Bertrand, as Jake found out with time, was already a loser by his classmates' eyes. But it didn’t bother little Jake anyway.
Kids were noisy, and he loved silent Bertrand.
Always humming songs and scribbling on his notebook while the teacher was giving their lecture.
It was quite strange for him, that he finally had someone whom to actually talk to. Jake even invited Bert to his place a lot of times, and Bert got to meet Jake’s parents, who loved him from the very beginning.
Jake didn’t know that friendship could be something so light and heartwarming, and even his parents were surprised to see him being all lively around someone.
And Bert discovered what Jake actually meant when he said that his dad’s
Jake’s sessions with his psychiatrist went on weekly along the year, and the more he attended the sessions, the more distant from Bert he grew. And by the end of the year, Bert’s mom passed away. However, Jake wasn’t there to comfort his friend, nor to know how heavy was the burden that young Bert was carrying. Young Jacob was too busy pondering and weighing the possibilities of what Mahasiah told him. Mahasiah was a seraph, an angel from heaven. Earth wasn’t Eden. God was dead. And he was to become the Avatar of Death itself. Azrael, the archangel of Death. Years couldn’t have prepared young Jacob to all those truths, and months of ‘therapy’ couldn’t have him accepting all that with a willingly open heart. Yet he had to. “Or else, someone other than you will have to carry that burden, and the next in line is your friend, Bertrand. It’s a heavy load to carry,” Mahasi
Not all secrets could be shared in one night of games, smokes and silence.They knew each other for so long that it was really hard for them not to open up like nothing happened. Even though there were, or course, awkward silent moments, as if one of them felt like the other was trying to say something, but couldn’t bring themselves to do so.“I’m sorry...” Jake finally said after all the crying. “I should’ve...”“Yeah, you bet you should have.” Bert responded, his voice carrying a bit of a bitterness that wasn’t strong enough to drown the happiness echoing in his words.“I know... But I...” And Jake’s words disappeared once more.What was he suppos
“You two can partner up, but only after I test your skills separately.” Gonzales told them the next morning, as they entered the precinct and went straight to talk to her. “I need to check if the rookie is good enough for the field, and if you are as good a consultant as the reports showed me.”“Yes ma’am!” Bertrand and Jacob said in unison.It was needless for them to worry about such things as not passing Gonzale’s test, because they worked really hard to get where they were. And after eleven years, they were together again.Of course it wasn’t as if nothing ever happened.They both experienced traumatic situations in their lives. Though they were able to meet again somehow, and if Jake was right, they
The shot echoed through the room, making Jake’s ears ring. It had been a while since he took part in a gun fight inside a closed space, and his tears were too much, and Bert’s movement was too much. Jake knew what he had done, but even still, he couldn cope with the fact that what he did to Bert made him a murderer. Erything was too much... “J-Jake...” Bertrand’s voice rang through his ears, but Jake refused to look no matter what. He would snap if anyone ever made him look at what he’d just done. He was Bert’s friend from even before he could think of himself as a social functioning person. Still... Jake shot him out of anxiety, out of fear. Metatron looked at the battlefield, scanning his surroundings and analysing to which side the scales of that decisive battle were tilting.By his side, Megumi still kept protecting him flawlessly, not allowing a single pebble to get near the scribe.“Megumi-cchi,” Metatron said, not looking at her “I have to go now. The time has come for you to start fighting for me, as I told you that you would. Will you do it for your dad?”Megumi nodded as the scribe of God closed his eyes and focused.“Yes... The time has come...” Metatron spoke to himself, gleaming and oozing power. “You’ll finally pay for ‘your’ sins... Nezariel!”His usual self was shown as an old, decreARC: Seeds of Calamity CHAPTER OF THE END - XI - The Devil is in the details (Seven)
Everything around and within all the beings who stood on the battlefield felt empty, as if there was nothing else to be felt in the creation.But as they focused a bit more on their surroundings, coming little by little to their senses once again, they felt that God wasn’t the only being there, Who had a presence of Their own.However, none of the sides that were previously fighting for their lives, for something that they couldn’t even remember now, had time to figure out to whom those other presences belonged to, or even what it all meant, if it ever meant something.Because the true voice of God resounded everywhere around and within them all.Before Don could even turn around to warn the only two humans
Timeless saintsColourless paintsEndless rainsGraceless fatesThe Book of Saints and Sinners *** Ten years later, somewhere in the in-between dimensions Becca’s eyes shone brightly in blue, red and black. But her hands sweated profusely in nervousness. It wasn’t every day that one had the chance to find the mighty Sun Wukong, monkey king and Great Sage, Heaven’s Equal. Even more if one was an edennan, inherently guilty of trying to decimate the other gods. An edennan would be automatically killed if tried to approach any of the other gods alone. And Becca not only approached the monkey king, but also challenged him to a match of Shogi. “A western celestial being, challenging the most powerful of eastern beings, Budha’s Victorious Fighter, in a game where both of us have few to none knowledge of?” Sun Wukong laughed sarcastically. "You sure are confident, kid. That or you’re too full of yourself. But rest assured that if arrogance is what you have in abundance, I’ll make sure t
“JAKE, WE HAVE VISITORS!” Eve shouted upstairs as they passed through the comfortable living room. Theresa went straight up without saying hello to her dad, who was polishing his violin and waxing the strings on his bow.“We’re playing today, aren’t we?” Becca asked, looking at how much care he had in the simple movements being executed.“You like violins?” Jake’s dad asked, looking a bit distraught by Becca’s appearance. But at least he noticed her. “Oh dear, what happened to you?”“This is Jake’s friend, my dear. Har name is... I don’t recall having asked your name before, did I?”“My name is Becca.” She introduced herself. “And don’t worry, been wors
They talked and dined, laughed and shared moments of silence, and night flew by like a train heading towards its final destination.Aurora was allowed to stay with them for as long as she could stay awake, and surprisingly, she stood there, playing with everyone who wanted. Listening to their stories, drinking juice and pretending to fight with Bert, Jake and Uriel, who still didn’t get used to her features.From time to time, Uriel would go outside, followed by Don.She would cry in Don's arms, remembering the times she spent with Becca, and how it would never come to happen again.“Love...” Don would say. “Do you remember when Becca last said her goodbyes to us?”“What about it?” Ur
Heavy rain started pouring all over the world as Becca spoke, an ominous feeling drenching the hearts of all who heard her.I didn’t put you in here for this.I didn’t create you so that you could surrender to your weakness.I created you to be.Like Me.As she spoke, they felt ashamed of their own weakness, of their will to run and to be guided by anything that could exempt them from the burden of choosing.Becca wanted in her deepest part, to decimate them. She felt angry, disappointed at them. But it was just expected, because She had made them like that, hoping that they could overcome their weaknesses. That they could be able to hold themselves accountable for their own deeds.So she breathed deeply, dismissing her human emotions for the first time since forever.In a snap of her fingers, the storm clouds dissipated, and with it the blood that reddened the earth, and the bodi
Uriel glowed like a bursting star.Her muscles tensed like bow strings, as her whole essence forced itself to assimilate and purify the energy from the Crawling Chaos’ blast.Somehow, the creature’s energy was very similar to that of a nuclear weapon, and as quickly as Uriel noticed it, she jumped under the highlights, stealing the show.However, the energy was so dense, so tainted, that her only choice was to focus everything she had on purifying it during the whole absorption process.A single mistake, if her determination and focus wavered even if ever so slightly, and the Scorching Empress would be no more.Time seemed like slowing down as Uriel put all of her into that task, and little by little, the blast diminished in intensity and size.Until the entirety of the attack ceased for good.“Is that all you got?” Uriel asked with a taunting smirk on her lips.The heinous creature couldn&
Outside the church, Bert’s group fought with their lives on the line, with all they had, in order to buy as much time as they could so that Elleanore and Abby could retrieve whatever it was that could grant them their powers back.So they fought, got wounded, bled, fell, got back up again, and resisted as hard as they could.However, Mathew and the others weren’t doing as well as they wanted to.Because their enemies weren’t ordinary humans, but loyal servants to the Crawling Chaos. Demons once killed during the Forgotten War, but brought back to life by the unstoppable force of evil and destruction that was the Crawling Chaos.It made things way harder to the group than they ever planned for.They had broken limbs, deep cuts, and unimaginably painful wounds. But still they resisted, having even taken down some of their enemies.It seemed that, somehow, their bodies still held some of the former strength they held back in t
They weren’t excited.If anything, they were afraid for their own lives. For their own integrity.It was too high a stake to even dare conceive failing.However, it was also a moment where if they succeeded, history would be corrected, things would go back to how they used to be, friends would be reunited.Evil would be put back to where it belonged.Bert planned, the others gave their opinions when they thought some of it was incoherent, or simply pure blatant nonsense.Days passed by before their plan was completely formed and they were well equipped enough to dare leave Bert’s place, but eventually the time came, and despite the fear they felt, they moved with the sense of purpose.They moved with the will to finish it once and for all.As soon as they set foot outside, they understood the real danger they were walking into.The daylight had faded to a level that even during the
Immediately after Abigail saying that, a crippling headache hit everyone, except for Elleanore and Abby, sending everyone to the floor, while Uri’s voice, in that seductive and unnatural way, spoke in their heads.Do not even think of coming up with a plan or anything like that, my little rats... Didn’t I tell you that I was going to play cat and mouse with you?Their heads felt as though they were about to explode, so intense Uri’s power inside their heads was, but she kept speaking.Inside the maze, I was shackled by that filthy young man’s power. But now that I am free, and that I have the most suitable vessel, I am not only going to follow my mother’s will, but I will also enjoy myself, watching you all slowly wither as you die one after the other...Elleanore and Abby couldn’t hear what was happening inside the group’s heads, but mother and daughter were fine, so they came right at the group
It was hard for Bert and Cam to tell Mathew and Jake that they were basically alone in this now, since Uri disappeared, Don went after her, and Elleanore had resigned herself and Abigail from the fight. It was even worse after Jonah told him what they had to face, despite not even concretely knowing what were their strengths against all odds. They felt as if they were walking in the middle of a crossfire, blindfolded, with their hands tied behind their backs. And while they were at it, researching, looking for gods, searching for more answers, the world kept changing. In the course of the months that followed their first reunion to discuss about the dream, that now seemed to them to have taken place years ago, the world had changed. Weeks went by with earthquakes reshaping whole areas throughout the world, typhoons devastating small towns, crimes happening much more frequently, atop of many more disasters happening all around. And along with that, a new pillar of power was rising
As Jonah approached the entrance of the maze, he took some time to take in everything in his surroundings.Strangely, he didn’t feel familiar with the large desert that unfolded around him. Jonah remembered all about the place as soon as death took a hold of his body, and he wasn’t sure if the domain of Death, his old domain, had always been so bright.It looked as though daylight had been poured over the vastness of the deserted plains, with only the giant maze showing in the centre of everything.Something felt fishy, and even though Jonah felt confident in walking through the land, he also felt as if something was out there, watching him.But when he felt it, his attenti
Just as Jonah had mentioned, the work to build the electric chair took less than three days. That was because finding a water that was pure enough to suit the unicorn boy’s needs was hard enough.But sooner than they expected, the project was completely done.Since Elleanore didn’t want Abby to see the whole experiment taking place, so she strongly recommended him and Cam that they should take the project somewhere else, or else she would, and they wouldn’t like it.After all, she might even be part of that craziness, but she still put her daughter above all else.And Elleanore wouldn’t allow such things near her Abby, not even if her daughter was a goddess or anything of the sorts.Abigail was still Elleanore’s baby, in the end.However, even if Elleanore didn’t want Abby to see what was going to happen next, Elleanore herself went to Bert’s house, along with Cam, Jonah, and Jake, whil