ICARUS part 2

what are you doing?" I asked

I think I may have startled her a bit 'cause she screamed and fell in the water when she heard me

"Ugh! What are YOU doing sneaking up on people!?"

"sorry...I thought you could hear the flap of my wings"

I descended into the water and pulled her up, though I was a little bothered by how she hesitated before she grabbed my hand. I wonder if I had done something

"...so ,you came back..."

"Oh ,you still remember me? I thought mortals had a very short memory span. isn't 1 year a limit?"

"well ,not really...plus, it's kinda hard to forget seeing an angel for the first time"

"hm ,,that so? I guess I haven't learned enough about humans"

"... why'd you come back? I mean, it's been 3 years..."

"Oh, yes...I was wondering if there was an antidote for the illusion spell you cast on me and also to offer my apology for whatever I did that caused you to curse me. Ah, might I also mention how vexing this is? I was told humans were incapable of using magic so would you mind telling me how you manage-"

" whoa whoa whoa, slow down for a second. What magic are you talking about!?"

"...? the magic...you know, the illusion spell that makes me see you wherever I go or think about only you for a whole day. That magic"

She stared at me for a while before she started laughing, I think it was for a whole 15 minutes, she even kicked the water and wrapped her arms around her stomach. I was honestly very confused

"hahaha! YOU FELL IN LOVE WITH ME!?!? HAHAHA, And it took you 3 years to confess!?"

"...love? I'm sorry but I'm incapable of that emotion"

"Really...?"

She showed a devious smile as she stopped laughing and slowly started striding toward me. She stretched out her arm to my shoulder and gently slid it down to my chest as she pressed her body against mine, then... carefully and quietly leaned over. From that point, all I remember is her gentle lips sending a wild shock from my cheeks down to the rest of my body

My sense of reason disappeared, rational thinking went blank, and it felt like my brain had been drugged. She then gently ran her fingers down my arm and grabbed my hand then pulled it up slowly to my chest locked in her fingers.

"Do you feel that...? Your racing heart denies your theory"

I couldn't reply, I couldn't move, I couldn't even think and I didn't want to. I shouldn't possess a heart, I'm not mortal, so why did I hear it pounding so hard in my chest? I couldn't process anything. In that split second, so many thoughts ran through my head that I thought it was my life flashing before my eyes

Then, as a sort of protective mechanism, I instinctively just knocked her out. Yup, created a slight electrical disturbance in her brain and knocked her right out! It's super embarrassing that a simple kiss made me freak out so much, I'm never gonna live this one down!

Anyway, it gets worse. So I carried her out of the water and laid her down on the grass under a tree. At that time, I really couldn't help but wonder what kinda spell she had used on me. Perhaps one that made me mortal? or maybe she just created a fake heartbeat?

Yeah, curiosity got the better of me and I did something so much dummer! She woke up about an hour later and found me sitting right next to her.

"...what happened?"

"I'm sorry-"

***

"YOU FRIGGING KNOCKED ME OUT!?"

"well yes, but..."

"YOU KNOCKED ME OUT YOU DAMN PSYCHO! WHY!? All I did was kiss you"

"...oh, so that's what it was. That explains a lot"

"what do you mean by"

She immediately noticed a clone laying lifeless behind me. Her reaction was rather disturbing, it was a loud shriek that scared away the birds, followed by a breathing technique meant to calm down a raging heart, and finally a composed and relaxed conclusion.

"Icarus? WHAT THE BLOODY FUCK IS THAT!!?"

Ah , I stand corrected

"it's your corpse..."

I saw a chill run from her toes to the tip of her head. Puzzled, I asked :

"would you like a closer look...?"

*face-slap* I can't believe I said that.,wish I still had the power to time travel'*

She immediately took a few steps away from me

"...w-why am I looking at my corpse? Am I dead? did you kill me!?"

"Well, when you were sleeping (unconscious) I thought I'd find something in your body that allowed you to use magic so I copied Father and created a biologically identical copy of you from the soil and dissected it. I was surprised I didn't find a root or core or anything like that"

I noticed that chill again

"o-of course you didn't. is it alive...?"

"No , it's not. I didn't give it a soul, I'd fall if I did"

"so you can give life...?"

"well yes but actually no. It's complicated"

"...I see, so what punishment will you get for cloning me without my approval?"

"Punishment? You're a mortal...you can't... punish me"

"Oh so, uhm, you can do whatever you want to me like an animal and I have no say in it just because we're different?"

...I felt a massively heavyweight boulder of guilt and shame hit me so hard that I regretted everything I had said and done in the past hour. I had fallen in love, my second sin

"what would you have me do?"

"For now, please leave. The very site of you honestly creeps the heck out of me. I'll call you when I'm ready to call it in"

*yeah, a celestial being such as myself had been tamed by a 15 y/o girl. What the actual hell was wrong with me back then*

After that day I never saw her again for almost a month. I felt like I should've said something to her back then but... guess I was too stubborn. Even so, she was always constantly on my mind, even in battle I couldn't lock her out

I was almost getting impatient waiting when I heard her prayer call out to me, it sounded disturbed and in pain so I rushed as fast as I could with a strange smile forming on my face as the thought of seeing her again crossed my mind

When I got to her I found her village engulfed in flames. Hydes had raided her home but I couldn't have cared less, I ignored everyone else crying for help, the same humans I was sent to protect just to find her and only her

Then once again I felt the heart I didn't know I had beat out of control. That's when she screamed my name from the jaws of a monster tearing her to shreds.

I snapped

My pride as an angel, my responsibilities, my sense of reason, in that instant, I didn't give a damn about any of it! I let rage take over as I rushed to save her. I decapitated every demon that got in my way faster than they could blink but by the time I reached her. Death had her in its clutches.

I felt something inside me break, the sound was that of glass, I heard it loud and clear. As I fell to my knees I forgot what it was I had been fighting for all these years, without her, my life had no meaning once again

I knew she was gone, I knew that was the reality I had to make peace with...but I just couldn't accept it, so without a second thought, I committed my third and final sin: defiance...and her life was restored.

with things calmed down a little, we rebuilt the village. I stayed there for some time, not because I wanted to but because for some reason, I never wanted to leave her again

I started spending more time with her and even finally learned her name

*can you believe it? been in love with her for 3 years and I didn't even know her name? God, I was dumb!*

Anyway, as years went by she quickly started to accept me. Sometimes she'd ask me out to eat and I wouldn't have the heart to tell her I do not need food. Like that, we gradually grew closer. She scolded me less and laughed more

The years went by so fast that I slowly became conscious of aging. She was now twenty years old and talking about marriage. The stubborn twelve-year-old girl I knew was no more, but here I was, still the same

It might have been a little early, I know, but for someone completely oblivious to time, it was a big deal. I was afraid

Then one day, as she rested in my arms underneath the same apple tree we met, she asked me :

"hey Icarus, that day you brought me back to life, what was going through your mind?"

*tbh, I think I should've thought of a reply 5 years ago but I didn't so I replied :

"I don't know"

*...big mistake*

"...so you want me to believe that my boyfriend broke through the gates of heaven, defying God and the most important celestial rule in all of creation for absolutely no reason at all!?"

"Hahaha, I really don't know. All I could think of was how empty it would be to stay here without you, so I selfishly stole you from heaven and I know I plan to live happily ever after with you" *jk*

"hehe, so I'm technically your prisoner?"

"Exactly!" *smile*

*I lied, though I didn't know it then, the war had ended while I passed time playing 'happy human'*

Sure enough, my bluff was called soon after

On that fateful day, the sky split open and 3 angels slowly descended. Among them was the most respected of us all, second only to Father, his name was Kushiel: The angel of punishment. At the time, he was the first of us to receive a God-given name

"ICARUS!! I know you're here!" He shouted

I heard his call loud and clear and slowly went to greet him. When he looked at me, I saw a glimpse of anger and sorrow reflecting in his eyes

With the war over, Kushiel had come to fetch me to return home. He told me about the truce between heaven and hell that demanded we leave the lower world for it would no longer be habitable to both us and the demons.

And as for me, I was to answer for the many sins I had committed here on earth, which possibly meant a few decades of imprisonment in hell like the first 6.

I could understand his anger and everything he said was true so I just looked down and said :

"I'm sorry..."

"SORRY!? the apple of Eden has been stolen, mortals have lost their humanity, heaven is now our prison after losing a 50 000 y/o war and all you have to say is you're "SORRY"!!?"

To be honest, I didn't know half of what he was talking about, I had neglected all my duties as a Grigori and completely ignored the war beyond the mountains surrounding me.

He quickly grabbed my hand as he stretched out his wings to ascend to heaven but as my feet rose from the grass, she came running and grabbed my legs trying desperately to pull me back down

"NO! You're not taking him anywhere!!"

Kushiel looked down at her in curiosity, a mortal was never allowed to intervene in the affairs of celestials

"...who on earth are you to dare defy me?"

" My name is Althea Methusael. Who the heck are you!!"

He took a long look at her with observant eyes then said: l

"Icarus, explain something to me. This girl shouldn't be alive. What did you do?"

*I kept silent

"Only God shall give life, and only he shall take it. We live by that rule. Have you forgotten who you are?!"

"Kushiel, she has nothing to do with this, just take me, and let's go," I said

"No. Take her to the veil of shadows"

Hearing those words, I lost my composure. I quickly broke free from Kushiel's grip and charged ahead to stop them but the two just blew me off like I wasn't even there and went straight for her.

I charged again but the other one caught me off guard and blew me even farther with the flap of his wings while the second grabbed her by the forehead as he attempted to forcefully rip out her soul.

"NOOOOO!"

I felt my heart spike as I screamed my lungs out, I pulled out my wings and shot ahead. The support charged at me but I crushed him in an instant as I summoned a flaming sword to my hand.

"ICARUS! STOP!"

I heard him scream but refused to listen and before I knew it, I had cut off the head of one of my brothers and instinctively covered Althea in my wings like a blanket with my blade pointed at Kushiel.

"I told you not to touch her!"

I screamed

To humans, angels were immortal deities that could stand against anything. We were gods beyond death and the netherworld, that's what humans were taught to believe but it wasn't true. I had just exposed thousands of years of celestial brainwashing. Our reign was over...but I didn't care. At this point, I knew I was beyond redemption

"WHAT- HAVE YOU DOOONE!!?"

The world shook as the ground beneath us split apart, day became night with a furious wind raising a storm from the depths of hell

*yeah, Daddy was pissed*

Kushiel's eyes became foggy as though he had been possessed. The second his voice shot out, its angered echo could be heard through the clouds

"ICARUS! YOU'VE PUSHED ME FAR ENOUGH! IF YOU WISH TO REMAIN WITH THESE MORTALS THEN IT SHALL BE SO! HATE WITH THEM, STARVE WITH THEM, SUFFER WITH THEM FOR AS FROM TODAY FORTH, YOU ARE NO LONGER MY SON! YOUR NAME SHALL BE AZRAEL, THE SON OF DEATH! AND THIS WORLD SHALL BE YOUR PRISON"

He then turned his gaze at Althea.

" ...AND AS FOR YOU, MORTAL! I WILL LET YOU KEEP MY FORMER SON! BUT YOU WILL NEVER FIND PEACE IN MY KINGDOM! YOU WILL NEVER DIE, YOU SHALL FOREVER SUFFER THE CYCLE OF REBIRTH AND REMAIN ON THIS EARTH UNTIL THE END OF DAYS!!"

Thus My halo became a dark crown of thorns forever a reminder of my sins. My wings lost their white glow as the feathers slowly shed and the mark of Cain was burned on my wrist. Everywhere I went, I was hated. But that mattered little to me. Finding Althea again became my only goal.

From then on, I would suffer the same pain as mortals. I would starve like them, bleed like them, fear like them but never die nor age. Icarus the light chaser was no more, the one who remained was Azrael, the fallen son of death

*If you're hoping I learned my lesson then you couldn't be any more wrong, 'Of course, I'd do it all over again if I had to. No, scratch that, I WILL do it again"

*