Chapter 164: Sins of the Creator

Grace shot through the air toward Celestia. The Archangel now hung suspended between two broken towers, golden blood dripping steadily from her wounds.

“Celestia!” Grace caught her before she could fall. “Are you—”

“Grace.” Celestia’s voice came out ragged. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“Like hell I shouldn’t.” Grace helped Celestia steady herself. One of the Archangel’s wings bent at an unnatural angle. Three deep gashes ran across her chest, each one leaking golden light. “What were you thinking, fighting her alone?”

“It’s my duty. I have to face her.” Celestia coughed. More blood. “She’s my responsibility.”

“No. She’s all our responsibility. Gotta clean up Eternia’s mess, right?”

Above them, Azrael floated on, watching with amusement. Amethyst-tinted lightning crackled from her body, darkening the clouds below and around her.

“How touching.” Azrael’s voice carried across the sky. “The failed steward and the poorly-made replacement, united in their delusions.”

Grace narrowed her eyes at Azrael.

[Ignore her. Focus on Celestia. She needs help.]

“Can you fly?” Grace checked Celestia’s broken wing. The bone had snapped clean through.

“I’ll manage.” Celestia tried to straighten up. Failed. “Grace, you need to run. Azrael isn’t just corrupted anymore. She’s—”

“Transcendent, is what I am.” Azrael finished. “I’ve surpassed even Eternia herself. The Sin energy I’ve absorbed over centuries has elevated me beyond what any angel was meant to be.”

Grace kept her attention on Celestia.

“We need to get you to Mara.”

“There’s no time.” Celestia grabbed Grace’s arm. Her grip was weak. “The corruption in her… it’s not normal Sin energy anymore. She’s weaponized it. Refined it. Made it into something new.”

“Celestia, I could not care less what she’s made it into.” Grace helped Celestia lean against a floating chunk of tower. “You’re hurt.” Grace looked back up at Azrael. “Let me handle this.”

“W-What?”

“It’s the only way, right? I don’t see another option.”

“Wait… Grace…” Celestia’s eyes widened. “Your wing…”

Grace glanced over her shoulder. Her left wing had turned completely black. Not just darkened at the edges anymore – pure midnight from base to tip.

[When did that happen?]

“The corruption you absorbed.” Celestia reached out with a shaking hand. “It’s changing you.”

“I’ll deal with that later.” Grace turned away. “Right now, Azrael needs my full attention.”

“Such confidence.” Azrael descended slowly, each movement deliberate. “I should have killed you when I found you at the Root’s village. Snapped your little neck before you could become a nuisance.”

Grace flew up to meet her, stopping twenty feet away. This close, she could feel the pressure of Azrael’s power. It made her teeth ache.

“You’re losing yourself.” Grace kept her voice steady. “The corruption is eating away at who you are.”

Azrael laughed. The sound shattered windows in the towers below.

“Losing myself? Oh, child.” She spread her arms wide. “I’ve never felt more like myself. For the first time in millennia, I’m free of Eternia’s programming. Free of the need to please her. Free to reshape this broken world as I see fit.”

“By turning your own followers into monsters?”

“By showing them true power.” Azrael’s eyes were completely black now. No whites, no iris, just endless dark. “The same power I’m about to show you.”

[Azrael’s becoming a Primal.]

Grace barely had time to raise her arms before Azrael struck.

The impact sent her flying backward. She crashed through a statue, then a wall, then another statue. Stone and marble exploded around her.

[Fuck! She hits like a mountain!]

Grace caught herself in mid-air, wings straining. Her arms throbbed where she’d blocked. The gauntlets had absorbed most of the impact, but she still felt like she’d been hit by a battering ram.

Azrael hadn’t moved. She floated in the same spot, examining her fist like she’d swatted a fly.

“One blow did this to you? Disappointing.” She sighed. “I expected more from Eternia’s final creation.”

Grace spat blood.

“I’m just getting started.”

She charged. Golden light blazed around her rapier as she thrust at Azrael’s heart.

Azrael caught the blade between two fingers.

“Predictable.” She yanked Grace forward by her sword. “Let me show you how a real angel fights.”

Her knee came up. Grace barely twisted aside in time. Even the glancing blow cracked two of her ribs.

[She’s too strong. Too fast.]

Grace let go of her rapier and grabbed Azrael’s extended arm. She channeled corruption through her palms, trying to drain some of Azrael’s power.

Azrael smiled.

“Clever.”

She grabbed Grace’s throat with her free hand. Corruption poured into Grace like molten lead.

“AAAAAAAH!”

Grace screamed. This wasn’t like absorbing Sin energy from the others. This was refined, concentrated evil. It burned through her veins like acid.

“Do you feel it?” Azrael’s grip tightened. “Centuries of hatred. Centuries of abandonment. All compressed into pure power.”

[Too much. Can’t take it.]

Grace’s vision darkened. Her wings – both of them now – turned black as night. The corruption spread up her neck, darkening her skin.

“Grace!” Celestia’s voice, distant and desperate.

Grace did the only thing she felt she could do. She activated Aura Release.

The corruption built up in front of her chest.

“What are you—” Azrael’s eyes widened. Then, at the last second, she just barely managed to dodge the beam of Sin energy Grace sent out. “Heh, that might have-”

Grace headbutted her. Hard.

Azrael released Grace’s throat, stumbling back in the air.

“You little—”

Grace pressed the attack. Her fists blazed with mixed energy – gold and black swirling together. She struck at Azrael’s chest, her stomach, her face.

Azrael blocked most of them, but a few got through. Each hit left burns on her perfect skin.

“Impossible.” Azrael wiped silver blood from her lip. “You’re just a copy. A pale imitation of Eternia.”

“Maybe.” Grace’s voice had a dual tone now – her own mixed with something darker. “But at least I’m not a bitter ex who can’t move on.”

Azrael’s face twisted in rage.

“You dare—”

She moved faster than Grace could track. One moment she was ten feet away. The next, her fist was buried in Grace’s stomach.

Grace folded in half. Blood – black and gold mixed – sprayed from her mouth.

“You know nothing.” Azrael grabbed Grace’s hair, holding her up. “Nothing of what I’ve endured. What I’ve sacrificed.”

She drove her knee into Grace’s ribs. More bones cracked.

“I was perfect for her.” Another strike. “Everything she wanted.” Another. “And she still left.”

Grace caught the next blow. Her hand shook with the effort, but she held it.

Azrael’s eyes flashed. She pulled her fist back for a killing blow.

Grace let go and grabbed Azrael’s face with both hands. She pulled with everything she had – not just corruption, but memories. Emotions. The very essence of who Azrael used to be.

Images flashed through Grace’s mind. Azrael and Eternia dancing in gardens that no longer existed. Azrael bringing Eternia flowers made of starlight. The two of them creating angels together, laughing at their successes and failures.

Then the arguments. Azrael wanting more power to protect Linaria. Eternia pulling away. The final fight that split heaven itself.

“Stop.” Azrael’s voice cracked. “STOP!”

She threw Grace away with enough force to crater her into a tower.

Grace lay in the rubble, every bone screaming. But she’d felt something in those memories. A crack in Azrael’s armor.

[She’s not completely gone. Not completely a Primal yet. There’s still something of the old her in there.]

Grace healed herself. With her Compassion almost maxed, it made her wounds, her broken bones, stitch themselves back together like they weren’t there to begin with.

“You…” Azrael floated toward her, corruption writhing around her like living shadows. “How dare you dig through my memories.”

“They’re good memories.” Grace struggled to sit up. “Worth saving.”

“They’re lies.” Azrael raised her hand. Corruption gathered into a sphere of pure destruction. “Just like everything else about Eternia.”

“Then why are you crying?”

Azrael paused. She touched her cheek. Silver tears mixed with blood.

“I’m not—” Her voice wavered. “This is just—”

“Pain.” Grace pushed herself to her feet. Every movement hurt. “The same pain you’ve been running from for centuries.”

“SHUT UP!”

Azrael fired. The blast of corruption could have leveled a city.

Grace raised her hands. She didn’t try to block or dodge. Instead, she opened herself completely, pulling the attack into herself.

The corruption hit like a tsunami. Grace’s scream echoed across the Dominion as darkness poured into her. Her body convulsed. Her wings spread involuntarily, now so black they seemed to absorb light.

[I can do this. I can do this.]

She kept pulling. The corruption filled every cell, every breath, every thought. But she didn’t let it control her. She compressed it, refined it, made it hers.

When the blast finally ended, Grace stood in a crater of her own making. Her entire body radiated dark energy. Her eyes had turned purple-gold.

“Impossible.” Azrael stared. “That much corruption should have destroyed you.”

“Should have.” Grace flexed her fingers. Power crackled between them. “But I’m stubborn like that.”

She looked up at Azrael. For the first time since the fight started, uncertainty flickered in the Veil leader’s eyes.

[I can do this. I can actually do this.]

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