Chapter 133: The Demon’s Curse
Seraphel
My heart raced so violently in pure anticipation that it felt like it was going to burst out of my chest at any moment. I was desperate to see him, to find out what had happened to him while he was gone, and to understand why he was appearing like this now.
"Are you alright?" Taizel asked softly behind me. "You are shaking."
"I just... I am..." I stopped talking as the dust finally cleared away completely, and then Azriel walked forward out of the haze.
I felt that eerie, dark feeling rush over me yet again, and this time, it made all the hair on my body stand on end, and I began to violently shiver.
"Oh, there is something deeply wrong," Taizel muttered, his hand still holding onto me tightly. "There is something wrong with Azriel. Sariel, can you see it?"
Sariel said nothing at first as Azriel started taking slow steps towards us. His robe had changed back to his usual black-and-red battle robes that he typically wears. His hair had grown even whiter, his crimson eyes were glowing with an unholy light, and there was a noticeable red mark in the shape of a lotus petal right at the center of his forehead—a mark that certainly wasn’t there before.
What the hell had happened to him? I wondered in horror.
"Sariel, do you see anything?!" Lumiel demanded loudly. "Tell us if there is anything we need to know!" he shouted.
"I think..." Sariel began, staring straight at Azriel as he continued to walk towards us. "...the demon inside Azriel has awakened."
"The demon? What demon?" I demanded, panic rising in my throat.
"We have already been through this long ago, and well, the demon inside of Azriel has been awakened by something of the sort," Taizel explained hurriedly. "We don’t know what caused it, but I could bet that it has everything to do with Mirevale’s death."
"Mirevale’s death? What does that mean?" I demanded, my mind racing as I tried to process what they were saying.
"Yes, what on earth do you mean by that?!" Luceriel demanded, turning sharply toward Taizel. "If you are talking about the divine curse placed on those who kill a deity, the human is the one who struck Mirevale down! Why the hell would Azriel have the curse?"
There was no immediate response.
"Taizel! Is there something you are not telling us?!" Sariel shouted as Azriel drew ever closer.
Taizel let go of me for a moment and heaved a deep, heavy sigh before finally speaking. "Because Azriel didn’t want anything to happen to the human, and he wanted to protect him at all costs, he transferred the entire curse energy into himself. So instead of the human getting haunted by Mirevale’s death, the curse fell onto Azriel instead."
"What?!" Sariel was the very first to react, his voice filled with utter disbelief. "How could he have been so foolish?! He knew what kind of sealed demon he carries inside him! He has been suppressing it for centuries, yet he took the divine curse onto himself anyway?"
I had no idea they knew about the transfer, but I certainly knew about Azriel’s demon—I had read all about that entity and how it was used to destroy the world in the later Chapters that I had skimmed through online and refused to fully read back in my original world.
"Why didn’t you tell us, Taizel?! Why did you hide something this dangerous from us?!" Luceriel demanded, raising his voice in pure fury.
"Because Azriel explicitly forbade me from telling any of you, and he wanted to protect his mate! He couldn’t let the human be haunted and destroyed by that curse, so he took it on himself," Taizel responded, taking a brief moment to catch a deep breath. "Any one of you would have done the exact same thing in the blink of an eye for your own mates, and that was exactly what he did."
"You still should have told us about it instead of keeping it to yourself, because now..." Sariel paused as he raised his hands higher to keep the glowing barrier stable in front of us. "...it seems Azriel has somehow awakened his demon side to try to force out that curse, or maybe the curse has completely taken over his demon side, and now he just wants to kill someone or something."
I let out a soft gasp, rubbing my trembling hands together as I looked towards Azriel, but he was suddenly no longer in front of us. I looked around in complete panic, wondering where he had gone, and then a sudden burst of violent red light appeared yet again just above us and slammed down on top of us like a massive explosion.
Everything happened within a single split second. No one had even noticed the exact moment Azriel vanished—not even Sariel with his divine sight.
It had all happened so fast before anyone could even realize what was occurring.
We were all thrown backwards violently into the stone ruins of the palace grounds. I let out a painful groan as my body hit something hard, and immediately my hands flew to my stomach, desperately hoping to protect the child inside me, but no impact hit my front because I found myself caught and held tightly by Taizel, who had shielded me completely with his own body.
"Are you alright?" he coughed from behind me.
I let out another soft groan and nodded. "I am..."
My words completely disappeared from my throat because Azriel was suddenly standing right in front of me. Before I could say a single thing, he lifted me up into the air with a simple flick of his finger and pulled my body straight towards him.
"You are..."
Before I could finish speaking, his hand wrapped around my neck, tightening his grip hard around my throat.
The other Sins were quickly back on their feet, closing in on us, but none of them made an attempt to move any closer to Azriel, as if they already recognized the extreme danger and knew what he was capable of doing right now. I, on the other hand, couldn’t help but stare directly into Azriel’s eyes.
There was no love left in them—only pure hatred. His red eyes were blazing scorching hot, and he stared down at me with such overwhelming intensity that it felt like I could burst into flames at any second.
But deep down, I knew that he was not himself, because there was no way that the real Azriel would ever intentionally hurt me.
He would never do that to me no matter what happened, which made me wonder what on earth I could possibly do to stop him right now.
I could feel all the air in my throat slowly disappearing, and my heart was pounding extremely hard in my chest with how tightly he held my neck.
Then, slowly, forcing the sound out, I managed to whisper his name.
"Azriel..." I barely managed to whisper, and then I forced my trembling hand up to gently touch his cheek. "Azriel... it’s me, Seraphel... your mate."
As soon as the word mate left my lips, the sacred mark on my neck lit up with a brilliant light. Azriel’s blazing red eyes met the glowing mark, and then, very slowly, his harsh grip loosened, and he let go of my throat.
I closed my eyes, fully expecting to crash onto the hard ground as he dropped me, but instead, I felt his strong arms wrap securely around my waist, holding me close.
"Seraphel..." he called out, and I couldn’t help but smile softly as I heard his gentle, familiar voice once again. "You are... what the hell have I done?" he asked, his voice trembling.
I could feel his heart pounding frantically against my own chest as I watched him stare at me in utter horror. I lifted my weak hand to press against his face and slowly whispered as I felt the overwhelming darkness pulling at my consciousness.
"It’s not your fault," I muttered softly before finally giving way to the dark void, closing my eyes, deeply glad that at least Azriel had heard my voice and returned to the person he used to be.