Chapter 247 - 247: ...A Child.

"Evans… Evans is the child of Hermes and the Seraph!"

Angela"s thunderous roar echoed throughout the air, drowning any noise that still persisted in the forest. Even the light that drowned the entirety of the inside of the Portal slowly dissipated as Artemis slowly drew back her bow; releasing the string from her teeth after all the light that it released completely disappeared.

"Is… what you say true?" Artemis then calmly said as she dropped the makeshift bow she made from the roots of the forest, "Hermes had a child with a Seraph?"

"..."

Charlotte and Van blinked their eyes numerous times as they opened it. Not sure if what they heard wasn"t their hallucination; but seeing the complicated look on Angela"s face, then it could only mean that what she said was true. She had been trying to hide Van"s true ident.i.ty ever since, and now it was out in the open like that.

"But… I thought Evangeline was my mother?" Van stuttered as he gently let go of Angela, "Does that mean that Evangeline really is the Seraph?"

Hearing Van"s question, Angela could only bite her lip as she looked to the side, but once again, after a few seconds, she let out one long and deep sigh. "Maybe you were right, Charlotte. Maybe Master Evangeline predicted all of this will happen. Maybe she predicted that I would be left with no choice but to tell what I am about to say in front of all of you now."

Charlotte nodded as she tried to calm herself down. She still could not help but take side glances towards Artemis, who was approaching them calmly.

"Let"s start over, shall we?" Artemis then said as another batch of roots emerged from the ground, creating a circular bench for them to sit on, "I apologize for my earlier actions, but I did what I had to in order for you to talk and know the way to peace."

"Peace, my a.s.s," Charlotte thought. There were a lot of things that she could have done for this so-called peace of hers, but when she didn"t get the information she wanted, she was ready to erase the three of them. And to think she thought that the G.o.ds might be reasonable, but to think they really were crazier than Evangeline and Clark Hearst.

Van was the first one to sit down, his wandering eyes reflecting the chaos that was currently residing inside his mind. He had thought of a lot of possibilities, but now he was just confused.

Artemis was the next one to sit down, and surprisingly, she sat beside Van. Charlotte remained standing, ready to protect Van at any second even if she knew it was futile. Seeing everyone waiting for her to tell her story, Angela once again let out a sigh as she proceeded to sit down.

Although they looked like people just out on a camping trip right now, their situation was anything but. If anything, one could say they were being judged by a G.o.d… or being held hostage.

"Evangeline is your mother, Mr. Evans. With that, you can be sure."

"Then what about my father?"

"And the father who took care of you is really your father?"

"W… what?" The confusion inside Van"s mind grew even further. If he could drown in his own thoughts, then he would probably be in the deepest parts of it by now.

"But so is Hermes," Angela continued, "...Do not ask me of the specifics of how it went down, master Evangeline did not share it with me."

"Then is Evangeline a Seraph?"

"No," Angela quickly shook her head.

"But you just said--"

"Can you let me talk?" Angela quickly blurted out, "You said you wanted to know and now you"re interrupting me with every dialog. I swear you were cuter when you were quiet. Listen, just listen."

"..."

"Good," Angela then cleared her throat as she started telling her story once again, "Master Evangeline… is just a Wing-- a wing of the Seraph that Hermes fought more than a thousand years ago."

Van wanted to ask what she meant by that but chose to keep his mouth shut instead.

"I am sure Mr. Evans knows which Seraph I am talking about. Even now, the vision that you have seen is replaying in your mind over and over again," Angela looked at Van. Afterward, her eyes traveled to Artemis, "While you and the other Olympians were forced to seek refuge in the Fractured worlds one by one, the battle between Hermes and the remaining Seraph continued…"

The battle between Hermes and the Seraph continued on, with the two traveling from this universe to Van"s universe, almost endlessly alternating. With each dimensional travel, the two opened up gates. Gates from and to the Fractured Worlds that developed over time into the thing that the people of Van"s world now called Portals.

And in time, those Portals learned to open up by themselves.

Hermes and the Seraph continued to fight. One of the critical factors of their battle happened in the earlier years of their fight when Hermes managed to pull out one of the 6-winged soldier"s wings.

The Seraph"s ethereal wing fell on a human, the woman that would give birth to the first System Holder-- Evangeline.

And as time pa.s.ses, a feather would fall from the 6-winged soldier; falling and touching the humans of Van"s world. And those that were touched by the Feathers, became the vessel for the first System Holders.

Evangeline was destined to be different from the rest, as she was directly connected to the Seraph. She had the Seraph"s memories, she could hear the Seraph"s thoughts as it battled Hermes… she carried the Seraph"s Will.

And through the Seraph"s Will, Evangeline created the Circle; for the people of Van"s world to worship their creed, for that is the reason why the Seraphs invaded the Olympian"s world in the first place-- they had none to worship them anymore.

Their battle continued on, with Hermes growing weaker each travel. But it wasn"t only him, with each feather that fell from the Seraph, her powers too, lessened considerably. And with their powers continuing to weaken, after hundreds of years of just trading blows after blows…

...The Seraph finally talked.

"I wish to tell you the cause of this war," the Seraph talked. And unlike the high-pitched blood curling wail that she made before their almost unending battle, this time, her tone was calm. Her, for the Seraph"s voice, belonged to a woman.

And also, for the first time after hundreds of years of battle, Hermes finally stopped running.

"Whatever reason you may have for causing the destruction of not only my world but this one as well, it matters not. This war only ends one way, and that is fortunately through your death, Seraph."

"But my death would just be the beginning of the destruction of this world. This universe can rebuild, it is young."

The two overlooked the world, with the humans not knowing that their fates were being decided by forces above while they were busy fending off the monsters that came from the Portals they created.

Hermes did not believe the Seraph, telling her that her death would only serve one purpose-- the survival of everything in this universe that they made their battlefield.

"Enough talk, Seraph."

"You are called Hermes, correct?" Still, the Seraph insisted to talk, as fighting any further would just lead to not only their demise but of this world, "I feel it is not fair for I to know the name that has been given to you, while you do not know of mine."

"I do not--"

"My name is Azrael, the Angel of Death."

The Seraph then took off the helmet that she had worn for years, revealing her long silver hair that reached almost to the soles of her feet.

"Angel of Death, how fitting for one such as you."

"And you are a conductor of souls. You and I are much alike, Messenger of the G.o.ds."

"For one, you are a woman. And two… Well that"s it, I do not a.s.sume and presume to know what you can do."

"I can be whatever you want me to be, Hermes. What I am right now is the embodiment of every desire that you have ever wanted and will ever want; I am the face that you want to see as the embers fade from your life."

"That is not exactly true, Azrael."

"But it is. The way you converse with me now is completely different from how it is before I took off my helmet; you even call me by the name that has been given to me by the Father."

"So now that you have shown your face, does that mean that death will come to me?"

"We have both grown weaker, Hermes. Our existence will fade if we continue to fight. I do not wish for death, none of my brothers and sisters did; We wished for life, and that is why we invaded your universe."

"The only thing I can understand here is that you and your siblings destroyed your universe, and you wished to do the same to mine."

"We did not destroy our universe, Hermes. We loved and took care of it. So no, Messenger of the G.o.ds, we did not destroy our universe…

...we escaped from it."

"...Escape?"

"Indeed. My universe could be considered almost eternal comparing to yours. While Chaos had just given birth to your worlds, ours have already thrived… and thrived even more. They have developed far more than we could imagine possible. They have developed enough...

...that they were able to kill Father."