For I Am A Side Character - 138: The Inevitable Happened.

“Uwwaaahh!!!!” in it’s infant-like cry, fire burned like never before…

And despair rose to a new high…

It felt like in that moment, God had abandoned the very world it created once this monstrosity was introduced into the mortal realm…

Its cries could be heard over the mountains…

For its very presence brought about the attention of every living existence that stood in that forest…

And the one who was found at the very bottom of its standing was me…I who found myself crushed under the foot of Adziel, was then found under the bottom of the malice-like creation known as the Red Factory…

“Hahaha, it’s arms have already burrowed itself deep into the grounds of this forest. It wont be long now before it finally holds deep into the core of this world and you wont have any way of ever taking away the very essence of its influence. You should know by now that even with your current powers, you can’t do anything to stop it.”

“I-Is this really what you want!!?” I asked him as I tried to force myself to escape his heavy body.

“Free will…the choice of acting on my own accord…this very decision I made was not a part of God’s Ethereal plan…but it points to the original thought…your death will surely bring us back to the original plan.”

“Following God’s plan…don’t you realize what lies at the end of it all?! haven’t you read it yourself!? You die at the very end of this volume…at the very hands of Jason himself…”

“Oh?…is that right?” he asked with a hint of curiosity in his tone.

But to his reply, I could see a smile on his face.

“!?”

“It seems as though from the very words you’ve said, you have yet to read all of them… but let me remind you, God’s plan isn’t a simple predictable story where the hero wins in the end…”

“…”

“In the end of this…well, lets say arc of the story. Jason won’t succeed against the demon king…and even before that, he won’t come to face me in battle…He’s far too weak as he is now to even be able to touch my skin at his strongest.”

‘He’s right…the second volume ends at the time when Jason and the others escape the corrupted world, after that, I have yet to read further into the other volumes. They survived…but they never came to make any large influences into their actions…as he is now, he can’t ever win.’

“Y-you’re saying that Jason won’t ever come to meet you?”

“That’s right…not here or ever in the future. My life…my community will live on to see the very end of this world’s destruction…and from it, we will stand beside the king himself.”

“…you…you hypocrite!”

“Hmm, you must be confused. The truth of it all is that the Demon King will come to claim the heavens…he will come to claim the rightful throne simply as it is written by God’s hand.”

“I…I thought you were loyal to God! I thought you followed in his plans out of respect!”

“I do not resent God…I adore him in fact. So to show my love for my creator, I must follow in his plans even if it goes against his life…that is the truth, and you’re to blinded by the fact that just because you were chosen by him doesn’t give you the right to interfere in his almighty plan!”

He stood over me with a vile expression.

Truly, this angel had lost his mind.

‘If Jason will never come to meet him ever in the books, then it has to be me to fix this issue! I need to fix God’s plan! It’s what I was brought here to do. I need to get rid of the Purity Cult once and for all!’

But even with all that I am now…it’s impossible.

My body could barely move a finger…

My heart could barely make a beat…

In the end, I could not live to his expectations…

“…” I turned my eyes away from Adziel even as he continued to step over me…

And he knew it as well…I was slowly walking towards death.

“…Are you scared of death?” he asked.

“I…I don’t know.” I said honestly.

“Hmm, you’re soul may pass away, but your flesh is still valuable enough to make armies.” he said.

And from it, he raised his hand and commanded the abomination up in the sky…

“Come, devour his flesh and make me an army to consume this world!”

And from his command, out from the Red factory, a tube made of flesh came descending down all up to my worn body…

“…” I could only stare at the flesh-tube…with its mouth dripping with saliva, it’s teeth grinding with ambition…it was ready to devour me…

But even still, I felt empty at the sight of my own death nearing.

It was weird how in every form of interaction I had when I was close to death, I never expected for anything other than fear and sadness to be expressed…but for when I was close to death against the demon, I laughed…

And now…

What kind of reaction will I express now?

“Devour him!”

And to his shout, the flesh-tube thrusted down to me, on my arm and swallowed it whole.

It was easily able to take apart my tough flesh…

The very nature of its strength as the Red Factory was a mystery to me, but all I know of is its objective.

To make ruin of my flesh…and make armies to devour the world.

The first to be swallowed was my right arm…next was my left arm…then my legs…

Until finally, what was left of me was my stomach, chest and head. Some parts of my intestines wwere poured out like soiled meat…and from it being spilled, I could see the infection caused by the demonic energy and the cracks.

It was unbelievable…despite being eaten slowly by this tube, I withstood the pain and continued breathing.

“I thought you would scream? Many men and women screamed when they came to be devoured by this child.” he said as he looked curiously at my condition.

“…Well, compared to them, I’m not really afraid for some reason.”

“Haha…you’re strange.”

“H-How so?” I asked as I was bleeding and slowly turning pale.

“Everyone is afraid of death…even to me as an Angel.”

“…Hmm, maybe I’m just born different.”

“…No, it might be because of the influence brought upon by the house of shadows. I know some of their ways. To be numbed by the encounter of death…the house of shadows is really an odd sort assembled in God’s plan.”

“Let me ask you…before I die…in God’s plan that you’ve read, will the house of Shadows be involved?”

“Oh yes…God’s plan for them was quite enticing…although I wasn’t involved in the plan per say, all I can tell you is that they’ll meet the same faith as you one day. Dead and Forgotten like a shadow should.”

“…I see.”

As I closed my eyes, the flesh-tube then turned its way to my heart…

With a single thrust of its mouth, it dug deep into my chest and ripped out my heart like so…

It was there that I knew I died.

Everything turned black all too easily and all as I expected…

***

As Soril’s body was quickly being devoured by the flesh-tube, Adziel looked to what remained..

His head…

The fact that he didn’t feared death even to the end made him nervous…but seeing as how he had died in his witness, the feeling of uncertainty faded away. In his reactions, maybe those were simply how the house of shadows looks to death. It is nothing but an end, so to worry is pointless.

And now, with his head remaining to be the last evidence of his physical existence, Adziel raised his feet. And without any sort of hesitation, he crushed him entirely in a quick action.

Blood, flesh, skull and brains scattered down on the ground…

And seeing his end, Adziel smiled calmly.

What only remained was a single eye ball that rolled next to his sandals.

“…” eyes as black as the night yet slightly bluish like the waters in the ocean…beautiful on its own way, yet he was reviled by the thought of who it was owned by.

“Haa…Now that the Variable is gone, I can finally turn back to what God had originally planned.”

And from it, he spread his wings wide and open and flew into the sky faster than light.

But right before he could leave the forest, out of nowhere, something flew pass by him…something that was faster than him…

*Fwooosh~–!*

Hotter than the sun…

Brighter than the light provided by the sun…

And a felt anger more enraging than a demon…

Something flew pass him…something that he shouldn’t have enraged.

Before he knew it, he was grabbed by his face and he was forced back to the ground.

“!!?” he could barely take the time to think when he found himself slamming against the very ground he once stood.

He could feel it…the bits of flesh and brain from Soril’s head on his back…staining his robes…

“??” he was curious…

How was it possible?

And as he asked this question, all of a sudden, up above the air, a beautiful yet enraged queen of fire was seen before him.

“W-who are you?” he asked in pure curiosity for he could not recognize this character.

“My beloved…where have you taken him?” she asked in the tone of an enraged goddess.

Her voice echoed all around…

And from her very presence, he felt a holiness inside her that was unlike anything he has ever witnessed.

“W-what are you?”

“Where is my dearly beloved!” she screamed at him.

But all he could express in return was confusion.

And to his confusion, her flames only grew brighter…her rage even more fiercer…

“RaaaaghhH!!” she screamed in rage and flew at him like a fiery spear in the dress of a fiery bird…

A phoenix of fury…

As quick as Adziel could in escaping her rage, she did not allow him to flee.

Before he could leave, she struck him in his chest.

“Khk!” he struggled as her hands that were raging with flames, pierced through like a hot knife passing through butter.

Her flames were so fierce that all of his clothes, his robes were burned in an instant. Leaving only what seemed like armor crafted from the heavens.

“WHERE IS HE!!” She screamed as she was able to grab hold of his own heart.

Being held hostage, with his heart surrounded by her palm, held tight like a lock with no key, he felt willing to answer her question.

“W-who are you looking for?” he asked.

“…My beloved.” she said.

“B-beloved?”

“Soril.” she spoke his name.

“!?” and from hearing his name, Adziel’s eye twitched in fear.

“Where is he…” she asked.

“I…I don’t-

Right as before he could deny her an answer, she squeezed her flaming hand.

“Aghh!” and he screamed in pain.

As she softened her grip after, it gave Adziel a bit of time to think.

‘Who is she…and how could someone like her exist without me knowing? This was never mentioned in God’s plan…so how?’

Adziel…for all his knowledge gained from reading God’s plan, he may be able to recognize most of the characters more than Soril could ever do. He may have a better understanding of the story, but not once has he ever taken consideration the fact that Soril’s influence in the world had already gone deep enough that some of his knowledge gained from God’s plan are now of no use.

‘If she’s looking for Soril…she must have a connection towards him. But the way she calls him her beloved…what does that mean? Soril is nothing but a boy! And I know nothing of his origins other than the fact that he is a variable blindly chosen by God! Does he have connections outside of God’s plan…and her power…it’s holy…divine and powerful…but nothing like God’s.’

Adziel was confused.

Who was this person?

Clearly from her entire visage, she was nothing like what was described in any of God’s plan…

A phoenix…

But of fire? The only person to ever come close to that connection was a single person.

‘It can’t be…Jessabelle Morrison?’

But that couldn’t be the case.

Adziel knows that she was nothing more than a person who was blessed with a Birth skill known as the Fallen Phoenix Feather…

‘It shouldn’t be possible…she’s not yet able to reach this level of power unless she had awakened. But for her to awaken, it should have taken her years of training…but how? Only a few days ago, she had yet to fully bring out the start of her powers with the help of a potion, yet now she is at a level far greater than my own.’

Adziel doubted the possibility…but to what reason was this possible? What form of explanation was this possible?

To his own ego and trust in God’s plan, he was blind to the idea of something outside of it.

Something that had diverted from God’s plan long ago.

As Adziel was cornered, all of a sudden, something stared at the furious woman from the side.

A single eye ball who once was owned by the man she loved.

”!!” her heart broke at the sight of that familiar gaze.

For all the lives that the phoenix had lived…only those eyes were ever so familiar to her…

“N-no!” her legs shook in shock and fear

Her heart sank in despair

And her rage grew a thousand times over.

Without hesitation, she gave no mercy towards the Fallen Angel.

“Burn…for the sins you’ve committed!!” she said in an echoey voice, almost similar to that of the divine.

And from her words…Adziel was engulfed with flames that could not be put out.

Quickly, the fire climbed all up to his golden hair…

But right before she could devour his entirety, all of a sudden she felt an ominous presence behind her.

As she quickly turned, she found a dozen ten feet naked giants with weapons made of flesh and bone standing before her.

With their flesh as grey as rotten meat, they stood with an infamous gaze of sin and negativity.

And all but a sudden act, they jumped her.

But she raised her hand and quickly burned them away.

In that moment, Adziel took his chance to escape.

Even as his skin and flesh burned, he showed no reaction…his thoughts were only clear to the idea of escaping this woman.

So, with how she was holding on to his heart in a grotesque manner, he took the gamble of risking his life.

He held her forearm and pushed away. As he did, she noticed quickly and tried to burn his heart.

In that moment, when he pushed himself away from her even as she held on to his heart, half of his heart was stretched apart. And as it was stretched apart, she tried burning his heart in that instant, but it was too late…

He had escaped her clutches…and not long after, two dozen more giants came about carrying weapons made of flesh to distract her.

“Khk!” he tried to contain the pain, but with how enraged she was, her grip was not easy to lose.

In return of his gamble, half of his heart was burned when he escaped.

But being a being that was not mortal, he could survive this much damage. All he had to do in the end was leave and escape this phoenix-raged stranger.

As he escaped, the giants tried to make time for his escape, but not a second has passed and they were already burned to a crisp again. As easy as it was as snapping her finger, she controlled her flames like an extension of her body.

Their arrival wasn’t enough to help him escape…

‘Shit!’ he thought…

As he felt cornered yet again, all of a sudden, a demon came about from the skies…

With blades that densely made of demonic energy, the demon attacked the fiery woman.

That coincidence gave him the chance to finally escape.

‘A second…a second is enough!’ he thought.

And as quick as he could, using his own set of skills, he flew faster than before with his wings…

And as he escaped, the demon battled with the fiery woman…

Annoyed, she wanted to burn him quickly, but right before she could, the demon threw a few slashes made of pure demonic energy, when she dodged, what came about behind her was a man carrying two swords made of darkness.

She was yet again confused by this stranger’s arrival, but yet as she got a closer look at this stranger, she realized who he was.

‘Cecil?!’

Despite never ever meeting in this life, her past lives encountered this man many times.

After all, he was the sworn brother to her beloved Soril.