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“ T RI-IR E D ”
Humanity's biggest sin isn't to hate, kill or lie, it's existing while taking it for granted. That's the common saying within hosts of angels, they think so low of them ever since that day. Each century, year, month, and day their faiths slowly dwindle down. All lost their patience cooperating with humanity's insufferable lives.
It wouldn't take long until the great one lost their undying patience. On that day, heaven abandoned humanity, and demons finally roamed the entire world attacking and devouring leaving millions devastated and entire countries destroyed. They called it, " The World Purging ". There were also other angels who were not so fond of this idea of disregarding the human race. Guardian Angels and more thought that giving up faith isn't the way to punish humans, even the messiah agreed to that notion.
However, humanity would keep making them look like the worst of themselves. They adapted making their own armies and burning anything that had a hint of religion spitefully from the fact that God had abandoned them. Some of their kind had provided them with talismans and seals before, they simply reconstructed it as weapons and mass produced them. Slowly, they rebuilt their society under God's burning wrath. Religion was no longer a concept to them, instead it was an offensive reminder of their failure.
One angel saw, her eyes couldn't be swayed away from humanity's progression in the chaotic world they lived in. Rebelling against God's command of leaving humanity to itself, she descended with a single black wing. Silently she watched and lived, and tried persuading the world to lean to God even fight alongside them. It was futile and she was labeled a lunatic, but her faith remained as sturdy as steel.
Millennium after The World Purging, in an empty street, a group of teenagers roamed around ignoring curfew warnings. They stealthily evaded the troops nearby whilst laughing out of sheer ignorance. One of them ran into a grassy plain only to look below, a crater with flesh splattered everywhere.
Hiyuki: “ Oi, guys, over here look what I found! ”
Dezun: “ Cool! Did the Troops do this? I wanna drop down. ”
A girl with glasses was by far different compared to her friends. Instead of staring in awe like the rest, she was worried about what those humps of flesh might be or belong to. Dezun, the bald friend slides down with Jack poking the meat with the sticks they found littered around the ground.
Jack: “ Damn, that's so fucking disgusting, it's still throbbing. ”
Kaniko: “ Guys, I don't think we're supposed to play with that, aren't we supposed to make a dash to the underground karaoke? ”
Yagi: “ Don't be such a damn downer. ”
Said their blonde friend who kept the mood fine without scorning someone. Her tone was playful, everyone was having fun and Kaniko is supposed to follow along with it. Their meddling got to the point where they decided to light the piles of flesh on fire with a lighter. Instantly, it grew in flames leaving the group astounded.
Yagi: “ Huh, what's that there? ”
A man with a goat head wearing a flesh colored robe stands afar watching them. The winds started blowing harshly, Kaniko grabbed Yagi's hand and tried pulling her away which doesn't work.
Kaniko: “ Yagi! Please we need to go! ”
Begging as Yagi kept staring in complete shock. The others started climbing out of the crater only for the goatman to appear behind Jack, towering him. Its hand digs into the back of his neck as it pulls out Jack's head along with his spine leaving everyone shocked and petrified in fear.
Their flight response kicks in but running was useless against the goatman. Pouncing the back of one, using his fingers to carve a sigil before rushing at the others doing the same as well. The sigil reacts before transforming the victim into a hump of bloated flesh with mutated limbs and such.
Before Yagi and Kaniko could escape, Yagi was smashed into a pulp leaving Kaniko to fall staring at her mutated friends begging for help. Not only were they aware of who they were killing but they were also in constant agony during those forms.
Kaniko: “ Hiyuki, don't, don't do it please!! ”
Hiyuki: “ I can't! I- I'm sorry! ”
Kaniko cries as Hiyuki attempts to dig his enormous claws right through Kaniko. A shockwave erupts and a mysterious individual grabs the dense parts of the claws blocking the attack successfully. A woman with long black hair and white eyes. She looked like a high schooler the same age as Kaniko. The goatman watches, it bleats monstrously commanding everyone to attack the woman.
Using sheer strength alone, it moves Hiyuki's claw up before whipping out a gun with a blade under the muzzle, a bayonet. She thrusts through with blood gushing out. Her movements were too fast for the mutated. What's worse for them is that she used her long bayonet slashing, dismembering the limbs and disarmed them before they could comprehend her speed. A single one was left, and his body was still attached to the mutation, and he begs Kaniko to save him in great desperation.
Sorashi: “ Please! Kaniko, save me! It hurts! ”
Kaniko was speechless, seeing Sorashi crawl right at her left a deep impact in her mentality. She was frozen in place. Before Sorashi could even reach Kaniko, the woman stepped on his head pointing her bayonet at his head with just one hand.
Kaniko: “ Wait, don't! He can still be saved! ”
???: “ I wouldn't be so sure, you burned the demon's meal and this mark remains permanently engraved into one's shell till they're killed. ”
Kaniko: “ We're sorry! ”
Sorashi: “ Please! We're sorry about that! Please spare me! ”
The woman's eyes narrowed, her finger pulled the trigger of her bayonet without hesitation. Sorashi dies the instant the blade gets lodged into his head.
???: “ There was no other way, consider it as an act of mercy for how stupid you kids are... But still, you all just needed to learn a lesson. Deaths like these are unjust for your youth. ”
Goatman was all alone, he's entirely backed up in a wall as a black wing sprouts out behind the angel's waist. Kinako was stunned, she unexpectedly was an angel sent to save her, or so she believes. Instantly, she dashes at the Goatman and they both clash with their weapons and claws. The woman evaded most of the attacks as the Goatman ruthlessly threw everything he had.
Blocking with one hand and delivering a straight punch that causes the goatman's nose to bleed. Feeling great pain, he retreats only for the woman to grab his leg and slam him on the other side. A single stomp pierces his stomach making it bleed profusely.
Goatman: “ Y-you're an angel! Why would angels kill humans let alone have one wing that's tainted pure darkness?! ”
In his last breaths, he spent it all in curiosity. Clearly the woman wasn't so interested in talking, after all, it's a demon she's facing and demons are angel's enemies.
???: “ There's a difference between doors and walls, one opens and the other leads to a dead end. ”
With a singular stomp to the head, the Goatman was splattered. Cold breezes followed, and the sounds of sirens from a distance. The angel stares at the beaming moon with a melancholic face. Her mind still littered in questions that ultimately attack her purpose. Kaniko felt a little vengeful, using the last ounces of her courage, she pulled out a phone. Immediately opening the camera app, she points it at the angel who stares back.
She was unsurprised. Instead of the camera focusing, it distorts leaving Kaniko confused. It only briefly flashed images of the angel with her one wing out.
Kaniko: “ What's happening?! ”
???: “ You spite me to the extent that you're willing to capture my face and share it with the world? I fear you humans are hopeless. ”
Kaniko started shaking again, her tears flowing out of pure regret and grief. The angel was desensitized by it, violence had become a norm that not expecting it would feel like blatant ignorance. Killing corrupted humans was indeed wrong but there doesn't seem to be a way for it.
Kaniko: “ Why didn't you just save them, aren't you an angel? Answer me!”
Spoke as her tears started running down. The world had lost faith in God as much as he lost faith unto them. She could feel the anger emerging out of Kaniko but she isn't bothered on giving her a life lesson. Walking out was her only option, as she does so, Kaniko pressed the button with great dejection and seething rage. Only for her to get knocked out by a soldier with just a clean chop to the back.
Shige: “ Don't just walk out yet, how the hell am I gonna clean up and explain about this? ”
A familiar, the soldier takes his helm off revealing a man within the age of thirty. Looking around, it was a hassle for him to clean up huge piles of bodies, especially the ones that had turned into enormous mutants. He lets out a sigh before approaching the angel.
Shige: “ At least be decent for once, help a buddy? ”
Uncertain, the angel stares at the bloodied soil and grass. Her boots, tainted with brain matter. Her weapon still dripping of blood. She was unaware that Shige was just joking, but the word help makes her contemplate why she even bothered heading on the land of living if the living are all sick in the head.
???: “ I don't know if I can help, I chose to help but it led to nothing and me endlessly dancing around your kind doing the opposite to what I had hoped. What is there to do when your own kind can't help but kill themselves? ”
Shige: “ Didn't you say that not all of you lost faith? I admit keeping an angel down in this place, not you, was a sick idea to craft talismans and shit for weapons which was the final straw- and what I mean by sick is- ”
???: “ Blasphemous? Stupid? Horrible? ”
Shige: “ All three... There'll always be a time where things might go a little up and at em. I waited years or decades to get my faith back, and then you came. Ever since then, I was very thankful. It's just a matter of dedication to your mission. ”
The angel recalled her time before descending. Discussions about the fate of humanity and she was there waiting to say something. While her side defended, the others attacked bringing up points that criticize the race.
Priests joining into temptations, surrendering into the devil's grasp, pride of leaders affecting those beneath them, they had more to say and the ones who tried believing in humans were silent. It was only her who had the thought of reaching down upon them. Little did she know, it took three wings and her beliefs just shine light upon the very beings she had believed in.
Shige walks off to the loud sirens hearing commands and radio static. Angel gives him a soft smile. His words were like a challenge she was never afraid of taking. The sole existence of this man is evidence that she didn't abandon her mission nor had failed it. Small steps is what it'll only take to reach greater heights.
???: “ Do you actually mean what you're talking about? ”
Shige: “ Whatever is there to make that smile of yours appear, besides it's better to lighten up even when the world is ugly. ”
Everything felt uplifting from there, Shige had given a once sacred angel faith, again. All she wanted was assurance that her mission was indeed working even if it took million years. Progress, just a sign of progress even as tiny bits, it's still progress to her.
Shige: “ Also noticed that you didn't use your shotgun. ”
???: “ But I did. I perfectly utilized my bayonet like countless- ”
Shige: “ Okay okay okay, I get it... Now out you go or they huddle up all over you. ”
Saying goodbye, the angel was content with her talk. There was nothing more for her to do. Hearing Shige sigh about having to deal with the mess makes her feel comically bad about him. However, clean-up isn't something she is worried about, that's not her priority.
Instantly, the angel flies out in a blitz and Shige wears his helmet. Greeting everyone of his comrades. What was left in the gruesome scene, were bodies, blood, innards, the distorted blurry picture and a black feather that slowly turned white. From a nihilistic perspective, it changed into a question she is very much determined to answer.
Would this world ever change?
TØ BE CONTINUED...