"My holiness, they have surrounded your holy kingdom. Let us, your most loyal servants, go as a vanguard and kill all those dogs," Angel, with fiery red hair and black armor, said reverently. Her eyes were burning with rage, like the raging tempest hungry to create mayhem.
" No, today you will not follow me," A young man said with a smile. Eyes that seemed to be forged from starlight swept past the eight angels kneeling before him, a myriad of emotions raging inside him. Every single memory that he had made with these people flashed past his eyes, he couldn't help but feel nostalgic at this moment.
Before any of the angels could protest, the young man said, " I have a different task for you all." Looking down past the time and space to the lower realm, his gaze focused on a young boy playing happily in a backyard with a woman. The gazes of the eight angels followed his, and they understood their task without him saying a word. Smiling sadly, the young man lifted his gaze and said, "Now go, my dear angels."
The angels stood up and bowed deeply before taking a step back and vanishing like ghosts. Letting out a deep sigh, the young man walked through enormous halls and hallways with many beautiful paintings and sculptures of him and his angels that were made by his subordinates. Stopping in front of a painting that was different from the rest, the young man looked at the painting fondly.
The painting depicts a beautiful woman with a warm smile on her face. She had black hair that reached her shoulders and slender shoulders. In her lap sat a baby with purple eyes and white hair. " I'm sorry, I really wanted to see you again, but if my prophecies are right. Today will be my last day," The young man whispered weakly.
Turning away, he walked leisurely out of the palace. As he stepped out of the palace, a hellish scene opened up. A blood-red sky, dark lighting streaking through frequently, and a repulsive smell of blood permeated his senses. The surrounding land was flowing with blood, and bodies littered the ground, some intact and some in multiple pieces.
Flying in the sky, an enormous army made of millions of people stood proudly, radiating pure, unadulterated bloodlust that threatened to consume everything. At the front of the army, 12 figures stood out. Seven of them exuded a holy aura, and behind their backs were a pair of angelic wings that transcended measly words like beautiful. The other five were the complete opposite of these angels; they radiated an aura of chaos and malice, and behind their backs were black wings resembling a bat's. Each of them, in reality, was a deity, their strength absolute, but the young man couldn't care less.
As the young man leisurely strolled toward the enormous army, one of the twelve deities said, "Give it to us, and we will grant you death with dignity."
A simple smile that exuded arrogance, as if everything was beneath him, formed on the young man's face. He asked indifferently, "Have you all already forgotten what fear is, or maybe it is ignorance formed by long years of peace and prosperity that I created? Or maybe it is your arrogance, creating a false hope that during the past eon, you twelve had grown strong enough to face me." The young man paused for a second. Then his smile was wiped away, and a completely indifferent expression took over. "Maybe it's time to remind the world of what happened billions of years ago in the holy war?" Three pairs of angelic wings spread out from his back and basked the world in their brilliance, a golden halo radiating light appeared behind his head, and two circles that resembled the Milky Way encircled his wrists.
The young man waved his hand casually, and what followed was a catalysmic storm of energy that wiped out over a million people, not even their souls remaining intact. The faces of the twelve deities fell, and they looked at each other nervously. "Tell me where the apostle of my brother is, and in exchange, I will grant you a painless death," The young man said with a passive face, completely unfazed by the massacre he had brought fort.
"Oh, shouldn't you be worrying about us, not him?" One of the demon gods taunted in anger, he hadn't felt this kind of humiliation in a long time. They were supposed to be deities that transcended reality, but they could only grovel in fear as a lone man slaughtered their armies. This demon god had pale white skin, red eyes, and long white hair. He looked almost like a human if it wasn't for the black wings behind his back; he could easily be mistaken for a human. This was a trait that only higher-ranking demons had; the higher their bloodline purity was, the closer their look was to that of a human.
"Fine, maybe if I kill enough of you people, he might appear," The young man muttered. Just as he was about to bring down another attack on a cosmic level, he felt something pierce his chest. Looking down, he saw a beautiful sword of green energy sticking through his chest. " Life force sure is a handy tool, isn't it right, brother?" The young man asked calmly, while golden blood kept flowing from his wound.
A man had appeared behind the young man at some point in time. This man had golden hair and eyes that were radiating a green light. " Little brother, give me the key, and I might spare you," The golden-haired man spoke in an ethereal voice.
"Aren't you a little rude by descending through your apostle and not coming in person," The young man spoke humorously. The energy that resembled a starry night wrapped around the young man's hand, and with the hand wrapped in this energy, the young man touched the sword sticking through him.
The sword was erased into the void instantly. At the same time, thousands of swords made of light attacked the golden-haired man, but before any golden swords managed to touch him, green vines grew from the ground and wrapped around him, forming a protective cocoon of vines.
Emerging from the cocoon of vines, the golden-haired man looked different; three pairs of white wings had grown out of his back, and more and more of mana surged through his body. The laws around him warped and changed to accommodate him. The power of a quasi-god almighty had descended through this vessel on the battlefield.
Suddenly, the mana around them trembled violently for a fraction of a second, and then, in a chain reaction, the atmospheric mana exploded. As the explosion subsided, two angelic figures could be seen flying in the air, their auras clashing with each other.
The twelve deities were forced back even while doing their all to protect their armies from the horrifying explosion that had appeared out of nowhere, but even with the combined efforts of the twelve deities, almost half of their remaining army was killed. This fight was something that not even the twelve deities could interfere with.
The young man and the golden-haired man clashed violently, their attacks destroying surrounding planets and star systems. As the fight went on, the young man had a bad premonition and looked down. At the place where the sword had pierced his chest previously, now an ethereal red rose was growing, rapidly eating away his mana and life force.
Noticing that the young man had noticed what was happening, the golden-haired man said without emotion, "It's over. The longer the fight goes on, the weaker you become. Hand me the key, and don't waste my time."
A deep silence took over the battlefield, but then the silence was broken by a burst of laughter that sounded manic, even insane. The source of this laughter was the young man, he was laughing so hard that his back bent backwards. Holding on to his head, the young man shook uncontrollably, as if he was experiencing some kind of seizure. The golden-haired man became unnerved by the mad laughter, but he couldn't understand why he was feeling this way. It was clear that he had the upper hand, so why? Why was he getting a feeling of oppression from his younger brother that he hadn't felt in billions of years he had lived?
The stars around them started to shine brighter, and the starlight gathered towards the young man. Then, his aura started to grow rapidly. The space around him was consumed by a void forming around him, and he lost control of his power. The authorities under his control lashed out at the surroundings. A horrified expression appeared on the golden-haired man's face.
" Haha, elder brother, you are far too arrogant. I am the one but also the infinity. The beginning, and the end," The young man proclaimed madly, his expression that of ecstasy. He looked like he was high on drugs. Gabriel, the being that had descended to the golden-haired man's body, backed away instantly.
"Brothers and sisters, help!" Gabriel shouted in panic towards the sky, without hesitation. The situation had gone completely out of control. He hadn't expected, NO! No one had expected that Azrael, the young man in front of Gabriel, would become a true God-Almighty. While this was happening, the young man started to calm down, and his powers were under his control again, but there was a major change in his state. No aura or mana could be felt from him, as if he had transcended to a new plane of existence.
" Gabriel, you lost. Without descending in person, you cannot use the powers of god almighty," The young man spoke in a low voice. Just as the young man was about to kill Gabriel, the young man felt three gazes land on him. Looking up, he looked straight back and smiled, " So this was the reason you dared to do this stunt of yours, Gabriel."
Three rifts appeared in the sky, and three people walked through. Following their arrival, a terrifying pressure, a pressure so strong that it was enough to pulverize stars, descended on the battlefield. Two of them had three pairs of angelic wings on their back, while one of them had three pairs of demonic wings that resembled that of the bat's wings.
" Azrael, give it up already. You stand no chance against us," The angelic figure in front spoke. The angelic wings behind him were pitch black, and the surrounding light was eaten by the aura surrounding him. He had long black hair and void-like eyes.
" Eldest, isn't it below you to bully me, the youngest of us five?" Azrael joked around.
" You are a threat. Even though you are billions of years younger than us, you have already reached the realm of god almighty. This is the last chance to kill you before your powers stabilize fully, and I need the key, so hand it over right now," The black-haired man spoke solemnly.
" Then there is nothing for us to talk about anymore," Azrael said, melancholy.
...
"I'm sorry, Azrael. I didn't wish for it to come to this... Now tell me where the key is," The black-haired man spoke while looking down at Azrael, now on his knees. The other two people who had arrived with the black-haired man were standing behind Azrael, holding on to swords that were pierced through his collar bones, pinning him to the ground.
One of the two was a demon. He was the origin of all other demons, the ancient one. He had human-like features, but red runes ran through his back and arms, and behind his back were the three pairs of demonic wings.
The other person was an angel. She had fiery red hair, but the ends of her hair were pitch black. Where her eyes should have been, there were two hollow spots. She was the ender of everything, the singularity.
Laughing even in his current situation, Azrael said, "Asmodeus, do you want to know the funniest thing of all...I was the key."
"What do you mean you were the key?" Asmodeus asked the darkness around him, rippling slightly.
"Did you know that I'm in love with someone?" Azrael ignored Asmodeus' question and asked as if he were casually talking about his life with a loving older brother. A slight frown appeared on Asmodeus's face, but he didn't answer, waiting for Azrael to continue.
"She is a normal human, she couldn't even control man, but to me, she was the one who brought light, I met her while I was journeying in the mortal realm, and five years ago I made a decision, maybe father made same kind of decision back when he created everything. You might not know, but I had already reached the god almighty realm a million years ago. Back then, I realized that Father had made me the key, which meant that I was his successor. But five years ago, using the core of my existence, I conceived a child. Of course, I hadn't reached father's strength, so my cultivation regressed to quasi-god almighty, but in exchange, a being more perfect than even me was born, and he became the key," Azrael reminisced with a smile.
The expression of shock on Asmodeus's face changed to terror and then to indifference. " Very well, you have no use anymore," Asmodeus said while extending his hand toward Azrael. Darkness around him surged forward and consumed Azrael. His physical body turned to particles of light, but even the light was consumed until nothing was left.