The Rise Of The Morningstar (Eng. Version)

Chapter 77 - Angel of Wrath and Mercy

Chapter 77 – Angel of Wrath and Mercy

--- 2 days before the start of the war. ---

I knew I was dead because I stood in the exact spot where I had left this world the last time.

The green expanses looked just as they did in my memories. Too green to be natural. The colorful flowers so perfectly and evenly distributed that they almost seemed artificial. If this had been Earth.

The white staircase bowing before the clear blue sky and the soft white clouds hadn't changed either. The solitary tree, starkly contrasting with the rest of the surroundings, rose in all its splendor. Its canopy was so rich with leaves that one might have wanted to die under its branches, had oneself not already been beyond life.

A fresh, sweet scent surrounded me, caressing every fiber of my being with its warmth. A single breath revealed many distinct nuances within the aroma, fitting together like puzzle pieces into a dominant impression yet remaining clearly distinguishable. So clear that I could taste them on my tongue. Lavender. Sea salt. Immortelle. Spring breeze. Damp grass. Juicy apples. Cut roses. The pines behind my father's estate, enveloping you as soon as you took the first step into the forest. The warm skin of my mother when I pressed my cheek into the crook of her neck in an embrace.

To my left, a surprised gasp sounded, and as I whirled around, I saw Isabelle. She was gasping for air, overwhelmed, her wide pupils fixing on everything and nothing, trying to absorb it all as if she wanted to burn the image of this place onto her retinas forever. Silver tears shimmered in the corners of her eyes.

Every idyll we felt turned into a feeling of horror in the snap of a finger.

A strong gust of wind almost knocked us off our feet, swept away the lovely smell and changed the colors of the sky. As if watching a fast-forward recording, the sun suddenly shot over the horizon. It flew across the sky like a shooting star. The few clouds raced with it. Until they came to a sudden stop, making the world seem to continue to spin around me for a few seconds.

The cosmos was a fierce red, with a faint touch of amethyst violet at the edges of my vision. The formless cloud mass had grown, now occupying most of the view, like an impending storm. The sun had disappeared behind it, retreating into its hiding place, leaving only its intense, penetrating glow. It bathed the clouds in a light that seemed to cover every nuance of the orange color palette. From brilliant copper to dried blood. I felt as though I had stumbled into one of my mother's acrylic paintings.

And then he appeared before us. As if he had been standing there all along. In all his heavenly beauty, which we could barely comprehend with our mortal eyes. The furious, motionless expression made it clear that we were intruders on terrain we should never have set foot upon. A deed so blasphemous that even he hadn't expected to find us here.

We had drawn the wrath of the angels. One might think that in death there would be nothing left to fear, but that would have been a lie.

Apart from the sharp, searing anger that seemed to incinerate us on the spot, Ithuriel looked just as he had the last time. When he had sent me back into my body with the riddle of my powers. At least at first glance. It was as if he were constantly shifting — unable to maintain a form for more than a few seconds. Under the hellish expanses of the atmosphere, his usually soft, wide wings appeared angular and distorted. The red light turned his normally pearl-colored skin into an enraged mask, his piercing golden eyes searching for a victim.

And now I had used his power to come back here. Without permission. I hadn't even thought about what this uninvited human intrusion would mean to the angels. I was nothing. A nobody. I was playing with powers that could make me wish in a second that I had never existed.