Chapter 306 – The City of Death (3)
In the end, Gi-Gyu left only Go Hyung-Chul behind in Italy and returned to Eden. He had left a gate in Rome so that he could return anytime.
Many of Gi-Gyu’s creatures wanted to greet him, but Gi-Gyu chose to see only Old Man Hwang.
“Good job,” Old Man Hwang whispered.
Gi-Gyu seemed to be missing something now. He replied, “I’m going to rest now.”
Gi-Gyu, looking as tired as ever, entered the Sephiroth Tree.
“...” Old Man Hwang watched him without a word.
“He is…” When Gi-Gyu was out of sight, Old Man Hwang whispered, “Carrying so much on his shoulders. He is just a young man…”
Old Man Hwang was worried about Gi-Gyu. His strength let him take on a lot, but that didn’t mean Gi-Gyu didn’t feel the burden of it all. Old Man Hwang stood there for a long time before leaving.
He muttered, “I better go prepare a funeral.”
An extravagant funeral would be necessary.
***
“I could’ve saved them,” Gi-Gyu whispered. He could have saved the two angels if he hadn’t acted arrogant and arrived just a little sooner.
“I could’ve saved them.” All he had to do was prioritize Hamiel and the other angels’ safety. But that wasn’t what Gi-Gyu had done. Being an arrogant fool, he had been relaxed.
El had told Gi-Gyu that day that it wasn’t his fault. Gi-Gyu disagreed with her, but he knew she wasn’t wrong. Although he blamed himself, he knew that it wasn’t just his fault. The deaths of the two angels were an accident. Their enemy was stronger than they had imagined, and he had mistakenly believed Hamiel and the angels could win. So, he had focused on dealing with the monster in the Colosseum instead.
It was just an accident; still, Gi-Gyu felt incredible rage inside. The angels’ death had broken the sync they had shared forcefully. He had never experienced something like this before; it affected him greatly.
Kneeling in front of the angels, Gi-Gyu had mumbled, “Life… I need to use my Life…”
He had tried to inject as much Life as possible into their cold corpses. He tried to do everything he could to resurrect them. However, El stopped him in the end with similar sadness in her eyes. There was nothing he could have done.
“Master… Their Roots are shattered.” El had explained that the two angels had been purified. Their existence had been eradicated, and they had returned to being nothing.
The sync might have seemed like a source of limitless power, something that made him an existence like God, but that wasn’t true. The sync could create something from a smidgen of life, but Gi-Gyu couldn’t create something out of nothing. He couldn’t bring back beings that no longer existed.
This was different from what had happened with El.
“Haa…” Gi-Gyu sighed, a little calm now. When he first realized he had lost two of his angels, the devastation felt like nothing Gi-Gyu had ever experienced before. When the sync between them was severed, it felt like he had lost the whole world.
“Brun,” Gi-Gyu went limp, looked at the ceiling, and called out.
“Yes, Master.” A fairy suddenly appeared in the air. Brunheart had become one with Eden, which meant that no one could escape her eyes inside. Gi-Gyu had known that Brunheart was watching over him when he entered Eden. It was clear she was worried about him.
“What is everyone doing?” asked Gi-Gyu.
“They are preparing the funeral.”
This was the first time someone close to him had died. This was nothing like when his skeletons and other monsters died repeatedly.
The two angels had faced a true and complete death.
Brunheart explained, “They promised to prepare a big funeral befitting their importance.”
“All right,” Gi-Gyu replied, thinking how mature Brunheart sounded today.
***
The funeral was arranged quickly. The ceremony took place not too long after Gi-Gyu had arrived. El had arranged the procedure; the funeral would follow the angels’ traditional way.
“And God…” El prayed out loud. Afterward, the two angels turned into dust and disappeared into the air. They would live in memories from now on, as their physical forms had left this world. With El’s blessing, the two angels had disappeared forever.
“What will happen to them?” Gi-Gyu asked as he watched. He now knew much about hell and the place up above. So, he was curious about the afterlife.
“...” To his disappointment, he didn’t get an answer.
“Gosh, I never thought there would come a day when I’ll attend an angel’s funeral,” Lou, standing next to Gi-Gyu, grumbled. But despite his words, there was a trace of sadness on his face.
After complaining a while longer, Lou asked Gi-Gyu, “Are you okay?”
All Gi-Gyu could do was give Lou a bitter smile. Every one of Gi-Gyu’s Egos was affected when the sync was severed back then. All of Gi-Gyu’s creatures felt a devastating loss.
“Just call me if you need anything.” Lou left.
One by one, everyone began leaving the funeral. Losing your fellow soldier wasn’t something new to any of them. All of Gi-Gyu’s creatures were soldiers, so they were used to losing their allies.
Still, they were all saddened by the deaths of the two angels.
A change occurred in Eden. Everyone began training much harder now.
“Would you like to go train with me?” Botis asked Hal, who nodded. The two of them left quietly.
Gi-Gyu’s creatures had always wanted to become stronger; now, there was something more to their training. They wanted more real-life experience because they had realized that syncing with Gi-Gyu didn’t mean they were above death.
After Gi-Gyu had become stronger, many of his creatures synced with him without experiencing death first. However, those who had synced with him early on had all died first. This seemingly made the new creatures subconsciously believe that they were invincible.
They had thought death wasn't enough to kill them; Gi-Gyu would just bring them back to life. Consequently, they stopped fearing death. Before this incident, they used to train hard, but there was always a relaxed atmosphere among them.
But this wasn’t the case anymore.
‘Those two angels died, and they aren’t coming back.’?The realization brought shock and numerous other emotions to Gi-Gyu’s creatures.
Gi-Gyu was standing quietly when he heard someone sniffling nearby. When he turned, he saw Hart crying. He wiped his skull with a handkerchief and muttered, “How could you two die like this.”
Gi-Gyu couldn’t help but smile a little. Perhaps, this gloom he felt might go away eventually.
***
After the angels’ funeral and the time of mourning ended, everyone began to train with newfound zeal. This wasn’t simply because they felt threatened and wanted to survive this war.
Everyone in Eden was thinking the same thing. They wanted to rip their enemies into pieces with their own two hands. Of course, Hamiel was the angriest. His enemy had killed his family members in front of his eyes. He was weak and had failed to protect them.
“Grandmaster…” Hamiel whispered.
“Hamiel, how are you feeling?” asked Gi-Gyu.
Instead of answering his question, Hamiel begged, “Grandmaster… Please let me…”
Hamiel could barely move while resting in his bed. He continued, “I won’t be a burden. I won’t be in your way, Grandmaster, so…”
His hands trembling, the angel begged, “Please… Please… take me with you.”
“No.” Gi-Gyu was firm in his decision. “In your current condition, you can’t even move, let alone fight.”
Hamiel gritted his teeth. “But…! I must kill them with my hands!”
“And you think you can do that? You think you can win if you meet him again?” asked Gi-Gyu.
“...”
“You and three other angels fought him last time, but you failed even to scratch him.”
Gi-Gyu had already heard the details of the battle between the angels and Cardinal Castro. Hamiel and the others had caught up to the cardinal, but the battle afterward was a total failure.
Hamiel explained, “We never had a chance.”
“You said he’s a much higher-ranking angel than you are, right?”
Just as they had suspected, the Vatican player, Cardinal Castro, was an angel. And it turned out that he wasn’t just any kind of angel. He was in the Cherubs category, the highest-level group of angels.
Gi-Gyu continued, “You said you’re sure he’s a Cherub, but you can’t even tell me his identity.”
“...”
Supposedly, there weren’t many Cherubs in the world, yet Hamiel didn’t know Cardinal Castro’s real name. Even El, who had read Hamiel’s memories later, couldn’t tell.
“No, I’ve never seen him before,” Hamiel replied weakly.
“You can’t go. If you do, you will only get in our way.”
Taking an injured member would only worsen the situation. Also, they would likely have to face enemies other than just Cardinal Castro. Hamiel was angry at the entire Vatican, and Gi-Gyu suspected that many there were even more powerful than Cardinal Castro.
“That is why I’m leaving you here,” Gi-Gyu said his decision. Hamiel bit his lips.
After a few minutes, Hamiel opened his mouth again. “Then… I will become your sword, Grandmaster.”
“...!” Gi-Gyu’s eyes widened. Becoming a sword didn’t mean that Hamiel would simply fight in a different form.
“If I become a holy sword, I won’t be a burden,” continued Hamiel.
Hamiel was born from a holy sword. If he transformed back into a sword, he would just become a weapon, something lacking mind and memory.
“No.” When Gi-Gyu refused, Hamiel slumped.
“But! Depending on how hard you work, I might change my mind.” Gi-Gyu placed his hand on Hamiel. He could feel Hamiel’s eyes burning with passion now.
Hamiel had been injured very badly during the battle against Cardinal Castro. He lost a lot of his Root. His Root wasn’t completely gone, but it would take much effort and a lot of pain to restore it.
Hamiel’s wound was so terrible that he should have died as well. But the two other angels had sacrificed themselves to protect Hamiel. If not for their strong will, he wouldn’t have survived.
“Get your revenge with your own two hands,” Gi-Gyu ordered.
Accepting Gi-Gyu’s hand, Hamiel closed his eyes.
[The conditions for Hamiel’s evolution have been satisfied.]
[Would you like the evolution to proceed?]
[This might open a different route, which would be followed instead of the already opened one.]
[Would you like to proceed?]
The conditions for Hamiel’s evolution had already been revealed. But the conditions were unique. All the available routes had hard-to-satisfy conditions. After discussing with Hamiel, they decided not to proceed at the time. They had made the same decision for the other angels too.
But things were different now.
“Thank you,” Hamiel whispered. Gi-Gyu could feel that Hamiel was truly grateful, and he smiled bitterly. There was a good chance that the decision they were about to make was wrong.
‘But I can’t lose anyone anymore.’?Gi-Gyu knew that everyone around him needed to become stronger. If Hamiel became more powerful, he would also become stronger.
Gi-Gyu closed his eyes and murmured, “Evolve.”
[Hamiel’s Evolution Route]
Gaia’s voice announced.
[You have chosen corruption.]
Death and sorcerous energy began entering Hamiel.
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