Chapter 90: Arc 6: Angel Fall (1)

Above the tall majestic mountain of Montgomery. Up on the cropped white surface nestled the city on the mountainside. From it, the spire of light pierced the sky. It was a luminous flag-pole signaling the continuation of the war. With the sky glowing white, the ghostly army of angels descended.

Thus, began the event which history would record as the Angel Fall.

…

Inside the Residence of Lord, Ciel watched development with dull surprises from the Fountain of Divination.

Ciel had to ask himself what was there to be surprised about. He should have expected Maximus to pull something off. Maybe some part of him wanted to believe in Maximus’ better nature. He wanted to believe the massive loss of lives would be enough to sit both sides down on the discussion table.

Well, the tiny piece of him was dead wrong. The annihilation of Montgomery’s battle-force didn’t slow him down one bit.

The rest of his companions were equally baffled by this post-meal development.

“What the hell is that?” Xia, the official head wife, started the conversation. 

Caislean helped provide the answer, “Is that the Lord of Heaven?” As part of the Residence of Lord, she had knowledge about this particular Authority. “But that would mean Yume—“

“No,” Ciel dismissed the thought. “Yume had a ridiculous number of faults, but cowardice isn’t one of them. If he is alive, that guy would lead the attack to butcher in the Valley of the White Plains. My guess is this is Maximus rigging a remnant of Yume’s power.”

Carolina watched the image of the descending Angels and decided to ask what was in everyone's mind. She tried to imagine why no one touched on this important subject. Was it fear? Was everyone afraid of the power of the Yumeron Church’s Divine Emperor? Carolina — the Agent of Black — could understand. She herself felt inadequate at the religion everyone knew so well, yet understood so little.

“Yume’s Authority is called Lord of Heaven, isn’t it” Carolina confirmed the common knowledge before reaching for the next dreaded step. “What does it do?”

Life seemed to leave Ciel. The Unity Lord knew the Lord of Heaven’s ability like the back of his hand. He locked the knowledge in the back of his mind to escape from the hopeless reality. Among all the Authorities of his peers, Ciel considered the Lord of Heaven the most unbalanced. It was simple to explain, but nigh-hopeless to defeat.

Ciel had a plan for an opponent stopping time. He had a plan if the enemy could kill by writing his name on the notebook. The last month even had him develop a solution in case all his five senses got compromised by Magic Eyes or some mystical shenanigans.

But the Lord of Heaven still cast a massive shadow over him.

“It is quite a simple ability,” Ciel shared his opinion of how they would die. “The Lord of Heaven’s major property — its keystone — is the creation of Angels.”

Everyone heard that but missed the nuance.

“He was a minion creator like Slomrath?” Xia recalled how the Lord of Devouring Slime operated.

“It is similar,” Ciel nodded. “Except unlike Slimes, Angels have power equivalent to full-grown dragons and Yume could create multiple of them.”

“Oh,” Xia’s voice dropped several octaves. “Not good.”

“It gets better,” Ciel added in the despair called ‘context.’ “Yume could tailor his Angel for a specific task for extra adaptability.” He paused at the part he dreaded. “And each Angel counted as a worshiper.”

Betty’s pupils widened into a saucer, “He could create his own worshiper to provide faith? Are you kidding me?”

“I am glad you see that as a problem,” Ciel applauded Betty for reaching the conclusion. “Yume is a perpetual motion faith-generator. He can create Angels which provide faith, allowing him to create more angels to give him more faiths. His Authority generates a never-ending stockpile of resource. I simply can’t fathom how he could be beaten, and we still don’t even get to the Heaven Realm yet.”

“Heaven Realm?” Hikari repeated the word.

“It is like the Residence of Lord,” Ciel said. “An impenetrable dimension for Yume with the space to house his armada of Angels. Like us, Yume could retreat to his world the moment things go south and remain totally untouchable. He could sit on a chair in total safety while overwhelming anyone with waves after waves of Angels. Against that set up, defeating him is a nigh-impossible task.”

They glanced at the Fountain of Divination and watched the angel raining havoc on the Eastern Continent.

…

The massive war unleashed by Etaceh took the toll on the land.

Eleanor had fallen. Its refugees were offered as tributes to Maximus.

Montgomery also met the same faith as its lord deemed it useless.

Logically, only Intelligentsia would stand as the sole overlord of the land, but the angel quickly came to deny that statement from the realm of reality.

From the gate of light, appearing above Intelligentsia, countless Angels descended on the land. From their hands, the spear of light flew, shining the earth in the rain of destruction.

Ray of light mowed down the building and unsuspecting people. Defenses were crushed before they were raised. Buildings toppled from consecutive attacks which ravage the earth. Few shadows of the screams rose before being abruptly silent.

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Cities and settlements toppled across the last remaining nation of the East. It was a one-sided massacre in flames and fire. Ghostly Angels swept across cities after cities, destroying them in a mere moment and killing thousands in a bombing run of light.

The devastation occurred simultaneously with no method to stop it.

…

The group watched the city of Cutler being torn apart in explosions of light. Some mages dared to return fires at the winged entities of death, but it ended with them being ripped to pieces.

“Maximus could do that now?” Amy watched with dread. “Is there anything we can do?”

“We can defend against his assault,” Ciel said. “But for us to do any damage I need to pierce the Heaven Realm.”

…

Beneath a light pillar, a woman with the fiery crimson hair struggled on her knees.

A wall of light separated the former Red Archangel from her mission. The conical spire of light isolated Maximus from the rest of the world, leaving him untouchable as he rained destruction upon the planet.

That was why he let her go. Maximus was certain Apolline couldn’t breach this wall no matter what she did.

Apolline quickly deduced the futility of her action, but in the act of insanity, she didn’t change her method. The former Archangel searched the premise, digging out weapons from broadsword to halberd and bashed it against the wall. Her body was left with no Aura nor the strength to wield the Red Mana, but the woman persevered on from raw stubbornness.

Her action was futile, but the only thing failure did was escalate her method.

With hands blistered from numerous attempts at violence, the former Archangel rolled a siege ballista in front of the glowing wall, loaded the heavy munition by her arm strength and back muscle. Apolline glared hatefully at her target and fired the magic warhead into the impenetrable spatial wall.

The blast was stronger than she expected. Without her mighty Aura, equipped with less than half of her physical abilities, the frail and slowly dying Apolline was easily flung back by the explosion she created.

She staggered up and saw the end product of her toils.

The wall of light didn’t even have a scratch on it.

Apolline gritted her teeth.

If this was a test, it was the one she refused to give in.

…

The Angel of Red.

Many considered the Unity Lord a hero. Some called him a schemer and seducer. All agree he was a formidable intellect. Those were avid descriptions for the last—and arguably the most dangerous — Lord to enter the planet of Acceltra.

The Lord treated most of his title with utmost neutrality. He knew better than letting any of them hamper his focus. Alas, there was one title that elicited a disturbing sense of guilt from Ciel.

The Collector.

Even the Unity Lord couldn’t deny the unfortunate truth that many of his women were rare elites of Acceltra. He was also the only person since the dawn of history to make a harem of proud Color Transcendence mage from every mystic color.

Princess of White. Agent of Black. Voyager of Blue. Avatar of Green. Angel of Red.

It was the rare event so many Color Transcendence mages existed in the same era, but bedding them all was an accomplishment never heard of. The very fact the Residence of Lord remained intact inspite of such contrasting powerhouses was the feat of diplomacy and leadership that boggled the mind of monsters and geniuses.

Even among Color Transcendence, Angel of Red was considered the case of her own. Black and White had awakened from being prompted by the Unity Lord; an identical circumstance they hated to relate to each other. Blue and Green already achieved their unique status before even meeting their future husband face-to-face.

Angel of Red’s ascension as the Transcendence of Red Magic was a much more explosive fanfare. She was a unique case of the powder keg finally being ignited after much compression. History recorded that she returned from the brink with a vengeance. Many wanted to call her the Red Phoenix over the Angel of Red for this very circumstance.

The Angel Fall event was the historic tale that paved the road for the future of the Eastern Continent and the Era which was to come. It was the ultimate battle which made the Unity Lord become infamous among the world of Acceltra. As blood was shed and Angels swept the land, three Lords put everything they had to confront each other in wars which ended nations.

The Angel of Red rising to the sky that day represented more than another woman getting into the House of Lords. It dictated an end of an adventure and an opening of a new curtain.

The day she flew into the sky was the final page of the East’s long history.

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