⚠️ Warning ⚠️The following content may contain graphic imagery 🩸and religious interpretations ✝️ that could disturb
some audiences.The author does not seek to titillate;
all depicted events are fiction 📖.Reader discretion is advised 👀.
💬 Author's Note 💬Do you remember I said we're halfway through the story? ⏳Technically yes, although there are about four more saints left ✨.
That's why we're starting with the first four 🙌.
Me and my math 🤓… a little frustrating, you know?
Don't worry, the Ice Saint ❄️ will appear soon.
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A fleeting memory.
Galton remembered for the last time when he was combing his son's hair at night while visiting villages.
His son, being just a little boy, asked him:
"Papa, what happened to my mother?Why do the other kids have a mom and I don't?"
The question was somewhat difficult to answer—what answer could ease the doubts of a childwho feels like something is missing?
Galton replied:
"Your mother, my son, had to go to heavenso that you could come from heaven to here.
"My son, my little honey bun,your mother loved you with all her heart.
"You should have known her… and in fact, you will.I want you to look at the stars, Zaziel.
"Your mother is watching you from one of them.And I assure you, my son, she will do so until the last of your days.
"Because your birth was so precious,she gave her life so that you could be born."
Zaziel, being a child, could barelycomprehend his father's words.
"Papa, can I ask you something else?" he said.
"Yes, my son."
"Will I ever have a brother… or maybe another mom?"
Galton replied:
"No, my son.
"You are the only gift I will leave in this world.
"And that is because… I love your mother so much… so much,my son, that I could never think of another womanmore worthy of my heart than her.
"I am immortal, my son, just like you.
"And I assure you that your mother will live with me forever."
The memory faded, and the present hit him.
Galton was holding Helena by the neck. He reacted without thinking.
She cried, gasped, trembling.
In Galton's mind, only one thought echoed:
"This idiot… I heal her, I treat her well,and this is how she repays me? Trying to sleep with me?"
With a scream of rage, Galton kicked her, destroying part of thestructure of the hut they had built that afternoon.
It was raining heavily.
And Helena's clothes, once a bone color, were stained with mud.
Helena, soaked, cried and begged:
"Stop, please… Forgive me… Forgive me."
Galton wanted to kill her, but all he did was drag her violently,grab her by the hair, tie her wrists with a rope,and forcefully hang her from a tree.
"Helena screams, please forgive me, let me down… I'm sorry."
He lifted her to a height of two meters above the ground,and left her hanging there, in the cold rain.
He said no more words.
The rain fell, and the tree drenched Helena.
And Helena realized something—her clothes were stained.
She was hanging and immobilized.
And the memories hurt her.
It was not a dream.
Perhaps it was an omen,
Or an epiphany.
Or reality.
At first, she refused to believe what she had dreamed,
she wanted to convince herself it was just a coincidence.
But she understood that that dreamwas nothing more than a reflection of what she truly was.
She was no longer struggling to break free.
She just stared at the ground with a broken soul.
She told herself:
"My mom told me I was a mistake,Galton told me my gift was a mistake,My dreams told me I am a mistake."
"I think I am a mistake,I think they won't give me a chance."
"I think I never had a place anywhere."
She knew it, crying, in pain,while the cold of the early morning and the rain drenched her.
Galton did not sleep.
He stayed by the fire, in silence,watching the flames.
It was four in the morning.
An hour passed, and after that time,
the silence of the night and the rain ceased,the moon appeared, and with a flash,
a lower-ranking angel appeared.
He had the appearance of a young man with curly hairand did not resemble at all the cherubim that usually appeared.
He sat on the floor of the elevated hut,looked at Helena crying, and spoke:
"Do you know something? You always repeat the samepattern, over and over again.
"A saint comes to you, and somehow…you end up hurting them."
Galton just looked at him with anger;angels were sacred,but distant to him.
"Why does it seem your rageclouds your judgment in everything?It's as if you enjoy making people suffer."
Galton remained silent, staring at the fire.
The angel observed Helena and said:
"Unfortunately, I cannot bring her down.I would love to, but… it's not her fault."
Galton shouted:
"Not her fault?!
"She climbed on top of me, kissed me, touched me!!
"She wanted to sleep with me!
"Nothing angers me more than that."
The angel replied calmly:
"Why does it anger you so much?"
Galton murmured:
"Because I feel nothing…nothing but disgust.
"Just seeing her makes me sick."
The angel stared at him.
"Maybe… But the truth is you are sucha complicated man that you cannot feel love or affection for anyone."
The angel continued:
"Galton, we have been watching youall this time.
"Since you were a child, you were a liar.
"A slacker.
"A lazy man.
"Then you got involved in the illegal slave trade, got into trouble…and then, Christ chose you.
"No one can explain how you feltbetter than you.
"For you, no saint is worthy.
"Or… is it a way of saying… that you do not feel worthy?"
There was a moment of silence:
"Do you know something, Galton?
"Before you were called that, your name wasThiago, wasn't it?"
"Interesting. You got along well with that British boy.
"And you spent a lot of time with that boy.He was the one who motivated you to go to Vermont, wasn't he?
"That boy was the one who pushed you to changeyour name from Thiago to Galton.
"Do you know something, Galton?
"Angels think you hate everyone…But from everything I've seen of you—
"I don't think you hate her.I think you hate yourself.
"You hate yourself for what happened to Zaziel.
"You cannot forgive yourself for having locked up your own son alive.
"You didn't have to do it.
"You knew perfectly wellthat your son was innocent.
"Having eaten human flesh because he was possessedhad nothing to do with him.
"He didn't do it of his own will.
"You know he was innocent.
"And the problem with the Well of Judgment is that,once you lock it, you cannot open it againunless we allow it.
"And it is not God's will to free Zaziel,for some reason.
"I realize—and all the angels do too—that the root of your anger does not come from emptiness.
"It comes from the enormous guilt and sadness you feel.
"You carried your immortality in the worst way possible."
Galton only replied:
"And what do you want me to do?Free her?
"Take her to her family?I'm not going to do that."
The angel looked at him and said:
"God is good to all human beings.God is good to all His children.
"The real question is:
"Why do you do what God does not do?
"God has been very merciful to you, Galton.
"He has given you more than one chance to return.
"But you don't want to.
"Technically, you are like Israel."
Galton looked at him with anger.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
The angel replied:
"Israel. Always being told to do something,and never doing it.
"Always being asked to bejust, and yet being unjust.
"Always being asked for respect,and still losing it.
"Israel shouldn't have ended this way.
"The original plan was for Israel to becomethe most prosperous nation in the world and spreadGod's faith everywhere.
"But… the ones who ended up fulfilling that taskwere the Gentiles.
"The temples, and everything Godbuilt for Israel, no longer exist.
"And they don't exist because pride defeated them.
"Do you have any idea how beautiful the world would have beenif only Israel had obeyed?"
Galton glanced at him, surprised.
The angel continued:
"Tell me something, Galton.Are you going to make the same mistakesas your ancestors?
"Or are you going to do something different?
"I suggest that you free Helena."
"Helena is a girl broken inside.What she needs least right now is for you to reject her.
"I'm not asking you to accept her or to kiss her.We're not asking for that.
"But we are asking you… to be somethingshe has never had in her life.
"To be something you know you can be.Something you can give her.
"Even with flaws… but you can do it.
"Because you experienced it many years ago,and I believe you can do it again."
Galton asked with contempt:
"And what is that thing I supposedly know so well thatI can give to that stupid girl?"
The angel replied:
"Be a father.
"Helena never had a father.
"We know Helena much betterthan you do, Galton.
"God had her life examined long beforeyou chose her, long before she wasnamed the Saint of Light.
"Helena is the product of a man's aberration.
"Her mother ran away when she wasfourteen years old to Rio de Janeiro.
"She was taken in by her aunt and her cousin.
"The place was very poor, Galton.
"So poor that Helena had to workfrom a very young age… She had no options.
"The place where she lived was a den of thieves.
"A place that wasn't the best, but you could survive.
"Now, after a few years, it became a favela.
"Helena had to carry many burdens:
"With the abandonment of her stepfather.
"With the death of Juan, her second brother."
"God blessed her with a beautiful, sculpted body…and, unfortunately, she used itto earn a bit of money."
"God saw how Helena kept her tears to herself at night."
"And it's something remarkable… seeing how she neverlost her faith in God."
"She prayed every night—or at least, on the nights she could—just to ask Him… to send her a better client."
"You have no idea how happy she waswhen she brought home her first dollars."
"She jumped with joy when she handed themto her mother, her grandmother, her aunt…and she kept only one dollar for herself."
"She was fifteen years old.
"And she was so happy… she didn't careif it hurt to sit down—she had managedto bring food home for that week."
Galton looked at the angel in shock.
And before disappearing, the angel said:
"Galton, it's very hard for you to show love.And that's because you don't love yourself.
"Try to forgive yourself a little, will you?
"God sent me with the order to free Helenaand take her down from the tree.
"But don't think that angelsdon't have feelings.
"We are spirit, Galton.
"We are not blind beings who obey without thought.
"Sometimes we get lost along the way too.
"Sometimes we think… and we love as well."
The angel looked at him with a faint smile and said:
"I've seen you, Galton.I've watched you for a long time.You are not an evil being."
"But if you leave her hanging… then you'll provethat you're no different from those who condemned the Messiah."
"You're almost two thousand years old, Galton."
"I stopped counting long ago."
"If immortality feels heavy for you, imagine what it's like for me."
"I was there when the first humancrawled upon the earth."
"I was there when I saw all my brothers diein the great cosmic war."
"I was there when the Lamb was crucified."
"I was there at the birth of the stars, Galton."
"If you have someone to cry for, so do I."
"We all have someone to mourn, Galton."
"Heaven is not blind to the pain of loss."
The angel vanished.
And Galton remained still for a few minutes, thinking.
He remembered what Batuya had once told him:
"Lives have no value, Thiago — only importance.It's your choice whether life matters to you."
After a moment, Galton began to rememberwhy he hadn't changed in so long.
In his mind, he said:
"All of this is too complicated for me. It feels unreal."
"It makes me angry… seeing Kamei-San so wise and happy."
"It enrages me to see him happy because I… I wasted my time."
"I didn't explore the world like he did."
"The only thing I did was lock myself awayin the Mongolian desert."
"The confined forest… staying there just to starve to death."
"I don't even know how long I was there…I simply lost track of time."
"But according to Kamei-San, each of his visits equaled a century.If I calculate correctly, I was trapped for centuries."
"I barely managed to escape two hundred years ago.I can't measure time anymore."
"I'm barely getting used to reality."
"I can hardly say I'm two thousand years old."
"I don't even understand it."
"I don't remember what I was doing in that place."
"The feeling of guilt has always followed me."
"Maybe God made a mistake with me."
"Other people would have done it a thousand times better than I did."
"Why did God choose me? I don't understand."
Then he saw Helena.
And once again, the angel's voice echoed:
"You're going to make the same mistakes as your ancestors."
Galton grabbed a dagger. He was going to untie Helena.
She saw him approaching.
"Don't worry, girl," he said. "I'm going to get you down from there."
"Let's make a deal, alright? Forget about the Divine Force.I can see that you… you're not made for this.It's too much for you."
"So I'll take you to Vermont.I'll get you somewhere safe."
"You're not ready for this journeyor for what's about to come."
"You're anxious all the time."
"I can tell your desire to fornicate is stronger than you."
"And that… I understand.Well— I don't understand it,but I respect it. I can't comprehend what you feel."
"The only thing I can do is take you to a safe place, Helena,so the demons won't find you."
Helena barely paid attention.
She couldn't stop staring at the dagger on his belt.
He lowered her slowly. Each pull made her wrists throb with pain.
Her own weight tormented her.
When she reached the ground, Galton noticed he could barely stand.
"Come on, girl. You'll rest for about six hours,and then we'll leave by afternoon," he said.
But Helena saw Galton drop the dagger.
She didn't think twice—she stretched her arm and grabbed it.
Galton caught her wrist firmly.
"What do you think you're doing?"
She wasn't pointing it at him.The dagger was pointed at her own neck.
"You just have to press it…I've seen you break trees, haven't I?"
"Please, do it… now, just do it…I don't want to know anything anymore."
"I don't want to know anything anymore."
Galton saw her breaking apart.
She started to cry—her voice carried nothing but a shattered soul.
"Galton, why don't you just end it already?"
"I'm a mistake."
"From the very beginning, I was a mistake."
"I don't… want anything anymore."
"I can't do this."
"Just… free me, please."
"I won't see you again… nor my family."
"Just make it stop."
"I bet my mother doesn't even miss me."
"I was always ungrateful."
"I was a headache for my mom."
"But you said they're dead."
"And I believe you… because I have nothing else left."
"I'm a mistake…"
"I'm a mistake…"
"In every sense."
"My birth."
"My decisions."
"I am all of that."
"Please, do it quickly… so I won't be a burden to anyone anymore."
Her voice broke. It sounded like someone who no longer thought—only longed for a breath.She was telling the truth.She had no tears left. She had used them all.
God watched her from the heavens.Galton did too.
For the first time, he was moved.Not by her tears, but by what she was asking for.
Maybe now… he could empathize.Because, just like her,he no longer had the strength to live.He just wanted everything to end.
Galton felt pity.He saw himself reflected in Helena.
He took the handkerchief he had once used to wipe her forehead while she slept,and now he used it to clean her tears.
He knew he could barely stand,so with care, he lifted her in his arms.
Helena no longer thought or reacted.She simply let Galton do with her whatever he wanted.
He laid her down on the bed, covered her with a blanket,and sat by her side.
He cleaned her up—she was covered in mud.
"What a complicated girl you are."
"Truly… what a complicated girl you are!"
"I try to help you. I've been kind to you…and I don't understand. Why did you do this, Helena?What did you gain from it?"
He paused.
"I want to believe in you because… I have no other options left."
"Truly, I have no other options left."
Helena stayed silent. She had already spent everything she had left.
Galton kept scolding her:
"Don't think about that, Helena.Thinking about that is the worst thingthat can happen to an immortal."
"Helena…" —he almost said it as if denying himself.
"I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry… maybe I didn't do what God wanted."
"Now I must focus on fixing my mistakes.Please, don't think about dying."
"Endure the journey, alright?"
"I almost killed the Saint of Wind and the Saint of Thunder over stupid things.I don't want to repeat that."
"I have to trust what God says."
"I'm giving you one last chance.I'll trust you again, Helena."
"I promise I won't hit you anymore.I'm tired of hitting you."
"I just want you to make it safely.That's a promise…"
However, Helena didn't hear the last part.She fell asleep.Exhaustion had defeated her.
Galton just watched her.He didn't think.He didn't say a word.
He simply let the morning light fill everything.
When the sun touched her face, he realized:"She's just… a child."
And with resolve, Galton thought of his son, his wife, the saints, and everyone else:
"Helena, Saint of Light, I promise to teach you divine strength."
"Not because I have no other options, but because you are my only one."
"I'll make you the most powerful Saint I've ever trained."
"Not through force, but through the skill and fortitude of your heart."
"I won't strike you again."
"We'll find the Saints of Earth, Ice, and Metal… and I'll take you to Vermont."
"Your life, Helena, may hold no value— but it matters to me."