Chapter 89: The Forgotten Emperor 2
Seraphel
Castiel.
That name had never appeared anywhere in the original text of the novel.
As Nathan, I had read every single published Chapter that was about smut, every side story, and devoured endless forum threads detailing the lore, yet Castiel’s name had never popped up once.
Unless Author Nude had intentionally left it as an unrevealed plot thread, I was completely certain I had never encountered it until that mysterious figure manifested within the quiet depths of my sea of consciousness.
"He was the former emperor?" I asked, directing my gaze straight toward Luceriel.
The Sin of Pride didn’t even bother to look in my direction. He simply stared past me, his posture cold, aloof, and utterly dismissive.
What a snob, I thought to myself, resisting the urge to roll my eyes.
But his refusal to acknowledge me wasn’t going to stop me from getting the answers I desperately needed.
"If he was the former emperor, then what happened to him?" I pushed further, raising my voice so every Sin in the room could hear me. "Why did he appear inside my mind of all places? And couldn’t Castiel just be a common name in Elysium? How do we even know we’re talking about the same person?"
Anomas was the first to answer, shaking his head with a solemn expression. "Before falling out with my mother, Solmira, I spent extensive time studying the forbidden archives of the upper realms. I learned a great deal about the ancient history of Elysium and the lineage of its rulers. Long before the current era, Emperor Castiel sat upon the divine throne. He was a ruler of unprecedented wisdom, restraint, and absolute power—qualities that made him beloved by the realm. But one day, without warning or explanation, he simply abandoned his post and left Elysium entirely."
"What a delightfully poetic way to frame it, Anomas," Lumiel chimed in, his deep, resonant voice carrying a heavy weight across the chamber. "To put it plainly into two simple words, he vanished. He packed up and disappeared into nothingness, leaving the entire realm in utter disarray."
Lumiel shifted his massive frame, crossing his arms over his broad chest. "Castiel has been missing for countless centuries. Shortly after his disappearance, his younger brother, Celestian, seized control of the throne and declared himself the supreme ruler. But anyone who lived through that era knew the truth—Castiel was the superior brother in every conceivable way. Celestian was arrogant, ruthless, and paranoid, whereas Castiel possessed true divine grace. So if this ancient ghost is suddenly appearing in your mind, mortal, it means one of two things: either he has finally returned from the shadows, or he is playing cruel mind games with you just like the rest of the deities."
As soon as Lumiel finished speaking, every single pair of eyes in the room snapped directly to me. The collective pressure of seven ancient, powerful beings waiting for my response made my throat feel dry.
I heaved a long, heavy sigh before shaking my head. "No, I don’t think he’s trying to play games with me."
"Did you actually see his face?" Sariel demanded immediately, taking a step forward. His golden-amber eyes narrowed into sharp slits, practically glowing with an intense, restless suspicion.
"Did he mention anything about what the deities of Elysium are currently planning?" Raziel asked, leaning forward with sudden interest as he rapidly fanned himself with his ornate golden fan. "Did he give any tactical secrets away?"
"What specific things did he say about the baby?" Taizel mumbled, popping another strange, colorful morsel into his mouth and chewing loudly without a care in the world. "Why reveal himself to an ordinary human right now of all times?"
"Is he planning to use your body as a host to reincarnate?" Azriel asked, his voice dropping into a low, possessive register. "Are we about to deal with the soul of the former emperor reborn inside my child?"
I turned my head slowly to stare at Azriel, my eyes wide with complete and utter shock.
Even you?!
I was genuinely baffled.
Azriel was the absolute last person I expected to blurt out such an unhinged, wild theory.
I was standing here just trying to figure out why a legendary figure was haunting my thoughts, and Azriel was already jumping straight to ancient souls hijacking our unborn baby!
"Alright! Enough with your bs!" I blurted out, throwing my hands in the air.
Luceriel’s brow instantly furrowed, his cold eyes fixing on me with genuine bewilderment. "Bs?" he repeated slowly, tasting the foreign words as if I had spoken an ancient, forgotten dialect.
I cleared my throat and quickly averted my eyes, deciding it was best to completely ignore him. Trying to explain to the literal Sin of Pride that "bs" stood for "bullshit" would be a massive waste of time and energy.
He definitely wouldn’t get modern slang, and I really didn’t feel like getting lectured on mortal vulgarity.
"Castiel didn’t appear to me in his original form," I explained, taking a deep breath to ground myself. "He used my own reflection inside my consciousness. He looked like me, spoke through me. And he didn’t tell me anything about Elysium’s battle plans or trying to take over the baby. He simply told me that I needed to start cultivating my spiritual energy to increase my power."
An uncomfortable silence descended upon the grand chamber once again. The Sins stood in place, staring at me intently as if they were waiting for me to drop some ground-breaking revelation, but I simply had nothing left to add.
"If he specifically instructed you to cultivate your spiritual core, then he is undeniably sending a clear message," Anomas noted, breaking the quiet spell. He stepped toward the center of the room, his voice calm and analytical. "Did he give any indication as to why you need this power?"
I shook my head truthfully. "He told me I have to cultivate to a certain level first. Only after I reach that threshold will he reveal his true identity, his history, and the exact reason why he appeared to me in the first place."
The room sank into another heavy pause as the Sins digested the information.
"Well," Anomas finally spoke up, adjusting his dark robes, "Castiel reaching out to you is certainly no coincidence, but right now we cannot afford to get lost in ancient mysteries. We must focus on the immediate reality before us, and that means improving your cultivation. Instead of treating Seraphel as a helpless vessel or relying solely on the Child of Prophecy as a weapon to destroy Elysium, we can cultivate his latent gift into something far greater. He can become a powerful force in his own right. We cannot rely on an unborn child to fight our battles for us—we must rely on our own strength and prepare accordingly."
Nods of silent agreement rippled across the room. Even Luceriel didn’t object to the logic, though he still looked thoroughly annoyed by the entire situation.
Taizel cleared his throat, finally stashing his pouch of snacks away into his sleeve. "Alright, so now that the human is awake, standing on his own two feet, and back with us... what is our immediate plan? What do we do next?"
"The wedding will proceed exactly as scheduled," Azriel answered without a single second of hesitation, his dark voice ringing clearly through the hall. He reached out, his long fingers wrapping firmly around my hand as he pulled me slightly closer to his side. "Seraphel will be crowned as the princess of my kingdom, and no one is going to stop it."