Theodore shot up from his seat and bolted towards the door, opening it, he found two figures standing there waiting for him. They both wore white and gold long tunics with sandals and cloaks draped over a shoulder. The one standing in front had fire-like wings, short blonde hair, and burnt wood eyes, it was easy to tell that this person was Uriel.
Gabriel was the one behind him, he had long and wavy dark hazel hair and gold eyes framed by a pair of rectangular glasses, his wings were the color of storm clouds and overall his appearance radiated the aura of a wise man.
Uriel spoke first after giving Theodore a bright smile. “Hello there! You’re the newly appointed executioner, right?”
“Ah…Yes.” Theodore reluctantly gave a nod.
Apophis suddenly poked her head through from behind him, she didn’t look very happy to see two angels at her doorsteps. “…I thought Eden had this rule where you’re not allowed to use the ‘Database’ for personal reasons?”
The Database is one of the nicknames of the Akashic Records, it essentially holds the universe’s knowledge within it and is currently in Eden’s care and protection, more specifically, the Angels of Wisdom’s absolute authority.
Apophis’ domain was located at the far end of the divine world, where not many roam around, it would be impossible for anyone to find where she lives unless they were told specifically…Or used the Akashic Records.
Uriel merely chuckled at the goddess. “This isn’t personal matters though, it is work. Now, may I speak with the Executioner?”
Apophis rolled her eyes and waved, as if telling them to do whatever they want. She walked back inside the house and left Theodore with the angels.
Theodore felt uneasy being left alone with the two strangers, but he quickly composed himself and spoke up. “What do you want to talk about?”
Uriel gave him a friendly look, still smiling softly. “I simply thought it would be nice for us to get to know each other, since we’ll be working together for a very, very long time.”
“Ah…haha…” Theodore nervously chuckled, he had always been bad with introductions and socializing, and at that point, he silently wished that Merlin was standing there with him. “Well, is there something specific you want to know about me?”
‘What the heck was that!?’ He could only lament to himself about what he’d blurted out in the spur of a moment.
Uriel didn’t seem to mind nor notice anything wrong with it though. He turned to Gabriel for a moment before chuckling. “Hm, there isn’t anything we don’t know about you…The Akashic Records already has enough information.”
Theodore wasn’t surprised in the slightest, it would be weird if the angels didn’t use the Records to research about him considering the fact that he’s also a demon king, working among supposed ‘natural enemies’ without any precautions was definitely reckless. “But…You said you wanted us to get to know each other?”
“Yes,” Gabriel was the person to speak this time, his voice was smooth and clear, fitting for an angel, but not his stoic face. “But that was meant for you to ask us about things you perhaps are curious about.”
“Oh,” Theodore was slightly taken aback, from what he’s seen so far, the angels were very friendly with him despite already knowing that he’s a demon king. He didn’t mind this development either. “The only thing I would want to know right now…is the job requirement.”
No one spoke for a solid moment until Uriel broke the silence with a burst of laughter. “Ah, of course, of course! The divine world sort of chose you without giving you any details…Let’s see…”
Uriel’s hand went to his chin as he thought about his reply. “We haven’t had a new executioner in eons…Forgive me if I’ve left out some details, but it’s just as the same suggests. As the Executioner, you ‘punish’ people that have been judged by me, if I deem them worthy of death, it’s your job to deliver it to them personally.”
Theodore raised an eyebrow. “Yes, I got that…But there’s this whole thing about a large debt I owe to the divine world, so I thought there might be—“
“Something more?” Uriel cut him off. He smiled and tilted his head. “Oh of course, your debt is rather…a special case…You see, Lightbringer has been in contact with the divine world for quite a while now.”
Theodore’s eyes went wide with surprise as Uriel resumed. “He’d done everything he could to convince the divine world to let him contact Eden…But as a dead fragment of what’s left of a deity…his request was denied…”
“In turn though,” Gabriel continued for Uriel. “Since he thought his life would only be wasted as a mere remnant of a person, he insisted that his remaining powers be transferred to you so that you can gain the authority of an archangel.”
The expression on Theodore’s face spoke clearly of his disbelief, he didn’t know what to make of the story. He thought of the ‘Lightbringer’ as nothing more than a weird, conscious skill, but it’d surprisingly never crossed his mind that it might’ve been a real living being, even if it’s not truly alive. “But I should’ve just gained an archangel’s powers though, right?”
“Ah, yes. But the divine world seemed to have had its eyes on you for a very long time…” Uriel tilted his head. “And since only the Eden pantheons have the necessary requirements to work as the divine world’s civil servants…It must’ve used that chance as an opportunity to give you the title.”
‘So mom was right…’ Theodore sighed, feeling his head spin from all of the complicated stories.
Seeing this, Uriel patted him on the shoulder. “Oh don’t feel so down just yet, I still haven’t told you about your debt in detail.”
Theodore had no idea whether to feel angry at the false act of kindness or fall further into despair.
Uriel turned towards Gabriel, prompting the other angel to continue speaking. “Your debt…as you know already…is from reincarnating with your past life’s memories…However, it isn’t that big of a deal than ‘Unnatural Evolution’.” Gabriel started, his expression unchanging which once again didn’t match his soft tone. “Your powers were amplified by a god’s divinity…It isn’t a major crime by any means since giving mortals blessings is what gods do…But the mortal themself would be the one to incur this ‘debt’.”
Theodore frowned, he’d already heard about his divine debt from Apophis, but he never really understood how or what he did to gather so much that he would’ve needed to spend longer than three hundred years to pay it off if not for his mother’s help.
“So,” After a snap of his fingers, Gabriel manifested a scroll into his hands. “This scroll contains everything about your divine debt, and also the answer to your question.”
Theodore hesitantly took the scroll from Gabriel. He opened it slowly, as if using those milliseconds to prepare for a major jumpscare. Unexpectedly though, the contents weren’t that long and most of them had a ‘CLEARED’ written beside each cause.
There were only two lines left that the bottom that hasn’t been touched with a different colored ink. “Three hundred years of unpaid service…and…”
‘Pay 10,000,000 Coins to the Divine World.’
“What the f*ck?” Theodore frowned, checking if his eyes were playing tricks on him, but unfortunately, he didn’t read the numbers incorrectly. “Ten million? How the heck am I supposed to get that much money?”
“Working, of course!” Uriel smiled brightly and spoke as if it weren’t already obvious.
“But I won’t get paid for three hundred years!” Theodore shouted as he crumbled the scroll in his fist. “What’s even the salary?”
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“Hm…It depends on the amount of people you’ve executed…But even if there’s none you’d get a minimum of ten thousand coins per year.”
Theodore froze for a moment as he stared blankly at Gabriel. “What? Per year? Not per month?”
“Of course,” Gabriel nodded still with an empty expression. “Our system doesn’t work like humans’, and for comparison, the average salary for gods is around seven thousand coins.”
Theodore already had a rough idea of the divine world’s currency system, and judging by the food he'd brought with Drachma in Olympus, seven thousand coins were enough to get by for around two years if spent sparingly.
‘Ten million coins could build you something twice as grand as Mount Olympus itself!’
“Oh?” Uriel suddenly perked his head up, and before Theodore could continue to dwell on his future sufferings, he felt that something was off. The two angels’ reaction to it confirmed that it wasn’t just him as well.
Gabriel waved his hand and an image rippled into view, it showed the bloodied streets of a devastated Manhattan while echoes of pained and terrified screams rang out.
Theodore gritted his teeth in anger. The debt could be dealt with later. “What’s going on?”
“Good job keeping it calm, child,” Uriel gently smiled as the image shifted, this time showing Theodore’s friends fighting against a crazed woman with twin egyptian swords. “If you’d stormed off immediately, I would’ve been forced to tie you up.”
Gabriel glanced at Uriel. “This is a major violation of the divine law, what’s your judgment, Judge of Fire?”
Uriel chuckled and turned towards Theodore. “Isn’t it obvious? Care to guess, Executioner?”
.
.
.
“Theo!” Merlin shouted his name with surprise while everyone else lowered their weapons. “What’s going on—“
“I’ll explain later.” Theodore turned to face Sekhmet, who was panting heavily on the floor. She was still alive even after he’d used [Execute] and her wounds were closing at a rapid pace. He would’ve attacked her immediately if it weren’t for the dangerous, black mist that kept circling around her figure.
Sekhmet sidedly glared at Theodore, showing her gritted canine fangs. “I will not fall to a false god like you…serpent.”
“Are you resisting divine judgment?” He narrowed his eyes with contempt, though he didn’t move from his stance. “Your sentence is execution, and I will be the one to deliver that.”
“Shut up!” With a swing of her arm, the black mist violently lashed towards Theodore, howling as if they were a swarm of hungry beasts. He didn’t know exactly what the aura was yet so he casted Dark Veil to block the attack, not wanting to risk physical contact.
[Unique Spell ‘Dark Veil’ has successfully absorbed a portion of ‘The Pestilence’.]
Theodore’s eyes widened after hearing the notification, he turned towards the people behind him and hurriedly shouted. “Get out of here! Don’t touch that fog!”
Although they looked like they wanted to hear an explanation first, the demon kings and Merlin reluctantly nodded and ran back as far away as they could. Asmodeus looked behind her worryingly. “We’ll leave this to you, Theo!”
Theodore didn’t reply with words and instead chuckled. The idea of him losing sounded like a joke to him. He adjusted his grip on the sword before lowering his shield and activating Scales of the Serpent.
The eerie fog washed over him like a powerful wave and Sekhmet laughed maniacally. “How foolish! Do you truly think that you can take on my Pestilence!? Even the gods fear me, The Goddess of War!”
[‘Asclepius’ Secrets’ senses the Pestilence.]
[‘Asclepius’ Secrets’ complains that it is being used to cure something it considers to be as harmless as the Common Cold.]
[You have gained great resistance against the Pestilence.]
Now it was Theodore’s turn to laugh, he couldn’t help himself after seeing Sekhmet’s arrogant expression melt into pure shock and disbelief. He took a step forward and the goddess stepped back. “What were you saying again?”
“How…Impossible!” Sekhmet readied her weapons, but she could only continue retreating. “You’re not a medicine god…so how can you resist the Pestilence!”
“The dead don't need to know.” Theodore activated Godspeed and closed in the distance between them instantly. Since Sekhmet had already recovered from her injuries, she could vaguely sense his movements despite his speed and managed to put up a guard to block his sword. “Instead, you should tell me how you managed to survive Execute.”
Sekhmet smirked crudely. “Why should I? Since I’ll be the one to kill you first!”
While the Pestilence’s abilities might be useless against him, the powerful gust that they can create can still be useful. Theodore frowned as he felt his sword slowly being pushed back, noticing the dark mist gathering around the twin swords.
He didn’t fret though and casted a magic circle behind Sekhmet, shooting an icicle straight through her back until it impaled to the front. The goddess screamed in agony as she stumbled backwards, allowing Theodore to aim for her neck.
However, Sekhmet didn’t give in that easily, her agility matched Theodore’s Godspeed and she managed to gain enough distance and time to pull the frozen spear out from her back, planting one sword into the ground to free her hand. “How cunning…fitting for a dirty snake such as yourself.”
Her wound instantly healed the moment she crushed the ice spear in her fist. She picked up her weapon and rushed at Theodore, who easily blocked and counteracted with another spell. This time ice chains rose from the ground and flew at their target, only to be cut down by a dance of blades.
Theodore’s frown deepened, getting annoyed that the fight was getting unnecessarily dragged on. ‘…I need to finish this quickly.’
But how do two beings with near instant regeneration kill each other?
‘I need to finish her in a single blow…but Execute is on cooldown.’
Besides that, the hit point requirement would be impossible to meet now that Sekhmet had decided to use her healing abilities.
‘Heh,’ Theodore unknowingly smiled. ‘I feel more like a hunting dog than an executioner, what sort of executioner takes this long to kill their target?’
“What are you laughing at!?” Sekhmet lunged at him with her swords ready to meet his throat, however Theodore casted Dragon Claw just in time to deflect her attacks, accompanying the sound of clashing steel, Theodore’s own dark mist began to surround the goddess’ body.
“…What is this?”
[‘Law Breaker’ is tearing apart the Goddess of War, Sekhmet’s body.]
[The Demon God of Eternity cares not for the Universe’s Rules, his adversary must perish at all cost.]
Seeing that her arms and legs were slowly turning into dust, Sekhmet glared at the sky in a panic. “Oh, the sacred divine realm! Can you not see that this fletching god is breaking your rules?”
[Hahaha!] Uriel’s voice echoed instead of the divine world’s silent words. [Are you a fool? I was the one who sentenced you to death, and yet you dare to question the Executioner’s actions?]
Sekhmet fell to her knees, to be exact, half of her legs had been eaten away by the mysterious black fog. “Then you must punish him as well! He’s breaking the divine rule—“
“What rule?” Theodore cut her off, not wanting to hear anymore of her nonsense. “Didn’t you know that the Executioner can use every single one of his powers as long as the criminal is killed? The only thing I’m prohibited from doing is kill anyone else to get to you.”
[The Scale of Balance begrudgingly agrees with a nod of his head.]
[See?] Uriel laughed. [Even Raguel agrees.]
From Theodore’s memories, Raguel is the angel of justice tasked with managing the balance between Chaos and Order, he is often called ‘The Scale of Balance’ itself, even though there’s an object of the same name.
Sekhmet screamed when her left arm had disappeared, she lowered herself until her forehead touched the asphalt floor. “I beg for mercy, Your Honor! Please reconsider your sentence!”
[Reconsider? Is there anything to reconsider at this point? Your crimes were a clear violation against the divine world’s most strict rules and yet you dare to beg me for mercy?] Uriel let out an annoyed huff. [If anything, you should be begging the Executioner to spare you.]
Sekhmet kept her mouth shut as she slowly rose, turning towards Theodore before speaking through gritted teeth. “Please…Please let me live…”
Theodore merely gave her a cold stare. “Why should I? You break the law, you pay for it. Besides, you want me to forgive you for almost killing my friends?”
By this time, Merlin had made his way towards where Eugene had been lying and helped him regain his consciousness. Theodore was relieved that they weren’t that injured, but he simply couldn’t let it go.
After all, if he was such a forgiving person, he wouldn’t be this vengeful.
“I did my job, now just die quietly.” Theodore sheathed his sword and turned toward his friends, ignoring the goddess who continued to ramble on and on in pure fear and panic until only dust remained.
[Now that that’s over…Executioner, it’s time for you to return~] As soon as Uriel spoke, a golden portal swirled open behind Theodore.
He looked up at the sky. “Can you give me a few more moments? At least let me talk with them first,”
[Aye, but that form won’t hold for long though, you could only descend in your true body because of the Executioner’s authorities, now that your job is done, you need to return before—]
“Yes, yes…I know…Please, this won’t take long.”
[…Fine. You have five minutes.]
“You seem to have a lot on your plate now,” Asmodeus smiled at Theodore when he got closer. “Those angels seemed to have taken a liking to you.”
“Ha…It’s more troublesome if anything…” Theodore sighed and turned towards Merlin and Eugene. “Are you two okay?”
“I’m fine.” Merlin was supporting the werewolf with his arm wrapped around his shoulder. “Can’t say much for him though, he was knocked back pretty hard.”
“I…I’m okay…” Eugene croaked, struggling to even lift his head. “…A few days of sleep should do the trick.”
“Sorry, I can’t use my powers on you like this,” Theodore didn’t want to risk it, especially since he was on limited time. “Anyway, I’ll quickly leave now…or else I might risk accidentally blowing up the Earth.”
“Good luck,” Merlin smiled, but his expression was filled with sadness. “…Come back asap, alright?”
Theodore chuckled. “Hey, I just took care of Zeus, so I only have one more god left to kill.”
Before Theodore could leave though, Asmodeus suddenly grabbed his arm and pulled him down for a soft peck on the cheek. She ignored Mammon cursing her for indecency and smiled. “I’ll be waiting~’’
Theodore’s thoughts short circuited for a moment, but he quickly straightened himself and smiled back. “You idiot, if you don’t wait for me, I wouldn’t have a reason to come back, won’t I?”
“Huh?” Asmodeus was taken aback. “What does that mean—Hey! Don’t leave yet! Answer me first!”
Obviously, Theodore didn’t look back and quietly went through the portal.