"So it was, that Lucifer performed the cardinal sin of Deicide. He was born into this world as a human being. God in flesh. His name was Jesus Christ, and He was crucified. There was no coming back from that.
"It was said that even until the very last second, that there were angels in heaven who were unsure about whom they should follow. Once they saw that their perfect God was willing to undergo the exact same pain that Lucifer had invented in order to prove His justice superior, there was no doubt who was more powerful.
"Moreover, since Jesus resurrected Himself, He proved that it was impossible to destroy God with the power of Lucifer. He was beyond even death! So, humanity was exonerated, and one day the righteous will be resurrected to join Him in the paradise once more." Thrall sighed, finally drawing his epic tale to a close.
He strolled over to the base of the unnaturally placed tree. It seemed so unlike the surrounding flora, now, with the benefit of context. "and all the daemons that dared question God's glory will be cast into the lake of fire just as He commanded after the genocide in Heaven."
He reached up and placed his hand to the surface of the tree. Xantheaa watched with an open mouth as he forced the tree to wither up before her eyes. The leaves turned brown, then brittle as they crumbled away into a mound of compost. The fruits rotted on their stalks and collapsed to the earth beneath her feet—wasted.
"I-is that it?" she asked, feeling disappointed for having patiently waited all this time without any resolution. "What was the point of all this? What happened to the angels that dragon Lucifer tricked into falling to earth with him?"
"Oh, they'll all be punished, of course. There's no hope for their kind, I'm afraid." He shook his head pitifully, like he knew many of them personally. "The wages of sin is death. No two ways about it. They were doomed the moment that they doubted God in the first place.
The trunk itself began to contract and shrivel. All the Earth beneath their feet rumbled as vitality leaked from its soil. The grass beneath their feet began to grow dry, and the vines and trees around them.
"That's a terrible story!" she cried. "Nobody gets a happy ending. Everyone sounds so miserable. What about Kurozel? How did you come across this account? Does at least he live to tell the tale?!"
The quaking earth suddenly ceased, and he lifted his head up to stare at nothing, in particular. "Xantheaa, what are you saying? It was those actions that started the entire conflict! All the death, all the sacrifice, all the pain began with the decisions made in that hallway! There can be no redemption for such a being!"
Still facing away, tears pricked at the edges of his eyes, and the shadows danced around the mask on his face. His features slowly leaked between the wisps of solidified smoke, and he pressed his palms against the warm bark.
Xantheaa slowly sauntered over to comfort her friend in his mourning. Surely, the Seraph deserves every torment laid upon him for the crimes that he had undertaken. So many lives had been lost because of his decision to question the authority of gods! Especially a God so ruthless as to flood the entire world for actions beyond their control.
Yet, seeing the Seraph weep so openly for the fate of this traitor spoke to the depth of his empathy. It moved her to the very core. So much for mister "cool and collected." She didn't think it was possible for him to become this vulnerable.
Her words must have really gotten to him for him to expose such deep regret. "Apology accepted," she thought.
He must have cared much for this Kurozel to weep for him so. It only made her care for him all the more. Pressing her cheek to the back of his robes, she smiled and cooed, "I do not believe in such objective realities. Right and wrong are not our place to judge. Harbor some hope! If your God is as just as you claim He is, then surely He would see the remorse of your friend." She wrapped her wings around his torso, and though he struggled to escape her, she would not allow him to escape.
"Ah-ah ah!" she giggled, teasingly. "Now is not struggling time. Now is-" In his gyrations, her wingtips dug under the bindings of his torso, accidentally, and she felt something alarming therein.
Unmistakably, a long, horizontal scar ran across the breadth of his chest. Her heart stopped. Her entire body grew still, and cold. This creature—this being before her—whom she had her arms eagerly wrapped around, bore the mark of the apostate.
Once she stopped moving, he quickly escaped from her hold. His arms left the surface of the tree, and he spread them between them defensively. He already knew that she had noticed.
"I-I... I can explain."
She shook her head back and forth in disbelief. "No... Y-you..." She didn't understand. How could this be?!
Her voice broke as she tried to contain her rage. "You. MURDERER!" she screamed. The tears flowed freely. "You would dare to speak to me about the folly of man, when you yourself attempted to slaughter your own God?!"
He swallowed heavily. How could he explain? "But- you said that you didn't believe in objective evil. You said that there was hope for my redemptio—"
"Well I lied!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. A fissure opened up, like the snap of a lightning strike, at the punch of her words. "Just like everything that comes from your mouth. I thought it would make you feel better, because for some insane reason, I thought that you earned that favor. Seeing how far you would go to have me trust you, I thought that we were making progress toward something greater. But in the end—You were just playing me for the fool, weren't you?"
"No! I have never-"
"Admit it! You never once thought of me as your equal; for all this time, I have only been but a pawn. You sought to use me, just like all of the billions of humans within your story! But I will not be made a fool, like your former life." Cracks appeared within the very fabric of space at the utterance of this.
"D-don't say that..." he pleaded. "I've only ever tried to help you."
"And to what end?! To bring me here, where your power is at its greatest?! Tell me, was any of our relationship NOT built on lies?"
He shut his mouth, and the spidery fissures expanded in mid-air, as if to accentuate the depths of their trauma. He could not answer, because this great omission was necessary to escape her mind. She would not have let him teach her to control the dreams had she thought he was a threat.
She broke the silence. "I thought so. You have only ever used me for your own selfish purposes." he noticed that the unnatural fissures only grew when she spoke.
"Xantheaa, you need to calm down."
"Don't tell me to calm down, you—you apostate!"
"Listen to me. You are going to irreparably damage the dream if this continues."
"What are you-?!" The glassy texture that hung in the air right behind her, she finally turned around to notice. "Oh."
Then a large shard of space broke away from the fissures, exposing a swirling, dizzying mess of purple flashing lines within. Suddenly, a great pull swallowed a vast volume of air into its gaping maw. Xantheaa, lighter on her feet than anything else, was immediately wrenched from her feet with a bright scream.
"Xantheaa!" he called out, and immediately dove in behind her.
He clutched her wings, but the simple hands he was using were not strong enough to haul her out from the gaping violet vacuum.
"Oh my goddess! Help me, Thrall!"
"I- can't!" he was flapping with all of his might, but he only had two wings in his Archangel form. He couldn't use the full breadth of his capabilities without the full strength of his home dimension. They were going to fall.
That gave her an idea. "No, you must. Because your patron commands it. Now, rescue me, KUROZEL!"
His eyes grew wide, and black. His head rotated around a full two-seventy degrees, leaving three after-images in their wake. His wings turned blood red, as they broadened to a shape that finally seemed suitable enough to accommodate his weight. Then, four more identical copies sprouted from his back.
The extra torque made his escape a trivial matter. All the Seraph had to do was flap twice, and they were beyond the breach. He threw her to the ground before the hole, and hoisted the fragment of space back into place; covering up the void with the abstraction.
"How did you know it was my true name?!" he cried out, over the whistling winds leaking around its borders. "I thought you said you believed everything I said was a lie!"
She could only barely breathe, after all the events continued. "I'm sorry, Thrall. I only rejected the truth because I was scared of being lied to, and abandoned again. You were always smarter than me, always in control. I just wanted a bit of that control back!" The fracture mended slightly, just enough that a solid piece no longer threatened to fall off.
Thrall relaxed his hold, and fell to his knees before her. "Well, now you know my true name. I am yours to command. If it is your wish, I will be forever in your service, from now until eternity."
"Kurozel." She commanded, climbing to her feet and sauntering over, in front of him. "Raise your head, O terrible prince of darkness." he meekly complied, only to find with shock that his face was inches from her own.
"Now, I want you to carve open your hand." He sighed, manifesting his small paring knife, and sliced a horizontal line across the length of it. This was to be his punishment, for lying. An eternal reminder that he would never be her equal ever again. How could he have thought any different?
She grinned widely, and raised her own talons to slice the tip of her wing. He gazed at her in confusion and awe, as she clasped her bloodied arm into the open wound in his hand. The terrible crackle of space mending itself could be heard for miles around, as the break in the air quickly disappeared from behind them.
Thrall trembled and quaked before this completely unprecedented turn of events. He almost fainted, before he caught a hold of himself, and nodded, gripping her hand, and eagerly letting their blood intermingle. "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb." She could never command him with authority again, as they now essentially shared the same name.
Their faces eventually parted, and she whispered so delicately that he only barely heard her from even this distance. "Do you think me capable of such great dishonor? You gave me your name, of your own free will. Even though I know how much it means to your kind, I had no choice but to trust you!—for you trusted me first. You gave me your everything. I only wish to return the favor. Will you let me?"
and so, Kurozel completely fell into Xantheaa's mercy, and for the first time in six-thousand years, he openly wept; as the silent hope he'd repeatedly buried deep in his chest was finally made whole.