To the old man, it was as clear as day about what he had just saw. It was something that never happened before. A soul had stolen this new body he prepared for himself! A tiny little soul that came from nowhere... stole his future!
"Lost... lost! Eve ... ry- ... lost. AAGHHHH!!!! IF I CAN'T HAVE IT, THEN I WON'T LET THE HEAVENS INTERFERE EITHER! DIE!!!"
The old man picked up his staff and smashed towards the egg, intending to destroy it. But alas, he dug his own grave.
*ding!*
*RUMBLE*
As the staff smashed on the egg, it rebounded as if the eggshell was made of metal. Immediately after, the patterns on the egg lit up and a thunderous sound assaulted the room from all the sides at once. It seemed as if the sound originated from above the ground. But how powerful does it have to be to penetrate all the way into the ground?
The old man felt a scary premonition and looked above, only to see a hundred streaks of lightning piercing through the ceiling and falling on the egg.
As if it was hiding an endless abyss within, the egg silently absorbed them and didn't even budge.
The silence that came after was the most unbearable thing for the old man. To him now, it seemed as if the heavens were punishing him for his inhumane deeds. The proof was everyone else lying in this room. All of them were conscious and could make out what was happening—all except the little girl that the old man brought at the end. She was the only one unconscious.
The scary silence didn't continue for long—the egg started glowing and the patterns on its surface became more and more, in even more colors and varieties. Right after that, a single crack formed on the eggshell. That crack was akin to a vicious slash over the hearts of everyone present.
The old man fell on his knees and silently murmured with eyes full of disbelief and despair, "Too late. It's too late... It's too... late... The heavens will punish us all... we have sinned. It's too late... to run."
His arms limply dropped on the ground and even the staff he was holding lifelessly fell down with a *clang*. The despair he felt was immense—so immense he couldn't face it. This old man had just lost his will to live at this place.
Everything he'd been doing his entire life was for naught—stolen by someone else. It was all a tribute for someone else's arrival. He knew he couldn't do anything, because he knew what kind of creature that egg contained.
There is no way someone in his current condition would be able to resist. He knew, for he accounted that he would be the one in the egg, not here in his original body that was a blink away from death. The only reason he—and for that matter, everyone else—were alive, was to be another sacrifice.
And the one they all would be sacrifice for is the monster that is about to surface from that egg. According to the scriptures he had referenced, what is about to surface from that egg is... The Devil - the being that doesn't even fear Gods. The new king of this world.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
In all his despair, the old man had failed to notice two things. First—the crack on the egg didn't continue expanding and second—a strange phenomenon was taking place near the egg. The energy from the surroundings was rapidly surging towards the place near the egg and condensing, forming a humanoid shape out of pure energy. It was a shape of a six-winged angel.
The gloomy room began filling with sacred brilliance coming from the angel's body. The angel's eyes stared at the old man, as if an ill omen that something was about to happen. As all the sacred brilliance concentrated in the immediate vicinity of the angel, the old man began floating away from the ground, as if grasped by an invisible hand.
Only in this case, it was not an invisible hand but an angel's will instead.
The angel didn't seem like a living being, it seemed more like a temporary entity with will. As it stared at the old man floating in the air, a melodic voice reverberated in the room.
"Sinners. Sinners shall be judged! You are the greatest sinner! Your judgement is the greatest! Vanish.", with those words, the old man's soul burnt to nothingness—never to reincarnate again.
The angel's eyes fell on the unconscious girl and paused on her for quite some time. After a few breaths, bloody tears slid down the contours of the angel's eyes.
"For your sins, you will pay dearly. All the suffering this child had underwent because of your sins—you shall pay! This is the weight of your judgement!"
The angel raised her hand and made a pulling motion, which resulted in a scene of carnage. The bodies of everyone conscious lit up in flames and burnt completely. The only one whose body partially burned was the old man—because there was something not belonging to him in his body.
The ten liquids had merged into one and transformed into blood when they had entered his body.
The angel stared at the gathering of ten-colored blood floating in the air and glanced at the little girl on the ground. She then turned around and glanced at the egg behind her, complex thoughts filling her lifeless yet caring eyes.
"It seems that I am fated to become a sinner as well... Forgive me young one, for I can not give this blood to you. This blood carries a sacred aura of the divine of our world. It cannot belong to someone like you. Yet my sin shall be a huge one, as returning this blood to her will bring that dead child back to life. Interfering with the laws of the world results in sin, yet I must sin. For her suffering was immense. Far more than anyone can understand."
.
.
.
The angel spoke aloud towards the egg, as if talking to someone within. Then she turned around and pushed towards the floating blood, which quickly shot back inside the unconscious girl lying on the ground. A short while later, the girl's small fingers twitched a bit and after that she straightened her upper body.
A pair of lifeless scarlet eyes gazed at the world. She seemed far too exhausted to care about anything—yet the figure floating near the egg baited out some curiosity from her.
The angel's melodic voice resounded in the room, "You are awake once again, little one. I have yet to pay the price for my sin and because of that, I cannot accompany you anymore. I cannot protect you—for that, I am deeply sorry."
The girl raised her head slightly and looked at the pure white angel. She didn't know who that was but she seemed familiar. Her eyes trailed to the egg behind the angel and it invoked an intense fear in the girl's eyes. Besides fear, there were helplessness, unwillingness, despair, pain... So many intense emotions from glancing at that black egg.
"Aah!", a very faint sound came out of the girl's small mouth. Her eyes were screaming in fear and terror as her small hands clutched her head.
The angel saw that and knew what was tormenting the girl, because she saw her memories when her eyes previously paused on her. She knew what the girl had passed through and also knew why that egg there was responsible for these nightmares. That is why she had decided to become a sinner and revive the girl. She deserved a new life—a kinder life than the one she had lived up to now.
"Child, do not be afraid. The one who tormented you is not within this shell. The one who will come out of it will take care of you, because he is a kind person. You have many fears because of it, that—I have seen. Do not worry, for he is not like those who hurt you. He does not need what you posses. That is why—he will be someone important to you. And I will guard you—together with him, regardless of where I am."
The angel's wings folded as her eyes stared towards the sky, as if she could see beyond the ceiling and out of this room.
"Let the heavens judge me for my sins."