Chương 115: 114: Angel Of Death, Maybe

The cabin sat at the edge of the forest, nestled between ancient pines and the winding curve of a frozen river. Morning light filtered through frost-covered windows, casting pale ribbons of gold across the worn wooden floor. The fireplace crackled softly, its warmth pushing back the lingering mountain chill. Four campers packed their gear.

"Did anyone remember the coffee?" Mila asked, her voice still heavy with sleep. Tall and lean, she wore her sun-streaked brown hair in a messy ponytail, a silver ring glinting through her left eyebrow. Her unzipped hiking jacket revealed a faded band shirt beneath.

"I brought instant," Sasha replied with a yawn.

"It's in my bag." She was shorter, freckled, her bright red hair tucked beneath a woollen beanie, her smile never far away.

"Instant coffee," Leon sighed.

"We drove three hours into the wilderness... for instant coffee." Broad-shouldered and bearded, he looked more suited to lifting logs than hiking around them. Sasha grinned.

"Next time, you carry the espresso machine." Dmitri said nothing. He quietly rolled up his sleeping bag with practiced precision. Tall, dark-haired and calm, he carried himself with the stillness of someone who wasted neither words nor movement.

"The forecast promised clear skies," Leon said, glancing toward the frosted window.

"Still don't trust it. These mountains make their own weather."

"Since when are you a meteorologist?" Mila teased.

"Since I got soaked three times in one afternoon."

"That's bad luck."

"That's experience." Sasha laughed.

"You two sound like an old married couple."

"We're not arguing," Leon replied.

"I'm explaining why I'm right." Mila snorted.

"You keep telling yourself that." Dmitri finally looked up.

"We should leave soon. Ice softens by midday. Rocks begin to move."

"Always optimistic," Leon muttered.

"Realistic."

"Same thing." Sasha opened her mouth to answer. KRAAAAAASH! The roof exploded inward. A body crashed through the beams, blasting timber, ash and splinters across the cabin. It smashed into the stone fireplace, scattering burning logs across the floor before coming to rest amid broken masonry and smoke. For a heartbeat, nobody moved. Leon screamed first.

"HOLY SHIT!" Sasha stumbled backwards, tripping over her sleeping bag. Mila clapped a hand over her mouth. Dmitri simply stared, his calm grey eyes suddenly wide. Smoke drifted through the room. The figure shifted. As the dust settled, they finally saw him. White, wavy hair spilled across the floor like fresh snow, streaked with soot and ash. His skin was impossibly pale, almost luminous beneath the firelight, marked by dark cobalt blood. Every feature looked sculpted with impossible precision. High cheekbones.

A powerful jaw. Perfect lips parted just enough to reveal silver-blue grills that gleamed with every shallow breath. Rings circled his fingers. One arm rested inside a shimmering cast woven from solidified violet light. Even unconscious, he looked unreal. His lean frame was wrapped in torn, bloodstained clothing that failed to hide the dense, defined muscle beneath. Every line of his body suggested impossible strength, the sort that belonged to statues of forgotten gods rather than living men.

"Is..." Sasha whispered.

"Is that a person?"

"It's a corpse," Leon blurted.

"That's definitely a corpse."

"It's breathing," Mila corrected quietly, watching the slow rise and fall of his chest. Dmitri frowned, looking from the shattered roof to the stranger.

"How?" he murmured.

"He fell through a roof... from hundreds of metres up... and he's barely injured." Sasha's eyes widened.

"Maybe he's an angel." Leon stared at her.

"An angel?"

"He fell out of the sky. He's beautiful. He has white hair..."

"That's a demon," Leon replied immediately.

"Demons are pretty. That's how they trick you." Mila ignored both of them. She stepped closer and slowly knelt beside the stranger. Her fingers brushed a strand of white hair away from his face before resting lightly against his shoulder. Her eyes widened.

"He's..." she whispered.

"He's solid."

"What?"

"His muscles." She swallowed.

"It's like touching steel wrapped in skin." Sasha hurried over, crouching beside her.

"No way..." She carefully pressed two fingers against his forearm.

"Oh my God."

"What?" Leon asked.

"He's not built like a person." Leon hesitated.

"We should call for help."

"There's no signal," Mila answered without looking away.

"Besides..." She studied the unconscious stranger again.

"... look at him." Sasha nodded slowly.

"I've never seen anyone this beautiful." She instinctively reached for her phone.

"I'm taking pictures."

"Don't," Dmitri warned.

"If he isn't human..."

"Exactly why I need proof." Leon stepped closer, keeping his distance.

"We should be careful."

"He's unconscious," Mila replied.

"He's not hurting anyone."

"Yet." Silence settled over the cabin. Only now did they really look at him. Leon frowned.

"…Those shoes."

"What about them?" Sasha asked.

"They look expensive."

"They are expensive," Mila murmured, leaning closer.

"That leather… I've only seen shoes like that in magazines." Sasha noticed something else.

"His nails." Everyone looked. Every fingernail had been painted, immaculate despite everything he had crashed through.

"He paints his nails?" Sasha whispered.

"…That's actually kind of cool," Mila admitted. Dmitri's attention drifted lower.

"He's wearing rings." Silver bands circled nearly every finger, each crafted differently, some engraved with tiny geometric patterns that seemed almost too intricate to have been made by human hands.

"They don't look cheap," Leon observed.

"They look custom." Mila carefully brushed another lock of white hair away from his ear. She froze.

"…Earrings." Tiny chess pieces hung from each ear, a king on one side, a queen on the other, both polished until they gleamed in the firelight.

"A chess set…" Sasha breathed.

"Who wears chess earrings?"

"A rich person?" Leon guessed. Sasha leaned a little closer as the unconscious stranger's lips parted with another slow breath. Silver-blue metal caught the light.

"…Wait." She blinked.

"He has grills."

"What?"

"He has grills!" Leon crouched despite himself.

"…Those aren't fake."

"They're silver," Mila whispered.

"No…" Dmitri corrected quietly.

"Silver and sapphire." For a long moment, nobody spoke. Designer shoes. Perfectly painted nails. Custom rings. Chess earrings. Sapphire grills. Everything about him looked impossibly expensive, impossibly deliberate, as though even unconscious he had wandered out of a luxury catalogue. Sasha slowly shook her head.

"I don't think angels are supposed to have this much drip." Leon folded his arms.

"Maybe rich angels do."

"You're telling me Heaven has fashion designers?" Mila smiled despite herself.

"If it does…" She looked back at the unconscious stranger.

"…they definitely dressed him." Silence settled over the cabin. Sasha looked at the stranger's pale face, then at his slightly parted lips.

"I think..." Before anyone realised what she was doing, she leaned down. She sealed her mouth over his.

"Mouth-to-mouth!" she mumbled without pulling away. Leon blinked.

"He's breathing." Sasha continued anyway. For far longer than mouth-to-mouth actually required. The kiss lingered. Sasha's lips moved against his, slow and deliberate. Mila's jaw dropped. Leon stared in utter disbelief.

"What the hell are you doing?" he shouted. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

"He needs air!" Sasha replied, pulling back only long enough to lean in again.

"He's breathing!"

"I'm making sure!"

"You're kissing him!" A pulse erupted from the stranger. WHUMP. The shockwave hurled Sasha backwards, sending her skidding across the wooden floor. Mila stumbled to her feet, heart hammering. Leon snatched up a length of firewood and held it like a club. Dmitri stepped in front of the others, hands raised instinctively. The cabin began to tremble. The fireplace groaned. The walls shuddered.

Heavy waves of invisible pressure rolled through the room, each pulse pressing against their chests until breathing became difficult. The warmth felt unnatural, immense, like standing beneath the surface of a newborn star. As abruptly as it had begun...... it stopped. The stranger stirred. He rose slowly from the shattered fireplace, every movement smooth despite the blood staining his clothes. Violet eyes opened beneath strands of white hair, luminous irises sweeping across the room with calm, predatory precision.

Nobody breathed.

"Oh my God..." Sasha whispered.

"His eyes..." Mila murmured.

"They're violet," Sasha said, almost entranced.

"Like amethyst."

"Who are you?" Mila asked quietly.

"Where did you come from?" Clock regarded the four strangers, taking in the mixture of terror, fascination and bewilderment written across their faces. He brushed ash from his clothes.

"Stay safe," he said, his voice smooth as velvet.

"This place is dangerous. You shouldn't be here." He turned and walked towards the door.

"Wait!" Sasha called, scrambling after him.

"You're hurt," Mila added.

"You need help."

"I need to leave." He stepped outside. The cold mountain air rushed over him, though he barely acknowledged it. His gaze swept the horizon, searching.

"He's so tall..." Mila breathed.

"And his voice..." Sasha whispered.

"It sounds like honey." Clock lifted from the ground. A chorus of gasps escaped the group. Sasha squealed. Leon's jaw hung open. Even Dmitri took an involuntary step backwards.

"He's flying," Mila whispered.

"He really is flying."

"He's an angel."

"Angel of death, maybe," Leon muttered, though the certainty had left his voice. Without warning, Leon sprinted forward. He leapt and caught Clock's ankle.

"Bless me!" he shouted desperately.

"Please! My life's been hell. Just... bless me!" Clock looked down at him. His expression remained unreadable.

"Let go." Leon released him immediately, collapsing into the snow. Clock descended once more, boots touching the ground without a sound. His eyes drifted over the four campers, across the frozen river, then towards the pale morning sky. He bent down and picked up four smooth pebbles. They began to vibrate. VRRRRMMMMM. Silver flowed across their surfaces like liquid metal. Their shapes stretched and folded until each pebble became a polished wristwatch. Violet hands appeared beneath crystal glass.

Elegant numerals formed around the dial, while a small chessboard emblem settled onto the back of every case. Clock fed Gloom into them. Soft violet light seeped through the silver before fading from sight. He quietly aligned each watch to its future owner, weaving a subtle law of fortune into the mechanism. The enchantment would endure. He handed one watch to each of them. Leon accepted his with trembling hands.

"Thank you," he whispered, dropping to his knees.

"I... I don't even know who you are. Thank you." Mila, Sasha and Dmitri followed, kneeling silently as they accepted the gifts. Clock regarded them for a long moment. Their gratitude pleased him. Simple. Honest. Untouched by ambition. His gaze settled on the watches. A single year of fortune would have been enough. Instead, violet Gloom flowed from his fingertips once more, far more than the enchantment demanded and far more than he could afford.

The law deepened, stretching beyond its original design until it no longer belonged only to the four people standing before him. It would linger through their children as well, a quiet inheritance of impossible luck. The watches pulsed once. Soft violet light shimmered beneath the crystal before fading into stillness. Clock's knees almost gave way. His reserves, already crippled by the battle, sank even lower. Transport would drain him harder now. Every technique would.

He had willingly spent strength he no longer possessed... on four strangers he would almost certainly never meet again. Without another word, he turned away. Wind gathered around him. A heartbeat later he became a white and violet streak disappearing into the morning sky. He was searching for Ankou. He was activating Transport.... Silence settled over the clearing.

The four campers remained kneeling in the snow, staring at the watches resting in their palms while the warmth of the fallen angel still lingered in the air. Sasha hugged hers to her chest with a grin she made no effort to hide.

"An angel," she said proudly.

"I kissed an angel." Leon barked out a laugh.

"Well, congratulations. You've probably secured yourself the nicest spot in Heaven." Mila burst into laughter.

"He'll vouch for you personally."

"Front of the queue," Leon agreed.

"No waiting.

'Yes, she kissed me. Let her in.'" Sasha lifted her chin triumphantly.

"You snooze, you lose." Leon stared.

"You're actually proud of this?"

"Absolutely."

"You performed mouth-to-mouth on a man who didn't need mouth-to-mouth."

"I didn't know that at the time."

"You kept going after we told you!"

"I was... being thorough."

"You were making out with an angel."

"I prefer to think of it as taking initiative." Even Dmitri's expression cracked into the faintest smile.

"A bold medical procedure." Sasha shrugged with exaggerated dignity.

"History favours the brave." Mila laughed so hard she had to wipe tears from her eyes.

"You're impossible."

"And," Sasha replied with a smug smile, patting the watch on her wrist, "apparently blessed." — Clock spotted him. Ankou stood upon a distant ridgeline, the morning mist curling around his feet as though the world itself had forgotten how to breathe. What remained of the Void Maw clung to him in ragged wisps, darkness fraying around the edges instead of flowing smoothly. DELETE had carved something out of him that could never truly return.

The endless void that had once swallowed stars now flickered like a dying fire. Less than five percent. That was all that remained. The hunger was still there. The strength was still there. The endless well of power had become a puddle. Ankou looked up. His ruined silhouette trembled.

"You…" he growled, voice breaking into a roar.

"LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" The remnants of darkness burst from his body like torn sails caught in a hurricane.

"You carved away my eternity!" Clock rolled one aching shoulder.

"That was the point, genius." He smiled.

"I can touch you now." His stance lowered.

"So prepare for a world of pain." Clock didn't hesitate. The air detonated. BOOOOOOOOM! He crossed the distance before the explosion had finished blooming, his body becoming a white-violet comet that split the clouds apart. Wind screamed after him in widening rings, trees below flattening beneath the pressure as rivers burst into curtains of mist. His shoulder struck Ankou square in the chest. KOOOOOOM.

The impact ripped them forward, carving a corridor hundreds of metres long before Ankou even realised he had moved. Air folded beneath the collision as though reality itself had buckled. They became a comet. Ankou blasted backwards across the wilderness, tearing through ancient kauri trunks that exploded into clouds of splinters. Boulders the size of houses burst apart against his back, each impact sending rings of shattered stone racing across the valleys. Clock never let go.

His boots carved trenches through solid granite as he continued driving forward, shoulder buried against Ankou's ribs. Ankou snarled, his teeth bared.

"You think this changes anything?"

"It changes everything."

"You're still dying."

"So are you."

"You're crippled."

"And you're almost empty." Ankou laughed through blood.

"I only need these fists." Clock's grin widened.

"Good." His shoulder drove deeper.

"I was hoping you'd say that." A frozen river rushed into view. It didn't slow them. BOOOOOOOOSH! They slammed into the water with enough force to split it apart. Ice erupted skyward in glittering towers while the current peeled away from them, exposing the riverbed in a tunnel of empty space. Fish, weeds and ancient stones spiralled helplessly around them as they thundered beneath the river faster than sound itself.

Pressure waves lifted the entire river into a towering ridge that rolled across the valley before collapsing behind them in a deafening roar. The opposite bank arrived in an instant. Another mountain stood beyond it. It didn't remain one for long. KRRRAAAAAAAK! Ankou burst through the cliff face without stopping. Millions of tonnes of rock swallowed both of them before sunlight exploded from the far side in a volcanic torrent of shattered stone, dust and uprooted trees.

Entire sections of the mountain collapsed inward, unable to survive the path they had carved through its heart. Neither of them slowed. Clock shifted his footing. His fist crashed into Ankou's jaw. BOOM! The blow launched Ankou through the mountainside and high into the sky in an eruption of stone and water. Clock followed. He caught Ankou before gravity could. Another punch. Another. Another. Every strike echoed across the wilderness like the wrath of creation itself.

The darkness surrounding Ankou faltered with each blow. It no longer flowed like an endless ocean. Ragged strands peeled away from his body, dissolving into nothing before they could reform. The void flickered, exposing flashes of battered flesh beneath for the briefest fractions of a second. DELETE had done its work. The Void Maw was starving. Less than five percent remained. Clock saw it. Ankou saw him realise it. Their eyes met. Ankou roared. KRAAAAAAAAAAANG! His fist buried itself in Clock's face.

Clock's grip broke. His body cartwheeled through the heavens, smashing through another forest before vanishing into the mountains beyond. He hurled himself back with telekinesis. Ankou slipped past the charge. The movement was almost casual. His hand closed around Clock's throat. His fingers tightened. Clock's charge stopped dead. Momentum reversed. Ankou swung him once. Twice. The world dissolved into streaks of green and grey before Ankou hurled him away with enough force to split the atmosphere itself.

Clock became a white streak ripping across the wilderness. He skipped across a lake, every impact throwing walls of water hundreds of metres into the sky before he smashed through another hillside, vanishing into a forest in an eruption of splintered timber. The delayed shockwave finally caught up. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! Everything between the first mountain and the last buckled beneath the sound. Cliffs collapsed. Valleys split apart. Rivers leapt from their banks as the earth shuddered beneath the violence.

Ankou roared. A whip of living erasure burst from his shoulder, slicing through the air toward Clock's head. Clock slipped aside. His body twisted through mid-air with impossible grace, spinning around the tendril by inches. The darkness carved through the space where his skull had been a heartbeat earlier, cutting a perfectly smooth canyon across the mountains behind him.

"Too slow." He completed the rotation. Upside down. Balanced on a single leg. Like some impossible circus acrobat. His left leg snapped forward. FWOOOOM! Violet light erupted from the sole of his boot. The recoil hurled him backwards while the blast crashed squarely into Ankou's chest. BOOOOOM! Ankou staggered. Actually staggered. His feet carved twin trenches across solid stone before he forced himself to stop. Clock's eyes narrowed. … That moved him.

Before, Reverse Blast had disappeared into the Void Maw like rain falling into the sea. Now... It hurt. His leg whipped forward again. FWOOOOM! A second Reverse Blast slammed into Ankou's shoulder. The Void Maw opened instinctively, trying to drink the attack. It managed only part of the force. The rest erupted through his body, blasting him backwards through another wall of granite. Clock smiled despite the blood running down his face.

"There it is." His voice carried across the collapsing mountains.

"You can't swallow it all anymore." Ankou's expression darkened. The ragged wisps of darkness surrounding him flickered violently as he forced himself upright. DELETE hadn't merely wounded him. It had stolen his appetite. Clock didn't waste the opening. He exploded back across the battlefield and slammed shoulder-first into Ankou again, driving him through another ridgeline. Another wall of ancient stone surrendered beneath the collision.... Entire cliffs peeled away in slabs the size of cities.

Snowfields collapsed into roaring white avalanches. Forests folded flat beneath expanding shockwaves while birds scattered into the heavens, fleeing a battle the earth itself could no longer endure. High above the shattered valleys, the mountain trails were already alive with hikers enjoying the quiet morning. A young woman paused to admire the view.

"It's beautiful…" Her boyfriend smiled as he raised his camera. Farther up the trail, an elderly couple shared a thermos of coffee while a guide led half a dozen tourists around a bend overlooking the valley. Every conversation stopped. Two distant streaks of white and black tore across the horizon.

"…What is that?" The answer arrived before anyone could think. KOOOOOOOOM!. Rock faces burst apart as the blinding blurs ripped through ridge after ridge. The trail lurched violently beneath the hikers' boots. Cracks raced across the stone before entire sections of the mountainside collapsed into the abyss. People screamed.

"RUN!"

"Oh God!"

"HELP!" The ground disappeared beneath them. A young man reached for his wife. Their fingertips brushed. Gravity claimed her first. She fell backwards into empty space, her scream echoing across the valley as backpacks, ropes and shattered stone tumbled after her. An elderly man lost his footing moments later, disappearing over the edge while his wife desperately grabbed at empty air. Two teenagers slid across the breaking trail, clawing uselessly at loose gravel before the mountain carried them into the void.

Several dropped to their knees and began praying. Others simply screamed. Nobody reached the bottom. Invisible force caught every falling body. Clock's telekinesis spread across the valley in shimmering violet currents, suspending every hiker in mid-air while avalanches thundered beneath them. Great boulders crashed harmlessly past their frozen forms. Entire pine trees spun through the air before smashing into the valley floor.

Dozens of terrified people floated above the destruction, breathing hard, crying openly, unable to comprehend what had just saved them. One woman looked through tears toward the distant mountains.

"There!" Her trembling hand pointed toward two tiny figures colliding across the horizon, each impact tearing apart another ridgeline.

"It's him!"

"The angel!"

"He's the one who saved us!" Another hiker squinted through the dust and drifting snow.

"He's fighting something!"

"Oh my God…"

"They're still fighting…" Far away, two flashes crossed the mountains again. A mountain collapsed. Another exploded into a cloud of stone. The shockwave reached them seconds later, rattling every suspended body in the air.

"He's protecting us…" an elderly man whispered, clutching his wife's hand.

"He's keeping that thing away from us." Several people instinctively folded their hands in prayer.

"Please…"

"Whoever you are…"

"Win." None of them understood what they were witnessing. They only knew an angel was throwing himself against a monster made of darkness, and the world still existed because he refused to stop. Clock never even looked in their direction. Saving them had become instinct. Ankou saw everything. His ruined face twisted with contempt.

"You still spare attention... for insects?" His voice carried equal parts disbelief and disgust.

"If you still possess enough strength to save strangers…" The remnants of darkness surrounding him convulsed.

"… it means I am still being too gentle." His body spasmed. The ragged Void Maw erupted outward. Darkness burst from him in every direction as a paper-thin shockwave of absolute erasure expanded across the wilderness. SHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRMMMMM. The wave crossed mountains. Forests disappeared. Rivers ceased. Animals, birds and insects simply ended wherever it passed. Clock's telekinetic barriers dissolved beneath the advancing absence before the suspended hikers could even scream again.

Miles of wilderness became a perfectly smooth basin carved into existence itself. The mountains had been peeled away as though they had never stood there. Forests older than civilisation disappeared without leaving ash behind. Ankou staggered violently. The darkness surrounding him thinned again, visibly weaker than before. Each breath had become heavier.

"You…" he rasped, forcing himself upright.

"You should have better manners…" His exhausted eyes settled upon Clock.

"…and keep your attention on the fight." Clock smiled. Pure delight spread across his face.

"Thanks." Confusion flickered across Ankou's expression.

"You just spent even more of yourself." Clock slowly raised two fingers. Thousands upon thousands of tiny violet clock hands materialised throughout the devastated landscape. Every one of them began turning backwards. Tick. Tick. Tick. Clockwork seized the personal timeline of the land itself. Reality reversed. Mountains surged upward from absence. Stone folded back into cliffs. Rivers flowed backwards into their ancient courses.

Great forests erupted from nothing, shrinking into saplings before racing forward into towering giants. Birds reappeared in mid-flight. Every terrified hiker found solid ground beneath their feet once more, stumbling in confusion as though waking from a nightmare whose ending had been stolen away. The world returned. Ankou's strength did not. Clockwork restored what had been erased. Energy willingly spent remained spent forever. Recognition dawned across Ankou's face.

"…Impossible." Clock was already moving. Ego carried him forward faster than sight. His fist crashed into Ankou's jaw. KRAAAANG! The impact blasted the Void Maw backwards. Clock followed without hesitation. For one impossible moment, he forced Ankou backwards. His palm slammed against Ankou's face. The Void Maw had diminished enough that physical contact had become possible. Darkness still burned through his flesh, each second stripping skin from his hand, but pain had never possessed the authority to stop Clock.

"Have some breakfast!" Violet light erupted between his fingers. The glow intensified until it outshone the morning sun. Brighter. Brighter. Brighter still. The force multiplied beyond restraint. BOOOOOOOOOOM! The Reverse Blast detonated point-blank, swallowing both figures inside a sphere of violet-white radiance before hurling them apart once again.

The resulting shockwave flattened everything for kilometres in every direction, and when the light finally faded, the darkness clinging to Ankou had grown thinner still, fraying into dying embers that struggled to remain attached to their master. Clock skidded backwards across the rebuilt mountainside, boots carving twin trenches through solid stone before he caught himself. Blood dripped steadily from his ruined body as he lifted his head and studied Ankou. A slow smile spread across his face.

"One percent…" He could see it now. The Void Maw had almost nothing left. The endless hunger that had once swallowed galaxies now flickered weakly around its owner, barely enough to cloak his silhouette. Every movement cost Ankou. Every breath consumed what little remained. Satisfied, Clock let out a long breath.

"I'll take those odds." His own reserves were almost empty. Gloom answered sluggishly now, little more than scattered embers flowing through exhausted veins. DELETE had crippled him, Reverse Blast had bled him dry, and Clockwork had consumed far more than he could reasonably afford. It didn't matter. Pawn's Advance remained. Queen's Slide remained. Neither demanded the vast reserves he no longer possessed. They demanded only a body willing to destroy itself in exchange for victory.

Clock had never been sentimental about his own body. His violet eyes never left Ankou.

"One percent…" His grin widened.

"You're finally small enough to kill."