Nexus Awakened (An Isekai LitRPG Gender Bender Story)

842. The Piece of Paradise and The Price of Paradise

A kaleidoscopic burst of colors erupted from where the spears struck.

That wall that formed due to the barrier of sound was identical to what protected Stars. P-Factor Augmentation but taken to celestial limits.

Everything in this world possessed Primordial Factor. The reason why the Soul even had a shape was because a thin layer of P-Factor surrounded it to maintain its shape. So if it was ever pierced, then one’s form could be reduced to a slurry of primordial goop.

For Stars, this extreme version of P-Factor was appropriately called a P-Factor Field or Barrier. Reality within that barrier was ordained by their sole authority, and it defended the Stars from all manners of ordnances.

“HOW CAN THEY NOT PAY WHEN THEY ARE THE REASON WHY MY CREATOR FELL FROM GRACE!” Uriel screamed.

Michaela watched as thousands of bloody spears and sundering landmasses smashed against an invisible barrier. The skies darkened. Only faint glimmers of light were able to pierce through the absurd number of spears.

Not a single one was able to break through.

“WE CAN LIVE FOREVER! Sins are all we need for sustenance! Or will you live like Satania and eat only from the Sins of her inferno!?”

Several more wings reached up towards Uriel. She cut them down with tremendous fury, her eyes glowing bright red as the distant light suddenly seemed so much closer.

The Piece of Paradise trembled in Michaela’s grasp.

Could it be responding to something?

“Not humans. Not Demi-Humans. Not even the beasts from the Rivers like the Dragons have that right! Inferior beings should just submit!” Uriel howled, descending onto Michaela like an arrow.

A flaming aura surrounded her, rendering everything it touched. Not even [The Trumpet of the End] could stop her now. But Michaela didn’t move. She had no need to and stared up at Uriel.

“I was so much like you, Uriel. So much wasted hatred. I lost the one person precious to me because of my wrath.”

“MICHAELAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

“You – my child – shall lose something of great importance like I have to pay your penance. Salvation doesn’t come to those who wait, nor to those who leave a trail of blood in their wake.”

Suddenly, Uriel’s eyes widened. Her heart throbbed as though it had stopped beating. An inexplicable pain coursed through her entire body. Still, with what little breath she had in that moment, she screamed at the top of her lungs:

“WITHOUT THESE SINS TO POWER US THEN WE WILL BE POWERLESS TO THE STARS OF THE EXPANSE!”

Uriel did not notice it before, but all of Michaela’s wings were headed for her own. It was already too late by the time she realized this. She was so blinded by her rage that she failed to see the bigger picture.

It was unbecoming of an Angel that only knew how to fight.

“Mich… alea…?”

“I will deal with it when the time comes. As I always have in the past. Your obsession with always sickened me. How you would cusp my face while I was chained beneath Paradise, or how you spun lies of the state of the world beyond the walls of my confines. I became a Captured Star for you and only you. Uriel. The rose you constantly speak of…”

One by one, the wings pierced through Uriel’s star-shaped wings, shattering them like panes of glass. The blood that poured ceased instantly. Each fracture sent debilitating waves of agony through Uriel’s body.

She retreated from Michaela. This was an opportunity that the Arbiter did not allow slip by. She moved blindingly fast, utilizing Warp to close the distance in an instant.

*Shatter*

Her False Spears destroyed her wings.

“… It’s… destabilized…? My wings… Are they…?”

“Uriel. Fall. Plummet into the depths of this world, lament, and have your body raked across the flames of your mistakes like I have.”

Uriel quickly struck the Flaming Blade just in time to counteract Michaela’s Trumpet. It flung her back a great distance. The bleeding faucet above the world was replaced with broken, crimson wings that remained floating in the air.

The Red Wing touched her back, only to find that 3 of 4 wings were permanently destroyed.

“Michaela. These… were your gift to me. My wings were yours…” Uriel for whatever reason could not comprehend what Michaela had done.

At the same time, the Piece of Paradise was finally slipping away from Michaela’s grasp.

“Ilya!? Why!?” She exclaimed.

The approaching light flashed like the sun. A sun dog surrounded it like a halo, and Michaela immediately realized that the light was not an ordinary one. Her wings extended towards it, hoping to swat it away. However, the approaching weapon was so powerful that it destroyed her wings long before they could reach it.

“Ha…. Ahh… A silver lining? Michaela… that light…” Uriel began to laugh as she turned towards the light behind her. “Iscario must have won. The Nexus has turned red. Aha… That weapon… doesn’t it remind you… of your promise to Elysia? Your 12th and final Apostle!?”

Michaela deeply sighed. Uriel had brought back a memory that she had never told a soul. However, it was something that Frost probably already knew since she had faced the Icon of Judgement herself.

The fact that Elysia was the 12th Apostle – the betrayer – was no coincidence.

“… I have. Elysia was the one person I asked to kill me should I ever lose myself. And if not her, then the next iterations would take the weapons she left behind. Elysia was the one Angel who could freely use the weapons of GEN-08. But Elysia was much too kind to ever follow through. In retrospect, Elysia was always bright, no matter how tattered her feathers became. Who told you of this? I can count the number of names on a hand who would know of our promise.”

“Kcht… The Advent of Lament… Is a miracle designed to kill Stars and Faux Angels... like you. Who told me doesn’t concern you. You’ve made far too many enemies. Iscario has killed the Amalgam. There is nothing you can do now.”

Michaela had no way to confirm this. The fact that the weapon came from Primus Ramus and was headed straight for her supported Uriel’s claim. But it did not explain why the Piece of Paradise was reaction so strongly to it.

That was until she noticed the object within. What she thought was a spear was in fact…

“… a blade…”

She looked down at the Piece of Paradise, and immediately knew what to do.

But before that, she released her lances and broguth all hands to touch the cold coat of the scabbard.

“Ilya… Do you know what you need to do?”

She could not help but ask.

Suddenly, a voice from within the scabbard spoke back to her.

“Amend regrets. To stop what I did in this world from happening again.”

Michaela shuddered. Her shoulders relaxed for the first time in her life. She knew exactly what Ilya meant. Her fingers gently uncurled, releasing the scabbard as she hovered hundreds of meters in the air with an expression of disbelief.

The Piece of Paradise from the world where she was saved…

“Michaela. I won’t destroy your soul. I guarantee it on behalf of my blood. But should you continue to resist…”

Uriel pointed her blade at Michaela.

“… then it’s goodbye. I’ll keep one of your feathers as a memento to create an Undead out of you. Your personality can be shaped as I wish. Then… Hmhm… Ahah… Finally, you’ll be mine. Only mine. No Elysia. No Amalgam. No Her. No Captured Star. And…”

A similar light encased the scabbard as it flew towards the Price of Paradise. Two shooting stars illuminated the world with rays of light. The halos surrounding them were so large that they touched the ground. It was a sphere of energy so powerful that it upheaved entire forests.

“… your daughter –!”

The world shook beneath them.

Eventually, the halos began to dance around one another like a pair of binary stars. They shot into the skies and pivoted towards the summit of Mount Saris, leaving behind a trail of light shaped like a double helix.

“Iscairo – Just what did you wish for!? Was that not the Spear of Annihilation!?”

Uriel could not comprehend the sight. The trajectory was nowhere near Michaela. Instead, it chose to land precisely where her wings used to be.

“Ilya.” Michaela uttered with bated breath. “The you from that world that killed me chooses to defend me from the Ilya I killed here? Were you always so decisive? I never knew you had such conviction. The Price of Paradise. Did that harbor all your hatred towards me? Was that why you attempted to impale me the moment were united?”

It mirrored the events in Paradise. Michaela would be killed by the penance of her daughter. The Price of Paradise was a weapon designed to pay for the penance of the world if it meant to kill the Arbiter… just as how ‘She’ gave her life for humanity.

Michaela’s eyes softened. Her lips softly parted as the gold in her eyes glistened. She could hear the sobs of a child within the merging light. The light of the Piece of the Fallen Star was utterly incomparable, not just by luminosity, but because this light was more than just that.

“Light. Light. What… is that…? How can there be so much Light at once!?” Uriel was just as shocked, but for an entirely different reason.

“Or, am I mistaken?” Michaela did not care this was Light.

The cries of a child stirred her motherly instincts. Colossal, interlocking rings suddenly surrounded the light as a pale blade formed within. It was a cage, and countless golden eyes stared unblinkingly from it.

The smallest ring must have been a hundred meters at least.

Fruit of Light

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