[+1 Soul]
[+1 Soul]
Michael smiled at the two notifications popping up in front of him while petting the cute little dog in his arms, who was still licking him without a clue about the danger, even after seeing the two bloody bodies around... one of which used to be its owner.
He was thrilled with how this experiment turned out, showing that even if he didn't get his hands dirty by killing the old man himself, he could still snag his soul as long as he was near the fresh dead body.
So this confirmed his guess that he just needed to be around people who had just died to grab their souls.
He didn't have to do the killing himself to get the souls. He just had to be close by.
This really got him thinking about some plans he could pull off without drawing too much attention.
Like visiting patients in hospitals who were on their last breath, and waiting for their souls to come to him to be devoured.
As for visiting graves, he'd tried that before out of curiosity, but it didn't work.
So he knew only fresh souls or ones from people who just died could be devoured for his growth.
He wasn't too bummed about that failure, since he was already happy with his current setup.
It was such an amazing and exciting feeling to know all his plans were going smooth and his goals were met.
Right now, he just needed to check one more thing...
He looked down and stroked the fur on the cute little dog's head, who kept staring at him adorably while tilting its head.
"Such a cute little thing~"
CRACK!
With the sound of breaking bones, the cute little dog's neck went limp in his arms. Right up to the end, the little dog probably didn't realize it had been in the arms of a predator waiting to devour it.
[+0.5 Soul]
Ah, so that's how it is... human souls or maybe those from other intelligent creatures count as 1 soul, while animal souls or from unintelligent creatures count as 0.5.
This meant he could gather souls better without catching the eye of supernatural beings, because they probably wouldn't care about a regular human killing a few animals, right?
[Soul: 9.5]
Now he just needed one more animal soul to complete the requirements for his evolution.
He was really curious about the options his Sacred Gear would give him.
Would he turn into another race besides human? Or would he stay human?
It was really intriguing.
Ignoring his wandering thoughts, he started pouring gasoline all over the house that had been his experiment spot.
After making sure almost every quick-to-burn corner was covered in gas, he took off his dark black cloak and tossed it onto the gasoline puddle.
With a smile, he lit his zippo lighter and threw it onto the gas spill in the living room, which quickly caught fire and slowly spread through the whole house.
After checking that nothing was off and no one was around, he left the burning house.
Whistling like he had nothing to do with the burning house behind him, he walked away, ignoring the three bodies now engulfed in flames and if you count the cute dog's body, that made it 3.5 bodies.
When Michael was far enough from the burning house, suddenly a holy and sacred circle of light appeared in the living room that was on fire.
As the circle of light showed up, moonlight suddenly pierced into the house from the sky above, and a thick watery scent filled the air around the circle. All the flames that had been greedily burning the room suddenly stopped and died out slowly like they met their master.
From that circle of light, an extremely seductive female angel suddenly appeared with twelve magnificent and holy white wings.
If devils and other supernatural creatures from the Great War era saw her now, they'd run for their lives in terror.
Because unlike the peaceful decades lately that made this angel famous for her beauty and innocence...
Now the angel had fully gone back to her original mode, when she was feared across almost the whole supernatural world with one title.
The Power of God.
Gabriel.
---
Wee-woo-wee-woo!
Watching the fire truck pass by him, Michael frowned before looking back at the smoke that had thinned out quickly in the sky.
If the thinning smoke in the sky was any sign... it meant the fire he started was already dying down...
And the slow response from the firefighters who just got here...
Was there someone still awake around the burning house who quickly put out the fire?
He'd deliberately timed his action for the early morning to lower the chance of his victim's neighbors being up.
Even though he felt something was off, he shook his head. If the firefighters were still called, that meant there were parts of the house still burning that whoever it was couldn't put out.
Any evidence or traces he might have left there should have burned up too.
That was the only reason he deliberately drew attention by burning the house. He'd been in that house too long, and maybe without realizing it, he'd left some traces.
That's why he had to burn it, otherwise, why bother burning a house that would definitely attract attention? Even his six previous victims didn't get that treatment because he did it quick and left their homes without drawing notice.
Though he doubted he'd left any traces... he still had to stay alert for any possibility after knowing the supernatural was real.
Who knows, maybe some trace he left without noticing could get him targeted by gods or devils, right?
Laughing at his own thoughts, he looked around the quiet area, only passed by birds and other nocturnal animals.
He even saw some weird white birds perched on the houses he passed.
Doves? Weird to see birds like that at this hour.
If he could, he'd try to get a soul from those birds, but since he couldn't, he had to be grateful for the animal currently licking its feet in the alley ahead.
"Since dogs work, their eternal rivals should too, right?"
Michael looked at the white female Angora cat sitting on the trash bin in the narrow alley in front of him.
From its good condition and collar, the cat was definitely a house cat and was sitting outside because it couldn't get back in.
He approached the cat slowly and crouched not far from it.
"Psss... come here, sweetie~" As if not sensing any threat from the human in front of her, the cat slowly came to him elegantly when Michael called. "Good girl~ Are you hungry, sweetie?"
While stroking its smooth and well-groomed white fur, he smiled at the cat purring happily in his arms.
Too bad... this cat was really cute.
Crack!
Just like what happened to the Pomeranian dog before, the Angora cat got the same treatment in his arms.
[+0.5 Soul]
[Requirements met. Will you use 10 souls to prepare evolution options?]
[YES | NO]
While petting the white cat with its broken neck in his arms, he gave a mental command to accept after seeing the screen notification in front of him.
[Starting evolution option selection process...]
[9 human souls and 2 animal souls are being purified...]
Hmm... so even if animal souls count as 0.5 in value, they're still counted as 1 soul. Maybe because the energy in animal souls is only half of a regular human soul.
[10%... 30%... 70%... 100%.]
[Soul purification complete. Energy requirements met.]
[Please choose one of the following evolution options:
-
[Homo Bellicus
The highest evolution a regular human can reach which focused on violence and fighting. This race is talented in close and long-range combat and using all kinds of weapons.
+ Body Talent
+ Weapon Talent
+ Touki
Soul requirements: 10/10 (Met)
Next evolution: Invictus (100 Souls)]
-
[Homo Magi
The highest evolution a regular human can reach which focused on magic and spirituality. This race is talented in everything related to magic and spiritual.
+ Magic Talent
+ Spiritual Talent
+ Magic
Soul requirements: 10/10 (Met)
Next evolution: Arcanist (100 Souls)]
---
Warrior and Magician, huh...
While petting the cat in his arms, he stared at the two evolution options in front of him.
Homo Bellicus focused on fighting, giving him talent for anything using the body and talent for using all kinds of weapons.
And if he remembered right, Touki was some kind of technique that someone could master by training their body to the extreme, letting them control their aura and life force.
Georg had explained before that the best Touki users could even smash a whole mountain to pieces after coating their body with aura.
Plus, if the name of the next evolution meant what he thought, Invictus had to be really amazing.
If this was his only choice, he'd pick Homo Bellicus right away as his evolution path, the body and weapon talents were awesome.
But after seeing the other option... and the amazing teleportation and fire magic Georg showed before... he couldn't turn down how practical Homo Magi would be.
Besides... what guy doesn't want to throw a fireball as big as the sun at his enemy's face while laughing his head off?
He could also imagine having teleportation magic... think about how easy and convenient life would be if he'd had it all along.
Life would feel so simple.
He wouldn't need to stalk his victims for hours before striking; he'd just teleport into their house, kill them right there, and teleport out.
Practical, right?
But that wasn't the only reason he was sure he had to pick Homo Magi... another was because he was smart...
That wasn't narcissism, bit it was true. Sure, he was a bit full of himself, but that wasn't the point.
He was too smart to know he wasn't smart enough to figure out all the math and physics formulas for how everything in the world worked.
From Georg before, he knew the most talented magicians were those who really understood math and physics.
Because from his explanation, human magic created by the famous Merlin from the Arthurian legends needed super complicated calculations.
You want to use fire magic? Calculate and think about the formula for why fire appears.
You want ice magic? Calculate out the formula for what makes water turn to ice too.
If it was just that, he could do it easy. But for more complex stuff like teleportation magic that deals with space and time?
He'd be lucky if he didn't teleport himself into the sun from a miscalculation.
Plus, even though Homo Bellicus was tempting, he was sure that without his Sacred Gear's help, he could get Touki if he really wanted to. As for body and weapon talents? He'd give up the red button if the blue one next to it let him use magic.
Magic talent was really tempting. Especially the spiritual talent he didn't know about yet.
So he was sure he wouldn't change his mind and would pick Homo Magi.
[Are you sure you want to choose Homo Magi?]
[YES | NO]
Nodding, he lifted his finger after finishing petting the cat in his arms.
But as he was about to press the transparent screen in front of him to confirm his choice...
He felt a gust of wind from some light object moving super fast past his side.
Swish!
Without warning... without any sign... and without him noticing...
As he was about to confirm, he suddenly felt his hands super light, making him frown from the sudden pain in both hands that now... were cut off?
He stared in shock at his severed hands with blood pouring out...
In his shock and surprise, he ignored the pain from his cut wrists... he turned his head stiffly toward where the gust came from that caused all this.
I'm fucked up.
That was the only thought he had right now after seeing something or a holy and sacred being right in front of him.
Even just glancing at the being, he felt insane pain in both eyes, which were now bleeding...
God cannot be seen.
Now he finally got the quote he'd read before from an occult book he bought.
Before, he thought it meant God existed in a form humans couldn't see or understand, but now he really got it after seeing the being in front of him still floating above.
It wasn't a statement that humans couldn't see God... it was a warning that humans shouldn't see God.
Just being in front of Her.
Just glancing at Her form.
He really felt his whole soul and sins being purified by the holy and sacred being he'd glimpsed, which might be a female angel if what he saw behind the blinding light covering Her was right.
The halo of light above Her head and the twelve pure white wings behind Her confirmed the possibility in his mind, which was slowly going insane from staring at the Angel in front of him.
The Angel was pointing at him with Her right finger while holding the body of the white cat he'd been hugging before.
To make Her already holy and sacred appearance even more holy and sacred, the doves he'd seen earlier perched on the houses now flew around Her, like they were singing heavenly hymns to their master.
Ah... so that's it. He'd really been watched by Her before without realizing...
Familiar... that was the only thing he could think of after racking his brain over all the info he'd gotten from studying with Georg for nine days.
As if not caring about the suffering he felt from glimpsing Her form, the Angel spoke in a foreign language that made his ears start bleeding because they couldn't handle making sense of it.
"I thought those dirty devils had broken the agreement."
"But it seems humans are starting to get bold enough to take something that belongs to Father."
"How filthy. How disgusting. A soul so filthy and disgusting deserves to burn in the Purgatory until the end of time."
"I'm here now to declare. You... the most rotten and disgusting descendant of Adam and Eve that I'VE ever seen will burn forever in the Purgatory until the END OF TIME!"
The only thing Michael understood from the Angel's words was Adam and Eve... besides that, it was just a painful buzzing in his ears that kept bleeding.
He could only watch in awe as the Angel raised Her index finger, which started glowing with holy and sacred light.
Swish!
His sore blood-red eyes couldn't even react to the speed of the light beam coming at him and piercing his heart.
Thud.
There was no flashy explosion or loud noise from the light beam that went through his heart; his body didn't even jerk after his heart was pierced. He didn't feel any pain at all. The only feeling he had right now was his body slowly melting into something he didn't know and a hard pull dragging him somewhere.
Like his soul was being yanked to Hell by the chains of judgment the Angel had dropped on him.
Michael shifted his bloody gaze to his chest, which had a hole in it after the Angel disappeared.
The Angel had left after declaring Her Judgment.
She didn't even care about the chance he might escape, like She was totally sure he couldn't run from Her Judgment.
What a powerful being... so full of confidence...
The Angel really deserved to be that confident because right now, Michael truly felt like chains were binding him and starting to pull him to Hell.
Michael slowly fell back, lying down because he couldn't keep his balance after his heart was pierced by that holy light and the strong pull kept dragging him.
Twice...
Twice he'd gone through something like this.
Even though the first time was just an illusion made to mess with him... now he was totally sure this was real.
Was he going to die like this? Especially after seeing the peak of power in this world? The twelve wings on that Angel were too hard to ignore the implications.
In Abrahamic religious records, only four angels were noted to have twelve wings.
Those were the Archangels.
Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel.
One of them had to be the Angel who came to give him Judgment in person.
What a rare honor for a human... even if that honor might kill him now.
But that was just a might... because...
He stared at the transparent screen that had been waiting for him to confirm his choice.
[Are you sure you want to choose Homo Magi?]
[YES | NO]
Too bad... O unnamed Angel...
If you'd just waited a bit right here to watch my death yourself... this one desperate last shot I have would definitely be pointless.
But in this world, there's no such thing as If...
Our next meeting will definitely be when I can hear your heavenly hymn clearly...
I swear.
With a smile showing all his bloody teeth... he confirmed his choice in his mind.
[YES]
[Evolution process starting...]
---
A/N: "If I say I'm the second best owner of plot armor, then no one would dare call themselves number one!" - Michael the sick evil bastard.
Gabriel oh Gabriel... why did you leave so fast? You gave that bastard a chance to come back like before because of his evolution!
If you'd just waited a little longer, that evolution would have been pointless.
But like that bastard said, there's no If in this world... right?
Btw, I hope I really nailed portraying Gabriel as the real Gabriel and not just as a sexy, naive, tempting angel.
The Power of God isn't just a nickname lol.
I really wanted to write RIP Bozo after Gabriel stabbed that bastard's heart, but what can I do if that bastard's plot armor turns out better than all the main anime characters combined.
Adios!
Btw, if you like this story and want to support me while reading the next few chapters, feel free to visit my patron: patr eon . com /XElenea (remove space)