Chapter 33
Chapter 33
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: The Fall of Sodomora
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The one who appeared before her.
Seraphim.
As she gazed at him suddenly appearing to restrain her,
Arcroyal was momentarily seized by deep confusion.
Stop?
What exactly was he telling her to stop?
Was he telling her to stop inflicting pain on this hideous being?
No... that couldn't be.
This creature was evil.
The root cause of all this tragedy,
the evil that had driven countless children to their deaths.
Why was Seraphim trying to stop her from passing judgment on it?
[No... that can't... this beast, worse than any animal, deserves even more suffering...]
Doubting his words,
and feeling defiance,
Arcroyal tried once more to inflict pain on the soul of this hideous being gripped in her hand.
At that moment.
[Arcroyal... please...]
[!]
The desperate voice that reached her ears.
It was like
a father's voice pleading with his daughter.
It began to touch her heart clearly.
[Please... stop now... Don't destroy yourself any further... I don't want to lose you like this...]
[Wha... what...]
She couldn't fully grasp what Seraphim was saying.
Lose her?
What did that mean?
She was only trying to do what was right...
Avenge the children who had been slaughtered and tormented by this one's hands.
How could that
possibly destroy her?
Yet,
though she couldn't understand it...
she could believe it.
She believed the words of the one who had always guided her...
The warm hand that had held her foolish, weak self.
Surely this time too, there was some profound reason.
Something her foolish eyes couldn't see.
So Arcroyal
acted according to his words.
[...Under... stood...]
Suppressing her emotions with great difficulty.
Arcroyal painstakingly returned the soul she held in her hand,
the soul of Gay, the culprit behind it all,
back into its body.
"Kuh-huuk! Huuk! Huuuuk!..."
Gay gasping for breath, drenched in agony.
But ignoring him completely now,
Arcroyal approached her master standing before her.
[Seraphim... I... I...]
Arcroyal opened her mouth in a stammering voice.
Where should she start explaining?
Should she recount everything that had happened since arriving here?
Or...
Confess her foolish actions in naively offering her blood to humans first?
Either way, she felt a duty to confess her sins, struggling to continue speaking.
At that moment.
[Well done.]
[...Se... Seraphim...?]
[You did very well... my child... my Arcroyal...]
With a voice filled with joy and relief.
Seraphim extended his massive, pure white arm and pulled her body into an embrace.
Feeling the peaceful sensation it brought,
Arcroyal realized something within her heart was vanishing.
[!... Huh?]
It was something she hadn't even noticed herself.
Hatred, despair, and madness.
Realizing that these sticky residues filling her heart were slowly fading away,
Arcroyal was gripped by profound shock for a moment.
The fact that she had nearly crossed a truly dangerous river.
If she had gone just a little further here...
She, an angel, might have become something from which there was no return.
But that shock was brief.
Soon, deep sorrow followed,
and tears welled up in her eyes.
[Ah... Ah... Aah...]
Tears streaming down her cheeks with pained groans.
As guilt crashed over her, burying her mind,
Arcroyal began to sob bitterly in Seraphim's arms.
Thinking of the children born from her mistake.
Children who knew neither the happiness nor joy they deserved.
Children who had only become playthings for those wicked ones and died.
[I'm... sorry... Truly... I'm so sorry... Because of me... My fault...]
She sank into a swamp of sorrow, shedding tears of repentance.
For those dying children.
As a fleeting yet earnest prayer.
And so,
the weeping little angel.
Seraphim simply held her silently and soothed her.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ According to scripture, the Lord said this:
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
When I first read that, I couldn't understand why.
Revenge against evil deeds is just.
Sinners must pay the price,
necessary not just for my own solace, but for society's stability.
But not long after.
I found the answer in a completely different place.
He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.
The idea that those who swing the sword at evil will one day be stained by it.
A famous quote from Nietzsche, the German philosopher known for declaring God is dead.
Ironically, from the words of one who denied God,
I understood the meaning of the Lord's words...
The reason for loving your enemies.
This wasn't a story for the wicked from the start.
To protect.
To keep those with noble hearts from being stained by sin and falling.
To prevent self-inflicted wounds from the double-edged sword of revenge.
And now,
I could see that meaning with my own eyes.
Arcroyal, drenched in blood, torturing a human soul.
For a moment, her appearance was so horrific it could no longer be called angelic.
The ominous holy power emanating from her at the same time.
Cold and cruel.
A chilling force laced with clear madness.
I knew instinctively what it meant.
Corruption.
Like the fallen star (Lucifer) cast from heaven.
The phenomenon of a noble angel being defiled and broken.
And this phenomenon
made me halt Arcroyal's act of 'righteous punishment' at this moment.
To protect.
Not those things rightfully burning in hellfire.
To protect my precious child from being stained by that filth.
Forcing it was impossible.
Preventing corruption could only be done by her own will.
So I persuaded her...
And fortunately, the child who clung to a thread of reason accepted it.
Thus, in the final moment,
without crossing that dangerous line, Arcroyal now wept in my arms.
After letting her rest peacefully for a while.
I slowly ascended into the sky.
And
extended my senses.
The souls numbering over ten thousand below.
Those with souls similar to mine,
clearly perceptible, I grasped their positions.
And...
{Huh?}
{Wha... what?}
Immediately after, the children rose high into the sky by my magic, their faces showing doubt and bewilderment.
From tiny girls to those with somewhat mature appearances.
Different ages, but all angels bearing an uncanny resemblance to Arcroyal.
After safely lifting all ten thousand plus into the sky.
I spoke to them with the authority of a Seraph.
[Fear not.]
{!}
My declaration, of their kind
yet of higher rank.
In response, awe began to dawn on their once-cold, dead expressions.
After calming the children.
My gaze turned to the place below me.
The city where unforgivable evils had been committed in the name of experiments.
And the place filled with unspeakable debauchery and luxury to slake the bloodlust.
A den of pure sinners, with no karma-positive beings left except the angels I had lifted and the ten-odd holy knights who had just fled the city.
Sodomora.
Gazing upon it.
I gathered holy power with utterly cold, unflinching judgment.
A place brimming with sins deserving punishment.
Though I had stopped Arcroyal's bloody vengeance,
their fate was already sealed, separately.
Not personal revenge,
nor born of anger.
The natural law, cold and impartial.
What I did was merely hasten the result,
bestow 'mercy' so that things already thoroughly corrupted wouldn't rot and fester further.
Nothing more, nothing less.
[I shall bring upon you the punishment you deserve. With sulfur and fire.]
A chilling declaration as I gathered holy power.
As a result, a small sphere formed before my eyes.
Basketball-sized, it suddenly radiated intense heat and brilliant light.
The crystallization of sulfur and fire made with holy power for judgment.
In modern terms,
the seed of a small star born from nuclear fusion.
A means to erase that cursed place in an instant.
Though below still teemed with sinners whom even death wouldn't absolve, per Arcroyal's words, there was no need to worry about that.
Though they claimed otherwise with their mouths
and thought their bodies had grown accustomed.
They themselves had long known full well...
If they died,
their destination could only be hell.
They knew better than anyone that the price of their sins
would come without mercy the moment they faced death.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The blue sky visible before his eyes.
Gazing at it, Great Mage Gay felt a thread of relief bloom in his heart.
'I... I survived.'
The horrific pain from moments ago still twisted his guts.
But he had survived in the end.
He didn't know how, but he was alive.
And with that, Gay composed his emotions once more, reigniting his inner drive.
'Yes... This must be Baal God saving me! A revelation to complete His research! Good... Though heavily damaged, the research data remains intact. By sheer luck, I created a great seraph just now. If I start over methodically from the beginning...?'
At that instant.
A sudden warm heat drew Gay's gaze straight to the sky.
Something shining brilliantly.
As it slowly descended from on high, questions
and curiosity filled Gay's mind.
'Wha... what is that? What the hell is that glowing thing...'
Puzzled, he unwittingly stepped toward it.
The heat growing ever more intense, hard to bear.
Yet despite the foreboding discomfort, his scholarly curiosity drew him ever closer.
And
the moment it finally arrived right before him.
"! Th... this is... sta..."
-Flash!
The intense heat that erupted in that instant.
With it, Gay's thoughts ceased.
The vast world he had built.
The time of the city called Sodomora.
Ended with it.