Sariella Lui

"Stop making that idiotic face and stand up this instant!"

Back then, I was lying on the floor of my arsenal, and Suriyel pulled me up, forced me back on my feet, growling, "How can you be so slow? What's your sign? A snail? I thought your sign is the rabbit."

He was the one that snatched me into my shadow without notice, and I was lucky that I could not be harmed inside my arsenal.

I dared not to refute, so I gulped and say," I try...?"

He rolled his eyes, raised his arm, and the Tooth of Leviathan appeared from nowhere.

"Just now, we mentioned the unholy relics. Apart from the tooth of Leviathan, the claw of Behemoth, as well as the feather of Ziz, these three great monsters were made into a sceptre, a crown, and a cape for the unholy. Having the sceptre in your hand, I hope you can at least know how to hold it properly."

"...What are these things?"

Suriyel pointed at me ferociously and proclaimed, "From now on, stop being a child, understand? There are three monsters you'll need to know before we continue. "

Suriyel played the sceptre in his hands, juggling, twirling it in both hands.

"First, Leviathan."

Suriyel suddenly raised the sceptre to the ceiling. I found myself in a new surrounding, bathing in a peaceful but cold, blue light as if I was sinking down the sea, yet I could not feel wet. I guessed it was Suriyel's memory.

"She's the snake-like monster of the sea, leaders of all sea creatures, and, as always, a symbol of evil."

I watched a great beast, resembling a whale but also a snake, like a dragon, swam around us, as if she was targeting us as her prey.

"She was a friend," Suriyel whispered as he pulled up the sceptre, giving another twirl, holding it in one hand.

We were back in my arsenal, and Suriyel continued.

"Behemoth lives in the east of Eden, but I'm not sure if he is still alive, well. Ziz is a great, so huge that his wings can cover up the sun and spread darkness all over the world. To acquire these three ingredients is not an easy task, and you can take a guess, who did this? Hint, angels, powerful ones."

"...Angel Gabriel?"

"Archangel Gabriel? Good guess, but wrong," Suriyel shook his head, "Leviathan is pure evil, but the other two, let's say they're neutral."

"Michael?"

Suriyel frowned,"Show some respect, you should address him as ARCHANGEL MICHAEL. The wrong answer, still."

"...Who forged these three things?"

Suriyel shook his head with his eyeballs rolled way back up, "For goodness sake, do you know the Seven before God?"

I shook my head.

Suriyel let out a long sigh, and took off his hood, revealing his face. Unsurprisingly, he was a good-looking angel, with his evil eyes now dull and calm, I nearly thought he would sound nicer at that point.

"The most famous three archangels are Gabriel, Raphael, and Michael. However, there are seven before God, and I was one of them."

He looked up, as if he was staring at the sky through the Arsenal, one could easily notice the shade of repentance through his eyes.

A moment later, he stopped staring at the ceiling and looked into my eyes, giving me a fright.

"The fallen four are Remiel, Raquel, Uriel and me, Sariel."

"Oh... I thought your name's Suriyel..."

He frowned.

"I've got tons of names due to translation."

He squinted his glowing eyes and paused for a minute.

"What were we talking about?"

"...Huh?"

"Ah, right—— The tooth of Leviathan don't belong to me, to be honest, and we are on the way to meet its real owner, anyway, and, voila."

He freed one hand and moved his fingers in a fast and conjuring way.

"What's the point of forging these things?" I was totally confused,"you didn't explain."

"So, basically... We thought of choosing out someone better than Michael to lead all the angels, so we forged these three THINGS, fit for a king," Suriyel scoffed sadly, pausing for a minute before he continued, "Turns out this is blasphemous, leading us all to this place."

"We did lots of terrible things before, but they are unworthy to mention," Suriyel held the Tooth of Leviathan in both hands, handing them to me," Hold it as I do, let's stop wasting time and start now."

"Okay then..."

"Oh right, one more thing." Suriyel suddenly remembered something, lifting up the weapon as my fingers touched it, and it was out of my reach.

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Once we had arrived in Seattle, I fully awoke. Things were smooth and swift at the customs, and there was another senior Paladin to pick us up.

The senior Paladin got our suitcases and stuff, driving one car, whilst we all got into the car of Nikolai.

Half an hour later, I found myself throwing up, vomiting every drop of liquid inside my belly, even my guts were hurrying their way out of my body.

"Have some mints."

Nelson handed me some mints and I happily received it, right after I tied a knot on the puke bag and threw it in the huge bin in front of me.

"Thank you," I weakly replied.

"Feeling any better?" Michael gave me some pills and water, "I know it might've been a little too fast for you, but it's better we arrive there as soon as possible."

"Sure, how long do we need to get there?"

"That's around 3 hours driving."

Well, perhaps Nikolai was trying to diminish the time to 2 hours.

"It's too fast for you, right?" Michael asked apologetically again.

"Yes, actually, everything is too fast for me," I shrugged, "cramming in all this information, and this ride."

"Try to keep up with it."

Nikolai suddenly appeared behind me and gave me a huge fright

"Erm... no offence? I'm just nagging, that's me, always..."

He nodded as he took off his spectacles and cleaned them.

"Don't worry, none was taken, Sariella."

Fortunately, with the help of the pills, my dizziness vanished and I was sober for the rest of the ride.

We arrived at a church soon enough, and everyone got off the car. The senior paladin helped us took care of the luggage as Michael led us towards the church gate.

It was already sunset, and the man standing right at the boundaries of the sunlight and shadow grabbed my attention at once.

He was tall and well-built, with a stern square face and strong jawlines, his black hair and beard trimmed and fixed neatly. Half of him was covered by sunlight, and half of him was covered in shadow, contouring his pronounced facial features to an unfriendly manner.