Chapter 89:

Volume 3: Chapter 3: Siblings - Part 7

Nephalem


Leonora had seen the entire thing, from start to finish. She and Kaoru had searched the entire hotel, traversing it from top to bottom, left to right. They had not found a single trace of Yūgure.

It was during their search that the building had been rocked by a massive explosion. She and Kaoru had raced out of the building and saw the large cloud of dust. They had followed it—only for Leonora to knock Kaoru out when she had discovered the scene that awaited them.

With an unconscious Kaoru lying on the ground, she had watched the battle take place, marveled at how Jacob and Alicia had fought against that strange creature. Watching them had been inspiring. Now that she had seen them, Leonora didn’t know if she and her brother could defeat them in a fight.

More than that, however, Leonora had been entranced by Jacob’s wings.

Jacob was a Nephalem. She had known this from the moment she and Donatello had accepted this mission. If words hadn’t been enough, then being near him was enough to confirm this. Jacob’s presence made the hairs on her neck prickle, made her instincts scream “danger” at her, made her want to run. She had honestly been surprised to find out that he was so nice. She’d been expecting a monster.

His wings made it abundantly clear that he was a Nephalem, a creature that should not exist, that was evil incarnate—except he wasn’t. Leonora should have been afraid of him. She wasn’t. While his devil wing certainly was something that inspired terror, his angel wing had been beautiful.

Leonora had met an angel once. It had been years ago, back when she’d been too small to really understand what was happening. During that time, she had met Lord Michael, archangel of Heaven. She had only caught a glimpse of him. He had been walking down a hall, and she had been standing outside in a courtyard. He’d been talking to the pope.

His angel wings, which had been out at the time, had entranced her. They had entranced everyone. However, Leonora had been especially enthralled. She remembered thinking that she wanted angel wings just like his.

Jacob’s angel wing reminded her of Lord Michael’s wings. It gave off the same warm feeling, and though his other wing muted that feeling somewhat, the feelings she had at seeing his wing was the same.

Is Jacob really so evil? She asked herself. She didn’t have an answer.

As Alicia, Jacob, Yūgure, and that fox yōkai left, Leonora picked up the still unconscious and left as well.

She needed to let her brother know about what had happened here.