Heavenly Rule

[ translated from the Old Archzion language ]

All immortals who have been given the authority of the souls must not interfere with any mortal’s destined end. Willful failure to do the task will not be tolerated by those with high power.

Chapter 2

Vulcan Alleys.

A heart of gold.

Pale skin. Golden hair. Tattered clothes.

As I stared back at the young child, a cold feeling washed over me. It’s as if I’ve long forgotten of something, but I could not for the life of me figure out what on the realms of beings it could possibly be. I’ve fallen into my own mind, trying to find out what this missing piece could be.

Darkness. It is all that I could see.

As I began to panic, the child in front of me seemed to have found it hilarious. I tried to hide the emotions emitting from my thoughts. Maybe she’s a new soul, a unique one, or possibly an immortal who have been granted a life of mortal but is now going to suffer a short life.

I heard my book of records start to change pages—a sign that it is almost time to collect a soul. It paused on a blank page and automatically filled out the mortal’s name and what its life has been like. It only left another page for me to write how it will end. I waved my hand and it hovered in front of me.

I prepared to write.

“Azazel…” I didn’t realize I had voiced out my thought until the child laughed and held out her hands. She seemed adamant to get a hold of me that she had tried to crawl out of the basket and is about to topple over. It’s probably instinctive but, I moved my ashy cloak and it turned into black feathers, catching the child just in time before she hit the ground. The child simply giggled and started to play with the feathers.

What an unusual sight.

A feather got on her hair, she doesn’t seem to notice. I got closer and knelt down, picking off the feather from her hair. She giggled once more and reached out her hand to touch mine. Though my figure is ashy, it does not leave any marks anywhere, even her tiny hand that had grasped my thumb.

Our eyes met again.

“..dy!” She cheered, throwing her free hand up.

I’m sorry, what? Did I hear that right?

“Addy!” She repeated with a gleaming smile.

I may be overthinking, but she’s surely not calling me by my hideous nickname, right? There’s no way she’d even know about it.

“Addy, Addy!” She repeated, pure happiness ringing in her tone.

As her laughter echoed, distant voices could also be heard from the other side of the wall. The ground rumbled as carriages passed from either side of the walls surrounding the area, still, she laughed at my presence. It’s as though she’s not bothered by everything going on around us.

What an innocent child, oblivious of the death and pain that surrounds her. She doesn’t realize that she’s born at the wrong time in the wrong place. Her destined end is drawing near which is, strangely enough, it’s taking an awful long time for it to come. It’s making me feel anxious, which is quite unusual—so unusual that it’s scaring me.

With all the noises happening, I could tell that people around us are panicking, scurrying away from something.

Then, it went strangely silent.

The deafening silence rang in my ears. It grew louder and louder, the continuous ringing digging deep into my ears. I could not take it—I wish for it to stop. I covered my ears, closing my eyes as I tried to block out the constant ringing.

The child then giggled, catching me off guard as she desperately wanted me to see her and look at her face. I did what she wanted and she simply gave me a toothy smile, as if she had noticed something was wrong. She raised her hand and struggled to gently wave me over. She scrunched her nose, and opened her mouth.

But before she could say anything, the ringing I’ve been hearing rapidly grew louder and immediately, in a blink of an eye, a bright, white light from the other side of the wall grew bigger and with it came an explosion.

I was able to react quickly, covering my face and jumping away from the explosion that had occurred. Though in reality, it wouldn’t have affected me as I am an immortal, I reacted out of reflex. Even the debris that shot into me disintegrated upon touching me—as I had wanted it to do so.

I simply sighed as I watched from the rooftops a chain of explosion happen that started near from where I was at. It seems like the humans set it up to wipe up the whole area. Several humans have died there too, and I see that their souls are mine to be collected. I waved my hand, my book and quill appearing where they’re supposed to be.

As my book of records flipped through its pages, it suddenly stopped on a page that immediately caught my eyes. The ink of the words written on it slowly turned blood red before bleeding into each other, soon covering the entire page. A single word slowly etched on it with white ink.

A L I V E

“Addy—“ My eyes widened upon hearing the muffled voice.

In the midst of explosion, I accidently took the human child with me—I covered her with my feathers to shield her from it. When I turned back to my ashy form to melt down the debris earlier, parts of her skin were a bit burned, but she didn’t cry.

Realizing what I had done, I slowly put the child down the brick roof. She sat down and her eyes glowed as she watched the raging flames from the explosion behind me. I staggered a bit, but I held my ground—what am I supposed to do in this situation?

All immortals who have been given the authority of the souls must not interfere with any mortal’s destined end. Willful failure to do the task will not be tolerated by those with high power.

I broke a Heavenly rule, for goodness’s sake!

I saved a mortal’s life!

This is an absolute disaster! Not only for me, but also for the child as well! She was supposed to die in the explosion, but now that she had survived that, she would constantly be at death’s door! The shadow of death will continue to follow her until she succumb to it.

And I…

I cannot let that happen.

I started this mess, so I will fix it.

I had already broken a rule, and that is unacceptable. Once someone finds out, there’s no defending myself from the higher immortals. They do not accept excuses, no matter what the circumstance could be—once a rule is broken, it’s broken.

I could only imagine what would happen.

I may look like nothing is happening, but I am panicking internally, and I think the child who is looking at me could see it from my eyes. She found entertainment from it. She giggled loudly and clapped her hands, amused by the current situation.

“Oh, child,” I sighed, kneeling down to reach her, “You wouldn’t be so giddy had you known what situation you are in.”

She just chuckled.

“Now,” She seemed really excited when I scooped her into my arms, “Where should I hide you?”