A Saint's Mercy

It was strange. Maria had tuned out sight and sound, only focusing on her chanted prayer; a logic-defying spell she’d never used, yet had no doubt on how once the time arrived.

Words flowed out of her as naturally as drawing a breath, the sounds of which she herself couldn’t recognize, yet she comprehended them. The language of the gods that shaped her divine mana with her will into something beyond the confines of a magic circle.

Even with her amber eyes closed, Maria’s perception expanded far beyond the stone edge of the Grand Balcony where she knelt. A vivid picture formed in her mind of the miracle unfolding across the city below. The vast, radiant flutter of golden light enveloped spires, rooftops, and the chaotic streets. Where the light touched, the miasmic sigils seared in stone throughout the city sputtered and dissolved. Abysmal portals collapsed inward until they vanished entirely.

Maria’s divine magic willed into angelic light forms that glided over the suffering. Broken bones knit together in seconds, agonizing burns faded into unblemished skin, and lifeless bodies whose souls still hadn’t fully crossed into the beyond were drawn back to the living.

Guards looked on with mouths agape. Wide-eyed stares lingered throughout.

She saw that Thomas and Celeste had fought a losing battle that they didn’t give up on. They remained frozen in disbelief when the aberrations crumbled before their eyes with the lightest touch of the angelic figures. A gentle warmth calmed the chaos and replaced the choking miasma that had poisoned the city's air.

But now, Maria’s eyes had fluttered open, and all physical sights and sounds had flooded back to her.

She held Kaelan in her arms, giving him a warm smile she hoped he’d soon see.

“Thank you, Kaelan. I’m back,” she whispered. If only she had returned a few seconds earlier, he might’ve heard her response. She pressed a hand over the hole in his chest, where warm blood flowed out as his body grew ever colder.

“You did well…”

A concentrated wave of divine mana surged from her palm straight into his being. Almost instantly, his wounds healed. Missing, shredded flesh grew anew; deep gauges mended, and jagged ribs that broke the skin realigned.

Color soon returned to Kaelan’s pale face. He sat up abruptly, blinking as he touched his body all over. Any sign of injury had vanished  

His wide eyes lingered on Maria as he muttered a “Thank you.” A luminous ring blazed above her head.

Maria glanced at the strange manifestation above her, reaching for it. “When did that get there?”

“Don’t poke it! What if it scorches your finger?”

She paused at Kaelan’s words before making contact.

The radiance almost burned, but it was as if the vibrating golden ring itself cleared her mind. It strangely filled natural gaps in her knowledge; like the fact that Kaelan seemed so energized even after all the trauma his body endured. Somehow Maria just knew that her divine magic had morphed beyond such previous limitations, if only temporarily.

Maria didn’t question it. She just chuckled, happy that Kaelan could receive her warm smile once more.

Behind the two, golden light settled across the city, slowly dissipating in a growing ease.

"How... how did you come to learn of such a spell?" Kaelan asked. His eyes remained wide, fixed on the grand view beyond the balcony.

Maria tilted her head to the side. She narrowed her amber eyes slightly in thought while far behind her, the celestial forms of light dispersed into thousands of shimmering specks of golden mana.

“Hmm, that spell… I learned it in a dream?"

Kaelan remained speechless, staring at her with a completely blank face while her aura pulsed within the surrounding air. Maria offered only another smile.

But subtle joy didn’t last long. A low rumbling growl echoed behind her, and the warmth in her eyes slowly cooled as she gazed toward the dark threshold of the ceremonial hall. Malakor's figure, along with the aberrations, loomed within.

She stepped forward. “It’s time to end this… once and for all.”

Her chest burned and throat tightened as flashes of everything Malakor had done rushed through her mind. The forced surrender, the psychological torture in her cell, the threat against the children, the cruel lies that almost made her view death as a permanent respite.

She glared at Malakor, her eyes hung on his miasmic sword. It was still wet with Kaelan's blood; drops dripped onto the white marble floor. Maria’s heart fluttered. Her eyes dilated, unable to hide the fury. But she’d come to accept the feeling without letting it control her.

The pack of aberrations snarled but soon shrank behind Malakor. With each approaching step, they cowered like frightened dogs; their miasmic presence no longer even tickled Maria. She simply raised her hand, motioned a sweep, and the creatures disintegrated within a golden flash. Their wisps of harmless ash blew away in the swirling air within the hall.

Malakor stood alone, frozen with trembling eyes. Maria finished crossing the shadowed threshold; a few scattered rays of the setting sun from behind further illuminated her radiance.

“S-Stay away!” Malakor cried. He fought to move, but her sheer presence prevented it.

As she grew ever closer with a golden light radiating out, Malakor screamed in agony as his face blistered and scorched. Maria didn’t pause her steps. But she found no joy in causing pain; she was just done with him hiding beneath a false face. The skin peeled away with a final miasmic layer.

Kaelan’s eyes went wide once Malakor moved his shielding arm aside.

What remained was not a monstrous appearance. Malakor’s true features were mostly human-like, yet possessed a breathtaking beauty far beyond what any human could ever possess. His skin was unblemished and beyond pale, almost seeming to shimmer in the rays of sunlight filtering through. His eyes were an unearthly hue—a color simply not found in human biology. The man was a model of absolute physical perfection that stood out far too much, so flawless and pristine that it felt deeply uncanny.

Malakor bit down hard on his lip, drawing violet blood. He lunged forward, swinging his blighted sword toward Maria’s neck with shuddering force.

Maria didn’t even flinch.

The sword shattered against her light, raining countless dark pieces at their feet. Malakor stumbled back, now just a disarmed man, unmasked, and utterly powerless before Maria.

"End this!" he spat. "Destroy me! Prove to the world that when pressed to the edge, even a Saint answers with slaughter!" He shut his eyes tight as Maria raised a hand.

“I am ending it,” she said, placing a palm on his drumming chest. “But not with your death.”

A brilliant, geometric emblem of blinding golden light flared beneath her hand, burning through Malakor’s robes and onto his chest.

“A God-Seal!?” His voice shook.

Maria didn’t know ‌the name, but at the moment, she had an innate understanding of what she inflicted on him. The divine mark seared deeper than just his physical form, sinking into the core of his very being.

Malakor’s natural ability to control miasmic lifeforms has been severed. And because the seal was pure divine light, it rendered his body hypersensitive to corruption. He groaned from just the faint miasmic sword pieces on the floor. They burned his skin like scalding oil.

In an instant, Maria had stripped away his status as a Demon General. Now he remained no greater than an ordinary man. Malakor dropped to his knees.

“D-Do you realize what you’ve done!?”

He clawed frantically at his own chest until drawing blood and flesh clung under his fingernails. But the God-Seal remained.

"You will hurt no one else," Maria said.

Malakor snickered. "You... showed me mercy?" His voice rasped. "Are you mad!? A general spared by a human is an embarrassment, a liability. My kind will hunt me down… If you truly wished to show mercy, you would have finished me.”

“It's up to you whether my mercy is a second chance at life…” she said, “or simply your punishment."

Malakor had no answer. He didn’t admit his wrongs, and Maria didn’t expect him to. She remained steadfast in her belief that compassion can open the door, but she now understood better than ever that it cannot force someone to walk through it.

The God-Seal was eternal, unless Malakor somehow chose genuine change—only then would it fade in reaction. But it was clear to Maria that such a thing would probably not come to pass. She understood now that some people just couldn’t be redeemed. Some would rather not be.

She no longer held anger toward the man, only pity.

Kaelan stepped forward from behind. He removed his dark cloak. The same one that defined him for so long as an assassin, and which Maria would reprimand him for using its hood to hide his face from the world.

He tossed it at Malakor's feet.

"Wear this," Kaelan said. "And disappear for good. From us, and from your own kind. From the entire world, if you so choose.”

Malakor stared at the dark fabric. Now, only a false man disgraced to humans, and surely soon exiled by demons. He slowly put on the cloak, pulling the hood low over his pale face and unearthly eyes. He turned without word and disappeared into the shadows beyond the long corridors.

As Malakor's shuffling footsteps faded into silence, the glowing halo above Maria's head sputtered before fading along with the setting sun. Finally, the Holy Capital was safe, and Malakor was gone for good. She didn’t expect to ever see his face again.

“It’s… over,” Maria muttered past a tired breath. Her knees buckled beneath her.

Throughout her entire life Maria had caught everyone else. She had caught Kaelan when he was near death. She had caught the chapel children when they cried, and she gladly caught any in need that crossed her path.

Now—Kaelan caught Maria. It had slowly become routine for him, along with Thomas and Celeste, to do so.

"You're getting rather good at that," she whispered.

Kaelan’s hands were gentle as he helped lower Maria down. The marble floor beneath was cool to the touch, but Kaelan was warm. She rested against his chest, now whole. His heart throbbed quietly against her ear bringing comfort.

He glanced down at her, trying to hold back a laugh, but unable to hold back a smile.

“And you’re becoming a pro at collapsing,” he said.

Subtle chuckles echoed through the ceremonial hall, where great murals of the gods above watched over them with quiet grace. Maria had almost forgotten that such peace could exist. But now, she could share it with Kaelan at her side.

Thomas and Celeste, Mother Martha, Leo, and all the other children surely awaited. Perhaps Elisheba, too. Her heart filled, eager to share such peace with them all as well.