Genesis of the Seven Stars of Heaven

My systems were coming back online. I had a super bad headache, and I felt sick.

It's not like the sick that makes you sneeze, it's like my stomach was going to explode. I did my best to fight the urge to throw up. It wasn’t easy, but I managed in my coma-like state with some very, very light breathing.

Everything was blurry as my eyes fluttered open. This was due to my optical receivers needing to recalibrate. Five minutes later, I fully had vision again.

Bad news was that I couldn’t move my eyes or body at all. Just staring up into the ceiling and breathing was driving me nuts.

So, this was actually expected. My body was operating at about 30% efficiency. This was due to how badly I overworked myself for the last however long I'd been on the surface. It was going to take a while for everything to fully recalibrate and function properly. My motor functions were low on the priority scale, since I wasn’t in any danger.

How long have I been in this room? Let me check my calendar…

Great…I've been in this room for a whole week!

My systems did warn me about this. I must have really overworked my body to sleep for a whole week straight. It was unbelievable.

Well, nothing I can do about it now. Might as well think about what happened back at the forest. Maybe I can figure out a way to prevent anything like that situation again.

Whether or not the mana cannon is powered up high, using it was very dangerous. Every time I've used it at a higher setting, which was twice now, I had to shut down for a while. And that was only at a fraction of a percentage.

How powerful could this cannon get if I set it to 1%?

-Motor functions restored-

Oh, that was a good message. I could move around again. At first all I could do was wiggle, but as the pins and needles worked out the numbness, I could sit up.

This room was kinda…dull. The walls were pretty simple, with just a few paintings of people scattered around them.

Glowing shards of stardust were floating around, giving plenty of light to see. That was probably one of the more interesting things here. The window was closed and covered, so it was very dark otherwise. Tapping my finger on a floating shard made a sound like a soft piano key.

There was another light in here too. A fireplace was lit adjacent to me, but it had a blue flame as opposed to a normal orange one. Just above the mantle was a shield looking altar with glowing stars at each angle, seven in total, and one blue star in the middle. It was the same shape as the necklace Yamin had.

What was that? It was pretty, so I sat out of bed and limped up to it.

“Hmm…?” I picked it up, giving it a read. “Metatron, Mical, Gabriel, Raphael…Ural, Jerahmeel, Pireel.” All of those names were written in Nazalian behind the stars on the altar, starting from the very tippy top star, Metatron, going down the left side, then down the right side. 3 on each side respectively.

Didn't Yamin say something about Saint Pireel? She thought I was that person, even claiming she was a guardian angel.

The big blue star in the middle had something written there as well.

“Krinai Inno.” That translated into ‘Final One.’

No idea what all these names were, but they had to be special if they were on this glowing trophy thing.

A big door creaked open at the end of the room. I quickly put the trophy thing back on the mantel and ran back into bed, covering up with the blankets.

My sensors picked up four people walking in. I smelled smoke, accompanied by rattling of chains. The smoke was sweet. It smelled very nice.

A man started shouting in Nazalian, “Graka! Graka! Na yan asta to Yahona Ka mi hasha. So be it!"

-Translating Nazalian-

"Rejoice! Rejoice! The Eighth Star of God has come down! So be it!”

“So be it!”

“So be it!”

“SOOOO beeee it!”

The ‘so be it’ parts were all in Euron. They all sounded incredibly enthusiastic, especially the last guy.

Hang on, Eighth Star of God? What the heck was that supposed to be?

I slowly let the covers fall off my head to see a man in red robes, two nuns, one a little older than me, and one very old. Then there was a man in what looked like armour with robes underneath. He had that shield looking symbol painted in red on his chest plate.

They were all marching around my bed with eyes closed. I didn’t notice before, but my bed was placed in the very middle of the room.

“E…Excuse me?” I sheepishly spoke up.

Suddenly the whole march stopped with a gasp. Everyone looked at me with shock.

Now all eyes were on me, and it was dead silent and uncomfortable.

“Wh…what’s going on here?”

“She’s awake! Write her words down! Get the scribes!” The red robed man ordered the nuns.

“Right away!” The nuns nodded to each other and raced out of the room.

While they were away, the red man had a big smile on his face, like it was Christmas.

“Blessed day!” He cheered. “You’ve finally awakened from your rest.”

“Um…”

Moments later, the nuns came back in with a few guys holding clipboards and pencils. The man in red told them what I’d said when I woke up.

Actually, he didn’t tell them what I said at all. He greatly embellished my words. ‘Excuse me, dear blessed ones, I have awoken. Be not afraid! For I am from above.’ That’s what he told the scribes I said!

If they were going to keep coming up with things for me to say, I might as well not have talked at all. But I needed answers about what was going on.

“That’s not what I said.” I spoke up. “And…um…well…what’s going on here?”

The scribe that looked the oldest pulled down his glasses and squinted at me, then he quizzically turned to the man in red.

“You are not that desperate to get the Pope's attention, that you’d fake the Eighth Star with a child, right?"

The cardinal looked appalled at the accusation. He stood stiff and held his head high.

“Of course I would never do such a thing! She has been slumbering for seven days straight. What normal child would do this? Inquisitor Danial has seen her glory first hand.”

The enthusiastic man wearing the armour stepped up and bowed to me.

“Oh! Quite-Quite the fantastic show she put on! The glory of Deus blazed through the air, destroying the wicked beasts of the witch!"

He must have seen the battle, or at least the end of it. Thank goodness he wasn’t caught up in the poison rain.

Anyways, this man had a lot of chaotic energy compared to the temperate allies surrounding him. There was a cooky look in his eyes too. One eye was always facing away from where he was actually looking.

Inquisitor Danial bowed again, leaning his whole torso down.

“It is an honour to meet you, Eighth Star. What might we call you, holy angel?”

No surprise there. They thought of me as some sort of very special angel. But, what exactly was this Eighth Star?

“My name is Yalda. Please, tell me who you all are.” I ordered, focusing on the man in red.

"She doesn't know us…?" The older nun mumbled. I just barely caught her quiet words.

“I am cardinal Azori Iscariot of the church here in Urnan. Beside me are Sister Ruth,” he gestured to the older nun, “and Sister Connie.” Now he gestured to the younger one.

Sister Connie had an excited look on her face, about to speak up. But then Inquisitor Danial barged back into the conversation first.

“A pleasure to be graced with your presence, angel Yalda!” The Inquisitor interrupted, lifting his whole body up and sticking one hand in the air and one on his heart, like an actor in a play. “OH! Glory be on this day! For we have an angel in our midst!”

He was really Koo-koo.

“This is our head inquisitor, Danial. He was responsible for returning you here.”

“I was privileged to carry you myself! Perhaps your radiant glory bathed me in heaven's sweet glow!”

He had such chaotic energy. I don’t know if I liked that much, but I didn’t have much of a choice at the moment.

Speaking of returning here, where was everyone else? I hoped they were safe.

“I have a question. Where are the people I was with?”

“All but one have been accounted for,” Cardinal Azori answered. “Unfortunately, the witch you warned us of escaped our grasp.”

“She was a feisty wielder of hellish powers! OHHH!! The burns!” He rolled up his sleeve to show a tiny burn mark on his wrist.

Wait, burns? Were they talking about Melpomene, or Indena?

“What happened to the witch?”

They said that after they arrived, the witch awoke and ran over to assault me in my unconscious state. But she was battled by the inquisitors, only to flee away. They also mentioned she had fire magic.

They were absolutely confusing Indena for a witch. I’m sure those accusations made things a hundred times worse.

“We will continue to hunt her down to the ends of Eden. She will pay for her blasphemy.”

“No.” I shook my head. “The witch was already gone by that point. You’re mixing up someone else.”

Cardinal Azori and Danial started murmuring to each other, then they told me that the witch must have returned when I was out. But I tried to explain that the fire mage they saw wasn’t actually evil at all.

“But, she bore the marks of a wicked one,” The Cardinal said. “She had to be an evil witch.”

I’ve been on the surface for like 2 weeks, and so far Yamin’s been dubbed evil, these inquisitors have been dubbed evil, Melpomene has been dubbed evil, Indena has been dubbed evil…can’t these humans make up their minds who is actually evil? Whoever's causing all this confusion was the real evil one.

“Are magic tattoos banned or something?”

According to them, magic was not banned at all. In fact there were laws and regulations governing what kind of tattoos people were allowed to get. But the kicker was that Indena’s style of tattoos were associated with violence, crime and witches.

“We will not suffer a witch in our midst. Rest assured, she will be found and delt with.”

“I’ll find her myself.” I sternly shook my head. “Don’t hurt her.”

If they were just going to try and hurt her, I’d find her and prove that she wasn’t as dangerous as they claimed she was.

“I must express my concern for this decision, dear Yalda.” The Cardinal said. “Why trouble yourself with such a burden?”

“Because I was told not to kill anyone. And I can’t trust that you won’t try to kill her.”

The cardinal's aged eyes widened behind his glasses. His lips moved to speak, but no words came out.

“Azori, what do we do? Are these the commands of our Heavenly Lord Deus?” Danial looked to his superior.

“So be it.” The cardinal announced.

“SO BE IT!” Everyone else followed in chant, except for the older nun.

The cardinal went on to say that it made sense that I’d seek out evil myself to protect as many lives as possible. These were written in some ancient scriptures.

“Oh, please! Dear Yalda, recite to us the sweet words of your prophecy!” requested inquisitor Daniel.

“What?!”

What was he talking about? I mean…yeah, no…what was he talking about?

With all their eyes on me, I pulled up the blanket and hid myself under it. Hey, where was Samael? I just realized I hadn’t seen him yet.

“Sssss…”

Oh good…He was curled up on my wrist.

He wasn’t there a minute ago, so I wonder where he’d been.

“Ss…” He had something in his mouth. Oh, he caught a mouse!

The room had a little chatter go on, but the heavy blanket muffled it for me. Then things got quiet.

Footsteps clattered against the marble floor, heading for the doorway. Were people leaving because they figured out I wasn’t a real angel?

I peeked out of the blanket. Most of the people cleared out of the room. Now only the cardinal and the two nuns remained. The cardinal sat in a seat next to the bed, humbly looking over at me.

“I see now. All this attention must be scarring you.” He warmly smiled. “Forgive me. You’re presence has been foretold since the eras of old.” His face turned curious, losing its smile. “Tell me, how much do you know of the prophecy of the Eighth Angel?”

I didn’t know a single thing about what he was talking about. I gave him a shrug and shook my head.

“She doesn’t know…?” The older nun, Sister Ruth, had her eyes practically bulging out of her head.

“Dear angel Yalda, you are the Eighth Star of Heaven. The Lord has blessed us with the one who shall defeat the Devil and his seeds of darkness once and for all.”

Eighth Star? Didn’t Indena say something about that? Kinda, yeah. She said Eighth Star seal…what's the difference?

Wow…hold up...defeat the Devil?

You know, dad did say there was a really bad enemy I'd have to stop one day. Maybe it was the Devil himself. Crazy how all this kinda' connects some dots.

“Can you tell me more about the Eighth Star?”

The older nun stomped down her foot, turning with great ire in her gaze toward Cardinal Azori. “You’re Eminence, how can she not know of the Eighth Star? Everyone, even the enemy knows of the prophecy!”

Cardinal Azori held up a finger to his lips, shushing the nun for now.

“In the spirit of a child, we will be sent the Final One to save us from darkness.” Azori said.

That must have been part of the prophecy. But was 'in the spirit of a child' equated to actually being a child?

He called over Sister Connie, then whispered something in her ear.

“Truly?” She looked excited.

“Yes.” He nodded. “Why don’t you take her to the prayer room, and show her the scriptures? I believe she’ll need it.”

“So be it!” She cheered, gleefully tugging my arm to get me out of bed.

The young nun Connie took me out of the room. She breathed out a heavy breath when she shut the door behind her.

"Eeee!" She squealed with excitement. "Let's go!"

She excitedly tugged on my arm really hard!

We started running down the hall together. I had to take a moment to admire the décor of this place. Many candles were hovering around, following people as they quietly moved about their business. Paintings of angels and saints were everywhere, and the hallway itself was huge!

The best part was that there were long slots in the ceiling for stardust light. It shimmered with amazing rainbow sparkles. Rays of light descended down from them, really adding to the glorious atmosphere.

“Wow, this is amazing.” I said.

“It’s a very pretty place…as long as Sister Ruth isn’t around.”

I get the feeling people here don’t like her much.

Sister Connie turned a corner, and we went into a quiet room with one of those shield looking alters and a bunch of chairs. It was dark, lit up by dim stardust decorations all around.

“I like to hide in here when Ruth gets upset.” Sister Connie chuckled. “I wanted to know, is it really true you’re a real angel? For real?”

It wasn’t really true. For real. But no matter how much I wanted to say that, I just couldn’t find the strength to tell the truth.

“I guess so,” I said instead.

“Some people here don’t believe you are. But I think so. Either way, everyone has to act like you are.”

So, somebody was forcing them to believe I was an angel? I don’t think I liked that one bit.

While in this room I took some time to wander it and found myself at the altar. There were a few books here. I assumed they were holy scriptures.

I randomly flipped through them, finding myself at a page where seven angels waged war on their fallen brethren.

“Metatron led the hosts of heaven against the fallen angels. Though the dark was wounded, it did not fall. The sun refused to shine until the devil was sealed by the mighty power of the Seven Stars of Heaven.” I continued reading aloud. “For then God said, I will soon bring upon an era of peace. An Eighth star will fall from the heavens as a sign of the coming days of rest, and the darkness will be no more.”

As I read from the book, Sister Connie seemed captivated by my words. Her body was relaxed in a seat and she looked so calm.

Now that I think about it, this was the first time I’d ever read a holy book. Dad usually wouldn’t let me do that. Everything I learned about religion came from TV and Uncle’s history lessons.

I kept reading through the pages, getting as much info as possible.

~☆☆☆~

Let me see if I can summarize the story from start to finish…

There was a great war in the primordial universe among godlike beings, each wanting everything to be under their control. In the end of that conflict, the universe was destroyed. Nothing but a void of darkness remained. Everything was dead.

It was then that Deus, the only being left, said he didn’t want to rule over a universe of darkness, so he stretched apart the two ends of this void and threw them to the northern and southern quadrants of space. Now nothing but ash of the old creation remained.

Deus sent out thousands, hundreds of thousands of angels into the cosmos, tasking them to rebuild what was destroyed. Everything seemed to go well, until one angel became corrupted.

This angel was named Baoth. He was the chief host of all his kind, even being declared a son to Deus. His power was unmatchable by any of the others. But after returning from his journey to rebuild the universe, he was changed by something.

That was when this angel was transformed into the Devil. Apparently he used his newfound corruption to spread darkness once more across the universe, creating a second void in place of the old.

Nearly all angels were corrupted by this and flocked to the side of the Devil, leaving only seven remaining loyal to Deus. They became known as the Seven Stars of Heaven.

These Seven Stars of Heaven fought the Devil and sealed him and his army of fallen angels away. But before that, it says that the Devil…created man?

What?!

According to the book, the Devil made man as seeds of darkness to destroy Deus’s dominion. But Deus didn’t like that, so he gave man a special kind of fruit to choose between good and evil.

Then humans started to spread across our planet, which is called Eden. OHH! It says they lived in Elysium before coming to the surface world!

“The worlds were populated by thousands of seeds. All holding darkness in their hearts.”

These seeds mentioned here make me think of what the Cardinal said. The Eighth Star would defeat the Devil and his seeds of darkness...that quote toward the end of one of the scriptures. That wasn’t implying that people follow the devil, right?

But if it did mean people, what does it mean by “The worlds?” Maybe other planets? Or maybe Elysium and the surface were considered different worlds...I don’t know, maybe I’m looking too much into it.

You know…was something missing here? Where was the part about how God loved humanity? It seems like humans were just a pest to him ruling over everything. That couldn’t have been right. Maybe there were other books out there I had to find? I’ll keep an eye out.

It wasn’t hard to believe these people thought that I was a real angel. But Exceed were based on angels, so that definitely couldn’t have been the case. It did make me wonder though; how long ago did all this happen?

My race is at least a few tens of thousands of years old. I’m the last of my kind. So all this legend must have happened before we were around.

Oh well. I guess I’ll just have to do more studies later on.

Looks like Sister Connie fell asleep. The room was cold, so rather than let her freeze up in her sleep, I found a blanket in the closet and covered her with it.

“I should explore a little.”

I’d been reading for a few hours. I needed to stretch my legs out. Plus, all this holy reading was making me feel…I don’t know how to describe it, but maybe nostalgic was a good word? It just made me feel like I needed to walk around and see the sights of this big church.