ACC Chapter 53 Distasteful Angels

I gazed at my trapped hand, before my vision rose to the green pupils of Paul. I could see the hurt within his green eyes. It was like a knife to my heart, but this wasn't a matter where I could afford to act childish.

"Paul... You know that I trust you fully. If it was simply a matter of just my life, then I would have let it go. But this is thousands we are talking about!"

His green eyes flickered for a brief moment, before his green fingers unhanded me.

"...I am going to stay here."

"You are a valuable source of intel. After all, you were the one who met with the mountain spirit."

For a moment, I had the feeling that Paul was about to refuse. But with a sigh of resignation, he nodded.

The brown wall was crowded with people. Those exiting, and those entering into the city proper.

I moved with purpose, deliberately avoiding the people. And if I had got a window that allowed for teleportation, I took it, making sure that Paul was at my heels every once in a while.

Within just a few minutes, we were at the Heaven's Pillar, riding the elevator to the top.

The silence within though, was stifling. I couldn't even think of anything to say to Paul. An apology would come off as something too cheap. Just brushing it off wouldn't solve anything still.

So, I was caught in a dilemma.

And this wasn't even the worst part! I could feel Paul's entire attention on me. He stood behind me, preventing me from visually seeing him, but through my divine sense, I could feel his attention on me.

Those few minutes before the elevator made it to the highest floor were among the most nerve wracking in my life, only superseded by those many times I had been called upon to give a speech in public.

The chime of opening doors made me release a pent up breath, hurriedly making my way out of the damn cell-like thing. We had been using a special elevator, only used by those at the Nascent Soul level.

But the scene on the other side of those doors made my stomach churn in distaste, which I practically felt on the tip of my tongue.

The highest floor of the Heaven's Pillar had been an almost free expanse, all the way to the tall windows that framed its edges, letting in the light. Only rows of pillars, no less than a foot wide, held up the ceiling above, which were about 4 times my height.

It had been a dark, cold and almost forbidding place during the administration of Taylor. It had been dreary at first, but I had slowly gotten used to its monotone and dark essence over time.

Mr. Taylor had been a gloomy man. That was a statement no one could refute. Though he had been kind, there had been a certain sorrow that had wafted off of him, thereby translating into his minimalistic interior design tastes that bordered on gloomy.

Yet, I had gotten used to that.

But now, even though the entire floor was still empty, save for the congregation of people further away that appeared to be doing something in the open space, and a cubic square cordoned off by white walls joined with the pillars as the corners, the color scheme had been changed.

The previous dreary color had been replaced by bright white light. It was soft enough for a mere Spirit Gathering disciple to not have to worry about blindness, but it had changed the environment I had been used to.

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From the pillars, down to the floors and up top on the ceiling, everything had been transformed, with the lines of array within each of those places giving off a golden glow as energy was conducted through them.

Reliefs of angels with white wings had also been meticulously inscribed upon the pillars and the ceilings in detail, with their faces closely matching Livia's.

A smidgen of anger threatened to bud within me as I gazed at the blatant attempt the woman was making to erase the memories of her predecessor, my idol. But I quashed it in favor of the reason I had arrived here for in the first place.

I moved one foot in front of the other, lowering my head down and trying to make myself as unperturbed as possible, which translated in my signature stoic expression, and trudged towards the white room at the end, directly opposite the elevator, whose shaft was directly in the centre of this entire empty floor.

The moment Paul and I reached within a few meters of the white room, a rectangular part of the wall disassembled, allowing us entry, and exposing my eyes to the figure within.

She was seated behind a desk, with the light from the window behind elevating her form, with the wing reliefs upon the glass appearing as if they were attached to her back.

It was Livia, with her white hair tiered up like a wedding cake, dressed in an ostentious robe of black with golden patterns depicting angels sewn within.

Earrings, each in the shape of a golden wing, hang off of each of her ears, and she was staring straight at us.

I was sure that if it wasn't for the uncomfortableness and distaste I was feeling, I would have been intimidated by the Imperious aura she was emanating.

"Gentlemen, take a seat."

She offered with a neutral expression, gesturing towards the two comfortable-looking sofas to the sides of the entrance we had just come through.

But I didn't like their arrangement, so I skipped on that and walked towards her desk, standing just before her.

Then I bent down, placing my hands at the sides of her desk, directly glaring down at her.

"Paul, you tell her."

As Paul narrated his encounter, my eyes never once left hers, and hers too, never left mine.

I knew that this was rude, but I was angry. She had changed the things I had come to get comfortable with. She had stolen the position of the person I respected the most! So, why wouldn't I be angry?!

Like echoes, Paul's narration was far from my attention. I was too occupied with preventing myself from assaulting Livia that when words escaped her lips, after his narration, I almost blinked in confusion.

"You should have trusted your symbiote, Reed. Though, I too would have reacted the same, I know you to be different."

"Do you really know ME?! Livia!"

My outburst elicited tremble within her gaze.

"If you truly knew me, you wouldn't have taken this chair without first speaking with me!"

"And why would I need to consult you, mmmm?"

I felt a vein throb on my temple at the way she phrased the question, as if I wasn't important enough to her.

"We had been friends." After a few microseconds of calming my temper, I whispered.

"Friends!" She scoffed.

"Reed! Friends are people who have ambition, or goals that tie them together. What do you have? Even now, having come into possession of a massive fortune, you are aimlessly wasting time instead of putting it to good use!"

"What does my fortune have to do with you?"

"It has nothing to do with me. Just like the fact that now, I am the President of this Federation, and it has nothing to do with you! Billions of people are crowding this city. They are consuming a torn of resources, they lack jobs, many have lost property and homes... Essentially, I have too much on my plate! What are you doing to help out? You have money! But its all just sitting there!"

"Remember this Reed, you are the one that killed our friendship with your lack of goals and isolating yourself to hide from the world. Burying your head in the sand doesn't make the people go away!"

Her words silenced me. Even the rage had been snuffed out like a candle, too small to defend me against her tirade and the difficulties she was facing.

Now that I looked closer, I could see the signs of fatigue within her soul aura, a sign of overdraft.

Wordlessly, I matched out of her office, though not before she told me to longer around. Though, it was more of an order.

I had seen the people. The crowd. I had noticed the trash, hidden away in corners, the polluted spiritual energy brought upon because of different spiritual attributes in one place, and many other tell-tale signs that the city was bursting at the seams...

...and yet, I hadn't cared. My mind had been so occupied by Paul's outburst and thoughts of how I was going to interact with Livia, that I had ignored the plight of the people.

I moved to the edge of the floor, walking between a row of white pillars, making my way towards a long window.

I thanked the heavens for the small mercy of Paul's silence. At least it allowed me to tussle with my wayward brain, which was practically shouting at me with every thought that it was conjuring.