It was past 2 AM in the morning. Most of the kingdom was asleep. Although everyone was waiting for the next day of judgment to come, Selene was not sleeping. She was trying the resurrection ritual.
She was chanting the incantations she had learned from Esdeath, using the special materials one by one. The candles around her flickered or grew bigger at times, while the strange objects floating in the air trembled with unseen energy.
"Cast! Splinter of life, take haste, take hold. Quicken the breath to awaken the soul," she slowly said, her small voice echoing in the quiet room.
The naked female body on the table started trembling. It was very low at first, like the slight twitching of a finger, but then it grew louder and louder until its arms and legs were shaking violently, like a zombie trying to break free. Selene continued her work, putting a red dye-like substance on the body and lighting a small, flickering fire on its skin.
The body trembled even more, as if it was desperately trying to gain life. It started making choking, gurgling sounds. If anyone were to see such a scene, they might run away and jump out the nearest window. What made it even scarier was that it was all being done by a girl who looked only six or seven years old.
"Esdeath Crimson, married, new name, Esdeath Marriette, alias Fable, job, hitman!" Selene continued her ritual, her voice steady and clear.
It felt like life was slowly forming in the body, like Esdeath was really about to be revived. But then—SPACK!
The naked body's stomach blasted open, spraying blood everywhere. The rest of the body instantly burst into flames. A lot of the blood splattered onto Selene's face, making her lips twitch with irritation.
"So I failed, huh..." she said, her voice flat and empty.
She looked around. The whole room was a mess, with blood and materials spread everywhere like garbage. The room had gone from gloomy and sacred to just plain dirty.
"Gonna clean everything," she muttered with a heavy sigh.
---
In heaven, Fable was sitting on the rooftop of a big building. She looked at the scenery. As always, it was without a doubt breathtaking. There was no doubt why this place was called heaven.
But what was even more enticing were the essence stones. There were many soul path essence stones everywhere. Not the offensive kind, but the ones used to heal and strengthen one's soul. They were like white crystals with a blue shade, growing on many buildings, at the corners of streets, and along the walls. By using them, one could enhance their soul.
But they were just an expendable type of essence stone; they would vanish once used. Their effect was slow, but there were just so, so many of them. If one had enough time, they could grow their souls stronger over time, becoming way more powerful than they were before.
But alas, this was heaven. No one took advantage of it. They lived peacefully and only used them when they felt some weakness in their spirit body. To them, it was just a resource, not an opportunity.
Instead, it was mostly used by the lesser angels. They flew around eating the stones while guarding the place. To them, it was more like food than anything else.
Fable turned her head to the left side. Far away, there was a place with a big, dark red portal. An ominous red smog was swirling around it. It was the Reincarnation Gate.
When one lives in heaven for thousands of years, they start to get bored of this perfect life. Some people finally decide to reincarnate back to the mortal world. But many people feared this gate.
They were too afraid to leave this perfect lifestyle, especially those who were addicted to the water from the River of Salvation. They just wanted to live exactly as they were now.
Because, once someone is reincarnated, there is no guarantee which species they'll be born as or which household. There was no guarantee if they would be an awakened one in their next life or not. This was a gamble.
They would either have a new, happy life, or if not, then another miserable life. Of course, they would not have their previous life's memories either, so they wouldn't even know that it was their choice. That's why many people never chose it.
There was the same reincarnation portal in hell as well. The only difference was that people there begged to go into it. The useless and egotistical souls were being completely crushed there by the lords of hell. They did hard labor, living like a slave.
Every single second was miserable unless you had a special talent for something. That's why people did anything and everything to get to the Reincarnation portal and get a new life.
Fable closed her eyes and then opened them. "It's been quite the time since I felt that sensation. Selene was definitely trying to revive me, but it seems she failed!" she muttered to herself, a mix of annoyance and disappointment in her voice.
"If I'm right, it is currently 5 in the morning there. There's not much time left," she thought, a knot of anxiety tightening in her chest. At this point, Fable's patience was growing thin.
It wasn't that she didn't have any other plans to revive herself; it's just that they would take time, and right now, every single second mattered. Especially when she had no idea what was going on in the kingdom. From her perspective, she was already very, very late.
Fable retracted her gaze and looked back at those vast amounts of essence stones again. There were only lesser angels patrolling around. The security was very low. Of course, this was understandable because heaven never really faced much threats anyway. People here never did anything illegal, so even having lesser angels here felt like a waste of time.
At first, Fable thought of killing those lesser angels and using those essence stones to enhance her soul. But this plan wasn't that satisfying. If she were going to take such a risk, then she would rather target someone else—the residents of heaven.
They were just walking lumps of delicious food for Fable. They were harmless souls, although weak, they were pure, like a newborn baby. Their souls would be much more useful.
"There's not much time left. It seems we need to do something," Fable thought to herself, her mind sharp and focused.
The thoughts quickly transferred to Esdeath. Right now, she was locked in a level 2 prison. There wasn't much light coming to it. The bars were not made of iron, but some iron-like material that worked against spirits, although it was fundamentally very similar to iron.
"Hmph, finally remembered me when you needed help?" Esdeath snorted, laying lazily on the cold ground.
"Okay then, I'll get it done by myself," Fable calmly replied, her voice like ice.
"Wha—, wait! I was joking! It's been ages since I saw Lortell. I want to touch her, hug her, I really miss her!" she started whining like a child who was about to cry.
But a few seconds later, her whining finally died down. "But how are we supposed to get out of here? I saw so many traps, like it's some kind of trial stage, and the security is high. Not to mention, I'm only level 2. They'll soon send me to level 3. It'll be impossible for me to break out of there!" Esdeath said, her voice filled with genuine worry. But her worries were completely justifiable.
Fable only smirked. A complex, daring plan formed in her mind, and she transferred it to Esdeath in less than a second.
"Ohh, to think that sending me to level 3 would be their biggest mistake!" Esdeath muttered in enlightenment, a dangerous glint appearing in her eyes as she understood the plan.
---
In heaven, Fable walked down the building, her steps calm and steady. She walked through the busy streets, her expression peaceful as she watched everyone doing their own work, completely unaware of the darkness in her heart.
"Hey, new girl! Trying to find a good place? I can help you!" a man's voice called out.
As Fable looked back, she saw it was the same middle-aged man, Dustin, who had met her a few hours ago. He ran towards her with a friendly smile and stopped just a step away.
"No, I'm thinking of farming," Fable smiled as she replied, her voice sweet and deceptive.
"Farming what?" Dustin asked, his face full of confusion.
But before he could even process her words, a scythe appeared out of nowhere, slicing his head off in one clean, silent motion. Since it was a spirit body, there was no blood. His thin outer layer, the one that gave him a human-like appearance, simply faded away, and his soul was immediately absorbed by Fable.
"Soul farming!" Fable replied with a satisfied smile, feeling a surge of power flow into her.
Actually, although she could summon the scythe, it wasn't that special. It didn't have the same kind of power; compared to it, the ZK-20 would be much more powerful. Neither did she have any scythe-related skills. She had just used a Soul Piercer essence stone to make the scythe offensive towards spirits. Although its attack wouldn't be that great against mid-ranking angels, it was definitely overkill against these pitiful, harmless souls.
"Did... did she just kill him? Is it some kind of prank? It's not real, right?" a woman said, looking at Fable with a terrified expression, her voice trembling.
Not only her, but dozens of other people had seen her. She was in the middle of a noisy street. It was their first time ever witnessing a crime here. The sight was so shocking and wrong that it was absolutely terrifying.
"Don't worry. You'll all be next!" Fable shouted with a wicked grin as she ran towards them, killing everyone in sight in a brutal, chaotic frenzy.
------
A few angels finally took Esdeath towards the level 3 prison. Although it was very weird to the other angels, because level 3 was classified as the highest-class prison. In all of history, only three people have been imprisoned there.
One's name was anonymous, while another was someone many people knew: Buddha. The last one was Jeanne D'arc, who was imprisoned there for a few years before finally being sent to hell.
Even though Esdeath seemed kinda powerful, she wasn't even at a level where she should be imprisoned in a level 2 prison, let alone level 3. But since other high-ranking angels had actually approved of it, there must be a clear reason behind it.
A few minutes later, Esdeath was finally thrown into the level 3 prison room. The process was very fast, like they were afraid that something might come out and they wouldn't be able to close the door in time.
Inside, it was pitch darkness. It was so dark that Esdeath was having a hard time seeing her own hands in front of her face. The air was cold and heavy, and a deep silence pressed in on her.
"Fuck, how am I supposed to find him?" Esdeath thought, a flicker of panic in her mind. She slowly stood up, her movements careful. She started walking along the wall, her hands trailing against the cold surface, hoping to find that person.
Meanwhile, at the same time, in another corner of the room, a middle-aged man with a thick beard and black hair that reached his shoulders was sleeping while kneeling against the wall. His body was not moving at all; it was like he had been sleeping for millennia.
But then, he felt something shaking him. His body slowly moved, like someone was finally waking him up from a deep, deep slumber. He slowly opened his black eyes.
The same darkness greeted him, but as he looked slightly lower, two red eyes with multiple ring patterns in them were floating in the air. The sight was just too scary to see suddenly in the dark.
His body stiffened, and he almost jumped back in shock. But the next second, his vision started growing clearer and clearer. It was as if his eyes were adjusting at an impossible speed, and soon, the darkness meant nothing to him. He saw Esdeath sitting in front of him, giggling to herself.
"Finally found you, Mr. Yeshua. Or should I say, Jesus Christ!"