6 05 - Young Saint

Chapter 05 - Young Saint

Written By Dr Armstrong

---

"I understand that you may want to join the fight." Altair suddenly said, earning a confused glance from Alexander.

'Where did you get that from...?' He internally lampooned the Older Angel. No way was he joining this chaotic battlefield!

Well, perhaps this was the suicidal mindset of the other angelic youth, but Alexander was not them.

"But that would be unwise, so..." Altair placed a hand on the younger Alexander's back.

"I call upon, Power of the Vanished."

After those words left the Knight Angel's mouth, Alexander could feel a strange coolness spread over his body, it felt as if he was suddenly wrapped around plastic or a sheet of tin foil.

"With that, you will be completely invisible to most of the enemy for some time...so as long you don't engage them in combat," Altair explained as he let go of his hold over the younger Angel.

"...T-thank you..." Alexander said in gratitude as he started to get used to the strange feeling. After a few seconds, the sensation morphed from being wrapped in an unusually textured cloth, to merely wearing clothes, which was much more bearable. 

"That glowing tower pulling in the nearby light." Altair addressed as he pointed at a megastructure in the distance that completely fit the description given by him.

"That is the Ash Port, where inside, lays the Riftstones...they connect us to the other Heavens, the other worlds," Altair explained as he retrieved his index finger and floated forward.

"Please avoid it..." He requested Alexander, which made him confused.

"Wouldn't it be better if I use it to escape?" He wondered aloud, the Older Angel had clearly wanted him to take no part in the battle, after all.

"...The Demons must know of its use and are likely pooling their forces around it." That makes sense.

"Brother Amon, you should wait here or hide amongst the clouds if you must..." Altair stated, pointing above.

Alexander widened his eyes as he glanced toward the Principality, realizing the meaning behind his words.

'You're gonna leave me here...!?' Alexander thought to himself in panic. Although a newborn Angel was noticeably much more independent than a human infant, it couldn't be said that they should be left alone on a battlefield...

"...I have to go back down and help Brother Daniel. It's my sworn duty, so I hope you understand." Altair said, his form gradually descending.

"Be not afraid, Amon. Demons are only scary when they're in front of you, so just get away if they're near. I and Daniel will join you with the others after we're done and get you out of here..." He gave some amusing words of measurement, which absolutely didn't reassure Alexander...like, at all, before vanishing in a flash of speed.

"..." Alexander wanted to severely lampoon this negligent guy, but was much too baffled to do so.

'Okay, okay...calm down, calm down, breath in, breath out...' The Angel repeated to himself a mantra every stress-loving person would be familiar with, utilizing a famous method of regaining composure, which was to take deep breaths and properly analyze the situation.

At the current moment, he should take advantage of the blessing Altair gave him to properly scout out the surroundings and take in the lay of the land...hm, well...lay of the clouds?

Heaven was not like the popular depiction shown in media, it wasn't just some city made of clouds that was eternally bathed in daylight. Instead, Alexander found it much more reminiscent of a certain mod from a game he liked to play, that being the Aether Dimension mod from Minecraft.

Although the similarities came in the overall structure of the realm, floating islands situated atop what seemed like crystalized formations somewhat resembling clouds.

That being said, there was one factoid differentiating the true Heaven from the Aether Dimension, that being obviously the sprawling cities made of...salt? One would think that the architecture favoured by the Angels would primarily be made of marble or a reinforced concentration of glass...but no, it was salt. 

Alexander frankly didn't know what to think of that. However, after a few seconds, he came to the conclusion that it made sense, a little bit, at least.

The holy water one would find in the town's local church, the one they used to baptize babies and Vikings and such...weren't they just salt water blessed with prayers?

And what was salt used for primarily? Of course, humanity utilized the mineral to purify their food and drink. So one could jump to the conclusion that salt has some blessed properties...

Never mind the salt-based buildings and castles, the architecture of Heaven was very exotic. It was a weird yet stable mesh between Greek, Roman, Feudal European, Middle Eastern...and even Sumerian? 

It didn't look like a single one of them, but all of them at once! Alexander wanted to theorize the deep implications of this but was awoken from his sudden architecturally based stupor by a booming rumble across the ground.

'Hey...isn't that...?' Alexander widened all of his eyes as he beheld the figure in the distance.

It was a monolithic figure, standing at a height that could rival even some incarnations of Godzilla. It didn't look like a proper living thing belonging to the ecosystem, but more like a sentient statue made of flesh and sinew, it was...

The Titanic Demon that stomped him.

...And it was moving, disturbingly fast for such a colossal being, each of its steps like a skyscraper not scraping against the sky, but crashing upon the very ground, rupturing it as if it were an egg.

'...Wh-why is it here!?' Alexander didn't know, couldn't know why the Monolithic Demon was here. Well, it could just be a coincidence, but surely destiny wasn't so comedically cruel, right?

The castles and temples made of holy salt broke down instantly upon impact, like a bunch of Lego brick buildings being torn apart by the kick of an amused dog.

The giant of writhing meat moved awkwardly as if moving itself wasn't something it was made for. It was like watching a tree suddenly sprout legs and run with them, the legs made of fleshy strands would root themselves to the ground only to sever the connection mere moments later.

'Wait...is it...?' He muttered quietly to himself, unfurling his wings upon instinct.

Alexander took a few seconds to make sure, but it was true, the Demon of Flesh wasn't just moving randomly, it moving precisely towards him.

...No, it wasn't moving towards him, but rather the structure he floated atop...the monastery!

His first thought was to naturally flee, it was the sanest and wisest course of action. Altair's non-reassuring reassurances repeated itself in Alexander's head, that Demons were only scary when they were in front of you, and that he should get away as soon as possible.

And that was the right thing to do, the best thing to do...

That is, if it were not for the fact that it would soon topple the monastery, the veritably birthing grounds of the Angels...

No, that's not why he felt conflicted, Alexander hadn't yet felt any attachments to the various monuments in Heaven, nor did he particularly feel any sympathy toward his fellow newborns...

No, what he felt was not a dilemma of morals, but one of principles.

Simply put, if he could do something about it, then he should. If he couldn't, then it would be best to avoid the problem entirely, but he could do something about it...

And frankly, why not? What's the worst that could happen? Another death? He already died, and it wasn't so bad!

But what exactly could he do about it? Not much...

He couldn't kill nor fight the Giant Demon, he wasn't that braindead. But he could try the next best thing...

This plan would overly rely on factors outside of his control...but what else could he possibly do?

He tried to manipulate his inner Mana. It was difficult and his control over it was awkward at best and downright horrendous at worst. It gradually improved as his turmoiling emotions were kept under control, settling into stability as he became more composed.

Although Alexander now had a more steady supply of Mana thanks to Altair giving him some, it wasn't nearly enough to perform another full-power Mana Blast, let alone create all the Mana Rings necessary for such a manoeuvre.

But he didn't need a Mana Blast...at least, not one meant to kill.

Alexander quickly opened up his trusty System as his wings spread wide open, the Angel taking off high into the sky for a bird's eye view.

For this plan to work, he needed more Mana, not Mana Rings, just raw Magical Energy pumping through his being.

And he needed it fast, like, right now kind of fast.

He opened up the Creation Menu and copy pasted his 3D model onto the screen, something that he learnt how to do when creating the various entertainment functions. After which, he drew some vague colourful dots around his body to represent the Mana.

He then created an animation by dragging all the surrounding Mana inside his body, almost like he was a black hole. He had done much of the same thing back when he created [Siphon Magic], but this time, it was a little bit different.

If siphoning Magic was like drinking a fast-flowing trickle of water from a delicate glass cup. On the other hand, this new skill was like plunging yourself into the nearby river with the context that you were a close relative to Spongebob Squarepants.

There was no precision or finesse in it, it was just brute absorption. A skill that would help him quickly get a large quantity of Mana in nearly an instant.

But wouldn't that be harmful to his heart? 

It would.

However, Alexander didn't plan on involving his heart any time soon.

There was one additional difference between this newly created skill and his ability to manually siphon Mana...

And that was...

—[Create Mana Sponge for 50 Karmic Points?]—

It was a lot more expensive than [Siphon Magic], but it would be worth it, not just for this instance, but also for the long term.

Alexander reached out with one of his many tentacles, as Mana started to rapidly gather around it, almost as if it were a sponge.

And that's exactly what it was.

This was the major difference between [Siphon Magic] and [Mana Sponge]. The former is a skill that involves manually absorbing Mana into his core, whilst the latter is a skill that makes his body attract Mana like a sponge.

The keyword being 'body'

He focused the skill on the tip of his tentacle as a spiral of Mana began to cover it like a lance of bright colour.

This was a dangerous play, one that could potentially get him killed as he saw that the nearby Demons were getting increasingly suspicious. Although he was invisible to their eye, they could not possibly ignore the very noticeable change in the atmosphere.

Even if most, if not all of them were Low-rank, Demons were still inherently creatures born of Magic. And naturally, they would be able to sense such a massive change in the ambient Mana.

He sighed and took a deep breath as the Mana whirled before him like a tornado. Given his previous experiences, this energy weirdly resembled both wind and rock at the same time, given that it was affected by gravity and all...

Well, it wasn't really gravity, more like the Mana itself, but still...

He then focused inward, on the Mana Rings he had recovered. Although Altair's Mana wasn't enough to make three, it was luckily enough for a pair, one to protect my heart, and one to commence the plan.

...Just perfect, thank god.

He willed one of the rings to move as it transformed into a comet and hurled itself outside its usual orbit, going through Alexander's tentacled before meeting the spiral of Mana.

When commencing the Mana Blast, the collision between the two Mana Comets were much like throwing two blocks of ice against each other.

But in this instance, it was like throwing that ice block into a pot of lukewarm water.

And what usually happens when you drop ice into water...?

But of course, the ice would float to the very surface!

It was very much like that, though with one difference being that Alexander could directly control the water, the Mana, and move the ice block, the Comet, outwards.

The bright blinking light produced by Alexander's fanciful spell had inevitably invited attention, though only the Angels had noticed as Altair's blessing also seemed to also hide his Mana.

Virtually all of the Angels in the nearby area suddenly started to stare in a certain direction, that being Alexander's. This fact naturally made the Demons curious and suspicious as the smarter ones chose to follow the Angels's leads and stared at the invisble Alexander, hunger in their bestial eyes.

The Monolithic Demon stopped in its stride as it too felt that something was amiss, yet by the point it made such a realization, there was already a huge burst of Mana hurling towards its triangular head.

The Demon simply tilted its head to the left, allowing the flash of Mana to go past it, the damn spell not even managing to hurt it one bit as it instead had exploded behind the Titan.

Yet there was no force in the explosion. Actually, it was less of an explosion and more of a glorified flashbang, a really, really loud one.

The flashbang hadn't dealt any type of damage to the Demon, thus not breaking Altair's blessing, and it had succesfully accomplished Alexander's grand plan.

The Monolithic Demon released a great rumbling roar as it expressed a kind of infantile rage, looking like a giant messed-up child throwing a temper tantrum as it swung its tendrils around the light, trying to smother it in its flesh.

The light hadn't just attracted the giant's rage, but also all of the nearby Demons in the battlefield as they had quickly abandon the Angels they were fighting againts in favour of trying to devour the bright light, acting almost like moths to a bright lamp.

Alexander released a gasp of air as he regained his bearings, immediately flying away as fast as he could to avoid the lurking Demons. They couldn't detect him, but that clearly saw where that flashbang had shot out from.

'God...that actually worked!' He silently cheered as he tried to fill his wings with what remnant Mana he still had.

Now that the Monolithic Demon was distracted, he could go back down and—

"Youth."

The Angel froze in the air as he heard a booming voice, one that seemed to have been shoved directly into his brain.

"...Be not afraid."

How could he not be? It was as if he could feel every sin and wrongdoing he had ever done crawling upon his spine, the chill colder than a fresh block of ice from Antartica, and the sensation of supression making him feel as though he was but a worm wriggling around in the mud.

"Bravery. Foolishness. Duty. Stupidity..."

The voice, which was like a hundred thousand maggots crawling around inside of a festering wound spoke those words, not one by one, but all at once...somehow.

"Ingenuity...Humanity?" 

Alexander tried to respond to the voice, but it for naught as everytime he tried to do so, it was as if his mouth refused to open, his tongue refusing to weave a word, his very brain refusing to formulate a sentence.

"Unclear. Contradiction. Opposite of Wrong, yet not Correct."

Frankly, he didn't what the fuck this voice was even talking about, even if he wanted to. The words were clear, clearer than a glass of water, but the meaning behind them didn't make much sense if you had no context, which Alexander had little of.

"We see you. Seperate. Independent. We are Choir. Collective. Family."

Choir...? That's...Alexander knew what that was, a vital piece of information included in his inherited memories.

"Division."

And with that, Alexander was rattled awake from his paralyzed state as he found himself confused yet weirdly relieved from the whole experience.

Wait...there's something different...was he no longer...?

Alexander unfurled his wings to quickly get away as a wolf-like goblinoid Demon tried to snatch him from the air.

But it didn't seem to be necessary as the very next second, that scoundrel of a Demon was struck down by a what looked like a pillar of light swinging down to sever it in two.

"...Altair...?" Alexander muttered out as the Principality returned into a defensive stance as floated back behind the younger Angel.

And said Angel was surpised as he quickly found 3 Altairs behind him, rotating around his body in a defensive formation.

No...these weren't Altair, they just looked exactly like him. The only difference between them being the eyes behind their helmets.

"Come, Young Saint." All three of them said in the exact same time, earning a confused look from Alexander.

'Young...Saint? What is that?' He didn't recognize the term, nor did he know why these Angels referred to him as such.

"Uhm...go...where, exactly?" The young Angel asked his newly appointed guards.

"Follow us, to safety." They said once more, all three of them perfectly being in synced with one another.

'Well...I'm not gonna argue with that...' He internally lampooned as he akwardly started to float closer toward the triad.

Alexander looked down before glancing toward the battlefield below, and, oh...

"W-wait, what is that!?" He asked out loud as a massive, dark sea of writhing tentacles could be seen literally sprouting from the ground like some trea of death, snatching up any nearby Demons and reducing them to black ashes upon touch.

"Be not afraid." The triad answered, noticing the fear in his many eyes.

"...That is our gateway. let's go, Saint." What!?

===

Thoughts?

Sorry for the stupidly long delay, I had bad grades and was temporarily exiled from the internet by my parents.

Happy Ramadhan by the way.