Elias Nore raised his hand.
A gust of golden heavenly energy swirled to life at his fingertips. It was a heavenly energy that crackled with fury and purity.
He knew she wouldn't even try to dodge it. Not Seraphina, the one desperate to prove she had no evil inside her. The one who'd rather be beaten than fight back.
Her eyes widened.
What was coming wasn't a slap, it was magic. Heavenly magic. A slap bruises but heavenly magic shatters. Her immortality… could break.
She gasped, her voice barely rising through her fear. "Elias! I really don't want to fight with you!"
But he wasn't listening. He didn't want words. He wanted an ending, he would end her. More energy pulsed in his palm as he moved.
Seraphina ran.
Seraphina vanished, her form blurring into streaks of light and shadow. Her soul trembled and her heart screamed as she had no destination in mind and no home at all.
Her essence carried her toward the back mountain which was a very much cursed place. It was a place where the human world ended and the realm of monsters began.
A forbidden border gate.
No holies allowed.
No heavenlies allowed.
No human would survive.
Even the immortals, the ones who delighted in her misery stopped.
"Not there…" They stepped back, eyes wide.
No one chased close to the border.
No one, except Elias Nore. He didn't stop.
'Good. Let her run. Let her cross. Let the monsters tear her apart. Let Hell do what Heaven could not,' he thought.
Suddenly… he halted.
"Seraphina of the womb of Shade!" His voice echoed across the hills, over rock and mist and blood-soaked ground.
She stopped and turned. There were tears in her eyes. And there he was not summoning magic anymore, instead he reached up to his white hair and pulled free a single, silver, sacred hairpin.
"You know how much I treasure this pin?"
Seraphina nodded slowly, wiping her tears with the back of her trembling hand.
Elias' voice dropped, almost kind. "Then you'll fetch it for me… even if it's lost." He took a step closer. "And you'll return it to me… at Heaven's Academy, where I will personally plead your case. I will beg them to let you back in. As a heavenly. Right?"
Her eyes widened. This… this was the brother she remembered in the academy. The kind one. The pure one. The golden son of the twin mothers of the universe, bathed in light and generous good.
She nodded, breath catching in her throat.
"Yes."
And like that… Whoosh!
Elias Nore flung the pin into the air, his hand slicing the wind, and the divine breeze carried it far, farther, impossibly far like a shimmering trail of silver spinning in the sun.
"Go get it for me, Sister Seraphina."
She watched the pin arc into the distance,
the divine metal twinkling like a falling star. And without hesitation, she turned to go.
Her body ached, her soul was tired, but the fear of being cast from the heavens—of becoming mere mortal—clung to her more tightly than pain ever could. She did not delay.
She touched her heart. She could feel the twin connection to the pin, hers and his were bound by heavenly creation.
She could feel the truth in his request. He wanted her to return. He wanted redemption; for her, and maybe even for himself. The only thing she failed to do was read his mind.
She smiled through the pain. "I will bring it back."
Unexpectedly, the weight of the wind wasn't just pushing the pin but her too.
The divine air shifted to a violent current and she stumbled. The moment Seraphina Shade tried to take control of it, she fell back with a THUD. Not to mention the pain all over her body, the pin was suddenly out of sight.
"Elias' pin!" She cried out, scrambling to her feet, panic rising.
Her eyes searched, her vision blurred but it was truly gone. It had crossed the gate border. Into the monster realm!
She didn't hesitate still. Not for a second.
Seraphina leapt forward, her arms crossed over her chest, eyes shutting in focus. She started whispering the incantation to cloak her divine signature.
Her feet left earth's soil and entered hell's breath.
Seraphina Shade had crossed into the Goemul Realm, where she had seen Elias' Pin pierced deep into the eye of a giant monster. But in her shrunken child form, she had drifted toward the wrong edge… the pit.
She'd made herself small—into a small size, hoping that if the monsters saw a child, their pity would outweigh their hunger. She didn't ask for kindness, only mercy not to be eaten alive.
But fate had other plans.
Just as she was falling blindly into the pit, something cold and unforgiving grabbed at the collar of her dress. Her neck tightened sharply.
Seraphina cursed her luck under his breath. Was it possible the thing clutching her like a rat by its tail was the very one-eyed giant monster pierced by Elias' Pin?
The thought chilled her, turning her face pale.
She struggled to free herself, but her strength was gone. Days without proper Immortal heavenly essence, surviving only on bad meat, 114 pieces to be exact, and the blow she'd taken from her brother, combined with her shrunken form, sapped her power. Even transforming back to her full size was impossible, as if her body were trapped in this tiny shell.
Being pulled higher and higher by whatever monster, she couldn't help but wonder bitterly, "Had I truly read Elias' mind, would I have seen the cruel truth that he was trying to discard me?"
Fear and rage welled up inside her all at once.
At last, her eyelids fluttered closed. Weak and helpless, the small body could no longer fight. And darkness claimed her.
*
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BACK TO PRESENT<<<<<<<
She clasped his big green hands with her tiny ones and pouted. "Little Rose doesn't want to go anywhere without green uncle," she whined.
The green man—the Dokkaebi—tightened his large fingers around hers, easily concealing her tiny ones. He meant every bit of concern and compassion he gave towards hers, which was strange for a goemul (Monster) as himself.
He had spoiled the little human girl a lot in these few weeks he had known her after rescuing her from the deep, dark pit and then adopting her. But going to school was more than paramount, especially for her little age.
Lord bless, she was just too cute to force into doing anything. "If you don't want to go then just fail the test."
Rose: "...."