Things That Must Be Kept

Kael paced around in the room, anxiously waiting for the Whites to return along with Ange. Hoping that they'd return with Ange. The three other White Angels in the room, who had stayed behind to watch over the gate in case the demons tried to escape, looked at him sceptically. They had tried to calm him but Kael refused to stay still. Seeing that he won't be attempting anything suicidal, they decided to just leave him be.

When he saw that Ange was being carried out from the gate by the three White Angels that had entered earlier, Kael was honestly relieved. However, that relief was soon replaced with a feeling of dread when he saw the state that Ange was in. Her skin was greyish in some areas, proof that a considerable amount of negative energies had already entered her system. Her originally brown eyes were now tainted with a blood-red colour. It was half-opened as if she was in a dazed state, her eyes were blank.

Kael rushed over to her, turning to look at the White Angel that was carrying her, "This level of corruption... Will she be alright?"

"She's fine. For now," The other White Angel standing next to him answered instead.

"For now...? What do you mean, Lufir?" Kael turned to him next, asking for some clarification.

Crossing his arms, Lufir tilted his head as he replied, "We managed to stop the demonization process for the time being but we need to extract the negative energies in her as soon as we can. Currently, her soul should be in a state of torment. If we delay the extraction, her soul might not able to handle the torment, causing her to fall. When that happens, the demonization will start again and we won't be able to do anything to help her."

Having said to that point, Lufir turned to the White Angel that has been carrying Ange, "Heim, we'll take her to the Garden. The atmosphere there should be able to stabilize her soul. We will do the extraction there."

Heim nodded his head at Lufir before turning to Kael expressionlessly, "Do you wish to come with us? Your presence won't make any difference to us but it seems like you're truly worried about her."

"Yeah," Kael replied simply, looking at Ange.

Lufir looked at the other four Whites in the room, nodding his head at them, "Tell Meril we went to the Garden. He should be coming out with the others soon."

After he had informed them, Lufir stretched out his hand, drawing a line in the air with his fingers. The line glowed faintly before it formed into a pathway. As a cold breeze passed, a pleasant fragrance wafted through the pathway.

"Let's go," Lufir said before proceeding to enter, following closely behind him was Heim and Kael.

...

In an eternally bright place, a field of flowers swayed lightly as a light, gentle breeze blew. Above those flowers, countless small, colourful misty ball of light floated leisurely, swaying ever so slightly along with the wind.

Somewhere among the vast field, a lone man walked alone. He was completely white in appearance. With long white hair, white eyes, even his skin was completely pure white. He looked human, however, the feeling he gave off was something that a human could never possess.

His expression was peaceful as he strolled through the field, occasionally looking at some of the colourful misty balls. Each of these misty balls represented a soul. A human's soul. By peering through it, he could see the kind of lives these souls have lived when they were alive.

He enjoyed doing so whenever he was free. He wasn't human, but he felt like he could understand humans if he observed how they have lived.

As he continued to waltz through the garden, he suddenly noticed a mass amount of negative energies appeared from a certain area.

'Did a demon invaded the Garden?' He thought to himself. However, he found it impossible as they do not have the authority to form a Gate here. The only explanation would be that an angel brought it in.

As he was pondering on it, he had already flown all the way over to the said location. His suspicion was proven true when he saw four angels in that place, one of them in a severe case of corruption.

When he saw clearly the face of the one being carried, he stopped abruptly. "Is that the new Impure? What happened?"

Noticing his presence, Lufir and Kael placed their right hand over their chest, giving a slight bow in greeting, "Archangel Wince."

Wince nodded his head in reply as he looked at Ange in concern, "What happened to her? It's only been a few days."

Lufir reported calmly, "She was attacked by a 2nd class demon. She was taken to the Void in the demon's attempt to turn her into a fellow demon. We managed to retrieve her in time before it's too late. However, as you can see, she had been corrupted severely. We deemed that it's better for her soul if we do the extraction here."

"I see. Then, hurry along. You can use the gardener's hut. I'm sure he wouldn't mind," Wince said as he hushed the four to leave, pointing in the direction of the hut.

As he watched the four fly away, he turned his gaze over to look at the ground by his feet. There, a small red seed laid peacefully. Wince bent over, taking the seed in his hand as he stared at it.

After awhile, he opened his mouth, "This is the seed of 'Sin's Hunger'. Why would this be here in the Garden?"

Wince turned to look in the direction of the hut, feeling uneasy, "That girl... There's something wrong with her. I should look into this more," he murmured silently, crushing the seed in his hand as he purified it.

...

Ange was murmuring something in her sleep. Her expression was pained like she was experiencing a nightmare. She had been like this ever since the extraction was completed.

Kael sat next to her bed, staring at her in silence.

"She'll be fine. We have already extracted the negative energies in her. This is kind of a side effect. I'm not sure when she'll wake up though," Lufir said as he leaned on the door.

Just then, Meril suddenly appeared from the door along with Kriu. "She's alright now? I came over to check on her," he said. When he saw Ange lying on the bed, completely devoid of any sign of corruption, he sighed in relief.

Kael raised his head, turning to look at Meril in a serious gaze, "Meril, can we talk for a moment? It's about Ange."

Meril fell silent as he looked at Kael. Sighing, Meril nodded his head, gesturing for Kael to follow him outside.

Once they had gone out of the hut, Meril didn't stop until he had reached a considerable distance away from the others.

"You know something, don't you? The reason why Ange was taken this time," Kael went straight to the point as he stared at Meril with his dead eyes.

Receiving his dead stare, Meril was unruffled as he calmly replied with a question, "What do you know about Ange? I mean what you've been told about her."

Kael was slightly unsatisfied that Meril had evaded his question, however, he still properly answered him, "I was told about the circumstances of how she died. And that after dying ahead of her time, she had apparently been left undiscovered for a whole year."

"Is that what they had concluded?" Meril asked, turning his gaze to the side as if he was thinking about something.

Noticing that gesture, Kael narrowed his eyes at him, "Ange told me she doesn't remember how she died nor what happened in between. That should be the effect of the catalyst's adjustment. Are you saying that this incident has something to do with her lost memories?"

"It does have something to do about it," Meril said with an uncertain tone. Looking away with a sigh, he continued, "Anything could have happened in a year's time..."

"You're not going to tell me what you know?" Kael asked bluntly after observing Meril.

Meril was taken aback by his bluntness, however, his expression soon reverted back to his usual calm one, "It's better that way. Even I don't know everything that happened. Just a portion of it."

Having said so, he turned to Kael with his usual gentle smile, "The only thing I can tell you is that Ange can't find out about it. The catalyst sealed that portion of her memories for a reason. The way she is now, she's still too weak. If she remembers now, only harm will fall to her."

Kael was silent as he listened to him. Eventually, he opened his mouth, "Before this, did you know Ange was going to be targeted?"

"I didn't," Meril replied. "As I said, I didn't know everything that happened. So, I thought of just observing her for now. The reason she was taken to the void... I have a theory regarding that, however, I've nothing to prove it."

Kael nodded his head in understanding. Just as he was about to question more, a sudden voice called out to them.

"Kael! Meril! Ange's awake now!" Lufir came over swiftly, adding, "If you're done with your talk, you better go see her now. She's in a dazed state though."

Kael looked at Lufir, turning to the hut in the distance before finally resting his gaze on Meril, "I'll interrogate you more later." With that, he flew in a rush towards the hut.

"You coming, Meril?" Lufir asked when he saw that Meril was unmoving from his spot.

Chuckling lightly, Meril replied, "You go first. I'll come by later."

"Okay then," Lufir shrugged his shoulders before flying after Kael.

Seeing the two out of sight, Meril sighed to himself, "I sure messed up, didn't I, Wince?"

At his words, a completely white figure materialized beside him. "How did you notice I was here?"

"Intuition. The moment Ange entered the Garden like that, obviously you'd notice something wrong," Meril replied in a resigned tone.

Wince laughed at his words, smiling eerily as he said, "Now, explain to me everything you know. And I mean EVERYTHING."

Meril turned his gaze away from Wince, obediently spilling everything he knew about Ange.