[Syliar’s point of view]

“I believe I can answer some of your questions, but I will let the demon answer the rest.” said Archangel Metatron, who appeared not that far away from us.

Light and love surrounded the angelic being from the High Heavens, calming down the demonic energies present in the world around us. The mortals would certainly resume their normal train of thought after our little scuffle was over, although, they would still have to bear the burden of the consequences of their actions while in they were in that state. A strong pure soul would never fall to the temptation of even the most cunning of demonic powers.

 Looking up at him, I glared and then asked “Why are YOU here?”

“I was sent here.” he replied calmly.

“By whom?” I asked.

“You know by whom.” he replied with a smile.

I clicked my tongue and then dropped the demon to the ground. He landed on his back, groaning from the pain he suffered.

“Then care to give me an answer? Why torture Michael in such a way?” I asked as I pointed at my beloved, who looked like a statue frozen in time.

“The demon Severus Traghart the Second acted on his own will against you and the angels.” the oversized pigeon replied.

I looked at him a bit skeptical and then back at the runt who dared oppose me, laying down there barely breathing and in considerable amounts of pain.

“Severus! Speak!” I ordered with a firm tone of voice.

“I-It’s true... Ugh... I...” he said, but then he stopped.

Narrowing my eyes, I lifted my hand up and pointed it at the demon. I concentrated my demonic energy in the middle of my palm and then shot a single blast at his chest.

“GAH!”

Air left his lungs, forcing him to gasp for the precious gas.

“Tell me everything, you piece of garbage!” I growled.

It took him a moment to be able to speak again, but when he did, he spilled the beans.

“I-I saw you, my Queen, how you restlessly searched for your Soul Mate, leaving the matters of the Kingdom to fate’s will alone. I saw it... as an opportunity. An opportunity to steal the power of the kings from you! After all...” he coughed and sat down on his behind while looking up at me. “To be a promoted to a King you only need to be a Demon Lord Type 1, and I am a Type 2. I am more than worthy to take your place, especially since you do not care about ruling over your Kingdom!”

Looking into his eyes, I could not blame him. He was right about me neglecting my duties and going on my own to find my Soul Mate. Who knows for how many millions of demonic years I left the Kingdom be ruled only by my Demon Lords instead of myself? Even so, I cared not for his ambitions to rule over my Kingdom. What made me angry was the fact that this scoundrel dared to touch my Soul Mate for such a pathetic reason.

I boiled with anger and was eager to send him straight back to Hell, but I abstained.

“What exactly did you do? As the Demon Queen under which you serve, I order you to confess to me all of your sins!” I stated and with this, I used my demonic energy to show him I meant business.

The oath he was bound by when he became my Demon Lord compelled him to speak the truth even if he didn’t like it.

“Ugh... As you wish, your majesty.” he said through clenched teeth. “I was in Hell when I sensed you entering my Universe, then I sensed the spell you cast to find your Soul Mate. You didn’t even bother to hide your energy signature. I saw you heading towards a lone, primitive planet in this galactic sector where I knew there were a few fallen reincarnated. Put two and two together, and it was easy even for me to understand that one of them was your Soul Mate. After all, why return to my Universe after you already checked it once? I decided to pay the planet a visit without you knowing. You held no desire to notice my presence, so it was easy to sneak by. The only difference between us was that I returned to a time when the first of those fallen souls reincarnated on Earth. Then I cast a spell to cover the planet so that all living beings, no matter their species, age, sex, and relationships would behave with all the fallen souls in excessive and extreme ways, but still keep them alive. Afterwards, it was relatively easy to find them. The spell would not affect them directly, but through their very existence, they would act as its trigger. Thus, whenever someone approached a fallen, they would desire instinctively to do him or her wrong. Once this was done, it was just a matter of using a spell that emulated your soul’s energy pulse. I had to get awfully close to each of them in order to see the reply their souls gave off and then quickly stifle it so that it wouldn’t alert you. Eventually, out of all the fallen on this small backwater planet, only one reacted… Michael Kunosagi Asakura. Then, when I sensed you arrived on Earth, I knew I had to step up my game. I took direct control over the deeds determined by the spell. I pushed the army, yakuza, and even his relatives to take extreme actions against him, which normally they would never do and would ultimately lead to his untimely death. Thankfully, they had weak souls, so it was not such a difficult task to accomplish. If the fallen died before your very eyes, and you saw his soul leave, I figured you would go mad and try to search for him again. Afterwards, I would just request for your demotion from Lucifer himself and nominate myself to be promoted to your throne.” he confessed although he tried his absolute best not to do so.

I clenched my fists and glared at the pathetic imp who dared to devise such a plan. In any other situation, I would have been pleased, even proud of him, but considering the current situation, I could only be annoyed and gravely angered by him.

“You annoying scum.” I spat at him.

“Your majesty, I had no choice! I had to do it!” he dared to speak, and I cared not to listen.

Lifting my hand up, I gathered energy in the middle of my palm and then shot it him as a focused beam. The blast went straight through his chest, dropping him to the ground. He groaned in pain as he felt his end drawing near.

“I will deal with you back in Hell!” I growled.

“Syliar.” the voice of the gentle angel caught my attention, distracting me from giving him the finishing blow.

“What?” I spat.

“There is another matter we must look into.” he said.

I raised an eyebrow. Metatron’s words confused me since I did not see what other matters were there to discuss, but then he made it clear for me. Lifting his hand up, he pointed at Michael. I realized in that moment how unstable and perilous both his life and future had become.

“What about him?” I asked, but I tried my best not to make it sound as though my voice trembled in fear of what was to become of him.

“You desire to free him of this curse, do you not?” he asked me.

I nodded.

“Then you must realize the price for such an act.” he told me.

I blinked surprised.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Syliar, as he is right now, he will continue to live on until he makes a decision to be either an angel or a demon, but he will have to do it away from you. However, I realize that you would not be happy with something like this.” he explained.

“Of course not!” I shouted.

“Please, relax.” he looked at me with gentle eyes, and I had to listen to him. If I wanted answers, I had no choice but to listen to his words and come to fully understand the options laid out before me.

“Fine...” I replied reluctantly.

Metatron closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them, he spoke “If you choose this option, Michael will face death now and his soul will be sent to a more stable world, where he won’t be forced into these extremes. Indeed, his life will be filled with a lot of troublesome events, but he will live normally. However, without you as his Soul Mate there, chances are he will not find love easily. Thus, he will be forced to wander from life to life and from world to world until he comes to the decision of what path to choose as an angelion. Once he does so, you will be reunited with him, but until then, you will have no choice but to wait for his return.” he explained, but I didn’t like that option one bit.

“How many human years, centuries, millenniums even do you think I wasted searching and searching and searching for him? How many moments of my own life do you think I gave up just to find him? Now you are telling me to simply let it go and wait patiently? I AM A DEMON QUEEN TYPE 7! I would be damned if I let this go just like that!” I shouted at him and without even realizing, I released my demonic energy all around me, forcing every human in a 230 km area to feel pain and suffering for a moment.

Lucky for them, I did this while in a near stopped time moment, and Metatron was quick to cancel the effects I accidentally caused. Thus, they would be nonexistent for them.

“The second option is the one I warned you about.” he noted.

Furrowing my brow, I asked narrowing my eyes at him “Warned me?”

The memory of our conversation in that peculiar coffee shop popped into my mind. The thing he warned me about was the ability of the Soul Mate to release the Fallen Seal. I clenched my jaw and glared at the angel. He told me back then that I would suffer, but even now, I couldn’t understand what he meant by that.

“Tell me. How would I suffer?” I asked.

“Sigh…” he closed his eyes for a moment and then looked back into mine “The second option is to offer Michael the kiss of a Soul Mate, but while the effects of the unsealing are immediate, they are not as gentle as in the first case. He may lose all of his memories and knowledge as an angelion up until the end of the Demon Angel Wars. But as a result, he would be forced to choose, and usually that means the opposite of what his Soul Mate currently is. In this case, he would become an angel unless his soul strongly desires the demonic aspect but looking at his past actions and thoughts so far, I highly doubt it.” he explained.

Looking into this archangel’s eyes, at the way the energy was being emitted from him to counter my own and how there was a certain questioning feel to his gaze, I realized that there was more to his words than he was letting on. Just like before, I had to make a conscious choice that I really wanted to hear the rest of his explanation.

“Tell me the whole truth. Why would I suffer? What’s the price I have to pay for having my Soul Mate back?” I asked in a trembling tone of voice.

“Energetically, he will be an unclassified angel or demon only with his memories from before the Demon Angel Wars intact, thus, I would have to take him to the Angelion Academy, where he would study for the position of his choice. This means... that you will not be able to see him again unless he requests it personally. You would have to wait an undetermined amount of time. It could be a human year, or even a thousand... or more.” he would explain.

“Basically... I would have no actual way of finding out what he becomes or if he even wants to see me again, correct?” I asked.

He nodded.

I sighed. Both choices were their own versions of Hell for me. The suffering Metatron talked about would be given to me through the form of waiting without knowing when I would be reunited with my beloved. Looking over at Michael, I wondered what he really wanted. His ego would probably say one thing, while his soul another. In the end, I was the one who had to pick my own poison.