Chapter 118 - Awakening From The "Nightmare"

He felt something strange coming from an abandoned cabin, for a moment he wanted to go check it out.

"Are we going to just watch and do nothing?" Arabeth questioned uneasily at the fallen archangel's silence.

"All right, let's move on," Azarphy said throwing a globe of light to guide the way to Arabeth, he remained silent reflecting a little more on the subject, saving the mystery of the old cabin for after the main subject.

There were many things Azarphy knew about how Emery's soul had changed and about Giovanni's strange behavior, but he didn't want to tell Arabeth those things. Also, he feared that the matter of the Guardian Angel's disappearance was not a simple matter and the death of a demon baron was suspect, he didn't want to say anything to Arabeth so he wouldn't talk to Emery yet.

He wanted to talk to the human when and what he thought pertinent to say. What if the guardian angel is still alive and the demon baron is also alive?

Emery might want to adopt them, right?

This can't happen!

For some strange reason, Azarphy and Louis had a strange understanding that Emery would go out adopting dogs and cats left and right, which left them both helpless for different reasons.

However, thinking about what Arabeth had said earlier, Azarphy agreed that when it came to humans, they couldn't kill a demon baron or a guardian angel, of course, not a single human unless they had Emery's powers, but a mob killing a strong demon he would have heard about it right?

Besides, how many humans like Emery are there out there?

If there were that many, mankind would have mastered foreign species long ago.

Azarphy forgot that it didn't matter much to him if demons and humans fought to the death, so it wouldn't be strange that he didn't know about them.

However, not feeling a demonic portal being mounted and the disappearance of a guardian angel seemed very strange to him, was there something more powerful than himself in the Abbey Matteo?

Or did someone get some item so powerful that it could hide the intense moves they were making?

Did that have anything to do with Emery's soul swap in any way?

What species would this mighty item belong to?

Azarphy had many questions and needed answers, just as the rain subsided he calmed his thoughts and tried to look for clues more calmly and with calm reasoning.

They arrived at a large two-story building made of dark stone, large windows of dark wood, with the roof like a vault of dark red tiles, it was a pretty flashy building in the morning, but at night it was the most discreet, almost imperceptible, even lighting items were purposefully scarce.

"This is the library building. The portal to hell is on the second floor. At Abadia Matteo, novices can only access books on the ground floor, the first floor is for priests and the second floor is prohibited. There is also a dungeon where the 'criminals' are, but there is a seal made by an angel that is on a door..."

Azarphy said just looking slightly at the building, for the others it would be very difficult or almost impossible to know all this with just one look.

"How do you know that?"

"I just sought information in the minds of the guards and scribes who are translating books right now on the first floor," Azarphy said with some disdain for the demon for the obviously silly question.

"The seal on the door... It must be a heaven's portal?" Arabeth asked curiously. He used some of his own power to also look at what was in the library building. Unlike Azarphy who knew the details, the demon marquis could only locate energy sources, such as the portal and the seal on the door.

Azarphy didn't answer, he just pulled Arabeth and the two went to the second floor of the library.

"A hell gate has been opened... An array is still incomplete and heaven's gate is sealed... So a key to heaven appearing now is no coincidence..., how could anyone plan so long and I didn't notice anything ?"

"Was this some battleground from the last apocalypse? How has a heaven's portal ever been set up here? Isn't that something impossible for humans?" Arabeth asked when he heard Azarphy muttering.

"All portals are mostly closed when the apocalypse ends. Portals are opened by the gods when the stars fall and the battlefields are ready for new war and hunting. It would be very dangerous to abandon any portal, of course, the portals of hell are different, and with great sacrifices, they can be opened, but hide the movement from the eyes of the church or the State"

"I've said before that it takes a lot of valuable resources and human lives to open an array and a hell portal as it takes many summoning circles for that..., but once I can't believe it here set up without me realize nothing...unless something far more valuable than human lives and sacred items has been used to do all of this, something similar is there a fragment of a soul or some item from another dimension"

Azarphy continued muttering for a long time leaving Arabeth stunned, he only caught a few points of the long reasoning of the archangel of war. Increasingly, he was finding himself lacking the intelligence to deal with the feather boy's quick thinking.

"This... Can a hell portal and a heaven portal be summoned in the same area? Isn't this suicide? The power conflict is huge and can generate more destruction than a city from hell" Arabeth said a little nervously.

Arabeth was very weak when the last apocalypse happened so he didn't participate in the battles and only knew about the subject by studying and by other demons.

Azarphy was silent, he just felt an unpleasant feeling, someone was messing with heaven under his nose. It didn't matter if he had been banished 1000 years ago, he belonged to Heaven at his core and was irritated seeing humans dare to tamper with his old home.

"Humans..." Azarphy's voice was filled with contempt and an icy fury.

"What will we do now? How long do we have until the two energies come into conflict and everything is destroyed?" Arabeth asked most importantly, he didn't want to save the place as long as he could take Emery away, everything else can be ignored.

After all, he was just a hired demon.

"Look at the portal of heaven... It's not just a seal, the portal is incomplete, just a small piece to be completed" Azarphy said showing that there was only a small cube to complete the portal.

"The portals of heaven are quite different from the portals of hell," Arabeth commented, surprised and relieved. So he didn't need to run away with Emery now, as it would be troublesome to run too far in such a short amount of time.

The portals of hell are made of various circles of invocations that require blood and sacrifices of magical or sacred items, whereas heaven's portals are built of rare sacred stones that are used to assemble a large door, which is a very difficult task. high for a human to do that.

Of course, Arabeth had already forgotten that there was an Array still incomplete for lack of sacrifices, but well built to summon anything from a mighty army to even an abyssal monster.

He is very easily distracted, but Azarphy is not distracted by this despite being curious as to why the portal is incomplete. He was more concerned about where these sacred stones came from.

The rain became even stronger and it looked as if the world was about to collapse with strong winds and thunder shimmering in the sky seeming to echo what was going on in Azarphy's troubled mind.

The path to the future looked grim.

Meanwhile, Emery woke up from the "nightmare", he sat up in bed and looked stunned around the room. He hadn't slept much, he'd only dozed off for just an hour.

"The more I see this person's memories, the more I don't want to go home. I feel like it's going to be really scary there." Emery thought-feeling was very tired.

"Mister Darcy?" Giovanni called when he saw Emery sitting on the bed staring at nothing with a stunning look.

"Giovanni comes to sleep, tomorrow you can finish reading the books," Emery asked, knowing he was being a little childish, but he didn't want to sleep alone, he was afraid of having new "nightmares".

Of course, he had forgotten that even sleeping with Giovanni the day before he had "nightmares" too.

Giovanni looked a little reluctant, but he couldn't refuse Bishop Darcy's request, either because of his stunned look that was rare for him or because of his unnatural pallor.

As soon as Giovanni lay down beside him, Emery very blatantly hugged him hiding his face between Giovanni's shoulder and neck, he looked like a cute little animal that wanted to be cuddled.

"Mister Darcy, did you have a nightmare?" Giovanni asked feeling a little anxious seeing the fragile behavior of the adult man who hugged him.

"Something like that... Just some bad memories turning into a nightmare" Emery said in a muffled voice. He didn't want to talk about it, it was too shocking and embarrassing to talk about it.

Giovanni was surprised that a person like Emery had such bad memories that they became nightmares. After all, Emery's birth and status were incomparably greater than Giovanni's, so he thought Bishop Darcy wouldn't have suffered along the way.

Yani already knew that there were things that neither money nor status could save someone from going through traumatic experiences, but he couldn't tell Giovanni that, after all, it's only the experience of life that you learn about the subject.

"Giovanni, what was it like where you lived?" Emery asked after a moment of silence. He didn't want to sleep yet despite being tired, but the vivid images of the memories made him uncomfortable, so he wanted to stay awake a little longer.

Giovanni and Yani were a little disturbed by Emery's question, they didn't want to think too much about the house they abandoned. However, unlike Yani, Giovanni was still a lot more homesick, so he felt a little happy to be able to talk about it.

The conversation was soft and low, the lights turned off and the two men in the dark holding each other, talking softly until Emery fell asleep after thirty minutes of trivial conversations. The sound of the rain grew weaker and weaker until it became a little serene, the noisy winds could not be heard in the warm bed.

That night Giovanni didn't study anymore and went to sleep, having a good mental rest. Yani was thoughtful in the soul space created by him. He kept thinking about how a single person could change so many things in his life in such a short time.