Chapter 15 - Ice of Despair

"Why do I live? Why am I still alive? Why do I breathe the same air as these strangers, these beings who are not even part of my divine race? Why have I not felt like myself for thousands of years? Is it a curse simply to exist? Most likely, yes.

Is it truly called friendship if you exchange words with someone, even if those words hold no hidden meaning within them? As time slips away, so too does the feeling that once stirred within me, the sense that someone cared for me. I feel alone, and I am alone. Memories have left me. Demons have left me. Emotions were never truly here.

All I see is an empty glass of water, always empty. Perhaps that is my life, a glass of water with no water inside it. A scale that weighs nothing. A book whose pages hold no words.

I feel as though I've lost something essential, something so deeply important that it has hollowed me out and erased my true identity. I am a broken doll. My thoughts are supposed to be dark all the time, yet what is there to think about when there is nothing left to see?

Maybe... maybe I need someone. Someone who can fill this emptiness. Someone who could catch this fallen leaf drifting endlessly along an infinite road.

The only thing that gives me even a flicker of emotion is the color blue. I don't know why. It simply warms me every time I see it. Blue... The sky is blue, but it does not warm me. The sea is blue, but it does not fulfill me. Blue... blue... blue...

Hmm? Oh no... I drifted off into my thoughts again.
I just have to survive this now. Just keep walking through this desert, this thing that, perhaps, is called life.

A vast mass of carnation petals surged forward, forming an oceanic wave before Magura's eyes. Magura snapped the first two fingers of her hand, and in that instant, the entire pseudo-wave of petals froze in place. Atop the frozen wave soared General Theodiel, sword in hand, ready to strike down the demon. He shifted his grip slightly, holding his blade as if it were a dagger, and darted forward at a terrifying speed toward Magura.

The sword was mere centimeters away from Magura's helmet when, at the last moment, she dodged sideways.

"Lapis Arts: Two Wings — The Tulips of Justice," declared Eudaniela, who appeared behind Magura, transforming her blade into a rose-tinted tulip whose petals bristled with thorns. Theodiel charged again, his sword aimed directly at Magura. She ducked beneath the steel and slammed her left knee into the general's abdomen.

"KHHOKKH!" Theodiel choked as Magura followed up with a brutal right hook, sending him crashing into the ruins of nearby buildings.

"HAAAHHH!" screamed Eudaniela as she flew at Magura with her weapon raised. Yet Magura stopped the strike effortlessly, catching the blade with only her left hand.

"W-What...?" gasped Eudaniela in shock. In that moment, Magura raised her right hand before the general's face, ready to end her life in an instant. Eudaniela stared at her in terror, silently praying that Magura might show even a shred of mercy.

But at the decisive moment, against her own intent, Magura's right hand veered toward her helmet instead, unleashing a torrent of black ice. Eudaniela gazed at her in confusion, until she turned her eyes left and saw Theodiel, his right hand extended toward Magura, giving the impression that he had intervened at the very last second to save the general.

Seizing the chance, Eudaniela escaped Magura's trap and flew swiftly toward Theodiel.

"Thank you," said Eudaniela.

"We don't stand a chance of defeating her," said Theodiel.

Eudaniela trembled at what she had just heard from Theodiel's mouth.

"She's in a league of her own. Even the Marshals would find it difficult to face her. What we can do is buy at least a little time until reinforcements arrive, against this monster," Theodiel said as he looked at Magura, who appeared perfectly normal, completely unharmed by that sudden attack.

"Do you have any plan in mind for how to fight her?" asked Eudaniela.

"For now, the idea is—"

But suddenly, cutting Theodiel off, an incredibly complex labyrinth of black ice took form. Its walls enclosed the general and the generaless, leading them into an unknown direction. The walls were covered with moss made of green flames. The labyrinth was massive, the walls at least five meters high. The sky was dark, the only light coming from the moon Diaboros, which cast down its red wanderers upon the fate of angels.

"Lagus Arts: Zero Rings — Krokota and Leukrokota."

Theodiel and Eudaniela were utterly confused by the place they had been trapped in. They looked around in astonishment.

"This is the most absurd Lagus I've ever seen," said Eudaniela, terrified by something she couldn't even begin to comprehend.

"Save me!"

"Hm?!" Theodiel reacted at that moment.

"Help!"

"Mother!"

"I'm scared!"

"I want to die!"

"My guts are spilling out of me mother!"

"I want to die with you!"

"I am scared!"

"I am alone! I am my head to be cut off!"

"My eyes burn!"

"I want to drink blood!"

All these chilling voices further unsettled Theodiel within the labyrinth.

"What the? Who are they? What are these voices?" said Theodiel, who was beginning to grow afraid of this façade of feminine voices filled with devilish thoughts.

"What's wrong, Theodiel? What are you saying?" asked Eudaniela, confused by the general's unusual behavior.

"Father?"

"Father?"

"Father?"

"Huh?" Theodiel turned his head toward the direction of the voices.

At that moment, Theodiel saw two child angels with golden curls. Their once-white wings were torn and shredded, their faces looking as though they had been devoured by some ravenous beast. One's jaw hung loosely, exposing every tooth, while from the other's torn eye socket dangled a severed nerve. Bits of flesh clung to their mouths, and blood dripped with every sound they made.

"Help!"

"Save me, Father!"

"I want blood!"

"Please, rescue me!"

"I want to die!"

"What the fuck???" Theodiel recoiled in horror at the sight before him.

"Theodiel!? Get a hold of yourself! What are you doing?!" cried Eudaniela, shaking the general, trying to snap him back to his senses.

"It's useless. Krokota and Leukrokota are creatures that imitate the final cries they hear from their victims. Now they are inside his mind," came Magura's voice from somewhere within the labyrinth, her direction unknown.

"W-What are you saying?" asked Eudaniela, both confused and terrified.

"The labyrinth touches a troubled soul. An angel's heart cannot endure such overwhelming pain. From what I see, he must have lost two children," said Magura, who, in Theodiel's vision, was stroking the disfigured faces of the angel-like creatures.

"Enough! ENOUGH! They're not alive anymore! This is a nightmare! Paliel! Artiel! You're not here anymore!" Theodiel screamed to himself, horrified at the mutilated faces of the beings that had taken on the appearance of his dead children.

Eudaniela was frozen in terror. She didn't know how to react. She could neither comprehend nor imagine what the general was experiencing at that moment.

"The perfect technique against an angel. A pity I couldn't draw you into this nightmare as well, girl. But the past cannot be undone," said Magura as she began walking toward Theodiel.

"Stay away from me! STAY AWAY!" cried Theodiel in terror, dragging himself backward desperately like a wounded animal.

"As far as I noticed, your technique could deflect attacks and other abilities in battle. But it cannot deflect trauma, nor can it deflect your death."

"THEODIEL!!!" screamed Eudaniela.

She now found herself in the kingdom, no longer in that cursed labyrinth. She breathed heavily, sweat dripping from her armor, still trembling from the terror she had endured.

"What was that? Theodiel, we—"

In that instant, Theodiel's body lay scattered in hundreds of mangled pieces, strewn across a frozen mass, his blood flowing over it like a temple consecrated through sacrifice. There was no angel anymore, only a divine slaughterhouse. Eudaniela stood frozen, her hands clenching tight as she realized her comrade had been killed in the most brutal way imaginable.

"It's your turn now," said Magura in a perfectly calm tone, standing before the general.

Eudaniela released a massive aura of Lapis that surged around her body. Magura watched her with unnerving serenity, not moving so much as a single muscle. The general launched herself skyward, wings cutting the air as the sheer force of her takeoff carved a crater beneath her feet. With her sword raised, she struck down at Magura with devastating speed, only for her attack to meet an unyielding shield of ice conjured by the enemy's crossed wings.

"Lapis is supposed to overpower Lagus... How is it possible I can't break this ice?" Eudaniela thought, unleashing hundreds of strikes in mere seconds. The blows came at near-lightning speed, yet Magura remained unfazed, untouched by the onslaught. The ice bore no fracture, not even a crack.

"Lapis Arts: Two Wings — Phoenix of Petals—"

But before she could finish, her vision shifted. For the briefest moment, her faltering consciousness revealed the truth, her upper body was already lying far away, separated from her lower half. Magura stood before the general's remains, her bisected form collapsing, blood pouring like a river spilling into a sea of dread. Even the ice shield had been cleaved into two flawless halves, mirroring the general's body. The strike had been so fast, so absolute, that Eudaniela had not even realized she was already dead. The impact was catastrophic, every building within sight flattened in the wake of that attack.

"For the first time in centuries, I draw my blade," Magura said as she unsheathed her weapon fully from her side. It was a sword etched with crimson lines, bearing a lifeless violet eye embedded at its center, its slightly curved edge gleaming with a terror-inducing sharpness.

"It will also be your last," came a voice from above her.

Seven generals appeared, clad in the same armor as the two who had fallen, accompanied by an army of at least two hundred soldiers descending swiftly toward Magura. She gazed at them from below, her green-glowing eyes reflecting a calm thought. Atbara was taking his time...