Chapter 143: The Shadow of Castiel
ELYSIUM
"You failed!" Nythera’s voice echoed sharply through the grand chamber of the deities.
Like the rest of the deities, she had rushed to the council hall the moment rumors of Jalem’s return reached the palace, desperately clinging to the hope of good news. They had expected to hear that the mortal carrying the child of sin was dead.
None of them anticipated that Jalem would crawl back alone—severely wounded, his physical form visibly fading from the terrifying, sacred light that had struck him down.
"The mortal wields the divine light of Castiel? How is that even possible?" Celestian, the Supreme Deity, demanded, his voice trembling with a mixture of rage and disbelief. "There is no way a human body could hold that power! It should have incinerated him from the inside out!"
Solmira paused his healing spells, lifting his glowing gaze from Jalem’s broken body to shake his head. "That will never happen, Celestian, because that mortal carries a divine child. The unborn child’s core was powerful enough to erase Mirevale from existence—it is more than strong enough to contain the light of Castiel."
Castiel.
The name hung in the air like a suffocating cloud. It carried a heavy, unspoken weight that none of the deities had dared to utter for centuries.
Long ago, the council had stripped Castiel of his crown and cast him out of Elysium. He had vanished into the shadows, never to be seen again.
"Is the boy Castiel’s reincarnation?" Nythera asked.
Valedi interjected, his grip tightening on his weapon. "It is entirely possible. No one knows where Castiel went when he disappeared all those centuries ago. What if he has returned to execute his revenge on us for voting him off the throne?"
Nythera nodded, her eyes darkening with paranoia. "We must be cautious. If that mortal is indeed Castiel’s reincarnation, we are all doomed unless he dies immediately!"
Silence fell over the high hall, broken only by Jalem’s weak, agonized grunts. Before anyone could speak, the double doors creaked open, and a low-ranking deity hurried forward, dropping to one knee with his head bowed.
"Forgive the intrusion, Your Majesty," the messenger squeaked, trembling violently. "I have come to inform the High Council that... the great assassin Caelum’s wings have just appeared in the Hall of Remembrance."
A loud scream tore from Jalem’s throat the moment the words were spoken. Ever since he dragged his shattered body back to Elysium, he had felt nothing but excruciating agony, unable to sense his twin’s presence. The horrifying realization hit him, and his stifled cries escalated into a deafening scream of grief.
The surrounding deities barely offered him a glance.
Elios remained deathly quiet at the head of the table.
As the God of Fate, he had foreseen none of this—neither his son’s defeat nor his death.
They had all assumed victory was guaranteed. After all, the son of the God of Fate and the Goddess of Life and Death had marched into the human realm at the head of a massive demon army. Yet now, thousands of demons lay dead, one of Elysium’s top assassins was slain, the other was permanently crippled, and Zephyrus was completely unaccounted for.
"We set this plan in motion ourselves! How could it possibly have failed?!" Nythera slammed her hands against the marble table. "How are the Seven Sins so overwhelming against the demons, our assassins, and Zephyrus?! They couldn’t have repelled an attack of that scale unless they anticipated it!" She turned her sharp gaze toward Solmira. "It seems your foresight is fading, Solmira—transferring to your son Anomas! You are supposed to see the future and warn us!"
Solmira halted his magic entirely, glaring at her. "Do not pin the failure of this war on me, Nythera! I do not predict every minor twist of fate—I foresee absolute prophecies that come to pass!"
"Then you should have prophesied our imminent doom!"
"Perhaps the fault lies with your son Tobias," Solmira countered coldly. "He snuck out of Elysium alongside the others just to throw himself at Uriel, the Sin of Sloth! Who knows what secrets he leaked to the enemy? He may very well have betrayed us to protect his lover!"
Nythera’s aura flared violently, causing the table to groan under the pressure. "My son is merely blinded by a fated mate bond! I certainly cannot say the same for your offspring, who willingly abandoned Elysium to align themselves with the Sin of Lust! They turned their backs on our realm because they despise you as a mother!"
"Enough!" Elios roared, his voice booming across the arches, instantly cutting through the squabbling. "Now is not the time for petty infighting! Our enemies grow stronger by the hour. If that mortal truly wields Castiel’s light, we need to uncover the origin of his power and destroy him before he learns to master it. Divine power does not simply manifest without a catalyst."
Celestian nodded slowly, though his face was drawn tight. "Elios is right. I know my brother, and I know he could not reincarnate without my knowledge. It is impossible." He looked around the room, taking in the fading hope in the eyes of his council. "We cannot allow the Sins to triumph over Elysium. We will fight this crusade to the bitter end. Valedi, prepare a war strategy."
Valedi, the God of War, straightened up, a dark sneer gracing his lips. "Many of my vanguard were slaughtered alongside the demons, but a few lost troops will not stop a god. I will personally plan and execute the next assault. Whosoever amongst you has the spine for it may join me."
Before anyone could reply, Jalem’s weak voice cut through the silence.
"I... I cannot feel my wings," he rasped, staring up at the ceiling with hollow eyes. "I haven’t felt them since I collapsed in this hall... Your Highness, are my wings gone?"
Solmira let out a somber sigh. "Your life was spared only because your wings acted as a divine shield against the light. Had they not absorbed the blast, you would have been erased on the spot. I am afraid... you will never fly again."
"I am a condemned god... I am nothing..." Jalem’s eyes snapped wide, and he began to thrash violently on the stone floor. "I’ll kill them! I will tear them apart with my bare hands! I’ll kill them all!"
The palace guards rushed forward, slamming their weight down to hold the hysterical, wingless deity to the floor.
Suddenly, the grand chandeliers flickered and died, plunging the hall into darkness.
A second later, the braziers flared to life with a suffocating, crimson light.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Nythera gasped, drawing her divine blade as she scanned the shadowy corners of the room. "Is that the emergency alarm? Have the Sins breached the divine realm?!"
Elios stood up slowly, his eyes wide with genuine terror. "No... this is something far worse. Can you not feel it?"
A crushing, atmospheric pressure slammed down onto the council chamber like a mountain of lead. The divine aura of every god present sputtered and failed, their chests tightening so violently that several lower deities dropped to their knees, clutching their hearts as their blood ran cold. The malicious density of the power made the very air feel thick, metallic, and impossible to breathe.
"What... what is this monster’s power...?" Nythera gritted out, her knees trembling beneath her as she fought to stay upright.
BANG!
The heavy reinforced doors of the high council hall exploded inward.
A palace guard tumbled through the debris, covered in his own blood. "We have a breach! The—"
Before he could finish his sentence, an unseen blade of dark violet energy sliced through the air. The guard’s head detached cleanly from his shoulders, bouncing across the polished floor until it rolled to a stop right at Nythera’s feet.
She barely had time to react before the crimson light in the room was swallowed whole by a swirl of dark obsidian fire.
A massive, tearing tear in reality ripped open in the center of the chamber, casting a sinister purple glow over the trembling deities.
Slow, deliberate footsteps echoed from within the portal.
A tall figure stepped out from the rift, draped in shimmering, violet-and-gold royal robes that trailed behind him. His dark hair was swept back, contrasting sharply with his glowing, amethyst eyes that swept over the room with lethal amusement.
A dark, terrifying smile stretched across his handsome face as he looked at the terrified rulers of Elysium.
Pazuzu, the Demon Prince, had arrived.