5 Chapter 4

Vigor Kinsteel's POV:

Dark.

Pitch black.

Those are the only suitable words to describe my surrounding. Nothing but a deep space without any sources of light that make me can't even tell the differences when I am opening my eyes or not. Every limb and muscle of mine were like malfunctioned machines since none of them obeyed any signals from my brain to move at all. My body however, is still in conscious as I can feel, sense the features of the environment around me. I feel like, I'm not standing on the ground, but the same time, I am not falling. I was ... floating.

Huh....deja vu.

I remember the last time I experienced something pretty much very similar to my current predicament was when I got reincarna-.

'Aaaaaah....craps...But what happened? I didn't die last night though. The aether core formation process was a success...

I instantly shut my eyes to internally observe my new power. A mixed color of red and ethereal purple in the shape of a spherical orb staying inside my right ribcage, its thousands of glowing purple particles, moving around like stars in milky way. And there is my mana core, still remained solid orange. Yes, I was in my current body, my soul didn't leave yet.

So the question of the day: why did he "take" me here again?

All of sudden, another deja vu phenomenon occurred, a bright pure white light appeared from thin air and blinded my sight, like a flash grenade. I followed my instinct and covered my eyes to protect them but it was too late. I was dazzled and little bit stunned as if I was a celebrity got attacked by one hundred flashes from cameras of the paparazzi. My two poor eyeballs were burning in pain, suffering from the damage of the source of light which I knew what it was.

" Why the fuck it is so much worse this time?!!!", I instinctively shut my eyes and covered them with my hands.

"Greetings, Erik. It's been a while, or should I say your "real name" now, Vigor." A silvery, mighty yet familiar tone got my attention.

Waiting my sight to recover, I greeted him back:

"Turn off your god forsaken portal!! You want to blind me or what?!!"

"My apology.", the archangel Azrael slowly approached as he shut down the portal. He was floating just like me, except that he could master his movements through the void perfectly like nothing but a normal walk for him ,unlike my body which is pernamently stuck at one single position.

As soon as he closed off the distance between me and him, he raised his left hand and snapped his fingers.

Immediately, a set of table and chairs appeared from thin air(welp, not exactly since there isn't air in the void). Taking a first look at them, I made a strong guess in terms of material they're probably just woods, just like other usual furniture based on their dark walnut color. In addition, several orbs of light appeared, acting as the suitable light source for me than that portal.

"Take a sit, Emissary, and let's have a small talk. Worry not, even though this is the Void, I have casted a spell for you to breath normally.", Azrael said.

"First of all: thanks. Second: I can't move my--

Not finishing my sentence yet, my body suddenly descended by itself until my butt was placed on the chair and I was in a sitting position. As if it just automatically gained gravity. At right that moment, I took back everything I said before, the chair was unexpectedly soft without any needs of layers of pillow. The material's color made you think that it is but a cheap wooden chair, but when you sat on it, it felt like a comfy sofa.

"Did you just do tha--

"Tea?" Azrael interrupted me as he snapped his finger once again to summon a set of white ceramic tea pot along with cups and plates. Then, the tea pot automatically poured tea for two cups being served on two plates decorated with similar textures on the pot.

"Alright. Fine. I will shut my mouth up. No more questions.", I shook my shoulders in defeated.

"And no, I don't drink tea."

"So as I have seen in your previous life. Old habits die hard."

Switching my gaze from the archangel to my tea cup, I realized that the cup I was holding in just few seconds ago now has turned into a glass filled with crimson wine. A familiar scent radiate from the glass, I brought the glass closer to my nose to smell the scent better. It was whiskey!

"You know what Azrael? I begin to like you a little bit more. " I smirked as I took a sip of whiskey and began to feel its wonderful taste dissolved in my tongue.

A stream of nostalgic emotions rushed through my head as I remembered about the old days in the military camp, when I used to steal some wine bottles from the general's office room and secretly enjoyed them alone without getting detected. By the time, this habit of mine turned me into a heavy drinker, though luckily, I had really good alcohol tolerance as I rarely get drunk...but the potential of getting cancer and many diseases on the other hand...welp, "lucky" for me that I suicided huh?

"How is this second life of yours going?", Azrael asked.

"Much better than the first one, obviously."

"Your new family?", he continued.

"They're....I will use the description of "being accurate according to the normal definition of family back in Earth", I guess...."

"They love you, don't they?"

"...Yeah.... First time in more than 3 decades of existing, I have been loved by someone. Crazy huh?", I replied in honest mixed with a weak sarcasm.

"Do you get to love them too?"

"Right now....it's still a little bit hard to tell. I appreciate my....parents. They are good people without a doubt don't get me wrong. But....do I truly feel to be their son though? Or did I replace their "actual son" during the reincarnation process? And imagine how freaking traumatized they will be if they find out....."

The archangel took a sip from his tea cup.....How the fuck can he drink without a mouth????

There are things should be remained secret.....

"God was right then.", Azrael placed the tea cup on his plate.

"Say wa?"

"You believing you are to blame for this difficult circumstance, so you feel guilty. You began to worry how much you may hurt your new parents. Those are indications show that your personality is shifting for the better. Hence the decision to reincarnate you was not wrong at all.", Azrael explained.

My brain digested his reasoning, perhaps....he was right....It was also the first time for me to care about someone else besides myself....

"And worry not, the process did not lead to the demise of the unborn baby's soul. Because there was no soul other than yours to enter the body in the first place. The process of birth and death was infact a cycle afterall."

"Wait, so most of the souls get yeeted out of bodies when dying and only to move on to others repeatedly? What about the ones you sent to Heaven?", I gave him a confused look.

"You will be surprised with the amount of people whom I guided to Heaven that changed their minds, wishing to be reincarnated to experience living for the many next lives after I erased their soul's past memories. Thus the cycle repeating for billions."

"And the ones in the "magical Wonderland of 666" ?", I refered to the counter part with a satirical tone.

"Many got punished in Hell beyond imagination , desperately begged for forgiveness from God as we consider for their retonement. But of course, many of them, must stay there permanently, in the deepest floor."

"Yup, we humans. Angry evil maniac shaved monkeys. Which one you decided I would end up in if I wasn't chosen by your "papa"?", I asked him.

"It was opposite of what you urged me to do when we first met. You could have ascend and experience final peace in your afterlife. However, with the amount of lives you took away in the past, even that was you being forced, you would immediately prepare for the retonement."

"Hell nah, you're lying.", I rejected his answer, as I knew I deserved worse.

"Let that topic aside, the sole purpose why I summoned you to the Void is to give you a reward from God himself that you showed you worthy enough to have it, our emissary.",Azrael moved to the main point.

"Welp here we go again, I'm listening."

"Observing your process on developing your strength, we noticed that you had reached an important milestone: to possess both of the fundamental magic sources of this world: Mana and Aether. An excellent accomplishment that proved you are truly the rightful chosen one to carry this mission."

Azrael explained as he pulled a strange amulet from a small magic portal formed by multiple purple colored circles of ancient runes and symbols.

"I thought you told me that everything I got before my reincarnation was sufficient for me? Except the "drinking wine without worrying about cancers".

"They were sufficient.... Sufficient for you to obtain both Mana and Aether cores, an essential thing in order to grasp this "blessing"."

My vision locked on the features of the amulet floating on Azrael's palm. It wasn't an aesthetic object like expensive jewellery. Its shape was seemed to a considerably deformed metal hexagon, lacking of the symmetry features like it has experienced corrosion overtime. Additionally, scratches and cracks could be seen on its downgraded silver colored surface. However, the most noticeable thing was that weird ass symbol carved in the middle of the amulet, an arrow moving in zic zac lines creating 3 triangles with an anchor?

"Que carajo?", I uttered.

Third person's POV:

Suddenly, Vigor's figure began to become

languid and sluggish as well as his sight slowly faded away. Losing controls of his limbs, Vigor dropped the glass of whiskey on the table, making it shattered into small shards. Seeing the spilled wine and knowing that something is wrong, Vigor asked:

"What is inside the....wi- wine.....?!!!"

Now, it's Vigor's tongue's turn to lose its function which prevented any words coming from his mouth. Meanwhile, Azrael just sitting on his chair with a neutral and calm altitude. Then, the archangel stood up and made the tea table he summoned a while ago vanished into ashes and confronted the soon to be paralyzed Vigor lying on the chair.

Waiting until the human was completely fainted, the loyal servant of God cloaked his right index finger with his heavenly magic to create a knife made from pure white light. Carefully thrusting the knife on Vigor's forehead to open a cut wound, Azrael continued to push his knife going deeper and deeper but with a significant slow pace, not wanting to kill Vigor during the process

The two figures staying in that position for about few more seconds until Azrael pulled off his knife with Vigor's blood on it and mumbled an incantation. Right the second when Azrael stopped mumbling, the amulet on his left palm vibrating madly as bright rays of light with blood red colored emanating from it.

"Embodiment of blasphemy. Thee shalt awaketh. Thee shalt feast. Thee shalt stayeth in thy host. Thee shalt returneth....when the timeth cometh." Azrael spoke in a cold voice full of hatred toward the amulet before stabbed the bloodied knife of his through it.

Vigor's blood sticking on Azrael's knife was immediately sucked inside the pierced amulet. Like a carnivore in great hunger, a wisp of dark black mixed with blood red flame bursted out from the amulet and made its way to go inside Vigor's head through his wound on the forehead.

Finally, the archangel enclosed Vigor's wound, healing it without leaving any scars.

Vigor Kinsteel's POV:

"AAA!" I screamed as I got up on my bed. Took a look around me, I reassured myself. Thank god, this is my room. Holy shit! What a night it was!

*Knock* *knock* *knock*

"Is everything all right young master? Do you need me to come in?" A familiar voice came from one of the maids in my family after she had knocked the door.

"No... no, everything is fine. I just have a .... a nightmare, yes, just a nightmare."

"Lady Selena told you to hurry up and go to the great hall for breakfast." the maid informed me.

"Thank you, I will be there in minutes."

Jumping down from my bed, I went to the bathroom for my daily morning hygiene which would usually take me only brief minutes. Next, when I was getting myself dressed properly, a pain stroke my forehead, stopping me from wearing my shoes.

"Please accept my most sincerely apology, emissary. I have imbued an anesthetic spell in your drink since the process to transfer the power from this amulet will cause an unbearable agony for your body to tolerate. Be not worry, just think of this as a surgery operation from your old world, you should be in deep sleep this process and then you will awake on your bed like nothing had happened before." I heard Azrael's voice, its source was inside my head. It seemed that he had left a message before I was back to my room.

"Now, I want to explain further about the power that by the time now should have been assimilated with your body. In simple words, the power's concept is very similar to the so called Beast's Will in this world's magic system. The distinction is the one you received was once belonged to one of the mightiest angels among us who has sacrificed his life during the Great War between Heaven and Hell. To honor him, god sealed his power and soul which existed in every angel's body, known as the 'Sanctitas' to the amulet, waiting until we have found the worthy successor to wield his power, which is you, emissary Vigor."

(A/n: Sanctitas means Purity/Holiness in Latin)

Later on, I wrote down crucial details of the "Sanctitas" to my notebook by listening to Azrael's message. Interestingly, in order to use its power along with honing it, I will have to devote both my mana and aether to it. The moment I got into the 'Integrate Phase', Sanctitas will make some changes to my physical traces as well as my overall power will exceed dramatically. Moreover, I will be able to obtain Angelic combat techniques, and magic spells which could be compared with Asuran magic if not far surpassed it.

However, Azrael did not mention anything about the symbol that looked like a fucking "Picasso random art thingy" on the amulet that caught my attention. I felt there was something odd about it, but regardless its mystery, not important for me to know apperantly. Maybe that's just some kind of signature or marks belonged to the angel whose power I inherited.

Curosity dwelled up in my mind as I began to read the knowledge of the Achangel had to offer me regarding to this mysterious omnipotence of the Angels themselves, seeing how further and higher can I strive to be.