ALL NOVEL Relief
(Akeno POV )
The world was so small, so fragile. It was something that couldn't be understood until the whole image could be seen until the whole image could be grasped.
One wrong move and everything could fall into disarray. One wrong move and the carefully crafted chaos could end in senseless Chaos or maybe it was because I knew I would be able to disrupt it if I tried that made me think in such a way.
I didn't become Omniscient or even come infinitely close to it like I knew the original Lucifer and his twin Michael could before being reduced to the state he actually was.
What I had was the next best thing. Many scholars have called it Intellectus. This was the power, the ability to know anything you wanted to know if you chose to.
It wasn't something already there in your mind like Omniscience or Night-Omniscience. You needed with the power of the Intellectus to ask the good questions to the cosmos.
You needed to be precise enough so that something important would not be missed but more than that, what was beginning to be clear to me was that the only reason other high-ranking angels both regular and fallen didn't completely dominate every other supernatural faction was the fact that knowledge could be dangerous.
Sometimes, it was best to be ignorant of some things. There was safety in ignorance. After all, even angels could go mad. The story of Samael was the only case of an Archangel using Intellectus to search for things beyond them.
Samael, my father had told me was an Archangel who hated humans more than anything. He hated how weak they were. He hated it is said that even with their almost endless imperfections, they remained the favourites of his father.
He had wanted to show his father the weakness, the inherent imperfection that he saw in what her father told her he liked to call hairless monkeys.
Even then, with all of his hatred, he shouldn't have been to trick Adam and Eve for many reasons.
The first reason was that the barrier of Eden even in Heaven was protected by the now-deceased Seraph Camael. Even though Samael was an Archangel, crossing blades with Camael would have if not killed him alerted all the rest of Heaven of something wrong going on.
The second reason was that the fruit of good and evil was not technically in the Garden of Eden.
What kind of loving parent leaves the fire on the stove and leaves their baby on the counter just near it where they can easily touch it?
God had created a barrier, a dimensional one in Eden my father had told me that would make sure that even intentionally, the humans he adored so much would not be able to even look and even less touch the tree and its fruits.
Samael should have failed and he would have if it wasn't because of Lilith. Samael hadn't been able to understand that he was being manipulated by her. He may have been stronger than her but she had been more cunning than he ever could have been.
Lilith had been considered a goddess for a reason. She used her magic fuelled by the power of the Archangel to open a hidden portal in Eden.
Samael would go to materialize the tree in Eden. Even then, my father had told me that it wasn't enough. Adam and Eve had everything anyone could wish for. Why would they break the rules of the one that gave everything to them?
They refused of course but Samael denied their refusal. He was still an Archangel and with his power controlled them into eating the fruit.
The Archangel hadn't known that while he was doing such, Lilith had eaten and stolen some of the apples of the trees of immortality and knowledge.
The Archangel was said to have created in the Abrahamic god, my grandfather an emotion it was thought impossible for him to feel. He did something that even Helel was not able to do even when he rebelled and fell from Heaven.
He made hatred bloom in the Heart of god, something that should have not been possible. This newfound hatred would be entirely infused in the being of Samael as punishment.
The Archangel had violated the trust of his father and the minds of Adam and Eve making it necessary for the Abrahamic god to expedite them to the mortal plane for their well-being.
Adam and Eve were adored by the Abrahamic god because they were supposed to be the prototypes of a new race of angels, equal to the demiurgic Archangels my father told me.
Their imperfections yet their innocence over the nature of the world, over good and evil were necessary components for my grandfather to ascend them in something more.
The tree was created because one day, its fruits would be needed in their ascensions. Giving it to them before the time was right ruined everything.
Even then, God still didn't banish Samael. If that had been the case, maybe Job wouldn't have lost his children and everything before gaining back at least tenfold. It's not as if children could be replaced but anyway, Samael stayed for a long time in heaven after his fault.
What made it necessary for his imprisonment in the deepest layer Of Cocytus was when he used his Intellectus in a way he shouldn't have.
The hatred of god he had infused in his being was something less evocative and more real, physical than anything. It was poison, darkness, a blight on reality.
It was dangerous and vile. After all the greater the light is, the deeper and more profound the darkness is.
Samael lived for centuries with a poison capable of destroying creation by itself and that ravaged his entire being.
The Archangel saw it at first as a test, a way to learn penance when he realized the stupidity of his past actions.
He began to see it as a punishment when decades later, he found himself unable to control even a smidge of the poison.
In trying to find a way to free himself from the eternal mind-breaking pain he was saddled with, Samael did an action that could not be taken back, that could not be fixed even by his father.
Samael, my father had told me used his Intellectus and asked the cosmos itself how could he free himself from the pain he felt and how he could control the venom bestowed by his father to him. Samael asked how could he control and tame the Tetragrammaton hatred.
Samael gained the knowledge he had longed for, the knowledge to control and subdue God’s hatred at the price of his sanity.
Samael mind had reached for the darkness between stars for an answer and he was given an answer by a being as old if not older than his father.
Samael gone mad rampaged through the heavens. Many fell under the poison he was finally able to wield in his madness. The one that stopped him was the youngest Demiurgic Archangel, Gabriel Hornblower.
She chained him with her demiurgic might, creating chains with her light infused with the concept of eternity.
She would have reduced him to nothing like she did with most of those who dared oppose her father if the Abrahamic god himself asked her not to do so.
My grandfather tried to heal Samael but found himself unable to. Omnipotence itself was found wanting but instead of giving up of his on his child, the Abrahamic god didn't.
My father told me that the reason why a lot of angels had fallen from Heaven was because of jealousy.
He created every angel in existence and defined their existence before they were even born. They all loved him more than they did themselves and he didn't love them all.
He was my father had told me uncaring and dismissive of the majority. He only noticed and cared about his favourite.
This is why when Helel my father told me to rebel, instead of destroying him and the menace he represented, God banished him to the Chaoplasm that is known today as the underworld that was inhabited by the demons and their lesser descendants the devils.
God gave Helel a kingdom. Could Helel even be said to be banished from Heaven like my father and the other fallen when his wings didn't turn dark at his fall? Helel chose to change his wings but God’s system wasn’t the one to do so.
There were stories of Helel in great being able to wield holy light against his enemies butchering angels and fallen angels with it. This was because even after everything, he was still one of if not the favourite of the Abrahamic god.
Samael was lucky or unlucky enough depending on who you ask to be one of the favourites of god and because of this, he was spared, imprisoned into Cocytus until the day my Grandfather would find a way to heal his mind.
The point was that I needed to be careful. There was a passive stream of information that I received simply as being a Nephilim.
Just with this passive stream of information, I could see Daikokuten, a pagan god in his entirety. I could see and understand him in a way I don't think he knew or understood himself.
I could glimpse with my eyes through the eddies of Destiny and every action he would and could take.
I could read his essence, his mind. He knew that I could. Japan had been allied with a part of the Grigori through the control that the Grigori had over Nazi Germany with Hitler also being a Nephilim.
He knew what it was like to be present in front of a cadre of Grigori, an existence so high on the totem pole that could maybe only be equalled by the supreme Trimurti who stood at the top of the hierarchy of strength in the Hindu Pantheon and all of its offshoots and by that I meant most religions that sprung in the Eastern part of the world.
A part of me whispered to me to use this power I knew had to try to know why my father had left, if there was maybe a good reason behind it, if Rias truly loved me, if what I hoped between the two of us was truly possible.
I restrained myself from doing such. What would kneading change in the case of my father? Confirming the hatred I already had? Prove that what I felt for most of my existence was false, a lie?
Using my Intellectus to know how Rias felt toward me felt like a violation. How could I build something lasting if I could not believe in myself and have faith in a possible love between the two of us?
We reappeared on an empty planet thousands of lightyears away from Earth. It was almost a replica of my planet. The difference was that it was simply bigger at least a quarter the size of Neptune.
Here, I would be able to make sure that any action I commit would not impact innocent people.
I also chose when we landed on this planet to surround it in a time dilation bubble. An hour passed there would be a tenth of a second on Earth.
“I recognize this Holy energy, this divine presence,” the god in front of me spoke. “I didn't know that Baraqiel brought to the world a child with Japanese blood. I'm also surprised that he or you allowed yourself to be turned into a devil.”
I was the Nephilim child of a Grigori cadre. Without even the authority I wielded and my father also did, the Grigori faction was the most technologically advanced faction of the Abrahamic Pantheon. I'm sure that if I went to the Grigori after being unable to remove my evil piece with my authority, they would find through their mind-boggling technology a way to remove it.
“Things happen,” I simply told him. “I am not displeased with the life I'm living.”
“Not displeased?!” Daikokuten spat. “You are not displeased leaving as a servant, you a being that is inherently seen as more divine than most? Nephilims were Godkings and you are satisfied by being the servant of one of the devils that corrupts the native land of one of your parents, that spit on everything your ancestors built!”
“They’re dead and I'm for now still there. The wishes of the dead don’t matter because as the word says, they are dead. This world should only be shaped by the living,” I spoke.
“I am not like you screaming at the world like a dog to notice me because I had felt alone, disregarded, non-existent child of Susanoo no Mikoto.” When you boiled it down, this was the root of Daikokuten. He wanted attention. He could talk about concepts like honours or whatever else he liked to prattle about to feel better about himself but I knew his heart, his essence and the only thing he longed for is attention.
That is what motivated him. Seeking the attention and recognition of an uncaring parent. Seeking and swearing vengeance Because the only thing, the only person that gave him what he craved, his child died.
“Does it even matter at all?” I asked him. “We are here to kill each other. Nothing more, nothing less”.
Sparks of lightning materialized and came to exist around me by a flick of my will. I didn't have to use my demonic energy to force the phenomenon. It just felt natural, easy, even more easy than breathing.
I could see through his eyes that he knew that he would lose. He didn't show it but I could see fear in the heart of the god yet he soldiered on taking a fighting stance.
My respect for him rose. It would not stop me though from making sure there would be no chance of him coming back into existence in one form or another.
Even then, the image of The mutilated bodies of the members of Sona’s peerage was still engraved in my mind. Their despair, their hatred remained invisibly around him. He would have probably been cursed by those emotions if he wasn't a god.
I allowed my authority to roam free unrestricted from my control “I AM EVERYTHING YOU EVER LONGED FOR” my voice boomed taking a supernatural quality. “I AM YOUR BEGINNING AND YOUR END! SHOW ME THE STRENGTH YOU CULTIVATED DAIKOKUTEN”
The god’s grip on his trident tightened, and his feet pushed and dug through the ground before he sent himself flying toward me.
Daikokuten knew without a doubt that he would lose. He was sure of it as sure as he was that suffering was inherent to existence. He knew that nothing he would do against the Nephilim would work, and affect her but even then, he tried.
She had displaced Them through the cosmos, the stars to a bigger replica of the Earth or maybe it was the contrary devoid of any sign of life whether physical or supernatural.
This was a world devoid of any god that would contest him using his authority, that would limit him. This was a world that was untouched by Humanity still full of its natural resources and its wonders.
Daikokuten even before earning the domain and becoming a warrior god was a god of the Earth. That was the domain he was born with. That was the thing that many would say defined him at his core.
He also inherited partial dominion over the sky, storms and bodies of water through the fact that he was simply the offspring of the deity Susanoo. Even though he was honestly weak when it came to using the domains he inherited, here on an Earth where there was no other being to restrain or restrict or oppose him?
Daikokuten took control of the planet itself and became its only deity. The planet fuelled him, fed him its energy strengthening him in a way he knew would have made him able if he was on Earth to defy Amaterasu and win!
He moved using the staff part of his trident and swung it at the head of the Nephilim trying to crush it.
The trident moved as fast if not faster than lightning igniting the air through its speed, setting the world around them ablaze.
The planet itself shook, the horizon exploding and cratering but the Nephilim remained untouched, unmoving. The Trident didn't even touch her skin as if existed a small barrier between the Trident and her as if she was a higher being living on a higher plane of existence that could not be touched.
She looked at him bored. He could almost see in her eyes her asking him if that was everything he was capable of if that was the only thing the god Daikokuten could do.
One of Daikokuten’s feet moved pushing against the Earth, sending his authority and his command through it.
Daikokuten instead of blindly releasing and throwing the Earth under them at the Nephilim without a thought shaped it, changed it. No mundane material had any chance to affect her so Daikokuten created something divine, something that would instead of boring her, make her notice, maybe even create an infinitesimal low amount of worry.
A mountain made of divinity
-infused Titanium and crystal bigger than a mountain, longer than any continent on Earth erupted from the ground like the maw of an underground monster.
It rolled like a living monster and swallowed the unmoving form of the Nephilim. Daikokuten expanded his authority and compressed the Earth again and again until he couldn’t anymore.
It took the shape of a sarcophagus indicating that the Nephilim hadn’t been affected by Daikokuten’s action, that she hadn’t been crushed but that was fine, he expected nothing less.
As a god, he knew since the beginning of his long existence secrets of the universe that humans only recently discovered. He would have never used this knowledge if he had been on Earth.
The consequences would have been too great, the devastation too mindless and too cutting for his taste but here, there was no one that could be affected except the Nephilim.
Daikokuten hadn't destroyed the continental chunk of Earth. He had compressed it all and when you compressed an enormous amount of matter too much, space itself folded.
Daikokuten jumped crossing the distance between the Earth and the Heavens. Under him, a singularity came into existence. Mortals called it a black hole. Immortals called it the anger of the void.
He grasped all the clouds, all of the sky of this gigantic planet. He controlled it, shaped it and plasma erupted in existence. Plasma ten times hotter than the core of a white sun took form around Daikokuten’s trident.
He wasn't finished. If he died here, Daikokuten wanted to do the impossible, the inconceivable. He wanted to injure the Nephilim in such a way she would never be able to forget it, in a way she would never be able to forget Daikokuten.
He released all of his divinity at once. He tried to recall the aspect he had made to fight against one of the reincarnated devils but found himself unable to. It seemed that the devil had been able to triumph.
Daikokuten regretted the fact that he would not be able to properly fight against the knight with all of his might, to personally test his strength, his mantle.
A divine golden halo formed at the back of his head indicating the release of his restraints, of his total presence and attention.
Under him, the gravitational pulls of the black hole made everything begin to collapse and be crushed. The singularity drank from and consumed reality like a starved and thirsty man who had suffered in the desert for aeons.
‘Ebisu,’ he thought. ‘I hope you can see me. I hope you can see your father at his end and be proud.’
Daikokuten knew that in the miraculous case, he would be able to vanquish the Nephilim, but he would perish immediately after because of the forces that he had unleashed. This was without a doubt the end of the God Daikokuten.
He was satisfied and happy with such an outcome. Better die in a blaze of glory than as a pale husk reminiscing of a glorious past that would never be reached or touched again.
He threw with all of his might his trident toward the singularity. The remnants of the planet being destroyed that had been lucky for some Instants to escape from the gravitational pulls of the black hole were set up ablaze, burnt and erased from reality as the trident of Daikokuten tore through space and reality.
Flames were also covering and consuming his own flesh but Daikokuten didn't feel the pain. He could only feel joy and contentment. He knew at that moment that he was greater than all of his peers than all of those who disregarded him or treated him badly because they saw him as weak. His arms opened wide like a man having found the answer, meaning itself.
The Trident entered in contact with the singularity and the gigantic planet at least two times the size of the Earth exploded, reduced to smithereens.
He could feel himself being consumed. Daikokuten knew that he was dying and that it was just a question of seconds. He knew that he had those remaining seconds only because of his inherent toughness due to the fact that he was a god.
She erupted from the singularity clawing out of it. Instead of indifference, Daikokuten could see another emotion. Seriousness and respect were now inscribed on her face. Good, Daikokuten made her recognize him whether she admitted it or not.
Daikokuten summoned a lightning spear in his scalded right arm and plunged toward the form of the Nephilim.
One of The Nephilim’s fingers rose pointing at him, a spark of something materializing in and out of existence before it. “Be proud,” her celestial voice boomed through reality and the cosmos. “You were strong!”
A spark of holy Lighting took existence and flew at the god, destroying reality itself, enveloping and consuming the god entirely and continuing, crossing hundreds of lightyears in less than a nanosecond. All kinds of matter on his road whether it was stars, planets or comets followed Daikokuten into annihilation. Was there any better, any further death for the deity?
(Akeno PoV)
I recognized Rias’ presence in the cosmos propagating with purpose, a terrible and blasphematory one.
I let it come close to me, touch me, affect me. It came from Rias and I knew without even using my Intellectus that she would never willingly hurt me. The presence of her demonic energy was just a reflection of this.
I watched how it tried to twist my soul but found itself unable to before I guided it like a toddler with their parent.
If I wasn't a Nephilim, maybe that wouldn't have been needed but this was my nature, who I was whether I hated it or not. This was not something even with all my powers I could change without consequences that would feel too heavy for me to bear. Samael’s story more than being a story was a warning, a cautionary tale.
I watched how Rias’s demonic energy changed a part of my soul more precisely where were my soul's hardcoded limits.
This is why Humans were considered weaker than most. It wouldn't be wrong to say that reality itself was a code, an infinite number of zeros and ones.
A vampire could drink the blood of another being and heal themselves because this was coded in their essences, in their souls. A werewolf could take the shape of a wolf because that was how his soul originally was or was modified into becoming.
Sometimes, strong unnatural pure humans rose capable of equaling, of fighting against supernatural beings by themselves without any help or any drop of supernatural blood. This was because those human souls' composition was naturally different than the one most humans were born with.
That was something I knew due to the passive stream of information I received from my Intellectus.
Rias was using her demonic energy with what seemed to be a divine authority that felt both like her and unlike her.
She was using her power to ensure that anyone touched, that anyone affected by her actions would be able to grow strong by themselves just through their actions, through winning against supernatural forces.
Rias had created a spell that gave humans the possibility of freeing themselves from the gods and supernatural beings that reigned over them, to dethrone their old masters.
More than that, that spell limited the power of the gods over the mortals they only saw as livestock. It balanced the scales making sure that a god would need a more equal relationship with his followers, with those that gave him power if he wanted to continue gaining and keeping strength through human souls.
This was a heretical act, a blasphemy, a sin. I knew that this action would make sure that most if not all the gods that would learn this would try to strike at Rias. They would try to make sure that any possibility of them being affected would not happen.
They didn't understand that this spell meant that they could also grow in strength like the humans affected by Rias’ spells if they swallowed their pride and tried cooperating instead of dominating.
I felt the lingering essence of Daikokuten become absorbed by the human part of my soul strengthening me and giving me a part of his authority. I felt a smile bloom on my face.
‘Rias you always give the best gifts.’ I have to make sure to reward her after all of this. I opened a portal to Kuoh. The time will come. Now I needed to limit the damages and reverse them if possible until the return of my king.
