Chapter 162
Fu–fufu!
'However, when the First Heavenly Betrayal occurred and he, together with Equinox, was hypnotized, Ahael's consciousness no longer guided his actions.
Even though it was not of his own will, Quil-Hasa still imposed a punishment that permanently altered his duty.'
Luaaahh!
'Ahael no longer constructs the multiverse or determines the direction of grand reality.
He only maintains the balance within the cosmic boxes.
From the highest architect of the cosmos' layout, he became a guardian of stability, ensuring that the structures already in place would not collapse.'
Beneath the feet of the cosmic operational hierarchy's peak stood the Highest Angel Ahael, known as Michael.
During his Enlightenment, the mandate he carried was vast and fundamental, making him the chief architect and regulator of reality's traffic.
He was the arranger of the universe's layout, the entity who assembled the infinite boxes of reality, determined the metaphysical distances and relations between the boxes, and shaped a coherent order of realities.
More than that, he also established the "laws of metaphysical geometry" governing the multiverse, while simultaneously directing the movements of fate between the boxes.
He dictated the evolution of the cosmos—how one reality reacted to and influenced another, the grand rhythm of creation and destruction, and the intricate chain of causality linking the great realities.
However, the dark wave of the First Heavenly Betrayal also touched him.
Just like some of his siblings, Michael's sanity was clouded by a mysterious hypnotic influence that also ensnared Equinox, dragging him into the vortex of rebellion that did not arise from his clear free will.
His involvement in that tragic event brought significant divine consequences.
Quil-Hasa stripped him of his vast and noble mandate as architect and director, assigning him instead to a more specific and, in some ways, more limited role.
Now, Ahael is tasked only with maintaining balance within the cosmic boxes.
From a designer who determined form and direction, he was reduced to a caretaker ensuring stability.
His new duty is to monitor and balance the energies, laws, and structures within each "box" of reality that has been arranged, ensuring that nothing deviates too far, causing internal collapse or collision with another box.
He became a guardian of dynamic balance, no longer the determiner of cosmic fate.
This new role remains vital, yet carries a silent downfall—a reminder that even the highest regulator can lose control over his grand design, left only to maintain what already exists.
'The Highest Angel who once governed balance in the Heavenly Land and Hell.
He who was named Equinox, or the King of Lucifer in the many myths that spread.'
Among all tales of downfall, the fate of the Highest Angel Equinox—who also bore the title King of Lucifer—may be the most tragic and convoluted.
At first, his mandate was a dynamic beauty, not merely to preserve static balance between the Heavenly Land and the Realm of Hell, but to set the moods and emotions flowing through both extreme domains.
He was the one who infused pure joy into Heaven and deep despair into Hell, becoming a curator of inner experience for all who inhabited those realms.
But everything changed drastically after the First Heavenly Betrayal, which cast him into the abyss of eternal punishment in the depths of the Hell he once colored.
As a consequence, Quil-Hasa assigned him a new task—a heavily diminished fragment of his former grandeur—merely to maintain balance in the Heavenly Land and the Realm of Hell, without the authority to shape atmospheres anymore.
Yet even this reduced mandate gradually eroded.
His responsibility over the Heavenly Land slowly slipped from his grasp, leaving him with only the balance of Hell to maintain.
This loss was worsened by his constant cursing and harboring hatred toward Quil-Hasa and his eleven siblings from within the belly of Hell.
Those curses became his bitter mantra, echoing through the never-dying flames, solidifying his isolation and rebellion, a cycle of rage that contributed to the triggering of the Second Heavenly Betrayal.
The peak of his personal tragedy came when his beloved elder brother, Aldraya, chose to bear all the sins of the twelve siblings—including Equinox's deepest wrongs.
News of Aldraya's sacrifice, like water extinguishing even the fiercest fire, touched the most wounded chambers of his soul.
From that moment on, the cursing in Hell ceased entirely, replaced by a silence far more piercing than any scream.
Equinox was enveloped in layered gloom, a cosmic sorrow heavier than any tormenting flame.
He realized the depth of love and sacrifice shown by the brother he had betrayed, and that realization became an additional punishment more painful than anything else, drowning him in a boundless sea of regret amid the hellfire whose balance he himself now guarded.
'I am only making sure that my steps this time do not become a shadow that disturbs you.'
He walked with extreme caution, as if the ground beneath his feet were made of fragile shards of dream-glass.
Each footprint softened—not only by skill but by a primordial fear.
Hundreds of meters ahead, Aldraya's silhouette resembled a moving monument, upright and unwavering, walking with the steady rhythm of the world's ticking clock.
His broad back faced Theo, his head lifted forward, as if the universe behind him was unworthy of even a single glance.
The silence surrounding Aldraya was not ordinary quiet, but a dense, massive stillness capable of devouring every whisper of wind and rustle of grass.
Theo wondered whether that indifference was negligence, or a perfected rank, a signal that he had already been detected yet deemed unworthy of acknowledgment.
Each calm step Aldraya took reminded him of invisible burdens, of sacrifices that had absorbed all the sins of his siblings—including the wrath of Equinox, now silent in Hell.
Theo felt as though he were following a ghost from a cosmic epic, a remnant still glowing with divine sorrow.
The security he guarded so anxiously might be meaningless before an entity who had borne the weight of mountainlike sins, one who may have already transcended the desire to judge or pursue.
The night wind blew softly, caressing the lightly glowing grass under the artificial moonlight.
The hundred-meter distance felt like a temporal chasm, separating two different worlds.
Theo the pursuer, still bound by fear, strategy, and survival instinct.
And Aldraya the pursued, whose steps had surpassed personal destiny—walking not to reach a place, but perhaps only to complete a pattern, a ritual that must be carried out until the end of time.
And he continued walking, cloaking himself in the shadows he created.
'Equinox never intended to destroy Heaven. That was not his nature.
His admiration for Aldraya stood starkly opposed to any will inclined toward destruction.
Moreover, Heaven's foundation was far too firm to be shaken by his strength before he was possessed.'
Fhhhh!
'So if anyone asks who made him betray, the answer is only one.
Sacci Milarada Amsh, whose real name is Jessica Naomi Amartha.
She was the mastermind.'
He halted, letting the distance stretch until Aldraya's silhouette in the far darkness nearly dissolved into the night, becoming a faint stroke of ink on a canvas of fog.
Only then, within the enclosure of a silence that now belonged entirely to him, a murmur slipped from his lips—light, yet heavy with forbidden knowledge.
To be continued…