Chapter 82: The Deity’s Curse
Azriel
"Look at you," I whispered softly, stepping forward until I stood directly over Mirevale. She was crumpled on the jagged stone, still enveloped in the fading celestial light, whimpering in agony.
Mirevale’s dark, void-like eyes snapped to mine. She snarled, attempting to raise a trembling, clawed hand to point at me, but a sudden jolt of pain racked her body. She gasped, doubling over and writhing on the cold ground as she clutched her abdomen.
"How the mighty have fallen," Taizel’s mocking voice rang out beside me as he shifted back into his normal physical form.
"The power of the Celestial Light..." Uriel muttered, appearing a breath later, his eyes wide with disbelief. "Did the mortal truly do this to a deity?"
I nodded once, my jaw tight.
The Celestial Light. That was no ordinary magic. It was an ancient, terrifying force—a power capable of wiping out the existence of any celestial being entirely.
It wasn’t just death; it was complete erasure from the cycle of reincarnation, erasing the soul forever.
How on earth had a powerless mortal like Seraphel manifested a force so absolute?
"She’s already fading," Taizel said, stretching his arms casually before walking over to her. He crouched down to her level, clicking his tongue in mock pity. "Look at the great Mirevale now. I still remember how cruel you and the god of War were to my brothers and me back in Elysium," he growled, reaching out to grab her chin forcing her to look at him. "You started torturing us when we were barely ten years old, all because our father had the nerve to lay with demons and humans."
"You were filthy abominations destined to become spawns of the devil," Mirevale spat, a wicked, blood-stained grin stretching across her face.
That was how terrifyingly fanatical she was.
Even with her soul disintegrating and death looming over her, there wasn’t a single flicker of fear in her eyes. She remained as arrogant and unyielding as ever.
"If I were given the chance, I would do it all over again!" she snarled. "None of you should ever have been born!"
"Which is why we are trying to break our curse!" Taizel snapped back, his eyes flashing dangerously. "Yet you keep interfering!"
"Break your curse?!" Mirevale cackled, coughing up dark blood. "No! You are merely seeking the power to tear down Elysium! I may have fallen today, but do not celebrate just yet. Elysium will send more of us. A whole army if necessary! And not even you..." Her bloodshot eyes locked onto mine. "...will be able to save that precious mortal of yours! The Child of Destiny will belong to the heavens, whether you like it or not!"
Before she could finish her sentence, I moved in a crimson blur.
A razor-sharp vine shot from my arm, impaling her directly through the chest.
Mirevale choked, blood dripping down her chin, yet a rasping chuckle escaped her lips. "I have never lost a battle like this... yet a mere human managed to bring me to my knees in the blink of an eye..."
"What are you rambling about?" I growled. "It was the baby’s dormant power that struck you, was it not?"
"I have witnessed thousands of divine powers over the millennia, Prince of Lust," Mirevale wheezed, her chest heaving as she coughed blood. "That power did not belong to the child alone. That was the primordial light of the Ancient Celestials—a power that no human should ever possess." She paused, her smile turning sinister and venomous. "But I take comfort in knowing I won’t be his only victim. The Primordial Light is merciless. It obliterates anything it perceives as a threat. Who is to say that once it fully awakens, he won’t turn that very light on you?"
Enraged, I commanded another thick vine to puncture her chest, silencing her with a deafening scream of agony.
"You have some audacity, Mirevale!" I roared, my hands trembling with violent rage. "After creating a living nightmare for my mate and forcing him to die repeatedly! How many times did you make him suffer?!"
"Knowing how that domain operates," Taizel answered quietly, still crouched beside her, "he must have died several hundred times."
Mirevale burst into a manic, hysterical laugh. "I slaughtered that fragile human over five hundred times in the most gruesome ways imaginable!" she boasted, her chest heaving with dark delight. "He wept! He begged! But I never gave him mercy. I made sure his mind was shattered into a million pieces! That psychological torture will scar his soul forever! And even if I perish here, he won’t escape! The Deity’s Curse will bind itself to the one who slew me. He will bleed from the inside out until he goes mad!"
"ENOUGH!" I screamed, unable to endure another second of her vile words.
I unleashed my Celestial Voice, a soundwave of pure, suffocating pressure that blasted through her shattered body, cutting her off entirely.
My chest burned with an unbearable ache. The thought of losing Seraphel made my blood run cold.
The Deity’s Curse. She was right. No mortal—or immortal—could ever survive the backlash of slaying a deity. It was a vile, parasitic hex that haunted the killer’s mind, driving them to complete madness until they tore themselves apart.
Seraphel had already suffered so much. I couldn’t let him bear this burden too.
"Uriel," I commanded softly, slowly retracting my bloody vines from Mirevale’s fading form. "I need you to draw the Deity’s Curse from her energy... and transfer it into my body."
Uriel froze, his eyes widening in shock. "Are you insane! You are asking me to transfer a divine curse directly into your soul?!"
I met his gaze, my expression dead serious.
"You’re taking the burden for the human?!" Taizel exclaimed, stepping back, his voice thick with genuine concern. "Azriel, that curse is meant to corrode a soul!"
"He doesn’t deserve to suffer for protecting himself," I whispered, staring down at my trembling, clawed hands. "I am taking the curse."
"But that means you will be the one haunted by those illusions!" Taizel argued. "You’ll be the one driven mad!"
I let out a heavy, weary sigh, nodding slowly. "I know, Taizel. But I have to do this for Seraphel. The last thing I want is to watch him lose his mind and hurt himself."
Uriel stared at me for a long moment, a complex emotion flashing through his hazel eyes. "You must really love him... to go to such extreme lengths. We could easily cast a supreme protective barrier around him until he gives birth to the Child of Prophecy, yet you are willing to scar your own soul for his peace."
"I DO NOT LOVE HIM!" I shouted.
My voice boomed across the desolate cliff, echoing into the dark void.
I don’t... right?
I stood there in the heavy silence, my breathing ragged.
My lips had denied it instinctively, yet my chest thundered violently, my heart pounding with terror at the mere thought of something happening to him.
Was this... love?