucifer wrapped his left arm around me and whispered gently in my ear, “I’ll miss you.”
“Shut up!” I clung to him tightly, the protruding bones of his neck stabbing into my arm, “Say one more word and I’ll kill you!”
Lucifer laughed softly. “Don’t blame yourself. If it were you who became like this… I’d let go, too.”
I began unfastening the neat buttons on his collar, on his shirt. He grabbed my hand. “You really don’t have to—mm…”
I kissed him, fiercely.
Lucifer froze for a long moment, then suddenly began to push me away.
“Don’t force yourself. I can’t stand to watch you do this.”
I ignored him, continuing to undo his shirt. From the fingers of his right hand, up to the arm, to the upper chest and ribs, all had rotted away.
The mañjusaka swayed in the evening breeze, twisting their slender stems.
I gently cradled his head without saying a word.
His hand—no, his hand bones—shimmered silver under the starlight, five bony fingers clutching uneasily at my neck.
In this moment, the damage on him was starkly visible.
But I didn’t feel frightened anymore.
Only helpless.
He had become like this, and I could do nothing about it.
Suddenly, I remembered him as he was in Heaven—still in the form of the Archangel. I remembered every word he had ever said to me, every word he’d said to the puppet Lilith. I remembered the way he used to look at me in crowds, and every forced smile…
Tears surged without warning.
I’d endured countless setbacks, always managing to push through, but only when facing him did I lose all composure. And now, I had to face this reality.
I threw my arms around his neck and cried like a wreck, sobbing as I kissed him.
It wasn’t pain. It wasn’t sorrow. It was regret.
The deeper the love, the more fiercely I hated myself.
I had done everything in my power to protect him, to ensure his peace and happiness and I still couldn’t even keep him alive and well.
Gradually, he let down his guard, gave up resisting, and kissed me back, deeply.
The waves of the Solor River lapped gently at the banks, a rhythmic cadence of water meeting stone, one wave chasing another, endlessly, like the heartbeat between us.
After that long kiss, we parted, breathless and silent.
Lucifer still seemed reluctant to let me see his face. I didn’t want to show him my puffy tear-stained one either, so neither of us looked at the other.
Eventually, I spoke first. “Good thing you haven’t turned completely into a skeleton, or intimacy would’ve been tricky.”
Lucifer laughed softly, his disheveled bangs falling just right to shield the exposed eyeball. “We could always meet in daylight or in the dark. I can mask it with magic.”
“Oh, my great Sovereign. Have you never considered trying to fix it?”
“If there were a way, do you think I’d have let myself rot like this?”
“There is a way. Give me a few days.”
“Where are you going?”
“Back to Heaven. I’ll see if there’s anything that can help. If I can’t find anything, I’ll come back anyway. If I can’t do it in the open, I’ll sneak in. Best case, I hear something from another angel. If not… I’ll go straight to God.”
“Don’t go to Yahweh.”
“You’re seriously still worried about pride? You’re hanging on by a thread.”
“It’s not that simple. He won’t help you.”
“Then tell me, what happens next to your body?”
“The skeletal parts still move fine. Eventually, I’ll become a fully living skeleton.”
I cringed. “That’s going to look awful. I’ll have to cuddle a skeleton every night.”
“Isar.”
“Hmm?”
His mismatched eyes looked at me again, steady and direct. “It’s not too late to regret this and change your mind.”
“My biggest regret… is not spending more time with you.”
…………
Later, we returned to Rhodheoga and spent the whole night tangled together.
Lucifer, the model demon —early to bed, early to rise—actually slept straight through till noon. As sunlight poured in, I stood at the bedside getting dressed. Just one look at the man still lying there, his face returned to normal, skin smooth and supple, it felt like having bones lodged in my throat.
I was about to head out to get some food when a woman approached. The second she appeared, the air shifted; her presence thundered in like an avalanche. That seductive black gown wrapped around her like a queen’s mantle. It took me a long while to process her face, one I knew far too well.
“Your Majesty…Lilith?”
Lilith: “You slept here last night?”
I thought for a moment. “Yeah.”
Judging by her tone… is she the real one?
She gave a single “Oh,” peering into the room, then behind me. “Thanks to you, His Majesty finally gave my body back.”
“And the body you were using all this time?”
“The husband made it for me.”
Before I could reply, a violet orb of light shot down from the heavens and landed in front of me, shining through the window. I reached out and caught it, pressing it lightly—black letters flew and danced in the air before forming a message:
Return immediately.
The Heaven-sent message was, as usual, succinct and direct. This kind of magic—reaching all the way to the depths of the Demon Realm—was like making a long-distance call. A tremendous waste of power, typically only attempted by high-ranking angels. I’d really have to go back.
I said goodbye to Lilith and summoned the angel hosts. Just as I turned around, I saw Lucifer sitting up. I rushed to him, showering him with kisses. He was still half-dressed when he cupped my face in his hands and returned each one with gentle care.
After the kisses, I told him about the summons.
“This time, I’ll settle everything that needs to be settled.”
Lucifer got out of bed and dressed. “No rush. Take your time. If you really can’t fix it, come back and we’ll figure it out together. I’ll walk you out.”
He wrapped an arm around my waist like he was guiding a toddler taking its first steps.
I immediately swatted his hand away. “No need for that. I can walk.”
He didn’t insist. We walked side by side to the entrance.
The black roses were in full bloom, and for once, the skies above Rhodheoga were clear.
We stopped at the gates of Kade Palace. Lucifer brushed aside the fringe on my forehead. “Isar, if people feel satisfaction in criticizing you, it just means you’ve succeeded, and you’re striking enough to draw attention. Don’t let it get to you, alright?”
I looked at him for a long time. “Your eyes are so pretty.”
Lucifer lightly tapped my cheek, a smile on his face indulgent enough to kill: “Knew you wouldn’t listen.”
“I get it. I’m definitely going to be chewed out when I go back, but I don’t care.” I grabbed his hand and shook it a few times. I thought I’d grown thick-skinned, but saying what came next still made me nervous. “What I care about is… whether we’ll actually be able to be together, smoothly, from now on.”
Lucifer smiled lightly. “We will.”
I could already see the angels flying toward us.
I turned back. “Take care of yourself.”
“I will.”
“I’ll miss you a lot.”
“Me too. When you’re back, we can…” He trailed off, then leaned close and kissed me just behind the ear.
“Lucifer.”
“Mm?”
“I love you.”
“…I love you too.”
Every time we reached a moment like this, he’d get all serious and focused, like he was studying something monumental. Always with a sweet kiss thrown in on the side.
After our snuggling ended, I took off with the angels. It was the first time I realized how hard it was to stop myself from flapping my wings too fast. In this moment, I didn’t just want to fly—I wanted to dance in the air.
One minute, I was thrilled over getting back together with Lucifer; the next, just outside Rhodheoga, gloom settled in. Back in Sancta Faylia, things with Metatron could probably end peacefully. But… how was I going to make Hanniah accept it?
By the time we arrived in Heaven, the day was nearly over. At the gates, the silence was almost funereal.
On the Third Heaven, as we passed the Place of Confinement, I spotted Raphael’s rose-trimmed Mirror of Wind. Curious to see what I might look like in a hundred years, I casually went to take a peek.
What I saw was beyond comprehension.
The angels behind me followed, lined up in perfect order. Yet when I looked into the Mirror from the front—there was no reflection of me.
I asked them to step aside, then moved behind to the reverse side of the lens to try again.
In that reverse view, the image was crystal clear: a six-winged Seraph with ruby-red hair and eyes like the sapphire sea, robes of white silk finer than snow, the holy sword at his waist shining bright.
But when I returned to the front—only mist, endless white haze. Wisps of cloud, a gray-green lawn, a distant castle, and crimson roses climbing the mirror’s edge. Everything a mirror could reflect…
Except me.
It struck me as bizarre. Was the Mirror broken?
I didn’t think too much of it at the time. I brought the angels back to Sancta Faylia, returned my military command, and went looking for Metatron, only to find he wasn’t anywhere he might normally be.
Then I heard that while I’d been away in the Demon Realm, Hanniah had stepped in to temporarily assume my role. No one had rushed me back.
Just as I was about to enter the Sanctum, I remembered Iophiel’s warning not to return.
I thought again of Hanniah’s early departure, the silence from the Anti-Michael faction, Metatron’s disappearance, and the eerie quiet from Heaven overall.
Why do I have a bad feeling about all this?
I took a few steps back. Then a few more.
That Mirror… maybe it wasn’t broken.
A Mirror with no reflection.
No one reflected inside.
No one. What does that mean?
Author: Tav Tav
Translating
The Right Wing of God, the one seated at the right hand of the Most High.
