Angel of the End

Apollyon and the girl sat facing one another in front of a chess board. The girl was staring curiously at the pieces while Apollyon explained.

“In my view, this game is a far better use of your time than sword fighting.”

“… How will it help me convert people?”

A slightly strained smile came to Apollyon’s face.

“Well, it won’t. At least not directly.”

The girl tilted her head.

“Then will it help me fight in Armageddon?”

The strain on his smile grew.

‘What did Michael do to her?!’

Nonetheless, he took a moment to calm down, before putting as gentle of an expression on his face as possible.

“Listen, child. You don’t need to worry about Armageddon for now. That is likely still thousands of years away.”

“But Michael said that it would be executed right after faith was gained.”

“… Michael was in a rather radical camp among the angels.”

Apollyon, who was technically a lower-ranked angel than Michael, held back on expressing his full opinion on the matter. Regardless, it wouldn’t have been age-appropriate for a ten-year-old child to hear what he actually wanted to say. Indeed, while he was alive, despite the fact that Michael had great sway with the Lord, most angels actually hated Michael’s jingoist attitude towards Armageddon. Considering that hell vanished in 1923 – interestingly coinciding with the rise of a certain animation company with a mouse mascot – the only target of an apocalypse would be sinners; frankly, most angels simply weren’t so bloodthirsty as to want to eradicate the vast majority of humans. Regardless, Apollyon put that issue aside and explained the rules to the girl.

After his explanation, they played a game. Of course, the girl lost quite quickly.

“You’re playing far too aggressively, child.”

“… I see.”

After a few more games, Apollyon began to break out into sweat.

‘I’ve been playing chess for millennia. How in the world am I already struggling against her?!’

Taking a breath to calm himself, Apollyon remembered his pride as the oldest of the angels and subtly removed his glasses to ensure he could play at full efficiency… he definitely wasn’t nervous about losing to someone several orders of magnitude younger than him. After a dozen more games….

“What is this, Mister Apollyon?”

“Ah, I would prefer you just call me Apollyon. But this is a stalemate.”

They had stalemated. Apollyon had been using his abilities as the Angel of the Abyss to observe the end of the lines for various moves in the game, but even with that, she was able to stalemate him in under twenty games. This talent… it was fundamentally abnormal. Recalling what he had heard of Michael’s sword fights against the girl, he widened his eyes.

‘That maniac was using that sword – the Lahat Chereb – to enhance himself enough to beat her! What kind of an unholy super-soldier was he trying to create by pushing a child this hard?’

Deciding that he had come close enough to losing to a child for his taste for the day, Apollyon decided to move on to the next task.

“Child, have you watched any movies before?”

“… A movie? What is that?”

Apollyon grinned.

“Something I’ve become quite proficient in watching in my time in the Abyss.”

===

“Apollyon, why was that character so upset to find out that the man the black suit was his father?”

Apollyon, who had skipped the prequels of this particular franchise, hadn’t actually expected this question.

“Wouldn’t you be upset if your father were a mass-murderer?”

“… No? Why should I care?”

Apollyon instantly grasped the issue here.

“Do you not think it matters who your parentage is?”

“Weren’t that character’s uncle and aunt closer to parents anyway?”

“… To an extent. But blood is thicker than water, no? It still has value.”

“Why?”

“Well… it has meaning because people give it meaning. A lot of things in human society are like this – they’re social constructs.”

“So, in other words, if you just don’t give it meaning, then it doesn’t matter?”

“Well, that’s technically true. Even so, it’s impossible to entirely ignore social constructs. All of that is besides the point, since the main issue was that the main character was idealising his father, and that image was destroyed.”

“… I suppose that makes sense. I still don’t think that it makes much sense in the general case, though.”

Talking to the girl, while he initially treated her as a starry-eyed curious child, Apollyon rapidly realised that his language was slipping into that which he would use to talk to one of his peers among the angels. He internally sighed at his attempt to talk down to a child who he knew was that precocious. Nonetheless, he put the girl to bed for the ‘night’ and thought about what he was going to do the next day.

===

Apollyon looked at the girl, who had definitely grown. Her appearance and age now finally matched (granted, of course, that they would desync once more in about a decade). She was fifteen years old today.

“Apollyon, have you not brought me a gift for my birthday?”

Despite the fact that her face didn’t move an inch during her head tilt, Apollyon couldn’t help but find her impassively delivered joke incredibly endearing. He gave the girl a beaming grin.

“Of course! I have something right here.”

Out of nowhere (quite literally) Apollyon pulled out a book-like brick, or perhaps he brought out a brick-like book – the girl couldn’t quite tell.

“What is that?”

“The entire Merykan elementary school curriculum! I know that we have been late to catch up, since we’ve been focusing on culture foremost in your education.”

“Ugh.”

For a moment, Apollyon could have sworn that he heard a grumble escaping the girl’s lips.

“I’m sorry, what did you say, young lady?”

“… I said that I’m grateful.”

“… Let’s go with that.”

Just as the girl got her hopes up for another gift, Apollyon pulled out a bottle containing a yellowish liquid.

‘I know that it’s technically illegal on Earth for someone of her age to drink, but I’m a guardian so it should be fine… probably. It was common back in my day, and this isn’t even Earth!’

Pushing aside his ongoing internal battle over the morality of serving alcohol to a minor, Apollyon showed the bottle to the girl.

“Do you know what this is?”

“… Beer?”

“Exactly! It’s time for your first drink!”

“Isn’t this illegal on Earth?”

“…!”

Apollyon, suddenly going into an aggressive coughing fit, took a moment to compose himself.

“… It’s fine. This isn’t Earth, and also I’m technically a guardian, and-”

“Yeah, I get the point.”

On that day, the girl realised that she didn’t like beer.

===

On her sixteenth birthday, the girl had a specific request for Apollyon.

“Apollyon, could you please give me a name this year?”

Frankly, it hadn’t actually previously been an issue for them, since saying ‘you’ was clear enough given that it was only the two of them there. Even so, the girl still wanted to have a name.

“… Can I talk to the Lord about it?”

“No.”

Both of them knew that the Lord didn’t particularly care about the naming issue. For his part, Apollyon had been growing increasingly gloomy these days, especially when playing chess against her without his glasses. The girl, sensing something wrong, wanted to get something to attach him to her more. She wouldn’t let him leave her. She didn’t want to be alone again.

“How about Mary?”

“No. I want you to give me a name, don’t base it on a story.”

Apollyon feigned shock at instantly being shot down, before giving it some more thought.

“… Well, how about Elysia?”

“As in ‘Elysium’?”

“Exactly.”

“… I quite like it.”

And so, it was decided. On her sixteenth birthday, Elysia was christened.

“But Elysia, you still have to get through that undergraduate physics content by tomorrow.”

“Yes, yes.”

Despite her dismissive words, Apollyon didn’t miss the slight happiness in her voice at being called by name. Apollyon grinned.

‘At least I’ll be able to leave her behind with pride.’

===

On her eighteenth birthday, Elysia looked at the man lying in the bed before her.

“… Did Michael go like this?”

Apollyon grimaced at the blunt question.

“… No. He chose to eradicate himself with the Lahat Chereb instead of fading like me.”

Despite his misgivings, however, he still had to be as honest as he could with Elysia. Looking upon him, Elysia’s expression remained unreadable.

“It’s my birthday, Apollyon.”

“Oh! I forgot! I’m sorry, Elysia!”

While Apollyon painfully tried to stand up and conjure something from the Abyss, Elysia, almost in a panic, stopped him.

“Please… don’t invoke your powers. I just need one thing from you.”

Apollyon, collapsing back onto the bed, gave her a gentle smile.

“I’ll give you anything I can. What is it?”

Elysia clenched her fist, which was not unnoticed by Apollyon, who had grown quite savvy to Elysia’s body language. It seemed she was building courage to ask something. Of course, with his pride as the oldest and final angel, Apollyon knew that he could easily fulfill whatever she was asking of him.

“Please, can I call you ‘father’?”

… Except that. Apollyon’s jaw dropped.

“… Could you please repeat that?”

Elysia turned her head away slightly, clearly embarrassed.

“I want you to be my father.”

“Elysia, I’m not your father. Maybe I can be like a cool uncle from one of those 1980s movies?”

Elysia stared at him, her eye twitching. Apollyon gave a slight smile.

‘It’s adorable how she doesn’t notice how bad she can be at holding her expression sometimes.’

Before he could try to bring up one of many issues he could think of, Elysia shut him down.

“I’ve already explained this to you years ago: I don’t care whether I have biological parents or not. I still want you to be my father.”

Apollyon gained a troubled expression as he began to genuinely think about it.

‘… I suppose it shouldn’t be an issue with the Lord. Not to mention….’

Apollyon’s expression at last bloomed into a fulfilled smile unlike anything Elysia had seen before.

“I would love for you to be my daughter, Elysia.”

“…!”

Spontaneously, Elysia hugged the bedridden Apollyon, her doll-like expression not able to hide her genuine joy from even someone who wasn’t used to reading her. For the next week, the pair forwent Elysia’s education and spent most of their time watching shows, movies, playing games, and bantering.

“That’s it, Elysia. My time is up.”

“… Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

Elysia’s eyes were beginning to water, despite her best effort to hide it.

“Don’t cry, Elysia. I’m just returning to the place I was born originally. I’m not scared.”

“… But I don’t want you to go. Can’t you use your power to avoid it even a little longer…?”

As Elysia rubbed her eyes clear, Apollyon’s only response was a wry smile.

“Before I go, I need you to just remember this one thing about the humans on Earth, Elysia.”

“What is it?”

“Elysia, above all you must be kind”

“… I will.”

The pair embraced. He hoped Elysia wouldn’t notice, but Apollyon’s eyes began to leak tears. As his body faded, he could only faintly smile and say one last thing.

“I love you, Elysia. I’m… sorry for not being strong enough to save you.”

“… You don’t need to apologise for not stopping Michael. I love you too, Father.”

In the end, the Angel of End died unable to erase the guilt of his life.